Viper22

Not that I was into this debate before, but this truly must put it to bed. Torres has not been great for us, but this season he's been alright. Eto'o has been slightly worse than Torres this season (no debate here, stats show it) but I guess you could put that down to him acclimatising to the PL. Anyway, my opinion before was that we should start Nando, and these stats have just backed it up. Thought he was in pretty good short term form before the injury. 3 goals in 4 appearances wasn't it?

Reckon Mandzukic will be a bit cheaper than what you suggest, but we'll have to wait and see. And Costa has a £32M release clause, that's all teams will pay, there won't be a bidding war, Atletico have to accept a £32M bid. He will then choose which club he wants if more than 1 team meet the release clause. I do see what you're saying with the recouping of money but I think you get what you pay for largely. Obviously some overpriced players and bargains around but mainly you pay more, you'll usually get a better player. Let's just trust in Jose and see what he does aye? As for your Lukaku comments, I'm a great lover of the lad, tons of potential, but he hasn't been that great even at Everton (who have been flying high this season). He had a great start but fell of the pace a bit before his injury. Hope i'm wrong but he doesn't look a world beater. Yet.

Not to nitpick, but Costa has a £32M release clause. Mandzukic would be available on the cheap I reckon, Bayern don't seem to rate him that highly and the arrival of Lewandowski just confirms that Pep wants to change what kind of player he wants his striker to be and remember they only paid like £10M for him or so. (By on the cheap I mean cheap for a top team like us - £20-£30M). Lukaku will be a great 2nd choice striker for next season but he's not ready to lead our line just yet. Personally not over keen on Guarin, although you do argue a compelling case. Obviously price and wages dependent but I'd personally prefer Koke, Vidal, Barkley or Gundogan (if he comes back from his horrific injury as good as he was before it, if so, definitely my first choice). As for the £40-70M flop thing you have all of the history to back you up (and maybe i'm just being an optimist) but I keep thinking that we've had our bad luck/stupidity with Shevchenko, Crespo and Torres. Just got a good feeling that the next one can be that star we have been looking for in ages. Finally, signing a striker for cheap won't make any difference to us if they flop like an expensive purchase. Yes there might be less pressure on them due to the lower price tag, but if they're going to lead the line for Chelsea, then it doesn't matter how much they cost, they're still going to be under the same insatiable scrutiny from Blue fans, pundits and media alike.

Must admit I got all giddy like a child watching Kroos tear Arsenal a new one today. Don't mind if he doesn't come to us if he keeps spanking our PL rivals like that whenever they enter the same stadium as him xD

You're probably right. I am a bit of a Buffon fan boy though so I'm always going to be a bit biased . Still amazing that we've got 2 of the top 5 or so keepers in the world isn't it? What an awesome situation to be in. Dortmund keeper is Weidenfeller btw .

Genuinely think he's only behind Neuer and maybe Buffon at the moment. Could be best GK in the world with a top quality back 4 in front of him now I reckon.

What's the point of swapping a player for Costa? £32M is his release clause, Atletico wouldn't push that down much if we offered Torres with it and offering Courtios would be full retard.

I see this as a good thing tbh, always preferred points in the bank rather than games in hand. Also it puts a lot more pressure on the team having to make up the games, similar to what we went through last season with our ridiculous 70+ games.

Let's be honest, if Terry or Hazard get injured for 1month or so+, we're gone.

I guess it depends if he's happy at PSG playing second fiddle to King Zlatan on the wing. If he's not happy then I could see him going, especially if Ibra has a few more years in him (which it does look like). If he wants to leave then i'm sure PSG will want to at least recoup the £50M they paid for him, but I would hope we could squeeze them for under £60M. All of this relying on Cavani being unhappy there though. Clutching at straws and all that...

Please Jose.... Out: Mikel, Torres In: Cavani/Costa/Mandzukic/Benzema & ANYONE

Is he a still a ball playing midfielder then? Or is he more a holding mid anchor man now? I haven't really been keeping up with his development lately I must admit...

Sounds like everyone is in agreement tbh. We need Luiz in midfield alongside Matic, and Terry back at CB. With that I think we'll be ok whoever we play up top.

Please dear god for the love of pete, shut up and let it go. Only post in here again if your statement regards Chelsea vs Everton. It's like listening to a child always having to get the last word, it's pathetic.

Must win game now thanks to the recent City, West Brom & West Ham results. Hope we can pull it off because Everton are nothing but pushovers! Cech, Azpi, Terry (If he's fit. God I hope he's fit!), Cahill, Ivanovic, Matic, Luiz/Lampard, Willian, Oscar, Hazard, Torres. Schurrle to come off the bench if it's not going right after about 60mins should do it.

Respect for admitting you were wrong! Never liked Mikel. Only ever passes sideways or backwards, and is useless to poor at picking up runs. Got to go.

Thing is though, taken in isolation, a 2-0 loss away to City isn't that bad a result. Just been made to look worse due to the fact that we beat them not long ago. Problem here was though: Terry Out, Mikel In. That's like removing the engine from your car and replacing it with a mouldy banana. We quite desperately need a 3rd choice CB that isn't David Luiz (he's a decent holding mid but unconvincing as a CB) and Van Ginkel to come back from injury.

Mikel at fault for both goals for not tracking back. How many games (and probably trophies) has that useless twat cost us over the years?

Let's be honest though, since their last trophy he's spent horribly: Reyes for £10.5M, Hleb for £11.5M, Eduardo for £7.5M, Arshavin for £15M, Squillaci for £4M, Gervinho for £10.5M, Ozil for £42.5M and the crowning turd in the water pipe Andre Santos for £7M. He could have spent that ~£110M so much better...

Maybe he should play better then . He should fit right in at United, competing for 6th place, he was at his best for us when we were finishing there after all.

All very good points, but I would just say: Dante just isn't very good.

Hes still young, and knackered after such a long run of games I agree. Not sure we can afford to bench him though. Maybe drop him into CM to play as a DLP for a while? That would put a bit more impetus into our attack and also put less pressure on him at 10. Then we could play Matic/Oscar in CM and Hazard/Schurrle/Willian in AM. Would that work?

Why does everyone claim that Mikel/Luiz are scapegoated? When players play badly, they get criticized. Luiz and Mikel have poor games more often than some of the other players. Therefore they get criticized more often. Why is that so hard to understand? I think Luiz is a decent footballer, anything but reliable, but whne he plays well, he plays BRILLIANTLY. My personal opinion though is that £30M from Barca would be great if we could then reinvest that in another CB who maybe isn't quite so eccentric and a bit more reliable. If they want to pay us £30M though, any less and i'd be skeptical, after all, he's still a pretty good CB and a great DM.

I think my patience for Luiz has worn too thin.... He was pretty poor today, and could easily have given away a pen for shirt pulling on that useless Anichebe. Not just today though, he hasn't been great this season either. Would anyone out there really complain if we sold him in the summer? Especially if Barca make another £30M bid they were rumoured to have made last summer? We have Zouma and Kalas and I would be happy with those 2 alongside JT and Cahill for next season, maybe add Ake in there as well. I've defended Luiz all the time since he joined, but I think my heart will be happier if we have a more solid CB that doesn't worry me all the time.

Well what could you sing about if you support West Brom? Boring, shitty football played by boring, shitty players cheered by boring, shitty fans in a boring, shitty stadium.