chelsea were very poor last night

Over a cup of lemon tea, browsing through the days news:

The Star reports that Conte and the Board both agree that the current squad is too weak. As recommended, Kante has now joined and that's a very wise signing. PL experience, a PL winner, industrious and skillful. A Makalele type player who can also get forward. If Matic returns to form, him and Kante in central MF will take some beating by any team. There is rumour of Matic moving on though, so maybe it will be Mikel and Kante

Conte is also talking about bringing Cuadrado back. Now the lad took a lot of stick on this thread, but can we really consider his spell at Chelsea genuine? Mourhino was in charge, the individual who made De Bruyne look so ordinary. A clip from his Juventus loan shows a completely different player, and I think Conte could get a lot more out of him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh9im76z558

Still need a world class CB, and if Conte does opt for a back three at times, how about Zouma on the right, Cahill and another fast, world class CB? I'm assuming Terry is cover mainly this season, plus coaching and that Branna has moved on. Not sure about Rahman being good enough, although he is young, and Azpi needs a break every now and then.

There's still a few Oscar fans around, and I'm happy to get a free lager (not including Kronenburg, Heineken or premium bottled brands) for the first lad who can give one good reason why the club should keep him?

Come on the Chels'!

How can you say that Conte and the board agree that the squad is too weak, and then in the same paragraph state that our midfield could be kante and mikel?

There are few questions where mikel is the answer, one of which is "who should be next out the door?"

Cuadrado had a good loan season, and having invested 27million in him we should definitely give him another chance. Our team lacks pace and he could bring that back to us. Its another reeason to give moses a bench too.

As for your final point, im sorry that i do not have chance to win your competition.

In a world where a terrible defender may cost City 53 million because of "potential", we should keep oscar.

I dont want him to become another KDB, who everyone could see we needed to keep him. That was a massive mistake by jose. what an idiot.

Just stop please. You really do not help yourself at any time with your childish posts like this. Lets at least try and be mature adults

As for Moses he is the best pre-season player in the country once the season starts he will go back to a below average player

We lost a pre-season game like that has never happened before

It was a game where the most important aspect was the opening of their new ground (any game of football where Emenalo gets a round of applause and bought out in front of the crowd is a pointless)

It was no more of a extended training kickabout

"We certainly need to work and shake out some skeletons from last season, that is without doubt. In some situations, especially at the start, the team was very deep and too defensive. That's not what Chelsea are about."

"We need to change the mentality in that sense, but I have at my disposal a group of lads who are ready to work."

Hopefully that eases some of your concerns! Everything about Conte has been a breath of fresh air. He's exactly the type of character we need at this moment. The only major thing we need to do now is to upgrade our defence. I don't think I can handle another season of watching our defenders making the same mistakes.

Of course and a good few of our players aren't even back yet....
To be concerned at all about yesterday would be ridiculous.

Lemon tea and The Star ? That does not compute. Anyone looking at the Star (I can't bring myself to say reading) is usually searching around for any dregs left in cans of Special Brew.
Anyway, I don't disagree with everything you say, which is unusual. But Kante and Mikel ? You cannot be serious. But if Matic can get his mojo back, I'd agree we're set up nicely in central midfield.
Also agree that we desperately need a world class CB. Problem is, I've lost confidence in the entire back four without Zouma, even the normally reliable Azpli appears to have lost something. Let's hope it's just a temporary hangover from the fiasco of last season.
I didn't see yesterday's game but I've been reading as many reports as I can find. Apparently RLC again failed to impress, though many didn't even seem to know what position he was meant to be playing, so perhaps he didn't know himself.
Some good reports on Chalobah, Aina (an improvement on Baba according to some) and Moses. But it's crazy making judgements on half a game in a friendly.

Yes, Mourinho made a mistake with De Bruyne. But if you're one of those Chelsea fans who say they spotted his fantastic potential from the start, I don't believe you. I watched a couple of those games and he didn't look much. The mistake was not getting him back after he had proved himself out on loan, must admit I don't understand that decision.
But Cuadrado is different. He's 28 years old, the finished article. He didn't look at all suited to the EPL. I've watched his highlights from last season and he does appear to have blistering pace. But he still looks easily out-muscled and spends a lot of time on the floor. We'd have to hope our referees are feeling generous and he just doesn't get a reputation for diving. I certainly don't see him as a wingback as some have suggested, that requires a fair amount of ball winning skills.

Oscar ? I'm not going to claim my lager, but I'm in favour of giving him another season. He was SO good when he joined us and for quite a while afterwards that I find it impossible to believe that he's suddenly lost everything. Something went wrong, even when he's had the occasional good game his body language didn't suggest a player who was enjoying life. A return to his best and he would be just the sort of player Conte likes. Technically excellent, high work rate, a ball winning midfield player with the ability to pick out defence splitting passes.
Yep, he deserves one more chance in my opinion.

Yep your right RB. All those fan's jumping on the bandwagon critiscing Jose were nowhere to be seen when KDB was sold. No howls of derision from anyone.
Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

That's mainly due to posters ignoring facts and going on their "opinions"

He was a decent enough player when he played for us but was far from being a first team player. He wanted to be a first team player (which I don't blame him for I would expect any professional player to be the same regardless of ability).

We got a very good offer for him. Its strange that posters seem to think we should turn down excellent offers for "potential" yet at the same time say that clubs buying players for "potential" is bad business and crazy etc etc. Spending money on "potential" is bad business but turning down money for "potential" is good business? I would suggest if any business person came out with such a statement they would be regarded as a charlatan.

Much like the Pogba signing the deal for KDB was a done deal long before it was a done deal.

It was a logical and intelligent piece of business on every possible level at the time with the situation being as it was. Of course if you totally ignore reality it was a bad decision but I always prefer to base decisions in reality using logical facts and reasons then coming to decisions based on opinions that ignore the facts

To be honest, I didn't even think he was "decent" in the few in the few games I saw him play for us. He appeared to think he was a lot better than he actually was at that time, strolling around and expecting everyone else to do the hard work.
I wasn't surprised when we sold him on, but in reflection afterwards I did wonder if we'd been following his progress as much as we should have done when he was in loan.
He's certainly a different player now, but that's always going to happen in football. He's one of those that got away, there were others before and there will be others in the future.

And at some point in the future, a player is going to come thru the academy, be let go and go onto be a star. That's football.

I would be more concerned about our youth recruitment system if we did not have players going on to be good enough to play at this level. Yes in a ideal world they would end up playing for us every single time but the Premier League is far from an ideal world

Hanging on to players is always going to be a issue for us. Its a long term process there are very few players good enough to play for a Chelsea/Utd/Arsenal/City etc and with the expectations of these clubs the short term option is always going to be the route that we take more often then not and more then ever before due to the number of teams that can offer these players first team football now and wages etc.

Yep, that's the way it goes. Right now we are linked to another Brazilian "wonder kid" (Gabriel Barbosa). We (the fans) wouldn't want us to miss out if he's as good as they say, but it will probably mean another lost opportunity for an acadamy player.
As Don said, finding an acadamy player of the quality needed to play for one of the top clubs in Europe is always going to be a long shot. The scouting net of the top clubs is now worldwide, we've come a long way since United's "golden generation". I don't think we'll see the likes of that again.

Yep, completely agree. There was nothing in the video that Tip Top posted that convinced me that he is a player that would come back and prove us wrong. He's just too lightweight for our league. 5 goals in 40 appearances for Juve isn't particularly impressive either. One to offload for sure.

If Conte wants to look at Cuadrado then so be it.

Yes it might be a waste of time but as manager he has got to make that decision based on his experiences with him.

Our preseason friendly(now now - second half starting soon) against Wolfsberger AC is streaming for free at the chelsea website - http://www.chelseafc.com/videos/chel...ER_LIVE_200716

1-0 at the moment after a Traore goal. I see Conte is trying out 442, although i dont think we have the right squad for it. For one, we lack strikers beyond Costa at the moment, we would definitely need to sign another top striker. Secondly, i don't see where Hazard would fit into that system, put him out on the wing? Not his best position and he isnt known for defending/tracking back which would leave us weak in midfield. Or play him as the second striker next to Costa perhaps.

Would also leave massive competition in the middle of the park betwen Matic/Fabregas/Oscar/Kante/Mikel etc. Can't see them all being happy about sitting on the bench.

Good to see Conte trying something new atleast.

Not a fan of Batshuayi?

Very, very impressed with the performance last night in Austria. Conte has got the team playing at a higher intensity, and as a unit very quickly. The younger players with the exception of Rahman (who was poor on the whole) did extremely well. Fantastic goal from Chabah and Loftus Cheek looked more up for it with quicker, more intense play. Traore playing close to Costa is a very good move, and shows the quality of Conte is spotting weaknesses and sorting them out fast.

Costa has struggled badly at times as the loan striker, and Mourhino did nothing to remedy the situation. The club was spoiled a bit with Drogba who could play that role year after year. Most world class strikers can't, it's asking too much, and they just get marked out of the game, man marked by two defenders.

We have got the best coach around, and some great youngsters coming through. Who knows, the PL could be a realistic target if the squad all buys in to his approach and play for each other. If not this season then definitely next season.

Most people are talking about the Manchester teams as favourites, and I think we have a good chancing of winning the PL:

No European football. As Leicester showed last year, this can be a big plus for better preparation of PL matches.

New coach. It's clear that Conte is a very good coach who has made a difference to player performance in the short time he has been at the club. Players have stated that they are in much better shape compared to this time last year. Conte is a very good ex player who will have the respect of the squad, and who won't push them to stupid limits that could cause long term injury. He has persuaded the board to bring his specialist team with him, and the only possible problem will be with the director of football. I can't see Conte accepting players he doesn't want and the board should respect that.

Politics. Conte focuses on football not controversy. The focus will be on the squad, the players, not on him. The club will avoid the constant controversy surrounding referees, physios, opposing fans, etc, etc. He's here to win things, not to feed an over inflated ego.

New players. Conte has said he needs 5 new players. The club should avoid paying ridiculous sums for players and Man City showed last year that it doesn't guarantee success anyway. Man Utd are going to have huge problems with clashes of egos at their club by players who are past it and paid far too much. Sensible additions are: Axel Witsel available for £25 million. The other Belgium players know him, and he would fit in with the likes of Hazard and Batshuayi. Victor Lindelof is also available for around £25 million and is a John Stones type player. I'm still not sure about Lukaku. He's not slow, but he's not lightning fast either, and he regularly misses badly. Definitely not another Drogba. If the club wants to be the best, ask yourself the question, would Lukaku make it into the Barcelona starting line up? Real Madrid?

Youth. The club have brilliant young players coming through. The one criticism is Andreas Christensen's two year loan in Germany. He could have played at RB last season and done very well. BM have already offered almost £15 million for him, and he's a players who could be a £50 million player in the next few years. Automatically loaning too many players out is too cautious, and something that should change. Look at Rashford at Man Utd and England. No fear, dangerous and motivated. If you're ready, you're old enough. None of this, you're only ready for the first team if you're 23 nonsense.

Conte is a no nonsense coach who will bring huge success to the club including the short term IF the board continually back him. In the past the board have let the club down badly. There was the Ray Wilkins sacking and the refusal to strengthen the squad last season, holding on to players who are clearly past their best such as Ivanovic. Proactive not reactive should be the philosophy hammered home by Conte and his team.

Come on the Chels'!

Why would we need to ask if a player would fit into the Barca or Real team? We are not either of those teams not do we play in the same league as them nor do we have the same business model as they do. It's about relevant as asking would Rick from The Walking Dead fit into Game Of Thrones. You fill any vacancy on the strength of the role needed not on the role from a totally different company from a totally different section of a industry.

Cities problem was not spending "big" Money it was who they spent the big money on. The "big money spending" theory is valid but only if you spend that big money on the right players and not on flavours of the money like Sterling who everyone could see was not worth the money. We have done the same thing in the past. If you have resources you use them in the past our access to big money was a resource and it would be an awful business plan if you did not use the resources available

City wasted their money, just like United

You have to buy very carefully. We wasted nearly 30 million on cuadrado, I hope he comes good this season

So we don't actually know if we have wasted money on him then?

It's not all about good judgement though, there's a large amount of luck involved as well.
Ferreira, Carvalho, Makelele, Drogba and others were all big money signings at the time. Even players like Robben and Duff didn't come cheap.
I wouldn't mind seeing us pay a lot of money for the right CB, it's such an important position that needs immediate strengthening. That's why I didn't want Stones, "could be great in a couple of years" is no good for us in the position we are in at the moment.

i am with you regarding stones, you dont pay £50m for potential.

From what ive seen of him, he has potential to be a liability.