Who is coming in before Aug 31? Chelsea appear to have signed Genoa youngster Abdoulay Konko. The French youngster is expected to immediately challenge for a place in manager Claudio Ranieri's first team. The lad is a defender. I'll see if I can find out more. And in the Midfield? Did I mention Dino Baggio? We need some cover - What are we going to do when/if there is an injury to Lampard or Petit - especially during the game. At present we have No character in midfield Apart from Lampard Remember the days of Wise, Poyet and DiMatteo? Players who were committed to the Chelsea cause Where are they? Where have you hidden them? 6 quality mids + 2 up an coming young stars would make a decent midfield squad Only happy with 3 of our mids - Lamps, Zenden, De Lucas. we NEED at least 6 quality mids, all fit and all UP FOR IT, if we want to seriously challenge for the title We have 3 culprits 12 Mario Stanic 17 Emmanuel Petit 30 Jesper Gronkjaer Expensive signings who are letting the team down We are short in the Centre midfield - We only have Petit and Lampard, we were short last season and nothing has changed, apart from losing the Joka... And here it is...Chelsea are close to finally securing summer target Dino Baggio from Lazio. According to Tuttosport today, a deal for the Italy international is almost closed with the two clubs "near agreement".
I'd like to see Keenan get a shot first He played in all the preseason matches and proved capable. He was a bit overwhelmed in Italy I remember, but Inter and Juve are a bit better than some of the teams we play in the EPL and also he didn't have the full XI with that day. I thought he should have come on for EDL against SHampton and played with Lamps in the centre. If we're going to hype these kids up they should at leats get a shot before players like Stanic who have no future at the club and have been inept in their past performances. My first XI Cudicini GK Melchiot RB Gallas CB Desailly CB Le Saux LB De Lucas RW Lampard CM Petit CM Zenden LW Gudjohnsen S JFH S First string of backups should be: Bosnich GK (only if his attitude improves, otherwise EDG) Terry CB (until he regains fitness, then put him in at CB and move Gallas to fullback) Baba LB Ferrer RB Gronkjaer RW, LW Keenan CM Zola S Cole S Forssell S Only to be used if absolutely necessary: De Goey GK Stanic RW, RB Morris CM Huth CB Oliveira S Never use: Bogarde CB (useless twunt) Haven't heard anything about Bazzi, did we ever get him from Boca?
Nice one Birchy. Did Birch just find us a right back (Konko?) and a holding midfielder (Baggio) ? That could go a long way in making us reach our goal of Champs League. I would like to hear everyone’s thoughts on Baggio though, I have never seen him play, but his overall profile worries me. A 30 something Italian who has never played out of Seria A and who is slow, this doesn’t sound like the sort of player who is going to become a solid contributor in the premiership. Monkee’s duds. I actually don’t mind Petit, I think as a back up he’d be fine, wouldn’t get as injured with less games and when he is fit he doesn’t play too bad, thought he was quality in the first half of Manure before he got a nock, and he was coming good towards the end of last season. But the other two, I think they’d be more useful sold to be honest, when do their contracts run out? Or maybe Ranners is already ahead of us on this one, I hear Oliviera has been playing as a right-sided midfielder in the reserves. And Mst Bazzi had a trial but Ranners didn’t think he was good enough, last I heard he was on trial with a division one club.
Keen on Keenan I know what you mean TYW1955. I'm Keen on Keenan. BUT he is completely untested at this level and he should (and shall get some games I reckon). I also like Petit, but it seems he'll only be fit every other game. So say, Petit is out and Lampard takes a knock during game or he's also injured, what then? A CM pairing of Morris and Keenan??!! And there will be injuries. I just feel we need a lot more depth. Baggio? Italians do well at the bridge and Baggio is younger than Petit we currently have 6 mids + 2 up an coming young stars Take a look at the midfield of our rivals... Man U have - 14 mids 4 Juan Veron 7 David Beckham 8 Nicky Butt 16 Roy Keane 18 Paul Scholes 25 Quinton Fortune 11 Ryan Giggs 26 Daniel Pugh 23 Bojan Djordjic 31 Darren Fletcher 39 Paul Tierney 42 Kieran Richardson 15 Luke Chadwick 17 Michael Stewart Arsenal - 10 mids Liverpool - 15 mids Newcastle – 13 mids Leeds - 12 mids
Dino Baggio Alright, this is the player I wanted, so IF he's crap I guess its my fault... Italian international midfielder Dino Baggio,The Sun reports that he could be on his way from cash-starved Lazio to cash-starved Stamford Bridge on a year's loan. The Mail says that the club are prepared to meet the 31-year-old's cool £2m a year salary. soccernet says...Baggio earns £2million a year and Chelsea have agreed to meet that sum in full. From what I heard he was willing to take a 50% pay cut, but that would never make the papers happy eh?
Dino Baggio Dino Baggio has not signed Friday, August 30, 2002 - From the Chelsea web site... Reports in certain areas of the media that Chelsea have signed Dino Baggio on a year’s loan are wrong. He has not signed and Chelsea do not know where the story has come from. Any statements regarding signings will always come from Chelsea, and comment on speculation will not be made. We at Chelsea think that the roomer may have been started by bridgemonkee.
Monkee - Baggio deal dead Got this from someone on the CFC Off Board: On Chelsea TV now - no approach for Baggio and there WILL NOT BE ONE. Seems rather definite! Seems your dreams are up in smoke. Can't say I would have been too thrilled about us paying his full wages (2 mil per year = 38,500 per week). Had we only payed 50-60% of the wages I would have been satisfied. I think we do need cover here if Petit or Lamps goes down with a serious injury, but this new transfer window forces us to make a deal now instead of waiting until an injury actually occurs. It doesn't look like we are going to ridding ourselves of the useless brigade either - Bogarde, Stanic, et al.
The IN's Ranieri's newcomers are French right-back Jean Yves Anis, 21, who had been released by Rennes, Portuguese central defender Mauro Oscar Coelho Da Silva from Porto and Dutch striker Mbark Boussoufa from Ajax. ---Well we needed cover at RB, I think we might even need cover at LB now the way Babba has been playing, and we have this young french lad, so that looks promising A CD - always a good thing, might have ben nice to get Riggot at the bargain 3 million quid price, BUT as we all now know, we don't have any money. Da Silva's agent disclosed that Chelsea capitalised on a fall-out between the highly-rated defender and one of Porto's youth-team coaches. We got the lad on a FREE. Striker? Well we didn't really need a striker did we. But, if the lad is a diamond, why not eh? And the midfield we got nuffink - which as you all know worries the hell out of me. Petit is good, but he's a part time player. Lampard will need a rest at some point. De Lucas looks more comfortable on the wing. Jody Morris better start playing the best football of his life, because we are going to need him.
youngsters Da Silva has represented Portugal at various youth levels and was supposedly one of thier brightest youngsters. Boufassa played last night with the reserves who won 4-1 over Charlton. Lets not forget that we signed Melchiot on a free from Ajax from their youth system. Hopefully a three lads will be able to make a contribution to the clubs future.