Barrettinator

80m for Ronaldo looks like a bargain these days. Masterstroke of a recruitment in hindsight.

Moses wishes he was that good.

We were linked with him in January, not sure why the links have died down. The lad is extremely impressive. Looks like a Dani Alves in the making tbqh. Can dribble, has great pace, very solid defensively, can put in good crosses, great link up play, etc. We should be looking to get him especially as he's available for 35m apparently. Barcelona are even after him apparently. Perfect RWB for us, hypothetically speaking. Check him out here

Some of our greatest ever players came from clubs who had won nothing. Not sure why that matters. They come to us because they want to win something.

We were never in for Silva. Alexis hasn't gone anywhere and we're still at the forefront of that. Morata hasn't gone anywhere either, he just came out yesterday and said he doesn't want to go to Milan because he's loyal to Juve. We haven't been interested in Nainggolan since last summer. He said it himself recently that he hasn't gotten any interest from Chelsea (and even joked that perhaps Conte is mad at him for turning us down last year). We're in talks with Lyon for Tolisso and seem to be the only one serious about buying him. Only other club really rumoured to be in for him is Juventus. Where on earth are you getting your info from?

I think we were. Way too many rumours from different papers (including journos usually decent with Chelsea info like Matt Law) for it to be nothing.

f**k me, have we actually lost him to Liverpool? That's awful. But if it's for 60m then they can have him. Actually just found out he has a contract at Southampton until 2022. Which would probably explain the price tag. They'd be getting 35m if he had 2 years.

Most reports so far have indicated it'll take 6-8 weeks recovery. I think if he misses games at all, it won't be more than the first 3 games.

He's not out for 3-4 months though. That's 6-8 weeks or approximately 2 months. No chance an ankle fracture takes anyone out for 4 months unless you're 52 years old.

Madrid really are c**ts. Didn't even know anything of the sort happened re: Courtois.

Should head back to London and use CFC's facilities. He'll be fine. He'll recover before the start of the season actually.

Well that's awful. Thankfully, it came right at the end of the season.

I believe he has suffered from lapse in concentration sometimes but that's something that can be improved upon. Listen, I'm not against the guy. I actually want him at Chelsea. I think we'll need someone like him AND Christensen in the team. Don't want him for a ridiculous price though. If they ask for a penny more than 50m, we should back out.

You compared him with the top 2 in world football because he's had 1 good season at Southampton. Half a season at that. That is just madness. There's every chance he can get exposed in Pep's system too. We know not just any CB can play in it. But we'll see.

Are you bloody serious right now?

I get your point but Van Dijk's per 90 numbers were actually much better than all of our defenders.

Definitely leaving Madrid this summer though I'd still prefer Sanchez.

For £200k/week and £60m, they can have him. That is pure madness!!!! What has this league turned into? My goodness!

Part of the reason we won 13 straight is that teams didn't know how to play against our 3-4-3. It's a rare formation in this league. They were always going to adapt to it at least to some extent. It's natural in football.

Fully agree. And I personally want someone else leading our line. Doesn't mean we get to ignore Lukaku's short comings though. It's entirely possible to recognize that they both have sh*t parts of their game and while Lukaku's 4 years younger than Costa, he's not the same player tactically that Costa is. Not the same player impact wise either.

It all depends on how well we recruit this summer.

They just won't stop, will they? Interesting if true though. I'm not even sure how that would work.

I wonder if it's possible for us to send Matic to AC Milan or something. That would be perfect. Tolisso-Kante-Bakayoko-Cesc-Chalobah is a PERFECT midfield. Real quality and can slug it with just about anyone in Europe. When you also consider the fact that Tolisso and Bakayoko will only get better, that's just mouth watering. Even Kante has some room for improvement and I would say Chalobah as well. Tolisso would finally be a Ballack replacement imo. A midfielder who can do everything. Press, pass, defend, score, you name it.

Oh they definitely did. City dominated us in both games and if it weren't for problems that plagued them all season (lack of finishing, sh*t defense), they could have beaten us both times. Next season they'll be better, especially after all the players they'll sign this season. That's why we have to get better as well. To stay ahead of the curve. We need to be able to put Spurs away fairly comfortably next season. We did well to beat them in the semi final but they had our number before then and arguably should have gotten something from the game at the Bridge. United lost twice against us, yes but the first was early in the season when they hadn't figured out themselves (a bit like us pre 3-4-3) and the 2nd they had under control until the Herrera red card and we still only managed to win 1-0. By the 3rd match, they had figured us out. Arsenal beat mercilessly once pre 3-4-3, lost to us in a period of terrible form (not taking away from our win but still) and beat us in a cup final that mattered. Don't give the excuse of the Sanchez goal. We were lucky to only be down 1-0 in that match. We should have gone into halftime down 4. Quite frankly, they could have beaten us 5-1 on the day. That's how badly we played and how well they were able to kill us at our own game. You're being a bit delusional if you think the top teams don't know how to play us. We've gotten away with some wins playing badly, which is good but we should aim to play much better. I never said we have to change the system. Read my posts again. I said we have to have a plan B and plan C for when things aren't going our way. Conte is known to favour a 4-2-4 and he also played a 3-5-2 at Juventus, so naturally, those are 2 options we can use. But we can only do so much with average players. Which is why along with implementing those back up plans we need to bring in REAL quality and increase our quality and depth. Do this and we'll have another great season in 17-18.