LDN Blue

Would RDM consider being an assistant again though? After this campaign I'm sure he'll have options of being a manager at other clubs.

Yea! We'll definitely be back amongst the big time soon enough, but I just have a massive fear City will repeat our era, but go even longer. I can only hope somehow UEFA will impose FFP sanctions on them and pop their bubble. We were lucky to manage to build our spine before this rule was even on the chalkboard.

BIG fan of this guy! I think at a big club he could do so well.

For fuck sake. Fergie really bottled it (never thought I'd say that). Nani for Valencia, no Welbeck? Also lmao at Rooney complaining about Drogba's theatrics last week, hypocrite. Anyway this is a disaster for the league. I can only hope Newcastle do one on them, which is unlikely. Fuck sake. City will be even stronger and start an era of dominance now. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

We're not a 4-4-2 club and never will be with Drogba leading the line. His presence on the pitch sends any other strikers out wide.

And that would be a travesty. This squad must be broken up at the end of the season, regardless of what is won or lost.

Isn't the next F1 race in Barcelona?

Again, with the right financials, I'd gladly welcome him back.

Yea I agree, shame the board isn't smart enough though. It's like they actually enjoy compensation pay outs more than titles, lmao.

Holding MF is not a priority whatsoever. Maybe Essien would leave. Mikel & Romeu would stick around, because they're doing well under Robbie (the latter has disappeared, but seems he's coming back now). For what it's worth I don't think Essien's going anywhere till his contract is up. For this coming window though, we should only reinforce the areas that need doing so, which is RB & wings.

Why? Most the players who've ever moved to Chelsea from other clubs had monetary incentives. If Cole is willing to lower his demands, remember he still holds England ambitions, then he'd be a great signing.

I urge you guys not to expect Robbie to be given the ropes. This club loves the 'big names' with the big expectations, with the false hopes of building a stable long-term base. In the end they won't last to see a second season.. Such is the status quo of Chelsea Football Club.

We should attempt to re-sign him. He's a type of squad player we could use.

LMAO, wow

More defensive wishes.. Sigh.

It's not the end of the world if we don't get him. Yea he looks like a gem of a winger, but hopefully the club are taking a new direction in trying to find the nobodies to be the somebodies. KdB could be as good as, or even better, than Eden. Or he may not be. In any case, we better just accept we might not get him now & be surprised if we do.

All the best to him. Didn't want Redknapp in charge.

Don't think we should go 'all out' to be honest. I really think we should sacrifice our league position and gamble on a Champions League win because there's simply too much at stake for the 'big players' to compete in. FA Cup Final 3 days later and Champions League Final 2 weeks after that.

It's a shame he seems United bound, a type of player we could use in rotation with Mata and Marin between wingers & more central attacking positions.

I'm worried about repressing his attacking instincts because I'm pretty sure the mantra on him is to keep him in the box-to-box/deep-lying position. Guys like Mata & Silva show you don't have to be the biggest guy to play in the attacking position, albeit he does need to show more strength on the ball. He's still young so nothing to worry about immediately, but there was a time where Jack Rodwell claimed McEachran was better than Henderson. The latter shone at Sunderland because he had a platform there, but McEachran doesn't. Not here, not at Swansea. I don't know where..

Spike I don't share the Xabi Alonso comparisons you drew to Cabaye. The Frenchman is good, has a good eye for a pass, but not near as strong as Alonso. I personally don't want players like Cabaye here because they sit too deep and we've got enough deep-line players already. Mikel, Essien, Lampard & Romeu. That's also why I don't really want us to pursue Modric any more because it seems the direction these players would take this club's style is counter-attack only. We need players like Ozil, not the man himself because that's an impossible task, but we need to find players like him. I was happy with Marin because he's a winger but he can also alternate with Mata with playing that no10 role. I've heard he's not as effective there, but it gives us a more attacking option. While I would like the club to give Kakuta a run-out there I know it won't happen so we'd need to go scouting for them. For example, I've heard good things about the Serie A player Sebastian Giovinco & Josip Ilicic is also getting good reviews. These guys will give us that midfield attacking option that Lampard gave us for the majority of his Chelsea career. In my opinion if we get these types of players we'll have a very good squad depth because we're covered quite well right in the middle of the pitch. It's the final third where we're suffering. I maintain we need another specialist winger (who doesn't have no10 ambitions) but an attacking midfielder is very necessary.

I find that hard to be true, well the figures being reported anyway. The interest doesn't, because United need that type of player, desperately.

Respect to Barca for appointing Tito. Even if it doesn't pay off at least they're taking the gamble instead of trying to go for the big names, who will bring in big expectations and could fall under those. With Tito the Barcelona fans would be patient, they'd also be inspired from Pep but understand he would need time. A reason why Guardiola was so good with youth integration is because he was in charge of the B team, which I think a lot of people are forgetting. That's why he was able to call on Tello, Pedro, Cuenca, Thiago etc. That's not so easy for a new coach who's just come into the club. Guardiola would need to restructure this entire club for his philosophy to try and even begin to take shape. The sad part? We'd show no patience whatsoever. If he didn't deliver instantly we'd come out with the 'This proves Barca was easy' horse-shit. How do I know? Because Villas-Boas tried the same damn thing.

Indeed. Considering our last squad players who cost £7m is now 30+ and plying his trade at Arsanal

To call this 'creepy' would be an understatement....