The Skipper

If we make the right transfers (looks like we're well on the way in that regard with the Costa signing hopefully) then I expect us to win the league. Anything else is a bonus.

We've got too many young CBs.

Not if we sell players like Luiz who is rumoured to go for around £30m. Add Ba, Torres, Mikel, January money, the extra 40m from the renewed TV deal, a few players not renewing their contract and a couple of other players coming back from loan and we should be able to afford another big money signing easily.

Should've made this an article pal! Nice read, pretty fair assessment all round.

Congrats Eden & Azpi.

Chances created definition (i.e. the most misleading stat ever):Any pass that leads to a shot (no matter how speculative). That stat does certainly not mean we're creative enough. We've taken the most shots in the league on average - a lot of them are speculative long shots and not real quality chances. You've got to be kidding yourself if you think that our play in general has been great this season and that we've created bucket loads of quality chances and that the only reason we haven't scored more is because we're missing someone clinical up front.

We definitely need a playmaker next to Matic - I wouldn't consider Matic as one. He's got a good pass on him and good vision but that has more to do with him being quite a complete midfielder. He is first and foremost a holding player that protects the back four. We need someone that can spread play and truly dictate the tempo of our transition next to him - having Matic do everything is too much of an overkill. Someone in the ilk of Modric (i.e. A Rakitic or Kovacic) with a bit more finesse in the final third would infinitely help our slow build up play from the back, and the link between defence and midfield and attack will definitely improve. We don't have that sort of player in midfield hence why we play our next best option, Luiz, there.

Mourinho needs to win the WWE world heavyweight championship at Wrestlemania as well.

De Bruyne is easily CFC quality, just never got a proper chance. I think Salah even played more minutes than him for us.

Interesting to see Eto'o there as well despite his lack of consistent appearances in the EPL. Still quality.

Roberto Carlos? Maldini? Ashley is certainly up there though.

Was just putting it up to show that if we did equal the offer United put forward we would be able to afford him as well.

He's going to write an article on it tomorrow, breaking it down completely financially then will use some guesstimate to guess how much Mou could potentially have for the summer this season. It certainly means we can comfortably spend quite a bit this summer though, especially considering the TV deal will increase even further next season (not sure if he's already put that in there yet but we'll see).

Bertrand + 20 mil?

I say sell Bertrand and PVA and keep Ash for another year.

Just got in from the game. Atmosphere was good as always in an away game, highlight was signing Ashley Cole's name out loud at the end of the game. Delighted we won and there were a few decent performances, especially in Schurrle who was my MOTM, delighted with the way he came on and became the catalyst for the win. With a PL season under his belt he's going to be a lot better and more consistent next year, hopefully he puts in more work over the summer in the World Cup and comes back strong. Salah was again wasteful with his finishing but I love how he gets into these great positions; apart from his bad finishing he had a real decent game. He works on his finishing and he'll be a good player for us. Happy John Swift got a few minutes as well, the lad must be buzzing, very decent player from what I've seen of him in the youth. Torres didn't even show any sort of emotion when he scored, hopefully that's a sign that he's off. I'm ignoring Mou's post match comments on him because I think he's just trying to be diplomatic. Can't wait to finally get rid of him in the summer. Overall, just happy that we got the win on the final day. Hopefully we get it right this summer so we can make a real challenge for the title and other competitions next season. KTBFFH!

Use him as a bargaining chip for Kovacic. That would be brilliant.

@Special Juan and @Rmpr congrats on the mod position lads, fully deserve it and I'm very sure you'll both do an outstanding job and make TC an even better place!

On my way to Cardiff... Hopefully we score more than a few today!

At the same time, you're making up stuff again if you think the people that you continuously try to call out aren't optimistic about next season.

Yeah, but Dzeko in all competitions this season has 28 goals and 10 assists. Suarez has 31 from 178 shots (17%) this season in the league - only 1% higher than Dzeko's (16%) - do you consider Suarez a bad finisher as well? Mourinho himself said that he thinks Dzeko is Man City's player of the year so whether Mou rates him or not shouldn't be the dispute here. Mourinho doesn't require his STs to close down as much as his AMs either - so the Mata comparison doesn't really matter to me. I think he would actually do pretty well here because he's a big all round striker - Mou has had great success with these type of strikers (Milito, Drogba) in his systems. He isn't the best striker in the world but he's definitely a top striker, and would definitely be one of the better ones available. If the club doesn't want to spend £32m on Costa then Dzeko is definitely a good alternative.

Fair enough. We're just going to have to wait and see then if we do actually shell out big money on a LB or not; if we don't then your theory is definitely correct.

Cole example is irrelevant because RR and Shaw are both better LBs than him IMO. We wouldn't buy a left back at all if that was the case - if we just needed a simple back up we'd bring back Bertrand or PVA. If we're spending big money on a LB I can assure you they'd start. Do you seriously think Shaw would come in and spend a season as Azpi's back up if we signed him for £30m?