Jose returning and SAF leaving was always going to make us favourites no matter the qualities of our players. Its just how football is going nowadays. As long as we finish third and point wise single numbers away from first (and in with a shout of the title until the last couple of weeks) I will be a happy bunny, No manager can change a team that was lucky to finish 3rd (some blame to the manager at the time I admit) into Champions over night. We still at least 3 players away from genuine title contenders moreso when its looking like we are no getting the players needed, Whereas Utd would only need one player to give them a massive headstart and getting him is still up in the air at the moment (unlikely but possible). We have lived by the seats of our pants the last two seasons with regards to what we have won and Jose on the training pitch for a couple of months is not going to change that, Its going to take time for us to get back to the level we should be

I'm a bit bewildered by our dealings in this transfer window. We pursued Schurrie and finally bought him. But that was set in motion long before the arrival of Mourinho, Jose has hardly spent any money at all.
Why Schurrie was considered so important baffles me as well. Moses can operate from either wing, and provide a few goals. We also had de Bryune returning, and he seems to be quite versatile..not to mention Piazon. If we are being careful what we spend (because of the FFP rules) surely a defensive midfield player would have been the priority ?
I can understand the position up front. With the return of Lukaku, spending a fortune on a world class striker without finding a buyer for Torres wouldn't have made economic sense. But we are still in the market for Rooney, so that kind of blows my reasoning there out of the water ?
Yep. I'm puzzled. Is Jose really perfectly satisfied with the squad he has inherited ? He's been buying some interesting players for the future, so does he look on Chelsea as a long-term commitment this time ?..that'll be a first !

Rooney at around 30 million makes sense, Shirt sales and added sponsership we will get plus having Englands number 1 striker all makes it a very good piece of business for us. Buying Rooney is less of a risk then anyone else who is available.

Jose has not been there long and we have a number of youngsters who have got to be put into the first team so am not really surprised at our spending so far. Think we keeping our powder dry for maybe the next window or next season when we can access what we need (can JT and Lamps,Ash etc still do the job). We have or should have enough to get into the top 3 at the moment so its not that much of a concern, If Spur's was to sell Bale and put the money into players or Liverpool started to buy big our policy might be different but at the moment I think its spot on for a change

Kalas is out for a month and Wallace is about to sign for Inter. Glad he'll be getting regular football...just a shame it'll be in a league so bent/tedious.

The Independent reporting that Chelsea are preparing a final "take it or leave it" bid of £40m for Rooney. Seems unlikely to me, but who knows ?
Other sources claim that Valencia are interested in signing Torres for £20/25m. Again it seems unlikely, could they pay his current wages ?
Yet other reports are again linking us with Khedira, but I thought Mourinho has said several times that Rooney is our only target ?

And so it goes on..

I saw the Torres rumours last night and thought it unlikely. They'd pretty much be swapping Soldado? if he goes to Spurs for Torres (who's a year older) and a couple of million. Would make no sense for them.

Buying Rooney for 40m and selling torres for 25million would represent good business for chelsea in my opinion.

I agree, it would be great for us. Just don't see what Valencia would get out of it.

Spain seen to still hold torres in high regard. It is my guess, that in the absence of the rather negative English media and punditry, that clubs in Spain may see what Torres has won.

(The Champions League, The Europa League, European and world cups. The golden boot (and scoring 4 in one game) in the confederations cup would not do any harm neither.)

They may see the goal against Barca and the goal in the Europa final and think he still has it.

Valencia probably wouldn't be able to afford Torres even if they sold their entire squad.

Cant see Valencia buying Torres for £20m+, he could go on loan though.

Last i heard about Rooney was that Man Utd dont want to sell him until after we play them at the end of August ,and therefore we had to wait till after that match. I think it will be a protracted saga of the summer but we might well end of getting him. £40m is a bit much for me, £30m would be a good price.

I agree, 25 to 30m would be more realistic. But it seems that we are a "rival" and without Rooney handing in a transfer request and kicking up a fuss, we may have to pay a premium.

I think it would be a good signing, but it will certainly put torres' nose out of joint. I dont think we have room for 4 strikers, even though everyone says that a team needs 4 strikers!

We have not addressed the two crucial areas of the team that needed huge improvements, so we are looking at yet another season of scratching for a CL place.

Ba and Moses will turn out to be two more Mikel's - blatantly not good enough but kept on in the blind hope that oneday they might be.
I still think Lukaka is a crude lump who is way short of title contending team level.
Torres is a useful squad player, but sadly nothing more.

I said at the start of last season i'd be happy with a top 4 place with no trophies, and i'll say that again with what we have as of now.

We will be turning into the new Arsenal the way things are going.

That's a bit harsh. There are a lot of clubs who would be only to pleased to take that "crude lump" off our hands. I think he's made remarkable progress considering his age, they still talk about players of 25 "learning the game", Lukaku is barely 20.

Ba was only meant to be a short term fix, and after that a useful squad player. Moses I'm less sure about our intentions when buying him, but again he's ok as a squad player.
Torres was a massive and costly mistake, but he's still better than a few well known names that have changed hands for big money recently..in my opinion.
Even if we eventually have world class players in every position, we will still need decent squad players as back up.

I agree with your first point though, we haven't really addressed the two crucial areas. We are relying on Lukaku to immediately produce the goods up front, which is a gamble. And we've done nothing to strengthen our defensive midfield frailties..except bring back Essien, another gamble.

Lukaku is not a "crude lump" in my opinion, he is barely 20 and has already had a fantastic season at west brom - where he was on the bench for most games. In pre season he looked sharp and certainly knows where the goal is. It was a very shrewd signing, and at the moment we have doubled our money on him. He could well be the drogba of our team for the next 12 years. Im really looking forward to seeing him play.

Ba was a useful player but Rafa seemed to ruin him. At 7 million he is another player we can either keep on the bench or sell for more money than we paid.

We dont seem to have made any signings yet, but neither have some of our rivals. Only city have strengthened.

If we manage to take rooney from united that would be a huge swing towards the blues, and severely weaken them. If, as suggested in the press, it will go to the wire then that would suit us as united will not have time to spend their money.

I am pretty certain Utd don't need any money from a Rooney sale to go and purchase any players... I'd also wager that if Rooney is going we'll have started planning for it weeks ago when this furore all started... if we haven't they yes, we're stupid with an incredible lack of planning.

I do agree that it'd be a big swing for you, it's not so much that we'd miss him (we will clearly), but it would be the first time a player has left for one of our direct rivals in recent history and that tells a tale in itself.

Interesting that the golden boot winner and holder of all the trophies in the world ever looks like he's off out on loan to Valencia, is this real talk or just lazy journalism?

Like most things until they are signed, it is utterly impossible to tell thanks to the current state of the majority of UK sports media journalists.

It's certainly difficult to separate fact from fiction with all the rumours. I like the idea of Rooney, he would perfectly compliment the players we have already. He could play just behind a front man like Lukaku, or up front on his own.
My worry (apart from the money involved) would be his fitness and temperament. Why is he so keen to leave United ?..just because he now has to share the starring role with RVP ?
I mean, we all know he's not the brightest guy in the world, but that's just plain stupid.
He will be coming to a club with a host of young stars, the Chelsea fans don't owe him anything, so he's going to have to prove himself to win us over. I wonder if he's really thought it through ?

Sorry, double post.

Sometimes you just need a change with regards to where you work. He has been there a long time now and with him falling down the pecking order he might just feel it time to move on.

Chelsea fans always give their players time (although not certain managers). We even stayed behind Robert Fleck (and still do ha ha). I think a new club will give Rooney a massive push and we will see the player Utd bought.

Always had the feeling he one of the players that the manager needs to put his arm around every day and tell him how amazing he is etc

I agree with the above. He has become a bit-part player under SAF and it possibly looks like the relationship with Moyes wasnt 100% healed neither. Even though i believe some of the moyes quotes have been twisted, there could still be truth in him playing robin persie and putting rooney on the bench.

For Rooney to swap that to come and play for Jose, to play a huge part and to play up front with players like Ocsar, Mata and Hazard behind you - it must be tempting.

For you night owls, Chelsea v Inter is on Chelsea TV, 12.45am Friday morning.

Really ? He's coming from Man Utd and his name's Rooney.

He'll need to hit the ground running in my opinion, or perhaps you just have more faith in the good nature of our fellow fans.

Of course, it may never happen.

We had a player who's name was Torries and he came from Liverpool and on the whole (get the few idiots) without hitting the ground running (more crawling then anything) he has had the fans onside and I think the same would happen with Rooney. I admit we will have people moaning if he dont score a hat trick every game and 10 goals against Utd but those are normally the people who judge players from watching you tube. He is more then able to hit the ground running and unlike Torries was when we bought him he was still playing well for his club.

Yes it could all be another waste of money but out of all the goalscorers we been linked with lately this one makes the most sense. Any signing is a risk but this one for me is a educated one

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-articl...al-for-hilario

Surprised to see Hilario has signed a new one-year contract. I'm guessing that means Blackman will either be back with the reserves or out on loan somewhere. Hopefully the latter, as that should be much more valuable for him than sticking around as third choice keeper.