Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

peteeeed

time to get crazy

duploelabs

http://imgur.com/a/WyjAa
Images from yesterday's first training session

GavRedKing

More Luiz stories, all bollocks but worth the giggle.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2358536/Barcelona-launch-30m-bid-Chelseas-David-Luiz--exclusive.html?ICO=most_read_module

grumpymunster

Everyone has a price but would be fairly certain Barca dont have the money for Luiz after blowing it all on Neymar. They will continue to be found out defensively next season, they really are not a well run club at the moment.

GavRedKing

Valdes leaving next summer for free also, they'll have to get in a G.K.

So Im expecting a Courtois to Barca story popping up as well.

grumpymunster

Ake heading off to Vitesse for a year

http://www.sportsdirectnews.com/premier-league/27872-chelsea-news-ake-goes-out-on-loan.php

GavRedKing

grumpymunster wrote: »

Ake heading off to Vitesse for a year

http://www.sportsdirectnews.com/premier-league/27872-chelsea-news-ake-goes-out-on-loan.php

Part of me reckons that was to sweeten the Van Ginkel deal.

Hope he comes back and gets game time though.

Too many youngsters ahve had seasons where they were in the squad and played games but didnt kick on.

PVA, Josh, Kakuta.

Hopefully a long term appointment of Jose will stem that flow and the academt can produce a gem for us.

GavRedKing

Romelu Lukaku is starting his third pre-season at Chelsea , this time following a season out on loan that has been declared a success by all concerned.
The 20-year-old striker scored 17 goals in 23 starts and 15 substitute appearances for a West Bromwich Albion side that finished eighth in the Barclays Premier League - vital experience for a player who has so far played 12 games for Chelsea.
Lukaku spoke to Chelsea TV at Cobham where the squad returned from the summer break on Monday, and he outlined the progress he believes he has made.
'I think I developed my skills, playing in small spaces, big spaces and playing back to goal. I am quicker and stronger, I improved overall and that is a good sign,' he said.
'Hopefully I can continue like that in the next years.
'I set myself a goal and I over achieved it so I am very happy that I did well last year. And now it is up to me to do better this year.
'It is good to be back. It was always my aim to come back so now that I am here I am happy.'
The Belgian international gives plenty of credit to former Chelsea coach and current West Brom manager Steve Clarke for the way he developed into an influential player during his year away.
'My role in the team was scoring goals obviously but also holding the ball up for the players, and my back-to-goal play was very important in that area. I learned a lot in that year.
'Steve Clarke put me on a platform where I could shine and he changed my life, because now the impact I have on some people is a bit bigger. I am very happy that I worked under him because he taught me a lot about the game - the mental aspect and little points I had to improve on, he really took the time with me and I will thank him for all my life.
'Now I want to improve as much as I can and be an important figure for this club hopefully. I am very ambitious and I am also very young and I want to work hard and play as much as I can but it is up to me. If I keep going like I did last year I think it will not be a problem.
'I am really determined to do well and hopefully help the team to success.'

bullpost

The man will step effortlessly in to the big boots left for him by a certain Didier Drogba.

GavRedKing wrote: »

peteeeed

Seems to be a few stories about this fella all of a sudden http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/09/jose-mourinho-hints-at-chelsea-move-for-galatasaray-star-burak-yilmaz-3874987/

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

peteeeed

Phoenix wrote: »

Apparently we signed Mark Schwarzer decent back up option to Cech

If twitter is to believed , he was at cobham today

ChelseaRumours: The picture of Schwarzer at Chelsea... #CFC (via @ChelseaCentral_) http://t.co/l7jz6W13Oi

Johner

Delighted!!!! Was saying it for weeks, it made so much sense.

Johner

It's official.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3233254/title/chelsea-sign-mark-schwarzer

Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer on a free transfer.

The Australian international has signed a one-year contract that will keep him with the club until next summer's World Cup in Brazil, for which he helped his country seal qualification last month.

'It's a phenomenal club,' he said upon signing. 'It's one of the biggest and best clubs in the world, and it's an honour to sign for Chelsea. I didn't take much convincing to come here.'

Schwarzer, 40, brings with him a wealth of experience after more than 15 years in England with Bradford City, Middlesbrough and most recently Fulham, and last season became the first overseas player to have made 500 Premier League appearances.

Born in Sydney, Schwarzer began his career with Marconi Stallions before moving to Europe with German side Dynamo Dresden in 1994, which was followed by a short spell in the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern.

A move to England followed in 1996, with Bradford City the platform from which Schwarzer signed for Middlesbrough, going on to play more than 400 times in 11 years, lifting the League Cup in 2003 and appearing in the 2006 UEFA Cup final against Sevilla.

In 2008, he moved south to west London with Fulham, spending five years at Craven Cottage, where he made 220 appearances.

Schwarzer made his international debut in 1994, and has since represented Australia 108 times, including at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.

peteeeed

proper back up for cech at last

Blue Shamrock

Half hour program on Zola starting in 10 minutes on ESPN Classics for anyone interested

Meglamonia

Great bit of business,more than capable back up.

Essien

That's a good signing. A very capable keeper with a wealth of experience in England who's perfectly happy to come in on a short term contract.

Duck Soup

Not just a bench warmer either. I should imagine Schwarzer will be between the sticks for both the domestic cup competitions.

grumpymunster

Sensible signing shows that Courtois must be coming home next summer as well. At least wont be panic if he is called on decent keeper. Few defenders now and sorted.

Tubbs4

Delighted we did not get ruddy. Great keeper as back up and money saved on a signing fee.
Come on a good center back

GavRedKing

Very happy with that deal.

Free G.K. and a decent one at that too.

Glad for us and Ruddy that deal didnt happen.

Johner

GavRedKing wrote: »

Very happy with that deal.

Free G.K. and a decent one at that too.

Glad for us and Ruddy that deal didnt happen.

Funny how "Sky Sources" knew nothing about this deal. :pac:

GavRedKing

Glad they didnt, meant we got a decent G.K. with no fuss and no will he wont he bollocks that surrounds the bigger transfers.

Sign a quality CB or promising one and I reckon we're done for the summer,glad to get business done early.

Legion.

Think we need an out and out DM as well as a CB.

Meglamonia

Still think we need a top quality striker too..

GavRedKing

Legion. wrote: »

Think we need an out and out DM as well as a CB.

Agreed on the CB, I'd be confident with our current CM options though.

Meglamonia wrote: »

Still think we need a top quality striker too..

I reckon Lukaku will get the Jose pep talk and make him believe he can become the new Drogba, in his own way.

With Lukaku & Torres & Ba we'd be fairly ok I reckon.

Plus the market for top class CF's is nearly non existent now at this stage as I cant see Cavani, Suarez or Rooney joining us.

Meglamonia

GavRedKing wrote: »

Agreed on the CB, I'd be confident with our current CM options though.



I reckon Lukaku will get the Jose pep talk and make him believe he can become the new Drogba, in his own way.

With Lukaku & Torres & Ba we'd be fairly ok I reckon.

Plus the market for top class CF's is nearly non existent now at this stage as I cant see Cavani, Suarez or Rooney joining us.

Hope we don't come to regret the striker situation mid season and panic in January!

McDave

GavRedKing wrote: »

I reckon Lukaku will get the Jose pep talk and make him believe he can become the new Drogba, in his own way.

With Lukaku & Torres & Ba we'd be fairly ok I reckon.

Plus the market for top class CF's is nearly non existent now at this stage as I cant see Cavani, Suarez or Rooney joining us.

Had we landed a gilt-edged striker, we'd be in a much better position for a UCL assault.

As things stand though, IMO Mourinho will be concentrating on the EPL and hoping to go as far as he can in the UCL. Should he get Chelsea to the semi-final, that will be his calling card for a top-drawer striker. If he needs one! Lukaku, Torres and the attacking midfielders may well deliver enough goals for next season without the need to spend heavily.

V9

Delighted with today's signing. Very good keeper

Andersonisgod

Same, great signing. Tonnes of Premier League experience, something which will be great to have in the dressing room,, still an excellent goalkeeper, a more than adequate replacement and at none of the price of Ruddy. A move so obvious yet so good that you can hardly believe that Chelsea actually made it.

smuckers

Judging from Jose's comments Kalas in the squad for this season, sees a role for MVG.:)

Johner

smuckers wrote: »

Judging from Jose's comments Kalas in the squad for this season, sees a role for MVG.:)

duploelabs

Transcript of Jose's report :
>

Jose Mourinho, in his first interview after returning as Chelsea manager last month, said he wished pre-season preparations were beginning right there and then. His wait came to an end on Monday and after three days of work with the squad at Cobham, and before travelling to Asia tomorrow (Thursday), he tells the official Chelsea website whether training so far has matched his expectations, and gives views on the three recent signings.

Participation in the recent Confederations Cup means Brazilian, Spanish and Nigerian members of the Chelsea squad are currently enjoying a well-earned rest, but everyone else is back and raring to go according to the manager.

'Especially for a new manager with a new group it is a pity when you cannot start with all of your players, and I have six that are not here, but I am so happy to be back,' Mourinho says.

'I feel the same happiness in every player. It is not just about commitment and great attitude, because they are professional expectations, I think they are also showing great pleasure, they are working with passion and with enthusiasm and that is the best thing for a manager.

'I spent a long time in the holiday period preparing these training sessions but after that it is up to the players to make them great or not so great. To make every training session a great period they are working very, very well and I am very, very pleased.

'I have in the same group the guys that were with me before, I have the players from the first team that came here after 2007 and I am working with them for the first time, and I am having a third group which is a very special one,' he adds.

'The good part of the bad thing of not having the players from the Confederations Cup is that some kids have the chance to be with us training, and I see that not just as a learning period for them, I see that also as a good message for the other young players that are not with us now.

'We have here six of them and for sure during the season all of them from the Under-21s and even some from the youth team will come and be part of our group. This club is going well in that direction by investing in them, and believes they can be important for the future - so I am very happy.

'It has been very enjoyable these first three days with all these guys. It is good to be back and it is good also for me to work with this passion, with this enthusiasm. It is something that I always need.'

The last month has seen reinforcements to the attacking, midfield and goalkeeping departments of the squad with new signings made, and Mourinho gives his thoughts on all three.

'Andre Schurrle is still so young but he already has great history because he plays in his national team, he has played Champions League and he played three complete seasons for Leverkusen,' he says about the 22-year-old.

'So he is a player who is absolutely ready and he gives us more than one position in attack and adds quality. He will be important for us.

'Marco van Ginkel is one of the best prospects. He is not yet like Schurrle - close to being a finished product - but he is a player with great potential.

'Of course he needs to play and he will, because he is a player with great potential and physically he is more than ready. He is a natural athlete. By the technical and the tactical point of view of course he is a kid, he has to learn, but I think he is very open-minded and we analysed him for quite a long time. The Chelsea scouting department did it for quite a long time and I did it in the last five or six months, and we made a collective decision to bring the kid here.

'Mark Schwarzer is what we need. I never say this one is the first choice and this one is the second and this one is the third, but of course as a starting point Petr Cech is Petr Cech - he is the best in the world with deference to all the others and Mark knows that he comes to be an important member of the squad, to compete with Petr and to give us in that position what we have in any other position where we have competition and options, giving protection to each other.

'With Mark we have a goalkeeper who has played an incredible number of matches in the last 10 years in the Premier League and he is more than ready for this.'

Mourinho confirms that three additions to the squad for next season are Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Tomas Kalas, after their successful respective loans at West Brom, Werder Bremen and Vitesse.

'They are good players with a very good value in the market and we have these players this season for free, after an investment that the club did before,' he says.

'After the development of the players on loan it is the right moment for them to be back. They are very young with space to develop, they will be better year after year and I can imagine in five years they are much better than today - but what they have today is more than enough to belong to this squad.

'So we are a very young squad. We have an average age of 26.3 and that includes Schwarzer who is 40 years old and JT, Cech and Lampard in their 30s, so if we don't involve these players we drop to almost an Under-21 team.

'We have a team to develop, we have a team to work. Of course we know there are expectations already and we want to create expectations for ourselves, we don't need other people to create them - but the reality is the best period of this team has yet to arrive because they are very young and in five, six, seven years' time is when this team will be in the best moment of their careers.'

grumpymunster

It's great to be able to look forward to the managers musing's.

Very young squad overall and he sounds happy enough with that, delighted Kalas been given a shot, served his time so deserves it.

peteeeed

good too see clifford going out on loan bad to see sky think he's ryan bertrand

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8817117

peteeeed

so our match against hull is now 4pm on the sunday

Killinator

peteeeed wrote: »

so our match against hull is now 4pm on the sunday

Is it on the box?

ShoulderChip

Killinator wrote: »

Is it on the box?

They would hardly reschedule it otherwise

Johner

Seems Romeu is gone to Valencia on loan, looks like he could be sold next summer.

Gonzovision

I have a feeling De Rossi will be coming....

grumpymunster

Apparently Romeu taking a pay cut to go to Valencia, unusual in this day and age. No purchase clause but I guess he will only come back if he does very well.

Also apparently Roma want Wallace on loan for a season as part of the Di Rossi deal.

And the ManU game on a Monday evening I hate when we play on a Monday yuck.

grumpymunster

I see two of our games are on BT sport do we get that over here? They are the Spurs and Barcodes games.

RichT

Chelsea's games on the tellybox, so far.............

SUN 18/8 HOME to HULL @ 1600

MON 26/8 AWAY to MAN UTD @ 2000

SAT 14/9 AWAY to EVERTON @ 1730

SAT 21/9 HOME to FULHAM @ 1730

SAT 28/9 AWAY to SPURS @ 1245 (BT)

SUN 6/10 AWAY to NORWICH @ 1330

SUN 27/10 HOME to MAN CITY@ 1330

SAT 2/11 AWAY to NEWCASTLE @ 1245 (BT)

SUN 24/11 AWAY to WEST HAM @ 1330

SUN 1/12 HOME to SOUTHAMPTON @ 1600

peteeeed

Gonzovision wrote: »

I have a feeling De Rossi will be coming....

rumour is wallace on loan is part of the deal thats why he has not gone to asia

kev1.3s

RichT wrote: »

Chelsea's games on the tellybox, so far.............

SUN 18/8 HOME to HULL @ 1600

MON 26/8 AWAY to MAN UTD @ 2000

SAT 14/9 AWAY to EVERTON @ 1730

SAT 21/9 HOME to FULHAM @ 1730

SAT 28/9 AWAY to SPURS @ 1245 (BT)

SUN 6/10 AWAY to NORWICH @ 1330

SUN 27/10 HOME to MAN CITY@ 1330

SAT 2/11 AWAY to NEWCASTLE @ 1245 (BT)

SUN 24/11 AWAY to WEST HAM @ 1330

SUN 1/12 HOME to SOUTHAMPTON @ 1600

are they all on sky?

RichT

kev1.3s wrote: »

are they all on sky?

All SKY except Spurs and Newcastle which are on BT

kev1.3s

What's the deal with that then, is it another channel we have to pay for?

Johner

With Strootman off to Roma and Romeu to Valenica it paves the way for De Rossi to come to us. Would be a good signing imo.

the_doctor199

kev1.3s wrote: »

What's the deal with that then, is it another channel we have to pay for?

Info below, this particular article is about UFC but the general information on the channel still applies.

SETANTA SPORTS ADD BT SPORT & ESPN CHANNELS TO BRING UFC TO IRISH FANS

Setanta Sports to add BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 and ESPN from August 1st. The deal brings 30 live UFC events plus an array of other support programming to Setanta Pack customers in the Republic of Ireland.

Setanta Sports today announced a new deal with BT to add their two new BT Sport channels and the ESPN channel to the Setanta Sports pack. The deal means that Setanta Sports subscribers on satellite in the Republic of Ireland will receive the BT Sport 1 and BT Sport 2 channels from August 1st and with BT’s recent acquisition of ESPN in the UK and Ireland, Setanta subscribers will also receive the ESPN channel.

The deal means that Setanta customers will receive 30 Live UFC events including UFC 163 from Brazil in the early hours of August 4th with a main event of Aldo v Jung plus UFC 164 in late August. Setanta subscribers will also get to see the full range of UFC support programming.

Commenting on the deal Brian Quinn, Marketing Director of Setanta Sports said “This content is a real game changer for Setanta. It’s not Just 30 live UFC events but it will also include all associated UFC shows such as the Ultimate fighter, weigh-ins and the Road to the Octagon. The Setanta pack will be the only place to see the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jose Aldo and we especially look forward to Conor McGregor’s upcoming appearance in Boston on August 18th.”

The new channels launch on satellite on August 1st. To subscribe to Setanta Sports on satellite visit www.setanta.com/ie/gamechanger for more information or call 0818 20 30 40. Further details of the Setanta Pack on cable and broadband will be released before Aug 1st.