Great words from Antonio. I think the young players push themselves too much to make the starting 11 by the age of 18-19. Their agents wont help forcing them to move on to gain revenue. If you read Antonio's words carefully he says 'a great team'. Not Swansea, not Crystal Palace or Watford.

I like every word of Conte there. He has the experience and the knowledge and sometimes you have to make tough decisions on players even though you see them becoming the next Pogba.

Young players not ready .... chelsea squad too thin to fight for anything .... midway the board will sack conte and back to square one .... something is definitely wrong .... what use is new stadium if there are no more fans

21 hours ago, abister1 said:

Thank you sir. I have come to realise that in the modern game the word fans should have a different meaning. Do this you're darned, don't do it darned anyway.

No loyalty, no understanding, no patience.

I for one will be over the moon if we don't sign anyone and Conte is forced to start integrating the "not good enough youth" into the team as that is the only way they will get a shot. 

I will rather they get given a chance and fail to take it than not given a chance at all. I am not saying year on give them important roles but there are 3 players that have been signed of first squad quality, give the opportunity to the young ones I say.

 

Let it be then if chelsea does not win enough games conte will be sacked .... mid table for chelsea again .... for what

10 minutes ago, Helmett said:

Young players not ready .... chelsea squad too thin to fight for anything .... midway the board will sack conte and back to square one .... something is definitely wrong .... what use is new stadium if there are no more fans

Why do you think supporters will abandon the club if - IF! - we sink back to mediocrity? I certainly won't. It's not about being "something being wrong", whether that's the board or its policy, or about squad selection,  it's about football and Chelsea, even if we don't agree with how the club is run.

2 hours ago, Helmett said:

Young players not ready .... chelsea squad too thin to fight for anything .... midway the board will sack conte and back to square one .... something is definitely wrong .... what use is new stadium if there are no more fans

No one's going to stop supporting Chelsea if we drop to mediocrity. If they did then they weren't fans in the first place. Our board does good work, their only blemish so far is occasionally making a mistake here and there but generally they come through. Our board might not be perfect but they are trying and they certainly are better than Arsenal's, Liverpool's and a plethora of other clubs.

3 hours ago, Helmett said:

Let it be then if chelsea does not win enough games conte will be sacked .... mid table for chelsea again .... for what

The squad is good enough for a top 4 fight with a good manager. We can win all you like, Conte won't be here after next season.

These last few transfer are sure taking a long time. We've not signed anyone since Morata which was mid July (?). 

I think we will get Ox, Drinkwater, Llorente and maybe one more surprise signing on deadline. 

That said, it does seem a tight time frame to sign 4 players in 3 days. 

1 minute ago, JM7 said:

These last few transfer are sure taking a long time. We've not signed anyone since Morata which was mid July (?). 

I think we will get Ox, Drinkwater, Llorente and maybe one more surprise signing on deadline. 

That said, it does seem a tight time frame to sign 4 players in 3 days. 

The whole window has been a bit slow for most clubs, city apart, who have just taken the piss with over spending, and still they look no different and it will show against better teams.

Treat Conte to Verratti, PSG need to recoup some monies....

The ox looking pretty poor against Liverpool 

Edited August 27, 20178 yr by Jezq8

14 minutes ago, Jezq8 said:

The ox looking pretty poor against Liverpool 

The whole team does. Could have been 6/7/8-0

9 hours ago, evissy said:

Great words from Antonio. I think the young players push themselves too much to make the starting 11 by the age of 18-19. Their agents wont help forcing them to move on to gain revenue. If you read Antonio's words carefully he says 'a great team'. Not Swansea, not Crystal Palace or Watford.

I like every word of Conte there. He has the experience and the knowledge and sometimes you have to make tough decisions on players even though you see them becoming the next Pogba.

conte is pure class...

hope he stays with us for a long time...

Looks like we're in for a big week. Wonder who we'll get. 

21 hours ago, didierforever said:

"If the young players are ready and are strong enough to play regularly. Pogba, I repeat, played at 18 for me. Why not this?

"Show me young players who deserve to play regularly for Chelsea, and I'm ready to pick them. Don't forget my first game in Serie A, I was only 16. 16. I'm the first person open to do this because another coach did this with me. But, I repeat, you must have the possibilities to do this. Not to invent [them].

“[Marcus] Rashford. That's one player now who has shown he is strong physically, fast technically, and a really good player. But it's not easy.”

“Now [Andreas] Christensen, after two seasons on loan to develop himself in Germany, stays with us. He has to fight with [David] Luiz, [Gary] Cahill, Azpi [Cesar Azpilicueta], [Antonio] Rudiger to play. But if there is the possibility to play, I'll put him in.

“I'm the first to be ready to do this. But it's very important the young players are ready to play. Otherwise you provoke damage to the players. Also to the club and the team."

“A young player must be ready to play with a great team and play regularly. Usually in this type of football there is a path for the young player. It’s very difficult to see players who are 16, 17, 18 years old playing regularly. They have to develop and come back to play regularly with a great team. This is the right way. I repeat: I like to work with young players. Last season we won the league with players from the Academy and 14 or 15 senior players.”

“If there are young players who deserve to play regularly and give me a good feeling, then why not [pick them]? I put Pogba, at 18, into the team, and for [Claudio] Marchisio. Not a ‘simple’ player. But you must have this type of possibility, [that these] players are ready to play with Chelsea, a great team, otherwise it’s very difficult to make this decision. You must decide if you want to fight for the title or develop your young players. Two different ways.”

So Basically Conte calls the current youth players "not good enough", but according to some, we should simply force him to play them. Meanwhile we have sold Ake, Chalobah, Traore and loaned out Tammy, RLC. Hopefully he keeps his word and when some of the players who have done well on loan (hopefully RLC proves his quality) are given an opportunity. 

Wasn't this what you were arguing with me about for weeks, when you kept calling for the youth to be played I said you can't play the youth at an elite club unless they are good enough to warrant selection?

No one is against playing youth but sensibility dictates that at a top level club you don't run in youth just to help them out and keep an element of the fans happy. 

It seems he has said exactly what I was saying, hopefully you've come round to the idea that playing the youf just because they are youth and to give them a chance at the detriment of the clubs sucess isn't going to happen nor should it. 

52 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Wasn't this what you were arguing with me about for weeks, when you kept calling for the youth to be played I said you can't play the youth at an elite club unless they are good enough to warrant selection?

No one is against playing youth but sensibility dictates that at a top level club you don't run in youth just to help them out and keep an element of the fans happy. 

It seems he has said exactly what I was saying, hopefully you've come round to the idea that playing the youf just because they are youth and to give them a chance at the detriment of the clubs sucess isn't going to happen nor should it. 

The "Youth" we were talking about included AKE, the player who Conte himself called back and Christensen, who I guess would probably have shown exactly how talented he is and why some of us who actually saw him play did not want VVD here as that would have ended any chance for Christensen. 

I dont remember me saying that Kenedy/Scott/Tomori should be given a chance.

The youth players that I was talking about (Musonda - already in squad, Andreas - already in squad, Ake - still guts me that we sold him, Nat - would have been mega useful currently) are/were already with the squad and trusted by the person who has said those comments.

I feel currently he is talking about RWB, LWB, CM where we simply dont have any youth player to make it through.

Edited August 28, 20178 yr by didierforever

Crazy that there is 4 days left of the transfer window as we still unquestionably need two wingbacks and a midfielder. I also think we urgently need to replace Michy as our backup-striker so thats four players we need to sign in four days. Things are looking alright now after two wins on the trot but we'd be in serious trouble not too far down the road if we don't get down to business now before thursday.

It's too late, no one will come.

With a strong rotation we will get medal anyway.

Reading a piece in sky sports about what the top teams need to bring in, according to Paul Merson we need a CF and a CB, no mention of a wingback or a CM, how do these c**ts have jobs...why  would he think we need a CB our only position that's well represented other than to allow Dave to play RB, even then we have 4 CB's, he mentioned johnny Evans ffs, good thing we have a forum. 

Paul Merson seems to have a job because he "says it like it is".

But what he thinks it is is usually incorrect.

What is this hype around Jonny Evans anyway?

2 hours ago, Deino said:

What is this hype around Jonny Evans anyway?

You tell me he was sh*t at Utd he may have progressed to average he is 29 and doesn't even have the English card to pull, no clue why any top club  would want him, flavour of the month probably. 

Hopefully we will get Ox and Drinkwater sorted in next 2 days, and sign one of these

Sandro, Belotti, Sanchez.

12 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

Reading a piece in sky sports about what the top teams need to bring in, according to Paul Merson we need a CF and a CB, no mention of a wingback or a CM, how do these c**ts have jobs...why  would he think we need a CB our only position that's well represented other than to allow Dave to play RB, even then we have 4 CB's, he mentioned johnny Evans ffs, good thing we have a forum. 

I read that and was left scratching my head aswell. 

With regards evans, he may not have English, but he is still homegrown, so that no doubt puts his price up. Not that I would want him here though. 

Arsenal are now interested in him...

Many of the so called football pundits have no idea. I was watching the Everton game, and the commentator was talking about our lack of depth, and how players like Christensen is not Chelsea standard. It's only been 7 days since Christensen kept the all mighty Kane out of the game.