Ilya

Napoli's 433 was very asymmetrical. The middle 3 were all very different and only one of the full backs was the "marauding" type. So may be it's OK if Azpilicueta isn't that good going forward? Having said that could he may be end up at centre back? And didn't Rudiger play full back at one of his previous clubs? Can a bit of reshuffling happen?

Quite a prominent reaction here and in the press was that Sarri doesn't have the players for his system. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but my impression is that the only nailed-on pre-requisite to playing Sarriball is lots and lots of fast running. Everything else - the one touch passing, the discipline of movement, etc - can potentially be taught. And while not everyone will be susceptible to teaching, Sarri's time at Napoli suggests that even the most unexpected people can come good. So when people say that Cesc is not suited to Sarriball - fair enough, he's not gonna start running like Hamsik. But we have plenty of young fit, fast players. I look at the team @RIP Mourinho suggests above - and I don't see a single position that will obviously fail. Some might, but let's just give it a month or two. And then may be some youngsters will come in or may be we'll grab a couple of additions in winter.

We were?

Costa didn't even make top 40... Waste of space. :)

And #222222229 will turn him into Costa?

I apologise for doing this. I don't know what's wrong with me. £35M in pound coins could cover football goals 130-thick - 130 layers of full coverage of the goal. I am not suggesting that should be our goal-keeping solution for the year - that would be against the rules.

If you are referring to last year's hysterical bash to buy literally anybody available that brought in Drinkwater and Zappacosta - I agree. That was a bit weird. :) But I don't feel it's been done so much that we could really say that "this is what the club does". I feel it's a byproduct of some poisonous dynamic between Conte and the club, and I hope it's not out thing now.

I don't feel it's a binary choice: we either go for the league title, or we do not. There are very recent examples of teams winning PL without being one of the biggest spenders. So I'm sure there is a chance. And I'm sure there is a wise transfer strategy that maximises this chance, and there is one that doesn't. But money does matter. It looks like we will not be spending as much as either Manchester club or Liverpool in the near future. And while that still leaves us with a chance of "more than top 4" - it does overall decrease our chances. The days of an almost guaranteed CL semi and 1/2 spot in PL - probably gone. We currently have 4-5 positions in the team that you could confidently say don't need an upgrade / couldn't realistically be improved much (around 10 years ago this number was 8-9). For the other 6-7 - it's anywhere between 50K and 150K for top level upgrade. How many of these purchases do you think we can realistically expect? Again, I think that's OK. For me personally: it's nice being in CL, so top 4 is important. And then if have a decent stab at PL title some years - all the while playing fun football - I'm happy.

That may well be true. Or maybe not? I do, however, suspect that pitching ourselves at top 4 is what we'll be doing for the foreseeable future. We are not going to spend enough to aim higher. Those times are gone or at least temporarily suspended.

Having said what I said, I am also very upset we didn't buy Messi. I mean wtf? There's us, there's Messi - why didn't it happen?

Given late arrival of half of the team because of World Cup and shorter window and new manager - I don't actually find overall lack of activity especially upsetting or surprising. It is very reasonable for the new manager to assess the team before buying or selling players. If it means he has to go into the season with what we have - fair enough. As long as we don't lose Courtois without an adequate replacement. I just hope that we keep Sarri long enough for him to get a stab at a transfer window next year and make a couple of readjustments based on actually knowing the team, the strengths, the weaknesses.

It's very kind of Sarri to say this, but personally I don't think sitting in bar next to the hospital, smoking a cigar and drinking a couple of glasses of rum takes that much out of you. Shouldn't take three days to recover.

Also, what's with this thing about right-footed people playing on the left. Bloody hipsters. Right-footed players should play on the right. To put the crosses in.

Yes, of course it is largely driven by the bets already placed. But I would be surprised if they didn't - to some degree - incorporate some additional info. Even if they are just using public info - it's nice to have someone weed out the crap. Like you know, differentiate between Milinkovic Savic rumour - which was always complete crap, and Rugani rumour - which had something tangible behind it. Also, I don't know the full facts, but I would be very surprised if the rules that prohibit buying/selling stocks applied in exactly the same way to a betting company putting out a proposition to the market: (a) it's a different, less regulated industry (b) the position of a buyer/seller is different to the position of someone actually "issuing" the thing being bought or sold. A company is entitled to use insider knowledge when issuing shares. :)

If he is really as good as yesterday would suggest he might be - something will have to be worked out. False 9, 10, two people playing in the same position simultaneously - whatever. I used to make sarcy comments about "our youth being denied the chance to become Ronaldo" - this is the first time I feel that we might actually have a future star on our hands. I know: pre-season friendly, just one game, etc - but he was playing against some fairly reputable established defenders.

Dear Chelsea board. For a modest fee of, say, Bakayoko's weekly wage I will happily maintain a spreadsheet of all Chelsea players' passport/visa expiry dates and will send them timely reminders to renew their travel documents. I guarantee the most reliable service.

To be honest I have seen enough absent minded people doing all sort of stupid things with passports/visas/deadlines/documents/etc to find this totally believable. And I wouldn't expect footballers to be, you know, sharpest in this way. What I don't get, is how in a multi-million business and employee on a multi-million salary, whose travel is crucial to the functioning of this business does not get basic admin support to deal with this.

My point was simply that if you end up with 4 people on the team that do very little or no defending - you'll get destroyed by stronger teams. I'm not sure how much tracking back Hamsik did. I assumed some, I assumed more than I would want Hazard to have to do. I could be wrong. Having said that, the RF position, while nominally more attacking than the "Hamsik" one, can actually carry a chunk of tracking back responsibilities - say with Moses or Willian (but nor Pedro) there.

That role carries more defensive responsibility than, I think, Hazard should be given. Could work when playing a weaker team with us playing in their half most of the game. But against a stronger team - that's not optimal use of Hazard.

Ha-ha-ha. And some of my best friends are black... And also black people in Tarantino movies and rap music use the N word. And also it was in Huckleberry Finn. So it's totally OK to say it, I mean it affectionately. PC gone mad, I tell you. Can't even call a spade a spade any more...

Is that why you used * in the middle of the word? Do y*u do th*t a lot to ra*dom inoffe*sive wo*ds? And the fact that Spurs fans have for various reasons embraced an anti-semitic description of them - totally makes it OK... I'm not sure what is worse: the anti-semitism or the not owning your anti-semitism - this pathetic, school boy, "you mis-heard me Miss I didn't say that" bollocks.

I find this one pretty weird. I mean, I'm a pretty negative person: pessimistic, cynical, bitter, grumpy... :) But aren't these our guys and aren't we meant to support them? I mean, there is a limit to this logic, I suppose, so when someone is properly useless and there are obviously better options available - it's probably inevitable to feel a little frustration - e.g. Bakayoko. But Willian? What exactly is the charge against him - that he's not as good as Hazard? Who is... That we didn't go out and spend a gazzilion quid on some superstar upgrade? - well, you know, it doesn't work like that. That his presence in the team prevents CHO from playing? Well they are not even in the same position, never mind the fact that CHO is not ready to become first choice week in and week out. So what? Hate on Willian for not being a better player? Really? Why him? By this rational anyone outside of Hazard, Kante, Cortois and Azpilicueta should get a regular bollocking on here...

Next you gonna tell us that when some guy who looks like he would sell you drugs outside a Shoreditch nightclub tells you on YouTube that we gonna buy Bale - we're not gonna buy Bale?

Really?