LDN Blue

Hardly. Everton & Bill Kenright answer to their shareholders, as the common phrase goes 'football is a business.' If they reject £40m on the table, when they're hardly owned by a oligarch, with a serious lack of investment already occuring, then they're going to face serious ramifications. United won't swoop in because they've already demonstrated how cheap they are on the Pedro deal and Stones has seen how aggressive Chelsea have been in trying to sign him.

I think it's pretty obvious what's happened here. Instructions have been passed to Stones' respresentitives from CFC to hand in a transfer request so that's in Chelsea's own interest to put the bid in. It's well documented that Chelsea have been looking for Stones to make some sort of indication he's in favour of the move.

I'm already having nightmares at the prospect of Bolasie making a mockery of Ivanovic

I'd asume the order would go Ivanovic, Fabregas, Azpilicueta/Hazard.

Lmao I know right! I don't anymore, don't even pay attention to them

Definitely talented. He was really a big hope for English football to be honest, in a time where England were producing more passive central midfield players instead of attacking ones, Joey was a breath of fresh air. But for some reason or the other, he just couldn't grasp the opportunity to really propel his career to the very top. 'Joe can be a regular but he has to improve when the team needs him to be part of a defensive organisation.' - Mourinho (October, 2004)

Dear Staff, I find it an incoherent abuse of power at the fact that Ex-Blues have been discriminated from full name threads! I hope this will be rectified as soon as possible, Kind regards, LDN.

I know you didn't mean him, but you inadvertently reminded me of Joe Cole. I think he made the wrong decision going to Liverpool, that season he was coming back into the form we knew he was capable of - After his injury problems affected him so much anyway. Though I do remember speculation of an attitude problem which meant he probably wouldn't have reached the heights he should have anyway.

Probably attributed to his current injury problems, it's easy to forget about his ability when he's been out the game for so long. He's got an interesting task now, trying to fit in alongside Benteke.

I agree mate, but passing a football is the minimum you expect from a professional isn't it?! We're not asking for a magical 40-yard Gerrard-esq pass but even a simple through ball is beyond his capabilities. And you can argue he does have enough technical ability to dribble.

Yeah that's why I said it's not our major concern. We can get by with Willian/Oscar now, especially if we can get Hazard back up to his usual form. I definitely agree about centre midfield and it is a shame we've left it a bit too late to make any meaningful CM signings.

Agreed mate. When he first went to Liverpool I wasn't sold one bit, I knew him from Inter and thought he was one of the best young talents around and he seemed to have stagnated but I guess he just got hidden behind the magic of Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling etc. But he's certainly stepped up to the creative plate this season and towards the end of last season - Dunga is doing him a favour by not selecting him for Brazil lol. (I'd be interested in what @Henrique, @Barbara have to say about this) I mean you say that, but Liverpool are a selling club aren't they? Torres, Suarez, Sterling, every season they seem to be losing one top player at a time. It's the effect of not being in the Champions League! But you're right, they'll ask for an excess of £50m and he's not worth that yet.

Well, I stand corrected sir :tophat:

But to choose one player constantly? Not to mention his habit of leaving him out of our 'big' matches last season too, showed a definite lack of trust.

Of the 'modern' era, Robben. From the near past, Gudjohnsen. From the distant past, Zola.

You say that, but he wasn't so much of a 'favourite' last season. Think about how many times he was substituted for example..

Tbh, neither Oscar or Willian are adequete number 10 for a club trying to be Europe's best, imo. But it's not the major concern in light of the current problems we still have, next summer it should be a priority imo. Depending on how Coutinho does this season, it's worth looking at him.

then lets make members use their real names too!

True that, think we can party ourselves to the contract?

Lol but why is it 'crap'? Is it not bound to happen at all? It's quite evident he's lost a step or two.. No-one is writing him off, but no-one can deny he's going through a spell right now that's telling.

does it matter to be honest? Lol, it's not like we need the money.

To be fair, they might have. These things don't usually got reported when it comes to big clubs, you only really here about it when the smaller clubs get theirs lol

The only reason I use the word 'transition' is because we've had this back 4 now for a good while now. Terry and Cahill particularly have been in their partnership for years and now it seems as if they're both going to be replaced simulatenously.. That I believe warrants calling it a transition because this in itself does bring a new system. Terry's lack of pace has been accomodated for years, but in Stones and Zouma we've got a backline that's comfortable on the ball and will probably play a higher line. I never said by this we can't challenge for the title. I truly believe we're going to be in the title race until the end of the season and whether we retain the Premer League or we don't I think we can call it a transition (if Terry and Cahill are being replaced by Zouma and Stones that is.)

And the biggest shame is that our beloved media will never pick up on that and that distorts the fan's and referee's perception of a player. I'm sure he doesn't care either to be honest, but it's a shame he's labelled with this tag when he's nothing like that.

And I kindly disagree with that. Transition doesn't mean you have to change the whole team, it means you're changing important areas of it. You're denying it to yourself if you don't consider that replacing 3/4 of our back 4 is a transition. Hell you can even argue 5 because this is Courtois' second season but now he's contending with a new look defensive lining. So why isn't that a transition? We've already had one in sorting out our attack, from the days of the horrendously dubbed "Mazacar" or whatever it was, we know seem to have an established attack in Costa, Hazard, Pedro, Willian/Oscar. We built a new team last season but that doesn't mean it's not continuing into this season.