The Skipper

My point was though that if Sturridge was the number 1 striker at a decent club that he'd also easily pull Lukaku numbers at the age of 20, and his Bolton loan + him playing out of position here and still grabbing 11 goals attests to that. It isn't that short term to me personally because I have always believed in Sturridge's quality, he just needed someone that believed in him to show it, which is what is happening right now at Liverpool where he's been banging in goals for almost a season and a half now.

Playing out of position, as a right winger. You can't really compare what they did at the age of 20 because they both were in a completely different situation/scenario... Personally, we should've just given Sturridge a new contract instead of signing Ba, I was one of the few people saying this at the time and got blasted for it, when people on here would tell you that Ba is the better striker, which as we all know right now is not true at all. Our strikeforce should've been X, Sturridge & Lukaku, but the club fucked up.

Not really, we can look at all of our senior signings since Emenalo has been appointed Technical Director (most of these figures are from memory + transfermarkt so might not be 100% accurate): 2011/12: Kevin De Bruyne - £7m Patrick Bamford - £1.5m Lucas Piazon - £5m Gary Cahill - £7.5m Meireles - £11m Ulises Davila - £1.5m Mata - £23m Romeu - £4m Lukaku - £12m/£18m Courtois - £8m 2012/13: Demba Ba - £8m Wallace - £4m Victor Moses - £10m Azpilicueta - £7.5m Oscar - £20m Thorgan Hazard - £1m Eden Hazard - £32m Marko Marin - £7m 2013/14: Kurt Zouma - £12m Mo Salah - £11m Matic - £21m Atsu - £3.5m Eto'o - Free Willian - £30m Stipe Perica - £2m Christian Cuevas - £1.6m Schwarzer - Free van Ginkel - £8m Schurrle - £18m I've crossed out the players I think were unnecessary/bad signings, and if you look at that list it's nowhere near as bad as you've tried to make it out to be, there are a lot of great signings in that list IMO.

Agree with most of that post except for Luiz & Zhirkov having little or no resale value. We still recouped most of what we spent on Zhirkov, and also Luiz hasn't really been under performing up until this season - yet he's still being quoted at going for at least around the price we bought him for. Everything else I agree with though, like you said it is amazing how he never gets any credit whatsoever but as soon as things aren't looking on the up the unjustifiable complaints about him start flocking in. He's done a good job here.

I meant that after the summer transfer window we were probably around 2 players away from a complete squad (when we still had Mata, KDB & Lukaku before he went out on loan). The squad depth was strong at that time, and the only thing we needed then IMO was a Matic and maybe a top class striker. As the season has gone on though it became more clear that we needed a midfield maestro next to Matic, and also needed a new LB since Mou doesn't rate Bertrand or Cole. I agree that that became quite obvious as soon as we got Matic. So maybe you could push from needing two signings to complete the squad to maybe 3, which still isn't as far off as you're trying to make it seem. I always say it's a shame that we let both Mata and KDB go because I knew Oscar was going to suffer burn out/ a drop of form soon due to the high amount of games he's been playing over the last two seasons. Before we sold Mata and KDB, the depth in our AM strata was one of the best out there. Willian, Hazard, Schurrle, Mata and KDB is a very strong group of players IMO - all of these were signed under Emenalo - but Mourinho wants to take the squad in a different direction. He's reduced the quality of our AM strata by sending out two of those for various reasons and bringing in Salah (whom I didn't want to begin with) so if you really want to blame anyone for the quantity over quality theme in our AM strata, then it shouldn't be Emenalo but rather Jose. Or you could look at it in this way; we bring Lukaku back, ship off Torres and Ba, renew Eto'o's contract and get in 1 top quality striker, so next season our strikeforce would consist of X, Lukaku & Eto'o, which is very strong IMO. I was talking about needing two/three after the summer transfer window but obviously because the squad has been rejuggled since and with certain players underperforming it isn't the case anymore. As I've said before, you cannot blame Emenalo for that because as TOPTB mentioned above me, our transfer policy since he's come in as technical director has been so much better than what it was before he came.

Disagree. Emelano is so easy to blame but many are forgetting that after the summer transfer window we were only a CDM and ST away from having the complete squad. We clearly had a budget for a striker (Rooney, the one that Mou wanted) but we didn't get him and Mou thought Eto'o's signing would paper over the cracks for this season, and it was also Mou's decision to loan out Lukaku. Mou gave the heads up for the Schurrle signing (he said this himself IIRC) and the Willian signing was also under his approval. He then sold Mata and KDB (two very solid squad players at the very least) and brought in Salah, a typical Mourinho player. Honestly we were fine but Mou wants to build the squad in his own style hence why we got rid of Mata and KDB. If we just brought in Matic in January we'd be 1/2 players away from a complete squad (ST, LB). You can't really blame Emelano for Mourinho trying to build the squad in his image. It seriously annoys me when people want to blame Emelano for the squad make up when he's clearly working in tandem with Jose, trying to create the squad that Jose wants.

Anonymous again today, but don't blame him when you've got a tree who doesn't move in front of you.

Phenomenal for 70 minutes, wank for the last 20.

Take a chill pill pal. I don't think it was intentional, watched it a few times, but it was definitely a horrible challenge. Like I said before, he had an okay game today but the red card just put a downer on it.

Ramires was alright today but he deserved his red - I don't think it was intentional though as he was running at a high speed.

I hope people stop "feeling sorry" for this fella or try to defend him, he's a disgrace. Broke down our attacks countless of times, never made the right runs. We were basically playing with 10 men on the pitch to begin with. How this man earns £175k a week is disgusting.

Shit happens. Move on.

Oscar has lost his ability to do anything in the final third.

Blindsmen.

Torres has been so bad today, wow.

Matic has been so good.

How much did that all cost you?

Ask yourself, who got us into this position to begin with?

Yes! Let's sack Mourinho if we don't win the title!

I can see where you're coming from, and do agree that sometimes people overstate Matic's performances, but the guy has been good since he's come in. I do agree that his best performance was definitely against City, but he has had other great games i.e. the 3-0 against Newcastle, where he was just a beast defensively (made like 11 tackles and 6 interceptions or something crazy like that). Your Romeu analogy is interesting because I agree that the kid was overrated a lot because he was the new kid on the block, but his impact on the team wasn't as great as Matic's - Matic has definitely helped solidify a weak part of our team and because of that he'll definitely be part of the reason as to why we win (if we do) the PL. IMO though Hazard's form will mainly decide that. Again, I do get what you're saying and do agree with certain points, but Matic is being praised more so because he's been good, not mainly because he's a newcomer like Romeu (whom I still think is vastly overrated by quite a few on here).

You don't want "a cunt" like Costa or Balotelli but you want Suarez?

I've said it before but this guy would be one of the best number 2 strikers in the league, his impact off the bench is absolutely devastating. He's going to be an important player for us in that aspect next season.

Exactly my point... Cole was very talented, but Hazard is an elite talent, and that's why he gets in the team over Cole for me. If Hazard had the chance to play with a prime Lampard, Drogba and Robben etc. he would've definitely done better than Cole simply because he is the better footballer.

I don't think this is true at all, Essien had his best games for us when he wasn't playing as a DM but as a B2B CM, where I used to think he was the best CM in the world at the time.

Personally my team would probably be this: Cech Essien - Carvalho - Terry - Cole Makelele Ballack - Lampard Robben - Drogba - Hazard I know Essien is not a RB but I want both him and Ballack in the team. However, if I had to chose between the two it'd probably be Essien.