Peace.

I'am against this signing. We aren't in a situation where we just have to make some adjustements to the squad. If it was the case, why not ? But we can't afford us to spend our time to get old and average players. We need to rebuild our squad, because it lacks of quality and freshness. What we need, is relatively young players (under their 26 I would say) who are at the top level, or who have the potential to get to the top level. Scott Parker doesn't fit the description. Though, if he is on a low basis wage and if his price tag is quite cheap, plus depending to our other signs, I wouldn't complain that much...

He is at Tignes, where he is training with France U20.

Yeah, King Kenny has a masterplan.

Barcelona's little players have ripped apart ManU's big boys.

We're agree. Though, I'd add to that list a second creative midfielder and a striker. Another creative midfielder because at the moment we have only McEachran and Benayoun who fit this description. Josh is too young to be an important player for the squad. And for Benayoun... He really isn't a world beater... A good little player yes, but he isn't the man who will make us beat Barça or ManU. And if the first creative mid is Mordic (what I hope for), then I want us to get someone who plays higher on the pitch, a bit like Nasri, Pastore or Ganso. A striker because Sturridge is the only striker we have in which I have confidence, for the whole season. Drogba is still good, and imo he can still deliver some classy performances, but he is 33 and will turn 34... I don't think he can be good all year long. I don't see why I could have an ounce of confidence in our very own Ladyboy. And then, we have Kalou... Do I need to explain ?

Why would we need him to replace Essien.. ? Anelka is here

Yes, and.....?

Lol, Chalobah is 16,5 years-old ffs.

Quite useful game actually, it has just proved that we have to offload : Anelka, Malouda, Kalou, Bosingwa if we want to be competitive.

Put Kalou and Bosingwa in a bag and ship them far away from England.

I co-sign.

Because, just as Arsanal, they're jealous of us.

Or he is underrated... Depends from which 'side' you are.

Yeah, by no means Hart was better than Cech or Van der Saar. I don't know which one from the two of them was the better, because they was both outstanding and really important for their team. But what is 100% sure, is that they were a class ahead of Hart.

Exactly my mind. To be honest I'd rather have Falcao or Aguero, but as you said that is better than nothing. By the way, 15m€ is a fair price compared to the £20m which was announced some weeks ago.

Fuck... We should try Aguero now.

Welcome back

Ahah...lol. Chill out man. That's just a picture. What I wanted to mean, is that we don't need another player whom the game is based on physical and athletic abilties. We just don't need someone who when you think about him, the first thing coming to your mind is "he is a beast !", but "he has a nice passing game". For example, what do you think when ou think about Essien ? "He is the bison", aren't you ? That means his physical abilities are more important to his game than his skill, or at least seem to people eyes to be more important. When thinking about Xavi Hernandez, the first thing coming in mind is his marvelous passing game. That is plane as that... Try to understand what is behind words. PS : Mikel has skill.

I would neither take the gamble to leave my hopes be laid on Torres' shoulders. Though I'm agree with your post. Thus it is kinda a dilemma.To my eyes, the better to sort it out would be to buy a new striker and let Drogba leave.

Don't know what make about this interview... Because obviously, he won't come out and tell the world "we're desperatly searching a man to replace Essien". I assume he said this just to calm down journos, and to prevent teams to inflate the price for their player. Either that or he means we won't look for another box-to-box midfielder.

This is a bit unfair in my opinion. I'd say the opposite ! When under pressure, I find him calm and composed, and he knows how to keep the ball. Furthermore, last year he was our only player (bar defenders) who seemed to be able to cope with pressure and keep the ball (I know I know, it doesn't say that much since all our players were more or less crap, but still).

Well, whether he threats the opposite team or not isn't a matter in itself. Actually, we have to look what goes around him to determine whether he does provide enough threat or not. Indeed, if you take a look at how the squad's, and more precisely the players', movements of last season, you could see that Ashley Cole (and Bosingwa when playing) played very high on the pitch ; Lampard and Essien were bombing forward but were quite slow to come back to defend ; Malouda wasn't really willing to provide a work rate. So, that means a lot of players were already providing a threat to the opposit team, thus our defensive line was to defend on his own. So, perhaps Mikel wasn't providing enough threat but, he was a back up for all those people who were going forward. In another words, the threat he didn't provided was made by other players (in particulary Cole). Then the reason - in my opinion - he wasn't going forward and wasn't involved in the attack was because he had to defend. I also believe it was an order from Ancelotti.

That would be bad actually, in my view. Considering the situation in which our squad is, we can't afford to sign temporary replacement. Because in six or twelve month, we will be in the same situation than right now, ie we will have to look for a new player to rebuilt an ageing squad.

I was talking about my post, I didn't write the thing I wrote in the right place.

Nooooooooooooooooo And that's a cry from my heart... Why buy another midfielder "defensive-minded" ?? In my honest opinion, the two we already have are enough. We should take profit of the situation, and fill the spot Essien leaves empty by someone who is another type of player. I mean we should replace him with a footballer (ie a guy who can make passes and has skill), not another beast.