Of all the issues that's been plaguing this club for years (age, changing of managers, the Michael Jackson statue) one that has been overlooked, or brought up and then seemingly forgotten whenever we go after the next shiny new transfer acquisition, is lack of speed from the wings.

Now, that's different from creativity from the wings.

According to The Guardian this morning, Josh McEachran has been told by Chelsea that he CAN leave the club on loan in January to "further his development".
I asked the question the other day about McEachran as we were linked with a £20m move for Jack Rodwell. I asked why we would want to make a move for Rodwell when we have McEachran warming our bench weekly?

According to The Guardian this morning, Josh McEachran has been told by Chelsea that he CAN leave the club on loan in January to "further his development".
I asked the question the other day about McEachran as we were linked with a £20m move for Jack Rodwell. I asked why we would want to make a move for Rodwell when we have McEachran warming our bench weekly?

Another night of stress-free excitement tonight. We love to see the kids play and we love to see them beat PL opposition even more.

Of course we have selection problems due to some of the second string being forced to become first string. For example, who plays RB? Can we rest both our CB? Is Squillaci fit and if so does he play?

Gael Kakuta has spoken out this week at his lack of first team opportunities so far at Bolton and it's no surprise really. Kakuta signed for Bolton on a season long loan in the summer hoping to follow in the footsteps of Danny Sturridge but so far has just been limited to a fantastic debut in the league cup against Aston Villa where he scored a cracker.

Gael Kakuta has spoken out this week at his lack of first team opportunities so far at Bolton and it's no surprise really. Kakuta signed for Bolton on a season long loan in the summer hoping to follow in the footsteps of Danny Sturridge but so far has just been limited to a fantastic debut in the league cup against Aston Villa where he scored a cracker.

Danny returns to the place where he somewhat realized his full potential. Bolton, in a league free fall, will not be interested in seeing his face again. Well, that is unless he joins Gael Kakuta in that egregious Wanderers garb on the hosts' side of the stands. Stop day-dreaming, Owen.

Dreaded

The draw in midweek was a not-so-mild disappointment.

Aston Villa vs Bolton Highlights 0-2 Carling Cup Goals Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Aston Villa vs Bolton Highlights 0-2 Carling Cup Goals Video 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Aston Villa vs Bolton 2011 Villa Park, Birmingham, Carling Cup-20 September, 2011 Score and result:- Aston Villa vs Bolton 0-2 ( Eagles, Kakuta) Alex McLeish's Aston Villa are beaten 2-0 by Bolton Wanderers [.

Dare I suggest that we can concentrate on the league now? No? Didn't think so. Nevertheless, we are out of the Carling Cup thanks to a 2-0 loss at home to Bolton in what, by all accounts, was an utterly dismal performance.

Chris Eagles picked up on a Marc Albrighton mistake to score a screamer from 20 yards.

Gael Kakuta has spoken of his decision to leave Chelsea once again and go out on loan. The Frenchman revealed he turned down another move to Fulham and opted to head up to Bolton instead after speaking to Danny Sturridge. He also revealed the reason he felt he had to move away from Chelsea once again.

Gael Kakuta has spoken of his decision to leave Chelsea once again and go out on loan. The Frenchman revealed he turned down another move to Fulham and opted to head up to Bolton instead after speaking to Danny Sturridge. He also revealed the reason he felt he had to move away from Chelsea once again.

Gael Kakuta has been speaking for the first time since his six-month loan move to Bolton was made official on transfer deadline day. The young Frechman is saying all the right things, despite the rags' best attempts to skew it.

Make or break?

This is a pivotal season for Kakuta.

Shut the fucking door. El mercato has finally ceased, meaning we can finally get down to the proper business of actually focusing on the football. I, for one, am ecstatic.

That's not to say the summer wasn't enjoyable. A tad chaotic and frustrating at times, yes, but it certainly was an intriguing one for the club.

On a day when many managers strive to negotiate the ideal transfer fee for their ideal targets, there is often a realization that the ideal deal might not be struck after all.

Fortunately for these managers, not all is lost when they fail to agree a fee for someone they really want to bring to their clubs.

The reserves literally just wrapped a 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Stamford Bridge. Somewhat unlucky, too. It was a solid performance from the guys, Mellis with the goal. Anyway.

At halftime, sporting director Michael Emenalo spoke to ChelseaTV. He offered some good insight into what to expect from some of our high-profile youth players that are currently on the fringes of the first team.

Yes, £120m this calendar year on six players and it seems that Chelsea still have every intention on spending more as Roman Abramovich started it, but AVB will take on the blue revolution at the Bridge.
Luiz, Torres, Courtious, Lukaku, Romeu and Mata are the names we have brought to the club and with rumours rife that we are in for Pereira of Porto and a central midfielder, that figure will rise to well over £150m.

Talent for renovation gives Manchester United decisive edge | David Pleat

Chelsea have also been strengthened by an injection of youth while Sergio Agüero's creativity will be vital if Manchester City are to offer a title challenge Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson has the gift of moving on ageing players at the right time, and replacing seamlessly.

Quote from The Official Wycombe Wanderers website:

World-Cup winning striker Fernando Torres was on the scoresheet as Chelsea recorded a 3-0 victory over the Wanderers in a practice match at Cobham on Tuesday afternoon.
Yossi Benayoun danced through the visiting defence to open the scoring in the early stages and Nikki Bull produced a fine stop to deny Didier Drogba, while Scott Rendell missed Wycombe's best chance of the half from a tight angle.

It's a simple post asking for your comments. Alot of people have posted via the different social media outlets and also on here about the amount of our youngsters leaving the club.
I posted the other day about where we draw the line with our youngsters (make sure you check it out by the way).

Chelsea's young player of the year and rising star Josh McEachran is the subject of press speculation this morning. In this article in the Express, it's believed that ex-employee Frank Arnesen is trying to take advantage of the uncertainty at Chelsea at the moment as we continue to look for a new manager, by making his interest in McEachran public.

Chelsea's season has ended without a trophy, and whilst Ancelotti believed he may find out "this week" about his fate, owner Roman Abramovich had other ideas and wielded his axe not even twenty four hours after the final day defeat to Everton.

Ancelotti's departure is a shame on two fronts.

Lineups are in:

Fulham: Starters: Schwarzer, Hangeland, Sidwell, Johnston, Murphy, Senderos, Hughes, Dempsey, Zamora, Greening, Briggs Bench: Stockdale, Salcido, Gera, Etuhu, Gudjohnson, Kakuta, Davies

Arsenal: Starters: Szczesny, Sagna, Djourou, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Wilshere, Ramsey, Nasri, Van Persie, Chamakh Bench: Lehmann, Walcott, Denilson, Squillaci, Arshavin, Eboue, Miquel

Last game of the season.

Frank Arnesen, as we all know, is taking over as Sporting Director at Hamburg next season and if reports are to be believed, is looking to raid his former club to bolster his squad for next season.
According to goal.com, Arnesen is quoted recently as saying:

"We don't have big sums of money available this summer.

Frank Arnesen, as we all know, is taking over as Sporting Director at Hamburg next season and if reports are to be believed, is looking to raid his former club to bolster his squad for next season.
According to goal.com, Arnesen is quoted recently as saying:

"We don't have big sums of money available this summer.

3pm ET, live in the US on espn2
Last four head-to-head:
1-0 Liverpool (h) 01.26.11
0-0 (h) 04.11.10
1-3 Fulham (a) 10.31.09
1-0 Liverpool (a) 04.04.09
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 3-0 Newcastle (h); 5-0 Brum (h); 1-1 Arsenal (a)
Fulham: 3-0 Sunderland (a); 3-0 Bolton (h); 1-1 Wolves (a)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Kuyt 12; Maxi 7; Meireles 5; Gerrard 4; Suarez 3; Carroll, Cole, Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Ngog, Skrtel 2
Fulham: Dempsey 12; Davies, Duff, Hangeland, Zamora 4; Johnson 3; Baird, Dembele, Etuhu, Kamara 2; Gera, Hughes, Kakuta 1
Referee: Lee Mason
Liverpool's "worst" referee, in only his second LFC match this season.

We beat Sunderland without Hangeland, Dempsey and Dembele. If a big club were to sign three of our players it probably wouldn't be these three, but they'd all be in the discussion. So how did we manage it?

My thinking:

A single player doesn't make that much difference in any single game.

Simon Davies was awesome against Bolton. The chalkboard shows just how much work he did in that critical final third. Bolton's defence must have been begging him to leave them alone by the time 90 minutes was up.

Eidur Gudjohnson reminds me of a fairly mobile basketball centre.

Not just back-to-back wins, back-to-back 3-0 wins. How about that? And one of them was away. These are heady times we live in.

Sunderland looked like a team with no forwards and no interest. When you play against a midfield containing Cattermole and Henderson you expect to have a battle on your hands, but according to the BBC Sunderland committed precisely one foul in the whole of the first half.

Gael Kakuta has spoken of his time so far at Fulham and his intentions between now and the end of the season. He said:

"We want to finish as high as we can and it's my hope to be involved in more games as the season draws to an end.
I'm enjoying my time at Fulham, where I feel I have improved as a player, and would love to play my part in what will be a strong finish to the season.

Gael Kakuta has spoken of his time so far at Fulham and his intentions between now and the end of the season. He said:

"We want to finish as high as we can and it's my hope to be involved in more games as the season draws to an end.
I'm enjoying my time at Fulham, where I feel I have improved as a player, and would love to play my part in what will be a strong finish to the season.

These points all count, you know. Wolves are a poor side by reputation and by league position, but they are also strangely dangerous, and will have certainly seen today as a great chance to take three points. That they didn't was a result of Fulham's spirited and occasionally excellent display, and especially Andy Johnson's late equaliser.

Go north, try hard, lose. The annual Goodison defeat is out of the way and we are now free to concentrate on more plausible opponents, such as Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

Fulham were poor in the first half. We couldn't keep the ball, we didn't do especially well getting it off Everton.

Dom & O'Connor, celery fanatics

The Guardian has its 'five things we learned' series. Not bad. Moderately informative and enjoyable on its day. Here, though, we don't play. When we go for a five-point presentation, we do so fastly. And furiously.

Is fastly even a word?

UPDATE: According to Chelsea's official website, Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic has signed a new five-and-a-half year deal with the club.

January 19th, 2011: According to the London Evening Standard, Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic is close to signing a new four-year deal with the club.

Danny breathes life into Bolton. A sign of what's to come?

The fire.

If you missed it, Daniel Sturridge made one hell of an impact today on his debut for Bolton. So did Gael Kakuta at Fulham for that matter.

Nevertheless, it was Sturridge who stole the headlines, scoring the winner two minutes into added time for Wanderers in a cagey 1-0 win at home to Wolves.

Ah, the obligatory transfer roundup post. Before we begin the beguine though, let's look back five years and put this window into a bit of perspective.

2006 January Transfer Window IN
GK Tony Warner Cardiff City Undisclosed
MF Simon Elliott Columbus Crew Free
GK Antti Niemi Southampton Undisclosed
MF Michael Brown Sheffield United Undisclosed
DF Wayne Bridge Chelsea Loan 2007 January Transfer Window IN
FW Vincenzo Montella A.

Chopper Harris the Chelsea Legend has spoken of Josh McEachran and believes out of the current crop of youngsters coming through, he is the best of the bunch and has spoken of a bright future for Chelsea.
He said:

"Josh is one of the brightest prospects I've seen for quite some time, Provided he keeps his feet on the ground I think he's got a fantastic future with Chelsea.

LONDON, England Chelsea forward Gael Kakuta has joined Fulham on loan for the remainder of the season, both clubs have confirmed. Kakuta, 19, completed his move after passing a medical on Tuesday and the deal was sealed after the squad left London for Wednesday's Premier League game at Liverpool. The talented French teenager is [.

Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images EuropeChelsea have allowed Gael Kakuta and Patrick van Aanholt to leave Stamford Bridge, albeit on a loan deal. Kakuta will be joining Fulham till the end of the season, while Patrick van Aanholt will be joining Sven Goran Eriksson and Leicester City also till the end of the season.

Well, we're still waiting to get the confirmation on the arrival of David Luiz, but two of our youngsters have been on the move in search of some consistent first-team football.

After yesterday's rumors that Gael Kakuta was down the visiting our neighbors down the road for a nice lunchtime medical, Chelsea have confirmed today that our French youngster has completed a loan move with Fulham until the end of the season.