how terribly cynical

chelsea always was a global brand, supported by true fans not global glory hunters who first heard of liverpool in the 80s.

Easy to forget that Steve Clarke, Brendan Rodgers and AVB all were under Jose when he was last here, theyve gone far since then!

bad news, we have signed andre schurle, is he the new sturridge?

Fingers crossed

With better decision making, of course.

I hope i'm wrong on this, but i fear this signing signals the end for Mata.
If that is the case, then along with Lukaka being in the fold, i can see Jose ripping up everything we've been trying to do over the past couple of seasons. I can see us going backwards to a much more basic, boring style which will put power and pace over style and flair.

I was in two minds about him returning, but if my fears come true, then i would definately be in the camp that wished he had not returned.

Don't be so stupid man, this Mata stuff is all rubbish that the media have created. We have been after Schurrle for ages now and Mata is not going anywhere.

Don't feed the media, this is exactly what they want you to believe.

In hazard, mata and oscar we have three of the worlds top creative midfielders. Yes we are greedy, but they are the absolute future of the club.

Long after terry has gone, and lampard is just a statue, jose long gone for a 2nd time, these players will still be playing at the top of their game.

To get rid of them, to get rid of Mata, would be the single most ridiculous transfer decision the club could make.

Jose doesnt come across as someone who would alienate the entire fans in one swoop, and make the worst possible footballing decision possible.

There might be some truth in Mata being sold or it might be total rubbish, We wont know until the start of the season what the team will be like.

For all we know Mata might want out, He might not want to play under Jose, It might have been him who spoke in spainish after during a team meeting about JT not being happy because he was not playing and Lamps had been taken off, If it was him that is something Jose would not stand for (and if it was him I would have to agree with him being sold). We have been after this player for a while now so maybe there is not too much to read in to it.

I know what you mean about not being sure the return is a good thing or not and I too will wait and see but saying that I do trust him more then I would Rafa and a number of other managers to build a team that will hit the ground running and make a attempt at the title

I feel ridiculous, but winning/ attempting to win the title at any cost (such as selling mata/hazard/oscar) next year is a short term strategy. Im all for not winning in in the next 2 years so we can win it the following 5!

If we was a well run club I would agree, But we not you have to hit the ground running or you gone.

I am not for selling any of those players BUT if one of those players asked to leave or did made a comment in front of players about other Chelsea players but did so in their own language so the player or players did not understand then I would say its time for them to go, I not saying any of this has happened in Mata's case but just saying no player should be unsellable, Sometimes you have to take a bigger view of it all. I dont want Mata to go but if there are reason that he is sold and they are good reason (a transfer request,issues with other players etc) then would accept it

Read back what you are saying.

"made a comment in front of players about other Chelsea players but did so in their own language so the player or players did not understand then I would say its time for them to go"

To leave the club? Hell, i would be more upset of players, in private, were not questioning the fact that some players used to get played week in week out if they were in form or not.

If you think we should get rid of our best player for that, well, i simply cannot disagree more with your opinion.

Dont know much about Schrulle as i cant say i watch Leverkusen at all. From what ive heard hes a decent young player though and can play all across the front line.

I dont think any of the above is correct about Mata, that he may want to leave etc. Rubbish if you ask me, he seems very settled and happy at the club. I think the rumours that he may be off are because we already have 2 other top class number 10s - Hazard and Oscar. The rumours are that Mata is the most sellable of those two as the other two are young and have bags of potential, so their value should only increase. Whereas Mata is likely at the peak of his career(or close to it), so he would be the logical choice to sell out of those 3. We should be able to get £40m+ for him easily, hes a world class player(better than Silva IMO).

If we sell Mata we could then buy Cavani with the money(and keep us within FFP regulations), and still have two other players who can play the mata role, so we wouldnt suffer too much. Also the fact that maybe Jose doesnt fancy playing all 3 in the same team, as they are too similar.

All in all, its a plausible reason, but i doubt its much more than paper rumours unless we do get a huge money offer for Mata. Cant see Jose be in a hurry to sell him if im honest. I think Luiz is more vulnerable as hes still a bit of a loose cannon so i wouldnt be surprised Jose quite happy to sell him for £30m to someone like Barca.

Rightly or wrongly, Jose has been speaking about being more sustainable and relying more on youth players, so selling before we buy might well be the future for the club for a few more season yet. I just cant see us splashing out mega bucks this summer for some reason.

Jose selling one of our star players to Barcelona?

He absolutely hates them. I couldnt see that in a million years.

More likely to see suarez going to United.

I agree with you, selling Mata would be insane. When did we become a club who needed to sell our best player in order to finance other transfers ? Mata was the only player who remained consistently on top of his game throughout the season. Without his goals/assists where would we have finished ?
I'm sincerely hoping that it's all rubbish, otherwise I can see a mighty backlash against Mourinho before the season has even started.

On a lighter note, Cavani's mum says little Edinson has had no talks with Chelsea, and will most likely be going to Man City or Real Madrid. Time for Jose to pay a visit to mum and use his famous charm.

Schurrie is a decent signing, but I still don't know why we were so determined to get him. I can't see him making an enormous difference to the team ? Sometimes I wonder at our priorities.

Jason Cundy is talking crap on TalkSport about Mata, he's saying that Mata isn't a world class player because he's not really quick . Having pace is not what qualifies you as a world class footballer, it's a great thing to have, but not the attribute that makes you world class.

Chelsea board, remember that time we missed out on signing Aguero because we('d already pissed away £74m a few months earlier) took too long to get it done?

Get Cavani over and done with FFS

Cundy talking rubbish and you seem surprised?

Mata is utterly fantastic and would walk into (and improve) pretty much any team. Towards the end of last season he was absolutely knackered - this is why we need three top class playmakers, even if they have to be rotated and start from the bench.

Out of any of our players, he would be my first name on the teamsheet and the very last person i would ever contemplate selling.

Its a madness that even CFC couldnt even contemplate.

Mata, Hazard and Oscar all have different qualities anyway. I would say Mata is the more natural playmaker. Hazard is capable of playing a more direct role, and we have seen Oscar playing deeper than either of the other two.

Keep them all, there's plenty of players we should be releasing/selling before we even contemplate our magic trio.

Ok its looking less like we will get cavani.

Would a front 3 of Torres, Ba and Lukaku be enough to challenge next season?

I suppose a lot would depend on Lukaku. Will he burst on the scene and take the Premiership by storm. He's already shown enough potential, but can he take that up another couple of levels ? He's still very young, but sometimes that's an advantage..no fear or hang-ups.

Given the talent behind them in the midfield, yes.

Well lets give it a go then.

Im really looking forward to Lukaku bullying defenders allowing hazard to postage stamp it.

I would rather we didn't just throw another obscene amount of money at our problems and give what we already have a chance. Hope Lukaku is up to it, but would rather he got at least 20 starts this season than buy a Cavani for £50+ million. The eventual price of Schurrle for 18 million sounds fair given his background and prior experience. I have no idea how Kevin de Bruyne could ever have been mentioned as part of that deal given he is already worth considerably more. Lets hope we do things smarter during the second coming. Giving Lukaku and de Bruyne a chance with the squad is a very good start. Improve the players we already have and give them the same mindset and steel he gave to the guys in 2003. I think Jose is very good at the psychological stuff and should be able to inject some sorely needed belief into the team.
On Mata or Luiz leaving, I'll believe it when it happens. I don't think we would sell just for cash or to finance other unproven in England purchases and Luiz in particular is starting to look like a leader.

I wouldn't be too down if we started the season with what we have, but I'd be a lot more confident if we had one of Lewandowski/Falcao/Cavani leading the line. Lukaku is potentially great, but I wouldn't bet on him to be the one starting most games. I have no faith in Torres and Ba was only ever a stopgap. My worry is that we would get to January and panic-buy again...and, also, that Cavani will end up at City. Aside from making them a much better team it would also pave the way for Dzeko to come to us. He's not so good they wouldn't consider letting us have him.


We'll be much better for sorting out the defensive side of our game. All quiet on that front.

Nathan Ake looked the part the few times I saw him in DM and Romeu will surely be uninjured by the start of the season. While they haven't shown enough to be regulars, I'd hope they would also get a good run in the cups and a few starts in the league. Same with McEachran if he doesn't go back on loan. We have a huge backlog of on loan players who should be reviewed before we spend any more money.
After the Torres buy, I'm wary of any big spends (even on Cavani) as I don't see the value and I hated the concept of a galacticos team when Madrid did it. Ideally I'd like Jose to put together a team that is greater than the sum of its individual parts like Dortmund/Everton rather than what we seem to be going for which is a bunch of extremely talented individuals who underperform a lot as a whole.