I hope we get Traore's paperwork done and make him official. Him and Wallace have been the completely unexpected bonuses of this tour.

Traore seems like a real prospect, another great finish today! Amazing really considering he wasn't on our radar before this Asian tour started. Good to see Romelu bagging another couple of goals today, let's hope this is a sign of things to come! Looking forward to seeing our players tested a bit more on the US tour.

Some great performances in preseason so far. Lukaku has been amongst the goals which is good to see. Traore has come from nowhere to be one of the top performers so far, as has Wallace. I know Jose has mentioned Wallace is to go out on loan but surely we could use him in our squad as cover. He'd be great to add depth to the squad.

He's also said Chalobah and Piazon will be going out on loan. Both have said they want to be playing in the Premier League this season so they can challenge to be in the Chelsea team next season. That's good ambition by both of them and would like to see us loan them out to Premier League clubs only. That way they are playing at this level and gaining the experience ready to come back to us for the following season.

I notice McEachran is also to go out on loan. Surely by now we have to make a decision on whether he is going to make our first team squad or not. How many times has he been loaned out now? If we don't think he's good enough maybe we should allow him to join a club that will give him an opportunity in the first team.

And also, why has Thorgan gone back to Zulte Waregem? Surely he should have been looking to play at a club on a different or higher level so he can progress. Don't see the point in this one but if he can have another good season there maybe it puts him into consideration for the following season.

Overall have been impressed with the team so far in pre-season. We have a lot of top talent which if they perform to their potential could be very successful. On to the USA for the next part of pre-season.

Will you all be glad to see the back of torres should he leave?

We have 2 right-backs already, plus Kalas played there last season. Wallace won't get any time with us.


I wouldn't be sorry to see Torres go even if we failed to bring in a replacement. Removing the burden of having to find room for him would be a huge relief to a lot of people at the club.

Azpilicueta / Mata / Torres / Mikel / Luiz / Oscar have been added to the squad for the America trip, and Wallace / Piazon / Traore () / Chalobah () / Feruz / McEachran have been removed.

I would be sorry to see him leave without finding a replacement. But we need to start treating him like any other player, and forget his price tag.

I haven't seen any of the pre-season games, so I've been thrilled by the reports from you guys. The future looks bright, but shouldn't we still be looking for that powerful defensive midfield presence that has been missing ?
I still think we're a couple of players short of a title winning team for next season, and I can't see us making much impression in the CL.

Nope not at all.

Yes he has not set the league on fire over the last two seasons but league wise the whole team has been pretty poor for both those seasons. The Champions League win while was amazing and great we have to remember we finished outside of the top 4 which with the investment and the tools and the level of the league should have seen alot more head roll that actually did.

Playing wise he has played at a decent level for us, Had some injuries etc which would not have helped.

But overall, He has done a top job for the team over the last two seasons. Hopefully he will stay I would like to see what Jose could do with him.

Kalas is also a centre back, so kind of a mini Ivanovic and his eventual successor. Bertrand has looked quite good in preseason and may take over from A Cole, but our present and future right side is much stronger.

I'm with you on Torres. His price tag has affected all our team selections, which has hampered our PL progress, since he arrived. He's also one of our top earners and still has a few years on his contract. It's a shame Rafa didn't want him for Napoli.

Yep, definitely. I'd like to see Essien against tougher opposition next week, but we're still 1 light in that department.

All gone quiet regarding transfer this past week. I thought arranging the Roma friendly would have made things a lot more clear regarding de Rossi.

Diddnt Jose say we are only after Rooney now? I think our business is done part from possibly Rooney in, and Torres out.

Nice article on the asia tour in the guardian today here

Some info here on the Bertrand Traore situation:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...helsea-2093954

Lets hope we can sign him as he does have a lot of hype around him. Hoping we can get him then send him out on loan somewhere for a couple of years to let him develop.

It's a good piece, well written but extraordinarily optimistic in my opinion.

My worry, amidst all this optimism, is...are we very different to last season ? Up front, we appear to be putting an awful lot of responsibility on Lukaku's broad, but very young, shoulders. There's nothing to suggest we'll get any more from Torres, if Mourinho can get him back to the player of old, then he really is a magician.
Then there's our weakness in defensive midfield, we were overwhelmed a few times last season. Against Man City I remember the phrase "men against boys" being touted.
Will the return of Essien make a difference ? He will have to be used very sparingly in any case. Otherwise we are back to the old dilemma of choosing between Lampard, Mikel and Ramires along with new boy Van Ginkel (if he's ready for PL action)

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about all the young players we have been signing, and those that are coming through. But I don't see our immediate prospects for next season as being significantly better than last year.

I share your concern about Torres and have no expectations that Jose can get any more out of him, but I think Jose will drop him if he isn't performing. He is a bit of a random factor this coming season as he might be playing for his place with the Spain squad, but I don't think anyone is relying on him. I'm expecting more goals and assists from the 2nd year guys like Hazard, Oscar and Moses now they've been with us for a while and hope Schurrle and de Bruyne also contribute. We're putting a lot of pressure on Lukaku, but he will have help and he's good enough so he's ready.
I would feel better about the DM position if we had brought in de Rossi, but Essien and van Ginkel have looked okay in pre-season so fingers crossed they don't get broken. I think the article reflects the optimism from having a pretty exciting squad, but also the Jose factor where we expect him to see all our problems and fix them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...hos-plans.html

Probably bs as I doubt Jose would give them a blue print, but interesting how they think the retunees will fit into the new world. Mata on the right is something I had never considered.

I wouldn't disagree with any of that. Well, perhaps the bit about Essien and Van Ginkel..I think you're being very optimistic there, but I hope you're right.
I suppose the main difference this year is less about quality and more about having plenty of alternatives. There shouldn't be any excuses about having too many games, players being tired etc. Schurrie must me better than Marin, and De Bruyne offers cover for any of our attacking midfield players.
It's just a little bit disappointing after all our speculation about which world class striker would be arriving, and our hopes of signing a defensive midfield enforcer/playmaker.

I'm surprised there isn't more speculation about Fellaini as his release clause is reasonably priced for a proven premier league player.

Sure Fellaini's release clause expires this week. Really shocked somebody hasn't gone for him.

The Mourinho factor will be enough to see a significant improvement in the league but, compared to the best teams - past and present - we have far too many areas in need of an upgrade.

If Mourinho can get Luiz to cut out the mistake we *should* be able to get through another season with him and Terry as first choice. If he cant, or if Terry really has lost it, we're screwed in that area. Kalas is good, but unproven at this level. We really should be looking to bring someone in and maybe moving Ivanovic on, or, loaning Kalas for a year and bringing him in for Ivanovic next summer. With Terry nearing the end and Ivanovic coming off the back of a poor season there is still room for improvement without damaging the long-term chances of Kalas and Omeruro (if they continue to impress).

If we play as we did before under Mourinho Ramires will likely be first choice in CM. If he's paired with a new DM I'd be happy to see either Lampard or Essien complete the 3. If we're left with 2 of Essien/Lampard/Mikel, that's not good enough. I'd look to play de Bruyne or Oscar deeper, but It doesn't sound like that's part of our plan. That's really the weakest area of our team. van Ginkel looked better in his last appearance but I'm still not too sure what his main role will be.

Attacking midfield......I still don't see the point in signing Schurrle if Mourinho's preference is to play him on the left. It sounds like he'll be pushing Mata out to the right. de Bruyne also looked good on the right in is last game. We're more than covered there.

Up-front.....a 30 goal striker would be a big advantage but we have more than enough goals in us to compensate for missing out on our 2 targets. Lukaku will only get better the more he plays, so we *should* be fine.


As much as I'm looking forward to the new season I can't shake the feeling that - Jose aside - most of my optimism comes from the fact that Fergie is gone and United haven't signed anyone yet. Man City will be much better, but they still have 1 or 2 positions that need improving. We'll start as most peoples favourites but I'm not sure it will be for the right reasons...

You're expecting a return to 4-3-3 ? You could be right. I don't suppose it makes a whole lot of difference apart from Jose's preference for using wingers.
None of our trio of midfield maestros were used as conventional wingers before, they were more or less interchangeable during games, which I quite liked.
The defensive qualities of our midfield still worries me. Without a new signing, whatever permutation you use, it still looks fragile for games when we are under pressure.
It looks like a competition between Oscar and de Bruyne for the deeper playmaking role if we play that formation. For me that's one of the problems of not having a real quality holding player, you have to do a "belt and braces" job to compensate, perhaps leaving out a more creative player.

I'm actually more optimistic about Ivanovic than you. He's had a longish poor spell, but before that he was widely praised as one of the best CB's in the Premiership. That wasn't long ago either, only the beginning of last season ?

The titlw will be between yourselves and united. City havent bouggt that well in my opinion

The way he's spoken about Mata in recent days makes me think its what he's leaning towards. That formation would certainly get the best out of Ramires....I know it was against inferior opposition but he looked so much better there the other day. The level of energy he brings would be incredibly important when paired with any of Mikel/Lampard/Essien.
Good thing about Jose is that he's prepared to send us out with more than 1 way to play - unlike roughly 99% of other managers out there, going by recent seasons.....

Ivanovic is still a very good player, but we have a number of options at CB now with none of them really standing out as first choice (I know, everyone else disagrees). Kalas can cover both RB and CB, so if we brought another we'd have one too many and one would have to leave. Cahill has the 'advantage' of being English.

edit: Having said that, Jose sees him more as a RB anyway, so it could be Azpil who ends up missing out.

That pretty much sums up how how I feel too at this stage. We've signed Schurrle and van Ginkel - neither of whom we particularly needed when taking into account last season's loan players we had returning. A little extra squad depth is of course never a bad thing, but we haven't really addressed the more pressing issues in the starting XI. The best signing so far is Schwarzer, seeing as we've been crying out for a decent back-up to Cech for a long time now.

For me, theres been a lot of praise for us, our squad, our pre season friendly results and ofcourse the return of Jose in the media. And many are picking us out as favourites now that Fergie is gone, and Man City have got a new manager who has never won a major title before in europe.

I still think we arent much better off than last season really, part from a few recalls and a couple of squad players, our team hasnt improved immensely. Yes you can argue we have buckets of potential but i am still unsure whether we can pull it all together into a top top side, espeically for a bunch of players who are pretty inexperienced(except Cech, Terry, Essien, Lampard, Cole etc). The old guard really have to lead the way for the new guys and show them how to win. They could be the key rather than any of the young ones really.

I think a lot relies on Jose right now to somehow get our squad running as a top quality team. I hope he can do it, but it remains to be seen really. I still think we look a bit light weight and the balance in our squad still isnt great(way too attacking focused), Jose will have a big job on his hands to get us as tight as we were when he was last here, and become that unstoppable juggernaut that we were before. I do think we will be vulnerable in the big games, compared to when we were big game specialists under him and had players like Drogba who could bully any team into submission. Really need Hazard and Oscar to step up and fill his boots really, and start making game winning decisions.

I would still argue that our squad isnt the best in the league, i think Man Citys and Utds edges us for sheer experience / quality, whereas we have more potential to improve than them.

Anyone else think we should make a cheeky bid for Milner? Cant see him getting much game time at city now, i always liked him despite the critics he got before. Seems a good workhorse and would give us another option in midfield.