Kostas

An Emenalo contact. Interesting.

That probably means no Kakuta or McEachran in Asia.

We.Are.Desperate.For.A.Signing.

From everything I've heard about him from reliable football people this must be a good deal for us. Shame about he's a goalie.

Bertrand is more than ready to be a back-up to Ash. If AVB thinks he's good enough don't see what's stopping him from being a real squad member.

How often have you had such (false) hopes in the past 4 seasons?

Apparently Derby County are interested in taking him on loan for the season.

I say we need to keep this discussion in one thread if we want it to progress.

Having read SwissRamble's analysis on Liverpool it seems those transfers might make some sense if the new players are on low wages. Despite their alarmingly high fees if we assume that the contracts of Henderson, Caroll, Downing and Adam will cost Liverpool less or equal to what Jovanovic, Cole, Poulsen etc cost then they will have added much depth and arguably known and proven quality to their squad while drastically reducing the wagebill. Add to that the usual arguments like after-sale value, potential, possible benefits of buying British(?) etc and those deals sound a bit less unreasonable.

Well if we are honest only 1 of the 10 youngsters we buy will manager over 10 PL starts for us (and that if we're lucky) while all the players Liverpool signed are going to be valuable and usable squad members. It's just that their fees are insane.

I have seen that argument a lot of times and I can't understand it. Their fees are going to get amortised anyway and any contract signed after June 2010 will be included under Financial Fair Play

Jesus recently registered on Talk Chelsea so he might know.

Could be media games, could be that we're not looking for a player in Essien's mold. Can't imagine (OK actually I can) the club not looking for midfielders when we have 4 pure midfielders for 3 midfield positions.

I've got to give it to you, you do a great job with gathering unique material. If only you improved a bit your watermarks and your English.

We'll never agree on Carlton Cole vs Di Santo.

Now the whole forum probably knows why. Again with you I was discussing that particular point you brought up. A point which you could only have made if you didn't watch any of Chelsea's games or if you were just desperate to bring more arguments to the table. Since I'm sure the former isn't true I'm inclined to believe you're either bluffing or WUMing.

Real Madrid. Don't quite see how he'll fit into Juventus, unless he doesn't care about anything but his paycheck.

Boy aren't you the cheerful one.. Did you want Terry thrown out after his Inter game or Cole after last year's Community Shield? Edit: On a second thought that might sound offensive, I assure you it's an honest question.

On a more serious note I've not made up my mind yet because I have to see our style of play under Andre Villas-Boas.

Won't start an arguement with you, believe we both know why. However I have to point out that's absolute bollocks. Have to wonder if you really meant it or just wrote it to support your case.

Please... Their starts are irrelevant. Mikel was our first choice holding midfielder until his injury. Ballack played that role for ~2 months, not near enough to discredit what Mikel did from from the start of that season.. Since you say that he hasn't produced in any pf his 5 seasons at Chelsea I stand by my original post. Exactly. Hence my post about general football knowledge.

The board probably thought 3 years and 82 pages are enough.Think I agree.

LDN, I think that format should be used only for transfer talk.

Correct. This is after all only the 5th future-eleven-with-youth-players-we-are-never-going-to-see-play topic we get in 2011.

Don't flatter yourself. You're not the only fan in the forum or on the Internet who holds such an opinion. He was our best midfielder for the first half of the season. Held our midfield on his own during November and December. Got injured and rarely started games after that. Afterwards what you described as playing below average was actually not playing much at all. The fact that he got dropped by Ancelotti doesn't affect my opinion of his ability or performances in the slightest. Ballack played in the holding role for only a few games and once we were already on the high, killing games in the first 10 minutes and never having to defend since we were well ahead. Witty. That was not.