The Skipper

Amazing.

That looks good. Would like to see it on the players though.

I've always rated Alexis much, much higher than Pedro. He was always the much better player and is younger as well. Pedro would be such an uninspiring signing. He doesn't improve the first team XI much at all. If we were signing him as a squad player I'd welcome it though. Never really rated him highly but that's just me though.

Sky sources reported that he's rated very highly here and that we'd pay up to £40m for him a while ago.

If you know you know.

I agree with some of this, hence why I've said that Luis hasn't been used properly here. It's to do with our system. Our defence is very oddly put together. A back four of Luis - Terry - Cahill - Azpi would be far more balanced than the one we played all season and it's a massive shame that Jose didn't try that more often. If he was so concerned about Terry's deficiencies as well - which are largely covered by the fact that we play a mid to low block, I don't buy that Azpi is solely there for JT, in my mind Azpi is there because Jose wants to give Hazard and Cesc more freedom - then why not put him in the RCB slot? Eden plays a lot better when he has more technical players around him IMO, he doesn't feel as restricted as to who he can pass to. I strongly believe that if we gave Luis a solid run in the team that we would've seen even more of Eden because he basically would've had Cesc and Luis supporting him who are both very good technically. It's a shame our system doesn't work like that though.

Because it's a straw man's argument just to look at stats. You just have to watch him play to realise that Luis has superior offensive ability and technique compared to Azpi and Ivanovic and has proven so over his career. He's a much better dribbler than both, superior composure when it comes to tight spaces, a lot more comfortable on the ball, can actually go past his man and provides much better natural width than both. He was never used properly or given a real fair go here either. Whenever he did impress, i.e. in our 5-0 demolition against Swansea where he was one of our top performers and then performed well in the CC semis against Liverpool, he never got consecutive game time following that up. Or when we drew 1-1 against Burnley, I think he was the best player on the pitch by far (alongside Eden) for us when a lot of other players were very lacklustre. Consequence? Gets dropped. You literally just have to watch us when Luis plays and see how much more fluid we are on that left hand side and how much better he links up with Hazard to understand what he actually brings to the table.

You actually think Ivanovic and Azpi are more effective in arrack than Luis? Wow.

I'm actually very happy the club didn't decide to spend 41m euros on Beard Game.

Unfortunately yes. I was personally just giving a list of my untouchables though.

I'm thinking we should buy him for the #10 spot tbh.

Courtois, JT, Azpi, Matic, Cesc, Hazard, Costa.

Said this before, could be another Fabregas-esq signing.

Can see Bamford going there on loan tbh.

James won't be benched, he was one of Real's best players last season.

Nowhere near as drastic as Oscar did though.

Mourinho does have free roaming players in the team in Hazard and Fabregas who are both a lot more naturally talented than Salah. He won't give Salah who stil has a lot more growing to do a free role when there are more talented & effective players in the team ahead of him...

People seem to always forget that this guy is only 20 and is already one of the best players in the PL.

Salah is more of a goalscorer than Shaqiri tbh, so I think he would do well under him, especially in Italy, yes.

Let's be honest, he's already proven that he can play well at OM and Lyon's level during his Fiorentina spell tbh (and during his time at Basel IMO). The best thing for him to do would be to join an interesting project at somewhere like Inter.

Why would he go on loan to France when the likes of Inter, Atletico, Roma, Juve etc. have been linked with permanent moves for him?

It would be: Aguero Silva - De Bruyne - Sterling.

As a number 10 Willian is superior/at least on par with Oscar on everything bar finishing/killer instinct in the final third IMO. That simple.

Time to cash in on that Falcao favour I suppose...