Chelsea Thread

[arcnas]

Is he rated highly to be fair ive never seen him play, or heard of him for that matter, seems like an awful lot of money for a centre back, but i cant judge as i know nothing about him.

[abigsmurf]

He was highly regarded at Benefica and it's rare to have someone as young as him play like an experienced centreback.

We could easily get 8+ seasons out of him if he gels. There's a good reason he was such a heavy focus this transfer window.

[vanpeebles]

Wheater would of been a good option.

[abigsmurf]

This game *should* be no problem for us but... I can't feel confident at all about Chelsea at the moment.

It's looking like Man City could drop out of the top 4 (technically they already have but our games in hand are both effectively against Man U) but they've too good of a squad to count on that. We need to ensure we stay above Spurs.

Abandon the Diamond formation, stick Droba on the bench. Force some of the players who have been under performing to get their drive back.

[EJG1980]

There were some mentions of the upcoming financial fair play rules and how they'd affect Chelsea a couple of weeks ago in this thread, so I thought this might be interesting to some people: The Swiss Rambler explaining how he thinks Chelsea would go about meeting the FFP rules.

I think it was Neoboy who first posted a Swiss Rambler article on here, the bastard, I've been addicted to reading his stupidly long articles ever since

[ShadowDancer]

Any predictions for this Smufy? Can't see a home win myself mate..

[abigsmurf]

It's quite a good read, fairly even handed and non-sensationalist. Does seem to present a good case that Chelsea are on the way to the black ink without any real drastic action needed (except perhaps stadium naming rights).

Chelsea's wage bill will go down quite quickly. Could see Kalou or Malouda and Anelka or Drogba leaving in the summer and other players will approach retirement age.

Ultimately though, Abramovich could just enforce a pay cut on players if worst comes to worst. There are a lot of players who must know they wouldn't get better deals elsewhere.

Any predictions for this Smufy? Can't see a home win myself mate..

Nervy as hell. If Chelsea get the first goal, I can see the floodgates opening but if they score first (not unthinkable given our suicidal defence), it'll be tough.

Chelsea are tough to predict at the moment though.

[merf]

There were some mentions of the upcoming financial fair play rules and how they'd affect Chelsea a couple of weeks ago in this thread, so I thought this might be interesting to some people: The Swiss Rambler explaining how he thinks Chelsea would go about meeting the FFP rules.

I think it was Neoboy who first posted a Swiss Rambler article on here, the bastard, I've been addicted to reading his stupidly long articles ever since

Think it was me that posted it, been trying to get people interested for a while but every time i put a link it's met with stony silence, making me believe despite all the whining that footy fans get the level of analysis and punditry they deserve. Glad somebody else like it.

What's so interesting is how his stuff is so at odds with most supporters who think they understand the game financially, such as everton fans continually going on about what a 'big' club they are.

Be amazing if Chelsea do make the fair play rules and there are some huge assumptions in his theory

[abigsmurf]

Drogba not starting, Reverted back to 4:3:3

Remains to be seen if it works but Ancelotti gets some kudos for doing some of the things I felt needed.

[EJG1980]

Think it was me that posted it, been trying to get people interested for a while but every time i put a link it's met with stony silence, making me believe despite all the whining that footy fans get the level of analysis and punditry they deserve. Glad somebody else like it.

Oh yeah, got you mixed up, I knew it was an Arsenal fan though The mind boggles at the amount of effort that must go into running a big football club.

PS - come on Fulham

[abigsmurf]

Well that was an uninspiring half.

Took until 35 minutes before Chelsea remember you're allowed to shoot from inside the box. Torres is getting in all the right positions, making all the right runs... He just seemed incapable of actually making a shot.

[Flabio]

Got this on the radio. My god this is depressing listening. Someone please DO something.

[abigsmurf]

Fulham have parked the bus, Chelsea lack creativity.

[Flabio]

Two strikers on for Fulham for the last 10 minutes. Seems a little suicidal to me... No guts no glory though I guess.

[abigsmurf]

Thank god those negative twats didn't dive their way the world's most undeserved win.

Chelsea are appauling at the moment but at least we're trying to win.

At this rate, we're not gonna finish 4th, we're not getting any breaks whatsoever and we're not showing sharpness up front. Why are we wasting chance after chance shooting outside the box? Run into the penalty box, make them panic, force a mistake.

Another game, another stonewall penalty not given and a dive given as a penalty against us.

I will think positive! Ramieres is looking a good player now. He just needs to stop himself shooting outside the box. David Luiz impressed me.

At some bloody point our luck has got to change.