Sad that we missed on Robinho , but good to know that we did not involve in a bidding war. His match to goal ratio is around a goal for three games in Madrid, quite to what Sheva had at chelsea.. 32.5 MM is a very risky price ..
It is good to see more teams, with billionaire owners, which will definitely improve the EPL.

I do think , we have enough players to win silverware this season.

I am really gutted to see Robinho at Man City, this proves what a looser Calderon is.Anyways its a good thing that Robinho’s there, now we can follow his progress and can see how he plays in the EPL and whether he’s a hit or an expensive flop. If he’s good we can get him in the January window or next summer as I am sure he will create another tantrum if Chelsea is still interested in him. The positive thing with this transfer is Sinclair, Paim, Kalou, Malouda and Di Santo will get more playing time.

Now I am starting to hate Man City as this looks like we have got us new rivals in the transfer market. Good thing is these guys did not purchase the club earlier or else we could have faced some competition from them during the Bosingwa and Deco saga. In future we can expect these guys to spend heavily and give us some tough competition.

Real Madrid are real losers. They cannot stand that we are now forcing Players out of their claws so they are behaving like spoilt brats

don’t have to go for Robinho. One of three will be available next season - Rooney, Tevez or Berbatov.. All three can’t play and even if one is denied , they won’t stay .. And Fergie has good challenge, to optimize the three of them and make sure they click..

@3 - it is good to have competition from other clubs, but my worry is the value of the players would be inflated.. Only Arsene Wenger would be laughing right now.

Sorry for Robi. We are fine. We have enough quality once dd is back. He did so well in the reserve match. Scott should have more go

Did we realize what just happened? We lost more then what we brought in. It was WRONG to let SWP go while we didnt sign anyone. Now this is a disgrace, as well it shows Chelsea is not a Financially strong and we cant buy as we did before. This is not a bad thing nor a good thing. Robihno was a simple fact: it showed the higher bidder got the player, we were not gonna empty our pockets, but the Arabs were. Unless we want to challenge Man U for the title, we need at least two big signings during winter. We need one winger and one Striker.

I am against the big signings because we have a history of flops signings . What would be ideal is to get some young players with a potential and we have a great manager to develop them.

Of Course, we are better than arsenal that we would more to our talented players to keep them . Arsenal fans would argue about value for money , but you need to pay to keep them..

@2, even if he plays well in EpL ,no gaurantee that he will play well for us.. Keane is yet to score for liverpool in 5 games.. Yes it is too early, but the press did make a big noise about Sheva by this time and never allowed him to settle.

lets look at how berba performs in Man u ..

Malouda, kalou and scott must all be glad robi did not come since this will give them more Play time. I wish man citi well. Another blue force

omg why did he go to man city..it left me wif a bitter taste…to be more optimistic i think tts the only way out for him…he will be coming to chelsea in the winter

good to see another billionaire investment in a english club. the quality of EPL is going to improve and 75 - 80 points would be enough to score championship .

I agree BCFOREVER. We should get some perspective youngsters and develop them into big names. Not the otherway around. That’s why i respect Wenger’s work.

And as for ROBINHO - “…Play for nobody but Chelsea”! Thats right Robinho, now take that Man City cash and wipe your mouth with it, cause it’s full of sh*t. Can’t wait to beat City. Come on Blues , we don’t need Robinho anyway. Drogs will be baack.

Chin up blue mate @6. Why go into a bidding war. Its not like without him Our team cannot win. Give our young lads the chance

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA How’s that taste rentboys? Is it bitter?

Shh Shh….if you’re quiet enough you can hear John Terry sobbing from here!!

And robinho will get his City debut against us on Sept. 13th. I wish we were the homeside in this match.

omg how did this happen!!!!!!!…..robinho wanted to come chelsea..to be optimistic,i think the only way rm will let him leave is to man city…he will come chelsea in the winter transfer window

who knows ???maybe chelsea is going to announce tt man city and chelsea has a deal tt should they sign robinho he will go to chelsea in exchange for swp…

@ 6 - Chill up mate.. Last week , there were reports of 100 MM Euro deal about Kaka. We are financially sound .. But over the years, I would say, we have become more intelligent in spending money..

With virtually the same team,we won most of the matches last year without Drogba, Ballack ( half season), Lampard and Terry plus others in African cup. So I don’t need a reason , why we can’t play better.

Injuries can cause problem because our bench is not much experienced ,but no other better time to learn for youngsters.

omg why did he go man city…:( to be optimistic i think he will come to chelsea in the winter…..or maybe he is earlier included in the deal with chelsea including swp???haha

If Scolari knows his tactics he’ll know how to handle Robinho in the coming match. Oh well, with the transfer window closed, I think it is time for us to get behind the team and stop wondering “what if”. We are still in a good spot to conquer EPL and CL with what we’ve got. Bring in ON!!!
p.s: I couldn’t help but to notice that our dressing room atmosphere is a bit on the low side…. not enough “fire”, need Terry to give the team the right kick to fire it up…..

this is sad man…i am trying to be optimistic by saying tt robinho will come chelsea in winter or even in part of the swp deal…haha

BC - I think Spurs got a better deal from Man U than Man City. It was win-win-win situation . 31MM pounds + a promising striker for one year , which should be equal to Man city price. Spurs would have found it difficult to get the third striker, in less than 24 hours.

More important , they can buy a ashravin in Dec, when russian season is over

QPR has Mittal as one of the owner. 2 or 3 richest person. Will they win EPL next season and CL after that..
Just because arab billionaire took over man city, they will not win EPL . Man U has shown over the last two seasons, with the right investments and right manager, you can win ..

I agree with most of you about us being able to win the league. We have a good chance, yes. But I wouldn’t consider us favorites. Man U with Ronaldo healthy and the addition of Berbatov is the best attacking team in the world, on paper. We have had the best midfield, defense, and goalkeeper over the past few years (they conseded fewer goals last year than us…) but other than Drogba our attack seems blunt. I’m talking about the finishing of chances here. Our midfield has to win the league for us. I mean, United scored 80 goals in the league last year–15 more than us–and surely the addition of Berbatov will help that.
As long as we’re injury free, I believe we’ve got the championship for ourselves–but that was our collective belief the past two years.
All I’m saying is, don’t start discounting anyone. Man U are a damn good team, and when the dust settles, they’ll be there.
And about Robinho… It’s a loss, plain and simple. Because if we had bought him, we would have been a better team. So whether we admit it or not, it’s a loss…
I can’t wait for the next few games. It’s gonna be a great season.

Dammed I’ gonna have a heart attack with all this transffer shit, Robitchnho didn’t come to Chelsea and to be honest I was kinda sad about it. After reading the chocking news of the Robitchnho saga I had to take a time to relax (this kinds of things have negative effect on my health). But in the other side, I got this feeling about the season without Robitchnho. I Rarely feel optymistic about the future but I fell slightly good (optymistic) right now. I hope (want) Chelsea does well (great) this season (I mean playing nice football and hopefully win some silverwearso we can slap some bitches with are victory). I want then to show that they have wat it takes to play and to win. (Non like CRonaldo United) That must must feel bad when u depend on a player to win (and everybody says that ur nothing without him, yeah it feels like crap. Well I’m glad this hapenned it made me reflect people (thats something rare coming from me) After all is just my hopes (or somebody else) Obiously I always want then to win like all the fans.

Pardon that last one, I meant Unique #48313, the obvious ManUre fan

you know guys what I’m really mad about, we sold Robben to those bastards and this is how they treat us. You know my dream is now to face Real in the UCL and beat them so Calderon will stick his face in his a**.

Robben spent a lot of his time at Chelsea injured or with fitness problems, when he was sold he was 23 (if im not mistaken) it would be realy hard to sell him later. Glad he’s gone now, Chelsea doesnt need another injured/underperforming player in squad.

Scolari is favouring portuguese and brazillians.

When deco was having a bad game he should have been off (he lost the ball too many times and his short passes were unaccurate) and di santo should have partnered with anelka.

Also like some previous bloggers said we need dribblers. Malouda, Cole and Kalou cant dribble(well kalou sometimes) let alone cross.

BP should give kakuta, Sinclair(had a terrific reserve game Arsenal 2-Chelsea 3) and Piam(also had a good reserve game and has the potential to be much better than ronaldo) more chances.

This should keep cole, Maluda and Kalou on their heels.

The reality is Kenyon was poor, and Chelsea look bad by losing out to City for Robinho.

Clearly, the player was willing to accept more money and is not a winner since he chose a club not in the CL. It was ridiculous calling that press conference and then agreeing to move to City. Kenyon now looks stupid for claiming a deal was close when we got outbid at the last minute. Robinho had the choice to reject City and play for Chelsea and did not do so.

All in all it is very disappointing since we had already sold SWP back to City and are now down 1 winger.

I hope we stuff them at their place 3-0.

I personally don’t think Robinho is happy at MC, especially since he does not get to play CL football and will not be with Scolari. From the most prestigious club in the world to mid-table MC? Looks like the only ones happy are Real Madrid and MC, at Chelsea and Robinho’s expense. I hope we meet Madrid in the round of 16 and knock them out, something they are already accustomed to.

MiguelC, when healthy, Robben was our most dangerous player. True, he was oft on the treatment table, but to say he underperformed is unfair.

I wish Robinho good luck at ManC. Now that we are left with average wingers JC and Malouda, it is a concern, but may be it helps towards slelving 4-3-3 and making 4-4-2 once Drogs is back. As for now , my doubts are over the sulk Anelka and the average Malouda, all depends on how they are going to fare this season. May be we should have offloaded Malouda instead of SWP.

??

——–Cech———-
Jose —-Carvalho—-Terry—A.cole
JC/Deco–Essien/Obi/Belleti—Lampard—Ballack/Malouda
Drogba—Kalou/Anelka

With all that is going in EPL, we will be able see the real test for Scolari, in terms of tactics and management. We never anticipate an easy season anyway. I’m sure when Christmas comes, we will be there among the top two team, else, I’m worried that it is not only world-class players we are seeking for, maybe “another” world class manager; given that RA’s patience is not as deep as his pockets…. sad but true.

Every single Man utd fan would be frowning at the developments at Man City.

Er, and how?

Not really. Sparky is a quality manager. But he would be feeling the pressure from the top already. If you’ve seen Gary Cook’s interview to the Guardian you’ll see what I mean. They are ruthless and don’t believe in the building up of a team. More into the business of instant results. More like a Real Madrid circus sort of success than the sustained dominance that could be built.

Oh well… each one to his own. Although, Hughes will do well at City if given the freedom.

i´m really happy that robinho didn´t come to Chelsea. i´d rather love to see guys like Kalou, di Santo and Sinclair playing more often this time. They are the Chelsea talents and they should be given opportunity to mature. If anyone agrees to me, i am talking about not only winning EPL this time, but again and again in coming years….with our own grown players. Thats when others start respecting our club.

i totally agree with comment in 19
manutd is still the best in terms of starting 11 and depth
the chelsea team has depth in name not on the pitch.
if we have depth why do we suffer when there is no DROGBA? why do we find it difficult to make changes (Grant and now Scolari) ?
manutd signing of berba is an added advantage to them. (i think they hav better chances of winning the league)
robinho’s is a great loss and might hunt us for the rest of the season.
the fact is that the chelsea team has a lot inbalance (take it or leave it)
the team is over depending on Deco, A. cole & Bosingwa.(what happens if they are injured)
Scolari is beginingn to scare me wit is tactics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if Anelka starts the next game, then i know he might take us nowhere.
if none of kalou, Franco di santo, paim (especially) does not start against man city, then i know he doesn’t have plan for CHELSEA.
For a 4-4-2 nobody should think of drogba-anelka it cant work rather drogba-kalou or drogba-di santo

anelka is not showing any progress (bench him)
di santo should see at least 25mins every game (encourage him)
fabio paim should be a starter (we need a dribbler)
the mid-field is full of central player (scolari do sumthing, pls add flair—paim, sinclair,kalou)
we need young players in starting eleven (all big names must not start, think about the future)
chelsea attack is too blunt (goals brings entertainment remember we lost last season on goals—- 4get the bolton’s game ..scolari work on the attack)

chelsea is nt relying on ashley cole bosingwa and deco…without them we still got substitues…

@22…Robben underperforming…I guess u watched some other Robben….

im not too bothered about robinho, except it means we have two games this season which will be more difficult
hopefully ben-haim will do us some favours, he could of done something nasty to micah in man city’s game last week, funny how he seems to clash heads with so many people
i want to see more of the fabio paim fellow and sinclair usually plays on the wing doesn’t he?
i think man utd screws up because ronaldo is the only player that pushes foward, rooney and tevez like to support, they don’t like pushing all the way all the time, giggs likes to sit outside the box, as do all their central midfielders
ronaldo and evra are their only players who like pushing to the goal posts, without ronaldo in the box, no-one else will drive in for that finish, no-one else has that offensive aerial ability, dribbling ability, speed, that is why man utd will struggle, ronaldo will be out for at least another month, thats roughly 4 games and id expect man utd to pick up 8 out of 16 points
i think what is really pushing for an in depth look, is man city being propelled into the heights
with even more wealth than before, who knows what could happen next january
on that point, i believe robinho could leave man city for chelsea if he really wanted to

Read it and remember it :

Another dry season.

Nothing have changed .

My prediction - 5th place .

At last, for once, the footballing gods have heeded my wish of not having Robinho at Chelsea.
Twas a close call tho , Yes I do still want a “Robinho never- @CFC ” jersey.

But he is too light-weight for the Premiership and step-overs don’t really work that well when there are 8-9 players stuck in front of the goal like a bus on Sunday against Tottenham.

I look forward to the return of Drogs, the battering ram.
Anyway there’s always the mid-season transfer window to get more guys coming out of Russia and etc.

And this Robinho chap chose Man City of all places……. Pray tell me what he intends to win there ?
Or is he there on a short holiday / fat payday ?

the russian bear likes to win aand win with style, to be beaten by manu to robinho will be a ego bash, so i expect keyan to be gone by xmas. Chelsea have enough stock to win the league. but its good to see a new mob in manchester.

We ain’t gonna win EPL this season. I wonder why Abramovich couldn’t give those 8mln more to buy Robinho. We lost SWP - it’s the most stupid move ever, and we don’t have anybody instead. Paim is nobody, a kid to rot in the reserves. I heard he was a naughty boy in his former club, nobody wanted him and Scolari signed him just in order to make his CV better. Malouda is handicapped I think. Anelka is pathetic and hopeless. Good players such as Ballack, Drogba are injury-prone. Di Santo is far from EPL level, just as Sinclair (we saw hium already, Malouda-style). We have also to cope with LF “I’ve never trained a real club - or at least long time ago” Scolari with his strange tactics and putting brazilians ahead of other players.

For me, future’s not bright.

are some of u guys serious? not win EPL cause we aint got robinho or swp. look at our fvckin squad, u guys kiddin me!! hell mutha fvckin yea we will win. last year we had like 11 players fit and avram grant as coach and got second in allmost every cup. this year we will win everything. fvck robinho fvck man city and fvck some of u guys that thinks romans money is everything. be a damn supporter. dont cry about it.

CHELSEA WILL WIN EPL AND CL THIS YEAR . JOE COLE AND KALOU IS BETTER THAN ROBINHO.
WITH THIS SQUAD WE CAN SMASH EVERY TEAM. FORGET SPURS GAME .

Well, I am and definetely will be a supporter. But diferences between teams are terribly small, new coach with strange tactics, and a new striker in other team would make a great difference. We were in need of right-back and a striker or winger. We’ve got a classy full-back, and LOST a winger. Let’s say, it equals. ManU have got what they needed, a partner for Teves who CAN score goals.
BTW I’m not afraid of ManC, although they’re good now. Look at their wings.
I have to add, that I’m a pessimist. I hope to win four throphies, but my predictions are much lower.

I can’t understand how Berbatov is going to bolster Manures….Ferguson wanted him ,ok…but I really can’t see him of Manure style….he is a languid style player while Manure system needs one who can play out of his skin like Tevez….can Berbatov cope up with their pace and movement..I have serious doubts….

IMHO, if SAF, one of the best coaches wants him, he’s fking good. This is exactly what I’m afraid of.

If I am right, gentlemen , manUre also got their soft underbelly

1. Hargreaves injured all the time
2. Scholes & Giggs getting old ( to be used according to doctor’s instructions and weather conditions )
3. Fletcher and Carrick not too dependable in big games
4. Brown a liabilty
5. No real back-up in defence ( One unjury and then Presto ! one big hole for opposing strikers )
6. Nani & Anderson are lightweights, best only against the likes of Stoke City and Nottingham Forrest
7. No day to day management from the top cos Queiroz ( or however its spelled ) gone
8. Van der Sar seems to be slowing down a shade

Winning the Premiership, if you would like to look back at the last few years , needs a rock hard backline
and a solid midfield ; A prety attack won’t do it alone ! Just ask Arsenal !