Barrettinator

Yes it has. Not by most of the league of course but a few teams like City and Spurs who'll challenge us next season have found it out and Spurs even have better personnel to play that system at the moment. Even Jose got the better of it once. Wenger also beat us at our own game only last week. We not only need to have a plan B and plan C, we also need better players. Think we've taken the Moses-Alonso cart as far as it can go (in terms of them both starting) and Matic must be replaced if we want to stay on top and challenge Europe's best in the CL.

And Lukaku who has never touched Champions League football in his life was going to win us the CL? Really enjoying both ends of the argument in this issue taking a piss out of themselves. You're not making sense mate.

Posting a video of his performance against us in 15-16 hardly makes a case for him, does it? Almost every player in the league tore us a new one that season ffs. Our defense was shockingly bad. That he fed off that is no surprise. It would have been a damning case against him if he couldn't score against 15-16 Chelsea. Now ask yourself how he performed against us this season when we actually had a great defense again. Aggregate vs Everton = 8-0. Went missing in both matches. I'm not against signing him anymore and I actually want Costa gone but don't act like Lukaku's a world beater.

Tolisso does have a bit of a temper. But nothing Conte can't handle. Don't forget we currently have an extremely bipolar man starting at CF. Also, third parties are quite common in France and more so in Monaco. We'd face the same difficulties trying to sign almost any Monaco player. I don't think Chelsea will want to pull out after coming this far. After all, we've signed players from Brazil where it's far worse.

Not happening. They can try though. We'd be happy to slap the big back in their faces. Azpi is also very far from the type of player who'd want to leave. Has totally bought into the culture at the club and could become 2nd captain next year.

That's what's holding up the whole thing. It'll be wrapped up eventually. Also, I think it's fairly certain that we're going to get a striker.

Don't trust anything from Talksport. Ultimate wummers.

Musonda sold with a buy back clause. Batshuayi on loan. Bakayoko price knocked down. I would love that actually. I'm excited at what Jardim could turn Musonda into. We all know the lad has bags of talent. We'd get the option of buying him back if he turns into a world beater and is needed here. We don't lose Batshuayi either. Win-win for everyone involved.

Won't stop the Hazard to Madrid rumours from popping up again next February.

They know they're never going to get him. It's just a way to distract their fans from the new Wenger contract. They need good PR.

No one is denying that. Costa has a bloody terrible first touch too. But at least he does make up for it with good work rate that forces opposition into mistakes.

Knew someone would make one of these soon First touch of an elephant.

I don't think both signings are mutually exclusive. It's possible we're in for both, seeing as there are still reports that say we've almost closed the Bakayoko deal.

Marchisio is 31. Why would you want a 31 year old over a 22 year old very promising midfielder who could be worth 70 odd million in 2 years?

Time to move the thread I guess. That's the end of him as a Chelsea player.

Why must we pounce? There are other strikers who'd be a lot cheaper and can serve us well. Like I said, it's not the end of the world if we don't get him.

Bale can't stay fit anymore. Always getting injured just when he's had a run of 8 games or so where he's starting to pick form. That's a bit of a liability, don't you think?

Not having this argument with you. That's between you and the other fella. We don't know who's coming and who's going. Some are more obvious than others of course but we can only speculate.

They could also go for Lacazette who was heading for Atletico.

It would be great to have such a partnership with Monaco as well. They seem to be brilliant at tapping into the potential of young players. Love to see Musonda and co go there.

Very encouraging description of Tolisso on WAGNH For £20m-£25m, there's no reason we shouldn't be getting him. I would actually love it if we got both Tolisso AND Bakayoko. That would be real depth and quality in the midfield. It would also thankfully mean offloading Matic. 3-5-2 in big games Courtois Azpi Luiz Van Dijk Conti Tolisso Kante Bakayoko Alonso Costa Hazard 3-4-3 in smaller games Courtois Azpi Luiz Van Dijk Conti Bakayoko Kante Alonso Sanchez Hazard Costa 4-2-4 occasionally Courtois Azpi Luiz Van Dijk Alonso Tolisso Kante Sanchez Lukaku Costa Hazard Ideally, I would replace Alonso with Mendy. A man can dream.

Might be the most boring Chelsea kit I've ever seen.

Long day. Even had a typo in there. My mistake.

And you now this how? Come on.

I think "limited" is the wrong word to use when describing Kante. Saying he's limited implies that he'll never get better. Which is just a wrong assessment. I think Kante is obviously not an all rounder (how many midfielders are tbh?) and there are things he's still adding to his game. I saw his long range passing improve over the course of this past season, which was encouraging. He obviously won't have Cesc level vision but it's good to see he's growing as a player still. He is however ridiculously good at the things he's good at - breaking up play, covering ground, pressing, starting counters and most importantly, shielding the defence. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think Bakayoko is being massively underrated by Chelsea fans. He has quite a lot of room to grow. He's only 22 and already looks better than Matic. For one, his weak foot isn't completely useless for everything except walking like Matic's is. He's incredibly good at getting across the pitch, many times, in 2 or 3 strides. He always looks to play vertical, something Matic massively lacks, horizontal merchant. He's not the most creative but that can improve and really, if you can get across the pitch, you'll open up chances for the team anyway (see Essien for reference). I'll take a midfielder who dominated Verratti any day.