LDN Blue

That was Gary Cahill once upon a time. You do remember Jones is still 22 right?!

Hahaha, to be fair as someone said to me before.. I don't mind it. It restores some prestige back to the FA Cup when you see it celebrated like this. Hope more managers take it seriously next season.

Flanagan in for Johnson and I agree that's the best England could do. Though my strife with Rooney for England will remain, if he can somehow get this shit together it would be nice.

Thing is, we don't need him to step up that much to an extent. Bare with me here.. He does need to improve on this season, no doubt about it. But within Hazard, Willian and perhaps the addition of Schurrle and Salah to an extent we do have options for different kinds of creativity. From Salah's undoubted pace and Hazard wonderful technical movement to get to the byline and cut back. There's a variety of options for a new striker to feed on. I don't see Mourinho as deep lying playmaker kind of guy though. Yeah he did have Modric and Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid but they were already there so he utilised but at Inter and Chelsea it was always a tradition no10 he played with. Wesley Sneijder at Inter Milan and Lampard at Chelsea.. He builds his team around that. You could even say Real Madrid it was Ozil (but that's a different kind of discussion). His 2 in front of defense was usually a more defensive option as opposed to reliance on them for a creative option. That's why one of his favourite players was actually Khedira for example. The more I write about it, the more I actually think Song is the type of player Mourinho would actually want at Chelsea. I don't think anyone would say he's one to solve our problems by any stretch. But he does bring experience, depth and another option for attack to the table.. Which makes this signing logical.

But flip the coin for a second. Mourinho's complaints about us this season have been being unable to break down the teams who keep 11 players in their own box and us being unable to find that killer ball or that striker to finish. The striker problem will of course take care of itself over the course of the summer. But there's a case to say we've missed those deep lying runs of Mourinho's first tenure with us.. We all remember the importance of Makelele. Now of course I don't dare suggest Song is near Maka's level or ability but he does possess that ability to make strides into the heart of the defenses (and/or play an acute long ball to feet.) Under Mourinho he can get the balance between Song and Matic right, instilling the discipline into Matic to make sure he doesn't go walk about and stays in position. As it is Matic doesn't really go forward much anyway so we don't really have to worry. As you said, Song delivered when Arteta was brough alongside next to him. Pellegrini identified this flaw in Manchester City and one of his first signings was Fernandinho. Forget the price, he got exactly what was missing in that midfield.. the job Javi Garcia was unable to do. Song will be a stop-gap, he won't be the lynchpin of our midfield.. But he offers options. He offers a plan b which we've often lacked. I wouldn't want Luiz to be swapped to be honest. I'd rather we got the value for Song correct, which if it is £10million would be a bargain for a player of only 26.

Stan Collymore mad an interesting point the other day (no guys, hear me out on this one..) Now I loath the guy as much as the next person coughwifebeatercough but he made the point of.. Does anyone really see Hodgson actually playing any of these kids? Is he taking them to actually give them experience of the match or is he taking them along to simply give them an experience of going to an international cup? Sven, I'd like to think, properly set precedent when he called up Theo Walcott who'd barely featured in for Arsenal that season as part of his 23. Yet how much did Walcott play, the magnificent number of 0 minutes. Not even one substitute appearance. What was his point? That we do have a younger generation? That his current crop were so bad he sent a message? Only Sven will know. His gamble did open doors.. Walcott was given limelight and Wenger nurtured him to be that guy Sven saw. It's then unfortunate Walcott is yet to feature in a world cup match. The point I make here is, it's only worth it if these kids play. What you're essentially saying here is Shaw will play ahead of Baines, Lallana will play ahead of Sterling, Barkley will play ahead of Wilshere, Sturridge will be in there when Rooney is always England's hope and dreams. Collymore see's England setting up like this; Hart Johnson - Cahill - Jagielka - Baines Milner - Gerrard - Wilshere - Henderson Rooney And I unfortunately don't disagree with him. We're coming up against Italy and Uruguay. Teams who are a lot stronger than us and I simply don't see Roy playing Shaw and Barkley at least ahead of the older players. He'll defend this, he'll say he's "protecting" them, or he doesn't want to "thrust them into it". If Roy really believed in playing the youth then why didn't he play Shaw & co in our last friendlies? Is he really going to be this gutsy and use World Cup 2014 as a warm up to Euro 2016? I just don't think so.

There's only one way to decide this..

LOL incredible But I don't see us splashing out £30-35million on a new defender yet. Though the fact they held discussions with City suggests they'll negotiate under his release clause.. Even then, it's one hefty fee to pay for a 23-year old.

Didn't Lampard say he didn't want to go into football management after his career finishes though? Or was that someone else?

Have we ever had a victory parade for just winning the FA Cup? Pretty sure we didn't in 2009, all other years it was because it was part of a double, no?

Totally agree about Ferguson, I really don't know what he was thinking. Jones was Terry mold, no nonsense looked like a leader and capable of holding his own against the bigger players. There was never reason to believe he'd be better at RB or DM, though the latter may have been understandable because United had Fletcher out that season and Carrick got injured at occasions. Jones needs a manager to get his career back on track especially at CB. I don't think Mourinho has the time for that to be honest, not when we've got Kalas and Ake who don't need to be redesigned in terms of their play now. Jones could do with a loan move down to a club with less pressure on them where he can get back into the routine of being a center back. Newcastle, Villa, Sunderland et al.

When he was at Blackburn I was a huge fan and really pressed the issue on here. There was a bit of paper talk of our interest in him then but once Ferguson got involved it was always going to be a one horse race. His stock has declined far too much now, jack of all trades master of none.

Wouldn't classify song as 'world class', I'd see him as a squad player if anything.. Someone who's going to play a good bulk of games but also ease someone like MvG into the first team eventually.

Of course they're quotes. I'm just saying it's unfair to blame speculation when the media do post quotes.. Even if they're taken out of context, you can never be sure about context anyway. It's not like Hazard disputed those "we don't play football" quotes.

I'm not really sure. On one hand it's hard to deny his positive spell at Arsenal, even their fans will maintain the RvP's blistering form in his last season was mostly down to Song playing in those accurate balls into feet. On the other hand all of his prior interviews have always talked about his love for Arsenal etc and to me that sort of creates a conflict of interest. The pro's are obvious to me as well, he can play both next to Song and can fill in as an emergency CB if we do get his with an injury crisis. His passing is also quite good and his strong build means next to Matic we'll have a firm wall protecting the CB's The con's (and I can't speak for his time at Barca) were at Arsenal. While he was successful in assisting attack with RvP he was also very much liable in the stupid goals Arsenal conceded that season. He suffered from Yaya Toure syndrome.. Where he'd love to go walk about in the attacking 3rd of the pitch but was slow and unreliable in getting back into position to due his defensive work. Sure we've got Matic to fill that void, but can we afford tactical indiscipline? Especially when Mata was sold for that reason. Overall, if he's a squad player than that's not bad business on him arriving alone. Mourinho will obviously do his best to embed tactical awareness into the midfield player. But if he's going to be a regular then I'm sure we can do better from the money we raise from selling Luiz.

To be fair, we can't say "oh it's the media" when something goes against Chelsea and then defend it when something's said in a positive light. ..just saying

Which poses the question, is it really worth taking Mandzukic? Wouldn't it be simpler to take the maximum cash that Bayern will offer then evaluate options on our own.

If only Rio wasn't going to be part of the BBC World Cup commentary/pundit team..

Aren't these sanctions just for their champions league squad? As in the squad they submit? Wage & transfer cap..

He's going to wait until pre-season? Sorry that article seems inaccurate. Mourinho already said that he was to meet with the board last monday to present his dossier on the plans for the next season as well as the futures of the loanees and Terry, Lampard and Cole. Between now and pre-season there's an entire World Cup to be played. I'm sure he'll be watching the Belgians with a keen eye as well as the rest of the squad.

The problem with selling Luiz is, I'm not seeing much in terms of a replacement at the moment. I know it's early and the window hasn't even opened yet, but come on.. When have we known Chelsea to sell without at least having an idea about who's replacing him. This thread shows Madzukic, Song, Sanchez.. But no alternatives to Luiz. I refuse to believe Mourinho trusts in Cahill-Terry with Kalas & Zouma to go into next season. It's a shame our style isn't suited for Luiz.. He would be a great asset if we could have used him to his potential. But as 'the only place to be' rightly said.. He's 27. If we're not getting the best out of him now, we probably won't do at all.

Isn't that including reserves? So it doesn't necessarily mean he's going.

Lot of talk about Liverpool interest now, they'll be on the hunt for a new LB for sure.

Are we linked though? I mean I know it's hard to prove, but has there been anything remotely worth getting excited over..?

There was always going to be an issue here. Let's be frank here, a club can't have 2 top keepers who should both be #1 in any other side. It's just unsustainable. A goalkeeper is one of those guys who will play every game almost, there's no "rest" etc like you could do with a striker. Rotating a keeper is sin to consistency in defence as defenders have to get used to their goal keeper. We've seen it time and time again, most recently and prominently Hart v Given. Given was still a top, top, keeper but City couldn't risk letting Hart go... It's almost the same thing right here. Cech still has a lot of options, Italian sides are looking for keepers, PSG are rumoured to be in the market etc. Cech is also loyal, so there's no reason why he wouldn't stay here either.