strong centreback

ah ok I thought they ere on 15m for some reason, im hoping we dont get tied in on a 10 year deal as they shoot you in the foot, hopefully it is a 5 year deal with nike having first refusal on extension at the end of it or a 5 year break clause, otherwise I can see us in 6 years time buying our way out a another contract.

agree on the comments about there being a mk1 and mk2 mourinho, first time he left I was shocked and angry, second time round it was abit more meh as bad as that sounds, the last few months of his reign were nothing short of embarrassing, I can take defeats and I can take poor runs of form but not when nothing is being tried to change it around then that is what I find unacceptable, mourinho who came back wasnt the same guy that we took from porto or that turned up at inter, something happened to him at madrid, I dont know what but it changed him in his approach somehow.

to be fair id expect us to be 5th in world when it comes to any kind of sponsorship deals, madrid barca bayern and united will be ahead of us for a while yet, so id not be expecting to be ahead of those 4 realistically, we may end up getting half of barca but dont we now get circa 4x what arsenal/liverpool get?

exactly what it is in my mind, in my opinion he is going to have to improve a hell of a lot to make it here and on top of that it is yet another pointless signing that is potentially blocking one of our youngsters joining the squad, jake clarke salter is the one who should of been given the opportunity to step up before signing someone as far as im concerned, especially an american from the mls for christs sake its longish odds he would make it at a midtable club let alone a club fighting for the league (not including this season obviously)

That and the samsung deals we had, purslow who I believe it is was brought in to sort our sponsorship deals seems to have done alot better job in the short time he has been here than gourlay was doing by the end, 10 year deals in football are way way to long, at most you want 5 year deals, what was a good deal with adidas in 2013 is a average deal in 2016 and a pretty poor one by the time it would finish in 2023.

If the report is right and we are paying a significant sum to end the deal early then the club surely must have doubled the current deal to make it worthwhile doing? If however the new sponsor is buying out the adidas contract and paying us more than the 30m then well done to whoever brokered that deal!

Need abit of an overhaul in defence really, as that is what has let us down all season, under hiddink we have scored alot more than under mourinho but the back 4 has been porous all season azpi zouma christensen ake the above could be a good defence once everyone is back and fit, but I think realistically the back 4 isnt changing much from this year except we will probably shift the liability at fullback over from ivanovic at rightback to rahman at leftback with a new centreback to replace terry that may or may not be good enough. could actually see us doing as the papers suggest and bring hector in as a centreback for next year which im not sure is anything more than a sidestep compared to djillibodji/miazaga to be honest, the recent years transfer activity is pointing towards books being balanced and stopgaps being brought.

Simply put if conte wants to bring in his own goalie coach then why are we keeping him? back the manager for christ sake chelsea, your seemingly quite happy to cast off long serving players with no fanfare, but are against moving on coaches that (a) wanted to go this summer with cech to arsenal (b) the new manager doesnt want as part of his setup and © our number one goalkeeper doesnt get on with! ITS ABSOLUTE MADNESS! that is the kind of decision that makes you question wether the club is being run as a proper football club or if its a hobby with jobs for mates, like what happens at newcastle.

The cpo have never as far as I'm aware said that they would block an expansion/rebuild of the stadium, the only thing they said no to was selling up to Roman, if he follows through and builds the new stadium then asks the cpo to dissolve then he would stand a better chance, personally I think they should only ever sell if they get some safe guards in place.

I think the likelihood is the club have worked on the fact that the cpo wont sell and that they wont own the lease on any new development, they would be better off going for the lease (if they still plan to) after they have built the new ground, they are 10x more likely to get the vote after plowing the money in and seeing the fruits of the redevelopment than they are prior to the diggers going in.

edit- forgot about ake at left back!

Congratulations very well deserved and so happy for claudio

Got to have been inspired by it as the walkways look exactly like it

Neilando the guy doing the renders on sky scraper city forums has knocked up a video of the internals now https://www.youtube.com/embed/ujDG22uFtDo

Im hoping that this season without european football could be a blessing in disguise, should allow conte more time between matches to drill his methods into the players as pre season will be relatively short (as at all clubs) so during the season his methods are still going to be learnt by the players, with no european football that will allow him extra training ground time and if we do as I think most hope/expect ditch the 4231 and go with a new formation then it will be needed. Also with no europa cup as well it should help our chances of bouncing straight back into the champions league which is very important this coming season, personally id be happy with top 4 integrate a couple more youngsters into the squad and having the team play a more expanse game but also has a strong core, I dont think anything major needs to be done to achieve that, just a few clever signings in a few vital positions. If you believe the media reports nainggolan seems like he will be targeted/signed so maybe we could line up like below potentially courtous azpi zouma jt LB nainggolan fabregas willian/rlc pedro costa hazard *LB* not sure who, strong and tactically sound with abit of pace would be my requirements or clone dave :) Not to many changes but you would bulk up the midfield whilst putting 2 work horse around fabregas to do his dirty work and hopefully get the best put of him consistently, youd have willian breaking from the midfield to help attacks but he also has the industry to get back and do his fair share of his defensive work, in a 433 youd not have a gapping hole in the middle of the park all the time and give pedro and hazard more freedom to create/score, I think that would provide a fair amount of balance to the side. rlc should be used more as in the 3 man midfield and hopefully develop enough over next season to seriously put pressure on conte to pick him week in week out, the talent is there it just needs to be used and harnessed by the manager, same as a few other kids we have, id be all for solanke coming back and being used over pato/falcao, costa plays when he is available as the guy is a machine when head screwed on but you can still integrate traore and solanke around him, even in a pairing in a 442! Next year is big in alot of ways we need to get on track and start to use some of our youth products in active squad roles or we will in all likelihood do as man utd did with pogba and lose a gem/s at some point, as our youth team is the best in europe some of them have to be given a chance otherwise losing our promising youngsters will become an annual thing each summer which once started (which looks like it is) will be extremely hard to stop, we have reached the edge of the cliff moment with our youth imho.

Bin dippers being a prime recent example in my mind, important we bounce back into the champions league straight away!

Wasnt the story that rlc signed a contract worth 1.7m over the life of said contract? but as per the rags spun it to make a headline, this article seems like it would be most realistic in terms of money

The problem lays at the clubs door, musonda goes out on loan after not getting a sniff here and does well in la liga, christensen likewise in bundesliga, both were saying they need to be playing to continue to improve and both it seems dug their heels in to get their respective loans, why the club insists on bringing in turkeys to play back up instead of actually using these youngsters is beyond me to be honest, how much is christensen on likewise musonda/solanke instead we get djillibodji and falcao/pato, at other clubs they get them amongst the first team to see if they are up to scratch and show confidence in them, they are unfortunately an after thought for us. The thing is even a good loan spell doesnt buy you a crack at the first team, it would seem we would sooner sell them let them develop at another club then buy them back, if thats the case jack the youth setup in as its a pointless exercise, the only point of a youth academy is to develop youth players for your first team!

The only thing id say to that is this, our wage bill is massive yet our first team is well short on numbers, even when you take into account the big earners we do have it points to big wages further down the chain too, id not be surprised if rlc was on the rumoured 60k as it might of been the only way the club could convince him he had a future here, like I said earlier maybe the players are thinking 2 fold with wage demands, earn a good whack whilst also maybe forcing the club to use them as they are on first team wages.

we sealed our fate a while ago, rlc getting 60k a week (structure or not) has led the way for similar promising youth to demand similar sums, id like to think that maybe just maybe it is a ploy to force the club into using them by getting themselves on big wages, arguably though its just agents getting max amount possible.

I doubt it would be as their clubs give their youth products avenues into the first team!

Not sure where to put this but solanke has apparently rejected a contract from us, one year left and doing well in Holland, I'd bet a crisp ten pound note that it's as much about progression as it is about money, he might well still sign a new contract but expect it to be big ala rlc if he does

whhhooooossssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I think the 'chelsea way' was us circa mid 90s up till roman bought in, when he came he brought with him his own philosophy with him which it seems is either simply win at all costs or is ever changing.

Like intentioned earlier, if Roman sacked emanelo and drogba/makelele came in as his replacement do you think anyone would moan? By saying it is underlying racism you are shifting the focus away from the real reason people dislike or distrust the bloke, how he got the job with no experience, the question I have is how do you think he got the job of technical director? Did he show any signs of excelling in his previous appointments that would make a step up logical?