LDN Blue

A loan deal? That wouldn't be so bad I guess.

Media are really pushing Sneijder to Manchester United. This is what they always do.. I.e. Neymar to Chelsea.

I wouldn't want us to go for Sneijder unless he expresses a will to leave. He will cost a lot and will need time to settle in the Premier League, he's 27 & time isn't really favouring him. Nasri on the other hand just turned 24. He still has the ability to improve his game, under the right coaching & he's shown a willingness to leave. He'll be considerably cheaper too as he's entering the final year of his contract & he's PL proven. Out of Nasri and Modric? Nasri for sure.

There's a rumour heating up we're targeting Cheik Tiote as an Essien replacement. I seem to remember we did try to lure him in January. Thoughts?

where did this idea that Terry makes such claims derive from?!

My mistake.. Probably league goals everyone mentions then. Still, the rest of my post holds true

Jefferen's on the market

Encouraging.

Delighted to see Rajkovic, Mellis & Clifford there!

Mikel's first goal will be cheered more than Torres' as for the actual topic: Yes I do. It remains to be seen what system we play in midfield. Mikel is a very good defensive midfielder, we all know his interception and composure are his best attributes. That being said, we need him to push forward a bit more with our current midfield. While we have Ramires, who never tires and works very hard, he lacks the technical play to play pinpoint pass through to the strikers. If we can find a player to take the ball of Mikel and do something with it, it would be ideal. As Ballack & Lampard used to. Perhaps Lampard will be that player again, with age restricting his energy, perhaps we'll see him sit deep more. I regard Mikel very highly. He's still very young, but has all the attributes to be a great successor to the Essien-bumped-Makelele role. With the right coaching, adding an attacking instinct to his play, he'll be as effective as the latter.

Source: SkySports Published: 12th July

Pepe just signed a contract extension. I do not think they'll be after Alex now.

Lol come on. Even though you're not a fan of Mikel, would you really rather see him replaced by Scott Parker? He's a good player with a lot of character, but take that away and you find he's just a large fish in a small pond at West Ham. If we are to find a DMF then it should not be Parker.

Unfortunately I agree. We can only hope he recovers and has a chance of getting to play elsewhere at a good level of play.

Precisely. It's a great shame, but it's one not uncommon. Can only hope the manager will see this and find a way to give these players a chance in such positions. It is naive thinking, but it's a hope I hold. Not as much with Sturridge as with Kakuta however.

No thanks.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_7032855,00.html Could it be us?

Yeah, though it's very hard to do this and pressure the clubs we loan him to, to use him properly. I actually think Hughes wanted to utilize Kakuta how we wanted, but luck just went against him with pressure on Fulham to stay in the first half of the table and a lot of competition ahead of him. Especially with Demebele returning to form. Brendan Rogers might be willing to take him on and develop him or even West Brom with Roy Hodgson. Whatever the club, they must be in the Premier League.

I hope Essien & her do not give up. It's a horrible injury to have, as you've described and to have the surgery on it more than once must be even more must be very demoralizing. Hopefully they both have to have this surgery on for the last time and they can carry on doing what they love.

Seeing that video makes me damned sure he'll be back. It will be a long wait for us and him alike. But we will see him back in a Chelsea shirt battling to recapture that Bison character.

That's true. I do remember in the game against Blackburn when he made a 10minute stint, he tried to feed into Zamora whenever he could. Problem is for youngsters, in any team, the AM position is so over-competitive that players with the quality to be in the squad (like Kakuta) often have to be played out-of-position because their one is filled. The fact we're chasing 22-year old Pastore proves that point straight off the bat. It's very hard for Kakuta to usurp a player we might pay £44million for.

LOL mistype. Apparently AC Milan are very keen on Hamsik this window.. Would be sad to see him there, hoped we'd try to lure him.

I'll admit, as a kid, they were quite popular with Arsanal and United. However this was in like '98-'00 or so. After that, everyone more or less forgot about them

Hope he comes back strong! Last season was a bad time for him to come back, the whole team having a bad season made his own performances stand out as worse. Had no time to really overcome. Hopefully he'll come back for us when the team's doing quite well.