Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2012/2013

Sgt Pepper 64

Our Champions League demise, and subsequent slip into the Europa League, does have one positive to note.

Because we`re one of the three best, points-wise, to exit the Champions League, we`ve been seeded.

It seems that with 32 teams left in the competition 16 are seeded.

The draw for the next round of the Europa League takes place on December 20th.

Read more: http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=532104#ixzz2ENt8Fxsk

McDave

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Our Champions League demise, and subsequent slip into the Europa League, does have one positive to note.

Because we`re one of the three best, points-wise, to exit the Champions League, we`ve been seeded.

It seems that with 32 teams left in the competition 16 are seeded.

The draw for the next round of the Europa League takes place on December 20th.

Read more: http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=532104#ixzz2ENt8Fxsk

The Europa League will be the perfect opportunity to blood a few of our side-lined players. And a decent EL run will recoup some of the money lost from the UCL.

I'd still expect us to go out during the quarters or semis. It won't be a major priority for us. And certainly not for Falcao, who's been there and done that.

PeterTwo

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Our Champions League demise, and subsequent slip into the Europa League, does have one positive to note.

Because we`re one of the three best, points-wise, to exit the Champions League, we`ve been seeded.

It seems that with 32 teams left in the competition 16 are seeded.

The draw for the next round of the Europa League takes place on December 20th.

Read more: http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=532104#ixzz2ENt8Fxsk

Looking at who is seeded and who is not, seeded is not a good thing.

McDave

Roman Abramovich wants to offer former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola a £20 million-a-season contract to take over at Chelsea in the summer, ESPN can reveal.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1255488/abramovich-keen-to-lure-pep-with-L20m-a-season?cc=5739

But more worryingly:

It is being suggested the Chelsea owner's 'trigger happy' attitude to managers - eight sacked in nine-and-a-half years - is putting off Guardiola

And yet more worryingly still:

Indeed, reports suggest that technical director Michael Emenalo is drawing up a backup list which includes Jurgen Klopp

That seems to me to write Mourinho out of the equation. He now knows he's No. 2 choice for RA. I don't think he'll go back to CFC on those terms.

As for Pep, I'm more interested in hearing whether he'll get a free hand rather than read about "a massive offer of a £20m-a-year, four year contract, plus bonuses that would easily ensure the Spaniard earns nearly £100m for his troubles and bcomes the world's highest paid manager."

McDave

PSG not in for Cole? Staying at CFC?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/onthemove/id/1597?cc=5739

GavRedKing

McDave wrote: »

PSG not in for Cole? Staying at CFC?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/onthemove/id/1597?cc=5739

Excellent news if true, the guy easily has a few good years left him.

Meglamonia

Team: Cech (c); Ivan, Cahill, D Luiz, Cole; Ram, Rom; Moses, Mata, Hazard; Torres. Subs: Turn, Fer, Azpili, Bert, Lamps, Oscar, Marin.

GavRedKing

Meglamonia wrote: »

Team: Cech (c); Ivan, Cahill, D Luiz, Cole; Ram, Rom; Moses, Mata, Hazard; Torres. Subs: Turn, Fer, Azpili, Bert, Lamps, Oscar, Marin.

Lamps on the bench, happy days.

GavRedKing

Anybody have any idea where I'd get a good "look" at the game this afternoon?

Panthro

Quick Q, how did Luiz get on for the 20mins he played at DM?

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

amiable

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Rafa the master tactician just got out flanked by Sam Allardyce, that was truly embarrassing, Well in control at half time too getting slaughtered in the second .

Takes off Hazard when Ramieres was absolutely dire today
Takes off Mosses when Ramieres was still being absolutely dire and totally at fault for the second goal.
Torres is done , complete cack , cant even control the ball and gets bullied all over the park

Blood is boiling here ,

Rafa and Torres are a like a cancer at the moment , hope Roman is felling trigger happy again

MUSEIST wrote: »

Until both are gone chelsea are in trouble. Torres is ruined and rafa will NEVER win the fans over (rightly or wrongly, who cares). They both need to go quickly for any progress to be made.

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

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

Still thinking the same?

GavRedKing

Handy 3 points.

Wish the 2nd half performance was as clinical as the 1st half but back to winning ways.

Rafa and Torres winning us games, who'd have guessed it.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Kess73

Phoenix wrote: »

Wish i put a bet on it,had a feeling we would win 3-1 with a Torres goal:D

Meh


I said this in the Bundesliga thread today whilst watching the Stuttgart game.

Ibisevic giving away a lot of fouls. Needs to be careful because he is on a yellow. Wonder what the odds are on him getting a hattrick and a red card.

Ibisevic went on to complete his hattrick and then got sent off in the 90th minute.

I of course did not place a bloody bet. :pac:

Sgt Pepper 64

We're gonna win the league I tell ya and Torres to finish top scorer

GavRedKing

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

We're gonna win the league I tell ya and Torres to finish top scorer

I'll have 2 of whatever you're having.

Techless

Wonder what is the story with Marin, would have thought he would replace Moses, not Bertrand ?

Garzorico

Panthro wrote: »

Quick Q, how did Luiz get on for the 20mins he played at DM?

Fantastic. The chap is made to play that role. All energy, tackling and clever passes. Knows the role by the look of that 20 mins. Skill to burn.

pistolpetes11

amiable wrote: »

Still thinking the same?

Yep ,

Bags a few goals against some Danish minnows , and a Sunderland side with no confidence and playing dire this season and suddenly all is golden again ?????

MUSEIST

We have had way too many false dawns with torres, I just don't believe he will ever be consistant, I hope I'm wrong.

GavRedKing

If he keeps scoring goals thats all we can ask of him.

His 2 goals today won us 3 points regardless of the opposition.

amiable

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Yep ,

Bags a few goals against some Danish minnows , and a Sunderland side with no confidence and playing dire this season and suddenly all is golden again ?????

I never said he was golden. Thanks for putting words in my mouth. But it does show the post I quoted rom you is slightly OTT at the very minimum. But then you knew that already Pete

McDave

GavRedKing wrote: »

If he keeps scoring goals thats all we can ask of him.

His 2 goals today won us 3 points regardless of the opposition.

If only he had been doing this consistently since August. Somehow I fear the die is cast for Torres. Even if he gets a goal a game until the New Year, all it will serve to do is up his resale value. Or increase his value in a swop for Falcao.

GavRedKing

McDave wrote: »

If only he had been doing this consistently since August. Somehow I fear the die is cast for Torres. Even if he gets a goal a game until the New Year, all it will serve to do is up his resale value. Or increase his value in a swop for Falcao.

Torres wint be sold until Summer at least and if he keeps on scoring at the rate he is he'll easily finish with 20-25 goals.

amiable

GavRedKing wrote: »

Torres wint be sold until Summer at least and if he keeps on scoring at the rate he is he'll easily finish with 20-25 goals.

If he gets 20 goals Gav how much would you expect Chelsea to get then?

GavRedKing

amiable wrote: »

If he gets 20 goals Gav how much would you expect Chelsea to get then?

Honestly, we'd be looking at £20-22 million tops I reckon.

The guy is 28, hes had 2 1/2 years of poor to ok football with little flashes of excellence and hes on big wages.

I cant see many clubs breaking the bank for him, at £50 million any re-sale was always going to bend us over a barrel which is why I'd keep him for the length of his contract.

I cant see A.Madrid taking a Torres + Cash deal as we'd probably be going €25-30 million and Torres, where as they'd happily take the reported €50-52 Million buy out fee for Falcao and bring in another striker and have cash left over, it would suit them better IMO.

I suppose its all down to Roman, recently hes seen Rafa come in and Torres scoring goals, if thats all adding up in his head that will justify Rafas selection and make him think twice about spending another 50 million.

My prediction, Torres gets 25 goals, he'll stay , Lukaku will come that'll be our strike force with maybe another back up, would like Huntelaar.

Torres doesn't get 25 goals or near it, sold or loaned in the summer, big name to replace him.

I'd love if Chelsea won the league under Rafa and Torres pushed on with more goals, see what would be said in May then.

amiable

Torres is 29 in March

GavRedKing

amiable wrote: »

Torres is 29 in March

Years of goals left in him yet.

Soby

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/

Above the "Torres brace..." headline go to picture 4/6. Anyone else think Torres's face has a meme about it :P

amiable

Duncan Castles is saying Guardiola is leaning towards going to Bayern Munich.

Sgt Pepper 64

Rafa has deffo improved Torres movement. Now he is in the box, more central, and running for the ball. We still need quality backup though, and thats the interesting question. If we buy big, we will just drop Torres just when he is in a run of form, or do we mess with the shape and try and play 2 strikers, who might make the same runs?
I reckon we will stick to the original plan and get what chelsea see as a better backup than Danny, someone like Schurrie, who wont be a threat to Torres this season, but could chip in with a few goals

McDave

amiable wrote: »

Duncan Castles is saying Guardiola is leaning towards going to Bayern Munich.

There are ethical reasons why Guardiola might opt for Bayern. German football is big on sustainable soccer economics. And developing a world-beating team within those parameters might be the ultimate challenge.

But to go for this, Guardiola would need to accept less money than what is available from, e.g., CFC, and probably have to make do with a smaller acquisitions pot.

One thing's for certain, Guardiola's choice will tell us a lot about the man.

Sgt Pepper 64

McDave wrote: »

There are ethical reasons why Guardiola might opt for Bayern. German football is big on sustainable soccer economics. And developing a world-beating team within those parameters might be the ultimate challenge.

But to go for this, Guardiola would need to accept less money than what is available from, e.g., CFC, and probably have to make do with a smaller acquisitions pot.

One thing's for certain, Guardiola's choice will tell us a lot about the man.

He still cant lose even if takes the Chelsea job and gets the boot.
It wont really affect his reputation as everyone knows that Chelsea arent the norm

McDave

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

He still cant lose even if takes the Chelsea job and gets the boot.
It wont really affect his reputation as everyone knows that Chelsea arent the norm

I can't say I understand anyone's mind on this matter. But if Guardiola takes the job, it won't be under the normal terms and conditions. If RA thinks he's smarter than all the best managers around (and he made that mistake with Mourinho), he's doomed to failure. Either he wants to build a legacy, or he wants a plaything.

For his part, Guardiola will have his own wish list. He's getting pitches from major clubs, and in taking his time, and hopefully good advice, he's well placed to sort out the spoofers from the real prospects. So, if he's lucky enough, this is one appointment RA is going to have to get right. It will make or break RA in football.

If Guardiola walks on Chelsea with indecent haste (e.g. within two years), he'll leave the club in turmoil. But unlike Real Madrid getting over the negative impact of Perez, CFC won't have the legacy to recover in the way Madrid can.

McDave

Piece on Benitez' progress with Torres: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/2142?cc=5739

Panthro

Garzorico wrote: »

Fantastic. The chap is made to play that role. All energy, tackling and clever passes. Knows the role by the look of that 20 mins. Skill to burn.

Really? Be interesting to see if he will he be given that role again.

GavRedKing

Romeu didnt travel to Japan.

Sgt Pepper 64

Serbian newspapers are reporting that Chelsea have agreed to a fee to sign Lazar Markovic in January with the intention of sending him on loan.

It's always interesting when newspapers without a long history of rumor-mongering suddenly print a story reporting a transfer that has already been agreed to. The lack of any sort of track record makes it a bit difficult to judge the source, either to trust it or to ignore it. Today we have one of those situations due to a report from Serbia, claiming that Chelsea have agreed to a deal that will see young phenom Lazar Markovic joining the London club.
The report doesn't translate all that well, but it seems to be suggesting that a deal is already in place where Markovic will sign with Chelsea in January, and that Markovic would then be loaned out to an Eredivisie club for the remainder of the season. Making this even more interesting would be the fact that he could be a reasonable replacement for Wilfried Bony, and with Vitesse's position in the table, I'd assume that replacing him would be a key to any move.
We've been linked to Markovic before, and he's certainly the type of top level prospect that we should be expecting to be linked to. Those of you not familiar with him should read the profile we did on Markovic. Since that was done, he's been playing very well, and often been deployed as a striker.
Whether or not this report has any accuracy, it's certainly an interesting one to take note of. He's one of the best young talents in Europe, and he can fill a variety of roles. We will be keeping our eyes open for more on this, as it would be a pretty excellent way to open the transfer window.

http://www.weaintgotnohistory.com/2012/12/9/3746486/chelsea-fc-lazar-markovic-transfer-rumor

getuponthis

Falcao scored 5 goals tonight against deportivo, Really hope we get him in January!!

kev1.3s

getuponthis wrote: »

Falcao scored 5 goals tonight against deportivo, Really hope we get him in January!!

In a way I hope we don't Torres's form is far from disastrous and I don't believe that he can solely shoulder the burden of our dip in form!
We have a very poor record when it comes to superstar strikers, it seems to me that we always seem to buy after the purple patch and with the kind of light less physical players that our glorious leader covets they have a very limited timescale in which they are on top of there game.
Don't get me wrong I'd love Falco if I could be sure he wouldn't fail I wanted him after watching him play for porto in the europa league and I think that may have been the time to get him, for now I'd rather get someone in who we can rely on to be good backup to Torres and if he can't find consistent form between here and the end of the season really go for someone different.

pistolpetes11

GavRedKing wrote: »

Romeu didnt travel to Japan.

Had surgery on his knee today , out for 12 weeks I think

kev1.3s

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Had surgery on his knee today , out for 12 weeks I think

That sucs he was looking good the last two games! fantastic passer of the ball.

Sgt Pepper 64

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

Had surgery on his knee today , out for 12 weeks I think

We will def try and sign a midfielder then.
I think for all the doom and gloom, we are in pretty good shape.
3rd place and some pretty good young talent in the squad.
A couple more additions (well 3 or 4) and we will be close to the Mourinho squad

Sgt Pepper 64

Interesting thoughts on if Romeu is out for 2 months
The squad laid bare. (Once we were packed full of midfielders!)

There have been rumors circulating today about the severity of the injury to Oriol Romeu, with the rumblings being that he has suffered a meniscus injury which requires surgery. The rumor in question claims that this surgery will be performed tomorrow, with the midfielder out for up to two months.
At this point, I'd have a very hard time calling this rumor anything other than that. There has been nothing hinted about this by either the club or any sort of people that should have knowledge of the injury, so I'd have to believe this is simply speculation. Still, it might be worth looking at where this leaves us if the rumor turns out to be true.
Where this leaves us for the remaining two games of John Obi Mikel's domestic suspension is pretty easy, as there is no open window to deal with. If Romeu is hurt and can't go when the club returns from Japan, Frank Lampard and Ramires would likely be the first choice pairing in the double pivot. Ramires will be suspended for the Leeds game, so we're likely looking at one of David Luiz, Oscar, or George Saville filling in next to Lampard. The following game Ramires will be back, and after Aston Villa, Mikel will once again be available.
The next numbers crunch would come as we reach the African Cup of Nations, as John Obi Mikel will likely be named to the Nigerian squad. We already looked at the impact that ACoN should have on Chelsea this fall, you can read that article again here.
If the rumor of Romeu's impending surgery is true, the timetable for his return would be roughly the same time we'd be expecting to get Mikel back from Africa. That would also be fairly close to the closing of the transfer window, possibly even a bit before.
If true, should this turn of events have an impact on our transfer decisions in January? My simple answer is no. First, even if Romeu is out for two months, we'd really need to have a deal wrapped up in the first few days of the window in order to cover for the two week span in which both Mikel and Romeu would be absent. That seems unlikely, unless we are willing to overpay significantly enough to make a deal happen early. That just isn't a good idea, especially without Champions League money this spring and FFP in play.
Secondly, if we were looking at a midfield upgrade anyway, the need for a starting caliber player didn't get any greater with this potential turn of events. Those calling for the addition of a top central midfielder shouldn't be pointing to the short term loss of our fourth option as any sort of reason the "we need this guy", they should be pointing at our starters just as they were before.
More likely, this turn of events could have an impact on youngsters like Josh McEachran and Nathaniel Chalobah. The club could well be considering a recall of McEachran anyway, and Chalobah's loan deal at Watford ends January 1st. If the club felt that one of the pair would get regular cameo minutes and regular Europa League starts, calling one back before we know there is a numbers crunch coming would make an awful lot of sense.
If the club doesn't want to pull the trigger on any of those options, we'd still have a few internal options. Oscar has seen limited minutes in the pivot this season, and some feel that a deeper lying role is in his future anyway. Others are still calling for David Luiz to see minutes in the midfield, and the fact that Rafa used him there on Saturday should indicate that he's an option.
Rumored Romeu injury or no Romeu injury, Chelsea's plans for the midfield should not change at all in the upcoming window. If they were going to add depth anyway, they really should still be planning on it. If they felt their internal options were good enough before the injury, they should still be good enough now.If he's out for two months, this is a real setback for Romeu, but it's still probably not anything to alter their transfer strategy. That said, I hope this surgery noise is just that.

Sgt Pepper 64

Chelsea mobbed in Japan!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2245395/Chelsea-mobbed-airport-Japan-land-Club-World-Cup.html

Lukker-

Could we re-call Essien?

Meglamonia

anyone know if it's going to be on tv?

Soby

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Chelsea mobbed in Japan!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2245395/Chelsea-mobbed-airport-Japan-land-Club-World-Cup.html

Oscar looks about 12 :P

GavRedKing

Meglamonia wrote: »

anyone know if it's going to be on tv?

BBC are showing the games, heard it on MoTD the other night.

Think its an 11AM K/O or something.