Marco van Ginkel is impressing the Chelsea coaching staff once again

Somewhat lost amidst the clamor for a world class midfield signing is the return of Marco van Ginkel from injury.  He's like a new signing, as the cliché goes, having basically spent all of last season having surgery on and then rehabilitating the mangled ACL that he suffered in a League Cup match in September in just his second start for the club.

Pinning our hopes onto his 21-year-old shoulders would not be too wise, however.  Despite the wonders of modern medicine and Van Ginkel's suprisingly quick recovery time, ACL injuries are no joke.  And while Paul Pogba is also 21 and I'd pin my hopes and your hopes and your friends' hopes and everybody else's hopes onto his shoulders without question, let's just say that there is a bit of a physicality, experience, and talent gap between the two youngsters/young-stars.

That being said, Marco has done well so far this preseason, strange first half against Wimbledon excepted (though that latter bit goes for most everyone else in the squad as well).

"Marco has worked fantastically hard to come back from an awful injury at Swindon and has had a long road back but he has done magnificently well, well enough to be involved in the Dutch squad's training just before the World Cup.  He is accumulating games and he is looking stronger every game, and it is really important he gets a good pre-season."

-Steve Holland; source: Chelsea FC

Holland* also commended the squad for the comeback spirit they showed in an ultimately meaningless friendly.  Of course it's not the comebacks that usually give us trouble, it's the killing of games, but hurray for us anyway.

* There's got to be a way to work in some sort of Dutch joke here. no?