5 minutes ago, Scott said:

I hope his head is that big in real life, we could do with more headed goals

It's too late for #Chelsea to get a Chinese visa for Morata in time for Saturday, meaning he will join the squad in Singapore. [Telegraph]

12 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

Petty old Jimmy went to the spuds ehh, that must have stung. 

Past tence?

Jimmy claims that his move to Italy was a stitch up between Chelsea and Tottenham because the clubs knew there would be trouble if he moved directly. He is a bit inconsistent about it though saying that he didn't really want to leave Chelsea but the club forced him out because they needed the money and then claiming that we tried to buy him back a few months later. According to that story he went to Spurs simply because they outbid us. I don't know the truth of any of this and sadly Jimmy was already hitting the booze by then so who knows how he saw things.

To be fair all of this is based on reading, not reccolections. Jimmy was already a Spurs player when I became a football fan, and Chelsea supporter, in 1966.

Edited July 20, 20178 yr by OhForAGreavsie

1 minute ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Past tence?

Jimmy claims that his move to Italy was a stitch up between Chelsea and Tottenham because the clubs knew there would be trouble if he moved directly. He is a bit inconsistent about it though saying that he didn't really want to leave Chelsea but the club forced him out because they needed the money and then claiming that we then tried to buy him back a few months later but that Spurs just outbid us. I don't know the truth of any of this and sadly Jimmy was already hitting the booze by then so who knows how he saw things.

To be fair all of this is based on reading. Jimmy was already a Spurs player when I became a football fan, and Chelsea supporter, in 1966.

Before my life time but either way he was some player from the footage I've seen, the Milan stop gap seems plausible tbh 

Plenty O Spaniards!

36 minutes ago, Shotgun883 said:

I wanted Lukaku but I think its fair to say as a comparison and a sounder for compatibility;

• Teams that play against defensive units hoping for a point: Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus
• Teams that play against teams that think they could win; Everton, West Brom

Lukaku has shown that he can play in the latter, Morata has shown he can play in the former.  Its going to be an interesting season.

 

Probably why we won a record 30 games out of 38 last season ? Good grief .... LOL :-)

Just now, Sexyfootball said:

 

Probably why we won a record 30 games out of 38 last season ? Good grief .... LOL :-)

He means Chelsea has to play against teams parking the bus, not Chelsea being one that does that (anymore).

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

 

Probably why we won a record 30 games out of 38 last season ? Good grief .... LOL :-)

I think he means we play against teams hoping for a point, hence Real madrid are grouped in with us. 

45 minutes ago, dkw said:

Keith it is then.

Better than Hank!

Is that what the K in @dkwstands for then?

Just now, Beerqueen said:

Better than Hank!

Is that what the K in @dkwstands for then?

Oooh I'm not telling, I'm a mystery and I want to keep it that way.....

 

But no, it isn't.....

Edited July 20, 20178 yr by dkw

7 minutes ago, Geert The Flyer said:

He means Chelsea has to play against teams parking the bus, not Chelsea being one that does that (anymore).

Fair enough then ...  :-)

 

7 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

I think he means we play against teams hoping for a point, hence Real madrid are grouped in with us. 

Misinterpreted that, seeing us next to "park the bus, don't play a striker" Manchester United.

 

I am in the "happy to have Morata, delighted we didn't sign Lukaku" camp, so I think we are all agreeing !

 

 

Interesting piece on Morata.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/chelsea-transfer-news-alvaro-morata-deal-agreed-real-madrid-signs-78m-worlds-best-a7849876.html

Why Alvaro Morata has what it takes to become one of the world's best at Chelsea after agreeing £78m deal

Morata has a range of attributes, a supreme record of scoring in big games and an excellent attitude - and now will have the chance to establish himself in a starting XI at Stamford Bridge.

He has forged one of the finest careers in goalkeeping history from forensically studying how to stop strikers, so Gigi Buffon probably knows what makes them tick better than most, and he has so far summed up Alvaro Morata’s career better than most. The goalkeeper believes his former Juventus teammate can be one of the best in the world, “if only he could get over his mental hang-ups”.

These are probably sentiments expressed about the 24-year-old more than any other, and yet he has always had the best possible response, really from even before this type of thing was said. Morata has a supreme record of scoring in big games, going right back to Spain’s immensely successful underage teams.

“He just always had that cold blood,” his former international youth manager Gines Melendez tells The Independent, and Morata thereby has a fearsome record, too. Melendez saw the start of it, as he was under-17 manager when Morata’s two goals drove Spain to the semi-finals of the 2009 World Cup, and then under-19 manager when the Real Madrid forward’s six golden-boot-winning strikes also helped win the 2011 European Championships.

 

He just kept getting better as he got older, hitting four key goals to finish top scorer in Spain’s surge to the 2013 under-21 European Championships trophy too. The ultimate indication of his talent was in Juventus' run to the 2014-15 Champions League final, however, when he scored in both semi-final legs against Real Madrid and then an initial equaliser in the 3-1 final defeat to Barcelona.

This is what Chelsea are getting.

“You could see straight away he was a great player,” Melendez says of a local Madrid lad he knew from the age of 15.

This is what Antonio Conte first recognised in bringing him to Juventus in 2014 before the Italian manager left for his national team, and why he has turned to Morata again as he seeks a finisher who can also serve as a forward. Aside from that record, the Spanish international also has that physical strength in the air that the Italian wants, and is privately seen by one admirer who works with Barcelona as “brilliantly versatile enough to adapt to any style”.

Those words echo Max Allegri’s description of Morata from that season with Juventus in 2014-15, when he said the then 22-year-old “is one of the few players in the world who can play with any kind of forward”.

And yet, for all those compliments, all those qualities and all those goals, Morata’s career also carries a fair few questions - not least whether he is actually worth the £78m Chelsea have agreed to pay Real Madrid. Much of that comes from what happened after that 2014-15 season, given that he didn’t really kick on and, by 2016-17, found himself predominantly back on the bench for Real.

Some of that was down to the complications that came from the Spanish club wanting to enact their buy-back at the end of 2015-16, having sold Morata in 2014, given that it led to Juventus naturally looking to leverage the situation - and also having to look to a future without the players.

He was getting less game-time, scoring fewer goals, and just looking less like the top striker he should have been growing into, but some of that was also down to the kind of self-doubt that Buffon so discussed.

Morata has discussed it himself. The striker has admitted that a relationship break-up at the start of 2015-16 was a huge factor, triggering a self-perpetuating cycle where missed chances would then cause even more of a drop in form. This is what the “father figure” in 39-year-old Buffon looked to talk him through, looked to get him to tackle.

Morata has always been very healthily willing to address that side of sport, however, and part of it comes from an evident thoughtfulness and grounded nature. This is after all a young lad who was held back from going to Atletico Madrid’s youth academy when a child, because his school results weren’t good enough, and his father insisted he first improve them.

Morata wasn’t, then, the sort of modern academy graduate who has rarely had the word “no” said to them. He eventually went to Atletico as a 12-year-old, joining the club of his grandfather, even though he himself idolised Real legend Raul Gonzalez and even though his own game was already said to greatly resemble Real's Fernando Morientes’.

Morata was already being described as a “goal machine” at that point, as he hammered in strikes for Atletico's youth sides. He was never seen as arrogant, however, and usually just liked by teammates for a generous nature. Morata was signed up by Getafe in 2007, before finally ending up at Real a year later, where he worked for a certain Jose Mourinho for the first time in 2010. Manchester United were deep in talks to sign him and reunite the pair, only for the Old Trafford club to pull the club because of the £78m asking price and turn to Romelu Lukaku instead.

That was why Mourinho was so willing to work with him and remains a fan, but Real's refusal to budge on their asking price saw United belatedly turn to Lukaku. For his part, Morata had been equally willing to work with both Mourinho and Conte, with the player greatly valuing the trust the latter showed in him back in 2014. Now he will finally get to directly repay that trust.

At 24, Morata is at the age where he is ready for a big role. His 2014-15 season at Juventus showed what he is capable of when given that, even if the idiosyncratic politics of Real Madrid ensured he was never really going to be given it there. That does leave the question over why he should be good enough for Chelsea if he isn’t quite good enough to be a starter at the Bernabeu, but that’s a bit simplistic.

Morata has a range of attributes, from his dribbling to his finishing to his heading, that greatly suits Conte. It’s why he agrees with Buffon, that he can yet be one of the best world. He’s just got to be in the right set-up. He already has the right big-game record.

Should add, that I just came back from 3 days in Liverpool, and the Everton fans I met are over the moon that Lukaku has been sold, and incredulous over how much they got for him !

19 minutes ago, Beerqueen said:

Better than Hank!

Is that what the K in @dkwstands for then?

It stands for Diddy Knobbed w**ker

 

20 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Interesting piece on Morata.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/chelsea-transfer-news-alvaro-morata-deal-agreed-real-madrid-signs-78m-worlds-best-a7849876.html

Why Alvaro Morata has what it takes to become one of the world's best at Chelsea after agreeing £78m deal

Morata has a range of attributes, a supreme record of scoring in big games and an excellent attitude - and now will have the chance to establish himself in a starting XI at Stamford Bridge.

He has forged one of the finest careers in goalkeeping history from forensically studying how to stop strikers, so Gigi Buffon probably knows what makes them tick better than most, and he has so far summed up Alvaro Morata’s career better than most. The goalkeeper believes his former Juventus teammate can be one of the best in the world, “if only he could get over his mental hang-ups”.

These are probably sentiments expressed about the 24-year-old more than any other, and yet he has always had the best possible response, really from even before this type of thing was said. Morata has a supreme record of scoring in big games, going right back to Spain’s immensely successful underage teams.

“He just always had that cold blood,” his former international youth manager Gines Melendez tells The Independent, and Morata thereby has a fearsome record, too. Melendez saw the start of it, as he was under-17 manager when Morata’s two goals drove Spain to the semi-finals of the 2009 World Cup, and then under-19 manager when the Real Madrid forward’s six golden-boot-winning strikes also helped win the 2011 European Championships.

 

He just kept getting better as he got older, hitting four key goals to finish top scorer in Spain’s surge to the 2013 under-21 European Championships trophy too. The ultimate indication of his talent was in Juventus' run to the 2014-15 Champions League final, however, when he scored in both semi-final legs against Real Madrid and then an initial equaliser in the 3-1 final defeat to Barcelona.

This is what Chelsea are getting.

“You could see straight away he was a great player,” Melendez says of a local Madrid lad he knew from the age of 15.

This is what Antonio Conte first recognised in bringing him to Juventus in 2014 before the Italian manager left for his national team, and why he has turned to Morata again as he seeks a finisher who can also serve as a forward. Aside from that record, the Spanish international also has that physical strength in the air that the Italian wants, and is privately seen by one admirer who works with Barcelona as “brilliantly versatile enough to adapt to any style”.

Those words echo Max Allegri’s description of Morata from that season with Juventus in 2014-15, when he said the then 22-year-old “is one of the few players in the world who can play with any kind of forward”.

And yet, for all those compliments, all those qualities and all those goals, Morata’s career also carries a fair few questions - not least whether he is actually worth the £78m Chelsea have agreed to pay Real Madrid. Much of that comes from what happened after that 2014-15 season, given that he didn’t really kick on and, by 2016-17, found himself predominantly back on the bench for Real.

Some of that was down to the complications that came from the Spanish club wanting to enact their buy-back at the end of 2015-16, having sold Morata in 2014, given that it led to Juventus naturally looking to leverage the situation - and also having to look to a future without the players.

He was getting less game-time, scoring fewer goals, and just looking less like the top striker he should have been growing into, but some of that was also down to the kind of self-doubt that Buffon so discussed.

Morata has discussed it himself. The striker has admitted that a relationship break-up at the start of 2015-16 was a huge factor, triggering a self-perpetuating cycle where missed chances would then cause even more of a drop in form. This is what the “father figure” in 39-year-old Buffon looked to talk him through, looked to get him to tackle.

Morata has always been very healthily willing to address that side of sport, however, and part of it comes from an evident thoughtfulness and grounded nature. This is after all a young lad who was held back from going to Atletico Madrid’s youth academy when a child, because his school results weren’t good enough, and his father insisted he first improve them.

Morata wasn’t, then, the sort of modern academy graduate who has rarely had the word “no” said to them. He eventually went to Atletico as a 12-year-old, joining the club of his grandfather, even though he himself idolised Real legend Raul Gonzalez and even though his own game was already said to greatly resemble Real's Fernando Morientes’.

Morata was already being described as a “goal machine” at that point, as he hammered in strikes for Atletico's youth sides. He was never seen as arrogant, however, and usually just liked by teammates for a generous nature. Morata was signed up by Getafe in 2007, before finally ending up at Real a year later, where he worked for a certain Jose Mourinho for the first time in 2010. Manchester United were deep in talks to sign him and reunite the pair, only for the Old Trafford club to pull the club because of the £78m asking price and turn to Romelu Lukaku instead.

That was why Mourinho was so willing to work with him and remains a fan, but Real's refusal to budge on their asking price saw United belatedly turn to Lukaku. For his part, Morata had been equally willing to work with both Mourinho and Conte, with the player greatly valuing the trust the latter showed in him back in 2014. Now he will finally get to directly repay that trust.

At 24, Morata is at the age where he is ready for a big role. His 2014-15 season at Juventus showed what he is capable of when given that, even if the idiosyncratic politics of Real Madrid ensured he was never really going to be given it there. That does leave the question over why he should be good enough for Chelsea if he isn’t quite good enough to be a starter at the Bernabeu, but that’s a bit simplistic.

Morata has a range of attributes, from his dribbling to his finishing to his heading, that greatly suits Conte. It’s why he agrees with Buffon, that he can yet be one of the best world. He’s just got to be in the right set-up. He already has the right big-game record.

 

The one potential thing that could upset this is if he cannot settle in England, the thing about his girlfriend suggests things outside the game can impact his football.

Just now, yorkleyblue said:

It stands for Diddy Knobbed w**ker

Donkey knobbed, you know the truth pally.....

2 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

The one potential thing that could upset this is if he cannot settle in England, the thing about his girlfriend suggests things outside the game can impact his football.

Yep, that's what I've got from reading it is that his off the pitch problems affect his performances. The self doubt mentioned in the article can kill even the most talented. All the highlights of his and everything I read about the guy suggests he's got everything to be the world class striker. So hopefully Conte will find a way to instill confidence in him necessary to realize his tremendous potential.

Just now, abramovich said:

Yep, that's what I've got from reading it is that his off the pitch problems affect his performances. The self doubt mentioned in the article can kill even the most talented. All the highlights of his and everything I read about the guy suggests he's got everything to be a world class striker. So hopefully Conte will find a way to instill confidence in him necessary to realize his tremendous potential.

 

8 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

The one potential thing that could upset this is if he cannot settle in England, the thing about his girlfriend suggests things outside the game can impact his football.

Send her to Birmingham JT will give her a talking/seeing to 

I agree that his relationship with Conte will probably be important. Let's hope the SB faithful give him a big reception.

Morinho will be fuming at the deal wegot, I'm not in the slate Jose camp way too many happy memories with him but winding him up is fun 

31 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Misinterpreted that, seeing us next to "park the bus, don't play a striker" Manchester United.

Id argue Man Utd last season struggled with a similar problem as us the season before in that its relatively easy to counter Mourinho's tactics, you cant be counter attacked if you don't attack.  Mourinho likes his grafters but they haven't had that amount of magic that allows then to unpick teams at will. Zlatan did that to a point but you cannot rely on one player.  He does not know how to build a team up to beat teams, he only knows how to exploit mistakes in his opposition.

Great signing, absolutely delighted.

This time arround our board has done great job.

I hope he gets injury free, healthy and become the best Striker in the World. Conte and Morata can achieve that. Wish him all the best !!!

 

 

Edited July 20, 20178 yr by brakeit

17 hours ago, IliyaKrostin said:

Not his fan, I won't lie. I'd prefer to take Lukaku, Aubameyang, or even keep Costa. His stats last season are impressing, but then I look at the league and the fixtures there and it doesn't really motivate me to bring him. Real Madrid had a successful season, Benzema isn't world class anymore and still used to be a starter in Real Madrid, kept Morata on the bench, which is really surprising. Maybe it's their mistake, or there is a reason for that, not my business to decide. 

He seems like a very good player, more player for the team than just a striker, seems like a smart player with right decisions, but is he good enough to lead us to titles? I'm 100% sure he will do his best and will try everything to prove himself, but I don't think he will succeed at that job. It would be hard to fill up Costa's boots, especially in the Premier League, a new league for him + now we have the CL games. 

Anyways, I thought the same when we were about to sign Costa, I still remember me saying that we should sign Balotelli and not Costa, and at the end, got it all wrong. I really hope I'm wrong with this one as well, just my feeling showing negativity, but I want him to succeed and lead us to the top. I wish him the best of luck and I hope I've got it all wrong once again and Morata is good enough to lead a top club like Chelsea. 

Good luck Morata!

Benzema only plays because he is happy to play Bridesmaid to Ronaldo, if Ronaldo was not there I guarantee you Morata would be starting for them