No one cares about Chelsea though. Boring club. Even Arsenal are more interesting than Chelsea.
Chelsea 2016/17 - Very Content
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
No one cares about Chelsea though. Boring club. Even Arsenal are more interesting than Chelsea.
Like all the Leicester team, for whatever reason it all just clicked for them last year. Now Kante is back to being nothing particularly special, at least at a team aiming for the top like Chelsea supposedly are.
I expected better from Conte, but he'll get time. Like @Classical Mechanic says the press will leave him alone because without Mourinho there noone cares what Chelsea do.
We are seeing exactly what Leicester are about this year.
All that wanking over Vardy and Mahrez, Vardy has the same amount of goals as Gareth Barry so far this season, looks like he is sticking exactly to his career form to date.
One decent (in the case of last season very good season) followed by one where you would be hard pressed to tell he was a professional footballer.
It was indeed the perfect storm for them.
Vardy was always going to be a one hit wonder. He has ridiculous pace and that's it, but that seems to be enough to make English football fans think he's a top striker.
His finishing is solid as well. With confidence he was lethal combining those two assets.
He'll score goals again this season, for sure.
if chelsea go with 3 at the back then where would that leave willian? hazard would get the number 10 slot and the full backs will be taking up the wing back positions.
Chelseas fullbacks don't have the pace to get up and down the field though. If they play 3 or 5 at the back then Costa will get next to no service for the rest of the season.
Regarding the Kante part, maybe some people did, not me. I maintained Kante is very good player, but in certain system, but not easy to implement for top team. Reason: he is not Makelele to be the deep holding midfielder. He's a #8 who has defensive oriented (doesn't mean he can't pass or can't dribble with the ball. But the kind of positioning, run, movement, and pass is not suitable for offensive player). Kante will be compared to Pogba because Pogba is being deployed as #8 for us.
If anyone's familiar of my assessment on Kante, they would remember something I said like Kante benefit from a system and midfield partner who play a conservative style role and let him go hunting/pressing aka using his strength. Assigning him to a calmer role would gradually expose the flaw to his game. He is too robust for the Makelele role. He would either stepped into his teammate foot #8, even #10 area or leave behind going pressing/trying to steal the ball. Statically, Kante rarely got booked last season! In a sense, it's a good thing, but as #6 it's a weakness. Going for steal meaning Kante have to be close the the ball carrier. If the ball carrier is capable, then Kante would be drawn out of his position, even to his teammate area (Leicester system allows this). It's of other team doesn't build this system which means when Kante steals the ball, he is stuck in in crowded area and can't make good play while the space he left behind is dangerous if the opponent can win the ball back.
Kante is real at anticipating the immediate situation but not that great at reading the flow of the game aka Carrick, Makelele, Busquet, Alonso... It's too early to judge him as #6, but the flaw has always been there. I maintained during the Euro that Kante failed the #6 thus leading to Pogba to be deployed in this role as the tournament progressed. Pogba may not be everyone's cup of tea #6, but I personally rate his Euro performance in the role better than Kante, especially in the game vs Germany where I can be quoted saying Pogba was the best/influential midfielder (not #10) that game despite Germany had the upper hand in controlling the midfield and superior possession stats.... That considering Pogba is as green to this #6 role as Kante. As for #8 role, Kante has his last season to boast, but seeing Pogba's best games, Pogba showed he has higher ceiling if he can find consistency to his game. Keep in mind Pogba hasn't been afforded a system tailored to hi strength with us like Kante with Leicester.
Conte is cursed by Ireland fan " shite LVG chant". Now he got outdone exactly like LVG vs Arsenal last season.
He'd been chasing high profile actual defenders all summer, but ended up with David Luiz! He is chasing that Belgium hipster for the no6 role.
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There's some huge holes in the Chelsea side, reminds me of us a bit last season. Really need to strengthen their spine, which when you think of the signings they've made, is exactly what they've tried to do:
Luiz
Kante
Batsh
Shows they've bought badly and need to replace another 3-4.
Luiz
Kante
Batsh
Shows they've bought badly and need to replace another 3-4.
The title change is almost is almost @SteveJ 'esque.
Said this earlier as well, Chelsea won't be in top 4 this season, although their initial games did have me worrying that they would be in top 4. Apart from Azpi, they don't have even a decent defender. I've never seen Alonso, but surely he can't be as bad as Ivanovic. Why not play Azpi at RB and Alonso at LB! Cahill is past it, which was evident last season. Terry is no longer that great. Matic seems more like a one season wonder, Fabre is getting worse. Oscar is hopeless, Hazard's attitude is like he doesn't care for the club, and same can be said for Courtois. Costa- 4 yellows in 6 games for a striker!
Putin's boy visiting the training ground 3 times in a week.
Safety catch off, ready....
Safety catch off, ready....
Yep, having grown tired of the casino at Monaco, he now turns to a little game of Russian Roulette.
Awful fullbacks, a midfield of Kante-Matic sounds worse than any including Fellaini. They rely on Hazard, Costa, and Willian. Expect them to finish sixth behind the almighty Spurs.
I really think there will be a end point to Abramovich's interest.
I read somewhere that Abramovich is very disliked by Putin and has used Chelsea as a way to stay in the public spotlight in order to not go down a similar road as Khodorkovsky. May be bs, but you never know when it comes to Russians and politics.
They have massive problems. It's looking like he will throw out a few players if he's still there next summer.
Definitely needs rebuilding as most of the squad is on the decline mainly the defence.
Definitely needs rebuilding as most of the squad is on the decline mainly the defence.
Quite the opposite.
Abramovich belongs to Putin, even though it was Berezovsky (primarily) and Abramovich who got Putin in power. Putin often refers to Abramovich as his brother and allowed him to keep his billions although they were effectively gained in the same way as Khodorkovsky's.
Check out what Litvinienko was upto when he drank his tea.
Maybe, but let's be serious Abramovich's interest in Chelsea is connected to other things.
Thanks for the info, I always thought otherwise. If so, maybe Abramovich won't stay for much longer as the other poster said. However, I can't see someone (see oil sheikh) not stepping in and invest large quantities anyway.
I'm not so sure, if they build the stadium the football club will owe Abramovich's investment company circa $1.7 billion in a business that just continues to lose money.
I think he might stay at the club but stop investing at some point, depending on what he's instructed to do.
You might find this article interesting, make of it what you will:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/16/litvinenko-investigating-abramovich-money-laundering-claims-court-told?0p19G=e?client=safari
What was Litvinenko up to? Aside from drinking tea?
See above post.
You think Azpilecueta is an awful full back? Dear god..
Ah fair enough.
Overrated IMO.
I rate Azpi, but I feel it is one of those situations where a good defender is brought down in confidence by the ineptitude of his team-mates. It's like a virus when this happens. Chelsea desperately need an overhaul before they can challenge again.
Such a boring player. No invention. Works if you have someone like Hazard on the top of his game in front of him, but you haven't had that for a long time.
You clearly missed his volley into the top corner the other week.
finally decided to drop Ivanovic.
Current investment by Abrahmovic totals up to about £1bn but the current value of the club (£1.25bn) far exceeds that. This does not even take into account the £250m+ worth of players on the loan book.
Abrahmovic has done very well on this financially. If Chelsea were ever to be sold, it would most likely be to someone far richer than the owners of city and PSG.
The club is privately owned, how have you valued it?
I did not, Forbes did.
The valuation part is not very difficult though considering the revenue and profit numbers are released every year.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeoza...most-valuable-soccer-teams-2016/#5d8baf1f2d04
The club could actually borrow another £500m for the stadium and the equity will likely still be in excess of the debt to Fordstam.
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I was asking because I saw another report recently valuing them at £800m
Must have been the old forbes report I think from 2013. The number was $1.2bn @ cable rate of 1.55
Victor Moses is starting today.
Nah.
Such has the quality of their play that he has genuinely been one of their most threatening player.
Hull are awful. If Chelsea can't beat them they deserve to be in the bottom half of the table
3 at the back (Cahill, Luiz and Azpilicueta) today. Interesting that he preferred Azpilicueta over Ivanovic as one of the centre backs.