Taylor Swift

Bye Bye Scotty. Thank fuck!

Just realized this. Tal Ben Haim = TBH. Tbh.

Whoa!! Seems like we're going to be signing a load of players. This is all really exciting!! what a week or two it's for the club

class

NE5 knows all eh? not only football, but women as well!

It's like people just open up FM and say 'oooh lookie here, this boy's potential ability is 180+, we should sign him for £12m!!' TBH that's a very immature way of looking at it and is untrue, well for me anyway So how much have you seen of him? Unless you watch the Portuguese league, and in particular, whatever team he plays for, I'm guessing you're just basing all this on the fact that Manyoo and Spurs are interested, much like in the other thread with Ben Haim whom some people assume to be good because Chelsea were apparently interested.

The revenue they're getting from sponsorship deals, merchandising and all puts them in a different league to us. They will become 'self-sufficient' if they can stop spending £30m on one player, which they will because the team is filled with class players. That's the biggest factor going for them. They don't need to blow their budget out of the water anymore. They're covered in every position, and continuing to poach some of the top youngsters in the world. Didn't they poach a kid from Arsenal about a month or two ago?? It's not like the first couple of years of the Roman era where they had to spend £50m+ in the summer to be able to compete next year. If they spend nothing this summer, absolutely fuck all, they're still one of the favourites for the title. With regards to building a new stadium, even if Abramovich doesn't chip in (very unlikely), I'm sure it's possible to finance it through season ticket sales and what-not (or do an Arsenal and get £150m for the naming rights of the stadium for 10 years - fantastic deal btw, one of the smartest deals I've seen in football), just like how SJP was developed. It is possible. I'm also very sure Kenyon will know the fact that a massive stadium would elevate their revenue streams into Manyoo's league, which is why it's going to happen sooner rather than later. Alright, I'm going to throw numbers around willy-nilly and see if we can make some sense. How much did The Emirates Stadium cost? £300m? Assume it'll also take roughly £300m for Chelsea to purchase a nice piece of land and build a 50000+ seater stadium. Do an Arsenal with the naming rights, and that covers half the cost. They can probably finance up to about £100m (just making a guess) through future season-ticket sales. All that's left is £50m, which I'm pretty sure can be found from the other sources of revenue that they have (whether it's their £12m/year shirt sponsorship or whatever). All those numbers are just random guesses, but to me, it seems as if it won't cost that much for Chelsea to push themselves into Real's and Manyoo's league. And all this with the assumption that Abramovich actually does nothing.

It's like people just open up FM and say 'oooh lookie here, this boy's potential ability is 180+, we should sign him for £12m!!'

They'll move out of Stamford Bridge soon enough. And I think Abramovich did actually wipe out all their pre-existing debt, which means that if he does leave, they could always borrow again. That's the good thing about takeovers, even if the new owner eventually leaves, they can borrow again. We have a debt of something like £80m and I think Chelsea had something similar pre-Abramovich. So if Abramovich fucks off, they can actually borrow £80m to stabilize their finances and what-not. It's actually common practice in business to use loans and stuff, as opposed to just hard cash.

The core of the Chelsea team will be there for 3+ years. They're not going anywhere. Terry's still what? 26? Lampard's what? 28? Drogba? 28? Cech? 25? Essien? 25? They're not going anywhere man. This season they had Robben out injured for a while and Joe Cole basically injured for the whole season. Next season you can expect at least one of them to fit longer and play more regularly. And of course like I've mentioned before, Ballack and Shevchenko will get better, maybe not by much, but they'll perform better.

I wish Sam would just shut up and not saying anything about transfers. It'll be like the Roeder situation again 'we are very close to signing someone' and then nothing happens. Every manager should take a look at Bobby Robson who never said anything whilst conducting transfers. He just kept it quiet until it was all done and then said 'here, I've signed this bloke'. That's the way to do things.

Has anyone actually consistently watched him play? Or is he just a 'trendy' signing because apparently Chelsea wanted him in January and he's on a free transfer as well? I seriously have some doubts as to whether he's actually been seen consistently by many people on here. However, saying that, I'll trust Allardyce's judgment and seeing as he's seen Ben Haim in training for awhile, this does look promising.

Nothing's changed man. Does anyone honestly think Chelsea will be shittier next season? Ballack and Shevchenko will be one step closer to fully adapting to the league, Pizarro and Alex are class. There's no way they don't challenge, and they're still my pick for the title next year (if nothing significant changes).

Have they actually signed Mascherano? And for how much? I was under the impression that they're 'loaning' him from Kia Joorabchian. Anyone confirm or deny this?

Its not on, Allardyce is a long term plan, money cant buy you team spirit and organisation & its a disgrace if Ashley is only willing to give him one season. No, but not spending any money will not create team spirit and organisation as well. Money isn't a factor. The manager and the players he has is the factor. Mourinho spent a shit load and I personally think Chelsea have the best 'team spirit' in the league. Yet there have been teams in the past loaded with stars who don't understand the notion of 'team spirit', for example Real Madrid during their Galacticos phase. Money isn't a factor in whether team spirit is created or not. Why is it a disgrace if Ashley is only willing to give him one season? If Allardyce does spend £45m, we should expect to be comfortably placed in the top 6 and actually challenging for the CL. When Abramovich bought Chelsea, he expected them to win the title in the first season!! Ashley's doing the smart and right thing. He's not stupid, and he does rightly expect success given the sum of his investment.

To be fair, he's never scored more 20 in a season as far as I know. He's never even ("even" ) got 20. Was that a dig at my lack of the word "than" NM? No, it was my backing up your being (almost) right. He's never hit 20 goals (and probably never will, certainly not for us!). I can't see why not, he hit 17 in his first season in a largely underperforming side. Why wont he get that extra 3 under a better manager with hopefully a much better team? Jon, I think NM was talking about Owen, not Martins..

When's the right time to start acting like a total cunt? After we win the league? I'm really excited, can't wait to show off my cuntish behaviour when we win something!

Don't lock it. This could be the last one ever. Cherish the moment people!

We'll see how he handles all this money. He's had one big signing in his whole managerial career, and although it came off, it's still only ONE. That was the major worry I had with Sam, the fact that he has no experience spending a shit load of money. Now with the takeover, this 'fault' of his will sharply be put into focus. And it was obvious that Ashley would only give him one season man. I mentioned this before as well, but there's no way a guy spends £133m and then worries about spending an extra £5m or so to change the man who'll lead his team. Sam has one season, and I really hope he's successful.

And people laughed when I said this.. You think after making an offer of £130m and supposedly having a £bn in his bank account, he'll sweat if he has to pay off Allardyce after a season? You think he'll sweat if he has to spend £6m to sack him? One of the big reasons the Allardyce hire was a coup was because he's good at getting the best out of underachieving players, and he's also good with a shoestring budget. However, with this new fella, if he is actually for real, why would he want someone like Allardyce? Just think about it for a second. Why wouldn't he want someone proven at the highest level to be the manager? Assuming he's going to free up cash for his manager, it's just logical to go for someone who's proven and who will deliver some form of success. Big Sam has a season if this guy's for real. And this.. "Newcastle United has a wonderful heritage and the passion of its fans is legendary," Mr Ashley said in a statement. "I am sure that, like me, they are already excited about the prospects for next season under the new manager's stewardship." (from bbc.co.uk) looks like Allardyce is safe Not really. Do you expect him to come out and say 'I expect success in the first year or else Sam's gone'?? Of course not man! He won't want to rock the boat right away, but seeing as he's been a highly successful businessman, do you think he'll let someone unproven like Allardyce try to take this club to a place that he himself has never been? (ie. Champions League) Here's a dose of an 'I told you so' (if it all comes true that is..)

:lol: That is class.

What???????????? He was saying that he just wanted to follow on the trend and type like he did because it seemed cool. Regards, Shak Yep. I'm a sheep, not a shepherd. Regards, Apisith

I just want to follow the trend and type like this because it seems cool. Regards, Apisith

Shearer. But only just because I wasn't born when Keegan came as a player and when he was a manager, I was still a kid.

Vucinic has scored two goals for Roma Bonera has hardly played AT ALL. He can't even displace the oldies in the Milan team Get the fuck off of FM.