Kostas

Either Bosingwa is still unfit or his contract situation doesn't allow Carlo to use him more1 2.1 Similar to Borini's case 2 On a second thought that didn't stop Ancelotti from using J.Cole

Cech Ferreira - Bruma - Terry - A.Cole Essien Ramires - Lampard Anelka - Drogba - Malouda Bench: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Kalou, Sturridge, van Aanholt, McEachran, Mellis.

Get me off your friend-list then

We extended Anelka's contract just this summer and most of us were happy about it*, I doubt we did it to raise his price (we rarely do) so we won't be seeing his back anytime soon. * In fact I still am

About a right winger - What if we still had Stoch ? - He'd rot on the bench

Moment's got nothing on 'fantastic'

:lol:

The current president of Bordeaux Jean-Louis Triaud denied any interest in Kakuta, they'd rather a striker.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Bruma will start according to the official site.

Drogba's goal against Bolton (?), the one that followed a combination of Anelka,Deco and Lampard. Edit: The one cfc-meleady posted ^. Edit 2: Good spot. Then it has to be Drogba's 1st goal against Arsenal in October.

I was arguing the need for a mobile, pacy and agile top class central defender back in April. Since then I've grown to be more confident of the Alex-Terry partnership(at least for the PL) and bigger issues have arisen. The time that we stacked world class players is gone and we look more likely to sing a new Ben Haim than the new Carvalho. And even if Luiz turns out to be the new Riccy, at the moment and for the next couple of years we need an attacking threat (whether that is a new striker, a right winger or an attacking midfielder) and someone to cover for our regular CBs more than we need him.

What a comeback! PFA's teams of the year proves how important the opinion of "fellow professionals" is. Lampard's last inclusion was 4 years ago (!). But a random award is always more important than actual performances when it comes to Salomon Kalou.

That Barcelona kit won't look as good with short sleeves. Here's a mock-up with the Qatar Foundation Their away kit will be black.

Cahill only because I don't have enough time to watch the other two. Better suited for the Transfer Talk ?

As did most teams we faced during November and December, Newcastle and Tottenham just to name two.

I thought we could at least establish the bloody obvious.

Could be but I doubt it'll significantly affect his future at the club. Ancelotti's opinion ≠ Club's view. On the other hand now that Arnesen has farked off one might think our plans for all those young players will change, from the "forgotten" Cork, Mancienne, Bertrand and Rajkovic to Bruma, Kakuta, Kalas, Delac et al.

It has nothing to do with being one of the best or even being "Chelsea quality". Ferreira is far from one of the best but he rarely gets the hate Kalou gets. Our "super-sub" is Championship quality at best . Even if that was true, which imo isn't, he is still completely rubish.

There was a similar rumor back when he signed for Tottenham so there are no surprises there. His spell at R.Madrid was appalling, his injury record was pretty bad as-well therefore getting him would be a risk, a cheap one, but still a risk. In hindsight we might look like idiots due to his instant success and our record of overpaying only being highlighted by the Ramires transfer but I'd argue the jury is still out for him, I don't buy all the hype.

City have no interest in him, this is just Benfica trying to drive his price up with their pathetic games, IMO anyway.

But if you look closer at those stats they aren't impressive even for a player of Kalou's quality.He scored 10 of his 12 goals in games we won by 4 or more. 5 of those 10 came in PL games which we won by 6(!) or more. All that in a season which we scored 2.58 goals on average and ended up with 142 goals.

This thread is going to haunt us when he scores his next tap-in