LDN Blue

Oh my god. This is so boring, have these guys forgotten that you have to SCORE to win a football match?!

Yep, he's doing exactly what's expected (which is to run off the last defender). His adaptation is evident to see, so it's not like he's stagnating in performances. If Oscar can give him those crucial passes with a bit more frequency and success I have no doubt that Eto'o can put these away.

Makes sense, Fulham have big players in their defense today especially the 2 center-backs. Definitely agree, Cole's crossing has never been that great, but with the lack of support (to defend) ahead of him he's being exposed even further. Ivanovic is quite lucky he's got Schurrle ahead of him today, the German does his defensive duties.

Exactly. People can't get on Eto'o's case this bad and then use that to warrant Torres' inclusion..

No, that doesn't count

Also a lot of harsh reactions to Eto'o being included. Come on, he's still a better option than Torres &/or Ba, and I'm actually glad Mourinho's willing to give Eto'o this extended leash to get into gear. All this being said, there's only so far the striker can go without not scoring to repay this faith.

I still think, for the record, we'll beat Fulham lol. We haven't lost to them since the days of Harris! It's still a strong team, but we need this trio of Hazard, Oscar & Eto'o to click. Schurrle is a brilliant wide player regardless, so I'm not worried about that. Ramires has to concentrate today but Mourinho's given him a license to run with Mikel holding the central-midfield line.On that note, I'm glad to see Mikel in there

He must be aware to Ivanovic's struggles in our last few games. He hasn't even benched Ivanovic to make a case against him (as opposed to giving Azpilicueta a chance)..

But if he's concluding Mata can't be in the squad because of match performance, it's only logical that the same applies to Torres & Azpilicueta. Ivanovic, in matches, has been subpar and isn't as sharp as previous seasons. He can train "better" all he wants, but match performance should outweigh training in these cases.

Yea, I remember that. I mean on the surface it looks absurd to say he's got something against Spanish players. But the evidence...?

Well, Mourinho did just tell SkySports that Mata's performances in the last two matches weren't good enough..

Well, Lampard's on the bench lol

there seems to be something weird going on..

Sigh, what does Azpilicueta have to do to get a game? Forget about this Mata/Oscar debate, at least Oscar has a case for being ahead of Juan Mata.. But Ivanovic has been awful in our last few games, how can Azpilicueta be overlooked again?

Well why don't you get your ass outta retirement and fix it?

Well I assume that was the point of his tirade, not just to Nat but to all the youngsters coming through the ranks of England.

I mean it's very hard to break that down.. On the face of it, it wouldn't be hard to argue. But we don't really have access to the figures of what Academy players are being paid, and I have a gut instinct that Man United were actually bigger financiers. The thing about that is, even if it were true, SAF would've made sure they stayed level headed despite those wages. If we're talking about Chelsea alone, then we're disgraceful to be honest. I think it started with Sturridge, when it got really bad, because as soon as we signed him from City I heard we put him on something like £40,000/week*. So if Sturridge started the trend, it was only going to get worse with the players who showed more potential that we had to desperately keep.. Like Nat & McEachran. We can only hope that now Mourinho, Holland & Newton have enough power and influence over these guys that they can keep them level headed and under control. But even then.. Nat & Josh could both out on loan, so now Chelsea has an obligation to continue to keep an eye on them at these locations. Especially if they go abroad. Out of interest, on this issue, does anyone remember Manchester City's youngster Michael Johnson? If you do, or don't, take a minute to read his story. http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/david-bolt/2013/01/21/the-sad-story-of-michael-johnson/ *Can't verify this though.

Of course. This fact has been stated a lot of times when discussing why English youngsters aren't reaching the heights that they should be* However the problem that's now emerged is that because all the clubs are offering these big-money-contracts, everyone's having to do the same because otherwise you lose that talent. So unless every club decides to cap young salaries, you can finally get some control.. But that's not going to happen. *not just limited to English youngsters anymore. English clubs are giving foreign youngsters lucrative contracts now.

Expand..?

This is true!

That's a terrible way to play to be honest, I really, highly, doubt that Mourinho's going to be playing this way.. Which is why I don't imagine Willian is going to displace Schurrle.

Tomo, while this sounds practical what then will happen is everyone will give the Mods shit because of the choices they make. Then they'll accuse them of bias etc.. It'll work for 2-3x and then you'll get chaos again lmao.

Ah okay. Against what kinds of teams?

Because if he's not a regular for us, then he's not going to be looked at for all these competitions. I'm saying that in order for him to get chosen for these international games, he'll want to be playing regularly for a big club. At the moment he's not, he won't settle for being bit-part with us.

This extract is encouraging to read, the gap is something that's been bemoaned for a while. Especially from guys like Esk. But it's one thing to simply state all this, another to implement a plan to integrate the youngsters.