LDN Blue

Lmao and Thibaut?

I find this amazing and thus why I'm slightly cautious about this story. Wenger is a spiteful guy imo.. He would rather sign Cesc himself than let him come to us so we can bury Arsenal for another season.. It was different with RvP and Nasri, he had no control because they wanted to go, he can easily get Fabregas back if he wanted to.

Players still have a preference though. I remember in the lead up to Mata signing for us Benayoun gave up the 10 shirt to give to Mata. Hazard's already professed his wanting of number 10 too. I read Neymar wanted it for Brazil from Oscar..

Probably because it's not an iconic number per se. For example, I don't see us giving anyone Zola's "25" any time soon or upon him leaving, Terry's "26" because they're not your usual 1-20.. You can kind of excuse those. 1-11 especially is difficult, for marketing purposes among others.

I laughed at this far more than I should have LOL

I hope the club doesn't do a Boulahrouz and give that number to just any ol' signing! I'd love for it to go to a youth player, but that's unrealistic I guess.

Four remain..

Cosign.

To be fair he was long an unsung hero before that, many had recognised that Carrick had been key to United because he stepped up with their lack of CMs. Capello continously snubbing him never made sense to me.. But yes, this season he's been poor individually and was justifiably dropped.

Good business from them. They're tightening their weaknesses, they were very vulnerable down that flank.. With Flanagan, they have securities. I hope they don't sign any centre backs!! I would love another season of Sakho/Toure-Skrtel hahahaha

So I ask you guys the question. When we signed Ramires, there were many circulating reports that we in fact rejected Van der Vaart in order to sign the Brazilian. Would you guys have rather had VdV now? I know my answer to this... Ramires any day of the week because of THAT season in 2012.

Poor Asenjo.. Was tipped to be Spains future #1 once upon a time. He came back from an injury to find De Gea usurp him.. Then when he left Courtois became outstanding too!! Where's he gone now?

...maybe I'm thinking of someone else

Huddlestone would've been a better choice than Milner, but yeah generally agree for the majority of this.

With Barca letting Fabregas go, it's not hard to imagine they'll target Koke's release clause. Word is they'll look to Rakitic.. Hopefully they'll replace all these players well, I'd hate to see their success diminish so suddenly

What about that youngster they've got Diego Ribas or whatever his name was. They've got high hopes for him don't they?

Surely it's either him or Fabregas, don't see both being able to fit in this squad..

Give it time, I'm sure that's exactly what the Daily Mail is about to write up

Negredo cost City around £15m. In the grand context of things that's relatively cheap for a guy who scored consecutively at home for a run of 9 games I think it was, he was a different option because of his strength for City. I'm not saying it's an option now, but it certainly would've been an adequate third striker to have than Ba or Nando. You know I think Lukaku as second fiddle wouldn't be so bad in his view. He left this season because he thought he would've been fourth choice behind Eto'o, Torres and Ba especially because we sold neither Torres or Ba. This season there's no Eto'o, there's still a chance Torres goes which leaves us with Costa & Lukaku which sounds a good deal to him. I don't believe reports Mourinho will keep Bamford to play third striker, so Lukaku's situation will depend on a. If Torres stays and b. If we sign another striker after Costa

"An alternative would be to join Harry Redknapp at newly promoted Queens Park Rangers on a similar half-season arrangement."

If we wanted Bony the deal shouldve been done when he was at Vitesse. Now we'd simply pay too much for too little games. In an ideal world I'd love to see a lead striker force of Lukaku, Costa, Negredo. I think Negredo is a great player to call up on, he did brilliant at City when he played and was unfortunate he didn't get more game time. I only put Costa there because it's most likely happening.. He probably wouldn't have been my first choice.

Their kit-deal with Puma probably helped this. £30m/year, that list highlights how important it is for football clubs to flex their muscles in commercial revenue.

Indeed. They will lose Courtois & Costa (it seems) for sure. Anything else is far too speculative to be honest. Tiago is technically already gone, his contract has expired so he can do as he pleases and they don't really have any control there. I think Koke, Miranda and Godin will stay. Luis will depend on our dealings in that area

Anyone is allowed to do it, you're just not allowed to have such clubs playing in the same competition. For example, if Abramovich actually owned Vitesse (and if you believe speculation.. he might do) Chelsea & Vitesse wouldn't both be allowed to enter the Champions League.. One would have to forfeit their participation. That's why Sheik whatshisname can get away with it. They own clubs in England, America & Australia. These three teams will never meet each other in competition because they're in different leagues, in different countries, in different continents.. There would be no conflict of interest.

He'll hopefully have an outstanding performance.. I'll feel right smug knowing that's our Eden Hazard setting the World alight