Viper22

My expectations: a) If the squad stays as is or we only add squad or future prospect players from now on then tbh I really only want us to retain our PL title. If a cup comes along with that then great, but I think that the PL should be our overwhelming target. 1/4 final of the CL is a must to keep the coefficient up but after that I wouldn't be expecting much more with the current squad. Now if we sign a World Class RW or CAM (and we really should) then my expectations will go up and I think we should win the PL and either get to the CL final or win a cup. My prediction: Realistically it's going to be a lot tougher to retain the PL than it was to win it in the first place. But even though other teams are strengthening I don't think any of them have surpassed our squad in terms of overall strength and we still have something none of them have: a top class manager in the shape of Mourinho. a) PL Winners, FA Cup semi final, COC 1/4 final, CL semi final. PL Winners, FA Cup Winners, COC final (loss to Man City), CL final (loss to Barcelona).

Actually according to transfermarkt turns out I was wrong, Luis made 26 appearances and Shaw made only 20 so it was 6 more: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/filipe-luis/leistungsdaten/spieler/21725/plus/?saison=2014 http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/luke-shaw/leistungsdaten/spieler/183288/plus/?saison=2014 Shaw only managed 90mins on the pitch 4 times after the 8th November too.

You're still trying to argue with him with logic? Have we not discovered yet that logic does not exist in the magical world of Gilvorak? If the signing of Luis for a year meant we didn't get Shaw then we should send Luis and Jose flowers. Shaw was awful last year and was injured so much that he played 4 fewer games last season than Luis did ffs. £30M and £100k p/w for Shaw would have been an awful choice, especially given the fact that it would have upset the squad that an unproven LB would be getting more money than some of our starters. I was all for the signing of Shaw but if it turns out that instead of him we got Luis essentially on loan for a year (no loss in transfer fees) and now Baba as 2nd choice LB (looks likely) then once again Mou has been proven right.

Cesc would be the best captain but for a long term solution (which I think we should go for, maybe with Cesc VC and Ivan/Cahill 3rd Captain to help them out) for me it's a choice between Azpi, Courtois and Matic. Of those 3 I think the best option is Azpi for the same reasons as Amels outlined above.

Excellent news. Hopefully all the whiners using him leaving as an excuse to hate on Falcao before he'd even kicked a damn ball for us can shut up now.

Why do I keep hearing this? Do people not realise that Reus had a career before Dortmund? He has actually played more games at his former club Gladbach than he did at BVB!! Granted Reus has played the majority of his time at BVB at LW but for all of his career before that he was mainly a RW. At Gladbach he played pretty much exclusively there in fact. He's still a very natural winger than can play on either side. Obviously he's better on the left because he can cut in and score as he has done so many time for Dortmund but trust me he scored a fair few at RW for Gladbach too and he'll still be the best RW we can get our hands on atm unless Bale suddenly becomes available. RW and LW are both natural positions for Reus, same as LB and RB have both become natural for Azpi due to the amount of time he's had to play there. I bet some people think he's naturally a LB now rather than RB where he's played most of the rest of his career, don't make the same mistake with Marco.

I guess i'm just hoping that it's a fake due to it not looking like a shade of green. If that is the real kit then whatever, the Chelsea staff obviously have a pretty warped colour chart in their offices but that's beside the point. If that's our GK kit then tbh i'm disappointed with how ugly it is.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3157710/Petr-Cech-picks-squad-No-33-prepares-start-new-chapter-Arsenal.html

Good player. £21M is a good price too. But he is not the solution to our AM issues. This will only really make sense if we're selling Cuadrado and he's our replacement for the bench with Moses and one of the youngsters (Boga?) and we're still in the market for that world class AM (Reus/Griezmann/Isco etc.).

Could've sworn that on the Chelsea Megastore website it said that the GK kit was going to be green? That looks pretty blue/cyan to me. I hope that's not it, it looks foul IMO.

With current squad: Premier League - Winners Everything Else - Don't care With a World Class AM: Premier League - Winners Domestic Cups - Win one, 1/4 finals in other CL - Semi Finals

I'm assuming it's unique as it's been explicitly mentioned in the case. Also, lots of teams have neglected to play our loanees unless they've played brilliantly, I imagine they would play a LOT more if we were doing something along the lines of subsidising their wages the more they play.

If he signs for Man Utd and manages to stay fit for a large part of the season then he will improve their team immeasurably. He's still one of (if not THE) best central midfielders in the world and I will be very worried to see him sign for Utd. The only saving grace is his fitness issues, we'd have to be hoping that he's out for large parts of the season so he can't have much of an influence on the campaign. But sometimes players get lucky and get no injuries at all and help their team to the title (RVP the year he signed for MU).

Seems like forever since I commented on the last one of these!!! Excited once again . Bring on the pre-season to get our blue heroes back into shape to defend their PL title .

"Then they stole Willian from under our noses when we'd already had him at our training ground for his medical." "...house 50,000 screaming Spurs fans every other week." Love both the delusion and the bitterness.

I didn't mean a World Class player every year for the sake of it . But we need a World Class CAM or RW urgently and filling the other of those 2 positions, a new CB and a new RB (LB if Azpi moves back to RB) needs to happen in the near future if we want to maintain our performances in the league and compete properly in Europe. Agree wholeheartedly re the £50M+ thing. I liked Schurrle and I like Willian but if we'd gone for a properly World Class player at the time we would be much better off now.

If we sign Isco I promise to buy one of our god awful new home shirts with his name on the back. That's how much I want him. I'll put my £65 towards the signing.

I know the only rumours are from disreputable at best sources but if we got Isco we would be making a serious signal of intent to the rest of the league. Quality player, bordering on World Class and still very young. Could well be our next Hazard. Would be overcome with joy if this happened.

Tbh I do think this new era of not spending ridiculous money on players has actually helped us in the last 4 years. But I agree we need to stop being so prudent and splash out on probably 1 new (world class) key player every year or so. We desperately need a world class RW and after that we'll likely have to replace JT and then Ivan in the coming years.

Brilliant player. If we could sign him and have Hazard-Gotze-Willian as our 3 behind the striker I would be pretty pleased man. Don't like the way he left BVB and went to their rivals but it doesn't change the fact that he's a top quality player.

Careful. Newcastle and Sunderland do exist remember.

CLL.

Begovic is 5 years younger than Cech, HG, happy to sit on the bench, will have lower wages and is a top quality GK. While Cech is obviously still the better player the situation with Begovic is much better. Couple in the fact that we'll have made a profit in these 2 transfers aswell and this is turning out to be a pretty good bit of business from the club. Just have to hope that Arsenal don't wise up and fix their other serious problem (DM) and/or get lucky with injuries next season or we could have a possible challenger on our hands.