Not sure about the team of the season, but the consensus on this forum was that he was terrible, which I disagreed with personally. I thought he was generally excellent against City and Dortmund but struggled to assert himself against Juventus, largely because Juve played down the flanks and were able to bypass the central zones.
Chelsea 2017/18 thread - FA Cup Champs, League chumps
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Not sure about the team of the season, but the consensus on this forum was that he was terrible, which I disagreed with personally. I thought he was generally excellent against City and Dortmund but struggled to assert himself against Juventus, largely because Juve played down the flanks and were able to bypass the central zones.
I doubt he'll sign, but we'd probably destroy the league if we got him.
Destroy the leagueI doubt he'll sign, but we'd probably destroy the league if we got him.
Surely you dont mean that. I mean Costa is a far better player than PEA and even with Costa we would do well to get top4 and possibly challenge for title.
Also for £70m, dortmund can feck right off. 29yo decent-ish striker should not be worth any more than £40-45m.
Forgot that he was 29. Well, with Costa we got the second highest points tally in EPL history.Destroy the league
Surely you dont mean that. I mean Costa is a far better player than PEA and even with Costa we would do well to get top4 and possibly challenge for title.
Also for £70m, dortmund can feck right off. 29yo decent-ish striker should not be worth any more than £40-45m.
Why the pessimism? Anything short of a good title challenge is a failure, specially with Costa.
yes!
Why are Chelsea signing/linked with all the defenders anyway?
I laughed so hard when that came up on my twitter feed. Brilliant.
Its not pessimism its the reality. No one can predict top-4 this season. City and (in particular) United are strengthening beyond anything we have ever seen. Arsenal would be for once more motivated than ever and any thing is possible for Liverpool. The only team that I see going downwards this season is spurs.
We've signed two good players so far and will most likely sign four. Real has had crazier summers than this one. So it clearly has been seen before, even by your own club.
That's definitely not reality. And the bolded part is a massive exaggeration!
No PL club has had such a summer ever. You are going to add 4 starters (costing £200m+) to an already good squad.
Only Real has just once done a similar strengthening, the Rolando summer window. I was talking in the PL context though.
He just turned 28. Don't be swayed by the increasing trend of excessively rounding up player ages.
In 10/11, Chelsea brought in Torres (58,5), Luiz (25) and Ramires (22) along with Benayoun (7) and Kalas (6) to a side that was already quite good, having won the title in 09/10.
In 06/07, the title winning side of 05/06 added Shevchenko (43,3), Mikel (20), Boulahrouz (13,2), A. Cole (7,4) and Kalou (4).
Given today's price inflation, I'd say those summers are similar to our current one. Plus, your side was better, relatively speaking, than our current side. Thus, summers like this have been seen before.
'His name is bart', 'His name isnt important!'
How are united strengthening beyond anything weve seen loooool. They've brought an untested defender from the portugese league so far and lukaku and the signings that would've made them most effective (Griezzman, Fabinho) don't look like happening? The other players they are linked with like Peresic and Dier are extremely underwhelming, additionally Lukaku needs to bag 20/25 goals just to replace the void left by Ibra ....
Ultimately our window is likely to look good,
Weve signed Caballero, Bakayoko & Rudiger which gives us much needed flexibility strength and pace.
We will add one striker out of Morata, Auba & Belotti all three good options up top, plus Batshauyi getting more minutes and developing this year.
Christensen offers us another option in defence as does Musonda in attack, and potentially Baker,Chalobah whoever else we keep.
Danilo is extremely likely to sign providing Moses competition on his side and a good attacking option against lesser sides.
Plus sandro may or may not happen and im sure if it doesn't we will reinvest the money elsewhere and/or sign a LWB.
No reason to not be optimistic this year when you think that other teams were playing catch up to us and bar city most likely wont have a very very good window.
Weve signed Caballero, Bakayoko & Rudiger which gives us much needed flexibility strength and pace.
We will add one striker out of Morata, Auba & Belotti all three good options up top, plus Batshauyi getting more minutes and developing this year.
Christensen offers us another option in defence as does Musonda in attack, and potentially Baker,Chalobah whoever else we keep.
Danilo is extremely likely to sign providing Moses competition on his side and a good attacking option against lesser sides.
Plus sandro may or may not happen and im sure if it doesn't we will reinvest the money elsewhere and/or sign a LWB.
No reason to not be optimistic this year when you think that other teams were playing catch up to us and bar city most likely wont have a very very good window.
Torres and Luiz were in January, not the summer. In 04 we bought Drogba, Carvalho, Robben, Cech, Ferreira, Tiago, and Alex. That's a pretty huge window if you ask me.
Seriously Boularouz and Benayoun.
It's easy to laugh about those while ignoring Torres, Luiz and Ramires.
It will be interesting to see how Chelsea does with European football as well. I think they will probably be up fighting for the title again. Not sure how much better the rivals are either. We have spend a lot of money already, but our squad is roughly as good as last season. Lukaku might not even be much of an upgrade over Zlatan. Spurs are roughly the same strength, but you could see them improving further still with many players at good ages. Man City should probably improve as well, but Peps stubbornness can be his fall. Arsenal will probably be roughly the same as always with Wenger. Liverpool I think as well will be at roughly the same level.
Overall Chelsea should probably be considered favorites still, but I do think all teams have weaknesses and so the race is fairly open.
Overall Chelsea should probably be considered favorites still, but I do think all teams have weaknesses and so the race is fairly open.
Very fair post, I think if we do get the targets we are linked with which look likely we will have improved enough to challenge on all fronts.... main concern for us as a club is getting the striker signing right, it feels like if we do that and land a good target the team will be really well balanced.
I just don't understand why Chelsea aren't going after Mauro Icardi, for me he's better than any striker we've been linked with, Lukaku included. He's obviously a bit of a headcase, but that could work in our favour as his run ins with the Inter ultras may have served to deflate his price a bit. Plus if they got a large fee they might be able to go after Alexis, who they supposedly covet, and Arsenal would be more willing to sell him abroad. 60m+Matic? I'd probably do that.
Icardi isn't better than Lukaku and he will cost hit loads of money.
Icardi is a much better passer and playmaker. Lukaku has the higher ceiling and is more physically gifted but for me Icardi is more polished and contributes much more to buildup play right now. His buyout clause is €110m which is £96m, about the same as Lukaku cost. Could probably be negotiated, especially if they want Matic.
Costa is a quality striker so will be hard for you to replace. I totally understand why Conte don't want him though due to his temperament. It does seem tricky at the moment to find good strikers. Hazard, Pedro and Willian will give you goals though. Just need that top striker as well to be the focal point.
I also wonder if 3-4-3 will work as well next season in europe. Usually have not been the most successful formation in the really big games. Mainly Juventus among the big clubs that have used it and last season they did mostly play 4-2-3-1 anyway.
It's like you are describing Anti Icardi. There is no buy out clause for Icardi.
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We really don't even seem close to signing Costa's replacement. No one seems to have a clue who we're actually after.
So do I, there is a lot of Chelsea fans still clinging on the idea he might stay but personally I don't see any point in that whatsoever, the problems will only appear further down the line again and although in the first half of last season he was probably our most important player from Febuary onwards he downed tools to the extent where he was one of our worst every time we played. Batshuayi scoring decisive goals in our title run showed that we were still creating and the chances were there but costas head was not in the right place to finish them.
I feel confident about Sandro even though most don't I think we have a good chance, up top if we get Aubamayang hopefully he is the short term option until Bat and Tammy develop, if not then guess it is Belotti or Morata.
Versus Lukaku? I'm not saying Icardi is Messi or anything but compared to Lukaku I don't think it's controversial to say that he's the better passer of the two.
Re: the buyout clause-
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...cardi-extends-inter-milan-contract-until-2021
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...lan-contract-release-clause-99m-a7350841.html
http://www.calciomercato.com/en/new...ew-inter-deal-has-e110m-release-clause-115265
Fair enough about release clause. Icardi is younger Hernandez, poor dribbler, poor passer, poor in the build up play. He is amazingly clinical finisher though.
It's not even bias, I made the same posts few months ago and I will repeat it again, Icardi isn't good outside the box, he is amazing finisher but his overall game is very average.
In Serie A....
Fair enough! I'm not his agent or anything mate, it's just a bit of a strange one to me as we've been linked to him in the past yet there's been no news on his front all summer. I personally think he has suffered from being in a mediocre Inter team for quite a while and that he still has quite a bit of potential to improve were he surrounded by better players. For me he's a safer option than Belotti or Morata, and I'd also prefer him to Aubameyang just because I can't see Auba aging well or doing well against deep lying defenses in England.
Hasn't stopped teams from looking at Belotti, who has less of a track record but would cost the same fee.
I have no doubt Icardi will score goals in any team and any league, I just refuted that his overall game is better.
That doesnt mean that $100M is good enough for Belotti, who is exactly paying that amount?
I can put a $100 pricetag on me sack-a-shite, but that doesnt make it a $100 sack of shite.
Fair enough! I don't think there's much between them personally.
75m up front, Rooney valued at 10m, and two potential add-ons at 7.5m each that are supposedly very achievable, especially given that Lukaku is already a nailed on starter for Belgium.
Yeah.. so it's 75m up front
You'd be paying a world record transfer fee up front.
Good luck with that
Unlikely, these things can always be negotiated, especially given that they are trying to acquire Matic.
I think you'll be held to ransom now. Everyone knows you're desperate for a CF and good proven quality is hard to acquire.
I'm delighted with Lukaku for that reason.