Monday 15 July
Mason Mount has signed a new deal. The five-year deal is the clearest sign that he is a big part of Frank Lampard’s Chelsea. Mason has been a Chelsea boy since he was six and the new deal will take him through his twentieth year at Chelsea.
Ethan Ampadu did not travel to Japan with the squad as he nears a loan.
Those on the plane are :Kepa Arrizabalaga, Willy Caballero, Jamie Cumming, Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Davide Zappacosta, Kurt Zouma, Marcos Alonso, Andreas Christensen, Emerson, Fikayo Tomori, Kenedy, N’Golo Kanté, Jorginho, Danny Drinkwater, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Ross Barkley, Mateo Kovačić, Mason Mount, Kasey Palmer, Pedro, Michy Batshuayi, Olivier Giroud, and Tammy Abraham.
Christian Pulisic will be with the squad soon after his short break.
Tuesday 16 July
Wow, Christian Pulisic is so American he says stuff like “Go Blues!”. We obviously all have some adjusting to do.
Dennis Wise will be delighted that the flicky ear thing is still going if you let the ball touch the ground in training. The Crazy Gang had a much longer life span than we thought possible.
On a personal note today is the fortieth anniversary of our first season-ticket. It only cost something like £24 and was for junior standing. Our first few games at the Bridge were the season before 1978/79 when Tommy Langley cartwheeled us into the lead against Spurs at home before a more forgettable second-half.
Thursday 18 July
Luke McCormick signed a new deal today and headed out to Shrewsbury Town for a season long loan. McCormick will be looking for quick progress after captaining the U19 side to a runners-up place in the Uefa Youth League.
Daishawn Redan has joined Hertha Berlin on a permanent deal. Redan is only 18 and is hoping to emulate the success of Javairo Dilrosun another Dutch winger who moved to Berlin last summer and broke into the full Netherlands squad. We wish Daishawn well.
Ali Riley has left us for Bayern München. The popular wing-back who captained New Zealand since 2007 only joined us last summer and made 17 appearances for the women.
Friday 19 July
Kawasaki Frontale 1:0 Chelsea
A step up in class and fitness of opposition and the late goal left us with no time to recover.
There were plenty of positives from dominating possession to the first turn in a Chelsea shirt by Christian Pulisic. This was a slog in very humid conditions for the players fitness levels but we managed to control most of the action.
Ross Barkley looks sharp and Pedro looked to be enjoying himself.
Algeria beat Senegal to win the Africa cup of nations. It was a very low-key tournament with few highlights. The desert foxes will not care as they celebrate their second win in the competition.
Sunday 21 July
N’Golo Kante has flown home to work on the knee problem that has be hampering him for the whole of the summer.
Kepa Arrizabalaga and Tammy Abraham both trained again after illness kept them out on Friday.
