LDN Blue

Well this surprised me..

Great news!

Jason Roberts is a f*cking idiot. Even when the courts are dealing with it, he still thinks he has a right to reserve judgement. Everyone knows John's been England's most consistent performer over the last 2 years. As a permanent member of the squad it only makes sense to have him skipper, it's the reason why Capello gave it back to him in the first place. Witch-hunt. Smfh

Well to be fair we did try for 2/3 of those in the Jan window. Cahill as that CB & a whole list of wingers + Lucas.

Nope, he was very quiet in the celebrations, I was impressed by that. We didn't treat the lad right sometimes so for him to do that, shows a lot about his character.

Exactly. Frankly I'm quite surprised Buck's hung onto his job after this entire CPO shambles.

I don't buy this dictatorship the media have us believe that Roman makes the sole decision to hire and fire. I'm sure he's been ill-advised by the board by the likes of Buck & Gourlay who will say anything to keep their own jobs.

Fans have a right to be fickle. The board have brought this feeling of uncertainty about the managers' future because of their recklessness over the last 7 years. We cannot be blamed for having such thoughts.

No-one infuriates me more in La Liga than Pinto. Should've been sent off, smh

I'm more surprised at people being surprised. It would make sense. £15m + Carlo's compensation + André's wages. Simples.

The current foundations I see from André are an attempt to ship out this Mourinho ghost that always haunts this club whenever a run of performances are not going according to plan. What André has done this season, has attempted to fix that spine of the squad we used to fall back on. Mata, Romeu & Sturridge have replaced Malouda, Mikel & Kalou/Anelka. Now he's trying to players like Hazard of Willian which will move Mata into the middle and replace another Mourinho ghost which is the conventional 4-3-3 system. We've seen an experiment with a 4-2-3-1 formation where he's used Romeu & Miereles as the 2 holding players and the rest fit in front accordingly. He's revamped the club's scouting network and he's laid out clearly, for the squad, his vision for how the football should be played & the methods in which they adopt. The high line was a massive issue in the beginning and now defence is not a main worry. He's found cohesion amongst the back4 and even though we see the frustrating Bosingwa, he has used Ivanovic at RB when he feels the CB's are right. It's not all complete and of course we're missing a lot of creativity and other elements to make his attacking philosophy work, but he's taking one problem at a time and right now I'm content with our defending when we have Terry fit.

Yeah but there is an element of rushing him back into the mix, he's gradually having more and more game time each time he comes off the bench. But 2 ruptured knee muscles in 3 years, such things have to be factored in when ushering a player back into the main squad.

Lukaku is a glamour prospect but if André doesn't think he's ready for the pressure of leading the Chelsea attack then I believe his instincts. As much as it pains us to see Torres doing it, it's something we must get used to. Even with Drogba when give the normal piss-poor routine. Torres is the #1 striker for the next 5months, but what's amusing for me is everyone thinks he's the main problem in the squad. He isn't the main problem, it's the guys behind him. And that in itself, is a big, big concern.

This fact was always going to remain, it was trial and error for André last summer, and we must appreciate the fact he's learning as he goes along. I'm browsing through major deals that occurred this window.. Saha to Tottenham was considered the biggest story in England. Barca, Madrid & Milan x2 were as quiet as us. PSG made a few, but QPR made probably the most. You must be patient and ride out this season of utter difficulty. June-August will be interesting and we have many reasons to be optimistic because of the targets that were approached in the last 2 windows.

Unfortunately Malouda starting was a no-brainer tonight. It was either him or Mikel or Essien. They would've been too negative and Essien's not match fit yet.

Could go on a long post about why he's struggling, how he can improve etc. But there's multiple threads & posts on that. All I can say is, Villas-Boas is trying to utilise what he's got. He didn't want Lukaku now, he said himself he only did it because other clubs were closing in. He wanted to help Torres, he proved that at the beginning of the season. Andre has no choice but to play Torres now.

This signing is better than £50m Torres who was expected to 'save our season.' I find your post a bit rude in regards to Bamford & ignorant of the challenges of the January transfer window.

Exciting player, from an exciting crop of players. Big hype for this player, which is understandable. He's just turned 18 and just arrived here, he's adapted well to life in England and his reserve/youth cup games make him seem one that could make it. ..In a few years. Not straight away.

Sometimes watching Sturridge is frustrating.

Nice. Always happy to see youth signings we can make profit off in 3-4years.

I do wish* this was the weekend so I could drown my sorrows..

If we win...

Luiz won't be able to venture outside of our half today, Ivanovic isn't the last-ditch centre-back that Terry is. Will be interesting to see, though, if Luiz has a better game playing on the left (his preferred) side at CB.

Taylor extends Millers stay Chelsea goalkeeper Rhys Taylor has extended his loan deal at Rotherham until the end of the season. The Wales Under-21 keeper arrived for an initial month earlier in January and the paperwork on his prolonged deal has now been completed. Taylor, 21, has never appeared for Chelsea's first team, but made a total of 49 appearances while on loan at Crewe last season and has started Rotherham's last four matches following Conrad Logan's return to Leicester. http://www1.skysport...ds-Millers-stay