Bir_CFC

I still don't understand why others haven't yet realized that they should play more 1-2s with him. Does it really take 2 years for them to see that he's looking to play 1-2s almost every single time. Eto'o is the only one that even tries and he's been here the shortest time. We would have won the league with even Giroud imo. He's a beast at 1-2s and layoffs, that's exactly what we need.

We just look clueless when teams decide to defend deep against us. No one is willing to make runs off the ball to stretch defenders, instead everyone wants to drop deep and create magic out of nothing. Schurrle had a decent game, Salah also looked good when he came on. We even had decent chances to get a draw, but it wasn't meant to be. No chance for the tile now, can't see City dropping 7 points. Fighting for 2nd or 3rd now and try to go as far as possible in the CL.

What's funny is that you guys are just arguing about the most random things haha. Going off random tangents every 2 posts haha. It started with Torres, you were both right since Elgius was looking at the impact to Chelsea's financial outlook in the FUTURE while didierforever was focused on the FFP impact whenever he was sold. It was a misunderstanding clearly because both things aren't even related. The rest of the discussion is beyond me haha.

Yeah, we were both right. You were looking at future projections with and without Torres and I was just focusing on the year itself he's sold. Management vs financial accounting

I don't understand what you mean here? You're comparing two alternatives, while I'm talking specifically from an accounting perspective. I agree, we'd be better off without Torres and with a striker who costs less, that's obvious, not even worth arguing, that's simple arithmetic (19m/year vs 12m/year). But in accounting it doesn't work like that. What I'm saying is like you mentioned that we have to look at his entire unamortized value when calculating the loss in the year he's sold.

What you fail to understand is that his transfer fee cannot be amortized if he's being sold. The ENTIRE unamortized transfer fee has to be recorded as a loss in the year he's sold. You can't sell him this year and record 10M loss and this year and then another 10M next year. Whenever he's sold, that's when the entire unamortized transfer fee has to be recorded as a loss. I can understand what you're trying to say, that he's costing us 19M/yr and the new striker will cost 12m/yr. But it doesn't work that way in basic accounting. If he's being sold, then the entire unamortized transfer fee has to be recorded as a loss in that same year. We'll be better off financially if he's off the books in the future, but the year he's sold in, we'd be forced to record a loss from his sale.

Not sure how you're getting gains? Unless we get a huge transfer for Torres, it's almost impossible to actually make a gain.

Cech Coleman --- Cahill --- Terry --- Azpilicueta Fernandinho --- Toure Sturridge ------ Silva ------ Hazard Suarez Subs: De Gea, Mertasacker, Lovren, Gerrard, Lallana, Rooney, Aguero

Your math is wrong. Whenever we sell Torres and replace him, this is how it works: Add: Torres transfer fee (10M maybe even less) Add: Torres wages for the year (9M) Deduct: Torres unamortized value (approx. 10M for each year remaining on contract) Deduct: New striker amortized transfer fee (30M for 5 years, 6M/yr) Deduct: New striker annual wages (6M) Last summer: 10M + 9M - 30M - 6M - 6M = 20M loss This summer: 10M + 9M - 20M - 6M - 6M = 13M loss Next summer: 10M + 9M - 10M - 6M - 6M = 3M loss Of course, if we can't even get 10M for Torres, then the losses get even bigger. The only real gain is the wages, because he's on considerably higher wages than 90% of the players that could possibly replace him.

Scholes is taking out all his United anger on Arsenal. Going in hard on em haha. Amazing to watch.

I'm not asking him to be sold just to get rid of him. Of course a good enough offer has to be there to allow us to buy replacements. And by saying second choice at Chelsea I don't mean he would be second choice at the moment. I mean he would be an IDEAL second choice striker in a competent strikeforce. Of course if next season we are going into the season with Torres, Ba and Lukaku, there is no way in hell I'd say he's second choice among those players. But I would say, that's not the ideal strikerforce for Chelsea to be able to compete with the best in Europe. I can understand the feeling that he could improve, but to believe that I would expected to see these improvements over the past 2 years. Since I didn't, hence why I reached the conclusions I did. If he had shown improvements here, I would be busting a nut waiting for him because then the potential would be scary. I mean can you imagine a biggest, stronger, faster Drogba. We'll never agree because you clearly feel he's improved while I feel the opposite, but good discussion

The biggest change in our playing style this year has been our high pressing. Oscar is the one who triggers this. At the moment, he's asked to trigger the press, help recover possession and play on the peripheries and let Hazard shine. If Jose wanted the goals and assists from his #10 he would have kept Mata and sold Oscar. Oscar is doing what Jose wants him to do, based on that is why I say he was on form during the first half of the season. That's like saying why doesn't Modric get 10 tackles a match when he plays in the pivot? That's not what his coach wants of him. Jose realizes Oscar's strength and weaknesses and he's built the team around his strengths. I can understand you want your #10 to get goals and assists. Every Chelsea fan does, we all remember Mata go ape shit here for 2 years after all. But it doesn't seem Jose values that as much as he does the other things Oscar brings to the table. However, I do feel he sees the potential that Oscar would eventually be able to be a bit more decisive, but he's young and has shown improvements so I do feel he will get better and turn those weak points into strengths. We need to be patient, because if he does develop his creative side, he'll turn into one of the most complete footballers in the world. Dude will be worth 50-60M easy. When's the last time you've ever seen a ball winning #10 who can also contribute 10 goals & 10 assists. That's a realistic possibility with Oscar, that shit is scary. Similar to Lamps, as in he is a unique and will give any team that competitive advantage if he continues to develop.

I'm not asking him to be sold. If you read again, I want him to be second choice and be used like Torres. But I do feel that he won't be able to improve his weaknesses enough and will only ever be good enough to be considered 2nd choice and so if someone comes in with a huge offer for a second choice striker, we should definitely consider it. Similar to Mata really, doesn't mean he's a bad player, just doesn't fit the requirements of what Chelsea need in a striker and is therefore expendable if and only if the right offer comes in. I don't see the improvement in some key areas. He's scoring goals no doubt. He'll always score goals, I'll never doubt that but I don't see the improvement. His weaknesses when he joined were: Poor first touchPoor at holding the ball upPoor in the airPoor defensive workratePoor offensive awarenessThose are still his weaknesses. Doesn't matter if he's young, it's been 2 years and everyone will still say those are still his weaknesses. Mind you, this doesn't mean he's a bad player. I just don't think his strengths align with what Jose and Chelsea require in a first choice striker. I think he'd be great as second choice striker and be used like Torres is at the moment against teams that allow space in behind where he'll only have to call upon his strengths. Similar to how Schurrle fits in our AM band. He's not good on the ball and struggles when involved in the build-up but is completely different player off the ball, running into spaces and utilizing his strengths. I also realize no player is perfect. Everyone has weaknesses and it's easy to write-up ten paragraphs about every player and their weakness. So my point isn't really that he has weaknesses or he hasn't improved in those areas. I bring up those weaknesses because unfortunately to fit in this Chelsea team, he needs those specific qualities. So when I say he hasn't improved, I am speaking in relative to what I feel we need in a first choice striker. In other teams, they may not care about a striker who can hold the ball up, win aerial duels consistently, link up and get 10 assists every season. These teams would sell prime Drogba for prime Torres. Nothing wrong with that, doesn't mean they are bad players, just means they aren't good fits. Similar to Mata, just cause we sold him doesn't make him a bad player. He just doesn't fit imo. The only way he'll ever be good enough to be first choice is if he improves drastically in the areas that I listed. So to project his future, I'm focused on those specific attributes and I haven't seen much improvement there over 2 years, hence I don't feel he'll ever be turn those into strengths required for Chelsea. Second choice striker against teams that allow space. Impact sub when you need a goal. That's what I project for him as far it goes for Chelsea. And based on that, that player isn't worth 30M for Chelsea specifically. As in, you wouldn't want Jose to spend 30M for a second choice striker. Depending on playing style, he might be worth that on other teams, so if an extraordinary offer comes we should definitely consider it.

The problem is Lukaku isn't really improving. His biggest flaws two years ago are all still there. But if we can live with Torres, we can live with Lukaku. His link up play is bad, can't hold up the ball, while being huge, isn't good in the air. His assets are that he's big and fast and can finish. He should be used like Jose is using Torres this year. Against teams that allow us space. If he's happy with that role, he's welcome to stay. But if we get a huge offer, don't see why we shouldn't sell a perennial second choice striker.

Dude is 22, why sell him? He will keep on improving. Even if you wait 2 more years, you could still easily get the 30-35M transfer fee for him. First half of the season, his form was amazing, on par and some months even better than Hazard. He's still having a hard time adjusting it seems, his off form period aligns with winter in London.

United's defence is too shit to hold out City. Only chance they have is to outscore City which I don't think is possible either. Really don't think United can win, hoping for a 2-2 draw.

Jeez, instead of bickering back and forth. Let's have a scout report on PSG. Since loads of PSG fans joined, let's have a scout report on what your team will be most likely and how do you reckon Blanc will set em up tactically? I'm sure I'm not the only one who hasn't seen PSG outside of a few CL ties this year.

We need to win out (possible) and need City to drop 4 points. Not sure they will drop 4 points now that the PL is all they have to focus on now. Fucking Chris Foy and Aston Villa, I know one match doesn't decide the title but it might cost us dearly.

Neymar was so bad. Didn't even look like belonged on that pitch. Bale and Ronaldo were bad too. First half was amazing, one of the best halves of the year. Second was garbage, flopping, diving, horrible calls everywhere.

Some comedy floating around on the web:

Someone just tell Schurrle we're playing 2 second halves. The rest should be good.

Not sure why people think PSG haven't been tested. They walk the Ligue 1 every year so their focus every year is entirely on the CL. They almost knocked out Barca last year in the CL, while going toe-to-toe, not sitting back and they got better this year. Not an easy draw at all. I'd say it's 50/50 right now. While, they have a great attack, we have a good defence. Where I do worry is that, we may be able to stop them to some extent but will we be able to score? Especially when we'll most likely be playing on the counter and their fullbacks + Silva have good pace and Matuidi also works like a dog. We MUST take our chances. 1-1 in Paris and 1-1 in London witch a winner in ET maybe. Very very close. Got to take our chances otherwise the defence will be put under too much pressure, and with Cavani and Ibra you have to think if we give them too many chances, they will eventually break through. Wish we had Matic available and a better striker.

Fellaini was a beast at time wasting haha

Don't want - Bayern, Real or Athletico. Fine with the rest. Althletico is not a good matchup for us imo especially with our midfield and Real are Bayern are just a class apart on paper.

Right before the final whistle, give away a deliberate penalty and let Drogba replicate the two-step pen he had against Bayern. Bring the trophy out and let him run around with it too. haha