The Skipper

I sincerely hope Mourinho isn't thinking our starting CMs should be Ramires and Matic next year. Ramires is very useful for some situations but we desperately need a DLP, I really hope Mou sees that.

Mou never said anything about them being the untouchables, the article writer just assumed so (and wrongly IMO).

So according to this article, because of what Mou said in the PC our new untouchables are "Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic and Ramires and, possibly, Willian". Couldn't be anymore wrong IMO. There aren't any untouchables in this team yet.

This is a very good post, and puts everything into perspective excellently. Still doesn't mean that Mou hasn't made mistakes in certain games and that we were way too conservative in certain games, but yes, this is very correct. Mourinho has the whole off season now to complete his team, whether he'll make the right moves remains to be seen... No excuses anymore next season.

Yeah, I edited my post before you replied.

And people still refuse to believe that the main reason we've lost the title this season is because we struggle against the smaller teams in the EPL.

This is very contradictory, considering Jose didn't even play football consistently at a professional level before entering management here. Guess Jose isn't an expert either then, and Maradona is a world class manager because he was a very intelligent footballer... Very strange statement. Also, you don't even know everyone on this forum on a personal level, so it's very naive of you to think that no one on here has any sort of credentials in football.

Wow, the last few pages have shown that there are quite a lot of disrespectful people on here.

Which is why signing someone like Shaw could prove to be vital for squad make up as well.

Shaw isn't done yet no, so personally I'm still labouring hope that we can perhaps drive the price down. As for our first team? Shaw would (should) walk straight into it. United shouldn't have any leverage in that regard.

Sturridge might not be fit for Crystal Palace. Bonus. Hoping for a miracle here but hopefully they manage to cause an upset.

We'll see more of that from him if he has Azpi supporting him with the over/underlap from the back next season. Hopefully we buy a good left back so that becomes the case.

Lol, Henrique is just trolling you all.

Hopefully we grab a few goals here. Would be fantastic if we had a great offensive display and scored like 5 or 6 whilst conceding nothing.

That fee takes into amortisation of their transfer fee as well. Nonetheless I still think it's incorrect because Jake Cohen has Hazard down as £175k a week which I think is nonsense. He's closer to £120k.

Lewis Baker.

"Shaw is only good going forward" is one of the biggest myths out there. He's a really good defender too. He's complete as a full back - can attack very well, defend well, is fast and is tall too. He'd fit here fine.

It's way too early for this thread IMO.

He's been signed. At £32m it's a very good deal.

Not you pal, that's perfectly reasonable, there are some others on here that do want him gone all of a sudden now though. Mountain out of a molehill this whole fiasco is.

As I said before when people were saying that; I seriously doubt he'll go for 50. And voila, the prices that's coming out now are ranging from £32m/35m, so whoever is making that argument against it doesn't really have a point about it anymore.

I cannot believe people want to sell Hazard. Same people that wanted Drogba gone after he said what he did when Mourinho first left.

I'll only speak about Schurrle because he's the only one that could've replaced Hazard on Wednesday - he's far more adept at playing in the role that Hazard was asked to simply because he's played in a similar system and role for years at Leverkussen. Hazard on the other hand has played as a creator for his whole life, always in the final third of the pitch, never really had much to do defensively. He's done very well in general this season at defending and holding the correct shape but when he isn't 100% sharp it's obvious he'll make mistakes like that because that isn't what he's done regularly, it doesn't come naturally to him. That's what I'm trying to convey. I'll say it again... He did make the mistakes, I'm not denying that at all. I'm not disputing any of the above you've said... All I'm saying is that it was bound to happen given the scenario and that a player that has spent much of career not really worrying about defending, has been out for a while, obviously not 100% sharp will make mistakes like that in the 18 yard box.

I don't think there's anything wrong with him not celebrating against his boyhood club and team that he grew up with. He did come through their academy, captain them etc. so there's nothing wrong with that there. What I didn't like is how he kept hugging the Atletico players but hopefully that's a sign that Atletico will take him with open arms. His time here is done hopefully.

Yes, exactly that, because Hazard isn't a natural defender and he's bound to make a mistake that way, especially when he isn't 100% sharp. I'd much rather Cole stay a little bit wider with eyes on the left channel, and stay cautious of the overlap (it isn't something new Atletico have implemented they've been doing it all season) and one of the midfield men picking up the winger that has drifted inside.