LDN Blue

That article was from August though. It's shown that wasn't the case

A Lampard double would be nostalgic

You know it's tomorrow yeah? & I will do

Yep. We're still blamed for Cole's failure to reach his potential - So we'll definitely blamed for Danny's (rightly so.)

The FA may show it on their website if you're lucky. If not there might be a stream (check streams thread in Match category).

He's not that good to be honest. I think we did well to let him go at that time.. But definitely Cole could've had a great future with us!

LOL let's say no more on that Blues News says Mikel's back to full strength, his knee and ankle are fine. Hopefully he'll start on Monday!

Well Carlo said centre back, and then the media got excited.. Slow news day

The plot thickens. ESPN says we're going after Simon Kjaer is Luiz doesn't come

First someone needs to tell Drogba to stay in the box to meet those crosses!

Good to see Benayoun on the treadmill.. Hopefully he'll be back sooner than April.

Exactly. Ivanovic is still 26 and Alex is 28. Terry looks like he can go strong for 2 more seasons at least. It's simply too premature to think about a new centre back when we've got problems in midfield and attack! Before November we'd conceded the least amount of goals. Terry, Ivanovic & Alex are more than capable of handling their duties in the back, there's simply no need for change that. That £20million could be saved, and perhaps saved for the signings of Lukaku & Sanchez in the summer (if the reports are true). The only centre back we could even consider is someone like Samba who's cheap and reliable (in case we do get an injury crisis back there.)

Well, he's already made 15 appearances for them this season. I think he's being given more and more chances to convince him to shun away from us.

Beating City 5-0 then was the highlight for me But you're right we had a quality squad that year - However I was just delighted with the 4th place finish because it meant Champions League Football. I remember we scored a lot of goals that season but we'd been let down by poor defending at times. Plus you've got remember back then Manchester United & Arsenal were the 2 clubs which were going head to head for the title. Us, Newcastle and Liverpool were battling it out for 4th so under Ken Bates that was a good season. Who would've know how amazingly our fortunes would change That being said (about defending) Cudicini was sensational! That's when he really peaked as our #1 keeper, I maintain he's a big reason of why we qualified for the Champions League that year!

It's a ridiculous view. Have they not seen how little creativity we lack up front?! & if Alex does make it back next month & Terry does stay injury free, we'll have 2 world class defenders on the bench! I won't be surprised if Ivanovic is waiting until the window closes to decide if he'll sign or not No wonder we're in a slump. The board have no idea why we're in it in the first pace

You know having read this article through and through I don't really agree with what they're saying. They say (more or less) the reason for our slump is the departure of Carvalho, but it's not. In defence yes we've been a bit complacent but how many goals have we really let in? Yeah there was the 3-0 to Sunderland but other than that we've only let in 19. The same as Manchester City and Manchester United. It's the lowest in the league. Our problem has come from lack of scoring chances. I was wrong when I said "if this is the only singing we make, I'll be delighted" because this would be an awful signing. Ivanovic and Terry have been great! Yeah they've let in goals but they've still saved our asses from more than 1-0 defeats and they deserve huge credit for that, much like Cech.

So then the question remains.. How desperate are Chelsea for a new centre back?

Delac is irrelevant for the next 5 years or so. As it is, he warms the bench for Vitesse.

To keep this on topic, I'll relate this topic to Luiz too. To me Vidic is the best centre back in the world because when he's called upon, he's always there. He reminds me of Terry with being the last line of defence before the keeper, he's strong on the ground as he is in the air. And when he's got the ball he doesn't simply blast it away - thus giving it straight back to the opponent. He's smart, he thinks about where he's going to distribute. His tackling is impeccable usually, this performance vs Tottenham is one of the best he's put in this season. Luiz looks like a strong player. I haven't seen him play, but from what I've heard, he's good in the air especially. His decision making the crucial element though, it's one of the reasons I rate Ivanovic higher than Alex usually because Ivanovic is smart with what he does with the ball, but he's also agile. I've lost count about the number of times I've seen him save the ball from a corner or throw in for the opposition. His work rate is excellent. But is Luiz the same? I don't like to use YouTube videos in football, but because I haven't seen him play I looked for some and this is the kind of thing I mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqOGOQP_-FM If his intelligence is as constant as demonstrated in this video then I'd love it. The pace he shows here is great for a centre back and the timing of his challenges is also very good. I saw him play when Benfica played Liverpool, and vs Torres he was great. He stayed strong against him, didn't commit too early and won his headers. Something Vidic does regularly for United.

Well considering the article is about centre backs I just thought I'd mention it

Would any agree that Vidic is the best centre back in the world today?

Ah, that's sad then. Hopefully our away fans won't let us down in that aspect. A true legend and professional!

I was starting to wonder if we'd given up on this chase and settled for Turnbull. Glad to be wrong though

If the stories of Ferriera being part of the deal are true I hope he'll get a few minutes at our next home game to say goodbye. The man deserves a farewell.