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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 3072450, member: 405"] I have been a Premier League fan for 10 years now, enjoying the morning buzz and afternoon nap lifestyle. LOL Over that time, I first became a Chelsea fan from watching the Carlo Ancelotti juggernaut that won the Double, and kept on watching through 3 Premier League titles, a Champions League title, 2 Europa Leagues, a couple FA Cups and a couple League Cups. A ridiculous amount of success, more trophies than any other English team during the last decade. And yet, for all that success, Chelsea has always been 'The Evil Empire' of English Football. Roman Abramovich was the first, but certainly not the last, foreign owner to buy a team, and then buy a championship. Now, with Chelsea facing a one-year transfer ban for improprieties regarding signing teenage prospects to contracts too early, it has become a blessing in disguise. All these young players who they only regarded as "investments" in a sort of "Player Value Stock Market", now will have to be tested to see how many of them can play at the level of a Top 4 squad. Bringing back untested Frank Lampard (team legendary scorer, but with only 1 year of coaching experience) buys a lot of goodwill from the fans. Hopefully the owner, a Russian Oligarch who is close to Putin and was banned from getting an English passport in the aftermath of the spy-poisoning scandal, will give Frank a couple years to break in the new kids without crazy unrealistic expectations. This is the one chance, because of the ban, for young players to break through to the first team. So this will be a very exciting season anyway. But then you add Christian Pulisic moving to Chelsea, and wow, this is going to be off the charts. I was at the Y working out tonight, and a young guy saw my Chelsea shirt and quickly recognized it with a big smile and comment about the US's finest-ever talent, playing on the Big Stage. I think because Eden Hazard is gone, Pulisic, Pedro, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian will all have the opportunity to become a more important scorer for the team. Pulisic has looked electric in the pre-season. Pedro has looked very good, too. Hudson-Odoi is recovering from a torn achilles, probably until October, and Willian is joining the team late after playing in the South American championship with Brazil. He has under-achieved these past couple years, and needs a big year or he will be gone. Anyway, I think we are on the verge of seeing Chelsea become America's Team, because of the Boy Wonder. I think Pulisic, if he stays healthy, is going to be terrific. I could see him scoring 10 goals and getting 10 assists in his first season. [/QUOTE]

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