[heyimbored]

(Original post by midlandsman)
Well done on getting Hazard. If the guy doesn't collapse under the weight of his own ego, you're starting to look like serious contenders again.

Now what you don't need is some guy who calls himself 'Hulk' ffs!

To be fair, the name Hulk was a nickname given to him because of his resemblance to Lou Ferrigno, who's an actor who played the hulk in an American tv series. He actually seems like a very down to earth player whenever I've seen him interviewed...pretty much the opposite to Hazard when it comes to the interest he's had from clubs around Europe!

[mhsc]

This is all assuming, of course, that we have actually signed Hazard. I wont fully believe it until I see it on chelseafc.com

[Abiraleft]

(Original post by mhsc)
This is all assuming, of course, that we have actually signed Hazard. I wont fully believe it until I see it on chelseafc.com

That's a smart stance.

Regarding the 4-3-2-1, that's also entirely possible, particularly given that Marin can also play as an AM (and so, I might add, can de Bruyne). And with Kalou gone and Malouda likely to follow, you guys don't seem to have any orthodox wingers anymore.

[systeric]

(Original post by heyimbored)
To be fair, the name Hulk was a nickname given to him because of his resemblance to Lou Ferrigno, who's an actor who played the hulk in an American tv series. He actually seems like a very down to earth player whenever I've seen him interviewed...pretty much the opposite to Hazard when it comes to the interest he's had from clubs around Europe!

Oh right, did not know that. Fair play to the guy then I guess.

Assuming Hazard does join, it'll certainly be interesting to see whether he lives up to his own hype. Even if Lionel Messi hyped up his prospective transfer as the box office event of the decade, it'd come across badly. And Hazard ain't no Messi I'm afraid.

[Banishingboredom]

Ok so assuming we sign Hazard and Hulk could we expect to line up like this:

-----------------Torres------------------

Hazard----------Mata-------------Hulk

----------Lampard-----Ramires--------

Cole-----Terry-----Luiz-------Ivanovic

-----------------Cech--------------------

[Louis.]

(Original post by Abiraleft)
Would it not be better to play something like:

Ramires Mikel/Romeu
Marin Mata Hazard
Torres

than have Ramires on the wing? I mean, it's probably time to begin phasing out Lampard anyway - I'd have him backup or rotating for the CAM when you guys elect to play with a DM (in a 4-1-2-2-1/4-5-1), with Meireles as backup for Ramires; I see the latter two as the more similar players - and the attacking side of things would probably be a lot more fluid and difficult to play against with quick, interchangeable players like above. Plus, with Ramires' energy and pace, I would want him on the ready to track back and help with the defence closing down players, and he would probably be better placed to do that starting somewhere deeper in CM that up the pitch on the wing.

Ramires wide gives a bit of balance though. With players like Hazard and Mata you want to limit their defensive work as much as possible, just get them close to Torres with only limited instructions to track back. If you have Marin/Sturridge or a similar type of attacking player as the other member of the trio behind Torres you're either gonna be very open (essentially a 4-2-4) or not making the most out of your best attackers by giving them too many defensive duties.

City played some of their best football with Milner in a defensive right sided role which left Silva/Aguero/Striker as the primary attackers. Chelsea could do something similar, Ramires in that Milner role with Hazard/Mata/Torres as the primary attackers. I will say that it worked best for City when Richards was bombing past Milner down that right side and Ivanovic doesn't suit that. (hence the RB rumours?)

As always it depends on the opposition, I always think picking 11 players and saying 'this is our best team' is silly. Challenges posed by Reading and Man City are gonna be completely different and your team selection has to reflect that. I agree that Ramires is at his best in the middle, and in a lot of games Chelsea will be fine playing what would be essentially 4 forwards, but some situations call for a more conservative outlook.

[KingMessi]

(Original post by Banishingboredom)
Ok so assuming we sign Hazard and Hulk could we expect to line up like this:

-----------------Torres------------------

Hazard----------Mata-------------Hulk

----------Lampard-----Ramires--------

Cole-----Terry-----Luiz-------Ivanovic

-----------------Cech--------------------

I think this would be the strongest side we could hope to put out, and would give every team a lot of problems, especially if Lampard can continue is reinvention as a more defensively-minded player.

[mhsc]

An interesting and kind of dark article about Avram, his Jewish heritage and the Holocaust:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker...ory_is_an.html

[S_older]

(Original post by KingMessi)
I think this would be the strongest side we could hope to put out, and would give every team a lot of problems, especially if Lampard can continue is reinvention as a more defensively-minded player.

I agree this line up is looking good but I'd also be interested in seeing Romeu in there. It'll be a an interesting season for Lampard, if Mata and Ramires continue as they left off and we're looking to get the new signings in it's going to get harder and harder for him to get in the squad surely. I don't see why he can't play a sort of Giggs/Scholes type role though, if he is happy with that.

Also, wonder how Lukaku feels about all this?

[NDGAARONDI]

(Original post by mhsc)
An interesting and kind of dark article about Avram, his Jewish heritage and the Holocaust:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker...ory_is_an.html

Yeah and it's quite depressing that the tournaments are being held in retrograde countries like Poland. Modern day Germany aren't going to be helped either. They've gone to great lengths to apologise for the Nazis but you still get the occasional idiot who makes references to Nazi Germany and with the tournament being held in Poland, that's really not going to help.

Cheers for the link.

[Wawasan]

Have the releases of Bosingwa and Kalou been completed yet? It doesn't seem very clear. And did they want to leave? I know Kalou had hinted at wanting more first team options elsewhere, but I'm sure Bosingwa wanted to stay

[UnWise]

Hulk deal '90 per cent' complete as Chelsea prepare to wrap up transfer for highly-regarded Porto striker

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...o-striker.html

(Original post by Wawasan)
Have the releases of Bosingwa and Kalou been completed yet? It doesn't seem very clear. And did they want to leave? I know Kalou had hinted at wanting more first team options elsewhere, but I'm sure Bosingwa wanted to stay

Kalou is gone according to Sky:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...sea-for-Hazard

"Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba have already left the Blues, while the future of Florent Malouda remains in doubt." - Sky

Nothing on Bosingwa though.

[heyimbored]

Still no actual confirmation from either club? I heard that one of the top Chelsea guys said "as usual, if we have something to announce, we'll announce it" (or something to that effect) when asked about Hazard. They must have agreed personal terms for him to announce it on twitter, the fact that nothing official has been announced makes me wonder though.

[silver0]

I read that they are still making a deal between the clubs and that's why Hazard cannot name the club he is going to.. It seems like it is Chelsea, but if it's for 40mil, it seems slightly too much?
And I hope Chelsea don't spend too much on Hulk, personally watching him in Porto against Chelsea I wasn't THAT impressed, he didn't seem that special.. but then again mayve I haven't seen enough of him..

[Tweed]

kalou could be going to lille for all we know, and they're just ironing out the finer points, expect an announcement and a press meeting closer to the weekend.

[Banishingboredom]

Best of luck to Kalou, and Bosingwa, I never really rated them as players, but they've been there for us when we needed them down the years. Hopefully they'll always get a good reception whenever they come back.

Also in regards to our managerial position and the board's strategy, it seems they don't need someone to design the team (they're already doing that) nor create a system, or do the day to day training (the training staff do that).

All they need is someone to inspire the players and promote team unity. So why don't they just hire the best motivational speaker in the business to hype the players up before a game and at half time, then let the senior players make the decisions about tactics and substitutions etc on the pitch. Surely with the leaders we've got at the club in JT, Lampard, Ashley Cole and Cech this shouldn't be too hard.

Without being too disrespectful to the walking miracle worker that was RDM, it seems that was what was going on anyway this year.

This would negate the need for a huge managerial salary or the inevitable pay-off when they don't work out.

[jam277]

(Original post by Banishingboredom)
Best of luck to Kalou, and Bosingwa, I never really rated them as players, but they've been there for us when we needed them down the years. Hopefully they'll always get a good reception whenever they come back.

Also in regards to our managerial position and the board's strategy, it seems they don't need someone to design the team (they're already doing that) nor create a system, or do the day to day training (the training staff do that).

All they need is someone to inspire the players and promote team unity. So why don't they just hire the best motivational speaker in the business to hype the players up before a game and at half time, then let the senior players make the decisions about tactics and substitutions etc on the pitch. Surely with the leaders we've got at the club in JT, Lampard, Ashley Cole and Cech this shouldn't be too hard.

Without being too disrespectful to the walking miracle worker that was RDM, it seems that was what was going on anyway this year.

This would negate the need for a huge managerial salary or the inevitable pay-off when they don't work out.

Yeah makes sense, no need for a big name manager in my opinion, I reckon RDM was pretty pragmatic and worked with what he had. As much as we hated seeing malouda in the first team, who else did we have?

Also, I heard non chelsea fans complaining about sturridge inevitably being on the bench and saying its unfair. I don't know what sturridge they've been seeing, but there's a reason why he's been benched by di matteo. It's cool to bench the player when it's torres or andy carroll because they want them to be flops, but when sturridge is out of form it's not ok?

Anyway, I'm happy, we finally have the much needed creativity in the wings that we've been dying for since carlo changed the system to 4-3-3, and it's not a square peg in a round hole like anelka or mata.

[Banishingboredom]

(Original post by jam277)
Yeah makes sense, no need for a big name manager in my opinion, I reckon RDM was pretty pragmatic and worked with what he had. As much as we hated seeing malouda in the first team, who else did we have?

Also, I heard non chelsea fans complaining about sturridge inevitably being on the bench and saying its unfair. I don't know what sturridge they've been seeing, but there's a reason why he's been benched by di matteo. It's cool to bench the player when it's torres or andy carroll because they want them to be flops, but when sturridge is out of form it's not ok?

Anyway, I'm happy, we finally have the much needed creativity in the wings that we've been dying for since carlo changed the system to 4-3-3, and it's not a square peg in a round hole like anelka or mata.

Yeah it'll be like back in the days of Duff and Robben. I really can't make my mind up about Sturridge. He's not a good impact player, so you can't just class him as a squad player. He hates being right wing as well. It has to be all about Torres though, so there's no real room for his ego this season. Loan him out?

It would have been really good to see how he'd have coped/ adapted playing for England in a big tournament, but unfortunately that useless profligate muppet Carroll got picked ahead of him

[jam277]

(Original post by Banishingboredom)
Yeah it'll be like back in the days of Duff and Robben. I really can't make my mind up about Sturridge. He's not a good impact player, so you can't just class him as a squad player. He hates being right wing as well. It has to be all about Torres though, so there's no real room for his ego this season. Loan him out?

It would have been really good to see how he'd have coped/ adapted playing for England in a big tournament, but unfortunately that useless profligate muppet Carroll got picked ahead of him

Ah man, england just love the plan B. What makes it funny with the plan B is that crouch can do the same thing while welbeck is fairly tall and can chase balls all game unlike carroll and can actually finish every once in a while. How a guy can get into the england squad by being in form for 1 month astounds me when sturridge had a great half season and tbh frazer campbell probably has a shout for the england team too. Then again this is england so they'll just go back to 4-4-2 with lamps and gerrard in midfield doing trademark runs into the box with no cover or having gerrard play left wing and ashley young on the right without any defensive cover on the wings, bring back capello.

Sturridge, hmm but I don't see the point of giving a guy a breakthrough then loaning him out next season, I'll see if we can get 15 million for him, if not keep him. As long as malouda ****s off to france as quickly as possible I'm happy, it'll give sturridge a chance, unless we get a forward e.g. schurrle/cavani/falcao/higuain/insert big name striker then sturridge will be important.

[NDGAARONDI]

(Original post by jam277)
Also, I heard non chelsea fans complaining about sturridge inevitably being on the bench and saying its unfair. I don't know what sturridge they've been seeing, but there's a reason why he's been benched by di matteo. It's cool to bench the player when it's torres or andy carroll because they want them to be flops, but when sturridge is out of form it's not ok?

It's because he's English. Right, so now the Euros come along and I think England will lose all their matches and won't score a single goal. John Terry will get the blame. Starting to think the next manager could well be Joachim Löw.