The Skipper

The difference between Danny and Gael is that one has the drive to be a top player whilst it looks like the other just doesn't.

Mid table is harsh on Liverpool. He went there because they were one of the few decent clubs aspiring to challenge for Europe that would allow him to develop as a striker, and alas, he's hit the ground running there and is already a key player.

There's no space whatsoever for Isco in our squad.

That's the worst comparison ever. Oscar has the right attributes to play in the pivot so it really isn't like playing Hazard at LB.

So? He went from being a bit part player at Chelsea (despite being one of our best players for half a season out of position in 2011/12 but people won't remember that) to being one of Liverpool's key players. To say he's average just sounds bitter to me, and to say that he's lazy and egotistical (don't know why people keep banging on about this) will prevent him from being world class is far fetched (he certainly works hard, to say he's lazy is just blind hate) - Ibrahimovic is perceived egotistical and lazy - doesn't mean he's not world class. I'm not saying Sturridge will definitely be a world class striker but to say he doesn't have the potential to be there; you look at his attributes - he's tall, great speed, great feet, good technical ability, flair, an eye for goal - to say he's average is bewildering. Average players don't do what he's done in his so far short professional career. He's going to turn even more heads next season should he stay injury free, I firmly believe that.

Doesn't mean anything whatsoever. They know as much as we do.

Yeah, Van Ginkel wouldn't solve our need for one. It's why I'd love De Rossi - he's pretty much perfect for this team and would allow us to press on with the potential need for a striker if Mourinho doesn't think Lukaku, Ba and Torres is enough.

Well, he could, but that means deploying Ramires as your main DM, Ramires can do a decent job there but it is essentially the same problem we had this season - it takes away his best B2B assets.

He's more of a creator, he needs a DM next to him. I've seen him played on the flanks before as well. Playing him as the DM would be suicidal. It's like playing Josh McEachran as your DM. He wouldn't replace Mikel at all, he needs a player like Mikel next to him. He's a tall lad but that's it.

He's not a DM.

So what you're essentially saying is that Isco is better than Mata already. Bollocks sorry, you're overrating Isco.

I always think Udinese play in the La Liga haha. My mistake.

Palermo you mean? There are a few. Off the top of my head in the PL we've got our own Lukaku, Benteke and Sturridge are good shouts. In Spain you have the likes of Luis Muriel, Italy there's Balotelli, El Sharaawy, Jovetic etc.

Yeah, I know you're a fan of Soldado, you've said plenty of times before . He's a good striker for sure, definitely Spain's best out and out striker at this moment - his goal ratio at Valencia is insane it must be said but I don't view him as an elite striker, with all due respect, which is why I said I'd rather us give Lukaku a chance to develop mainly because I'm not sure he'd be as suited to the PL as someone like Cavani is which is of course my personal opinion. I'm of the opinion that if we're not going to get an elite striker in then we might as well just give Lukaku the chance to develop.

He really is a joke of a pundit. 95% of the people on here could do a better job than him.

Poor, poor attempt.

Mata was more expensive than Schurrle. Most of those you mentioned will not come for half of £19m. Nani for example, was the same price as Schurrle and signed at even a younger age. He wouldn't got for £9m-£10m, nor would the others you've mentioned. But yeah agreed that this should be moved to the general transfers discussion.

Might as well just give Lukaku a chance then if we're going to sign a striker that isn't better than what we have now.

Sturridge is going to be a very, very good player. It'll be interesting to see how he develops, just needs a bit maturity in his game.

Isco would've struggled similarly simply because he wouldn't have played through the centre and Oscar was NOT £25m, he was 25m euros.

Hear, hear.

There are a lot of richer people than Roman around. There will be a lot of people interested in the CFC brand and they'll use that to potentially promote their business just like the Sheikhs do with their constant promotion of Etihad through City. Even a shrewd business man who has a decent amount to spend would look at a club who bring in £200m+ of revenue every year. As I've said before - Roman would be dumb to just walk away without even selling Chelsea.

It's not as black and white as that... Even with the debt, Chelsea remain one of the biggest money making football clubs on the planet. Roman would be stupid to walk away and call in his debt, which would take years to be paid back, court etc. than just selling the club off for a huge amount of money.

Luiz doesn't have to make way at all. Luiz was our best central defender defensively last season, he was very consistent whether you like it or not. It absolutely annoys me to the max when people still act as if he can't defend - especially Chelsea fans who have more than likely watched most of his games at CB last season. His concentration was far better over the course of the season compared to the likes of Cahill or Ivanovic, who both respectively fucked up a lot more than Luiz did but still get a free pass because they're perceived as stereo typical "no nonsense" defenders. It's this mentality in English football that needs to change, it's why England can't play decent football - the mentality to hoof the ball up when you're a defender is rated more than a composed defender keeping the ball on the ground and thus keeping possession - which is exactly why England are so behind the likes of Brazil, Spain, Holland, Argentina etc. will always be ahead of English football in the modern game. If you want to play good football in the modern game, you need to start from the back. You need technically sound players who are comfortable on the ball starting from the back which England just do not have, especially since John Terry and Rio Ferdinand don't play anymore. Most of the English footballing nation, especially the media, seem to fail to grasp this notion and it's exactly why Luiz gets criticised easily because its unnatural to the eye here. A CB gets blasted here if he tries to keep the ball on the floor, keeping possession and thus giving his team a better chance but defenders like Cahill who boot it out of bounce to concede possession get praised for what is basically inferior football. Luiz is about to enter the prime years of his career, naturally with age his mental game will come along even further - I mean since last season it's come leaps and bounds to begin with. Luiz has all the tools technically, physically he's a monster - good pace, balance, agility, strength and mentally his game is only developing as we speak and people want to get rid of him for a no nonsense defender? We're not a small club that plays inferior football. If we want to play dominant football it has to start from the back, and there are few with the skill set of David Luiz that allow just that. We have such an unique defender here that can be moulded into a top top player by Jose and people basically want to get rid if a decent offer came along because they prefer defenders like Cahill? That's nonsense in my modest opinion. We don't need to sell Luiz because that'll leave us with another problem - we'd have to attain 2 CB instead of one. We need to keep Luiz and attain another CB, that's the best way forward. Our defence is one of the least thing we have to worry about, we only need one more addition to pretty much make it perfect and people still want to chop and change it? To say our defence is ageing and to say that we're ignoring it is ignorant in my opinion especially considering 2 of our starting back four are still very young (Luiz 26, Azpilicueta 23). I still can't believe people are still associating Luiz as our error prone defender when as in fact he was our least error prone defender throughout the season and was 90% of the time very solid, oft excellent as a CB last season. Why people still can't look past what the media have said about this lad baffles me completely. He was one of our best players last season and obviously will only grow as a player - a defender's best years start at around 28ish. Like I've said many times before, you don't fix what isn't broken.

That isn't right... We pay approximately £3,300,000 a week for all wages according to latest accounts probably under £3m to £2.5m is paid to players, but that's just being speculative though. Your point still stands though, it isn't small money BUT the club still pay majority of it, Roman just covers the losses at this very moment. Roman would be a fool to just pick up and leave without selling one of the biggest clubs, revenue-wise, in the world. That's like throwing away close to £1bn, which would be idiotic. If he ever left he'd look at selling Chelsea because believe it or not, we're actually worth quite a lot as a club.