Carefree1991

The defence is at best good. But there is no excuse for the need of wanting players with better quality than what we have. Ivanovic is poor, Azpili is a right back, yes he can play left back and does a good job at it. But he is a right back, not playing him there is problem.

I think with the current squad we will finish in the top 6, potentially pushing for that 4th spot. We have same defence as last season, minus Baba which won't really impact our standings. But on the plus side we've added what looks to be a genuine back up striker in Batshuayi, over last seasons Falcao/Remy/Pato. Also added Kante, not much more needs to be said about what he brings. Plus, it looks to me that Hazard is at the races so far, which is a huge plus in our favour. Then there's the debate on Costa performing better this season, but we just never know what he's going to do on the day. The Manchester clubs are better than us it seems. Aside from them I wouldn't say any club is in a better position that us. Liverpool? Arsenal? Tottenham? All have problems aswell, in my opinion Tottenham probably with the least.

It's a joke how some players/clubs are protected and others treated like scum. Like someone posted earlier, I'm sure Mourinho's defensive football will now be tactically amazing and only a genius could pull it off. To be fair to TalkSport, DriveTime did pick up on the bias of MOTD regarding the Costa and Coquelin incidents.

If that fee is true then it could make sense to bring him, but not too sure at how true this fee is and where it comes from. The only reason I can think of is: that Chelsea and BMG have an agreement for him to play at BMG for the season. So the fee would be to cancel that agreement? As an inconvenience payment.

It's not vital.

Agreed, we are in desperate need of a LB and CB and a striker if Remy leaves. Everywhere else is fairly solid I think for this season.

I know, I think its more out of hope that I say it, seeing others buy sought after players, knowing we need to improve so much to close the gap is not a reassuring feeling.

With the reports of Madrid being interested in Alaba, I think we should join that race, if bids will be listened to. By far one of the best full backs in the world, If we want to be join that European elite again, he is the type of player we should be attracting; although no CL this year would clearly be a barrier.

I can see your point, and I think he does have a role, albeit a small role if he's going to play CM. Two seasons ago, he had an attacking midfielder in front of him doing some the work with the two holding players. You could argue that one of the strikers could now drop and do that. Also, that great form he did have has been missing in most parts over the past 18 months. I can see him playing in the role, can see the huge limitations he may have to succeed there this coming season. I hope he proves me wrong. I mentioned him in another thread about where he played for Barcelona, he could potentially do that for us with two men up top, how Loftus-cheek done for us in yesterday's game. I think its worth a try in pre-season.

I've wanted Moses to stay with us the last few seasons, he offers us something different that our other attacking players don't. He's so direct, his first thought is get the ball forward and run into dangerous areas. Similar to Cuadrado will offer next season as well, but Moses has Premier League experience and the conditioning to handle the league. A very squad and impact player.

Absolutely, out of the 4 we currently have (Costa, Batshuayi, Remy and B. Traore), you'd have to say only 1 of them is a sure performer for Chelsea and even he is rumored to be leaving (not that I believe he will). Batshuayi is unproven, Remy isn't good enough to win us the league; but decent squad player and B. Traore looks fairly promising but isn't an out and out striker. If we are going to challenge for the league and play 2 up top we will need more/better options than the ones we currently have.

Absolutely, hopefully we slip under the radar with the press, get rid of some the hate that surrounds our club and can concentrate more on our football.

Really hope we can pull of this Kante signing, would be a great injection of energy and a no thrills approach that's needed!

Couldn't agree more, the squad is flat, needs an injection of quality not quantity!!

The case of the players performing how they did, no matter what they felt about the manager was shocking. We should not entertain players with that 'throwing the toys out the pram' mentality. What happens if Conte does something the a player doesn't like? do we just write off another year? Some players need to change their mentality and get on with their job or they should go. There have been numerous occasions when squads have gone beyond what the manager wants/says to achieve success, and that's what their mentality should be; regardless if they like the manager or not, you perform on the pitch. Avram Grant, I'm near certain that, that crop of players took it among themselves to perform the best they could, because they wanted to win regardless of who was in charge, that's how we got away with changing manager so often.