I'm getting more concerned that we haven't started shifting out the deadwood

We've reached our quota of non-British players

Clubs are alos proving unusually persistent. Look at the Spuds with Modric and Porto with Moutinho and Falcao

It's fine, he said he want's to give every one a chance, and make the right choices in player transaction's. It's not as if anyone we would be interested in is going any where, YET (Modric)

AVB has said he wants to give all the players a chance, it would be stupid for him to bring someone in if he didn't feel we absolutely needed them. Im sure he'l soon know which few players need to go and from that which players need to come in.. Things will start brewing soon i'm sure!

Relax... Modders is on his way soon

I'll be more disappointed if some of the old guards are not shipped out!
Signings must happen @ some point, but I would be happy to see some departures first.
My only fear is that most of the players may put in a 110% effort during pre-season, in order to prove to the new Manager that they've still got it.

I just hope AVB has already made up his mind on the players he wants to axe, regardless of what he said about giving everyone a chance.
Time will tell...we keep watching!

----No. 1 Football Don------ well said.
Given that several articles have stated that Mr Villas-Boas wants to meet with every player before he makes any decisions, surely means that some effort and thought would be put into any outcome. Knowing Villas-Boas he will most likely compile a dossier on each player and identify if they can further contribute to the team or are considered 'deadwood'. Also the lads are only on their second day of training!

First post on here by the way, if anyone is interested...

welcome mate, will really us to have to creativity in midfield, like barca

AVB said he wants to assess his squad for a week before making any changes. I just hope he doesn't leave it to late, the only players who have left are the youths to Hamburg and Cork to Southampton. Bruma is only on loan but whether he does good or bad on loan I can't see him coming back.

I think maybe instead of chasing deals we know will take up all summer like Modric (who's not even a priority signing IMO) we should maybe start with players who have admitted they would like to go to Chelsea and might leave this summer like Aguero and Lukaku.

We need a winger, a playmaker and a striker and we are sorted plus perhaps a defender if we sell Bosingwa and Ferreira though I don't think that we need a defender right now.
We need a winger but Sturridgh can play as a winger and seeing his performances in U-21 European Championship where he displayed Messiesque skills and we have Malouda who is 30 and he can give us 2 good seasons at least and he was our top scorer in Premiership and at the end of last season from game 26 to game 38 he played really well and Drogba was great as a winger.

The problem is since the whole robinho ordeal our club have tightened their lips on anything regarding transfers. We could be close to wrapping up multiple signings or sales without so much as a whiff. Its worrying but you can't just assume we're sitting on our hands watching the market go by.

Ronaldinholoverand smokewheel pizza lover

Point of correction; Malouda is 31, and I beg to differ about him having 2 more seasons with us.
Yes, he may still have what it takes to perform @ a high level, but he just doesn't perform the primary objective of a winger...rarely crosses, rarely troubles the full-backs, lacks pace etc.
Playing him next season, is like asking for a repeat of what he did last season, ie...always cutting inside, and only more interested in scoring goals, than creating for the strikers.

I remember last season, there was a situation he had the chance to pass to Torres, who was in a goal scoring position, while Malouda was in a very tight and difficult angle to make an attempt on goal, let alone shooting, what did he do...yea, you guessed right...he took a shot, and it hit the side netting.
Maybe, if it was Drogba, he could have passed the ball to him, but whatever the case is...it is such selfish displays from Malouda and some of the senior players that have made the fans to get frustrated, and also want them out.

Malouda won't change, he'll also want to score more goals this season to prove a point, and by so doing...he'll neglect his primary duties, which is...staying out wide, take on the full-backs, and cross the ball for the strikers.

I am concerned that with only 7 weeks to go our squad is nowhere near good enough, finalized and ready to challenge United next season.

As I wrote in a previous article, we are already very under prepared for next season in comparison to United.

That is not the manager's fault, it is just an unfortunate consequence of bringing in a new coaching team.

In the January window up to the last day we had signed no one, 75m was spent that day, including the purchase of Luiz, a player that had been declared was going no where, and that was at the 11th hour.

The fact is these days and the way Chelsea goes about it's businesss privately rahter than publicly, you will see little or no activity until a signing is made. In the meantime you will see plenty of rumours, those personally I chose to ignore.

I'm not convinced we need to make too many changes.
Luiz and Torres are still new and Benayoun needs to be given a chance.I can see us making few changes tbh.

We need a RB
We need a creative player 'a la Modric'
We need a winger who can either skin defenders or cross the ball well,preferably both of these.
We need a decent no2 goalkeeper

We need a RB
Luiz,Ivan,Bos and Ferreria

We need a creative player 'a la Modric'
Benayoun,Josh but yes,maybe

We need a winger who can either skin defenders or cross the ball well,preferably both of these.
AVB doesn't really play with wingers more attacking left and rightsiders.Kalou,Malouda,Zhirkov,Kakuta.


We need a decent no2 goalkeeper.
Who is decent that would come to be no2?

Carefree...

RB - Bosingwa and Ferreira not good enough
Ivan is not a specialist specialist RB although is good enough, Luiz is not a specialist RB and unproven.

Creative - Benayoun and Josh not good enough

I don't care if AVB does not play with wingers,we need one, we need a player who can change a game and make an impact.

Other clubs have better no 2 keepers than we do, so its something the club should resolve either by buying or developing.

We just don't know whether Yossi and Josh aren't good enough. Neither has been given a run in our team.

Yeah, we know that Benayoun won't be Messi. But players go through rich veins of form, and maybe given a chance with us he could really turn it on.

All i'm saying, is that AVB should assess what he has before he goes off and buys buys buys. And I know he will have done already, watching videos etc... But he has to see what each player can do in person, realtime.

We know that Benayoun and Josh are not at the same level as a player like Fabregas, Sjneider or Modric and its a player of that sort of quality that we need before the season starts.

Bubbles i wonder if your chelsea friends know that youre a massive spurs fan??? !

Who needs Messi when we have Sturridge.He can be a game-changing player.He can switch his positions by being a winger and a striker in the same game.For one half he can be a winger and for the next half he can partner Torres.

i see pizza boy is back... right on cue.. i needed some entertainment.

dunno about anyone else but i would prefer messi to sturridge myself.

Who needs Messi when we have Sturridge.He can be a game-changing player.He can switch his positions by being a winger and a striker in the same game.For one half he can be a winger and for the next half he can partner Torres.

-----------------

And then you woke up

'We know that Benayoun and Josh are not at the same level as a player like Fabregas, Sjneider or Modric and its a player of that sort of quality that we need before the season starts.'

Difficult to argue that, although i'd say that Fabregas is significantly better than Modric and that Sneijder hasn't had that great a season.

I'd agree that we need strengthening in the center of the park in terms of creativity. But breaking the bank on a 10 year investment isn't the only option, surely we could make a play for an older stop gap, someone who could do a good job this year and next? Someone with real quality, but less time at the top.

I say this because, like most Chelsea fans, I want Josh to come through and end up first team. Not just because he's good enough, also because having an academy product in the first team makes you feel just that bit more like an actual football club and not a franchise.

Josh will come through as long as he managed and developed in the right way. Even I can see his talent, so he must be good.

Physically he is not there yet in my humble opinion, and he is certainly not ready yet to become the fulcrum of the team, but if we want to win anything in the next two or three seasons,we need such a player now, we can't wait for Josh to become the player we all know he will eventually be.