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    Gearing up for the new season....

    The preliminary diversionary opening skirmishes out of the way, jose mourinho has turned his guns on his miserly owners and their dreams of seeing their incredibly expensive youth academy eventually bear fruit.

    in short, players don't need games to show what they can do, or find their feet. They only need 10 minutes. Given that he's sent brown and solanke off on loan to vitesse, bamford to palace, and has publicly balled out loftus cheek, the unspoken line here is that these players don't seem to have it. the only one he praises is Zouma, who was signed for a lot of money, and was last seen doing This

    Then he complains that even small clubs can buy players who could play for chelsea, while chelsea have bought no new players.

    oh And if kevin de Bruyne signs for man city and turns out to be really good, he only sold him because he wasn't prepared to compete with a good player for his place. same for that mata, that lukaku and that schurrle.

    Now There's a couple of things going on here. Mourinho has had a lot of money to spend at chelsea. He had £110 million to spend on new signings in each of his first two seasons. That's a hell of a lot of money to reshape your team, particularly when you're funding it almost entirely by getting rid of players you don't want.

    the thing is that they've only spent £12 million this year on begovic as back up keeper, and Nathan, a 19 year old brazillian who is off to vitesse. So far, so 2006-7.

    why the sudden fall of in spending? chelsea are in great financial nick. They've just won the league, they've spent very little net over the last two year and generated a lot of money in cash.

    What we've seen happen broadly speaking is that mourinho has spent a lot of money on assembling a very tough first XI, and he chews up and spits out all the expensive players they have as squad players. They get sold on for huge sums of money

    mourinho wants them to spend more money this summer, but it's not clear on who? Should they buy another striker? They already sent bamford out on loan to palace, and instead signed the decrepid Falcao on loan, at enormous cost.

    Should they sign another winger, given that they just signed cuadrado six months ago? Should they sign another central midfielder, when they already have fabregas and matic, and they have loftus cheek coming along to provide cover. (and what about mikel and ramires) They're probably going to sign another left back, to replace luis, and maybe a centre half.

    What exactly is jose bitching about?

    Is he simply engaging in a low temperature public war with his bosses, like back at the very start, when he fielded a team with no strikers at old trafford, because he claimed he had no strikers.

    Or in the cold light of Diego Costa's continuing problems, is he beginning to regret making the signing of falcao his wedding gift to Jorge Mendes. Is he basically getting his excuses in first, and trying to direct any blame that is coming down the tracks onto a generalized lack of investment, effectively saying that everyone in the league is buying chelsea players except chelsea?

    Even if the actual individual events aren't going to be particularly interesting, and are going to have a lot of tiresome nonsense around them, it will be very interesting to watch how things unfold over the season. If he's still effectively making his displeasure at his budget known like this at the start of the third season, it's clear that there are a lot of tensions behind the scenes, and that means a lot of battles that jose is going to feel that he needs to win.

    #2
    Gearing up for the new season....

    You know, I'm actually looking forward to the start of this season more than I have the start of a football team for quite a few years. I had something approaching a year off from it, mostly, and just dipped in and out when the mood took me. I saw more live football than televised for the first time in years and years (though I didn't take in much of either, now I come to think about it), but this summer I've done a lot of reading up on who's who and what's what and I think I might almost know what I'm talking about for the first time in a few seasons.

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      #3
      Gearing up for the new season....

      Well that was then. back then he was saying that sending Domenic solanke shouldn't go on loan He is of course at vitesse arnhem. I mean it's only a year ago that he was saying that if "Baker, Brown and solanke didn't play for england, then it would be his fault."

      now all of those three players are playing for vitesse arnhem, and jose is moaning that everyone is buying chelsea players but chelsea, while everyone else wonders who exactly do you want jose?

      I gaze into my crystal ball, and I see that Chelsea will sign a rugged 27 year old, physically dominant argentinian centre half from valencia, and I see Jorge mendes smiling.

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        #4
        Gearing up for the new season....

        I'm looking forward to the new season more than I thought too. Which is surprising since I'll be watching a lower level of it than last year and I don't really know what to expect. Or maybe that's the reason. I dunno.

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          #5
          Gearing up for the new season....

          There's something about league football at all levels starting on the same weekend that makes a difference. Usually the media are talking about the eve of the new season after most clubs have already played twice.

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            #6
            Gearing up for the new season....

            You've got Mourinho on the brain mate.

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              #7
              Gearing up for the new season....

              This, presumably, is the weekend/armchair football thread?

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                #8
                Gearing up for the new season....

                I'm kind of looking forward to it, although I'm not anticipating with any pleasure the usual off-putting gubbins such as Brendan Rodgers's self-importance, the media overemphasis on the Top Four clubs to the exclusion of all else, and, most annoyingly, the usual mind-games wankery from Mourinho that'll no doubt be pored over by slavish press milquetoasts who really should be telling him to go fuck himself.

                To name but a few.

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                  #9
                  Gearing up for the new season....

                  My lodgers will be moving out early in this season, so I'll be getting ridding of all the football on telly channels then. I'm looking forward to that.

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                    #10
                    Gearing up for the new season....

                    Had a pleasant evening out yesterday visiting a few old fashioned pubs in Belgravia and occasionally casting a glance at the Brighton-Forest game showing on normal sized, fairly unobtrusive, televisions. So pleasant that I couldn't find it in me to grumble about it not really counting as football until you've been smeared with elk lard and sewn into your winter clothes.

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                      #11
                      Gearing up for the new season....

                      Careful, Benjm. That's how it starts.

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                        #12
                        Gearing up for the new season....

                        What I thought was a summer cold has now been diagnosed as early onset PASSION.

                        Face contorted...can only speak in three word epigrams...PASSION...helppp meeeee...

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                          #13
                          Gearing up for the new season....

                          Passion.

                          Heavier than usual rainfall in Ballymena.

                          Hey.

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                            #14
                            Gearing up for the new season....

                            This is quite exciting: Hereford FC have got a new bull, Hawkesbury Ronaldo:

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                              #15
                              Gearing up for the new season....

                              What division are they in? The Rump Conference?

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                                #16
                                Gearing up for the new season....

                                Does that mean they've got rid of this fella as part of their reformation?



                                (Incidentally, the caption for this photo is "Hereford's goalkeeper is comforted by the club mascot after their relegation")

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                                  #17
                                  Gearing up for the new season....

                                  He's still there apparently. Don't know whether there's any tension between him and Hawkesbury.

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                                    #18
                                    Gearing up for the new season....

                                    Ooh, yes, also looking forward to a strain of big club supporter going onto 606 in the event of getting beat in a solitary game by a low-profile club whereupon he wants the manager to be sacked or to get a multi-million pound player to replace the one who was doing quite well up to that point, pertinently forgetting that the opposing team has an obligation to get a result just as much as his does.

                                    Yep, rubbing hands in expectation there.

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                                      #19
                                      Gearing up for the new season....

                                      You don't actually listen to that shit, do you?

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                                        #20
                                        Gearing up for the new season....

                                        Have done in the past. You really do get those kind of calls put in by people who really should take up knitting instead of blowing a gasket in outrage just because (insert name of unspectacular club) took three points off them. My favourite of some years ago was of a bloke entering a near-nervous breakdown on air, a voice on the verge of tears. Wife left him? Money problems? Nope - he was fretting about who'd get the England captaincy.

                                        If I do have to listen to 606 or some such, its to pretty much gauge how far detached football has made some people, sometimes to the point of thinking they should receive professional help. I'm rarely disappointed.

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                                          #21
                                          Gearing up for the new season....

                                          PASSION.

                                          RESPECT.

                                          PEOPLE WITH THEIR FACES PAINTED IN THE COLOURS OF THE CLUB THAT THEY SUPPORT.

                                          FOOTBALL HAS STARTED.

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                                            #22
                                            Gearing up for the new season....

                                            I was in a pub in the village at 12-15 watching the Ashes celebrations when about six blokes piled in wearing those hideous Chevrolet shirts, demanding the build-up to the football be put on. The landlord, a huge cricket (and Villa) fan told them do one.

                                            Pity the cricket itself didn't go on until at least lunch, really, because he did put them out of their misery at 12-45.

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                                              #23
                                              Gearing up for the new season....

                                              Wednesday looking good going forward and missed a couple of gilt edged chances. Bristol City reduced to long range shots. Got "1-0 win for the visitors" written all over it this one.

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                                                #24
                                                Gearing up for the new season....

                                                Pleased to be wrong there. Unmarked header from a corner and now a nice breakaway gives us a 2-0 lead. Still not counting any chickens mind

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                                                  #25
                                                  Gearing up for the new season....

                                                  I can only assume that shackleford above was reading out Channel 5's press release for their new Football League show.

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