The Chels

Yep probably because it would be a much more unexpected buy, while we all knew the club would buy a striker.

We missed our chance for Cavani last year. Buying Napoli's best player and buying PSG's best (or one of) are two very different propositions.

He's only 25 so I suspect that he will naturally improve as he reaches his peak years but I think it's unrealistic to expect (like I've read) Mourinho to improve him drastically because while they are both very similar in terms of their attitude and passion, we shouldn't forget that his current manager is Simeone, who just oozes passion. I doubt Costa would be playing this well without Simeone's management, so it will be interesting to see how he does fare away from him.

Well the manager and system changed so he became dispensable, but that isn't going to happen this time. The truth is that there isn't realistically a player we can buy to replace the importance and qualities of Hazard in this set-up.

Exactly. For the many thinking that it's going to be a simple case of Luiz and Ramires out & Rakitic/Kroos (or whoever) in, they have another think coming. And we also beat Man City, PSG, Liverpool, etc. without a great striker so that means we don't need one? Hazard is as close to irreplaceable as you will get in our squad.

The ideal scenario would be us bidding around £20m and Luke Shaw telling Southampton that he only wants to move here so they'd have to accept our bid or keep him. However it'd be highly unlikely that Southampton would accept such an offer, because in spite of their debts they can just sell Lallana instead. And you can't blame Shaw for not taking the risk — he'd get to play at one of (if not the) biggest clubs in the world, receive a very generous salary and essentially be a guaranteed starter. It can't harm to try though can it Roman!

Let me guess, UEFA gets overruled over FFP when City eventually take them to court; and we end up regretfully watching players, who without FFP would have been in our team, star for our rivals for years. Hmm!

Bossed the midfield today — made many brilliant passes and recovered the ball numerous times.

Undoubtedly so but I suspect that whilst the striker issue ill be remedied, the full-back one will not.

The City match on now just shows the importance of offensively adept full-backs in breaking down stubborn defences; and for as long as Mourinho continues to play Ivanovic at RB and Azpi at LB we will likely continue to struggle in this department.

Oscar got it on the same day too. Weird. Imagine the abuse Mourinho would get if he were on there

If he wanted his full backs to offer an attacking threat he wouldn't have loaned out Bertrand. The fact of the matter is that Jose prioritised defence over offense even against the smaller teams and that, in part, has been our downfall this season.

We all know that but Jose doesn't seem to appreciate the importance of full backs in offensive football; otherwise he wouldn't have continued to play Ivanovic at RB and Azpi at LB in pretty much every game where we were going to face a defensive unit.

I'm a Chelsea hater for thinking the defence will be Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta? We've seen how much Mourinho has praised the defence this season and I suspect it most likely will be those 4 starting next season too — sorry to disappoint! Thanks for letting us know Roman!

Fair enough. I think because Neil leaks news concerning the club correctly quite often, he thinks that his other Chelsea stories will also be taken as truth even when the "mole" is misinformed or when he's just making up BS.

True but then again I don't think what he says should be dismissed just because he writes for the Daily Mail. He has a strong track record of leaking Chelsea stories (some of which I've now listed in the previous post).

Neil Ashton correctly leaks behind-the-scene news at Chelsea quite regularly. Off the top of my head I remember he leaked: the starting line-up for the CL final including Bertrand, the team vs Juventus with Hazard up front, AVB's fallings-out and how he slept at the training ground/how he spoke to certain players, and Di Matteo's impending sacking. He most definitely has a mole within the club — I wonder who though because they've been there for a while!

The actual line-up will be: Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpilicueta

Every man and his dog has an opinion on Jose's tactics

Rooney has been really inconsistent this season. One game he can be very, very good in tight spaces and the next he will be worse than Ba.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2620214/Exclusive-Jose-Mourinho-lashes-players-half-time-bust-Stamford-Bridge.html#ixzz30myuBu4Z Ok this definitely sounds too dramatic to be true. But as harsh as it would be if Mourinho actually said that it'd also be pretty funny (especially given how much he likes Ramires!)

Arguably Rooney also, although his performances have really fluctuated this season. Between him and Costa it's not even close in terms of technical ability and ability to play in tight spaces.

No that's okay old man. You'd be better advised to spend your time learning the differences between commas and full stops. Thanks. I've replaced it with the link now though.

Nick Sutton isn't the one who wrote the article... My bf? What's your problem Mr "I'm a 76-year-old teaching degree mathematics to 10-23 year olds(LOL)"? Erm yes because the article actually concerns Matic.

Not sure how true this is but Neil Ashton does have a record of correctly leaking Chelsea stories — must have a mole. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2620214/Exclusive-Jose-Mourinho-lashes-players-half-time-bust-Stamford-Bridge.html#ixzz30myuBu4Z