johnnythefirst

I was just mentioning the situation in Russia is almost identical. Yes, the lowest of the lowest labour might be less cheap ok, but poverty is a very real thing in Mother Russia as well. Why should English teams be able to spend 50 million on a player but not Chinese clubs? They could have fed a lot of hungry stomachs with the KDB transfer fee as well. It's a complete non argument.

Are you serious? Your own club is being sponsored by a Russian oligarch/mobster (probably :p). I know several people who left Russia for China to teach English, making three times the money they would have made at home. This said, the fact they can get a player in his prime for that money is kinda scary. That league is complete shit, so I thought they would only be able to get the 36 year olds wanting some quick cash before their retirement. Also, there's a big difference between the Chinese countryside and the major cities. Shanghai & Beijing (the two main ones I've visited) are basically first world cities (with lots of poverty hid away between the skyscrapers, but without any real slums you'd see in India for example). The city centres look awesome. Hong Kong on the other hand is one of the richest cities on the planet. They have less poverty than we do.

No offense, but didn't he pork a teammate's wife and then secretly paid for the abortion? I'd say that's pretty shitty. Not that it matters.

The smart thing to do with people like Terry (and Lampard) would be to keep them at the club in a sub-role and I don't know, teach the kids while keeping them focused at the same time. He's not worse than any other defender you have and Ivanovic gets a new fucking contract. And then people get mad when Lamps signs for City.

Thank fucking god.

Hopefully it's not just a ploy to get the loan out of his head.

Interest from Man City? Can't be serious...

Really? Anderlecht could use that dough now. Please send it anyway. ^^

Wow, zoyales was banned as well Also, not much to say about Lukaku, doesn't play badly, just didn't score. Could have scored that last one if the other guy hadn't done it for him I guess.

Hiddink is the luckiest manager in the world.

And there's Costa with a lovely tackle.

Why do they buy players like Baba when they seriously get no minutes at all and get barred by the worst player in the squad. Someone is intentionally ruining the side as some kind of joke.

They must be doing this on purpose. Are only 14 players eligible to play in this squad? I just don't get it.

Yeah, I saw that, I guess they never were first choice players and probably never will be. Several players seem to go through the academy, then leave for another club and return for lots of dough when they've made it there. Sounds familiar. ;-)

And he's probably going to become the next Freddy Adu for making the move so early. Madrid almost never seems to play its own youngsters. Has anyone actually really made it starting out at Real after Casillas?

OMG a Chelsea manager is making the right subs people! I think the day of reckoning is upon us.

He was getting paid well at Anderlecht also - just less than here. His social life would have probably been better as well, since all of his friends lived in Brussels where he went to school. I don't blame the kid, I blame the parents and the attitude in football that makes this possible. He wasted 2,5 years of his career.

Anderlecht was ten minutes away from 6 out of 6 against Tottenham this season (if I remember correctly). Also, if you look at every match played between a Belgian and a French team this year, you'll notice the French won about 2 points out of 12. The difference is much smaller than most of you think.

I meant the biggest talents. Regardless of what they are doing now, those two were the main talents Anderlecht had a couple of years ago. Had they stayed, they would have had 2 titles under their belts as well as a couple of CL appearances. Experience is everything. Dennis Praet is not as big a talent as those two, but he will be sold to a good big league club for a good amount of money next year, because he had the intelligence to stay and make it in a smaller league first. I think he has 3 titles and played in 15 or more CL matches up till now. Tell me how playing with the Chelsea U21 comes even close. I think the next generation of Belgians will take a look at this and be a little bit smarter (I hope). I hold no grudges against this (and most of the others in the PL) club, but coming here as an unproven youngster is borderline retarded and career-suicide.

And before someone says: 'yeees, but Chelsea contributed so much to his evolution', I'll give you this: Isn't it weird that the Premier League is full of Belgians who first got their break in the Belgian, Dutch or French league, while the two biggest stars after Hazard (Musonda and Januzaj) keep struggling? I'm convinced they would be better off today if they had stayed at Anderlecht. Look at Lukaku ffs. There's no way he would have made it through the Chelsea academy due to a 'lack of technique' while he's now arguably one of the top three strikers in the league at age 22. Stop buying our youth for sports dudes. T hey're never gonna make it in a league only interested in names and money. Wait until they've played a couple of seasons and then buy them for 30 million. You have cash to spare!

Well, he's not. Anderlecht "grew" him. ;-)

According to a Belgian newspaper, he's finally about to get loaned out. Only two years too late.

Reports are Zidane will soon take over as Real manager. Since he's been creaming over Hazard since 2008 or so, you can bet your ass he'll try to make a move.

Does this mean he'll stop playing indefinitely? Good for Chelsea, but kinda sad for him since he was still banging them for laughs.

He was the Europa League top scorer last year. He scored several goals throughout his first European campaign with Anderlecht as well, as a 16 year old boy. I'd say he'd do better in Europe than in the PL. He'll never leave the PL I think, but it would be fun seeing him destroy defenders in a more open league.