Chelsea Thread

[JU!]

Luiz plus Torres wohooo. Discuss...

Tactics?

Anelka behind Drogba and Torress?

[abigsmurf]

It'll be a very nice problem for Ancelotti to have.

Also:

It's every footballers dream to play for a big club and I can finally do that now

Man, that quote made my evening.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Man, that quote made my evening.

I hope for his sake Carra or Gerrard don't take that the wrong way...

[abigsmurf]

Just so long as he doesn't play a song Gerrard doesn't like he'll be fine.

[hudson]

Plastic belongs at a plastic club. All ze best nando.

[Leon Retro]

Chelsea have had a pretty big, loyal fanbase for over 100 years. It's ridiculous to go on about Chelsea not having as many fans as Liverpool, Man.utd, when they are city clubs, and Chelsea are in a small part of London, a city that has lots of competing clubs. Chelsea have always been a well-known, decent club, and it's understandable why they hadn't won many honours up until the last decade.

Chelsea were lucky to get a billionaire owner, which enabled the club to reach another level, but since then.. it's not unusual for billionaires to buy clubs. All this acting like Chelsea simply buy success is a very outdated way of thinking. The game today is primarily focused on big money - and that's the case for all clubs. Man.utd wouldn't still have Rooney if they hadn't given in to his demands for 200K a week. Liverpool & Man.utd fans need to wake up and stop being so arrogant. Yes, your clubs are great, but other clubs have the right to strive for success too. In the modern game, you need tons of cash to compete. That's the way it is, and there's no going back to the old days of football.

I hope Torres is in good shape and does well at Chelsea. If he can stay fit, he'll enjoy his time at the club.

[Supergoal]

Don't you think it would be in the best interest of all football fans to have a system whereby a club can only spend within its means. Having a sugar daddy is all fair and square as far as the current rules go, but no doubt in the near future teams like Chelsea and Man City will only be able to spend money they earn and not a penny over.
I think then, clubs who have modern up to date stadiums and smart marketing plans will be able to spend more money than clubs who aren't investing in new stadiums and don't plan well.

Is it also true that Torres will be getting somewhere around 180k a week? Pretty much 80k more a week than Liverpool could ever offer. Shocking.

[hudson]

I imagine wages would being going up allover the shop because of that. No doubt JT will wanna word with his wife too.

[Supergoal]

I'm not bitter, but I hope scandalous torres gets crocked and chelsea finish 5th...

Happy Dayz.

[hudson]

Nah, he should do well providing he hasn't lost a yard of pace from past injuries. Him and Drogba will strike fear into defenders. I think Liverpool's new strike force will now be more scary too.

[nakamura]

Don't you think it would be in the best interest of all football fans to have a system whereby a club can only spend within its means.

And Liverpool weren't days away from going into administration?

[abigsmurf]

Remains to be seen if Liverpool's is scary for the right reasons though.

Drogba and Torres could be immense. Defences won't be able to have 2-3 players assigned to close down on him when he receives to ball to counteract his power without risking Torres being given the space to do his thing.

Also gives us options attacking that don't involve switching Anelka for Kalou (who I could see leaving in the summer if he's knocked down in the pecking order).

On the subject of spending. Man U have benefited from massive amounts spent on them that short term put them in the red (the investment in their stadium was a big example) but over the decades gave them huge spending power. Chelsea could have 10 seasons like this and only just match Man U's current debt.

There's a huge surge in kids supporting Chelsea (in the South at least) I see more 5-10 year olds now with Chelsea kits than Man U or Liverpool kits. Some of these are glory hunters but a good number will turn into life long supporters.

The main investment Chelsea need now is the stadium. We need another 15K capacity. They've said in the past the cost of doing this would be equal to building a new stadia but given as they've ruled out an Earl's Court move and the potentially fickle nature of the Chelsea Pitch Owners association, it's looking like Stamford Bridge expansion is the option they'll take.

[rmoxon]

Chelsea have had a pretty big, loyal fanbase for over 100 years. It's ridiculous to go on about Chelsea not having as many fans as Liverpool, Man.utd, when they are city clubs, and Chelsea are in a small part of London, a city that has lots of competing clubs. Chelsea have always been a well-known, decent club, and it's understandable why they hadn't won many honours up until the last decade.

Chelsea were lucky to get a billionaire owner, which enabled the club to reach another level, but since then.. it's not unusual for billionaires to buy clubs. All this acting like Chelsea simply buy success is a very outdated way of thinking. The game today is primarily focused on big money - and that's the case for all clubs. Man.utd wouldn't still have Rooney if they hadn't given in to his demands for 200K a week. Liverpool & Man.utd fans need to wake up and stop being so arrogant. Yes, your clubs are great, but other clubs have the right to strive for success too. In the modern game, you need tons of cash to compete. That's the way it is, and there's no going back to the old days of football.

I hope Torres is in good shape and does well at Chelsea. If he can stay fit, he'll enjoy his time at the club.

I would say that it wasnt even the money that brought them sucsess as much as good team management anyway, back a few years ago when pretty much everyone thought they were the best team in the country they didnt really play great football or anything, they were really defensive, especialy after they had got a goal.

It was good tactics and hardwork more than anything really.

[EJG1980]

I do find the talk of plastic fans, history, etc., quite tiresome. Of course Chelsea are picking up a ton of glory hunting plastic fans now. A big chunk of the fans Liverpool picked up in the 80s and Man Utd in the 90s are plastic glory hunters too. You can't avoid it if your team becomes successful.

I know it wasn't specifically mentioned in this thread, but the "you have no history" thing annoys me too. Basically saying that if you haven't won a ton of stuff in the past, you have no history. To me that's one of the most "plastic" things people can say. Every club has history, from Aldershot to York, it doesn't need to be trophy laden to mean something to the fans of the club.

Anyway, just felt like having a moan

[Chunky]

Championship outfit Reading have a tough trip awaiting them, having been drawn against either holders Chelsea or Everton

No sh*t. Please tell me Torres is cup tied else it's suddenly got a lot harder