The Skipper

Agreed. Those two signings (although obviously not realistic) would definitely turn us into proper title contenders.

If I could chose who Mourinho would bring with him from Real Madrid (realistically) it would be Modric by far. This guy just fits into what we're missing as a DLP. He would be the best signing we could make IMO.

€20m for Schurrle isn't too bad tbh. We could do with another direct player on the flanks. If this is true I expect us to definitely get in another midfielder or two as KDB won't be coming back till next season and perhaps we'll be giving Lampard another year too. I think it's ultimately down to the coach though.

Doubt he'd go for that little if we're loaning KDB back out. After all, they did reject an offer of around £20m from us IIRC last season.

Glad to see he's wholly taking this opportunity with Ash out. Hopefully he'll keep improving his form.

Sorry for going off topic, why do you feel the need to insult Mourinho at any given opportunity? Mourinho's reputation does not rely on Ronaldo one bit. Mourinho was acknowledged as one of the best (if not the best) managers in the world by many before he was at Real, surely even you know that.

Mata my MOTM followed closely by Torres who was excellent today himself. Unfortunately that isn't good enough to save his CFC career - he needs to go on a god like run from now till the end of the season for that to take place. I thought on the whole we controlled the game even though we didn't have a solid pivot the team defended well in unison. Terry and Luiz were excellent in ball distribution and their general defending - Luiz in particular. I'm glad Luiz has been solid for a while now, proving his critics wrong by the game. Hopefully he'll keep it up till the end of the season- he's been our best CB this season by far when it comes to consistency. Bertrand was also excellent today. Hopefully he'll grab this chance and prove his doubters wrong.

You are not obliged to put your hands behind your back.

His hands were by the side of his body, he can't do anything about it. There's this thing called ball to hand - that was exactly the case with that penalty IMO.

Referee giving Rubin Kazan a way back into the game. Ridiculous penalty shout. No chance that's a penalty.

2 away goals for Basel. Very decent.

Quality from Juan.

Torres is having a good game, fair play. Luiz's passes are also hitting the target very well!

Named player of the NextGen tournament.

What's Mikel then?

Well "rubbish" is a bit of a hyperbole but still my point stands. For example some were saying PvA is now a better LB than him... He's a good player that hasn't been giving a proper run in at LB which has caused a lot of people to call him below average and overrated. He might not become as good as Ashley but I don't think we can conclude that fully based on his sparse appearances at LB this season. Shaw signing makes sense as Cole could be leaving in the future but that doesn't mean that Ryan can't be useful or doesn't have the potential to be more than an average player for us.

Don't know why people still bother with Rupert. Anyone who thinks "Torres is clearly better than Ba" is clearly on something. Could you please share some of the stuff you're on mate?

Looking forward to see Bertrand given a consistent run in at left back. I think he'll prove the ones that say he's rubbish and that we should sell him etc.

Yeah, you notice that whenever this thread is quiet Luiz is doing well. It will only take one bad game for people to call him useless/brainless/headless & for the calls to sell him ASAP to return. Like it or not, Luiz has been one of our better, consistent players this season.

Fixed for you. I'm in the pro-Mikel camp but Mikel's overall performances aren't that consistent IMO - regardless, I still think he's a key player in our squad. If he's surrounded by the right players Mikel is excellent. If not then he struggles.

Okay, I'm going to post on what I think should be our essential signings for next season. Most importantly we need to get in a new manager. Hopefully that'll be Mourinho. Next, I'd be looking to get in a decent homegrown 2nd choice goalkeeper since Turnbull and Hilario's contracts run out this summer if I remember correctly. Begovic (if he would be interested in being the 2nd choice goalkeeper at CFC) would be an excellent option as he's homegrown and a very good goalkeeper. Hopefully promote Blackman as our 3rd choice goalkeeper too. I'd then probably look at getting in a deep lying playmaker - hopefully Mourinho brings along Modric with him if Real will sell him for a decent price. Maybe another holding midfield player - someone like Schneiderlin from Southampton maybe? Or maybe just promote someone like Chalobah as well instead. Up next, I'd look at bringing in a good winger. I don't want another AM, we're stacked there. I'd rather us bring in a player that can be a direct threat out wide. We don't have enough of those. I don't really know who is available to bring in though, but someone in the ilk of Di Maria would be perfect. Those are the bare minimum I think we definitely need for next season. I know that I've left out a striker but that depends on our Lukaku situation really. Will Torres leave? Will the next manager put his faith in Lukaku? We don't know yet. If the next manager decides we need another striker then fair enough, but the main objective of this post was to make clear what I think are the bare minimum we need for our squad next season. IMO we need to make at at least 3 to 4 signings next season, anything less than that will be disastrous.

I think I lost a couple of brain cells after going through the last couple of pages...

You can't have two aggressors in at CB IMO, it needs to be one who comes out and intercepts the ball and one who sits deep, who's excellent at reading the game + sniffing out danger.

Luiz and Terry in at CB with Cole, Ramires, Mata and Ba coming back in hopefully.

@ja1 has also been excellent. Usually overlooked.