The Skipper

England's best team? IMO: Hart Walker Cahill Jones Cole Carrick Wilshere Walcott Rooney Oxlade Sturridge

Around £1,000 last year, only because I can't see that many games and travelling costs a lot as well.

Imagine that link up play with Ronaldo though...

How has he?

Lol, Chelsea are not Anzhi.

Willian on David Luiz: "The Brazilians called me, especially David Luiz, who told me to come quickly. I was very happy to have them around and they will certainly help me a lot.

Chalobah's only 18. You're being extremely harsh on him, he's definitely got his head in the right place and has the right mentality. He's already had successful loan last year in the Championship where he was one of the best players - this at age 17. He hasn't even made an official first team appearance yet. Mourinho said himself he really likes the kid and that he thinks he'll be ready for the squad next year. Saying that he's not serious because spends a lot of time on social media (which isn't really true to begin with) is a bit misguided IMO. I agree with Butch over Josh though.

I think rather the opposite to be honest. After all, it was Mourinho that advised him to go out on loan to Everton - which indicates to me that he'd rather have Lukaku developing whilst constantly getting games at Everton, improving his link up play and finesse, making him a more complete footballer than getting the odd minutes here and there for us (which is what it was beginning to look like). Martinez has a pretty good track record out of getting the best out of young players. Forget Kone & Jelavic, it's about the players that are surrounding Romelu. The likes of Mirallas, Pienaar, Deulofeu, Barkley, McCarthy etc. are all decent technical players, and with their manager who has a possession/passing football philosophy, Lukaku in my opinion will learn a lot more of his general play, thus refining it a lot more. The kid is too good to just get a few minutes here and there for us in my opinion but the competition we have here will ensure that. Constant first team football is far more important for a youngster than having to beat the likes of Eto'o, Torres and Ba to a starting spot. Loaning out Ba wouldn't have benefitted us whatsoever as when he returns he won't improve as a player - what he is as a player is pretty much set. That's different with Lukaku though, Romelu is still very raw, and I believe that Martinez's philosophy will refine him in the right way. He doesn't need this sort of heavy competition to bring the best out of him. With all respects to WBA, Long, Odemwingie and Rosenburg are not Eto'o, Torres and Ba. it isn't the same in my opinion. Loaning out Romelu to the right club, which was Everton rather than West Brom, is what will make the loan a success. He'll come back more than ready to compete for the number one striker next year providing he has another great season at Everton, which I think he will do.

Frank must be the best footballer to ever grace the planet by quite a distance too if Ballack was a "very poor man's Lampard".

Yeah, you're right regarding such but I think Willian is actually the better option out wide simply because he can take his man on and beat him, and provide better width. I don't think Willian is a better number 10 than Mata at all, so buying him for that spot when we have Oscar and KDB who can also play there doesn't make sense - couple it with the fact that we sent out our only true right winger out on loan (Moses), I think Willian will predominantly play on the right, but will obviously exchange in game with the likes of Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Schurrle & KDB. I also think from what I've seen of Willian during his time at Shakhtar and Anzhi that defensively he's better than Mata especially when it comes to work rate - probably because he's more athletic. He's used to playing on the flanks anyway seeing as at Anzhi Eto'o does play as the 10 behind Lacine Traore, with Zhirkov and Willian flanking him. It'll probably be the same here at CFC but with our 3 AMs behind Eto'o or whoever is up front exchanging a lot more fluently.

I'm interested in why you think such? Why do you think it would've been better for Romelu to probably be third choice here than him probably being the first choice striker at a club aiming for a top 6 spot, who play the sort of football that we require from him (Romelu)?

Melanicus, I personally don't think Willian won't play at number 10 too often for us because he's far more effective than Mata on the flanks. I think he'll play opposite Hazard on the right flank.

If you really think that then I don't know what to say tbh. If you looked at what I voted for (No, but make sure that members who won it over the last two/three months aren't nominated to the final poll) or if you just read what I said a few posts before, then you would've known that your little conspiracy theory is just full of crap. I'm done arguing anyway, go ahead and try to revolutionise the forum with whatever you're trying to do, Kojo.

The irony? Not catching your drift. Re: a decent argument - read my long post above. The thing is, yes people who don't always discuss football get nominated, but the actual winners usually are those that do talk about football, hence why I think you're really over exaggerating. Edit: The nature of the forum is that it is predominately a football forum but it also has it's off topic discussion so people will naturally get nominated but that isn't a problem given that the winners are the ones that actually discuss football more oft than not so it really isn't as big as a problem you're making it out to be.

This isn't true at all. How many of the nominees in the final poll last month were ones 'who just post memes'? You're really over exaggerating.

Off-topic: The argument that the amount of 'likes' correlate with meme posts is not true. You only have to look at the like-to-post ratio the likes of TorontoChelsea or TOPTB have. I don't think either have ever posted a meme: both get their likes via their excellent football analysis'. Furthermore regarding the idea that seems to be floating about of scrapping The Pub: nonsense really. It's in the off topic section of the forum and doesn't interfere with any football discussion. I'm not a regular at all there but to scrap it because memes and GIFs get posted in there is way too extreme. On topic: I don't think there is actually a problem regarding the actual winners of the MOTM award - what seems to bug some people are those that are nominated for it - and some seem to believe that "Pubsters" are the ones that are getting over nominated which in fact is not true at all. Pub regulars e.g. (I think) Stingray, Rmpr etc. were not even nominated last month so I don't see why people think they're the problem when that just isn't true. Yeah, both like to joke around but they can both discuss football intelligently with anyone, as noted by their previous MOTM awards which was largely based on that and not on memes or GIFs posted. Again, the latter notion is simply very untrue. I think that the real problem some seem to be having has got nothing to do with the actual MOTM award. It seems to be the problem of 'the lack of quality posts compared to a few years ago' (which I don't think is particularly true since I've been hovering about the forums for around 3 years now but only started posting around last year but everyone has their own opinion) - which has again nothing to do with the MOTM award because in my modest opinion the winners over the last few months have all intelligently debated and discussed football and consequently won it based on that. There are also some excellent members that come aboard every month or so ala hjperdeath this month who has been outstanding and got the recognition for that in the MOTM poll where I personally voted for him - so there honestly isn't that much wrong with the process - I do agree that some members do get overlooked though e.g. Stats, ja1 or Bir_CFC (just three examples there are many more out there) but the problem with that is with who is getting nominated - not the actual final poll - and that responsibility comes down to us as forum members. If you really want to see someone winning it, start a little campaign for them basically. In addition to that last part, I think however that to avoid people complaining about the same people being nominated again that the best option would be to not have people who have won it over the last 2/3 months in the final nomination poll. It'll probably stop people complaining about the repetitive nominations. Probably the best way to go IMO. PS: Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the last MOTM poll, really appreciate it as this is a quality forum with lots of quality on and off topic. I enjoy reading and debating all things Chelsea and the website really allows that to happen and there are genuinely a lot of great people on here - thanks a bunch.

That's the main message I got from that post yeah. I think you're being disrespectful to all the members that have won it over the last few months or so, as if they aren't "worthy" enough to be winning it when that's far away from the truth, and I think you're being disrespectful about the opinions of other people. It really isn't as deep as you're making it out to be. I see that you're clearly having a problem with me being nominated for it but I really don't care either way because it isn't that serious to me. It's great for anyone to be recognised by the community on here, and just because you don't agree with those people doesn't mean that it isn't as credible as it was before. As said before, it really is basically making a mountain out of a molehill.

So... You're complaining because a controversial guy isn't winning the MOTM?

Axel 'one man double pivot' Witsel.

I'm definitely sure regarding Hazard's wages that they are incorrect - almost all of the French + Belgian media had him down at around £120k. I seriously doubt Hazard is the highest earner in the squad.

In the article he says the wages are from reported fees from news articles.

All these fees are based off of reports from the press, they aren't the actual official wages.

^Agreed. It isn't as serious as people are trying to make it seem tbh... But that's just my personal opinion.

*Assuming he gets his work permit* But yeah, you're right, it won't be easy.

Wonder if he'll have any first team opportunities this year.