And let's look at where we might need to freshen up in the not too distant future.

Ivanovich is in decline and has been for a while.
Is the JT's final season?
Is Cahill really good enough without JT by his side?
Urgently need someone alongside Matic. - Loftus needs an extended run to see if he sinks or swims.
Oscar is living on borrowed time. Needs to shape up or be shipped out.
Moses, Cuadrado, Salah and whatshisname are not good enough!!!!!
How long do we stick with Costa, if he keeps breaking down?
No need to say anything about Mikel and Ramires.

Finally. If our Euro champ youth players are still not going to get a shot, then let's save a lot time, energy and money and close down our academy!
We cannot produce better than the best youth team in Europe, so what is the point if they are never going to get a fair crack???

No point seeing if a player can sink or swim, Until we have taught him how to swim. At the moment all we have done is taught them how to doggy padle.

Yes you can chuck them into the deep end and see what happens or you can teach them and give them all the tools and then see what happens. Which one is more likely to gain results?

Loftus-Cheek is only 19 years old. To put a 19 year old in the insane world of the premiership world today would be totally unfair, FFS its a world where who runs on with the magic sponge is front page news and talk of court cases and sexism. He would go the way of players like Sinclair etc who are more bothered about what they are wearing around their neck and appearing in OK magazine.

It's a world where Cesc one month is the player of the season and the reason a team will win the title and week one into a new month is washed up and the reason that a team wont win the title. There is no point in being good enough if you don't have the right mental strength, We have seen it time and time again with young players with talent. Talent means nothing without the right mental attitude.

You don't invest time and money into a asset without testing it rigorously before putting it into the market place.

At last! How many times do you have to post on this site to get results?!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33989090

nothing in that report indicates a signiture on a contract.

as united have found, wait until you see a picture of a player in a shirt before celebrating

Speak for yourself please. Embarrassing.

19 is plenty old enough!
West Ham threw on a 16 year old at Arsenal, and he acquitted himself pretty well.
We keep ours waiting and waiting and waiting year after year generation after generation.
It's clearly not been the right way to deal with them!

Fabregas. It's simple. Against weaker teams he can play alongside Matic, against Man City etc, no! It's further forward, with Zouma, Ramires of Loftus Cheek playing alongside Matic. Agree with you about Mikel, he needs to move on, but not Ramires. Still a great player with a great attitude.

Yes because playing for West Ham is the same as playing for Chelsea.

OK, then ! Lets continue along the road of holding them back, letting them become bored and stale and sell them on when they're 22. That way has clearly worked wonders and been worth the massive amount of money invested.

A fool is not some who makes a mistake, it's one who keeps on making the same mistakes.

Which one's have gone on to become top class players? Which ones have gone on to this wonderful career? At the very top level?

When we sold them on are we still holding them back? Was they so crushed at not making it at Chelsea that they never got over it? Awwww bless their little cotton socks.

Nobody hold's anyone back, You hold yourself back. If you can be held back then you are never going to make it at the very top.

Yes you will have a nice little career at the likes of West Ham,Villa etc and yes they might pick up some England caps (which soon will be given away with a box of cornflakes).

Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse. There is only one reason players don't make it, It got nothing to do with not being picked for a certain team, Its not because we have johnny foreigner coming over here and taking their places etc. Its not because a manager wont give them a chance. Its because they are not good enough.

You can have fantastic systems in place, You can have the best coaches, You spend millions and millions but at the end of day if the player lacks the right attitude they will not get anywhere but you don't shut down the system because the people coming though the system are not good enough. If our system was producing fantastic players for other top teams like Arsenal's then yes you might have a argument but it's not. You might say we need to be more fussy and picky at who we put in the system but it's near enough impossible to tell at that young age.

You can give someone the tools but if they refuse to use them the right way then its nobody fault but their own.

Today's young players want it NOW, Lamps was about 26 when he won his first title and he went on to be one if not the greatest Chelsea player. There will be players who are better then Lamps but wont have a career anything like what he had.

Not everything should be about NOW, That's where English football has failed time and time and time again, We see a player with talent yet think that's enough. Talent is never enough

What do we think about Sundays game with West Brom? Chelsea have to win this right?

we should win it, yes.

Predictions? I don't think it is going to be easy but 2-0 Chelsea I'd say.

We have been producing top quality youth teams for years and years now. I heard some journo say we have been the best youth set up since the famous ' Busby Babes' yet what have we got to show for it?
Quality youngsters go on to make it all over the world, yet none are coming out of the best team in England
Something is not right with that!

Depends if the fresh blood play any part. If it's the same team I wouldn't be shocked with a draw.
Can't stress how much I don't want Ivanovic to start, but I have no doubt he will......

we need a good result, i would love 3 nil befor half time and 45 minutes watching a new player.

however it will probably be a 0:1 and 15 minutes of clinging on

Do you get all your info from what a jouro's or the media tells you?

Lets make it very easy for you.

Which of these top equality players from these top quality youth teams we have produced have made it at the very top level when leaving us?

There are not that many apart from Matic really that I can think of

If they not making it elsewhere what does that say about them as players?

It says to me they are ok at a certain level but when it comes to stepping up they cannot do it. Ok at Chelsea its because we held them back and did not give them enough football but what's the excuse when they leave Chelsea?

You were against playing RLC in our remaining - dead rubber - matches last season (He/we won't learn anything ), you're against playing him now, and you don't think he can play until he has experience of playing. How exactly do we go about introducing young players to the first team then?

Other countries don't have this problem. it's only England where we don't let people grow up until they're mid-20's.

Not at Chelsea.

He is not good enough for us yet.

That's why we need to loan players to other clubs to bridge the gap between the youth set up and our first team. Bamford at the moment is a bench player for Palace, Are we saying our bench should be the same level as Palace's? They need to be introduced to a decent level of football and one that is competitive (something youth team is not). A strong bench is very important for a team that is aiming for winning big trophies. It's too important to be used to "see if players are ready" or "get them ready"

It's why I think having B teams in the lower leagues would help. A "B" team if you like. Somewhere where they learn how to be a professional football player and all that entails.

The gap between Youth level and a decent league one side is big, The level between youth and a top team in the premiership is massive. You asking way too much for player to bridge that gap. You go from playing in front of a few people to 40k, You go from playing in a game that might get talked about in one or two outlets to being involved in a game that is shown in just about every country in the world.

In actual football news, Moses was apparently injured at the weekend.

The problem with The_don1's thinking is that even if they do go on loan somewhere and get experience we still won't actually know if they'll be a success in our team until we try them in it. I wouldn't mind if we had a squad of world beaters but when the likes of Cuadrado is getting playing time no-one can tell me we'd actually be any worse off giving Kenedy or Traore a shot instead.

Correct. Aside from Hazard, there is no one in our midfield who has played consistently well since the turn of the year (for some, it's years), and our first 3 matches this season have done nothing to convince me that their poor form is going away any time soon. If Jose believes that RCL and Traore are good enough to stay with us this season, then there is no reason to not - at the very least - bump them above Mikel, Cuardado, and Ramires.

A player who might be poor is a big step-up from players who have proven themselves to be utter shit. Hardly a ringing endorsement, but it's what we have right now.

Alexandre Lacazette linked with us.

Him and the addition of stones would be a good window

Doon, you might like this:

According to The Sun, The Star AND The Sport! Pedro is on his way to the Chels'!

Hip, hip hooray..!

Yeah, why not? I doubt our CM options are going to be solved this window anyway, so there's not going to be a better time than now to give RLC a shot. We really lack a powerful box to box player in the big games - someone who can hold the ball under pressure and launch quick counter attacks. Considering we're all aware of Mikel's and Ramires' technical limitations, there's not much to lose if we gamble on RLC.