The Skipper

Baker seems to go under the radar when people speak about our youth. I like that in a way as there's no high expectation on him which will truly allow him to develop at his own pace. I think Lewis is definitely one of the top talents in our youth right now - I'd have him on par with RLC, Boga, Ake. He's a bit of a dark horse but he has as much of a chance to break through as those aforementioned. That's how high I rate him.

What I don't understand is why so many are including KDB as a right winger when he's barely played there throughout his whole career...

Great alternative if we can't get Shaw.

Well I wouldn't quantify him getting the Ibra deal wrong (even though it does look like Ibra is moving on - he could still end up at Juve as they do need a quality striker and Ibra does fit that bill) as him writing a lot of BS recently. He has got a lot of stuff right recently. As I said before in the thread... He was one of the first to call Benitez to Napoli, Neymar to Barcelona, Falcao, James Rodriguez and Moutinho to Monaco and one of the first to say that Mourinho will sign after his last game at Real. He's pretty reliable compared to the majority on twitter. Not that I blindly trust everything he says, but he surely doesn't sprout crap.

Never said they were done deals, just said they were interested in them.

Like?

Only if you blindly follow everything.

I'm not bitter about this at all. Falcao is a brilliant player but I'm happy that it looks like we're missing our on him simply because I don't believe he'll do that well with us. He isn't a mercenary. Don't know why people are so bitter about it. He's joining an ambitious project over at Monaco. If we really wanted Falcao he'd obviously choose us over them but it looks like the club have someone else in mind which is great in my opinion. I doubt we've even made an offer for him this summer so I don't understand why people are crying. There is no solid evidence that we actually made an offer for Falcao and he chose Monaco over us because of money. Like I said, don't know why people are so bitter - you're all just assuming scenarios. If we're going to spend big on a striker I'd rather have Cavani all day long.

Wow, Torres has hit half decent form and people forget he's been horrible in the league for us? I can't believe it. Short term memory at its finest. Are you telling me Ba wouldn't perform in the Europa League either given the chance? So because Torres has performed well in the Europa League he's automatically a better striker than Ba? That's bollocks sorry. Question. Given the chance, who would you sell? Torres or Ba? Give reasons.

He was one of the first to call Benitez to Napoli, Neymar to Barcelona, James Rodriguez and Moutinho to Monaco and one of the first to say that Mourinho will sign after his last game at Real. He's pretty reliable. Doesn't sprout crap at all.

Nah I don't think so. He's been spot on with most of his stuff.

So Torres is good enough now? In what sense isn't Ba good enough? You do realise that players can be off form?Sure Torres has been marginally better than Ba over the last month or so but I seriously hope you aren't forgetting all of his games before that. To do that is quite fickle IMO.

Can't stand Ian Holloway. Gutted for Watford.

@tancredipalmeri: Jovetic through his agent has turned down Arsenal's wages offer of 5m per year.Everyone standing by for a Juventus bid,still not arrived

We don't need to replace Ramires. We need to buy more midfielders to increase our depth/strength in that area. Ramires is one of the last players I would sell simply because he gives so much to the team. We don't need to finance ourselves by selling a player. We've got enough money to bring quality in. That's how I look at it anyway.

Clearly. Can't believe people are making serious conclusions based off a friendly game.

Hmm. Each one to their own then. I don't think it's stupid to keep a group of players who obviously have great team spirit together. I'd consider how it effects the group first before looking at the money. Opposition fans have often called Ramires one of our best players. I really rate Ramires personally and I know the players at the club do too; I think he'd actually start for any club in the PL. It'd take more than £30m for me to sell him. Call me stupid but that's just me. Loyalty and team spirit is very important to me. I seriously think he's already made that step up and proved to many this season that he'll be a vital player for this club over the next couple of years. No defender goes a season without a few defensive mistakes. It happens. People are still focusing more on Luiz's few defensive mistakes than the good he's done. Short term memories - because of his mistake against Everton people have again resorted to calling him a defensive liability despite of him performing well at CB before that.

Yeah because we should make dead cert conclusions because of a glorified post season friendly right?

Why fix something that clearly isn't broken though? Luiz is about to enter his prime, he's about to give us his best years. At least give him a chance to show us that he can be that corner stone for us (which I think he already is tbh).

If you think Ba was average at Newcastle then you haven't been watching him.Ba was out scoring Cisse by several goals this season before he came to us. He's been the better striker by far this season. People seem to forget that players can go on a bad run of form. Ba is a good striker and on form he'll change games for you. Have people already forgotten the great goals he's scored against United and City? He certainly has the ability.

Well, in my opinion Luiz is very much key to the future of this club. Everyone knows my opinion on Luiz - I'm comparing it to Arsenal because they also had decent offers for key men like Fabregas, Nasri, Song, RVP, Clichy etc. and let them go - look at their club now. If they kept that core Arsenal would've been far better off right now, easily challenging for trophies. It's a domino effect - one of their key players left and the rest is history. You keep your key players - you don't sell them off for a "decent" price once they're entering their prime. Ivanovic is a bit of a different story as £25m for a 29 year old who isn't a key player IMO is obviously a superb offer - I mean I'd consider it but then again player loyalty comes into it for me. Branislav is obviously very happy here and he's getting games, so I doubt he'd actually like to go to Monaco in the first place. The lads in the squad will most likely be very disappointed if we let two huge characters in our team go. Team spirit is annoyingly so often overlooked by many people.

This post smacks of hypocrisy. You say that Ba is overrated because he's had two good first half seasons then include Cisse in your list? A good striker needs to be able to come off the bench and score? Bollocks. Look at Sturridge for example, who's easily one of the better strikers in the league - he got limited time from the bench here and never really scored. How anyone can say that you need to score off the bench to be deemed a good striker is bewildering. No one in here is overrating Ba, what's being said about him is that he's one of the better second choice strikers in the league simply because he isn't on high wages and when he is on form he is one of the best strikers in the league as he has shown at Newcastle. There's nothing wrong in saying that.

This is wrong of the strangest things I've ever read to be honest. Don't even know what to say about this.

Are we a selling club like Arsenal now? I can't believe I'm reading some of the crap on here. People are actually willing to accept offers for our best players because it's a decent offer? Do we even need the money? Like are a big club like CFC in desperate need for money? Is Luiz unhappy at CFC? I repeat, we're not a selling club. Why people would actually be willing to sell someone who's going to be a big part of our future is astonishing. This is exactly why Arsenal are in the shit they are now. People scream for player loyalty but when it comes the other way around it goes out of the window.

Matic isn't a youth product? That's like saying Sturridge is a youth product as well.