1 hour ago, Xfaxtor said:

Pasalic is on his way out, Tomori and Baker will never get any meaningfull minutes from Conte. We are looking at a bench of Fab, Willian and Rüdiger and then Musonda/Boga as our only attacking options for the first month or so. No matter how you try to stay positive, thats not going to cut it with the extra CL games. Its no wonder Conte sounds more and more pissed by the day

Pasalic has supposedly been on his way out for the last month with no movement yet and the supposed destination changing with every week. It started with a deal had been agreed to sell to Turkey, then a loan to italy, then a loan to Betis, now a loan to Spartak. 

IMO Pasalic and Remy only leave if replacements are signed so that isn't an issue depthwise.

Even with our current injuries (Hazard and Bakayoko) that leaves a bench of: Willy, Christensen, Rudiger, Pasalic, Pedro/Morata, Boga/Musonda, Remy 

That isn't a bad bench.

Could and should it be better, yes, but it isn't the disaster we are down to barebones bench people are making out? 

Especially considering it is still a stronger bench than the rest of the BPL bar the Manc clubs.

That fact that we have to include Reny fir a full bench says it all really. For the first month without Hazard we have Musonda and Pedro as our only attacking options. Boga is never going to get a sniff under Conte and Remy is, well Remy. Which means that currently Pedro is our cover for both wingbacks, both wings together with maybe Musonda and striker in case Morata and Bats has to come off. Conte is looking more and more agitated for every week that passes and with good reason, he was probably promised replacements for the players he didnt want but that hasnt happened. Could see him throwing an absolute fit and utilize the 13 senior outfield players we have untill they are run into the ground.

2 hours ago, Xfaxtor said:

That fact that we have to include Reny fir a full bench says it all really. For the first month without Hazard we have Musonda and Pedro as our only attacking options. Boga is never going to get a sniff under Conte and Remy is, well Remy. Which means that currently Pedro is our cover for both wingbacks, both wings together with maybe Musonda and striker in case Morata and Bats has to come off. Conte is looking more and more agitated for every week that passes and with good reason, he was probably promised replacements for the players he didnt want but that hasnt happened. Could see him throwing an absolute fit and utilize the 13 senior outfield players we have untill they are run into the ground.

 

Here's one that seems to have gone under the radar and unless I have missed something, which at my age is quite possible, is the fact that Rahman is now back to full fitness  and hasn't gone on loan.

For me it's unlikely that we will be looking for a GK or indeed another CD.

In terms of wing backs I suspect Conte is still looking to bringing one in and for me that could well be Oxlaide -Chamberlain if they can't get Sandro.

Midfield is light but it seems that  Bakyoko is just days away from being fit and not weeks away as  was being reported  I know some  are turning their noses up about Drinkwater but he is far from a mug and you always have the option of playing Luiz in a slightly more advanced position. That said I suspect at least one but quite possibly two midfielders will come in 

In terms of wide players Willian, Pedro and Hazard and possibly  Mousanda and indeed Boga  but again I doubt that will be enough so I suspect a wide player will be brought in.

Up front I think that he still would like one in but Morata and Bats will be the two .

The trouble in all this is that whilst trying to get a close as you can on numerical terms to a 25 man squad is a real balancing act sometimes you have to compromise in terms of say having a Drinkwater as opposed to say Matic. Seven of the squad have to be HG and even then when it comes to a CL squad some of those HG /CG or indeed under 21 players don't fit the requirements and have to allocated a non HG spot

So for me it's likely that 4 more players will arrive and I know the clocks ticking but the fact that players like Van Ginkel and RLC have been allowed to leave suggests the club and indeed the manager are more relaxed than the press are reporting means the plans are in place and will be completed sooner rather than later.

 

Edited August 1, 20178 yr by terraloon

I like your positive ending, hope you are right!

Here is my contention...if conte doesn't get players he can't play twice a week and be competitive, in which case he will prioritise one competition.

He won't let the league go because top 4 is essential, so I would sadly conclude we will blow off the CL in favour of the title race.

This after a very long year in absence of the most exciting competition on earth, one of my joys in life watching Chelsea line up before a big European kick off, will be hard to swallow,l.

So please marina pay the f**king fees the clubs are asking and stop trying to over negotiate. 

Edited August 17, 20178 yr by DonAntonio

So you would pay Leicester £ 40 million for Drinkwater ?... I don't think that's going to happen.

Chelsea FC need to change their strategy .....and decide what they can do.....because at the moment & for the past few years, with the odd exception (Kante).......every player we try to sign, we get told they're not for sale unless of course we pay silly money.

That model is clearly not working.......personally I would induct more of Chelsea Youth players into the 1st team......but at the moment the Board of Chelsea & the Coach only pay lip service to that, with one or two players getting to come off the bench for 10 minutes before the end of the match. 

Or alternatively.....we could change our strategy by only targeting recruitment of the highest top quality players at £100 to 150 million a go. .....instead of trying to sign four or five average £ 20 to 35 million players. 

Back in the late bough ties.....When we had old grey beard as our Guvnor.......we were very successful in signing top players.....Gullit, De Matteo, Vialli, Mark Hughes etc.......we must have had better negotiators, agents or representatives around then ? ...........I think we need to look at the people we are employing who do the job of player recruitment asbimprovements need to be made ...otherwise we get the same old problem every summer transfer window.

We should have sorted out all of the new signings well before The start of the season.....there was the whole of June & July to sort it out.......but here we are again scrambling around begging Leicester to sell us Drinkwater FFS ! 

 

14 minutes ago, Maidstone Blue said:

So you would pay Leicester £ 40 million for Drinkwater ?... I don't think that's going to happen.

Chelsea FC need to change their strategy .....and decide what they can do.....because at the moment & for the past few years, with the odd exception (Kante).......every player we try to sign, we get told they're not for sale unless of course we pay silly money.

That model is clearly not working.......personally I would induct more of Chelsea Youth players into the 1st team......but at the moment the Board of Chelsea & the Coach only pay lip service to that, with one or two players getting to come off the bench for 10 minutes before the end of the match. 

Or alternatively.....we could change our strategy by only targeting recruitment of the highest top quality players at £100 to 150 million a go. .....instead of trying to sign four or five average £ 20 to 35 million players. 

I would have hoped £35m would do it, £40m is high yet we are in a tight spot, some you win Luiz and Oscar some you lose.

Re our younger players recently we have sold Ake, Atsu and Bamford so though they make not make it with us they are making it in football and we get money back.

Yeah I know........sadly the way things are.....the chances of another JT type player ....coming through the ranks to captain the 1st team are remote ! 

Imagine we sold Costa for less than we buy drink water...it's a petty we had to come to this imagine 2 up top with Costa and morata would be unplayable, and it's not fantasy like transfers he is on our f**king books if it didn't drag on so long they could have kissed and made up, stubbornness on both sides and Chelsea football club and the fans are the real losers.  

Why English-born players are usually twice the price is beyond me. That is why clubs buy from other countries.

On 18/08/2017 at 05:13, evissy said:

Why English-born players are usually twice the price is beyond me. That is why clubs buy from other countries.

Good English players are rare, every team wants them, good for marketing, cub image,  media cover favourably, meets homegrown quota 

20 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

Good English players are rare, every team wants them, good for marketing, cub image,  media cover favourably, meets homegrown quota 

Same thoughts.

On 17/08/2017 at 10:28, Maidstone Blue said:

So you would pay Leicester £ 40 million for Drinkwater ?... I don't think that's going to happen.

Chelsea FC need to change their strategy .....and decide what they can do.....because at the moment & for the past few years, with the odd exception (Kante).......every player we try to sign, we get told they're not for sale unless of course we pay silly money.

That model is clearly not working.......personally I would induct more of Chelsea Youth players into the 1st team......but at the moment the Board of Chelsea & the Coach only pay lip service to that, with one or two players getting to come off the bench for 10 minutes before the end of the match. 

Or alternatively.....we could change our strategy by only targeting recruitment of the highest top quality players at £100 to 150 million a go. .....instead of trying to sign four or five average £ 20 to 35 million players. 

Maidstone I don't think that last paragraph fits our targeting profile anymore. I don't believe we are in the same league as Barca, Madrid, United, City and PSG when it comes to paying those astronomical transfer fees. We had our time but other owners are much wealthier than Roman and other clubs are much wealthier than us. I believe we are in the 2nd tier now. But that doesn't mean we can't be successful. Our targeting of players, releasing of players and transfer dealings over the past few season have, on the whole, been shocking.

12 hours ago, just said:

Maidstone I don't think that last paragraph fits our targeting profile anymore. I don't believe we are in the same league as Barca, Madrid, United, City and PSG when it comes to paying those astronomical transfer fees. We had our time but other owners are much wealthier than Roman and other clubs are much wealthier than us. I believe we are in the 2nd tier now. But that doesn't mean we can't be successful. Our targeting of players, releasing of players and transfer dealings over the past few season have, on the whole, been shocking.

Agree with the point above.

Even Real Madrid in the last one or two years have cut back on their spending.

Going on spending sprees doesn't guarantee you titles as seen in Manchester. In fact, it's been 4 years since the title was even in Manchester which is pretty poor considering how much both clubs spend.

PSG despite their ridiculous millions couldn't win their own league last season and failing once again the CL in the most embarassing fashion.

As for Barcelona, take out Messi and we would annihilate them in a game. Their team truly is awful.

 

On 21/08/2017 at 11:42, JMaher94 said:

 

As for Barcelona, take out Messi and we would annihilate them in a game. Their team truly is awful.

 

Hardly mate.....

15 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

Hardly mate.....

Maybe not as much now they've signed Dembele but there's a reason Barca's fans are up in arms. Their midfield isn't a patch on what it used to be, neither is their defence.

Don't get me wrong with Messi they're still a formidable outfit but without him, they're really not that good. We could beat them without him, we've even beaten them in the past with him

They are still a top team mate just not the force they were 

TBF Barcelona in 2010-12 were arguably the best team we ever saw. So no surprise they've declined. They're still top 3 or 4 team in Europe, even without Messi they would still be comfortably in the top 2/3 in the league.

 

Anyway, the lack of activity in the transfer market is really pissing me off now. Does anyone know the latest on what's happening with OX?? I hope we sign him. I would replace him with Moses in a heartbeat. Also not a huge fan of drinkwater, but we need to strengthen the squad and I guess he'd be good sub player and another option.

Boga to Birmingham on loan. Glad for the lad to be getting first team football but its a shame as i think they're sh*te and i can't stand their retarded manager.

We've signed Kylian Hazard, he is 22, goes in to the development side. Not that young though, I wonder if he'll get any game time this season. 

3 minutes ago, Floyd25 said:

We've signed Kylian Hazard, he is 22, goes in to the development side. Not that young though, I wonder if he'll get any game time this season. 

We'll find him a club to be loaned to and then we'll sell him for a nice profit. He'll never make it here.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

We'll find him a club to be loaned to and then we'll sell him for a nice profit. He'll never make it here.

Yea, you're probably right. I have a feeling he might be Vitesse bound.

Just now, Floyd25 said:

Yea, you're probably right. I have a feeling he might be Vitesse bound.

For his career, he probably made the right choice signing for us. If he stayed in Hungary, he probably would never have got noticed. I think being on a contract with us gives him boost and even a loan move to Vitesse is better than staying in Hungary.

On 8/1/2017 at 18:01, terraloon said:

 

Here's one that seems to have gone under the radar and unless I have missed something, which at my age is quite possible, is the fact that Rahman is now back to full fitness  and hasn't gone on loan.

For me it's unlikely that we will be looking for a GK or indeed another CD.

In terms of wing backs I suspect Conte is still looking to bringing one in and for me that could well be Oxlaide -Chamberlain if they can't get Sandro.

Midfield is light but it seems that  Bakyoko is just days away from being fit and not weeks away as  was being reported  I know some  are turning their noses up about Drinkwater but he is far from a mug and you always have the option of playing Luiz in a slightly more advanced position. That said I suspect at least one but quite possibly two midfielders will come in 

In terms of wide players Willian, Pedro and Hazard and possibly  Mousanda and indeed Boga  but again I doubt that will be enough so I suspect a wide player will be brought in.

Up front I think that he still would like one in but Morata and Bats will be the two .

The trouble in all this is that whilst trying to get a close as you can on numerical terms to a 25 man squad is a real balancing act sometimes you have to compromise in terms of say having a Drinkwater as opposed to say Matic. Seven of the squad have to be HG and even then when it comes to a CL squad some of those HG /CG or indeed under 21 players don't fit the requirements and have to allocated a non HG spot

So for me it's likely that 4 more players will arrive and I know the clocks ticking but the fact that players like Van Ginkel and RLC have been allowed to leave suggests the club and indeed the manager are more relaxed than the press are reporting means the plans are in place and will be completed sooner rather than later.

 

It's the last day. Hopefully we'll see the last part of your story happens.