Still Champions of Europe [2013-14]

[Sir Didier Drogba]

To be fair to him that story that he "laughed" at being linked with Chelsea was taken out of context a bit, I think he was just saying that he laughed at how random some of the rumours are. Personally I dont think he is the man for us, and also now he has got a taste of Ivanovic I would be worried that one day our Serbian might wake up missing an arm.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Also has anyone else noticed how Ivanovic is the only Serbian in the world who doesnt look intimidating?

 

[Back Door Skip]

Yeah, I'm totally baffled by that.

 

[Mandieta6]

I think he's cuddly, but I reckon he could still destroy 95% of humanity.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

The fact he has that power and chooses not to use it makes him a better man than we shall ever be.

 

[Filipower]

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3234245/title/mourinho-early-report---part-one

'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.

That's really cool. Some good words about Schürrle and van Ginkel, too.

 

[Mandieta6]

Miscellaneous News:

Mou has confirmed that KDB, Lukaku and Kalas (surprise) will stay with the first team this season. I think that rules out a CB coming in unless we sell someone (and we won't). All 3 have a lot of potential and I'm thrilled that Mou sees them as good enough to contribute already. I hope they won't just sit on the bench though.

Some squad numbers have been handed out, you can check them out in the main post. Ba switches to 19, Essien, Josh and Lukaku get their old numbers back, and youths and new players get theirs (barring Schwarzer, for now). The youths who have numbers now are among a group that Mou has signalled as good but not quite ready to feature for us, so I'm hoping they'll go out on loan.

Romeu looks destined to go to Valencia on-loan, that's good.

Drogba is building hospitals in the Ivory Coast, should be made a saint, or at least knighted.

We're in the race for Bruma, it seems, but it's a whole complicated saga, so who knows what's going on.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Don't care about Bruma.

Drogba is an ICON.

I thought Jose had confirmed this about KDB and Lukaku already? Anyway, I am excited for both of them to start playing more often. BUT, I still would like to see a more established player or two arrive in the next month, just to really cement us as title favourites.

Mandieta6 - why does it necessarily rule out a CB coming? I think there is a possibility Jose will marginalize Cahill and we do not know how much Terry is going to play, whilst we would still have Luiz and Ivanovic, and now apparently Kalas, as CBs, Ivanovic needs to cover for Azpi at RB aswell and Kalas cant play THAT often in his debut season, so there still may be room for a big name CB.

What I would like is for us to sign someone big and rotate between him, Luiz and Ivanovic, which Ivanovic also rotating with Azpi at RB and Kalas playing cup matches.

 

[ARIAGA II]

Drogba's a true mensch he's no Kanu though.

 

[MaSsiVe]

We're in the race for Bruma, it seems, but it's a whole complicated saga, so who knows what's going on.

The drama around his "saga" is now reaching epic proportions.
Last major development is him claiming to have been a victim of attempted kidnapping last night by members of the Sporting ultras
His mentor is also saying that it was allegedly ordered by someone from the club, and that they have filed an official complaint to the police.

 

[Filipower]

And Porto might be monitoring the situation!

 

[MaSsiVe]

Never missing a beat

 

[Mandieta6]

Luiz, Ivanovic, Kalas, Cahill, Terry. That's 5 for two spots. Normally you'd need 4, but with 3 of those filling in at other positions and Terry's age and knees, we needed someone else. If Kalas will only play cup games he should go out on loan. Since he's staying, he needs to be utilised. Anyone else shpuld only come if Cahill or Terry (or God forbid Luiz or Bran) are set to leave. We also have Christensen and other youths for cup games, Essien for emergencies, and Omerou and others can be recalled if needed. Any transfer in needs to be balanced by one out, and our two semi-disposable CBs are HG which makes them more valuable to retain.

If van Ginkel is our creative mid, the only other dealings I'd look at are: improving the DM (supplemented by someone leaving), Shaw ir some other young LB, a HG backup GK so Blackman can go get regular minutes elsewhere, maybe a striker (supplemented by either Torres/Ba leaving or Lukaku leaving on loan), a potentially worldclass CB to replace Terry/Cahill. Honestly, if Mou has faith in the youths, I'm fine with the squad. I'd rather transition this year and make Lukaku, KDB, Kalas, van Ginkel, Bertrand and whomever into Chelsea-level players than spend big on the Cavanis and stunt their development.

Also this Bruma kid is apparently very good and his situation means he'll be cheap. I'd sign him.

 

[Mandieta6]

jNew quotes from Mou: Schwarzer completes our set of keepers. (So no new GK, either Hilario is still around or Blackman will stay, neither is ideal but whatever)

He also likes Rooney. Let's see where that goes. I'm actually not averse to it, not entirely anyway.

Chelsea will subsidise fans' travel costs to far away league matches apparently. Does anyone else do that?

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

I dont know. Seems very un-Chelsea.

I dont think we should be worrying about chasing down another keeper. Hilario hasnt signed but hasnt left, maybe he is staying on rolling contract?

I kind of agree with you about CBs BUT you have to remember that Ivanovic is as important as RB cover as he is as CB cover, and I dont just mean cover for injuries, he is our only other first team RB option other than Azpi and Azpi cannot be expected to play every single game. Also that Terry MIGHT be completely done, and even if he is not he may miss a LOT of the season through injury. Also that Kalas MIGHT be an absolute flop. When you consider all these, and that fact that in my opinion Cahill is not better than a backup/cover player and should never be a first team choice in big matches, then I think we could seriously benefit from another top class CB. I very much doubt Terry will last another season beyond this one so it also makes sense to get someone now and bed him into the squad rather than waiting until next summer and being reliant on the new guy from day one.

 

[Mandieta6]

Yeah, I get that. Kalas in the squad means we have another CB/RB like Bran, but I wouldn't mind a new CB if Cahill is sold or Terry is finished. That ssaid, with both Kalas and Omerou showing promise, I think the managemebt would rather promote from within which I think is peefectly good considering the playeers we have available.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

I suppose it depends on what's available. I dont think we should be bidding 40m for someone like Hummels, as much as I would like to see him in blue, but 20m for someone like that Mangala guy would make sense to me, at 22 it doesnt matter if he isnt playing every game this season, but from what I have heard if necessary he could. Selling Cahill for what we paid for him or even slightly more wouldnt seem like bad business to me.

 

[Mandieta6]

Mangala will cost 50m, Marquinhos at least 30-35, even Iñigo will cost 20m. We have 3 pitentially world-class CBs and unless we can get Marquinhos fpr a gpod price I don't think a move for abyone makes sense.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

50m for Mangala? Really? Just because he is Porto? And 30-35 for Marquinhos seems huge considering he plays for Roma who are broke and tend to sell plays cheap. Are you sure about these valuations?

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Arent there any other defenders we can poach from Italy?