Celery1989

Cech is a unquestionably a legend, and has been a great ambassador for us as well. He seems like a great guy and has been instrumental in all our success in the Abramobich era. He's been a top 5 keeper in the world for 10 years but, if we're being completely honest, mistakes have begun to creep into his game since Munich. Granted, not very many but still more than beforehand. I remember some games last year where his command of the box from set pieces no longer looked like what it once was. Sure, this may have been in only a handful of games, but such games never used to exist. From what I've seen, Courtois already looks to be fractionally better, and at his age, will only improve and challenge Neuer for the top spot. Football can be a cruel game and unfortunately even to a hero like big Petr. I'd love for him to stay and play in the Capital One Cup but I think CFC should do the right thing and gracefully try to find him a top, CL club in Europe where he can see out the remaining 3-5 years of his career.

You've got to remember that Cech had only ever played in the French League, whereas Courtois has already excelled at the very highest club level. In that sense Courtois is much less of a gamble.

Nice to see some honesty and balance brought to the discussion. Of course I would rather that all of our players were model professionals. However, footballers generally have had no real education and aren't the most intelligent either so they are bound to do stupid things. In that sense, the mistakes that John Terry, Ashley Cole etc don't really bother me all that much.

Alan Smith made an interesting point in the Telegraph about how Oscar and Fabregas effectively rotated their positions during the Burnley game from time to time. So when Oscar came deep to receive the ball Fabregas would move forward to fill the void left between the opposition midfield and defence. I can see this being a trend that continues throughout the season and it could be something to help Oscar rediscover his form. His main role will still be as the no.10 of course but adding a wrinkle like this to his game and to our attacking structure should make it tougher for the opposition to deal with our midfield. Hopefully Oscar can find more pockets of space this way.

Good to have you back Spud. Thoughts on your club for the upcoming season?

I've hardly been around here this summer but every time I've paid a visit all people seem to want to do is b*tch at one another. What's going on? Only a week til the season starts guys, keep it together! RE: Costa - Really pleased with what I've seen so far from him. Aside from his two obviously brilliant goals, I've been really impressed with his workrate. He looks hungry and eager to prove himself. He's linked up the play nicely and times and held it up well too. Appears to have a decent rapport with Fabregas as well, long may it continue. I was really skeptical about him beforehand, still am a little bit, but I'm quite encouraged with what I've seen. Let's so how he does once the live bullets start flying.

I can see Barca destroying a lot of Spanish sides, particularly at home, but I think they will be found out in the Champions League. Their already shaky defence has lost Puyol and the addition of Jeremy Mathieu for £16m odd seems fairly underwhelming to me. To be honest I can't really see how Messi, Neymar and Suarez can all play together. I guess the logical option is to play Suarez up top with Messi just to the right and Neymar to the left. I just don't see how it can work given that these are all players that almost demand to be the centre of attention.

Who's off to AFC Wimbledon tomorrow!?

Who's joining me tomorrow at the Cherry Red Record Stadium?

1 more CM I think...

Like who? There aren't any top level CF's on the market, hence why we're getting Diego Costa.

The Chevrolet logo looks like a golden plaster.

Another great example of how a well-organised unit can overcome the odds. Some other observations from this weekend: 1) Sad to see Colombia go, they were terrific. Probably the most enjoyable team to watch this World Cup. 2) Brazil really are so ordinary. I think they might be found out by a quietly efficient and dangerous German side. No Neymar and Thiago Silva spells big trouble for them. I can see Schurrle being a big player on the counter if given the chance. 3) Belgium - Flop. They were poor in pretty much every game. And where the hell was Eden Hazard? The fact that he was hooked off for Nacer Chadli with Belgium needing a goal to stay in the tournament says quite a lot about his performances. Despite his two assists Hazard was a major disappointment, I thought he was going to be the breakout player. 4) Really want to see a Germany Holland final!

I think Toni Kroos might well be the marquee signing you're referring to. Rumours are that it's pretty much done.

http://plainsofalmeria.co.uk/2014/07/02/diego-costa-walk-the-line/ Really interesting article written by Joe Tweeds on how he sees Costa fitting into Chelsea. Joe is clearly a Costa fan but nevertheless for the skeptics amongst us (myself firmly included) this is an insightful piece that creates some food for thought.

Would love to sign Pogba. He has the potential to become a real star, in the mould of a modern Patrick Vieira. I get the sense that we aren't quite finished addressing the midfield. Lots of rumours linking us to Kroos and now Pogba. I say we press ahead.

Agreed. This was coming for weeks but I'm still annoyed, Shaw fit the bill perfectly for me.

Would be so excited to see Kroos join, top class player. Not sure if he and Fabregas would fit into the same midfield but we need alternatives in the squad. I can see us playing 3 in midfield next year more often, and currently we only have 5 CM's, many of which have questions marks over them (Mikel, Ramires, Van Ginkel).

Take your point mate but times have changed. Football is so radically different now to what it was back in your day. The reality is that, for Chelsea to keep up with the other top clubs in the world, we need a bigger ground. I dislike the fairweather lot who turned up post-Abramovich as much as anyone else but the truth is that we need people like them to fill out the ground and to keep the club competitive. The hardcore ST holders alone just aren't enough any more, given how paramount financial considerations are these days.

Penalty 100% of the time. It's a clear trip with the ref 5 yards away. Sio should have just let Samaras hit it and in all likelihood launch into row Z on his weaker side.

Can't say I'm that disappointed. I didn't think England would get out of the group, but I definitely didn't think that they would be out with one game left! That is truly pathetic. And so begins the inevitable inquest. The FA should take a close look at what Belgium did several years ago. Essentially, the Belgian FA decided that results didn't matter at youth football, what was more important was developing kids in the same 433 formation. We can safely say that that decision is really beginning to bear fruit.

Agreed with everything except for the Mandzukic Mandzcrush.

Good point. From what I've seen, I'm not sure how well Costa will be able to link up with Hazard and co when it comes to intricate one-two's etc.

In Costa's defence I'd say that he doesn't look 100% fit, and it's difficult to gauge how good he is in a team that doesn't really play to his strengths. But overall I'm pretty unconvinced by him, he didn't show much against us either in both legs. Looks like we're taking a big risk. Dave looked alrite at back at RB, definitely one of Spain's better players. Shame that we didn't get to see any of Fabregas, though I reckon he'll probably play in the last game along with the likes of Mata now that Spain are out.

I think that's the key behind the Luis/Shaw debate. Luis looks to be the 'safe' option - Solid defensively, experienced at CL level and currently at his peak. As you mentioned, Jose knows that he/we need to win something this year, and opting for Felipe Luis and foregoing the opportunity to roll the dice on Luke Shaw possibly gives us a greater chance of doing so. However, in this instance, I'd say that we ought to take a gamble on Luke Shaw. Yes, he doesn't have any CL experience, but if we want to adopt the defensive approach next year in those games then we can always use Azpilicueta at LB. Yes, he'd cost us about €10-12m more, but for me the upside on him is enormous. Not only is he terrific going forward already and has the potential to become a top-class LB, this a homegrown Chelsea fan as well. For me, that adds much more value to his signature than the extra cost we would have to pay to secure him. I know I might sound a little romantic here but given that we've lost Lampard and Cole already, with JT possibly embarking on his last season, we could really do with adding some English blood into the team. It's incredibly rare that we're presented with the opportunity to sign one of the hottest prospects in the country who happens to be a boyhood fan of the club and fits a position of need. Come on Jose, go for it.