The Skipper

Fantastic. The club have actually gone out and fully fixed all of our main problems with the signings of Fabregas, Costa and Filipe Luis. I'm delighted. It's going the be a great year.

I disagree. I think for the majority of times (against inferior teams which we'll face more often than not) they'll support our attackers to build play, and not only provide a solid platform. I'm very certain our fullbacks will be more involved in general play next season. Mou will not be as conservative next season as he was in the last.

Lukaku + £25m for Pogba anyone?

Torres' wage (for his role) is even worse.

That's the thing though... I'm pretty sure A LOT on here would love for him to just stay here and be second choice. The real question is - does he?

Honestly it's not even that... I just find it very interesting how he's managed to connect and compare the Cech/Courtois situation to Neo's at The Matrix...

Ultimately, the final decision is down to the club. Can't ever see the club allowing Romeu to take the number 8 shirt... Especially so soon after Lamps has left. Don't think Oriol would want that number to begin with anyway.

The player doesn't have the final decision in regards to what number they're going to wear...

That's so childish...

Apparently the Ba fee was only £4.7m.

Maybe, just looking to see if I can shift a few things to make myself available for this one. Will probably be in at MHL.

Yup. Even more so when you know someone that was actually personally affected by it. Sad, sad news.

That's terrible man. Always thought he was a lite shady but wow. It's not even the amount, it's just the moral behind it all... Awful stuff. Who am I to judge though aye...

DP

It really is a sad state if affairs, a huge conundrum. Israel continue to attack or retaliate against Gaza = Hamas getting stronger... Israel not attacking and merely defending themselves = Hamas attacking Israel. To me there is no point in discussing peace with Hamas because their main objective is clearly to destroy Israel. You're right in saying that change has to happen from within Gaza. The Palestinians must rise and overthrow Hamas... It's probably the only, not too aggressive way. This obviously isn't helped by the excessive force from Israel though... Of course if your family personally got killed by an Israeli drone you'd find it hard to disagree with what Hamas are doing because unfortunately revenge is a strong part of human nature. I wish some strong voices in Gaza would look past that though, no matter how hard it may seem, because as you said the only probable way the Palestinians can free themselves is if they act from within and overthrow Hamas.

Awful news. What a bad day it has been.

I'm not pro-Israeli or pro-Hamas, I mean I sympathise with both sides because there are casualties in both sides but this whole ground offence that Israel have started... I fear for the worst. Israel has no problem in defending itself obviously but innocent Palestinians will get hurt because Hamas will definitely retaliate. Although the Israeli government aren't exactly angels themselves, and although they have committed and over exaggerated some attacks or retaliations on Gaza, Hamas is truly not helping Palestine's situation here. It is a true shame that they are the major power in Gaza, because IMO even if Israel tried to lower its stance a little bit in a bid for peace, Hamas would probably use that as an incentive to attack and weaken Israel. I can sort of understand the Israeli army's strong stance on Gaza, because Hamas are truly an awful, awful organisation. Hamas want to destroy Israel, don't forget. It's sort of natural for Israel to be defending themselves (even if it has been too excessive in quite a few cases). I can sort of see what Israel are trying to do, but surely there must be different, more diplomatic ways to get rid of Hamas? I wish there was. It's looking like aggressive means by the Israel army's might be the only way to stop Hamas. I hope there is another way though. I just have a feeling something very bad on a more global scale is going to happen in the near future...

What are you smoking?

That's what I'm saying though - I would say his main function is to provide defensive cover and to assist Hazard in going forward. Not just defensive cover.

This transfer to Real stinks of "Barcelona have bought Suarez? Better make a marquee signing ourselves."

He's far more likely to be Matic's understudy.

Not necessarily. Sure, against the bigger teams who are more threatening on the attack, Filipe Luis won't venture forward as much, but against teams that sit deep against us, he'll definitely be providing Hazard with options going forward. That's the beauty of a "dual threat" fullback if you will. He wasn't just bought for his main function to just be providing sufficient cover for Hazard. If we want to get the best out of Hazard we need to open up spaces for him and have willing runners that will overlap/make intelligent runs for him, and not just leave him isolated to face 2/3 players on his own. Luis will definitely help in that regards too.

More Boga please.

Since when is Filipe Luis not good at going forward? Sure, he isn't as cavalier as let's say Marcelo (not a lot are tbh) but he's still very good at going forward, overlapping his winger and putting in a good cross. He's the complete fullback. Good at attacking, good at defending.

Come on, you're being way too harsh. How is he meant to remain determined when his loan spell was a disaster? He wasn't being unprofessional either, he hasn't said a bad word about Forest at all. If this is a 'terrible' attitude then there are many players that are a lot older than him that have even worse attitude.