Kostas

Thank you for your valuable insight. Agree that it shows determination but in no way was that a sign of maturity, unless you somehow think that immaturity is more about holding back rather than being careless. In any case the decision to have him take the pen was immature, no matter who took it. :banghead: if true. But I will need source.

Do we have any information on who was the absolute retard that decided that he was to take the last penalty? I have serious doubts Jose would instruct an emotional teenager to take the last pen so I can only assume he requested it.

Got a serious man-crush on this guy. Willian has to be bloody phenomenal to take his spot.

Probably offtopic but since I couldn't find another Football Board related topic: Apparently Mike Forde (you know the person who actually is a member of the Board) has resigned and left the club. Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere.

Any vaguely believable word on the fee and/or his wages?

Can anyone bother and type for a lazy fuck like myself the source of this "development"? I'm not the most dismissive guy around here but surely such a hugeass banner should only be reserved for stuff that is guaranteed?

Well no offense but I'd rather trust my eyes unless I see screengrabs that prove the opposite.

Are we certain about that? All I saw was a marginally, the sort that is and should never be called, advanced Brana on a replay paused wrongly.

Props for tweaking the title to avoid spoiling those who haven't seen the game. Simple yet genius. God knows how I hated being spoiled when I happened to instinctively click my TC bookmark :banghead:

Didn't see this posted in the last few pages. Don't care if it's been posted in the distant pass since there are still some people who don't know the quality of the man they'd want to wear blue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=97C7oA1Sy50#! Only a club with no shame would sign him a few years ago and nothing has changed.

Have our last 2 transfers been completely under the radar or am I missing the transfer threads?

Wonder how many years he had on his contract at Bremen. The seemingly slightly high transfer fee may be related to the ridiculously low wage. If it's not the boy got terribly screwed (in the context of being a Chelsea player near his prime).

He must be the cheapest 24 year old the club has had in years. How did he get screwed that badly?

Is that supposed to be a counterargument? Shocking.

Stifled his ability by playing him 12 times as a defensive mid. What kind of muppets write for goal.com? I'll be the first to admit that Mikel could have been better or that he still has much potential for improvement but that very article shows that at the age of 26 this guy has played for one of Europe's top 7 clubs almost 300 times, with the vast majority of those appearances being starts, granted by 8 different managers*. This isn't Gael Kakuta or Marko fucking Marin we're talking about. This is a player who has won everything he could realistically expect and has been an integral part of the winning teams more often than not. *(none of them Nigerians)

The whole thing makes no sense. Usually such stories are a product of an agent trying to negotiate a new contract. With Mikel's last contract having been signed some 7 months ago I seriously doubt his side is the one causing the stir (if there is any). I can see only 3 possibilities. Either Galata (or some other club) promised Mikel higher wages (unlikely) and his agent a decent fee, or the Mourinho desired to offload him and the media got a sniff of it (ha), or the journos made this up, threw in Galata for good measure, realized this is attracting clicks from a number of Chelsea fans and went with it. Bonus: Of course it could also be the club deliberately misleading the media to their own end by leaking vague BS e.g. African CFC player to join ex teammate. (Remember the Italian ex-player to join AVB's staff and top english midfielder to ManUtd stories a while ago which had the media drooling over Zola and Lampard?)

This last page has been enjoyable to read, in a very juvenile/immature way. Mods can us 10 lads that rate him on here throw a party in this thread if its still in this section on the 1st of September? Love the emphasis. I love the boy but I'm just as desperate.

I'm gonna crawl back under promptly. This season had way too much football for me to spend even more time on discussing it. Not to mention that now that Mou is back I don't really have to worry about 90% of the things I did. I'm less willing to watch Tahiti matches that respond to wind-ups such as this. If you can't admit the only two things he does brilliantly (retain possession under pressure - release on the path of his teammates) there's no contribution you can make to the topic. Heh, what do you know .. exactly the function I had in mind. Your point on such a move freeing up Oscar to play his original deep lying mf role complements the idea nicely, Mata is the only one I have doubts about fitting in such a system.

Kalou detractor and a fan of Mikel's play. One wasn't fit to be a starter for any PL club (and earned more than some) while the other used to be amongst our top 4 most technically astute players up until a few transfer windows when we started signing the likes of Mata. Up until last season he was (in my eyes) the easiest player to pick for our starting XI after the likes of Cech and A.Cole. On a more relavant note, I see the tiring discussion regarding his value/talent absolutely redundant and only wonder whether Mou will be the first Chelsea manager to experiment with him since he did back in the day (apart from a brief attempt by AVB). Mikel's ability to hold the ball under any sort of pressure and lay it off perfectly for a speeding runner could be quite usefull further up the pitch.

I haven't changed my position on the two players in the slightest but if this is what the Kalou thread read to zolayes back in the day then I salute him for his patience. Painful to read.

That I can easily believe. From what I can remember the 4-5 times I witnessed you providing us with correct info on what's going to happen your source was a person employed at Cobham rather than an oligarch's friend, not to mention that I can't imagine the latter being particularly chatty. In any case, the events proved you right. Think TC needs to have a minimum post threshold before people are allowed to view your posts, you've proved to be more valuable than the Downloads section

The timing of the deal sounds about right but I seriously doubt it would reach WHS' source. I'd love to see the post, will try to look for it once search is renabled.

What post?

Translation?

I'm thankful to the players, the club, and football for the feeling I get whenever I think of this chant.