The Skipper

From what the Guardian and Telegraph have said, we're preparing a £30m for Cesc - nothing has been formally done or agreed yet. Sky Sports/Balague saying that nothing has been agreed yet doesn't contradict that.

I'm not saying he won't have to do dirty work, but the majority of the dirty work will be done by Matic. And as I've said before, watching him at Arsenal when he did play in that deeper CM role he isn't as bad defensively as some are trying to make out. He was competent enough then, and that was next to a certain Alex Song who bombed forward a lot. Cesc can do an adequate job just like Modric does for example. PS: why do you sound so angry?

Reindeers?

A la Sturridge.

He used to play as a deeper CM for Arsenal where he provided bucket loads of assists. He wouldn't play in the deeper role to do the dirty work either. That's what Matic is for. He'd be the playmaker there.

This is it.

So he's definitely gone. Absolute legend and our best ever player IMO. Will never forget all the special moments he gave us. One I'm particularly fond of are his two at Villa Park last year where he broke the record as I was actually there myself. Going down by one it was even more special that Lamps came up with the priceless equaliser and winning goal, the euphoria in the away stand from us was genuinely amazing, and the love we showed him after the game was great as well. Thanks for the memories Frank. Chelsea's number 1 legend.

Yeah, that affects the odds, but then you also have a lot of people who aren't in the know putting £10, £20 on it. So cumulatively the odds of anything that's in this situation will increase.

So Telegraph and Guardian both reporting we are preparing a £30m bid. We're definitely interested in him.

That doesn't mean much though... The bookies rely on rumours just as much as the casual football fan does. If rumours intensify over a certain situation of course they'll slash the odds, because they don't want to lose money. If the rumour was false all they have to do is raise it back up a little.

Bookies automatically adjust their odds in response to the fluctuations of bets being made - i.e. A lot of people are making bête that Fabregas will be at CFC. It doesn't mean much at all. I mean they once even had Harry Redknapp as odds on favourite before AVB was signed I think. Don't read too much into that.

I think you're thinking of Oliver Torres, he was out in loan to Villarreal this past season. Not ready to be starting yet I'm guessing, didn't make that many appearances out on loan.

I think this is the case too. It seems like it's between us and Barcelona for Koke and he'd definitely go to Barcelona over us. That leaves Fabregas for us.

Diego Ribas? He's like 30... He was also on loan from Wolfsburg.

He's a second striker, just like Villa - i.e. plays next to the main striker or behind him - so in that sense he replaces Villa. They need another leading striker to replace Costa though.

They've already replaced him with Correa who is a pretty massive talent from Argentina.

This picture is 3 years old.

Apparently Koke's first option and Cesc is the second.

A couple of reports in Spain saying we're close or that we're in talks with him...

4 games here and there, not even consecutively... Do you honestly think that that constitutes as a proper chance? I don't care about KDB still being here or not, but to say that constitutes as a proper chance is ludicrous.

He was barely given a chance lol. A few games here and there doesn't constitute as a proper chance IMO.

How does that work out? Diego Costa's at 40, Filipe at 25... If anything it's a 90m raid.