Chelsea Banter Archive May 17 2015

17 May 2015 16:19:11
Hi Eds,

With Koke having said that he will be playing with Athletico next season, does that change anything regarding the chances of us signing him, or should we take that with a pinch of salt?

Also, has Cuadrado disappointed since arriving or is it simply a case of him needing time to adapt?

Thanks

{Ed002's Note - I have explained all along - Koke would be difficult. It changes nothing. Cuadrado arrived mid season and has hardly played at all - I don't know what to say.}

17 May 2015 17:38:59
Ed is right. Most of us on here (myself included) were probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves regarding Koke. Indeed Ed always said it'd be difficult to get him. Koke wanting to stay at Atletico might be a reason for that. Let's just hope the club can bring in a good central midfielder as we definitely need one to rotate Fabregas and Matic. Enough players out there, Koke isn't the end all be all :-)

{Ed002's Note - I should also say that the club won't buy for the sake of it.}

17 May 2015 19:47:12
Would love to see is sign Griezmann over Koke, then play Hazzard in the number 10 role. Only if we sell both Mikel and Rami should we invest in a new CM. RLC looked good last week and I think would be great next to Matic. Koke is a fantastic player but unless Cesc is going to play as a number 10 next season he may be wasted with us.
Griezmann, Hazzard, Oscar, Willian, Traore and Gaudrado would be an awesome selection to rotate through the attacking three. And Griezman can play up front too. Cesc, Matic, RLC plus one other to rotat through CM would be good. Maybe add yaya to the mix if rumours are to be believed.

17 May 2015 21:38:43
Of course, Ed :)

17 May 2015 14:30:58
There are two main reasons why MCFC couldn't match Chelsea this season.
First Manuel Pellegrini made more than a few mistakes starting with extremely bad transfer decisions, he also completely changed tactics during second half of a season.
Second reason was that Yaya Toure played more than thousand minutes less than previous season, also due to tactical changes made by Pellegrini Toure's impact on the pitch was much worse.
Ancheloti is coming next season and thanks to idiotic transfer policy made by MCFC (FFP restrictions) they won't be able to match Chelsea, MUFC and Arsenal next season.
If Chelsea manage to sign two or three high quality players to further improve squad depth there will be no club to stand on our way.
But if Chelsea somehow manages to sign one or two world class players CL will be ours as well as total domination at PL for the next five years at least.
Cheers everyone!

17 May 2015 15:12:11
I believe you are overly optimistic about us winning the CL easy.

17 May 2015 16:18:38
United will probably spend crazy as well, they'll be up there at the top.

17 May 2015 19:25:06
I haven't said that it would be easy but we could stand equally with clubs like Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid BUT THAT'S IF we sign one or two WORLD class players.

17 May 2015 21:00:51
Not too sure there's anybody we could bring in to rival what barca have at the moment, especially attacking wise, I think they made bayern look average at best & looking at their squad that's pretty hard to do! Varane & maybe griezmann would push us up another level. Anybody can beat anybody over two legs as we've seen with Juventus so it's all about turning up on the night & doing what it takes, we effed up against psg this year taking them for granted when we should have seen the tie out but I'm fairly certain Barca would of given us a good hiding if we played like that against them as they have the players to open any defence up, our time in Europe will come under mourinho I'm sure of it especially if we play like we did at the start of this season

17 May 2015 08:27:17
Jose spoke highly of Edin Dzeko last season ED02/18, with our preferred choices maybe not likely to happen and Dzeko no longer a regular at City do you think he might be an option?

{Ed018's Note - no and I sure hope we find some more options before Dzeko becomes one. Not good enough for me}