Chelsea Thread

gerd said:
De Bruyne was off in the previous transfer window beach and you always say that Chelsea are the big favourites...that is your usual tactics to start slagging them off...you are so predictable when it comes to Chelsea.

Surely, you are more intelligent than this, no ?
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Possibly...though Chelsea should have won the league this year, even with huge deficiencies in their squad. With Matic, Costa and Fabregas they have largely solved them now.

Unless City strengthen significantly, Chelsea now have the strongest squad in the league. Therefore I deem them favourites.

Do you disagree?
 
Not necessarily, but if you repetecsomething year after year, you're bound to have it right eventually.
It's too soon to assess teams. Ask me end of august..
 
I'm not sure I would say Chelsea are outright favourites now. Yes they are stronger and seem to have done some good deals, selling David Luiz and buying Fabregas for around half the cost being the best example. But they might have issues at full back now Cole is gone if they get injuries and also as good as Costa has looked some other strikers with great records abroad havent worked out for them (Claudio Pizzaro, Shevchenko, Ernan Crespo, Mutu, Kezman). Eto'o, even though he was injured quite a bit last season, was probably their best striker and now it seems certain he'll go. I'd say it's very tight between them and City (assuming City don't lose Yaya Touré and/or Agüero).
 
----------Courtois-----------
-Ivano--Terry--Cahill--Azpil-
------------Matic--Fab-------
----Willian-Schurrle-Hazard--
------------Costa------------

Woof.
 
beachryan said:
----------Courtois-----------
-Ivano--Terry--Cahill--Azpil-
------------Matic--Fab-------
----Willian-Schurrle-Hazard--
------------Costa------------

Woof.
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or maybe:

----------------Cech---------------
-Azpil---Ivanovic--Cahill---New LB-
-----------Matic---Ramires--------
-----Willian---Hazard-----Schurrle
----------------Costa-------------
 
Yes it seems Courtois will not play for Chelsea next season, better that way, Cech nor Courtois deserves to be a sub.
 
Wow, had totally forgotten about Oscar! What a bench that'll be, Fabregas/Oscar/Ramires etc. Impressive.

Not sure Chelsea can afford too many more 'marquee' buys this summer though, surely FFP will restrict them even with the Mata/Luiz sales eventually. Matic/Fabregas/Costa have romped through that already.
 
I think Fàbregas will play over Óscar. Mourinho will bring back his mojo (or at least try). He is a better player than Óscar.
 
Fabregas will start as number 10, his performances than will determine wether he remains first choice.

Fabregas vs Oscar will be interesting as the season progresses.
 
The fact that Wenger didn`t want him is going to fuel into a beast! he wont play for Chelsea in his heart he dislike them to the core! never forgotten Fabregas spat at Lampard.

Fabregas is playing to prove Wenger he was wrong and Chelsea and Mourinho either knows this and see this to galvanize the balance or? Wenger and Barca were right about letting Fabregas go! I`d love to see Fabregas perform well and not so well vs Arsenal. Oscar has a better finishing product than Fabregas.
 
beachryan said:
Wow, had totally forgotten about Oscar! What a bench that'll be, Fabregas/Oscar/Ramires etc. Impressive.

Not sure Chelsea can afford too many more 'marquee' buys this summer though, surely FFP will restrict them even with the Mata/Luiz sales eventually. Matic/Fabregas/Costa have romped through that already.
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at the moment, the difference of chelsea's transfer income-outcome is around 75m euros in second mourinho era (united's is double of that btw). I guess the only other big signing will be filipe luis and maybe another centre back(benatia?) or a back up.
 
Kanouté said:
at the moment, the difference of chelsea's transfer income-outcome is around 75m euros in second mourinho era (united's is double of that btw). I guess the only other big signing will be filipe luis and maybe another centre back(benatia?) or a back up.
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Probably closer to 100m euros

Could be more given that buyout clauses in Spain actually cost a lot more than the clause figure due to taxes. Costa may have cost Chelsea £48m (on a 50% tax rate). I'm not sure whether the tax is FFP exempt. On the other hand, Atletico may have reported it as a buyout for political reasons, in reality accepting a bid of £31.99m with Chelsea escaping any taxation.

But, either way, it wouldn't matter because, as far as FFP goes, Chelsea could quite easily spend £150m on players and still comply.
This is because transfer fees are spread out over the course of the player's contract. So if a 30m player signs a 5 year deal the player will go down as costing 6m this summer + wages. if the wages are £150k per week the total acquisition will go down on the books as costing £14m (per year)

Chelsea could buy 5 30m players all on 150k a week but FFP would just see it as £70m spent
 
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amineken22 said:
Fàbregas was bought because:
1 - He was available.
2 - Has a huge marketing potential.
3 - He's quality and can make a difference.
4 - He's used to warming benches and won't protest being in the same situation.



Damn it Andy, it's Oscar, Oscar. Where are you getting the acute diacritic from?

PS: Sorry, I couldn't resist this time.
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Well, in Portuguese is "Óscar" and since he's Brazilian I thought that he had a normal spelling in his name :). But they sometimes have messed up names in terms of spelling :)


But I still believe Fàbregas will win the job. Maybe because I'm not convinced that Oscar (:)) is a sure starter. He's good, but not great, IMO. At least for now. Still young, so he may improve some aspects of his game that I don't like too much. Fàbregas lost his confidence. When Messi got injured he proved he's a World Class player. Just not at the same level as Iniesta and Xavi.
 
amineken22 said:
Forgot about Zouma, didn't ya?
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nein, how come I'd forget the next big thing? but the thing is he's still unproven at the highest level. I'm not sure he'll be straight a starter a la varane. maybe he will, which I'd like to see.

so since mourinho isn't a big fan of 3 men defence, I just don't see ivanovic making a decent partnership with cahill in the 4 men d(I don't really rate him there). and as great as he is to his age, terry's still too old to rely on for the whole season.

---azpili----cahill----terry----filipe*--
--ivanov--backup--zouma--aanholt?/bertrand?/azpili--

I guess that's how I see it atm.
 
amineken22 said:
I see. Well, you were wrong this time :P

With all the departures that might be looking ahead (All them Nigerians especially) I'm wondering if Atsu or Lukaku will be getting a 1st time chance.
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Atsu looked really good in the WC. Plus in Porto he showed good promise. Lukaku as a backup would be a great. He slowly would get in the team, and thus making an impact, specially after tired CB's having to deal with Costa all game. But let's see if he is a Mourinho's player. Maybe he's more mature this time around.
 
amineken22 said:
Bertrand? Doesn't have the coach favors and is on the move.
van Aaanholt? Isn't quite ready, too raw defensively (Mou's main focus).


Would love to see Felipe and you might be right about Bane (he ain't getting any younger either).
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on a second thought, ramires might be another option to fill in the backup-makeshift right back role and with just filipe luis coming, you'd be okay to go for the new season.
 
so...

azpili --- cahill(ivan) - terry(zouma) --- filipe
-------------------- matic
------- ramires --------------- fabregas
----------------- oscar(willian)
---- costa(lukaku) -------- hazard(schürrle)

looks completed to me.
 
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CFC = arguably the 2 best defensive fullbacks
MCFC = arguably the 2 best attacking fullbacks
MUFC = arguably the 2 best young fullbacks
AFC = Jenkinson

:P
 
Only Filipe Luis is better than Gibbs atm, not sure what you're on about. If you have to mention reserves for 'banter' it's a bit sad.
 
Didn't realise Luis is 29! Isn't that only marginally younger than Cole?

Great player, was awesome last season, but does seem an extravagance.

Wonder if you'll find a buyer for Torres. Surely some players need to be offloaded now?
 
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