Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2012/2013

Meglamonia

GavRedKing wrote: »

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

Think its an 11AM K/O or something.

Yeah I thought I heard the same too but I looked at the listing there and I can't find it.

GavRedKing

Meglamonia wrote: »

Yeah I thought I heard the same too but I looked at the listing there and I can't find it.

They definetly said it on MoTD anyway, maybe its only on the BBC iPlayer?

GavRedKing

pistolpetes11 wrote: »

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

Is Mikel going to the ACN aswell this year?

Our CM is going to be very thin.

MUSEIST

I really hope we go all out to try and win this world club thing, would be a lovely boost after the sh!te form in november. Looking forward to it.

GavRedKing

MUSEIST wrote: »

I really hope we go all out to try and win this world club thing, would be a lovely boost after the sh!te form in november. Looking forward to it.

Anything to win another trophy. Could be Rafas first of hopefully many.

DazMarz

Are they showing the games on ChelseaTV?

Dozen Wicked Words

GavRedKing wrote: »

They definetly said it on MoTD anyway, maybe its only on the BBC iPlayer?

On red button and bbc hd according to some website I can't link from on this phone.

Edit: its on BBC hd on sky epg

GavRedKing

dooferoaks wrote: »

On red button and bbc hd according to some website I can't link from on this phone.

Edit: its on BBC hd on sky epg

Perfect, wont be able to stream from work so will ahve to record it and watch after work.

GavRedKing

Article could be a few matches pre-mature.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2245564/Is-Rafael-Benitez-turning-Chelsea-tide--Michael-Walker.html

When it comes to Chelsea, there must be caution in trying to predict a period of time as long as the next five months.
But if Roman Abramovich can still that trigger-finger until April, it might just be that he has title contenders towards the end of it.

There must also be caution when assessing a victory at Sunderland, who slid into the relegation zone, but Chelsea got a lot right on Wearside.

Rafa Benitez got the first Barclays Premier League win of his reign. Fernando Torres scored his first league goals for two months. Oscar was excellent, the movement was fast and fluent. The claim that the title is a Mancunian two-horse race seemed premature.

Step back from the soap opera that Chelsea have become and assess what they possess: a superb, deep squad with hugely talented attackers, fine midfielders, experienced defenders and a leader of a goalkeeper in Petr Cech.

They have Frank Lampard coming back and John Terry soon to join him. They have signings lined up for January, perhaps more than we know. And they have a manager in Benitez, liked or not, who has proved that he can organise and motivate.

Yet Abramovich’s hire ’em, fire ’em methods have shot holes in the team’s reputation, because they are being marketed as also-rans, when they are not. True, they began the game 10 points behind Manchester United, but only 40 per cent of the season has gone. It is too soon to be calling such gaps insurmountable and Benitez is not convinced by the two-horse theory.

‘You have to remember last year that in January everyone was saying that Manchester City would win the title easily,’ he said. ‘And yet at the end on the last day they could have lost it and had to score in the last minute to win it.’
‘If we play at this level and at this intensity we will win games in a row and hopefully we will be there.

A run of league games is just what Chelsea do not have, however. The club flew from North East to Far East for the Club World Cup. Chelsea’s first game is on Thursday. Their next Premier League game is Aston Villa at home on Sunday week. They could be parading a trophy.

It is unlikely that will appease all supporters, though. All afternoon at the Stadium of Light, the 3,000 away fans sang: ‘We don’t care about Rafa, he don’t care about us,’ and when that was put to Benitez, he replied: ‘I care about the team, I care about the club and everyone here, and I want to win. I will try to do my best from day one to the last day.’

On his personal website on Sunday, there was an ‘open letter’ in which Benitez thanked those who have sent ‘messages, emails, letters’. He is trying.

This display will do no harm. Metaphorically and literally, Chelsea were flying. Effectively the formation was 4-2-4 and Eden Hazard should have had a penalty before Torres stabbed home an 11th-minute volley.

If Point One of Benitez’s remit was to get more from Torres, he has begun. It was not so much the finish, slick as it was, it was the fact that Torres rolled Carlos Cuellar on the halfway line before making the ground up to score from six yards.


The difference there was a £50million striker and a free-transfer centre half.

Sunderland fought against their status, and Danny Rose (on loan) was impressive. Adam Johnson had a very good game against Ashley Cole.

Johnson scored a cracking goal on 66 minutes but Sunderland had been undermined by defensive mistakes by Seb Larsson and Phil Bardsley (both substituted).
But if Martin O’Neill’s side play like this on Tuesday night at home to Reading, they should leap out of the bottom three. They kept Cech busy.

The first error, by Larsson, enabled Torres to score from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 — his first senior penalty in England remarkably — and when Torres hit a post just after half-time, Juan Mata followed up.

If there was a quibble, it is that Chelsea are like two five-a-side teams in one XI. Like every Chelsea manager, Benitez needs glue.

This has to be my favourite quote I've read in awhile. " If there was a quibble, it is that Chelsea are like two five-a-side teams in one XI. Like every Chelsea manager, Benitez needs glue "

GavRedKing

From the same article,

Rafa Benitez arrived at Chelsea with the task of rejuvenating a beleaguered Fernando Torres on his to-do list. And with two goals at Sunderland — Torres’s first Premier League goals in 750 minutes of football — it seems the Rafa revival has begun...

4 - Since Benitez arrived, Torres has scored four goals in five games. He had seven in 20 before.

112.5 - The Spaniard’s minutes-per-goal ratio under Rafa, bettering his previous figure of 274.4.

80% - Torres’S shooting accuracy is up to 80 per cent since Benitez joined . . . 17 per cent higher than before in domestic and European matches.

22.5 - With Rafa, Torres shoots every 22.5 minutes, an improvement on his previous rate of 50.8 minutes per shot.

0 - Torres had not taken a penalty in English football before Saturday. But as Michael Walker pointed out in Saturday’s Sportsmail, he had form at Sunderland and scored three pens for Spain in the Under 16 European Championship in 2001.

0.7 - Torres’S goals-per-game ratio for Benitez. Under Roberto Di Matteo it was 0.4 and with Carlo Ancelotti just 0.1.

109.5 - In 83 games with Rafa, Torres scores a goal every 109.5 minutes. With Carlo? Every 762

Whisper it quitely though, its not setting the world a light scoring against the UCL whipping boys and an out of sorts Sunderland but given more time Rafa could just do the impossible.

MaroonAndGreen

Would love a win in the Club World Cup, its worth winning for the team and fans morale and financially (winner gets $5 million prize money, which would go some way to easing the costs of our Champions League exit).

And also, who knows how long it will be until we are in the Club World Cup again.....

what a day

Totally agree, its a cup we could do with adding to the the cabnet. Always nice to add another thropy and as you say, god know if we will ever have the chance to win it again.

Great to see Torres looking confident and taking penalties, hopefully he can continue his form after the CWC and return to the PL on fire.

Caveman1

If Chelsea were to win the cup would Terry &n the other injured lads get a medal?

bullpost

And more importantly - will he be allowed wear his full kit to collect it

Caveman1 wrote: »

If Chelsea were to win the cup would Terry &n the other injured lads get a medal?

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

If Chelsea were to win the cup would Terry &n the other injured lads get a medal?

Any player registered in the 23 man squad will get a medal.

Heres that squad :

Goalkeepers
1 Petr CECH
22 Ross TURNBULL
40 HILARIO

Defenders
2 Branislav IVANOVIC
3 Ashley COLE
4 DAVID LUIZ
19 Paulo FERREIRA
24 Gary CAHILL
26 John TERRY
28 Cesar AZPILICUETA
34 Ryan BERTRAND

Midfielders
6 Oriol ROMEU
7 RAMIRES
8 Frank LAMPARD
11 OSCAR
12 John MIKEL Obi
17 Eden HAZARD
21 Marko MARIN
35 Lucas PIAZON

Forwards
9 Fernando TORRES
10 Juan MATA
13 Victor MOSES
23 Daniel STURRIDGE

MaroonAndGreen

Could they not have filled Terry and Romeu's places?

They are injured arent they?

solarith

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Could they not have filled Terry and Romeu's places?

They are injured arent they?

They deserve a medal.

GavRedKing

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

Could they not have filled Terry and Romeu's places?

They are injured arent they?

In Romeu's case he was injured on the day of travel so I presume they wouldn't have been able to.

Not sure about JT though, I thought I read somewhere that he was going to be ok for the Sunderland game so maybe when the squad was anounced, back in late November the Chelsea medical team expected him to be fit and TBH there's no point replacing him for 2 games really.

Sgt Pepper 64

Re- Falcao
Spanish media are saying now he's chosen Real Madrid over Chelsea and City. Don't know how accurate it is, but there you go.

MUSEIST

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Re- Falcao
Spanish media are saying now he's chosen Real Madrid over Chelsea and City. Don't know how accurate it is, but there you go.

So athletico selling to real, yeah right. If true does that mean higuain is avaliable, would love higuain.

Garzorico

MUSEIST wrote: »

So athletico selling to real, yeah right. If true does that mean higuain is avaliable, would love higuain.

Do not rate Higuain at all. Very overrated.

Stick with Torrres til at least the summer.

MUSEIST

Garzorico wrote: »

Do not rate Higuain at all. Very overrated.

Stick with Torrres til at least the summer.

We will be sticking with torres regardless, we are talking about a second striker to give us more options. At the moment we only only have torres, thats just not enough, we need at least 1 more top notch striker to even begin to compare with city and utd.

Sgt Pepper 64

MUSEIST wrote: »

So athletico selling to real, yeah right. If true does that mean higuain is avaliable, would love higuain.

Not a fan myself, wastes a lot of chances and if he's not good enpugh for them etc.
Plus will have to rotate with Torres and he's already a bench warmer on huge wages

Still better to spend 50 million on 3 quality players than gamble all on one.
We still need a top a class midfielder

MUSEIST

I really don't want the club to spend over 25/30 mill on a single player. Just too many risks and tbh equally effective strikers can be found for less than that.

Caveman1

Reports on twitter that Romeu will be out for 6 months, has an ACL & meniscus injury.

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

Reports on twitter that Romeu will be out for 6 months, has an ACL & meniscus injury.

If true that's a balls. Brng back MacEchran I say.

Caveman1

GavRedKing wrote: »

If true that's a balls. Brng back MacEchran I say.

Was thinking that myself, I seen a few quotes the other day from Josh, basically saying he's really enjoying his time at Boro & playing most matches, can't imagine he'll be too keen to come back & sit on the bench for us.

Another who's out on loan and doing great is Chalobah, he's played DM for Watford too, but like Josh, bringing him back to warm the bench could halt his progress.

MaroonAndGreen

McEachran is the obvious option now it seems, he was doing very well 2 seasons ago under Carlo, didnt get much chance last season, and now playing regularly for Middlesborough!

Hes worth a shot now that our midfield options are short for the next month or so

Sgt Pepper 64

MaroonAndGreen wrote: »

McEachran is the obvious option now it seems, he was doing very well 2 seasons ago under Carlo, didnt get much chance last season, and now playing regularly for Middlesborough!

Hes worth a shot now that our midfield options are short for the next month or so

I reckon Rafa would have told them we are short of quality in midfield even with our full squad, so I reckon we are looking for a striker and midfielder anyway
Could even be 2 strikers if Danny is off, though its hard enough to find one in Jan especially as Liverpool etc etc are looking as well

Sgt Pepper 64

What a rag!

http://thepeoplesperson.com/ashley-coles-mum-city-fan-who-hit-ferdinand-should-get-a-medal/

GavRedKing

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

What a rag!

http://thepeoplesperson.com/ashley-coles-mum-city-fan-who-hit-ferdinand-should-get-a-medal/

I think I'll ban ya for even posting such tripe ha.

That's one of the best/worse stories I've ever seen.

RichT

Caveman1 wrote: »

Reports on twitter that Romeu will be out for 6 months, has an ACL & meniscus injury.

Confirmed on CFC SITE

Oriol Romeu underwent anterior cruciate reconstruction surgery and medial meniscus repair yesterday (Monday). He is expected to be out for six months.

The 21-year-old midfielder suffered the knee injury during the first half of the match at Sunderland on Saturday and returned to London for assessment instead of flying to Japan.

He has played nine games this season and 33 overall since joining in the summer of 2011.

George Saville, who was not in the original squad submitted for the Club World Cup, has been added in accordance with FIFA's competition regulations.

Our opponents Monterrey have also replaced a player. Salvador Jasso comes in to their squad with Cesar de la Pena dropping out.

GavRedKing

RichT wrote: »

Confirmed on CFC SITE

Ah balls.

Just when he was looking to establish himself in the squad again this happens.

New CM in January or bring back Josh McEachran.

GavRedKing

Anyone applying for these......just incase.

https://ticketing.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/default.aspx

Caveman1

GavRedKing wrote: »

Ah balls.

Just when he was looking to establish himself in the squad again this happens.

New CM in January or bring back Josh McEachran.

I tihnk Whataday might finally get his wish, we could try Luiz in DM

GavRedKing

Caveman1 wrote: »

I tihnk Whataday might finally get his wish, we could try Luiz in DM

With Mikel out for the domestic games he might as well be tried out there but Rafa could play Lamps/Ramires in there.

Lamps is passing range is very good.

GavRedKing

Pat Nevin is applauding Rafa for giving Luiz a chance in CM against Nordsjelland.

Be interesting to see if he lines out there against Villa, with Azpilicueta looking up to speed, moving Ivan in nexgt to Cahill against the powerful Benteke would be viable IMO.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

GavRedKing

Phoenix wrote: »

Who is showing our games in the World Club cup?

BBC HD apparently.

Gonna record it and watch after work.

Sgt Pepper 64

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

I reckon Rafa would have told them we are short of quality in midfield even with our full squad, so I reckon we are looking for a striker and midfielder anyway
Could even be 2 strikers if Danny is off, though its hard enough to find one in Jan especially as Liverpool etc etc are looking as well

Just remebered we have a ready made replacement for midfield

The return of...................

MALOUDA! :eek:

grumpymunster

I know it is the mail but I hope this never comes to pass. Odds on Zola not succeeding at Chelsea have to be better than him succeeding and it would be sickening to see him sacked.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2246394/Chelsea-legend-Gianfranco-Zola-dreams-Blues-boss.html

GavRedKing

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

Just remebered we have a ready made replacement for midfield

The return of...................

MALOUDA! :eek:

grumpymunster wrote: »

I know it is the mail but I hope this never comes to pass. Odds on Zola not succeeding at Chelsea have to be better than him succeeding and it would be sickening to see him sacked.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2246394/Chelsea-legend-Gianfranco-Zola-dreams-Blues-boss.html

He can keep on dream, he hasnt shown that hes good enough to manage us. While I'd love to see him back as long as roman is in charge it wont happen unless he comes back as an assistant.

GavRedKing

Who needs Mikel/Romeu/Esien we have Luiz.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/chelsea-move-to-plug-midfield-hole-following-romeu-blow-577460.html

Alternatively, they could attempt to cut short Essien’s season-long loan at Real Madrid or McEachran’s similar spell at Middlesbrough.

However, part of the reason Essien was allowed to move to Real is because of his own recent injury record.

He was even forced to return to Chelsea to train this month after seemingly suffering a bad reaction to some medication while in the Spanish capital.

McEachran has impressed at the Riverside but he arguably does not possess the same ball-winning qualities as Romeu, Mikel and Essien.


One player who does – and who might be asked to fill the void for a time – is David Luiz.

Benitez last week did what three of his predecessors were not bold enough to attempt and experimented with Luiz in just that position.

The Spaniard also confirmed after Wednesday’s Champions League thrashing of Nordsjaelland that he would consider doing so again if the need arose.

bullpost

This is the reason I'm beginning to warm to Benitez - I think he is an excellent tactician and we do need to experiment a bit more to fulfill the potential of this squad.

GavRedKing wrote: »

Who needs Mikel/Romeu/Esien we have Luiz.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/chelsea-move-to-plug-midfield-hole-following-romeu-blow-577460.html

Panthro

Luiz a shout in for the DM role?!
Shocked I am...shocked!:D

Tubbs4

better chance at capital one cup now the mighty Arsenal has fallen.

Sgt Pepper 64

Tubbs4 wrote: »

better chance at capital one cup now the mighty Arsenal has fallen.

If Rafa doesnt win at least the capital cup AND the world club cup then he can go back to liverpool and take his torres with him!

blue-army

Tubbs4 wrote: »

better chance at capital one cup now the mighty Arsenal has fallen.

Leeds away will be very tough, but if we get past that we'll surely win it.
Over 2 legs we will beat any of the teams left, and we've the squad with the most experience in finals.

Hopefully we'll have two trophies already in the bag come March.

GavRedKing

blue-army wrote: »

Leeds away will be very tough, but if we get past that we'll surely win it.
Over 2 legs we will beat any of the teams left, and we've the squad with the most experience in finals.

Hopefully we'll have two trophies already in the bag come March.

What's the other quarter final match?