Told u guys we were still in for modric!it seems he might force through a transfer after all..well levy did make a gentleman's agreement with him,n it only made sense.both spurs n modric stand to benefit from this transfer, and the contract extension signed previously virtually guarantees that,provided we get them to the negotiating table first.

Might take some time this one..and sure looks a bit more likely compared to the neymar deal,which appears to be dead in the water atm.

Sigh..so corky's gone..wasn't entirely unexpected.now i just hope josh n gael make AVB's eyes pop during training!

between moutinho and modric..we'd probably go for luka. especially since he's now 'at war' with spurs right now. but the bison's injury does put us at a disadvantage, because that means we absolutely need to get someone in, if that wasn't obvious already. we have much less bargaining power as a result.

i fear for essien...some posters at vital chelsea commented that his sheer size is putting excessive strain on his knees, hence the frequent injuries on that region. i'm no doctor, but when u look at essien's size it could be a factor. a specific program for him to lose a few kilograms could do wonders imo. last season wasn't his best, but he's still an asset to CFC when fully fit.

anyone watched copa america this morning? falcao scored a really neat goal vs bolivia, but the off the shoulder run and finish highlights how similar he is to torres. another player we should definitely consider in the event we're priced out of a move for modric, is freddy guarin. been very impressed with his technical ability and stamina for colombia, plus he'll come considerably cheaper than modric/moutinho.

devastating news. haih....bison...looks like we'll have to fight on without u. all the more reason now for ramires and mikel to step up! we will get through this

well..performance was okay, for a pre-season. some good movement and one-twos and we had our chances, just didn't take them. sound familiar?
hard to pick out a man of the match really, since so many players were rotated around. i did like the look of rajkovic though! over at vital chelsea, there are a fair number going berserk after waiting for an avalanche of goals that didn't happen against a makeshift malaysian 11. i think there should be a slight cause for concern, but no reason to panic just yet.

what i didn't like seeing was how many attention-seekers we have in malaysia. there's a time and place for everything, and the fact that no less than three dudes in the stadium near my section who wore various jerseys of the red kind were either forced to 'bukak' or harassed endlessly,is sad. uncalled behaviour from both parties, but more so on the people who take it upon themselves to be a walking human target in a crowd of no less than 80,000. is it any wonder our people are the most 'active' facebook users in the world?

those of u who felt inclined to pledge your allegiance or 'stupidity' (to be specific) in such a manner, just be thankful you weren't beat up. still determined to achieve your status of being a 'legend' or just plain stupid (again, to be specific)? by all means please pull on our proud national jersey and sit alone at the away section the next time indonesia roll into town for a regional tournament. better yet, travel alone all the way to their turf to gelora bung karno, sit at their home section and see how much fun you have. maybe safee sali will then declare you a legend eh?

ahh agree about clifford. seems to be trying a bit too hard at times, and u could see studge was looking a bit annoyed when he failed to release the ball early, or misplaced simple passes. still young, so no problem though

rajkovic looked like he's been training with the squad for years, and its good that he's finally able to play for us.

do explain..

and those who were giving their all booing benayoun, well its a case of lack of education. confusing jews and zionists is quite widespread here in malaysia, and poor benny probably didn't understand why he was singled out. all things considered, he actually did pretty well!

for those who chose to jeer, don't waste your breath next time because u know the media will only twist things around to put our country in a bad light. above all, its not like it has any mpact on israel so you're better off making a donation/contribution to the palestinian cause instead. 'just because everyone else is doing it (the jeering), doesn't mean its right,' as i like to say. we all have brains, so let's use it.

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jul 22 2011, 04:01 PM

oiii mad...pretty hot day man yesterday..

van aanholt almost scored weh!

i would've liked to see more players trying to take on their marker yesterday...it seems we were more content with holding on to possession. josh did allright? but man i can't wait to see ramires back in the squad! miss those dynamic runs. he had an 'okay' time with brazil during the copa imo. lots of hard work and graft, some beautiful long range passing but there was still some clumsiness in possession.

meanwhile, we've cooled our interest in lukaku and AVB has stated he "doesn't think we'll bring in another forward." so i assume he has a good influence on our signings. good...hope he's realised the priority is in midfield! lukaku would be great for the long term but like AVB said we're chock full in the forwards department.

yeah we don't seem to be putting them away. but gotta give credit to the malaysia defense though..they know how to man-mark the opposition.
mikel was okay with the long diagonal passes, but of course it serves to open up play more than anything else. maybe if josh or benny stayed on, we would've seen more ammunition for the strikers. now that you've mentioned it, kalou was actually one of our better players.

the rajkovic situation is a bit of an odd one..it seems he was recalled on the request of AVB, but what's the point of taking him through pre-season if he can't play for us in the league right? so i'm hoping those work permit issues have been sorted out, that's why he's happily tagging along with the chelsea squad.

p. s: sheesh can't believe barca managed to slash the asking price of alexis sanchez down to 23 million pounds. and who's this barca B 19 year old oriol romeu we're so interested in..he's described as a DMF which we totally do not need. but it makes sense if he's being lined up as the bison's long term replacement...sigh. those knee injuries are becoming a formality these days

A few more observations from our recent friendly, after watching the replay on astro :

1. the malaysian keepers..oh my. wouldn't mind some their goalkeeping coaches joining cfc. some absolute EPL class saves in there!

2. ashley cole still can't cross to save his life. but yuri can!

3. there were around 3 occasions when we were CLEARLY onside, but the flag wrongly went up. so no question about trying to 'give face' to the bigger team or whatnot.

4. chalobah is a fantastic prospect. had a flawless game, apart from that slack pass to terry which was almost punished. hard to believe he's still only 16 years of age!

yep hopefully he'll realise the importance of integrating the young ones.

so we've signed tibet and oreo. wonder who's number three?
oreo will take sometime to be officially unveiled because he's at the european u-19's tourney isn't he? so that leaves one more...hmm

Espn reporting that we're close to pastore right?hoho great news,n came from the mouth of palermo's president himself!guess luka's out of the picture now?

Darn I missed the game..did we turn on the style?

yeepp agreed. i'm really appreciating the fact that he wasn't utilised much in the copa america. if he had a blinder of a tournament, it would most probably push his price up further. oh well..gotta see how this one ends. signs are good.

heheh yepp by a notch it seems! guess we have to wait for a repeat of the game. our strikers' form is still a bit worrying though.

edit: so we did turn it on! (except for bosingwa's goal of course. lol) my pick is the ivanovic impression of an in form torres. oooh~ maybe he should play upfront..classy throughball by josh as well!



This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jul 24 2011, 11:34 PM

chill mate. he still has years left in his career, and we just have to throw our support behind him. branding him a 'failure' will make us no different from the media who are determined to see him fail. all he needs is a good run of form and the goals will come. keep in mind none of our strikers scored vs thailand as well.

dang i'm excited about who we'll bring in as our creative midfielder. and to hear AVB praising josh to no end, let's hope he gives the lad a decent shot in the team. we may nor need modric after all pastore though..is a different type of beast!

To a certain extent,that lack of service excuse is beginning to run thin.i think he just needs to focus on putting away some simple chances first.u could see at times he was trying to avoid injury when he's racing towards goal, as he fears defenders clattering into him.

This is understandable in pre-season,but he must up his aggression level ten fold, when the season starts.one feature of his game which he hasn't replicated is his aggression in harassing defenders when they have the ball.intercept an errant pass,get a tap-in,and it could help immensely.

Liked the way we played vs kitchen. More of our passes were finding their target, and our pressing in the opponent’s half was relentless. Lampard looked pretty good in a holding role, focusing more on distribution and keeping things simple. Highlights include benny’s off the ball running and studgy’s spectacular strike! Special mention goes to didier’s ‘suicidal’ header which caught the defender by surprise. Could’ve lost a couple of teeth putting that one away, and it’s a lesson for torres imo. If you don’t gamble and put a foot in, u won’t get the goals. Case in point was paulo’s fantastic low cross which was just begging for torres to slide it into the back of the net. Unfortunately he wasn’t expecting it, and the ball just trickled out. To his credit, he did hit the post with a sweet turn and shot. More of that please.

Meanwhile, various sites are reporting that pastore’s agent has travelled to London to talk to CFC. Reaaallllyyyy slowburner this one. Intriguing, nonetheless.


Paiseh don’t be so quick to dismiss him dude. He’s one of ours. Just needs to re-instill that sharpness to his game.

quick! everybody join me in saying chelsea were never really interested in pastore

the real target was modric...yeesss of coouurrseeee. heehee. err...maybe we're done with our shopping?

sneaky bid for juan mata anyone...no?

Lovely game vs aston villa the other day, especially in the first half! We seem to be making definite progress as each pre-season game takes place and this is an indication of how effective AVB’s team preparation is going.

Our passing and movement looked sharp, and we made aston villa look really-really ordinary although they did appear to be tired (for some reason). Anelka was causing mayhem with his movement, josh composed as usual with a nicely taken albeit slightly fortuitous goal, and torres scored with his first touch. Studge was a bit on the selfish side, but definitely should stay and fight for a place. I’m against any loan move whatsoever because he can be our game-changer. Just needs to keep his head up a little bit, and look for a teammate when he runs into too much traffic.

We still looked very disjointed with a 4-4-2, and if we plan to use this as our ‘plan B,’ there’s much work to be done. But with the little time we have left, I’m not sure if this should be a priority. Can’t wait for us to take on rangers, as AVB mentioned that the team which starts will more or less be the first eleven to face stoke. Doubt he’ll go for the didier and torres partnership again, even though nando got his goal in that formation. Fact is, its malouda’s misplaced shot that lead to it more than anything else. But I still credit torres for his good awareness and deft touch. Oh and best of all, we haven’t conceded a single goal in pre-season!

Now i’m not so sure we need someone like modric, because benny and josh seem to be capable of handling that role? Luka’s expertise lies in his ability to make the midfield ‘tick,’ linking defense and attack and controlling the tempo of play. Is this what we desperately need right now?

I’d prefer if we got someone who can improve our wing-play, such as juan mata or Ibrahim afellay. At the moment our team looks reasonably quick, but could do with more speed down the flanks to stretch the opponents' defence.

how can you not like joooshhhh?

I guess I’m just pretty optimistic about the both of them making an impact on our squad, rather than splashing a ton of money on a player, to a club who obviously don’t want to sell. But an over reliance on benny and josh might be our undoing as well, like u said. Benny is susceptible to injury and as much as I hate to admit it, josh it still relatively raw. I just think for the amount of money we’ll probably get extorted for, I’d expect more of an ‘x-factor’ kind of player who can create something out of nothing, which modric isn’t.

Whoever comes in, we just have to hope it greatly enhances our squad. Ahh the good ol’ duff and robben combo. It seems almost every Chelsea fan feels the need for that type of player, except those who run the club! I’d settle even for just one winger right now although the lack of names we’re being linked with suggests it’s not an area we’re keen on strengthening.

‘X-factor’ players include our legend Gianfranco zola, drogba when he was 28/29 years of age, robben (especially in his first full season), and once upon a time, joe cole. Besides that there’s always messi, ronaldo, etc. neymar and eden hazard can also be inserted into this category imo. In our current squad, I have high hopes of kakuta reaching those heights as he’s shown he definitely has the ability, but it’s still early days.

sneijder is tempting, but his wage demands are..scary to say the least, and i think its also one of the factors we didn't go all out to get aguero. yepp piazon will be arriving in january if i'm not mistaken! too bad he's not with the squad now, so AVB can assess him.

I don’t like where we’re going with the zhirkov situation. We intend to sell him off and bid for modric, so who’s going to cover for malouda when he has an injury / a dip in form? Again spurs have reiterated their ‘stance’ and its getting really old now. Hoping against hope that we get someone to compete with malouda for the left wing position. No competition can only mean one thing as demonstrated by last season, i.e complacency.

Actually I do share your concerns bro,and i'm sure many here feel the same way.the thing is we're just trying to remain as optimistic as possible,looking ahead to the new season.

It does get annoying when it appears we're missing out on player after player but I guess its just that much difficult competing with the likes of city,barca and madrid for top targets.

Well what are we to do mate?my only hope is AVB has the cajones to drop the 'big players' when he realises they're out of gas midway through the season,IF we end up with only modric or worse,no one at all.

Btw,i believe the aguero rumours had some truth in them,as atletico claimed we made a 50 million pound bid for both him and diego godin which the club didn't exactly deny.