Indeed.

Knowing my luck, he'll be banging in the goals for fun, next year.

Arsenal beat 4th from bottom Aston Villa yesterday and yet again they are going to win the league next season. We best watch out

And renewing walcotts contract is as good as a 40m signing!

Poor arsenal fans

As usual, they looked incredibly impressive against an opposition team that just didn't turn up. To be fair, they do have some excellent attacking midfield players who really look the business when things are going well. But I have a feeling it will be the same old Arsenal when they come up against stronger teams. They just don't have a plan B.
I might start getting worried if they sign a world class striker, another DM player, at least one more CB, and take Petr Cech from us. Otherwise, it'll be the same again for the Arse in my opinion.

Even then we would have to do nothing transfer wise in the summer. Plus it would depend more on the type of player they bought then what position they bought in. If Wenger changed his mentally and his obsession with "playing the right way" then they might be a threat for the title but it would need a massive amount of work and Chelsea,Utd and City to have a truly awful summer

Reading the Arsenal thread it seems the Gooners have even ripped off our Cesc song.
We should be flattered.

Please tell me it's not for that waste of space Wiltshire who looked like a total C in his hat and sunglasses (and C doesn't stand for Cesc)

Yes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery..as they say.

I see Arsenal are being strongly linked with Vidal from Juventus. I hope that doesnt come off, he's always been one of my favourite DM players and would be a great addition. I'm surprised though, we showed interest a couple of years ago and it sounded like he wasn't interested in leaving Juve or Italy.

Apparently he is not going to arsenal

more likely united

And to think that lot call us the chavs. They should look a bit closer to home.

did anyone tell Neymar this?

You took a long time to respond to that post? Not to worry.

In the confederations cup Oscar was the best player, thats the tournament before the WC.

I only just saw it.

I know full well what the Confederations Cup is, cheers. Neymar was awarded the Golden Ball for that tournament, I seem to remember, and Oscar wasn't even in the team of the tournament.

regardless, there was no such responsibility on Oscar going into the World Cup, except in your own imagination.

Finding our post season tour of the far east a bit odd. I know why we are doing it, but it all seems a bit pointless, guess it lets our reserves get a run out.

It's something that will become more and more popular during seasons when their is no international football during the summer.

It will have bought in quite a bit of cash and put the brand out there that little bit more.

I read they are expecting 83000 at our game in Sydney.
Easy to see why they have gone.

According to The Sun, Costa wants to go back to Spain.

1)It's The Sun
2)There have got the story from Marca

You might as well go and ask the dog who just won BGT for the news

Nice to see some experimentation by JM during the close season: http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest...v-chelsea.html

There's some very promising youngsters there including European youth champions. Costa wants to go back to Spain?! He doesn't seem totally happy, but doubt he'll quit. The problem imo is the rough and tumble of the English game. He'll have to calm down and become more adapted imo.

I don't think he should be constantly played as a lone striker either. Drogba even struggled at times there and was quoted as wanting to quit at the end of a few seasons before he eventually left (first time). Imo, Jose should rotate a bit more and vary the formation a bit more next season. Otherwise, it could be the same old, same old, Costa getting wound up, and losing form / getting injured all too often.

This is why JM is such a successful manager. Many years ago, Liverpool introduced far too many young, inexperienced players into their team and over night went from being one of the best teams in the world to the 'spice boys'. I couldn't agree with Jose more:

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest...f-respect.html

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was involved tonight, and the manager had some advice for the midfielder
‘Ruben said he had a pain in his back but what I was feeling was that he only had the pain when Sydney had the ball. When Chelsea had the ball he was playing very well, but when Sydney had the ball I think he was more impressed by watching Matic and Mikel work, instead of him working.

‘So, with Ruben, it’s one step back in terms of my relationship with him. If he doesn’t know what it is to play for me and Chelsea it’s one step back.

‘He has to learn that at 19 you have to run three times more than the others, you have to play to your limits and not play like a superstar with the ball at your feet because this is not Under-18s.

‘The Under-18 competition is too easy for him. He’s too good to play in the Under-18s but I don’t accept that when he’s playing in midfield with Mikel and Matic when we don’t have the ball he doesn’t press, doesn’t have intensity and he’s waiting for everybody else to recover the ball. I don’t accept that in the superstars so how can I accept that in a kid? He has to learn what it takes to play for us.’

We do have a serious issue with regards to "youth players" in this country

There is nowhere for them to play where they get tested enough unless we send them on loan and then we give up a certain amount of control in terms of training and getting them to play the "Chelsea" way. Yes we could go the Arsenal way and just play them but we want to be a successful team so that way is not the way to go. I think it was the Chelsea Man City Youth FA Cup game and you didn't see a real tackle to well into the second half.

They need to play games week in week out where something is on the line, Where one mistake can be the difference between 1st and 2nd.

Matic left Chelsea and experienced playing in important games, I think we was involved in a game where it got to the end of the season where the team he was playing for last game of the season was 1st vs 2nd and winner won the league. We could never give a young player that experience, It's too risky.

I understand why people are against "B" teams in the lower leagues but I think it needs to be looked at. They get the access to players they would normally not get a chance to get,They get access to coaches they would otherwise not have access to and they get help with branding etc and also help with normal costs of running the club.

If we are serious about bringing young talent though then we need somewhere to do it and doing it when we fighting for the title is crazy

a lower league b team like those in spain is the way forward here. It also heeps the close ties with the club and playing at the bridge infront of chelsea fans, instead up north in middlesborough.

A B league could work, and it would avoid the need to loan players out to Championship sides where they definitely get tested, but where they're not playing for the club who owns them and the club they actually want to play for.

Another policy is the way Jose will try to go imo, and that's to slowly integrate youth players, and not bring in too many too quickly. There's also simulation in training, although admittedly there's no substitute for minutes on the pitch in a competitive match.

I don't think they should be playing at the Bridge.

You would not get crowds and playing in half-filled grounds is pointless.

Let them play home games at their own grounds. Wouldn't go down the full team being Chelsea players but we give a lower league team players like Loftus-Cheek who are too good to play the youth team but not good enough to play for Chelsea. We help the club out with players, running the club etc (not running the club but only advise them), We have a much better scouting network so if we see a player who is not good enough for Chelsea but is good enough for them we can help them out etc.

I would rather forge a link with them, One where both sides comes out with something positive.

Smaller companies forge link with bigger ones all the time and its something that I think can work in football more so when the smaller clubs are finding it harder to break even never mind make money

Oh the current policy is something I agree with and think works.

Training will never cut it for me. Our end of season has shown that even teams with a strong winning mentality drop when there is nothing on the game.

But we do have a number of current players who like Loftus-Check are somewhere between the two teams. Some might fall though the cracks unless we start to challenge them.

It could also be used for our senior players who want to get involved with management (or even continue playing), How good would it be for a lower league team to get someone like JT etc, even for his autumn years? They could never afford him but we could. Their attendance would go up and also further sponsorship etc, They could even get involved with coaching etc, Not saying as manager but helping the coach out etc and who knows he might impress the board enough for them to become manager.