Madmax

Top priority IMO should be a creative attacking midfielder. The injury to Lampard has just demonstrated where we stand without his attacking impetus, creativity and ability to spot and make that killer pass.

Meh. Need a creative midfielder more than anything. Tired of seeing us linked with strikers/centre-backs. I don't expect us to make signings in the next month though.

^ Precisely. These aren't current year figures. The current financial year is ongoing ffs.

^ He's a 6'4'' 15 yo!

-Ignore-

You've opened a big can of worms there

Cork, Bertrand, Mancienne, Sinclair, Stoch, sigh. Hope Burnley get promoted, want to see the boy in the EPL.

Thanks for the considerate nature of your proposition

Ask here - http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/8521-arsenal/

So much wrong up there but I'm not in the mood for more arguments today.

When I post using the 'quote' option (NOT reply or multiquote), the text in the box is black in colour, against a dark blue background, making it impossible to read. Any ideas why? Or am I the only one doing something wrong?

How much time does Joe Cole need? He can't be compared to Ramires at all. Cole has played in England all his life, 9 of those years in the top flight, 7 of them with 1 team. Ramires has changed countries twice in two years!

Jose really has no business talking about this, but then that's Jose.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

"Inter Milan and Rafael Benitez can announce that they have reached a mutually satisfactory agreement for the early termination of his contract. "Inter thank Rafael Benitez for his work in leading his team to success in the Italian Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup." So it went something like this then - Rafa : I won the Mickey Mouse Cup, so you better show me the money or fire me. Moratti : Ok. YOU'RE FIRED! Rafa :

He allegedly turned down contract offers from Man United, Arsenal and Tottenham in the summer, yet chose Liverpool. Why? To play in the Europa League? He gets a 100k a week at Liverpool, something everybody understands he isn't worth. Look at his performances now to know why. Carlo kept saying the whole of last season that Cole will sign a new contract and that everybody wants him to stay. JT and Lampard said the same, but he didn't. Because under the cost cutting measures Roman refused to cave in to his demands of a higher wage than what he was on at that time.

Agreed about Modric, though you don't really know if we indeed made an offer for Aguero or not.

When asked if he would have pursued Cole if he had arrived at Anfield earlier, Hodgson replied: "It's a difficult one for me to answer. I was involved in the discussion with him, but the initiative and the desire to take Joe did come from Christian perhaps more so than myself because I wasn't in the position to say these are the players we should be targeting as I hadn't been offered the job at that point. "I played my part in persuading him it was a good move, but I made it clear I couldn't promise him a certain position. I made it very clear Steven Gerrard was staying, and the competition for the one spot, if it was the one spot he wanted, was going to be very tough. "He's not so much a player I can really take responsibility for. I'd have to share the responsibility for Joe, less so than for people like [Christian] Poulsen, [Raul] Meireles and [Paul] Konchesky, who are players I was quite happy to bring to the club." Cole has endured a tough first six months to his Liverpool career, earning a red card on his league debut, and he is yet to open his domestic account for the Reds. For a player that has never been blessed with pace or a quality left foot, there are suggestions that Hodgson is playing Cole out of position on the left wing, but the Liverpool manager insists the problem is with the player himself. "I think he has got to do it on the field of play," Hodgson said in The Times. "With all the best will in the world, people can be in support or not in support, some will say he's not doing it, and some will say he's unlucky because he's not playing in the right position. "But I don't have any truck with that. Joe is a midfield player, and what's the right position for a midfield player? Gerrard has played all over midfield for as long as I can remember. "You'll have to ask him what isn't working. If he says the only place he can play is behind the striker, he is limiting his chances of playing here. We also have Gerrard and Meireles who can play in that position, and we also have a situation where at the moment quite often we are playing with two strikers. "I would be sad to hear him saying something like that, because he would be suggesting he can't do what he has done so often in the past for England and Chelsea, which is playing in a different position. "Joe has to come to terms with the fact that he has come here after an unsuccessful period at Chelsea with high hopes of taking Liverpool by storm and unfortunately it's not happened. That's life. He should have great confidence in his ability as he is a very good footballer. As far as I am concerned, everything he has to say should be said on that patch of green grass. "He should be convincing me and everyone watching that this is a player who can help Liverpool win things. And I think you couldn't say that has been the case so far." soccernet

It is official now. Bye bye Benitez.

I did that, also Neymar ... twice bitten, thrice shy

His agent : 'The boy is disappointed by the behaviour of Chelsea, which put him out of the squad despite the excellent things he did last season.' He went on further to add that the Italian striker remained positive about staying in England. 'Ancelotti has great respect for him, and this affects a lot. He would return with pleasure to Italy but it is not necessary yet.' 'The boy grew up in England and he loves English football. We will evaluate the offers that will come but I wouldn't be surprised if he stays in the Premier League.'

A lot of talk about someone who's never going to come here

Pathetic attitude.