BRIDGENEWS: CHELSEA 2017/2018 SEASON NEWS AND RUMOURS!

[ceejay22]

The useless coach benches Mitchy again
He has killed that kids confidence

[Ugbowo]

I don't think Conte ever rated him. He has been looking for a new striker for a while now.

[ceejay22]

I don't think Conte ever rated him. He has been looking for a new striker for a while now.

Which is wierd cos the guy was an able deputy to Costa all through last season
I don tire for this Conte.
He's poised to play without a striker against Arsenal. I don't know how he turned our team to Arsenal biaches instead of the other way round like it's always been

[balo]

Arsenal
13 Ospina
24 Bellerín
6 Koscielny
20 Mustafi
18 Monreal
35 El Neny
11 Özil
10 Wilshere
29 Xhaka
17 Iwobi
9 Lacazette

Substitutes
8 Ramsey
21 Chambers
30 Maitland-Niles
31 Kolasinac
54 Macey
61 Nelson
62 Nketiah


Chelsea

1 Caballero
28 Azpilicueta
27 Christensen
2 Rüdiger
15 Moses
7 Kanté
14 Bakayoko
3 Alonso
22 Willian
11 Pedro
10 E Hazard

Substitutes

6 Drinkwater
8 Barkley
21 Zappacosta
23 Batshuayi
24 Cahill
30 David Luiz
37 Eduardo

Referee:
Michael Oliver

[balo]

7 defenders , counting Bakay and Kante.

Let's go Conte!

[kajifu]

Which channel di show for US?

[balo]

Which channel di show for US?

ESPN Deportes (USA).

[balo]

Oh no!!! Rudiger with Own goal.

[ceejay22]

Conte out pls

[danfo driver]

Cant fix matches in England to save his job

[balo]

Conte is officially Wonger's biatch.

Ross probably had no intensity and didn't work work work.

Time for him to go back to Juve if they still want him.

[kajifu]

I don't think Conte ever rated him. He has been looking for a new striker for a while now.

Which is wierd cos the guy was an able deputy to Costa all through last season
I don tire for this Conte.
He's poised to play without a striker against Arsenal. I don't know how he turned our team to Arsenal biaches instead of the other way round like it's always been

Dude stop complain it was just a matter of time,you guys were beloved ashawo for long time before Roman came to England.
Its time we take back our title as king of London.

[anikulapo]

#FREE-EDEN

[kajifu]

Hmmm when are we playing Chelsea again?FA please we want Chelsea every week.
Chei I used to say hope the boys fight and keep the scoreline close not disgrace us fans of beloved when that short man Jose was incharge of Chelsea.
Today I want Chelsea of Conte every week,the match fixing master

[ceejay22]

I don't think Conte ever rated him. He has been looking for a new striker for a while now.

Which is wierd cos the guy was an able deputy to Costa all through last season
I don tire for this Conte.
He's poised to play without a striker against Arsenal. I don't know how he turned our team to Arsenal biaches instead of the other way round like it's always been

Dude stop complain it was just a matter of time,you guys were beloved ashawo for long time before Roman came to England.
Its time we take back our title as king of London.

I no blame you, una win so u can run your mouth lol
Na Conte I dey blame. Arsenal matches used to be a vacation for CFC. We let u guys do all the playing while we do all the scoring. Remember the 6-1 game at Stamford bridge? But now this yeye Conte has messed that up. Good thing is he will soon be fired. Might not even make it to summer , which I'm sure the fans won't feel too bad about anymore

[YemiBrazil]

We want Conte to stay forever!

[YemiBrazil]

I don't know the full story but one thing I don't understand is why some people place other factors above performance/result. In this case I refer to Conte vs Diego Costa. When they started having issues that even led to Costa openly cursing Conte out during one EPL game I thought it was just one of those days and it's going to get resolved quickly but no, it degenerated into a huge clash of ego. Now, Diego Costa is back at Atletico enjoying his life after several months of Chelsea-paid vacation while Conte is going through a very rough patch with a Chelsea team that no one could barely recognize .

I have seen several people adopt the approach of 'no one can mess with me' instead of managing the situation and working out the differences as professionals. Even on online platforms like CE we have seen highly educated individuals who are suffering from very fragile ego and will go to any length twisting and wriggling to force through a faulty argument instead of simply letting go and moving on to the next debate armed with a bit more knowledge.

I hated Diego Costa at Chelsea, not because of his stubbornness and nuisance factor but for his tenacity and never-say-die approach to the game. The guy turned around several lost causes for Chelsea in their brilliant march towards the title last season. With a prized possession like that, a smart manager should be clear about his priorities and his ego is certainly not one. In my opinion, that's where Conte got it all wrong. We have seen great coaches smartly defer to the likes of Cantona, Keshi, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc just to get the needed result. Case of Cristiano Ronaldo and his obsession with moving to Real Madrid comes to mind as this is similar to Costa's demand to move back to Atletico which pissed Conte off from the very beginning. Sir Alex could have done a Conte but he managed the situation by getting a few more productive years at United from Ronaldo without rocking the boat. Well, if Conte survives this and turn things around then he has done his value in the world of football a huge deal of of good and will forever be respected. Will Uncle Roman give him enough time to steady the ship???

[analyzer]

I don't know the full story but one thing I don't understand is why some people place other factors above performance/result. In this case I refer to Conte vs Diego Costa. When they started having issues that even led to Costa openly cursing Conte out during one EPL game I thought it was just one of those days and it's going to get resolved quickly but no, it degenerated into a huge clash of ego. Now, Diego Costa is back at Atletico enjoying his life after several months of Chelsea-paid vacation while Conte is going through a very rough patch with a Chelsea team that no one could barely recognize .

I have seen several people adopt the approach of 'no one can mess with me' instead of managing the situation and working out the differences as professionals. Even on online platforms like CE we have seen highly educated individuals who are suffering from very fragile ego and will go to any length twisting and wriggling to force through a faulty argument instead of simply letting go and moving on to the next debate armed with a bit more knowledge.

I hated Diego Costa at Chelsea, not because of his stubbornness and nuisance factor but for his tenacity and never-say-die approach to the game. The guy turned around several lost causes for Chelsea in their brilliant march towards the title last season. With a prized possession like that, a smart manager should be clear about his priorities and his ego is certainly not one. In my opinion, that's where Conte got it all wrong. We have seen great coaches smartly defer to the likes of Cantona, Keshi, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc just to get the needed result. Case of Cristiano Ronaldo and his obsession with moving to Real Madrid comes to mind as this is similar to Costa's demand to move back to Atletico which pissed Conte off from the very beginning. Sir Alex could have done a Conte but he managed the situation by getting a few more productive years at United from Ronaldo without rocking the boat. Well, if Conte survives this and turn things around then he has done his value in the world of football a huge deal of of good and will forever be respected. Will Uncle Roman give him enough time to steady the ship???

YB, you don yarn well but for someone who watched Fergie Jettison likes of RVN, Beckham, Stam - your comment is a bit surprising. If Cron was not Fergie's absolutely best player, you think he would have accommodated him that much.
Only thing Conte did wrong was how he let Costa go. The text was very silly/childish. As for whether to deal with Ego or not, Conte's decision was that CFC was better off without him.

Costa is a top player no doubt but when last I checked, he was in the team when CFC did not make it to Carrabao cup final last year. He was on the team when CFC lost in the FA cup to Conte's new Husband - Wenger. He came back for start of 2015 season overweight and one can point to him as one of the players that cost Jose his Job that season. 2nd Half of last season, bobo faded seriously. Go look up how many UCL goals Costa has for CFC. So yes he is a top payer but one can argue that he is not critical to CFC's success.

Will Costa have changed CFC's fortunes this season? no one knows. With City's form, I doubt CFC would be in strong title contention. So what else remain. Whatever issues CFC have this season has little to do with Costa's departure but more to do with Conte's rigidity/tactical inflexibility IMO.

FYI - Bobo has been talking about moving back to Athletico right from his 2nd season at the club

[YemiBrazil]

I don't know the full story but one thing I don't understand is why some people place other factors above performance/result. In this case I refer to Conte vs Diego Costa. When they started having issues that even led to Costa openly cursing Conte out during one EPL game I thought it was just one of those days and it's going to get resolved quickly but no, it degenerated into a huge clash of ego. Now, Diego Costa is back at Atletico enjoying his life after several months of Chelsea-paid vacation while Conte is going through a very rough patch with a Chelsea team that no one could barely recognize .

I have seen several people adopt the approach of 'no one can mess with me' instead of managing the situation and working out the differences as professionals. Even on online platforms like CE we have seen highly educated individuals who are suffering from very fragile ego and will go to any length twisting and wriggling to force through a faulty argument instead of simply letting go and moving on to the next debate armed with a bit more knowledge.

I hated Diego Costa at Chelsea, not because of his stubbornness and nuisance factor but for his tenacity and never-say-die approach to the game. The guy turned around several lost causes for Chelsea in their brilliant march towards the title last season. With a prized possession like that, a smart manager should be clear about his priorities and his ego is certainly not one. In my opinion, that's where Conte got it all wrong. We have seen great coaches smartly defer to the likes of Cantona, Keshi, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc just to get the needed result. Case of Cristiano Ronaldo and his obsession with moving to Real Madrid comes to mind as this is similar to Costa's demand to move back to Atletico which pissed Conte off from the very beginning. Sir Alex could have done a Conte but he managed the situation by getting a few more productive years at United from Ronaldo without rocking the boat. Well, if Conte survives this and turn things around then he has done his value in the world of football a huge deal of of good and will forever be respected. Will Uncle Roman give him enough time to steady the ship???

YB, you don yarn well but for someone who watched Fergie Jettison likes of RVN, Beckham, Stam - your comment is a bit surprising. If Cron was not Fergie's absolutely best player, you think he would have accommodated him that much.
Only thing Conte did wrong was how he let Costa go. The text was very silly/childish. As for whether to deal with Ego or not, Conte's decision was that CFC was better off without him.

Costa is a top player no doubt but when last I checked, he was in the team when CFC did not make it to Carrabao cup final last year. He was on the team when CFC lost in the FA cup to Conte's new Husband - Wenger. He came back for start of 2015 season overweight and one can point to him as one of the players that cost Jose his Job that season. 2nd Half of last season, bobo faded seriously. Go look up how many UCL goals Costa has for CFC. So yes he is a top payer but one can argue that he is not critical to CFC's success.

Will Costa have changed CFC's fortunes this season? no one knows. With City's form, I doubt CFC would be in strong title contention. So what else remain. Whatever issues CFC have this season has little to do with Costa's departure but more to do with Conte's rigidity/tactical inflexibility IMO.

FYI - Bobo has been talking about moving back to Athletico right from his 2nd season at the club

Good points but regarding Fergie, it was easy for him to let go of certain players because of his tactical flexibility (Fergie once whooped Arsenal 4-0 playing 7 defenders!) and the moment you start growing wings Fergie is always planning for life after your departure. That is exactly my point, an inflexible tactician like Conte does not have the luxury of discarding with his prized assets. He should have identified and locked down an ideal replacement before going gangster on him. Conte's formation needs a Costa-like menace at the top. Even if he is not delivering the goals he is freeing up Hazard, Willian, Pedro etc to do the damage - statistics won't capture that kind of contribution. With Costa it was even difficult for defenders to nullify the menace of Chelsea's wing backs which made it a huge problem coping with the team's pattern of play.
*Diego Costa scored 52 goals in 89 matches for Chelsea - 58.4%
Legend Drogba got 100 in 226 appearances - 44.2%

[Bigpokey24]

*Feb 21st:Chelsea vs Barcelona*
*Feb 24th:Man United vs Chelsea*
*Mar 3rd:Man City vs Chelsea*
*Mar 6th:Barcelona vs Chelsea*
*Mar 8th:Chelsea sacks Antonio Conte*

[ceejay22]

I don't know the full story but one thing I don't understand is why some people place other factors above performance/result. In this case I refer to Conte vs Diego Costa. When they started having issues that even led to Costa openly cursing Conte out during one EPL game I thought it was just one of those days and it's going to get resolved quickly but no, it degenerated into a huge clash of ego. Now, Diego Costa is back at Atletico enjoying his life after several months of Chelsea-paid vacation while Conte is going through a very rough patch with a Chelsea team that no one could barely recognize .

I have seen several people adopt the approach of 'no one can mess with me' instead of managing the situation and working out the differences as professionals. Even on online platforms like CE we have seen highly educated individuals who are suffering from very fragile ego and will go to any length twisting and wriggling to force through a faulty argument instead of simply letting go and moving on to the next debate armed with a bit more knowledge.

I hated Diego Costa at Chelsea, not because of his stubbornness and nuisance factor but for his tenacity and never-say-die approach to the game. The guy turned around several lost causes for Chelsea in their brilliant march towards the title last season. With a prized possession like that, a smart manager should be clear about his priorities and his ego is certainly not one. In my opinion, that's where Conte got it all wrong. We have seen great coaches smartly defer to the likes of Cantona, Keshi, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc just to get the needed result. Case of Cristiano Ronaldo and his obsession with moving to Real Madrid comes to mind as this is similar to Costa's demand to move back to Atletico which pissed Conte off from the very beginning. Sir Alex could have done a Conte but he managed the situation by getting a few more productive years at United from Ronaldo without rocking the boat. Well, if Conte survives this and turn things around then he has done his value in the world of football a huge deal of of good and will forever be respected. Will Uncle Roman give him enough time to steady the ship???

YB, you don yarn well but for someone who watched Fergie Jettison likes of RVN, Beckham, Stam - your comment is a bit surprising. If Cron was not Fergie's absolutely best player, you think he would have accommodated him that much.
Only thing Conte did wrong was how he let Costa go. The text was very silly/childish. As for whether to deal with Ego or not, Conte's decision was that CFC was better off without him.

Costa is a top player no doubt but when last I checked, he was in the team when CFC did not make it to Carrabao cup final last year. He was on the team when CFC lost in the FA cup to Conte's new Husband - Wenger. He came back for start of 2015 season overweight and one can point to him as one of the players that cost Jose his Job that season. 2nd Half of last season, bobo faded seriously. Go look up how many UCL goals Costa has for CFC. So yes he is a top payer but one can argue that he is not critical to CFC's success.

Will Costa have changed CFC's fortunes this season? no one knows. With City's form, I doubt CFC would be in strong title contention. So what else remain. Whatever issues CFC have this season has little to do with Costa's departure but more to do with Conte's rigidity/tactical inflexibility IMO.

FYI - Bobo has been talking about moving back to Athletico right from his 2nd season at the club

This your same argument goes round and round. The point is that Contes inflexibility is why he could not keep Costa. Costa is good, crazy etc, but he's also coachablw like Simeone has shown. I'm highly disappointed in Conte. If u remember, I have argued form the beginning that letting Acosta go is a huge mistake
It's turning out to be true. Unfortunately Conte is a goner no matter what he achieves now. His inflexibility has drawn the ire of the boss and upper management

[analyzer]

I don't know the full story but one thing I don't understand is why some people place other factors above performance/result. In this case I refer to Conte vs Diego Costa. When they started having issues that even led to Costa openly cursing Conte out during one EPL game I thought it was just one of those days and it's going to get resolved quickly but no, it degenerated into a huge clash of ego. Now, Diego Costa is back at Atletico enjoying his life after several months of Chelsea-paid vacation while Conte is going through a very rough patch with a Chelsea team that no one could barely recognize .

I have seen several people adopt the approach of 'no one can mess with me' instead of managing the situation and working out the differences as professionals. Even on online platforms like CE we have seen highly educated individuals who are suffering from very fragile ego and will go to any length twisting and wriggling to force through a faulty argument instead of simply letting go and moving on to the next debate armed with a bit more knowledge.

I hated Diego Costa at Chelsea, not because of his stubbornness and nuisance factor but for his tenacity and never-say-die approach to the game. The guy turned around several lost causes for Chelsea in their brilliant march towards the title last season. With a prized possession like that, a smart manager should be clear about his priorities and his ego is certainly not one. In my opinion, that's where Conte got it all wrong. We have seen great coaches smartly defer to the likes of Cantona, Keshi, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic etc just to get the needed result. Case of Cristiano Ronaldo and his obsession with moving to Real Madrid comes to mind as this is similar to Costa's demand to move back to Atletico which pissed Conte off from the very beginning. Sir Alex could have done a Conte but he managed the situation by getting a few more productive years at United from Ronaldo without rocking the boat. Well, if Conte survives this and turn things around then he has done his value in the world of football a huge deal of of good and will forever be respected. Will Uncle Roman give him enough time to steady the ship???

YB, you don yarn well but for someone who watched Fergie Jettison likes of RVN, Beckham, Stam - your comment is a bit surprising. If Cron was not Fergie's absolutely best player, you think he would have accommodated him that much.
Only thing Conte did wrong was how he let Costa go. The text was very silly/childish. As for whether to deal with Ego or not, Conte's decision was that CFC was better off without him.

Costa is a top player no doubt but when last I checked, he was in the team when CFC did not make it to Carrabao cup final last year. He was on the team when CFC lost in the FA cup to Conte's new Husband - Wenger. He came back for start of 2015 season overweight and one can point to him as one of the players that cost Jose his Job that season. 2nd Half of last season, bobo faded seriously. Go look up how many UCL goals Costa has for CFC. So yes he is a top payer but one can argue that he is not critical to CFC's success.

Will Costa have changed CFC's fortunes this season? no one knows. With City's form, I doubt CFC would be in strong title contention. So what else remain. Whatever issues CFC have this season has little to do with Costa's departure but more to do with Conte's rigidity/tactical inflexibility IMO.

FYI - Bobo has been talking about moving back to Athletico right from his 2nd season at the club

Good points but regarding Fergie, it was easy for him to let go of certain players because of his tactical flexibility (Fergie once whooped Arsenal 4-0 playing 7 defenders!) and the moment you start growing wings Fergie is always planning for life after your departure. That is exactly my point, an inflexible tactician like Conte does not have the luxury of discarding with his prized assets. He should have identified and locked down an ideal replacement before going gangster on him. Conte's formation needs a Costa-like menace at the top. Even if he is not delivering the goals he is freeing up Hazard, Willian, Pedro etc to do the damage - statistics won't capture that kind of contribution. With Costa it was even difficult for defenders to nullify the menace of Chelsea's wing backs which made it a huge problem coping with the team's pattern of play.
*Diego Costa scored 52 goals in 89 matches for Chelsea - 58.4%
Legend Drogba got 100 in 226 appearances - 44.2%

But YB,- CFC had 3 targets going into the summer - Lukaku, Morata, & Belotti. Because Morata has not hit the ground running does not mean that Conte did not have a "proven" striker lined up as a luxury option.

Morata has 10G & 4A from 20 games. 50% conversion rate despite all his misses.

Disagree - Conte's formation does not necessarily need a Costa-like menace. It arguably needs a focal point that can bring others into the game and finish chances in front of him. Morata can fulfill that role if he will only stop falling at the slightest touch.

CFC's WBs are being nullified by the opposing team's FB/WB and not CBs.. Teams have figured out Conte's system. You either use your FBs to pin them back in a copy cat formation or you press them aggressively so they can't build out from the back. Has little do with a Costa like presence IMO. Conte has done little to adapt as needed but rather trying to perfect the system as a counter.

[analyzer]

@Ceejay,

Pointing fingers at Costa's absence totally ignores CFC's bigger issues.
1. Teams have figured out Conte's system. And presence or absence of Costa will not solve anything if Conte does not adapt. Even mid table teams know that if they high press CFC, they will cough up the ball as the team has not improved in building out of the back in face of a high press. At least hit the GK long. Even Man City does it sometimes. "Novelty" of the formation is wearing off gradually.

2. Teams have figured out how to counter the FBs. Alonso lacks pace to beat opposition FB.

3. Team lacks creativity in central midfield. Can't play Cesc in a 2 man CM as defensively, team will suffer. Can't play him in a 3 man CM as you now have to take off one attacker and have Morata/Hazard isolated. Bakayoko is usually tasked to join attack but he lacks offensive threat. In a 2 man MF of Baka/Kante, neither of the two can pick a defensive lock. You can't keep having the attackers dropping deep to pick up the ball.

4. CFC attackers such as Hazard/Willian have a default mentality to come to the ball. Don't do enough off ball movement to drag defenders around. And often times when they get the ball, they pause. That pause allows opposition D to reset.

IMO, Conte's issues goes beyond whether he let Costa go or not. Will be great if Costa still around but he will struggle if the above issues are not addressed IMO.