Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2012/2013

Caveman1

FA Cup 3rd round draw Southampton V Chelsea

gnfnrhead

Seen Wilkins has said Chelsea wont fire Benitez but I'm not sure how much that actually means. Read the last few pages and have seen a split in opinion on him. Does anyone think he will be sacked if the same type of form continues? Not do you want him sacked, but could you see him getting sacked, or will Abramovich hold fire until the end of the season regardless? If anyone would sack him so soon, its Abramovich.

For what it's worth, I'd also go with Jose over Pep.

the_doctor199

Fairly unanimous that everyone wants Jose back, to flip the question...would anyone want Pep over Jose (assuming both were available and wanted to come etc etc)?

MaroonAndGreen

Jose all the way

smuckers

Ramieres's form has dropped rapidly was very poor yesterday.

I'm fed up with Torres now, bar the goal he contributed very little and should have bloody scored! no pace no ball control couldn't even best his granny:mad:

MaroonAndGreen

Torres had a promising start to the season, as did the whole team..

Torres' form has dropped again, as has the whole team's form..

smuckers

The only games where Torres has played well were Newcastle and to an extent Arsenal, the goals glossed over his poor performances.

MaroonAndGreen

smuckers wrote: »

The only games where Torres has played well were Newcastle and to an extent Arsenal, the goals glossed over his poor performances.

Alot of the time I think its the other way around..

He plays well, and not scoring goals is making media etc say he played terrible, this has happened all the way through his Chelsea career!

Sgt Pepper 64

If he does hire Pep, it will not end well.
Look at Carlo. a manager he pursed for a couple of years.
He then gave him the double, started playing some of the kids more and in the first season produced thrilling free scoring football.
Then the "difficult" moment came and that was that.
You have to wonder, with the benefit of hindsight, would Roman sack him so easily again?
We are now in a endless cycle, but like Wilkins says, we are running out of managers. Sure, we will always find someone willing to come for such a pay day and a pretty good squad, but you cant see anyone staying.
You just wonder if Roman actually cares about stability or he thinks nothing is wrong, this is just normal business.
Out of all the managers, they have all pretty much used the same key players and template that Mourinho laid down.
But those players are almost gone, and we havent found like replacements.
Roman holds the future of Chelsea in his hands, but only he can change the course we are on.
We need more investment, mad as that seems given the money spent, but we need good investment. Not your Torres or Sheva's, who everybody but Roman could see they were bad buys.
The problem with changing managers is that players play as much for the manager as they do they club. They would almost die for Mourinho, but now the message is, "its not worth it - he could be out the door next week\month"
Roman wants the same thing as us - success, and we should be doing a lot better than we are,but he has a habit of shooting himself in the foot, we can only hope he wakes up and smells the coffee, fires some of the yes men and starts listening to some one who knows what they are talking about

Panthro

Bit of a random one but, anyone have an opinion on the likes of Shane Long? A pretty good player and he is having a good season of it. Cheeky bid?

kev1.3s

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

, we can only hope he wakes up and smells the coffee, fires some of the yes men and starts listening to some one who knows what they are talking about

Don't get me wrong I'm no fan of some of the influential characters that live in Roman's ear but according to media reports and also what I believe to be true was that the board tried desperately to talk Roman out of firing Roberto.
I'd wager that with the owner loosing confidence or even still failing to gain it in the first case began to become apparent on the training pitch in the aftermath of the loss to united and it's undermined the confidence of the whole team which brings me to the next point, why have we signed so many people who seem to need constant reassurance in there own self worth? without Terry or Lampard on the pitch there is no fighting spirit when our backs are to the wall.
So sick of Torre's now why does a grown man need constant reassurance that he's great and finally when he does find a bit of form it only takes the slightest knock back to bring him back to square one I mean cop the fack on and grow a pair I just couldn't believe that with a couple of minuets to go he goes out to take a stupid short corner! I'd be happy if at least he attacked every ball with conviction.
finally we may have lost Robbie whom even tho I didn't think was going to last anyhow whilst he was hear was in my opinion the most dignified manager ever to take on Fergie but we have to move on, I'm no fan of Raffa but all the hating is only going to do more harm than good and anyone that thinks we would be better off without Roman is seriously deluded.

Sgt Pepper 64

Panthro wrote: »

Bit of a random one but, anyone have an opinion on the likes of Shane Long? A pretty good player and he is having a good season of it. Cheeky bid?

ABT (Anyone But Torres)
Michu, Demba Ba, Huntelaar and Bony should all be available at under 20M. Bent's good too.
yep even Long

Add them to the normal list - LEWANDOWSKI,Remy,Taison etc etc

kev1.3s

Panthro wrote: »

Bit of a random one but, anyone have an opinion on the likes of Shane Long? A pretty good player and he is having a good season of it. Cheeky bid?

Great little player but he@d never get a chance with us!.. not worth near enough

MaroonAndGreen

Would hate to see Shane Long playing for Chelsea..

Completely different thing playing for West Brom and then Chelsea/United/City..

Not near the quality of player we should be signing, only being mentioned here because he is Irish I think!

Meglamonia

10 million for Bent would be nice.

Dozen Wicked Words

Meglamonia wrote: »

10 million for Bent would be nice.

That's what Villa would say. 'Arry's granny is a better finisher. He had his good season, Chelsea don't need another striker striving to find his best form again.

MaroonAndGreen

United's striking options: RVP, Rooney, Chicarito, Welbeck.
City's striking options: Tevez, Aguero, Dzeko, Balotelli.
Chelsea's striking options: Torres, Sturridge.

Thats the difference lads.

DazMarz

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

United's striking options: RVP, Rooney, Chicarito, Welbeck.
City's striking options: Tevez, Aguero, Dzeko, Balotelli.
Chelsea's striking options: Torres, Sturridge.

Thats the difference lads.

God be with the fúcking days when we could look at: Drogba and Anelka... then to a lesser extent Gudjonsen, Crespo, etc. We used to have an absolute wealth of attacking options, but now... Sweet jesus.

We also got rid of Borini. I know he's not lighting up the world, but he'd be an option to have.

greendom

RDM to be the new Valencia manager. No wonder they call it the managerial merry-go-round

GavRedKing

Bent? Seriously? Jaysus.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

blue-army

greendom wrote: »

RDM to be the new Valencia manager. No wonder they call it the managerial merry-go-round

Apparently it was just two lads started it as a rumour on twitter. Nothing in it.


Neil Ashton, the guy who broke the Rafa story days before RDM got the boot, has said we're going to bring in Avram Grant to help out Rafa.

Essien

blue-army wrote: »

Apparently it was just two lads started it as a rumour on twitter. Nothing in it.


Neil Ashton, the guy who broke the Rafa story days before RDM got the boot, has said we're going to bring in Avram Grant to help out Rafa.

Wtf? Avram couldn't help himself when he had the job.

Panthro

blue-army wrote: »

Apparently it was just two lads started it as a rumour on twitter. Nothing in it.


Neil Ashton, the guy who broke the Rafa story days before RDM got the boot, has said we're going to bring in Avram Grant to help out Rafa.

Avram? jesus, that'l sort everything alright.
better if he could invent a time machine and to back to just before he fired Jose and instead of firing him, leave well enough alone.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Essien

Tbh, bringing Jose back would be the only thing that could re-instill the faith I've lost in the club recently. Anything else would just be another turn in this bull**** cycle.

MaroonAndGreen

Jose is the man, he'l always be our Special One..

GavRedKing

I hope there is no truth in the Avram rumour what so ever.

The thought of sacking another manager so short in to his term would be an absolute joke of the highest order although with roman its always a possibility.

Caveman1

The only way i'd like to see Avram Grant coming back is if its to replace Michael Emenalo.

Anyone else think the way things are going that Shakhtar will beat Juve & we'll lose to Nords on Wednesday :pac:

GavRedKing

Southampton's Luke Shaw to be a long term replacement for Cole?

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2012/12/03/3573050/chased-by-chelsea-better-than-bale-introducing-latest

It is obvious why Chelsea are leading the race. With Ashley Cole's imminent departure seemingly the worst-kept secret in football, Shaw has all the qualities to succeed him.

He could undergo the conversion to midfield that Bale has done but left-back looks the most natural fit for his abilities. Whereas Ryan Bertrand is game and versatile, he is not spoken about in the same way by those in the know – Sir Trevor Brooking, who would know, hailed the Saints prospect as "technically very gifted".

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

The only way i'd like to see Avram Grant coming back is if its to replace Michael Emenalo.

Anyone else think the way things are going that Shakhtar will beat Juve & we'll lose to Nords on Wednesday :pac:

Our more likely, leading 1-0 going into the final stages of the game only to be pegged back with Juventus losing.

If Juventus lose and we fail to lose Rafa might aswell not turn up to training on Thursday morning. :pac:

Sgt Pepper 64

Good points here about Falcao


Roman Abramovich is currently scraping around for the answers to his problems at Chelsea and as such there are feelers being put out regarding his main targets. Spanish newspaper AS says this morning that the London club sent a team of scouts, or 'spies' as they call them, to watch Falcao at the weekend and report back on their findings.
It may seem strange to send scouts to watch Falcao, everybody knows what he does and how good he is at it, but Chelsea have their doubts and so wanted to see him in action against Real Madrid in a huge match. They will have left disappointed as he was easily outshone by Cristiano Ronaldo and the gap in performances made suggestions the Colombian is up there with Ronaldo and Messi seem a bit silly. Falcao just didn't get into the game short of a few flashes.
La Liga has often been accused, rightly or wrongly, of being somewhere where strikers can pick up goals against the smaller teams and as such the test against Real Madrid was deemed to be interesting. Falcao hasn't scored from open play since October, which also presents another worry when Chelsea would be asked to pay around £40m for his signature. In his last seven matches he's managed just one penalty in a 4-0 win against Sevilla.
Abramovich won't want another Fernando Torres situation and the mini goal drought will be something he's well aware of. Before it happened there were suggestion he could rival Messi and Ronaldo and create a group of the world's three best players rather than the select two, that talk seems long ago know. The Colombian turns 27 at the beginning of February which puts him in a slightly higher age bracket too and given that age his transfer would be comparable in price to Torres and even Ronaldo. real Madrid paid much more for Ronaldo but have already had three seasons and could sell him in the summer for not far off what they paid.
If Chelsea have concerns then now is the time to deal with them and look elsewhere at other possibilities and maybe split the amount they have to spend into two strikers rather than one huge purchase.

GavRedKing

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Good points here about Falcao


Roman Abramovich is currently scraping around for the answers to his problems at Chelsea and as such there are feelers being put out regarding his main targets. Spanish newspaper AS says this morning that the London club sent a team of scouts, or 'spies' as they call them, to watch Falcao at the weekend and report back on their findings.
It may seem strange to send scouts to watch Falcao, everybody knows what he does and how good he is at it, but Chelsea have their doubts and so wanted to see him in action against Real Madrid in a huge match. They will have left disappointed as he was easily outshone by Cristiano Ronaldo and the gap in performances made suggestions the Colombian is up there with Ronaldo and Messi seem a bit silly. Falcao just didn't get into the game short of a few flashes.
La Liga has often been accused, rightly or wrongly, of being somewhere where strikers can pick up goals against the smaller teams and as such the test against Real Madrid was deemed to be interesting. Falcao hasn't scored from open play since October, which also presents another worry when Chelsea would be asked to pay around £40m for his signature. In his last seven matches he's managed just one penalty in a 4-0 win against Sevilla.
Abramovich won't want another Fernando Torres situation and the mini goal drought will be something he's well aware of. Before it happened there were suggestion he could rival Messi and Ronaldo and create a group of the world's three best players rather than the select two, that talk seems long ago know. The Colombian turns 27 at the beginning of February which puts him in a slightly higher age bracket too and given that age his transfer would be comparable in price to Torres and even Ronaldo. Real Madrid paid much more for Ronaldo but have already had three seasons and could sell him in the summer for not far off what they paid.
If Chelsea have concerns then now is the time to deal with them and look elsewhere at other possibilities and maybe split the amount they have to spend into two strikers rather than one huge purchase.

Theres your answer to the problem, Ronaldo for £90 Million please Roman.


In all fairness to Falcao he did force a very good save from Casillas when he cut across Pepe att he near post, his movement was excellent in the game and he done all he could really but was well shackled by the 2 CB's, I think Atletico playing 2 CF's instead of a proper AM ddint help Falcao either is there wasnt as much urgency to play through balls upto him.

Techless

RA has transformed Chelsea from the team I stated supporting back in the 70's and, to be honest, find it hard to say anything negative about him as he has given us all a wonderful ride for a decade or so.
However, his fixation with buying centre forwards is IMO the biggest problem in his stewardship as it has been the catalyst for us losing our best managers.
Schevchenko arguablly lost us Jose and now Torres has lost us Carlo and Robbie.
If Pepe were to come, which I seriously doubt, would the trend continue with the purchase of Falcao ?

GavRedKing

Techless wrote: »

RA has transformed Chelsea from the team I stated supporting back in the 70's and, to be honest, find it hard to say anything negative about him as he has given us all a wonderful ride for a decade or so.
However, his fixation with buying centre forwards is IMO the biggest problem in his stewardship as it has been the catalyst for us losing our best managers.
Schevchenko arguablly lost us Jose and now Torres has lost us Carlo and Robbie.
If Pepe were to come, which I seriously doubt, would the trend continue with the purchase of Falcao ?

Not if Pep signs Messi. :pac:

€200 million should do it, think of it as in investment, shirt sales would soar and success would sure to follow.

Mata---Oscar---Hazard

---

Messi

---

:cool:

ionadnapokot

Avram Grant!
It just gets better and better

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8304800/Avram-Grant

GavRedKing

If we wanna bring in a striker to do a job for the next 12-18 months we should be looking at Huntelaar, wont cost an arm and a leg.

On the flip side we could always bring back Lukaku but I think he'd be better served staying at WBA for the rest of the season.

Sign Huntelaar on a short deal and see what options we have in the summer, Torres will probably be gone. Lukaku will be back, Sturridge could sign a new deal but I think he'll be gone by then.

Lump all our eggs in one basket and try sign Neymar, wont happen but worth a shot.

Try sign Sanchez from Barca although he isnt really the CF we need.

Dzeko? Guy is a very good CF and all round good player.

Higuain? Very unlikely but ya never know.

Falcao? Seems to be the main interest but for similar money you'd get any of the players mentioned above.

Schurrle? Been mentioned a few times could be a good signature.

GavRedKing

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Avram Grant!
It just gets better and better

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8304800/Avram-Grant

Fixed that for ya, oner to many http:// in it.

Could be as " assistant manager " as I'm sure Zenden hasn't got all his UEFA licenses yet to be on the side line.

what a day

I said before and il say it again, if we do get Pep guardiola on board in the summer you will see massive spending and a lot of players been shipped out. We all know Roman wants Pep and Pep needs wingers/Forwards which we dont have bar Marin/Moses. I can see us going for Neymar and id be delighted if we got him, he has the technical ability of Suarez and the finishing of Van Persie, could be a massive signing for any team that lands him.

I think we will go for Falcao either way if we can use Torres in a deal but for my money on a striker id rather spend the money on 2 or 3 players like Michu/Ba and Shurrle. I dont think we need a massive amount of change but our forward line and move on some players and replace them with some of our youth players on loan i.e Lukaku DeBruyne etc.

As for the manager i think its easily said every one would have The special one back in a heart beat but i thnk he is second choice for Roman. Jose is a proven winner in the PL and every were else he has been, he is young and could guide us to decades of success if Roman just left him in charge.

MUSEIST

My big worry about signing a 40/50 million striker is that they would go the same way as torres, lots of pressure on them to hit the ground running. Huntelaar is exactly what we need (6 mill) at a good price and proven goalscorer.


On grant, it's easy to see whats happening here, grant comes in as assistant and when/if benitez gets the sack grant will take over until the end of the season. Why does roman put so much trust in emenalo/grant and can't put trust in someone like jose, crazy stuff.:rolleyes:

Essien

Not being smart, but how do we all know Roman wants Pep? To me it seems like we've all just talked about it for so long that it's become a reality? Obviously it looks like that, but what's actually been said on the matter?

Bare in mind that I only see a small percentage of the stuff you guys see reported back home.

grumpymunster

Only seems to be the Irish Times reporting this so may be gibberish but if true would love to see him back.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/soccer/2012/1203/1224327405910.html?

Sgt Pepper 64

Grant no return!

Chelsea have denied reports Avram Grant is being lined up for a return to Stamford Bridge.
Roman Abramovich was claimed to be considering drafting in the Israeli, who was sacked as Blues boss after losing the 2008 Champions League final to Manchester United, to work alongside interim manager Rafa Benitez.
The Spaniard is suffering abuse from fans angry at his appointment and has not helped his care by failing to win any of his first three games in charge.
But a Chelsea official has told talkSPORT that there is 'no truth' in reports Grant will be heading back to the club to assist the former Liverpool chief.

Read more: http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/121203/chelsea-deny-avram-grant-set-return-stamford-bridge-186700#ixzz2DzRn4Eqi
Follow us: @talksport on Twitter

Read more at http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/121203/chelsea-deny-avram-grant-set-return-stamford-bridge-186700#FVz07Dsbu0ilPwtO.99

MUSEIST

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Grant no return!

Chelsea have denied reports Avram Grant is being lined up for a return to Stamford Bridge.
Roman Abramovich was claimed to be considering drafting in the Israeli, who was sacked as Blues boss after losing the 2008 Champions League final to Manchester United, to work alongside interim manager Rafa Benitez.
The Spaniard is suffering abuse from fans angry at his appointment and has not helped his care by failing to win any of his first three games in charge.
But a Chelsea official has told talkSPORT that there is 'no truth' in reports Grant will be heading back to the club to assist the former Liverpool chief.

Read more: http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/121203/chelsea-deny-avram-grant-set-return-stamford-bridge-186700#ixzz2DzRn4Eqi
Follow us: @talksport on Twitter

Read more at http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/121203/chelsea-deny-avram-grant-set-return-stamford-bridge-186700#FVz07Dsbu0ilPwtO.99

Thank god for that, hope it's true.

what a day

Essien wrote: »

Not being smart, but how do we all know Roman wants Pep? To me it seems like we've all just talked about it for so long that it's become a reality? Obviously it looks like that, but what's actually been said on the matter?

Bare in mind that I only see a small percentage of the stuff you guys see reported back home.

Of course none of us have much proof but Roman is known to want us to play attacking football like Barcelona. Pep is currently the most succesful manager in football and is currently without a job.

We signed 3 small technical players to play in midfield and with players like Azpilicueta,Luiz bertrand etc we have good ability in defence to play the ball from the back. This all indicates a technical attacking style of play. We signed the German Messi (Marin) and Moses another techinical attacking player. Not exactly sticking to the Mourinho style of play if you ask me.

I think it looks more than likely Roman wants to follow the Barca model but it may take time. And if we do get Guardiola he may not get the time needed. I know it sounds rash but it could possibly work out well if we dont manage to make the top four spot next season and we could end up giving a manager more time as he wont be underpressure to finish in the top four. Of course i could be totally wrong but its just another angle to look at.

Caveman1

Whats the story with David Villa's situation at Barca? Has he much time left on his contract?

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

Whats the story with David Villa's situation at Barca? Has he much time left on his contract?

31 today, IMO he wouldnt leave Barca anyway but I'm sure he has 18 months left on his deal anyway.

How much did Barca pay only 2 1/2 years ago? €35-40 million?

Dont think theres any value there anyway in what we'd pay in transfer & wages.

Caveman1

GavRedKing wrote: »

31 today, IMO he wouldnt leave Barca anyway but I'm sure he has 18 months left on his deal anyway.

How much did Barca pay only 2 1/2 years ago? €35-40 million?

Dont think theres any value there anyway in what we'd pay in transfer & wages.

Didnt realise he was that age, great player when fit.

I wonder if Benitez will have any say on who we sign in January ?

grumpymunster

Jose may like a bit of time in gay Paris perhaps

http://www.sportsvibe.co.uk/news/football/wenger-given-an-exit-route-as-psg-look-to-axe-ancelotti-21326/?

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

Didnt realise he was that age, great player when fit.

I wonder if Benitez will have any say on who we sign in January ?

Very unlikely, he may suggest players I imagine our scouting team and Emenalo and Roman have their targets already.

grumpymunster wrote: »

Jose may like a bit of time in gay Paris perhaps

http://www.sportsvibe.co.uk/news/football/wenger-given-an-exit-route-as-psg-look-to-axe-ancelotti-21326/?

I cant see Wenger leaving Arsenal, although Jose to North London is something I wouldnt rule out completely.