The Skipper

Double post.

Hulk, Modric and a competent RB who can be understudy to Ivanovic and we'd have a complete team. That's all.

Sort of. Sell off a player who's had a dip in form, who the club have made known world wide that'll be sticking with... If you catch my drift. Torres should have one more season to impress. If not, we sell him. Mutual ground for everyone.

Think the Modric going for £25m rumour is false tbh.

Ramires and Mikel for me. With Lamps rotating with Rambo, Romeu rotating with Mikel. Essien and Meireles as stop gaps.

Great image that gives the club!

Man City don't play with real wingers and they won the PL. Your point? Man City played some scintillating stuff this season too. A variety of teams who don't play with real wingers still produce good football.

So West Ham would win the Portuguese League then? West Ham practically had a PL side in the Championship. Porto and Benfica are one of the top clubs in Europe, they've proven that through their CL and Europa League performances. Of course the Portuguese League is inferior to the PL, but some over-exaggeration isn't needed. It's not a surprise that many players from Portugal became key players of whatever club they joined. The footballers in Portugal are good, some even great. I put Hulk in the great bracket.

Maybe not, but Hulk is still built like an ox. Many players in the PL would still fail to knock him off the ball, the difference in physicality is not that great. They're all grown men, all athletes.

Yeah, I'd probably only have Casillas over Cech, Iker is probably the best goalkeeper of his generation.

From a neutral perspective Cech is regarded as one of the best in the world. Top 3 definitely. You can't name many better than Cech.

This ridiculous mentality of the Portuguese league being soooo inferior to the PL needs to stop. Some talk about the Portuguese league as if it's comparable to League 2 in Scotland.

I don't think anyone is obsessed with getting a "RW" strictly. Most people want a natural right sided attacker, as we don't have a single one in the squad.

Mineiro says hi. Steve Sidwell says hi too.

Name them please.

I personally want to see Hulk here as he's just that - a winger and a striker all burgeoned into one. Sturridge doesn't have the same level of consistency when it comes to assists like Hulk does. He's a striker played out of position. Hulk however has made that spot on the right side of attack his own. He also works hard and contributes defensively, which Sturridge is poor at. I don't want us to buy Hulk to feed Torres. We've got Hazard and Mata for that. I want Hulk to provide us a bigger threat when we go forward.

No, match compilations will show you everything he does in a game, good or bad. They're not your typical highlight reels showing the best bits of a player strictly. It's the only thing I can offer you. Now may I ask, how many games have you actually seen of Hulk? Have you watched him over a season or two like I have or? The fact that Porto and Benfica fans rate him so highly, with one Benfica fan even coming out to say that he wishes Hulk would fuck off out of the Portuguese league so they'd have a better chance of winning it should tell you something.

Leif, I've seen quite a lot of Hulk games, due to me having a Portuguese friend. As I'm typing this on mobile, when I get home I'll forward a couple of match compilations to you so you can have an overall look of what Hulk offers in a game.

It really is simple. Let's isolate Hulk's Porto career and Johnson's Man City one. Hulk: Apps: 166 Goals: 76 Assists: 55 Johnson: Apps: 97 Goals: 15 Assists: ? (can't find the data) Yup, it really is simple.

I hope you're not being serious with that. Let me give you a scenario - if we got Hulk for £30m would you still want Jarvis here over him? Anyone with an eye can see that Hulk has been the best player in Portugal for seasons in a row now. Go ask a Porto or Benfica fan. Porto fans I know rate Hulk higher than Falcao as well. What does that tell you? You can't just be a "good" player if you are rated higher than Falcao can you? You can't just be a "good" player if you directly contribute for almost half of your teams goals, almost single handedly landing your team the league title. He's a great player. You can't deny that. Maybe not worth £38m, but Torres isn't worth £50m, Modrc isn't worth £40m either. It's the nature of the market today. If Zidane and Ronaldo played in the current market during their primes, they'd both be easily overpriced by over £100m in today's market. Hulk was without Falcao this season and still grabbed 16 assists. Void argument. Hulk will provide you the unique blend of a high goal and high assist tally. Matt Jarvis will not. Simple. You're bitter about the price but that doesn't mean you should belittle the player.

Are you alluding that Hulk doesn't get assists? Strange that considering a lot of Falcao's goals for Porto came through Hulk. I don't want us to settle for second rate players. You continue to buy second rate players who will "just about do the job" and we'll become just that - a second rate side. How anyone could want Matt Jarvis and James Forrest over Hulk in here is quite bewildering. Taking the money involved out you can't deny that Hulk is more effective than every single player you've mentioned out there. Hulk wouldn't work in the team? I'll give you an example of Holland's WC 2010 starting eleven for most games. They had: RVP VDV - Sneijder - Robben Which is very comparable to: Torres Mata - Hazard - Hulk Have you had a look at the Holland defence? It's shocking. Robben doesn't offer anything defensively does he? Yet they still played some slick stuff, and nearly finished the tournament as winners. The notion that Hulk wouldn't work in the team is again quite bewildering. Hulk offers loads more defensively than Robben as well. Fair enough if you think Hulk is overpriced but what you can't deny is, that when you take the money out of it, Hulk is better than every singly player you've listed.

You're confusing CAM and a ATTACKING central midfielder. No ones's disputing Lampard wasn't an ATTACKING central midfielder, but he rarely played in the CAM position, otherwise known as the position behind the striker, the position Mata plays. If you've followed Lampard's CFC career you'll see his trademark is his runs from deep. You can't play the CAM position and start your runs from deep, it's why Lamps was ineffective when he was tried in that position. Hope that clears it up for you.

Lad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfhp9D1rz8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Torres was quality in the Newcastle game too, got overshadowed by Papiss Cisse's wonder goals though.

Debuchy or Azpilicueta will not come here to sit on the bench.