Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2016

GavRedKing

M!Ck^ wrote: »

The charity bet is set it stone...no backing out now

Wait until we sign a CB and LB and then I'll be convinced we'll do the domestic treble. :P

hots

GavRedKing wrote: »

So the big question this year is how will we do?

EPL : 4th
FA Cup : 6th round
LC : 6th round
POTY : Hazard
Top Scorer : Costa
Most improved : Hazard
Biggest diasppointment : Oscar

EPL : 4th
FA Cup : Quarters
LC : Semis
POTY : Kante
Top Scorer : Costa
Most improved : Hazard
Biggest diasppointment : Cahill (or defense as a group)

Johner

So Terry is a doubt for next week. Ivanovic at centre half? :rolleyes:

hots

Johner wrote: »

So Terry is a doubt for next week. Ivanovic at centre half? :rolleyes:

Yay No other choices are there? Mikel lurking around as the only alternative. Aina hasn't played there in a good while. None of the other kids got a look in all preseason.

LightningBlue

EPL : 3rd
FA Cup : Winners
LC : SF
POTY : Hazard
Top Scorer : Costa
Most improved : I'll take a flyer on Chalobah
Biggest diasppointment: Pedro

Johner

Mikel is at the Olympics, looks like Nigeria will go far as well.

Unbelievable that our defence is worse than it was last season when it was a disaster.

hots

Johner wrote: »

Mikel is at the Olympics, looks like Nigeria will go far as well.

Unbelievable that our defence is worse than it was last season when it was a disaster.

Keep forgetting that. It's really poor that we are in a situation where Terry has to play 90mins every game else we're fckued. Worse than last year.

duploelabs

Every year! It's like we're at a new years ball and the countdown has begun, but we're too busy messing to find someone to score when the clock strikes midnight.

peteeeed

afternoon gossip

– Napoli are close to signing Torino centre-back Nikola Maksimovic, which could pave the way for Kalidou Koulibaly to join Chelsea (Gazzetta dello Sport)

-Everton will refuse to sell Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea and are set to open contract talks with the striker (Daily Express)

– AC Milan have targeted Chelsea winger Juan Cuadrado and are considering a €30million bid for the Colombian (Corriere Dello Sport)

– Inter Milan and Napoli have lined up moves for Diego Costa after Atletico Madrid ended their interest in the Chelsea forward (Corriere dello Sport)

GavRedKing

Options at CB if JT are out are Ivanovic, Aina, Clarke Salter, Miazga.

None of those fill me with confidence TBH.

GavRedKing

Also, Andy fecking Carroll always scores against us.

duploelabs

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/in-chelseas-transfer-strategy-the-same-mistakes-as-last-year-are-apparent?

LightningBlue

duploelabs wrote: »

http://www.umaxit.com/index.php/columns/in-chelseas-transfer-strategy-the-same-mistakes-as-last-year-are-apparent?

I'd agree with a lot of what Joe says in that article. For the second season in a row we're hung up about 1 particular player (Stones/Koulibaly) and waste a whole summer before panicking and signing cheap filler when the squad lacks starter quality depth.

Jose really hollowed out the squad during his second term leaving us with a bare first 11 and 4/5 depth and kids filling in the gaps.

Napoli seem to be close to signing Maksimovic so maybe we'll see movement with Koulibaly by the middle of the week but if not we should go out and sign someone like Mustafi or Tah.

GavRedKing

LightningBlue wrote: »

I'd agree with a lot of what Joe says in that article. For the second season in a row we're hung up about 1 particular player (Stones/Koulibaly) and waste a whole summer before panicking and signing cheap filler when the squad lacks starter quality depth.

Jose really hollowed out the squad during his second term leaving us with a bare first 11 and 4/5 depth and kids filling in the gaps.

Napoli seem to be close to signing Maksimovic so maybe we'll see movement with Koulibaly by the middle of the week but if not we should go out and sign someone like Mustafi or Tah.

I'm still hoping that where waiting on someone but we are leaving it very late in the day and the fact we left Rahman go out on loan too makes me hopeful we're after a LB or a good RB.

We should go back after Stones for the craic, really annoy Everton. :pac:

GavRedKing

Im assuming we'll start with a 4-1-4-1 against West Ham, the back line picks itself, unfortunately as I cant see anybody coming in before that and dislodging the current back four.

The main position up for grabs is the RW and 2 CMs slot.

Courtois
Ivan Cahill JT Azp
Kante
?? ?? ?? Hazard
Costa

So 1 player for RW between Willian, Pedro, Traore, Kenedy
and 2 for CM from Matic, Cesc, Oscar, RLC

Lukker-

I'd go with:

Courtois
Ivan Cahill Jt Azp
Kante
Willian Oscar Matic Hazard
Costa


Oscar's always good for a goal in the first 1/4 of the season.

Can't believe we still have the same back 4 as last season going into the first game of this season.

GavRedKing

Lukker- wrote: »

I'd go with:

Courtois
Ivan Cahill Jt Azp
Kante
Willian Oscar Matic Hazard
Costa


Oscar's always good for a goal in the first 1/4 of the season.

Can't believe we still have the same back 4 as last season going into the first game of this season.

Thats the most annoying thing about the whole summer which has been largely good, in terms of performances and fitness work, much much better than last year anyway.

I'd prefer to see Hazard closer to Costa but then that would change it to a 4-4-2 and I dont think this back line has the ability to hold out with only 1 good CM in there in Kante so it'll be a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1.

Johner

Kalidou Koulibaly has told Napoli that, right now, he doesn’t intend to sign a new contract, as #Chelsea make a new bid. [Calciomercato]

I don't care what we pay at this stage as long as we get it done. Will probably take around €50million you'd imagine.

Johner

Chelsea’s new bid for Koulibaly is between €37m & €40m + bonuses. They have offered the player a €3.75m five-year contract. [Calciomercato]

Napoli are against Kalidou Koulibaly’s departure, but #Chelsea’s newest bid is said to be good enough for them to consider. [Calciomercato]

GavRedKing

We're signing Mahrez

SureYWouldntYa

Need a new dream signing to replace Pogba

#MahrezWatch

GavRedKing

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Need a new dream signing to replace Pogba

#MahrezWatch

Messi :pac:

GavRedKing

Stones gone to City, thats another CB off the list.

42m is the apparent figure.

duploelabs

GavRedKing wrote: »

Stones gone to City, thats another CB off the list.

42m is the apparent figure.

Uefa announcing it via their champions league squads
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2017/clubs/club=52919/squad/index.html

GavRedKing

duploelabs wrote: »

Uefa announcing it via their champions league squads
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2017/clubs/club=52919/squad/index.html

Still dont understand Koeman going there, was at the very best a sideways move and I'd fancy Southampton to finish above them at this stage.

LightningBlue

GavRedKing wrote: »

Stones gone to City, thats another CB off the list.

42m is the apparent figure.

City haven't even agreed a fee and they included him in the CL squad. :pac: Someone in Admin is getting fired.

Let's see how "outraged" Everton get over this - seeing how pissy they were about us bidding for Stones last year.

Should mean Mangala is available for a reasonable fee though. He'd be an improvement on what we have anyway.

duploelabs

GavRedKing wrote: »

Still dont understand Koeman going there, was at the very best a sideways move and I'd fancy Southampton to finish above them at this stage.

New owner? Better pay package? Better transfer funds than he's used to? Doesn't like living in Southampton?

GavRedKing

duploelabs wrote: »

New owner? Better pay package? Better transfer funds than he's used to? Doesn't like living in Southampton?

Better pay I'm assuming, have Everton spent anything so far this summer?

BullBlackNova

GavRedKing wrote: »

Better pay I'm assuming, have Everton spent anything so far this summer?

Just £7 million on Idrissa "Better than Kante" Gueye, I believe.

Stekelenberg on a free, too.

Exciting times at Goodison.

GavRedKing

BullBlackNova wrote: »

Just £7 million on Idrissa "Better than Kante" Gueye, I believe.

Stekelenberg on a free, too.

Exciting times at Goodison.

Oh ya, the guy from Villa who played about 36 games and I've never heard of before he moved and some stats came out.

Stones is a City player anyway it seems. City needed to submit their squad list for the qualifying game of the UCL last night and it was they who included Stones on the list, not UEFA. Maybe theyed be interested in Ivanovic or Cahill for Lukaku?

LightningBlue

GavRedKing wrote: »

Oh ya, the guy from Villa who played about 36 games and I've never heard of before he moved and some stats came out.

Stones is a City player anyway it seems. City needed to submit their squad list for the qualifying game of the UCL last night and it was they who included Stones on the list, not UEFA. Maybe theyed be interested in Ivanovic or Cahill for Lukaku?

Everton seem to using some of the Stones money to sign Bony.

The lesser-spotted-Djilobodji transfer seems to started a chain reaction.

Djilobodji to Sunderland
Kone to Everton
Stones to City (officially confirmed as I type)

Everton seem to be using the money to also sign Bony. Does this open the door to Lukaku coming?

Also City will probably make Mangala available for transfer. If we could get him for £25-30 M I'd be happy enough.

cowboyBuilder

It's good that we play on Monday ... we will know exactly what result to get to be top after 1 game.

:P

grumpymunster

LightningBlue wrote: »

Everton seem to using some of the Stones money to sign Bony.

The lesser-spotted-Djilobodji transfer seems to started a chain reaction.

Djilobodji to Sunderland
Kone to Everton
Stones to City (officially confirmed as I type)

Everton seem to be using the money to also sign Bony. Does this open the door to Lukaku coming?

Also City will probably make Mangala available for transfer. If we could get him for £25-30 M I'd be happy enough.

I agree I know he has had a tough time at City but if Mangala is available we could do worse. He certainly is better than Ivan and Cahill and hinself Zouma and Christensen could be a decent bedrock for a good few years together.

GavRedKing

I cant see City letting Mangala go, theyre thin on the ground too with CBs.

Lukker-

Not a fan of Mangala , seems to be Koulibaly or broke.

duploelabs

Chatter about Matic going to Juve as a Pogba replacement, we'll take a certain CB in return

peteeeed

Thiago maia talks

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/thiago-maia-to-chelsea-blues-set-for-talks-over-15m-brazilian-midfielder-a3315491.html

peteeeed

Kouilbaly latest

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/kalidou-koulibaly-to-chelsea-blues-confident-of-deal-for-napoli-defender-despite-rejected-42m-bid-a3315371.html

GavRedKing

duploelabs wrote: »

Chatter about Matic going to Juve as a Pogba replacement, we'll take a certain CB in return

Cant see them selling Bonucci no matter what the price.

City were after him before going for Stones and I can imagine it would have been north of £50m too.

As long as we get about £30m for Matic I'll be happy.

Lukker-

Too close to the season to sell Matic IMO. Unless we had a replacement lined up, keep him. Matic and Kante would shut down most teams in the league.

GavRedKing

Lukker- wrote: »

Too close to the season to sell Matic IMO. Unless we had a replacement lined up, keep him. Matic and Kante would shut down most teams in the league.

Matic of 2014/15 yes, Matic of 2015/16 couldnt shut down his laptop.

We're very well stocked in CMs so selling one isnt going to kill us, especially on the back of a severly reduced work load in terms of games.

The longer the CB issue drags on the longer we look weak in the market, got off to a good start with Batshuayi and Kante followed quickly enough but our most glaring position(s) still havent been filled, its annoying.

Lukker-

GavRedKing wrote: »

Matic of 2014/15 yes, Matic of 2015/16 couldnt shut down his laptop.

We're very well stocked in CMs so selling one isnt going to kill us, especially on the back of a severly reduced work load in terms of games.

The longer the CB issue drags on the longer we look weak in the market, got off to a good start with Batshuayi and Kante followed quickly enough but our most glaring position(s) still havent been filled, its annoying.

We have good options but if we sold Matic, Kante's cover would be Mikel and Chalobah. Too light.

GavRedKing

Lukker- wrote: »

We have good options but if we sold Matic, Kante's cover would be Mikel and Chalobah. Too light.

Era, with Mikel, Chalobah, Kante, Cesc, Oscar, RLC an dAinas played CDM for the youths, we have more than enough to fill a 3 man CM or 2 man CM.

If we do sell Matic, the only thing I'd want is a profit on his sale and if it promotes Chalobah, whos looked tidy in pre-season then so be it.

GavRedKing

Now, ideally, a CM of Matic, Kante, Cesc all on form is a very viable CM, the problem is getting Matic and less so Cesc, back to the best of what they can offer.

I trust COnte though but we cant make it a 3rd summer window without purchasing a 1st choice CB.

GavRedKing

Apparently we've bid €50m for Koulibaly.

Its going to be like last seasons John Stones saga all over again isnt it?

GavRedKing

We've definitely got the coolest manager in the league anyway.

grumpymunster

GavRedKing wrote: »

Apparently we've bid €50m for Koulibaly.

Its going to be like last seasons John Stones saga all over again isnt it?

No Gav worse as we have been down this road already

Johner

Abraham just scored again for Bristol City.

GavRedKing

Matic expressed his desire to start a new chapter elsewhere - he has gone about this in a very professional & respectful way (via @DiMarzio)

Lukker-

Unless we can sign a replacement and we are getting crazy money for him, bad time to sell with the season so close.