World Cup, Group E from the Chelsea angle: Players to watch

ECUADOR

Jun. 15:  vs. Switzerland
Jun. 20:  vs. Honduras
Jun. 25:  vs. France

Chelsea players: none

Potential transfer targets: none

Others: Christian "Chucho" Benitez would've been on this list, but he tragically passed away last summer.  So instead we have to make do with the right-footed but a bit crap nowadays Antonio Valencia, and the right-footed but not nearly as crap Antonio Valencia who is also known as left winger Jefferson Montero.  Ex-Manchester City man Felipe Caicedo used to have the ability to develop into 20 strength, jumping, and almost as much pace in an earlier version of Football Manager, which was ridiculously awesome.  You may know Renato Ibarra from Chelsea B, though he may not play too much.

FRANCE

Jun. 15:  vs. Honduras
Jun. 20:  vs. Switzerland
Jun. 25:  vs. Ecuador

Chelsea players: none

Potential transfer targets:  POGBA POGBA POGBA POGBA POGBA POGBA.  Pogba!  Young center backs Raphael Varane and Eliaquim Mangala have both been linked with Chelsea recently as well, while Loic Remy is almost guaranteed to not start next season as a Newcastle (or QPR) player though another Demba Ba is definitely not what we need.

Others: Ribery's injury and Nasri's absence leaves the door wide open for 23-year-old Antoine Griezmann to earn himself the big-money move out of Real Sociedad that everybody's been predicting for a good while now.  Others, like Mathieu Valbuena, Karim Benzema, and Yohan Cabaye are almost always worth the price of admission as well.

HONDURAS

Jun. 15:  vs. France
Jun. 20:  vs. Ecuador
Jun. 25:  vs. Switzerland

Chelsea players: none

Potential transfer targets: none

Others: Roger Espinoza has decent hair, while I'm sure Wilson Palacios will find the time to kick a few people.

SWITZERLAND

Jun. 15:  vs. Ecuador
Jun. 20:  vs. France
Jun. 25:  vs. Honduras

Chelsea players: none

Potential transfer targets: It feels like Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka have been around forever, but they're still just 22 and 21, respectively.  Similarly super young Ricardo Rodriguez is one of the more coveted left backs in Europe this summer and Chelsea could do much worse than going after the 21-year-old.

Others: Playing for a relegated team but earning himself a move to Bayer Leverkusen, Josip Drmic finished third in the Bundesliga scoring charts, just a few goals off the pace set by Robert Lewandowski and just one behind Mario Mandzukic.  Oh and he's just 21 as well.  Plenty of talent in the slightly older generation, too, with the likes of Tranquilo Barnetta, Diego Benaglio (who was once the successor to Hilario at CD Nacional), and Napoli trio Gokhan Inler, Valon Behrami, and Blerim Dzemaili.