The Skipper

Rightly so, he's the better player. They wouldn't be on astronomical levels though.

£25m for Schurrle or £30m for Hulk. Hmm.

It's not a guarantee that we are going to sign two more players. If you think we definitely are then you're setting yourself up for dissapointment.

Would you be confident with Ba, Rondon, Schurrle or any of these other okay strikers leading the line as well? Fletcher would be a decent 3rd choice option, if both Sturridge and Torres were out injured or weren't producing. To me, having 3 good options for one position is more than enough.

It's not to me. To me the number 1 striker spot is between Sturridge and Torres. Whoever doesn't grab their chance will find theirselves on the bench.

Ah, fair enough if you use the old BMI procedure, but I think it's more relevant to use the new ones. If we used the old BMI procedure on many athletes there would be a lot of "overweight" ones but in reality it isn't like that at all.

1. A slightly better Kalou. 2. Not really a striker. 3. Would be wasted money. Personally I'm okay going into the season with Torres, Sturridge and Lukaku. If Romelu is going on loan, then we definitely bring a new striker in. My suggestion is someone like Steven Fletcher, who's proven in the prem, wouldn't mind fighting for his spot and wouldn't cost a bomb either.

I read somewhere that Mancini wanted to add 5 more players to his squad.

You can measure how much fat someone has in their body. Hulk's BMI would probably show that he has less than 15%-10% fat, judging on how defined he is. He isn't overweight at all, he's just got a lot of muscle. A bit too much maybe. I think if he toned down his muscles and cut up a little he'd probably be more explosive. He's a really good athlete though.

Remember when Aaron Lennon terrorised A. Cole a couple seasons back? Can't really base someone's ability on one game.

I'd rather let Sturridge and Lukaku develop.

I love Richards, really underrated. Would give us another option at CB as well.

Seriously, this isn't a pot shot at you neccesarily but discuss Mikel in the Mikel thread. Enough is enough really.

Oscar, our Brazilian scout, spy and correspondent.

Why does every thread spiral into a Mikel debate these days?

Oscar won't be there man!

Oscar won't be there man!

One thing that has to be remembered is that we didn't play a consistent team at all throughout the whole of pre season. We haven't played our best XI yet as we've got a couple of players missing.

Not surprised. RDM has added unnecessary pressure to himself but if we get a good result against City and start the season well, it'll be all forgotten.

Like many have said here, we'll see if we're ready for the season when we face Man City. It'll be the ideal test, and I expect Mata and Hazard to start, which will improve our play ten fold.

Can anyone find out when it was the last time we lost 3 pre season games?

We'll see the real Chelsea next week. I'm not judging the score line until we play a serious match, the one against City for example. Pre season's over now, time for the lads to step up, win those 50/50 battles, concentrate and play to win. P.S. Jim, we need better servers.

Double post.

I'm curious, how many here have actually seen Azpilicueta play on a regular basis?

Isn't he a CFC player though? I think people have the right to. We're not not going to play a guy who we've bought for £25m, who's already starting for Brazil. Oscar has a very good chance at starting as soon as he gets back from the Olympics.