The Skipper

Not a chance. Personally, I'd start Mikel, Lampard, Ramires and Van Ginkel over Essien. Essien used to be my favourite player as well but people are just going overboard if they're expecting Essien to be our number 1 DM. What are you basing that on exactly? His games at DM at Madrid or? Because at Madrid his best performances came at RB, not at DM. At DM he was more oft than not sub standard. Have no idea why people are getting so excited over Essien. Seems to be because he had a decent game against a sub standard team, which is very, very illogical IMO. I think Mikel will surprise a lot on here and start lots next season personally. Mikel was always Jose's experiment.

If that's true Mikel will have a prominent role next season. Looks like Mourinho has faith in our midfield. Our midfield isn't bad, but adding De Rossi would definitely take it to the next level. Maybe they have a lot of faith in MVG. I'm okay with it to be honest if they want to give Marco more chances.

Can those who say Rooney is in decline explain why he's in decline? I keep seeing the same statement but there's nothing backing it up apart from "Look at Torres", which isn't a strong argument at all in my opinion.

I'd rather us sign no striker than Yilmaz. No disrespect to Yilmaz but he isn't even any better than Torres or Ba in my opinion. Torres and Ba would kill the Turkish league as well.

Thank you. This x a 100. Essien isn't the same anymore and won't get anywhere near his best again, people just need to get over it. He'll be a decent squad player but nothing more.

Could you please give me the contact details for his PR team? There's a proposal I'd like to speak to them about.

HBD mate! Have a blast

Happy birthday pal! Have a great day!

People are kidding themselves if they'd start this current Essien over Mikel.

Rooney's not in decline though. Don't know how anyone could say a player who was played all over the place but still scored 12 goals and 10 assists in 22 starts in the PL is in decline.

Mikel is still our best option at DM right now.

Can there be an option for all 4?

Direct football doesn't necessarily mean 1-0 score lines. Likewise, possession football doesn't ensure plenty of goals.

That's (as of now) 4.72% of the votes. Don't know how that's overhyping.

LOL forgot about this! Absolutely brilliant!

You're being naive if you think that's the end of it.

Have you been living under a rock over the past day or so? Haven't you seen the Rooney news?

At least the Marquinhos to PSG transfer will hopefully put an end to those stupid Luiz -> PSG rumours.

He will play on their left hand side and will alternate with Aguero and Silva IMO. Aguero Jovetic - Silva - Navas Y. Toure - Fernandinho Clichy - Kompany - Nastasic - Zabaleta Hart Not bad.

Yeah right. If JM was desperate to sign Higuain he'd be a CFC player already.

No one is really overhyping him though, most are just saying he had a decent game. Marko just kept it simple and had a decent performance. Don't see how that's overhyping him when he can play a lot better than what he did show. Plus it's a mere pre season game so I don't think anyone is making any serious conclusions about him.

Lukaku will understand. He'll get plenty of game time if we do sign Rooney due to Rooney's versatility. Hopefully the latter will realise that he needs to move in order to stand a chance though which is only good news for us.

It seems to be the Chelsea fans that underrate him more than anything. Opposition fans rate him very, very highly. Like Dion said, bar Barcelona (Messi) and Real (Ronaldo), I don't envy anyone else's star players at all. Mata is just as good as anyone out there when at his best, if not even better than most. Also, I don't see why a team can't have more than one star player. Don't see what's wrong with considering both Hazard and Mata as our star players.

My Tottenham friend says Mata is the best player in the league (yes, even over their beloved Bale). My United friend says he's the most exciting player to watch in the league. He's not overrated at all... I feel people are just spoilt tbh. Last season similarly people were saying that Mata will be phased out of the team because of the Oscar and Hazard signings and alas, he had an even better season. People shouldn't write this guy off like that, he's absolutely brilliant. Like I said, we've been spoilt. It's like people are ashamed to say that Mata is our best player, and I think that's very ungrateful and disrespectful. Mata will again prove (don't know why he has to tbh, but yeah) this season that he's indispensable and truly one of the best players in the world.