J.J

Was tipped as one of Belgium's top talents when we signed him. Needs to leave ASAP if he's to fulfil that potential. So, so many of our youth could be playing semi-regular to regular top division football elsewhere. If I was a promising young player, I wouldn't go near Chelsea on a footballing level. Which is not a good look for the future of our club, at all.

Not too big on the whole chatting with celebrities thing, so don't know what I'd say to a player if we did cross paths tbh! Eddie Newton made a few appearances at my primary school due to his 'Soccer school' being there, just remember being proper excited (6 years old) and telling him Vialli was my favourite player. Gave Mario Melchiot one of my mate's demo CDs when I was about 14, must've been annoying but he was very gracious about it! Once bumped into Michael Essien in a JD Sports with some of my mates, was just after he'd scored that banger against Arsenal so congratulated him on that Never met him myself, but I do a lot of football work in schools and heard nothing but great things about how available Ashley Cole always made himself to working with kids My foster brother has a story he loves about being in a queue for a club, seeing Jody Morris bowl up to the front, not get in and give it the "do you know who I am?" that a lot of young men in that position would. Bouncer replied with "Yep, you're Jody Morris and you're 17, so f**k off". Got time for Jody but that made me laugh. Same thing happened to Raheem Sterling this year lol.

i'd love chelsea to trailblaze a bit on social media in terms of club coverage but that arsenal fan channel is a complete embarrassment. the entirety of twitter pisses themselves laughing watching it after arsenal lose or draw. the fans interviewed on there have become cult clowns

cech petrescu carvalho luiz cole newton lampard zola mata robben gudjohnsen very hard to leave some boys out! (eddie newton coached me when i was like 6, as a chelsea fan it was the best thing ever)

nothing for january barring any injuries. even beyond that, for the first time in a long time, there's little i would change about our squad. these past two transfer windows have been exemplary. as far as midfield and beyond goes; everyone is at the right age, everyone is hungry to win, and everyone seems to have the capacity to improve. the only thing i want to see is the potential phasing in of at least two of chalobah, baker, aké & bamford over the next few years, optimistic as that probably is. mikel/ramires/rémy can make way eventually. i am with the minority on here who think a top centre back in the next year or so could really have us sorted, although that's entirely dependent on the fitness and form of jt/development of zouma & omeruo.

4-2-3-1. Courtois; Azpilicueta, Cahill, JT, Luis; Cesc, Matic; Schuerrle, Willian, Hazard; Costa. Willian excelled as our 10 towards the end of last season. Really put in perspective how bad Oscar was for me. I still hold out a slim, slim dream that Ramires and Mikel are sold to make room for Chalobah (and possibly Van Ginkel), but a dream it shall remain.

gullit/vialli era easily, partly because i'm 22 so that's when i was first conscious of football eddie newton coached at my primary school in '98 and i lost my mind lol

mourinho said in february that we went for zouma instead with an eye on ffp

yeah finishing was a state vs. swansea but he's looked v encouraging to me we know adapting can be hard, can't be any easier in january. so any promise at all this season after coming from basel is a big plus for me i know it's clichéd to say "at least he's getting in the positions" but i really think it applies. he seems to create a lot of these spurned opportunities himself, and his feet are crazy quick. obviously raw and some bad touches but some absolutely sublime ones. love how direct he is too, hopefully he won't lose that when becoming more accustomed to defensive responsibilites i think he has a very high ceiling as a player

still a bit gutted about this. i didn't want to leave the bridge until i saw this mock up amongst all the discussion at the time. the worst thing about losing battersea was the vast majority of it is now going to be more ridiculously-priced apartments that 70% of London can't afford to live in anyway. can't help but feel the city missed out here as much as the club did. the most successful London club of the future, merging with such an iconic location of the past (i'll stop moaning now, what's done is done)

One thing that always disappoints me slightly is that the clubs reported targets are often as unimaginative as us fans' (although that's assuming that journalists are accurate, which they're probably not) I can obviously see the appeal in targeting the top performers throughout Europe; they're 'proven', they can handle the pressure and spotlight etc. You do wonder what a club our sizes scouting department do all week though. Not everyone can easily level up I know, but we always seem eager to pay premium prices for players at risk of already having peaked. I'm always jealous of clubs like Dortmund plucking Lewandowski from the Polish premier league, or United signing Hernandez from Mexico etc. I don't blame us as fans with lives and jobs etc to speculate about the FM-elite but I'm patiently waiting for the day we sign a relative unknown at centre forward. Courtois & Azpilicueta are definite signs that the club is able, it'd just be nice to sign a striker without a media circus and heaps of immediate pressure.

To make it clear, I rate Oscar highly (although imo he'd probably suit a deeper role). Yeah he started strongly but I feel like he's been a lot more inconsistent this year than people are letting on. Poor was the wrong word (it was late!). My main issue is from the perspective of the squad, not a real issue with Oscar. We have no good alternative of a number 10 for if Oscar is playing poorly, which considering the guy hasn't had a break for about 3 years, was always inevitable. We started the season with 2.

100%, he would've fit our team perfectly Falcao shouldn't be touched

Cavani isn't even a consideration to me, I would be in complete shock if PSG let him go Costa seems the only plausible option out of the usual names that get banded about As much as I love Balotelli I think I'd love him a lot less on a weekly basis Mandzukic anyone? (will be relatively cheap, good link up play, works like a dog & a decent finisher, seems to suit the team José's setting up)

Thought at the time that selling both Kdb & Mata made it a poor window, regardless of Matic. Oscar has had a pretty poor season on the whole, and was out of form at the time of these sales. To think that his form would pick up with 2 more competitions to worry about and half the amount of rest he could've otherwise got probably wasn't the most sensible call From an aesthetic point of view, (because I do still sometimes watch football for entertainment) it really winds me up that Mourinho seems to have based his decision of who should play as our number 10 on who's the best defender...

Problem with that hindsight comment is it isn't a surprise a noticeable chunk of us, and was very preventable It's a shame that Robbie realised too late

This is where my fear comes from (in addition to the overload of attacking midfielders) José hasn't exactly been singing Mata's praises in press conferences. He's been kind of vaguely saying that Mata is a good player when provoked, which is of course understatement of the year. I see people constantly quoting Mourinho on Mata as proof of his staying this summer, but it isn't the words it's the tone that I pick up on. Every time I hear Mourinho talk about Mata it's like he should keep him, not that he wants to... Q: "Will Mata leave?" A: "Well, he's been player of the year two years running" Q: "Will you offer Mata for Rooney?" A: "That's hypothetical" Q: "Does Willian spell the end for Mata?" A: "We always want quality in the squad" Something doesn't feel quite right to me, and it isn't to do with Marca, The Sun, 'bogus' United leaks, Twitter or anything else (Also on a side note, those Atlético rumours... Christ... If Simeone really is the source of those, and he has even the faintest idea that he could get Mata, then that's telling)

Said it when he was being ignored by Ancelotti, was encouraged when AVB saw his effectiveness, and then said it again when he was ignored by RDM: we'll regret not fully-utilising his talents. Chelsea fans attitude to him was ridiculous too; 80% were dismissive of him for the now infamous 'selfishness' which was exaggerated. Sturridge would link up with Hazard Oscar and Mata far more impressively than anyone we have at the moment.

Cech 9 - As said, man of the match Ivanovic 8 - Tasked with one of Villa's two biggest outlets all game in Agbonlahor and Benteke; handled both well. Very solid, positioning for goal aside, and obviously made amends for any mistakes with winner. Haven't seen any replays of the elbow though and only saw once from The Shed so maybe lucky there? Cahill 6 - Didn't do a lot wrong Terry 7 - Same as Cahill, but pushed on a bit more and tried to get things going with some more urgent passing when we were looking laborious in the second half Cole 6 - Villa didn't get much down the right, but Ash was limited massively by the threat of the counter Ramires 7 - Won us a lot of balls and saw more of the ball than anyone else. Tried to orchestrate things despite not being the best passer. Decent performance but imo spelled the need for us to buy a proper regista Lampard 5 - No penetration, game passed him by a lot and touches looked a bit heavy. Think this is what people mean when they warn us about playing a 35 year old for 180 minutes in 4 days Mata 5 - Silent, but yeah not match fit etc etc so we'll move on Oscar 7 - Started brightly, beautiful pass for the own goal, looked a bit out of ideas to me at times though Hazard 7 - What a player, actually think ruined a few opportunities for himself by taking too many touches and not seeing a pass sometimes but the talent is just unreal and was the only real injection of pace in our front 4 Ba 5 - Was offside far too much but I'd put that more down to a combination of a pre-meditated tactic and Villa's compact back four, didn't get enough time on the ball to really earn more than a 5 though Subs: Schurrle 7 - Great defensively, great width, very clever player who offered a much-needed outlet. Perfect sub with the game as it was Lukaku 7 - Has to start against United basically, is 100% our best option up front, can see him being such a crowd favourite and he's 20, so that could be for a good while Van Ginkel 5 - Looked a boy amongst men, not a criticism of the player necessarily, just wrong sub at the wrong time

fake quote, actually said "least vain" apparently surprised we're not in for Higuain tbh, especially considering he's used to rotating/Mourinho knows him of course the latter could be exactly why we're not

yep as said before, fantastic signing; minimal fuss, minimal money, player with proven-quality that is not only settled in the country but the area back-up keeper ticked off the summer list

transfer makes no sense without some replacements in mind as has been said early relying on Essien and Romeu as our defensive midfielders is suicidal I'm a Mikel fan despite his (very overstated) limitations, he's a colossus when on-form and in 7 or so years at Chelsea has never got the respect he deserved imo this 'paving the way for Luiz to be a defensive midfielder' is an even more depressing prospect, why some fans have an obsession with moving our best centre back out of defence just because he has a bit of ability I will never know

tbf there is wide-spread acceptance now on how to coach the 'right' way, just a shame that we won't reap any rewards for a decade

i'm with davey baby entirely in my bitterness that we won't see sturridge under mourinho, but whatever my preference for our starting no. 9 next season is lewandowski, cavani, lukaku in that order (fit ibra in there if he has some weird desire to join us) lewandowski would be the perfect foil for hazard mata and oscar, without pussying out of challenging for the half chances a la torres, but he seems set on munich cavani would almost guarantee us goals, but seems set on madrid no complaints really, both clubs are far bigger than us and more competitive at the moment finding a back up signing is an awful idea though imo, if we miss out on these two there shouldn't be a last-minute panic to bring in someone else, especially someone garbage with a big reputation like mario gomez (may sound ridiculous but i really don't care about his strike rate) torres is going nowhere, ba will be better this coming season, and we have a potential gem in lukaku - they're all competing for one position with more mature editions of our three outstanding playmakers behind them, i would rather trust them than spend out of desperation also, re: earlier discussion on lukaku handling pressure, based on interviews he may be the most level-headed and determined young player i've ever heard speak, size aside it's no wonder he made such an early impression at anderlecht, obviously has very intelligent people advising him (dad is a former pro i think)

Cech Dave Ivan Luiz Cole Mikel Ramires De Bruyne Mata Hazard Ba/Lukaku that's just working with current personnel though. I want to sign Lewandowski over any other top striker, but I am at a complete loss towards which midfielder to sign to make a 4231 work; Alonso and Modric would do the job for me but would never happen, maybe Fernandinho looking at how he bossed us this season but he's off to City. KdB doesn't quite fit for me (though seems quality), neither does Fellaini, neither do Romeu or Mikel and though I think Chalobah/McEachran could, that's a few years away The back end of our squad is so much more suited to a 4-3-3, while our attackers all want to be a no. 10; this issue is what I really want to see ammended this summer