You wouldn't be the first club to let a player slip away.

Just look at us with Pogba.

Reports in Italy say Milan are looking to sign him on loan and are in talks with Chelsea. He'd be linking up with Montella again who was coach when he was at Fiorentina.

he either plays for us, or he doesnt.

if italian clubs want him, they should cough up

Talk of a loan with an obligation to buy at the end of the season for €30m.

So right now A.C. Milan can't scrape together £26m ? How the mighty have fallen.

They really have never been in great shape money wise.

Its only due to the owners putting more and more money into that they have not gone into meltdown years ago.

While they not as bad run as Leeds was from a money POV I don't think its that much different.

Seem to remember that when we bought Seva from them was the last time they had not lost a fortune at the end of year accounts

Really ? I didn't know that. Sad in a way, isn't it ? They used to be one of the European greats. Maldini, Baresi, Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard etc.

Come on, be fair on the lad, he hasn't been given a chance. KDB looked very ordinary when mozza was at the helm, so you can't judge his performances based on his last spell at the club. He's a very good player, and could prove decisive in tight games. He needs a real chance, and Conte is the man to give him a fair crack. Unlike that mozza character..

The evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dMVWASoHSQ

Victor Lindelof looks a decent punt as well. A combination of John Stones and Nemanja Vidic. Looks a tough lad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fhQFBXm3U

We're getting there now we've got a decent coach who has got the attention and respect of the board and the squad.

What ? Cuadrado is 28 years old not some wet behind the ears kid. He spent more time falling on his arse and studying the turf than our head groundsman, he was like a child among men. As for KDB, he looked ordinary because he was nothing special at that time. If you're telling me that you thought he was going to become a great midfielder based on the few appearances he made then, I find it hard to believe.
Why all this anti-Mourinho nonsense anyway ? He's gone, you've got your way. But he still brought us three PL titles. Until someone improves on that, he's still got my respect.

If you think about it when Rudd went there for the record figure it was what? 85/86/87? Prob around the same time as Van Basten and Rijkaard the game has utterly and completely changed from top to bottom. You are looking at prob around 30 years ago.

I doubt they have any incoming transfers in the current top 50.

Whats a Mozza?

There are negotiations ongoing for the sale of the club, and as a result Silvio Berlusconi won't fund the transfer market. The club are hoping to offload Carlos Bacca to reinvest the money elsewhere.

We spent over €100m last summer.

It must be a Liverpool thing.

Going to have to record the game, won't be able to make 4.35am!

Some interesting quotes from Conte yesterday.


Matic is an important player for me. In my idea of football, he is an important player and he knows this.

N’Golo, Nemanja, Cesc, Oscar, Chalobah, and Mikel who is at the Olympics. It is not easy to choose, I want to have this problem.

On Kante: Fantastic season with Leicester, really good Euros, I can’t wait to work with him.


So looks like Matic is definitely staying, let's hope AC can get the old Matic back.

Interesting that RLC wasn't mentioned in that group. Must want him up front then!

RLC doesnt belong in that group - not quite ready yet.

Mikel should leave.

Good to hear him praising Matic. In his first 30/40 games he was untouchable for us, probably the best DM in the EPL. He was very poor last season, along with most of the team. But if Conte can get him back to his best we'll start looking like the old Chelsea in midfield again.

Decent performance.

Defence was really solid, that will please AC, two clean sheets on the bounce.

Cesc had a fantastic game before his stupid tackle.

Conte obviously sees something in RLC up front as he played him there today. Didn't quite work with him & Traore up front but AC is obviously still experimenting. Diego and Eden didn't play today.

More and more impressed with Ola Aina, where was he hiding last season?

Real Madrid next on Saturday.

A very good result, and it's good to see variety, a fit squad and fringe players being given a real chance. None of those very important factors were there this time last season.

Moses is being given a chance and is making the most of it. I also agree that Ola Aina is looking good at RB and cover there is vital. Branna is way, way past his best.

A comment on the changes. There are still some die hard mourhino fans around, and I say things as I see them. Takes Moses for example. He played very well last pre season and was not retained. Loftus Cheek was also publicly criticised by mourhino.

The club has to move forward, give players a real chance, treat them fairly and rest them when needed. Those are very important changes, and there can be no going back to the mourhino days where pecking orders were all that mattered. If you're good enough and playing well, you get a chance. It's as simple as that. If you're off form for whatever reason, you get dropped, irrespective of how good you have been in the past.

Anyone seen Dixon around? The lad used to post some decent comments..

Moses plays well every pre-season. He always has been one of the best pre-season players around. Its just normally between August and May he seems to turn into a very average player (and I am being very nice calling him average).

He was a useful enough squad player that season he was with us, and possibly could be again. I'd rather judge him more on what he did when he was with us, than in loan spells at other clubs. We could do better, but we could just as easily do worse (Cuadrado for example). Personally Salah is the one that I would have preferred us having another look at, but he doesn't seem to be with the squad for these matches?

I think today we have better options for his spot and while I am not a massive fan of Cuadrado I think he would be a better option for us then Moses.

Even when he was with us I never saw anything that says to me he is good enough for even a squad player for a team that needs to be challenging (so needs to be single points from 1st place) for the title.

I think teams like West Ham (and that's prob more as a squad player) are about his level

Im not sure if salah is still a chelsea player

Schurrle
Mata
De Bruyne
Salah

Are players i would have liked to keep, salah had pace to burn

I'm not sure either. Originally it was widely reported in the media that Roma had taken up an option to sign him permanently last year, a couple of months into his loan deal. But then when the Premier League published the list of players contracted to each club this summer he was still listed as one of ours:

http://www.premierleague.com/news/60426

He's still on the Chelsea site too:

http://www.chelseafc.com/teams/on-lo...med-salah.html

You're probably right about that sort of team being more his level. As I said, I think we could do better. Saying that I could say the same for the likes of Mikel, and he's still at the club.

I disagree Cuadrado would be a better option though. Personally I would be very surprised if he comes back and does any better than last time. He's just far too lightweight for the Premier League, and even playing in Italy I don't think he's all that.

Lets keep him then!

He cost peanuts and is a useful, fast and skillful player. Just what we need.