The Skipper

Even if he is an improvement (which I don't think he is mind you, I'd rather have Ramires), he's only a marginal improvement. He's not really much of an upgrade at all, and I wouldn't sign him whatsoever. If we're signing a defensive/box to box midfielder we can do much better

Van Persie? As you said in your second point, it's not really about the Dutch league. It doesn't really matter tbh, it has nothing to do with the Eredivisie per se, rather the individual himself. Pelle has been excellent in the last two years and I back him to at least be as good as Lambert was for Soton, especially under his old manager. Lallana and Lambert aren't really that great as players mate (especially the latter), it wouldn't be far fetched at all to say they're in the same league as their replacements. Maybe not Lallana = Tadic but Tadic has a chance to prove himself at a top league now. Tadic is too good for the Eredivisie, he's IMO on his day just as good as Lallana (albeit different type of players, Tadic is a pure winger whilst Lallana is more of a 10) but hasn't had the platform to show that. IMO Soton have replaced Lambert and Lallana very well, but of course we'll see how they cope with the PL.

Disagree. They didn't really need to replace Chambers since Clyne was there, Pelle is just as good as Lambert and Tadic is just as good as Lallana too. They've also upgraded their GK area with Forster and Bertrand is a solid replacement for Shaw. This transfer might not be as good (don't know much about this fella) but they've done decently this transfer window IMO. Still have a very solid team.

And how have you figured this out, in what position too please?

"No, we're not interested. We have John [Terry], [Gary] Cahill, [branislav] Ivanovic, [Kurt] Zouma, and we want to integrate [Andreas] Christensen", Mourinho said. "Step by step [for Christensen], training with us, every day, playing a few minutes when it is possible, playing with the Under-21s and training with us as a first-team squad member. We are fine. are, we are well set in defence".

We're not signing Benatia.

It's simple - we just won't register Schwarzer. That's it.

A player who can cover both the CB and LB spot since they are very weak in both areas. The only natural left back they have is Shaw after all.

Probably why they're after Rojo.

Is he officially #13 now?

The new LED lights at The Bridge are truly making these pictures come alive.

That's a spoof account pal.

Would be amazing if he turns into our own Alaba (and not just for CFC either ).

I see it the other way actually. I would throw him into the deep end so he experiences what PL and English football is like from the get-go. Burnley away is a great personification of that.

That's not true, plenty of times Xabi Alonso has given bad balls for example, but that's because he's direct and takes risks like Fabregas. Fab is just as good a passer as Alonso. Xavi not so much maybe but that's because of the tiki taka philosophy, so he doesn't take as many risks as the previous two.

I wouldn't say Rambo will feature in most games, what I will say though is that he will play in the majority of the bigger games, because of his engine and ball winning ability, and his ability to score some important goals.

This is the team I see as well, simply because Schurrle doesn't seem fully fit yet, so it might be better for him to come off the bench, and Brana has been class this pre season.

Burnley away is the ideal game to blood him IMO.

Wouldn't surprise me if Salah started tbh.

Moreno - Lovren - Sakho/Skrtel - Johnson is definitely an improvement, but still not amazing though.

They'd value him at around £20m probably, and rightly so tbh. His performance vs. City in the PL last season was one of the best individual striker performances of the season. He was excellent: http://youtu.be/Rc0IDATSIww

Vlaar was better IMO.

I don't want another CB this year. I think we'll be fine with JT, Cahill, Brana and Zouma for this year, I've always said though that we seriously need to start looking at options after this year though. I think JT can give us one more top year.

I've seen Bony for two seasons solidly now (his last year in the Eredivisie and last season) and I can tell you that he's not a one season wonder at all. Brilliant player, very complete for a striker. He'd be a very, very good second choice option here. He's really good.

Before pre season: https://twitter.com/joshmufcwilson/status/479355532290310144