Viper22

Brazil and England (you haven't seen the proper passion as the NT suck donkey balls consistently). USA are good with their passion, but football (or soccer) isn't their 1st, 2nd, 3rd or even 4th sport. It lags behind American Football, Baseball, Basketball and even Ice Hockey. Like kobe said, they only hosted it 20 years ago, let some other countries have a chance.

I don't think anyone overly has a problem with Russia tbh, as long as they clean up the racism problem. The Qatari one is the one that gets people. As @CHOULO19 said in another thread "Every country does some amount of bribing to get the world cup, it's just that Qatar went too far".

I'm going to actually disagree with England. While I think we would obviously host a great world cup I think that a Belgium/Holland world cup would be the best choice, but that's just me . And yeah like kobe said I think the Aussies deserve a WC too, even though USA would host a great one.

The real truth brought out from the investigation:

Right. So the main reason is because of the lack of transparency in the voting process. Qatar's bid was led by Mohammed bin Hammam, who soon after their successful bid was suspended for life due to 'ethics violations'. Although FIFA claimed the bribery he was accused of was not related to the vote for the world cup, his suspension only occurred when journalists supplied evidence of his bribing of officials and an investigation began. FIFA then forced this investigation to close by saying he had already been suspended. Then you could go into the human rights violations by the Qatari government in buliding the stadia. Or the fact that it was a summer world cup that was bid for and now it is suddenly going to change. Or the fact that it could be during the season for top leagues in the world. Or the fact that Qatar has some pretty dodgy opinions/rules/laws when it comes to homosexual people or women showing off what they deem to be 'too much' skin. Or the fact that Qatar have no footballing heritage whatsoever and the money the government is spending on the tournament could be better spent elsewhere. As for Russia, when FIFA started this investigation, people had accused Russia of buying votes, but it turned out that the computers used in Russia's world cup bid process had all been destroyed less than a week after they won. How handy eh? So no evidence could be gathered into the voting process and alleged promised bid sharing between Russia '18 and Japan '20. And then you could go into Russia's current warmongering and their attitude towards racism (see: CSKA). Then there is the vote. You can't see who voted for who (why?) and the process is really murky and not well defined. Also, look at the results of the 2018 vote. As soon as England had been knocked out of the voting people changed their voting patterns. That makes no sense. You vote for who you think wants to win, why change after 1 elimination? Seems like tactical voting to me. Same thing happened in the 2020 vote. All of that is being coupled with FIFA's general douchebaggery over the last 10+ years (resisting goal line technology, Blatter calling demands for an investigation into the bidding process 'racist', all of the corrupt officals that have been bribed (some of which which has been proved, others which is blatantly obvious) and the constant attacks on anyone that tries to stand up to them (see: the FA). And finally (admittedly) there is a little bit of annoyance on the part of English fans and the FA that we invented the damn sport and have only had 1 world cup in it's history even though we could host one tomorrow, but that's neither here nor there in this case. That enough for you?

Well Brown was scoring goals for WBA when he was there before we bought him, and Solanke is arguably better, so that's my logic in saying they're mid table level. I'm not underestimating Schurrle, if we can't get Reus then i'm happy enough keeping him as 4th choice for now. He definitely has the capability to be a hell of a lot better than he has been recently. I understand completely what you're saying but there's no guarantee that we would sign him in the summer. Imagine a hypothetical situation where 2 of Bale/Ronaldo/Isco/JAmes Rodriguez had been injured at the end of the season. Real would scramble to put everything they wanted into signing Reus. Same with Bayern if Ribery/Robben are injured or out of form. We're gambling on Bayern/Real not wanting him, cos if they did, we'd just get massively outbid for wages. And even if those 2 didn't want him we're relying on Barca not convincing him to wait until they are out of their transfer embargo. Then he's got a choice between us and Man City (no feasible reason he'd go to Arsenal or Liverpool due to no chance of winning the title and they've got less financial clout than us anyway). Too many ifs and buts there IMO. Whereas, tying the deal up in January using Schurrle (who although good, you must admit is expendable) as a sweetener for BVB (they then wouldn't have to go searching for a replacement LW) would knock everyone else out of the race. But like you said you admitted if we can't get a pre-agreement then we should sign him. We all agree in essence .

Has potential, still so raw. Hope to see him get some more game time over the next 6 weeks. He needs to start taking some chances if he wants to make it here though, that's just a fact of life. Also, for people suggesting we call back Moses, I highly doubt Chelsea bothered to put a recall clause in his loan contract given his awful appearances for Liverpool last season. I'd much rather we moved on from him and recalled T Hazard or Piazon if possible or promoted Boga if not. And that's if we're not signing another winger aswell (one name springs to mind!).

Haha it's like a compulsion. They get investigated by a guy who isn't independent anyway and wasn't allowed to investigate the claims fully. And he essentially clears them of corruption (wrongly in most people's opinions, but whatever) but criticises them for a few things and then they publish his findings and edit all of the possibly bad things out of it to such an extent that the guy himself comes out and calls foul. This current incarnation of the organisation is the most rotten, corrupt, despicable that football has ever or will ever see. And Blatter is the ugly, moronic head of it. How much longer can it go on? Will/can anyone do anything about it short of boycotting the world cups? (Currently not sure that'd be the worst idea ever, especially if USA, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands and a few others came with us. That would definitely force sponsors to pull out, and it seems the only way to hurt FIFA is to hit their pockets. So that might be the only solution.

So with this hypothetical situation of Willian being injured... If we had the front 6 you suggested then our bench would be Cech, Luis, Zouma, Mikel, Salah, Remy, Drogba. That's a far better bench than any other team in the league have at full strength (minus Man City). And that's not including Ake, Baker, Solanke and Brown to come in who are all mid-table level currently. We wouldn't be in THAT much of a better situation if we had Schurrle. Although having him as a super sub is obviously beneficial, we shouldn't wait until the summer to sign Reus in case we lose him in the process. There's risks with both methods. The risk of signing him in January is coming up short for players in the latter stages of the CL and possibly going out earlier because of that. The risk of not signing him in January is the chance to miss out on one of the top players in the world for a massively cut price (and worse, he might go to a league rival). To me reward far outweighs the risk of signing him in January, and surely when put like that you must be inclined to agree?

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/9562457/transfer-news-petr-cech-says-chelsea-will-decide-his-future And this is why Cech is the ultimate professional. So much respect .

Thing is he does add a lot when deployed correctly (playing off the striker). It's just that Wenger is either too stupid or too stubborn (refuses to believe that fans know better than him) to play him there consistently.

I think while didierforever has some good points, this is the key thing for me and the most important thing said in the current debate. If we get a chance to sign a worldwide top 10 (top 20 at worst) player for a relatively TINY fee it has to be taken. Just get him signed. Tbh the league is the most important thing this year for us. We won the CL in 2012 and that kind of completed the journey for us. Now we're starting anew with a young squad and should look to be building to becoming the best team in Europe AND winning the CL. I really don't mind too much about the CL this year and would rather we put more effort into getting a League-Domestic Cup double/triple. CL domination can come in the following years, and Reus would be a massive help in doing that.

Maybe he doesn't think of Ake and maybe Baker as youth players any more, seeing as they are with the first team this year? Because like you said, Ake, Baker and Solanke are definitely top of the queue ATM.

I'm too lazy to find it but I think whoever suggested that if we signed him in a swap deal (Schurrle + cash for him) and then both players got loaned back to their respective clubs is on to a winner I think. That way BVB have been able to choose who to sell to (as the release clause isn't in effect yet) rather than letting Bayern have even a chance of luring Reus to their club but they also get to keep him until the end of the season (especially useful for their CL campaign). Not a problem for us either as we keep Schurrle as back up for our CL campaign also and know that we have a massive upgrade in Reus coming imminently. That way the transfer is finalised well before it happens, so both teams can begin to prepare for life with/without their respective players. Could very much see this happening.

Everyone getting ahead of themselves. Let's become the kings of England first. Win the league for the next 2 years with 1/4 final/semi appearances in the CL would be fine for me. Then we can focus on becoming the kings of Europe once again.

Proof I guess that the capability is there with him. Maybe Mou is holding him back slightly to help us in our defending or maybe he is more nervous while playing for Chelsea ATM. I dunno, hope to see more of him doing that in a blue shirt though.

Jefferson Montero. Plays for the Ecuadorian national team with ANOTHER Jefferson Montero as well as another J Montero so because he was the youngest had Baby Jeff on the back of his shirt.

Don't forget Baby Jeff .

Not many people have seen Wanyama before Southampton (and to an extent during his time there) have they? IMO he's a fantastic holding midfielder, much better than Mikel (although who isn't) and is a really down to earth, honest, hard-working bloke.

Southampton - Victor Wanyama (2nd choice CDM) Man City - Jesus Navas (1st choice RW) West Ham - Enner Valencia (2nd choice ST/AM) Swansea - Jefferson Montero (2nd choice RW) Arsenal - Alexis Sanchez (1st choice RW) Man Utd - Angel Di Maria (1st choice RW) Newcastle - Cabella (2nd choice CAM) Stoke - Ryan Shawcross (3rd choice CB) Everton - Kevin Mirallas (1st/2nd choice RW) Liverpool - Daniel Sturridge (2nd choice ST) Spurs - Christian Erikson (2nd choice CAM) WBA - Saido Berahino (3rd choice ST) Sunderland - Emanuele Giaccherini (2nd/3rd choice RW) Hull - Tom Huddlestone (2nd choice CDM) Aston Villa - Ron Vlaar (3rd choice CB) Crystal Palace - Joe Ledley (2nd choice CDM) Leicester - Kasper Schemeicel (2nd choice GK if Cech leaves) QPR - Steven Caulker (3rd choice CB) Burnley - Danny Ings (3rd choice ST) If I had to choose 5 of them, it'd be Wanyama, Sanchez, Vlaar, Erikson & Sturridge.

Does any English person? My missus is Welsh so i've been watching the NT with her and it's amazing seeing players play who actually give a fuck about playing for that badge on their chest. So my suggestion is adopt another nation (prefarbly an average/shit one) and watch their games instead, I find I get far more into it and it's far more exciting .

True. They're not really a threat to the title though. I really hope they hang on to the top 4 place, would be fantastic.

@ Does suggesting Thiago Alcantara is better than Reus come under the bracket of "Obvious troll is obvious"? I'm sure Nike is just trolling now.