Chelsea Thread

The question is who is after those player...chelsea got no manager... How can you bringg in kids when they have no idea what is going to happen with them since theres no manager yet and they have no idea if their wanted or not by the next manager.
 
You are about to get a new manager soon. Probably give 15M€ for a coach is too much but you're guaranteed top top quality in that department. Sources are also saying Falcao, IMO the best poacher in Europe right now, is in his way to London too. I wonder what is going to happen with Torres.
 
Would be interesting to know how Falcao would perform in a top league. He has made a lot of progress these last two years in Porto, I would have never thought when he was in River that one day he was going to be playing for a club like Chelsea. He used to waste a lot of chances when he played here.
 
So a new Boss or a new yes man until he says No!. I really hope Roman gives him time ,this changing of bosses looks so wrong and badly managed. If , the club is looking for a respectful imagine it starts from the top.
 
The key for me would be how Hiddink and Villas Boas will get along, if we eventually hire both.
Back in March when the first rumours about Ancelotti getting sacked started it appeared that Hiddink wanted to join as a DoF with a manager of his choice like Marco Van Basten. According to English journos (who usually know sweet f*** all about the decisions of the Chelsea board) AvB is Abramovich's choice so there is a risk of them falling out even if Guus agreed with that choice.


The Falcao links are just lazy journalism IMHO. Even if Drogba leaves this summer and we somehow manage to get rid of Kalou ( :PRAY: ) and Anelka we'll still have a (hopefully) fit Torres, Sturridge who should be quite close to the starting XI after his Bolton loan and Lukaku who should be announced shortly after the new manager.
 
If André goes to Chelsea I can assure that he will want to control all decisions regarding the football team. He is a manager like José Mourinho was for you, and you know how bad it ended when someone started to interfere in his own decisions. I'm not sure about AVB-Hiddink combo, just don't fit well in Andre's planning.

About Falcao, I don't think it's just lazy journalism at all. Yea, both British and Portuguese papers are s*** (imo, only the French and the Italian do proper journalism, but that's another topic) however, and as far as I know André, he would love to bring his own core to London (again, like Mou did). It's been said that, not only Falcao but also Moutinho and maybe Hulk, are likely to move with him to Chelsea. I'm not sure about Moutinho being an useful player for you, because you already have a tremendous midfield, although I'm convict that Falcao and Hulk combo would damage entire EPL defenses. As I've already said, Falcao is nowadays the best striker in Europe imho.

Do you want to get rid of Kalou? Oh gosh, hadn't Benfica too many strikers he would fit well in Lisbon. :COOL:

EDIT: Minutes ago Portuguese Stock Exchange has noticed that André Villas Boas has just notified FC Porto that he will quit his contract with them by paying the 15M€ release clause (of course it is Chelsea who's gonna pay :LOL:) Transfer announcement soon.

http://web3.cmvm.pt/sdi2004/emitentes/docs/FR34462.pdf
 
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some really big changes at Chelsea (Very good ones IMO). As of right know they definitely are making the most out of the summer break.
 
If André goes to Chelsea I can assure that he will want to control all decisions regarding the football team. He is a manager like José Mourinho was for you, and you know how bad it ended when someone started to interfere in his own decisions. I'm not sure about AVB-Hiddink combo, just don't fit well in Andre's planning.
I had the impression that he wasn't completely controlling Porto as recruitment and sales policy at the club is the domain of president Pinto da Costa and director-general Antero Henrique.
About Falcao, I don't think it's just lazy journalism at all. Yea, both British and Portuguese papers are s*** (imo, only the French and the Italian do proper journalism, but that's another topic) however, and as far as I know André, he would love to bring his own core to London (again, like Mou did). It's been said that, not only Falcao but also Moutinho and maybe Hulk, are likely to move with him to Chelsea. I'm not sure about Moutinho being an useful player for you, because you already have a tremendous midfield, although I'm convict that Falcao and Hulk combo would damage entire EPL defenses. As I've already said, Falcao is nowadays the best striker in Europe imho.
Are you sure that's not just wishful thinking from your part?

Even if AVB gets a say in our transfers I doubt we'll have a 180° turn in our targets. We already have too many strikers, Neymar has been our main target for the wing since last summer and from everything I've read Moutinho's game is quite similar to the style of some of our mids (namely Mikel) while we are looking for someone in Modric's mold.

Do you want to get rid of Kalou? Oh gosh, hadn't Benfica too many strikers he would fit well in Lisbon. :COOL:
You haven't probably watched him as much as I do, unless Benfica is Championship standard I doubt he would be a starter for you.
 
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If Falcao came wouldn't that be pretty damn annoying for Lukaku? You couldn't really have Torres, Falcao and Lukaku (not to mention Drogba) could you? Don't they all play as the most forward striker?
 
According to Belgian press it's almost certain that Lukaku will not come this year. Chelsea see him as fourth or fifth striker who could play now and then. Lukaku himself wants to play. He would be better off with a lesser club where he can play weekly...clubs like Newcastle (very active on the transfer market) or Everton would be much better for him...
 
I dont mind chelsea buy all this players but i realy want to see talents like Lukaku elsewhere than on bench ...
 
Yeah, I agree. Hopefully he'll stay in Belgium now. Good for everyone really.

So few thoughts on Villas-Boas and Chelsea, unrelated to the manager himself.

Chelsea have now spent £62m on managers alone in 5 years. That is mental.
In the past 12 months, they have spent about £110m - and it's somehow kind of been quiet. That is also mental. (Ramires, Torres, Luiz, Villas-Boas, Ancelotti pay off).

It's just weird that so little is said about this, yet Henderson at £20m or Jones at £16m is debated about for hours in terms of value. I guess we're all just a bit numb to Chelsea and City's spending.
 
I feel kind of disapointed in this coach, i remember watching uefa porto special on road to EL final and there was VB saying he will try to win CL with Porto..this way he droped in my eyes and will not prove he´s done better than Mourinho with Porto.. of course chelsea needed new coach, but he had imo unfinished buisiness with Porto..and squad very capable of winning the prize...

anyway...giving chelsea´s record on manager chainges..i don´t think again he will stay there 3 years of his contract.
 
I truly believe he'll have to be shocking to get sacked before his contract runs out. Out-of-the-top-4 shocking.

As for the amounts the club has spent over the last 12 months, according to Swiss Ramble's analysis us forking over 70 millions for Torres and Luiz (and Ramires before them) did fit into the general "plan" to meet the FFP regulations but didn't leave much room for the fees spent on managers and potential transfer moves during this window. My guess is we will try to even that by reducing the wagebill with possibly getting rid of Didier and his huge contract.

Re Lukaku: I've read some quote about him realising that if he moves to a top club he'll have to sit on the bench and fight his way into the first team. We probably want to buy him before his price reaches Neymar heights and besides he is young enough to wait for his chance or getting loaned to a PL club.

I've read quite a few articles on Andre Villas Boas in the last 3 days but I still don't have a proper image of the football the teams play under him. I've read that his teams are attacking but that's pretty generic. Some journalists mentioned he's an admirer of Total Football and Pep, could anyone tell me a few things about the style of football Academica and Porto used with him at helm?
 
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His Price won't reach Neymar height ever IMO, Modric, Neymar and AVB would be pretty perfect summer for you lot.
 
Reaching something silly like 40m isn't unthinkable in today's market, it's just that by then Neymar will be valuated at ~70m.
 
i will rather wait for Neymar to first play in Europe to discouse his future prize...

Robinho was the second Pelé, remember?
 
When I think about Neymar, Robinho always comes to mind. I think they are very alike in terms of mentality, and will never reach elite status...

hmmm...when santos won paulista..neymar scored, they just won the copa libertadores...neymar scored...I think he got a good mentality, the kid is young ,fresh and want to play football.

Sure he is young and when he will get older and have more freedom, who knows , stardom is a killer but right now hes very promising.
 
But Robinho was fantastic in South-America too...
Lukaku certainly has a better mentality than Robinho. He is a very mature and down to earth guy. I'm not so sure about his talent. He is obviously good but i doubt if he is the next big thing. Chelsea are also inerested in Kevin De Bruyne, IMO he is by far the more talented of the two. It's just that Lukaku is soo physically mature whereas De Bruyne still has the body of a 17 year old, Lukaku has the body of a 30 year old. He is physically strong, but i have my doubts about his technical skills...Last season he quite often missed his first touch, for a striker that is a serious problem.
Kevin De Bruyne is a very, very skillfull player who can dribble, shoot and who has a phenomenal pass (he can change wings with one pass...). His only weakness is that he is a lousy header.
 
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Special, what can u tell us about chelsea's new coach. i havan't seen enough ot porto to have a proper idea of what kind of coach vilas boas is.
does he have a preferred formation? what's his football? i gotta say i'm quite curious about this guy :))

i just realised he's only 3 years older than me :SHOCK: .... wich makes me suddenly feel very "average" :P
 
Don't worry Ben, he' s 16 years younger than me..how should i feel? Useless?
You'll get used to things like that.
 
Special, what can u tell us about chelsea's new coach. i havan't seen enough ot porto to have a proper idea of what kind of coach vilas boas is.
does he have a preferred formation? what's his football? i gotta say i'm quite curious about this guy :))

i just realised he's only 3 years older than me :SHOCK: .... wich makes me suddenly feel very "average" :P

Hey Ben, nice to see you again my friend! :))

First of all, I must say that I'm a big fan of André Villas-Boas, not only because we share the first name :LOL: but mainly because he teaches his players a type of football I quite admire. I'm going to do (at least try to) a short report on Villas-Boas FC Porto tactic and footie style. Talking about reports, did you know that André used to write his notes on his Blackberry during the time he spent with Mourinho? Gosh, this guy is a perfectionist, he scouted everything he could and wrote complete and accurate notes in his phone!

After this short note I’m going to present you AVB preferred formation:

campinho_Benfica_Porto_2011_11.jpg


I brought this image from a Brazilian site to explain how works AVB 4-3-3 (I know that you can read a tactical board extraordinary well so my job may be not that important at all :P)

Defense: This is the game when Porto won the Portuguese title at Estádio da Luz. As you can see André uses a traditional 4-3-3 concept. Starting with defense, AVB picked Fucile as a right back that time but Sapunaru used to be the number 1 in that spot. Both Fucile and Sapunaru aren’t especially good at the offensive department though. Alvaro Pereira has more attacking skills than any other LB or RB at Porto so many many times Otamendi was forced to compensate the left wing while Pereira was in the attacking path.

Midfield: Fernando has been transformed into a box-to-box during AVB time at Porto. While Jesualdo Ferreira used him as a simple MDF, André brought the player into the attacking department making the Brazilian a connection point between defense and attack. Guarin is an warrior in that midfield, a special warrior with good technical skills. João Moutinho is the man responsible to set the pace of the team, the main piece of this chess.

Offense: Falcao is the poacher of the team, the man who’s supposed to score, very different from Lisandro Lopez who was more a complete forward, looking for space around the field.
In the wings we have Hulk and Varela. If you play FM you would set them as Inside Forward, coming from the wings to the center and bringing support to the poacher in the middle. Hulk is the prototype of an inside forward. He takes all the action in the right wing since Sapunaru isn’t an offensive RB at all. He dribbles into the middle and uses his mid/long range shoot accuracy to cause the pain in opponents defense (oh that gifted left foot!). Varela isn’t a shooter at all, he prefers to cross or help Pereira incursions. However he scored some important goals imitating his Brazilain fella.

Game philosophy: After winning Europa League title André Villas-Boas surprised the World by thanking… Pep Guardiola! Why? He said Pep was the man that inspired him. In fact, both coaches are known for their tremendous offensive teams. What you could expect from AVB is an extraordinary attacking style of playing our loved game. Fast, strong and efficient: those are the key words, this is how you can describe AVB style of play. He is very different from Mourinho in this aspect, André is an offensive-minded coach.

Behavior: Some said Mourinho is arrogant, selfish, egocentric, ungentle, etc, etc. AVB won 28 from 30 league games. Two games ended 1-1: at Guimarães and at Alvalade (I was there by the way). What more do this games have in common? Well, André got ejected…
 
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Nice post as usual TsO! Great read.

What do you mean by end when you say difference is Andre got ejected in comparison to Mourinho?
 
Thanks for the brilliant write-up TSO, much more informative than what more journos have written since he joined us.

Game philosophy: After winning Europa League title André Villas-Boas surprised the World by thanking… Pep Guardiola! Why? He said Pep was the man that inspired him. In fact, both coaches are known for their tremendous offensive teams. What you could expect from AVB is an extraordinary attacking style of playing our loved game. Fast, strong and efficient: those are the key words, this is how you can describe AVB style of play. He is very different from Mourinho in this aspect, André is an offensive-minded coach.
You could argue that fast, strong and efficient are exactly the words that would describe more a Chelsae side of the last few years rather than a team like Barcelona or Arsenal, mind elaborating a bit on that?
 
Thanks for the comments guys!


What do you mean by end when you say difference is Andre got ejected in comparison to Mourinho?

The point is, people say that André is much more polite than Mourinho. However, when you look at the games he didn't won, you saw him over-reacting, rambling and moaning at everyone, that's why he got ejected in those games. Yes, his press conferences are much more calm than Mou's ones but this guy is an animal in the field.


You could argue that fast, strong and efficient are exactly the words that would describe more a Chelsae side of the last few years rather than a team like Barcelona or Arsenal, mind elaborating a bit on that?

Yes, he suits better in Chelsea's type of football. When I mentioned Guardiola my intention was to refer their offensive-minded character. About the game, they are different. While Pep uses the so called "tiki-taka" football, André prefers a fast and strong style, quick moves from defense to attack.
 
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