The Skipper

I think that was an okay half, if Ivanovic kept his concentration for 10 more seconds we would be heading into the dressing room with 0-0. Ivanovic and Cahill isn't a good partnership at all. Neither are leaders in the defence.

Game onnnnnn. Poor defending by Ivanovic.

He has no one to aim at...

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Same thing they said about Pirlo when we nearly signed him...

Fenerbahce/Benfica are as good as each other IMO.

What? Are you expecting us to be steamrolling Basel by 3-0 or something? Basel are a decent team. We're only 20 minutes in, could've been 1-0 up if Lampard took his chance. We're not chasing the game, there's no need to, we need to conserve energy as we have 3 games (including this one) in 6 days. We're approaching the game in the right manner IMO.

Serey Die is a cunt. Anyways, Torres' link up play is quite good today.

Unlucky Lamps.

Wish we rested Azpilicueta as well... I can't see him playing 3 games in 6 games. Likewise with Hazard... Meh. Hopefully we secure the game very early so we can take off either Hazard, Luiz, Ramires and/or Azpilicueta.

They could've if they wanted to, but they got ridiculous money for him, and alas, they let him go. As I said, apart from if we receive a ridiculous offer, it's perfectly plausible to think that Hazard will stay here for the next 5 years.

to Luiz and Ramires starting.

You're living in the past.

Why not? CFC do not sell their star players, Hazard will be here for a long time unless someone like Real or Barcelona (the only clubs he'll realistically go to from ours) cough up big, big money, which I simply don't see them doing. Hazard will be a superstar for us.

People class long term, for us anyway, as 3+ years. Mourinho was the last 3+ year manager we had and he could've potentially stayed longer - so the argument that Mourinho won't stay for more than a season or two doesn't add up for me. Mourinho will come into the club knowing that we're not buying players at £30m for every position now, he knows that CFC are trying to build a team through finding talented youngsters which we then want to nurture to becoming world class superstars which in return will bring us more trophies. We've got a very exciting squad coming through, a lot of people know that, and this is clearly a different challenge for Mourinho. Mourinho and Roman know that they'll both have to be a little bit more patient to see this project coming to fruition. Right now there isn't a better man than Mourinho on the market.

It's not that. It's the fact that we have United on Sunday followed by Spurs on Wednesday. We need to rest players.

Alonso can easily play at the top level for another 3/4 years. I mean look at Pirlo who's 34 this year, prime example. We get him cheap and he could easily be a Makelele esque signing.

We didn't, we agreed to pay his wages till he found a new club which he did in a matter of months.

Daily Mail sensationalising things. In the Telegraph it says Mourinho's release clause is €12m, which is around £10m, and they also say Real will be looking for something considerably less than that anyway - I'm inclined to believe the Telegraph over the DM.

So the guy that's had a big say in us bringing in Lukaku, KDB, Oscar, Hazard, Luiz, Ramires, Mata, Courtois is an idiot? Emelano has done a good job when it comes to player recruitment, I don't know why people won't admit that. If/when Jose comes, Jose won't be working under him but rather alongside with him, which is fine with me as I think Emelano has done a good job. The man has unfounded hate.

I think that's quite harsh to say - one average stint at Real doesn't mean he's regressed as a manager. Obviously he can improve, every manager does, even SAF does till this day; he's still one of the very best managers in the world.

Mourinho's record at Real is shit, we all know, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the work he's done here, at Inter, Porto. Whether you like it or not, there's no better option out there and you know it.

Out of that list it has to be Oscar vs. Juventus. Ones I'd take out would be Ivanovic and Hazard v West Ham but the rest are worthy contenders. They should've done a top 15 instead.