The Skipper

That's my point, so using a yardstick to beat Torres down just because he didn't play against Portugal is equally naïve IMO.

Mata must be shit as well then.

Admittedly, last season before he joined us Cahill was really bad, but the seasons before he was definitely one of England's best central defenders. Yes he was in his last year, but £7m for Cahill was a bargain, he's really good, and it was evident to everyone that Bolton wasn't his level. It's different with Morrison though, I personally don't see him making that step up like Cahill has done. Cahill is now regularly in the England squad, Morrison rarely makes the Scotland squad (IIRC).

Quality little player. Him and Dani Alves will provide great additional width at pace for Barcelona. Alves - Piqué - Puyol - Alba. Nice!

Don't know how anyone could compare Morrison to the Lampard's, Mikel's, Drogba's and Cahill's. Completely irrelevant. James Morrison is a decent player, but as I said, he's not going to step up a level, West Brom is his level. We shouldn't be aiming for players like him, if I was a Chelsea scout and I suggested James Morrison to Gourlay, Abramovich and Emelano I'd probably get laughed at and fired. There's so much better talent out there that'd be around James Morrison's price. He'd be like a Sidwell signing IMO. Also, I hate how people think our scouts do such a terrible job. For crying out loud, it's what they do as a living, they're hired by a top club, so will obviously have a good background. De Visser for example was the one who found Ronaldo (fat one) and also pointed us out to Robben, so we do have decent scouts at CFC. It's unrealistic to think that the scouts will find some unknown potential world class player every season, no club does that. Top scouts will know more about how to evaluate a player than most people on this board. Fact.

He'd be absolutely class, unfortunately he suffers from severe homesickness so isn't available.

Does he have enough to take it to the next level? I don't think so. I've admired Morrison for quite a while, but I think a club like West Brom is probably his level.

Pato if we don't sign Hulk? He is very good on that right hand side...

We weren't linked with Marin, and he signed. We weren't linked with Hazard until very late, and he signed. Same could potentially happen with Luka. Have faith.

The Delta Sauber Audi Samsung Bridge. Could catch on.

€7.5m would be a very shrewd, Cahill like signing. Wouldn't displace Ivanovic but would provide stern competition and excellent back up I guess.

Out of all those, the only winger you've mentioned is Marin.

Doubt it's £3m now. He probably got bought for less than a £100k but if he makes it it could potentially increase to £3m.

Is that just a magnificent piece of photoshop or?

If we sell Raul we definitely need to get another midfielder in.

Absolute class player. Wow.

Wanna make a bet that if RDM does well this season then we won't sack him? Fair enough if that's your opinion, but you don't have to call the club "disgusting" because of something you think might happen.

So, let's take away the captain's armband over one bad incident and ignore all the good he's ever done for the club? Right. Some of you guys (not you per se) are sounding like opposition fans.

You're ignoring the fact that UEFA ordered anyone suspended for the final to have their full kit on, so celebrations would look uniform. Now, if your hatred is based on that silly fact then I must say, that is pretty bewildering.

Yeah, that's if you believe everything the media says. Stop reading too much into it, honestly. I hate it when people use every opportunity to take a pot shot at the club. That's what's disgusting.

What game was that?

I'm still not too convinced about our Oriol, we'll see how he develops next season.

Exactly. Summed it up perfectly. Can anyone tell me what JT has actually done wrong apart from those things mentioned above? I'd love to know. Too many let the media shape their opinion, when we all know that there is a general dislike towards us. How many here actually know JT? How the fuck do you know he's a knob? FFS.

You know what, that would be ideal, but we (fans, and board) don't have enough patience for that. We're already at the top so we won't be able to do that without suffering quite a lot. Until recently, Borussia weren't a top team, and that allowed them to build this patient philosophy and extensive scouting network. It'd be harder for us because everyone expects us to win trophies whilst doing the above.

No, sorry I disagree with most of that. When I say recent years I meant from around the 2010 season. From then to now we've signed (not counting youngsters): Luiz Ramires Benayoun Torres Courtois KDB Mata Cahill Romeu Hazard Marin You can't say those aren't decent signings. Go compare that to United's signings and you'll see that we haven't done bad. Like I said if you take Torres out of the equation, that's around £125m on 10 players. When you add all outgoings, which was around £40m to that... You have a net of £85m spent on 10 first team players, which isn't too bad considering we got a couple of gems out of there. I don't know how anyone could say Luiz was a terrible signing, the guy is a class defender. £23m might be maybe £5m over his true value at the time but to say he was a waste of a signing is absurd. Luiz has been a revelation since he's signed bar the odd couple of defensive mistakes (which you can almost count on your hand) you can't say he's been a poor signing. I'd love to know your reasoning behind him being a poor signing. It's no coincidence he's been linked with Barca, the guy is underrated, people let the media shape their opinion on a player way too much. Since Gourlay has taken over, our signings have been a lot smarter. No one can deny that. Compare our first team in and out goings to other clubs in the top 6 and you'll easily see that.