Italy were absolutely magnificent, fully deserved that win and it could've easily been 3 or 4 nil,were it not for the brilliance of de gea!

Mixed feelings about this one to be honest,on one hand I want to see conte do really well,but at the same time I want him to come home and start work early

yep yep, he needs all the time he can get to properly assess the squad. I'm sure he's communicated some potential targets to the board, but its difficult because obviously his mind is totally focused on italy.

now that you've mentioned it, at times the italians do look a bit like a well drilled atletico side. compact in defense, and flooding forward whenever there's a suitable opening. but what i really admire is conte not using the excuse of an 'inadequate' squad and just piling 10 man behind the ball for 80 minutes. they outplayed spain in defense AND attack for that first 45, plain and simple. when that second / third goal didn't arrive early, he tweaked his tactics in the second half and they still maintained an attacking threat. i've no doubt spain would've just overwhelmed them if they dropped too deep, and individual mistakes would've eventually led to them conceding. they kept faith with their tactics and ability, and were rewarded for it. gotta respect that.

biggest question would be that back 3 though..cahill,zouma and azpi?does JT still have a place?


giaccherini couldn't get away fast enough..you could see his sheepish reaction

Mind games from juve

Now that its clear utd have effectively used their financial clout to scare off even real madrid (poor pogba,the spanish giants were his first choice after all ), I think its clear how jose fully intends to 'operate' at whatever club he manages. Mega signings will always be the order of the day,and chelsea fc simply doesn't have that luxury anymore,as we've long moved on from that early phase of the club.

'Smart' signings like michy will be our preferred method of reinforcing the squad,and on occasion we will attempt star signings like morata or gomes. More often than not,these star signings tend to take much longer and sometimes other clubs will barge in and hijack the deal.

This is something I'm perfectly fine with and i'm looking forward to how conte fully utilises all our personnel. Remember he lost arguably two of his best midfielders in marchisio and veratti yet italy remained a force to be reckoned with,as he made sure the 'subs' gave everything they got. There's a slight concern with how he's going to make use of the youngsters,so we'll see how accommodating he is towards traore,kenedy and loftus cheek.

Loftus cheek in particular will have to look at this as a make or break season,and if he fails to catch conte's eye I think we'll probably end up offloading him. He needs to fulfill that potential really soon, and perhaps juve's interest in matic isn't such a bad thing. If he stays and we end up adding more numbers in midfield,then ruben will really have his work cut out for him.

Gotta admit,we seem to be taking our own sweet time. Compared to our rivals (major signings) :-

Utd: zlatan,bailly,mikhitaryan.
Pool: matip,mane,karius.
Arsenal: xhaka,some japanese dude.
Spurs: janssen,wanyama.
City: nolito,gundogan.

We're at least a player behind,but I guess the good thing is we're actively being linked with kante,felipe anderson,and jaoa mario. A bit concerned that the rumours involving koulibaly have died down ever since everton came into the picture. That's the position that needs the most strengthening imho

At the moment I'd settle for kante and koulibaly,but if worse comes to worst we just need to secure the latter and I'd call it an 'okayish' transfer window!

Hahaha oscar does look like he's catching his breath as quietly as he can

Even moses looks like he's fired up. The whole team does need a good aggressive coach atm,but hopefully he knows how to get the best out of them as well. Above all,no favourites please!if someone clearly isn't cutting it,just drop him. We'll never know if the stand-ins are good enough until they're given a chance.

inevitably,with the incoming personnel, one or two are definitely going to miss out. but it would suck if either one of kenedy,traore or loftus cheek had to be shipped out on loan
hopefully they're doing their best in training to earn decent minutes in the new season. personally i want to see more of kenedy, particularly in attack. getting good vibes from what conte has spoken about thus far. seems like a man on a mission

p. s: there seems to be quite a few reports on us ramping up our interest in 'gabigol' (gotta love the nickname ) a.k.a gabriel barbosa from santos. apparently we made a firm offer of 25 mil pounds. hmmm somehow i get the feeling if this is true, we seem determined to secure his signature after being stung by the whole neymar fiasco. interesting.

best footballing news today!!

possible. but that price tag usually denotes that he'll be integrated into the team,by hook or by crook. not too sure that's a good thing though.

One of the Skysports dudes tweeted he already had his medical?will await official confirmation,but everything points to us successfully luring him to the bridge.

Hope madrid or utd don't suddenly come in with a last minute bid. it almost seems too straightforward to be frank..huhu.

We have no intention of selling matic either so mikel will most probably leave. Time for ruben fight for his place.

Conte gets kanteeeeeeeeeeeeeee~~~~~~~

Fantastic signing!!

Ahhh u can always count on ivanovic to remind us of how he shouldn't be anywhere near our first team.

Need reinforcements in the middle,as soon as possible. That ivanovic mistake was his 'normal' form practically all throughout last season. I hope conte concludes this quickly and realises he simply cannot be part of the first 11,no matter what.

That mishit backpass just brought back nightmares of his relegation worthy performances, and we simply can't afford to have willian or hazard cover for him every single time. Conte has to be ruthless about this,period. Don't drag us into another relegation battle for the sake of placating his ego,please.

Moses was actually very good,and papy looked better than JT. Looking forward to a team with hazard,cesc and kante in it. Let's see what happens in our next match. The others were very very average / poor.

Sigh. If costa really did submit a transfer request,I'd be sorely disappointed. Come on..the season ended a couple of months ago,if he really was sick of england,why wait till we're less than a month away from the new season? Haiiiihhhh.

If we fail to secure a decent replacement,this can potentially derail our whole season. Diego's premier league experience is invaluable and obviously if we lose him,we're going to look abroad. Having two new strikers who'll only both begin to take baby steps in the unforgiving climate of the epl can potentially have disastrous results.

I don't know how we're going to address this..of course forcing him to honour his contract is always an option, but diego just doesn't seem like the type to quietly accept his fate and not cause unrest in the dressing room. That's definitely not something we want.

Most importantly,say we get a good fee for costa in the region of 40 - 45 million pounds,who's actually available?do we make an obscene offer for morata and force madrid to reconsider? Do we sign barbosa and hope for the best?get ayew and just throw him in the mix?make an enquiry for bony? Then there's an issue with how long any potential transfer can drag on..

Note: Ok,just read a conflicting report by the london evening standard stating that the rumours of costa asking to leave aren't true..we'll have to see how this one develops.

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jul 18 2016, 11:48 PM

Can't find the match on astro listings anywhere

very decent performance vs liverpool, and nice to see traore,rlc, and especially aina getting a crack at RB. he was composed at the back, although wasn't really adventurous going forward. but after last season's defensive horror show starring brana, i'm all for conte concentrating on fixing things from the back first.

not too many clear cut chances and our passing still has a lot of work to do, but good workout nonetheless. however, there were 2 obscene tackles in the game which were uncalled for, one from JT in the first half, and the other from cesc. both could've easily been red to be frank, but good on fab to personally apologise to his 'victim' in the dressing room and thank God nobody was seriously hurt.

real madrid next! when will astro show us some love?

p . s: napoli's still silent on our increased offer for koulibaly. hmmmm...wonder when or if we'll give up on this one

They're filthy rich from the higuain money but you're right,his contract situation puts us at an advantage.

I wonder if brana's up for an italian adventure..it could help smoothen the deal I suppose

aaannnddd there goes traore on loan to ajax

was hoping for us to show remy the exit door first, but i guess the management decided traore needs the first team minutes and he's obviously behind costa and bats. what i'm a bit concerned about is the rumours linking us with icardi, as its obviously going to push traore further down the pecking order. but u know what, another striker will give us some real depth that we lacked last year, especially if conte operates in a 2 striker system. if we do somehow manage to prise lukaku away from everton, then costa has a real fight on his hands. i'd say bringing lukaku 'home' would only be necessary if we plan to let costa go next year. if not, a CB should be our main priority!

judging from the pre-season games thus far, aina has been quite composed at RB, and although he lets himself down sometimes by being a bit too clever (i. e, trying to dribble out of a tight spot) , when he's given some breathing room, his decision making is quite good. it has to be pointed out though, those 'tight spots' he usually ends up in are mostly down to one of the CBs (mainly cahill!) taking AGES to spread the ball out to him, and by then the opposition players are only yards away, putting him in an extremely tight spot. seeing how ake and baba were quickly shipped out on loan, obviously conte rates him. still don't understand why we loaned ake out though. now azpi has nobody to push him.

our interest in attacking players is good, but we really should've had a good CB through the door by now. koulibaly is taking too long.

note: completely agree with the everton sentiment, we gave lukaku up so easily and handed atsu over to them on a platter, to bolster their squad. the stones saga left a really bitter taste for both clubs, as we forced him to hand in a transfer request which came to naught. its worth pointing out though that he's coming back off an awful season with everton, and i doubt he'll be able to show his true worth anytime soon. did we dodge a bullet? maybe. considering his age and the fact that he'll be blocking christensen's path into the first team next year, its probably for the best.

koulibaly on the other hand appears to be the finished article and in his prime, hence i don't think his signing will alienate either of our young CBs. hence in the long term, i think we can realistically hope for a zouma and christensen pairing. if we fail to bring him in, i'm not sure what's the plan though. arsenal are close to getting mustafi, and those lindelof / kone rumours appear to be last resorts more than anything else.

I don't think napoli are going to sell us koulibaly. Now the main question is who we have for alternative targets. That lindelof dude?err..hijack napoli's potential replacement for their prized CB?surely we can't be this foolish to get rid of everyone before CONFIRMING any new signings? Sigh.

Note: crazy game at the emirates.

Get in theeeereeeeeeee!!! Great tackle from dave and confident pen from hazard!

Kante picks carrol's pocket twice in a row!