Tomo

Under Mourinho I would rather have a very hard middle or end than start.Mou's blueprint for title's is starting like a steamtrain and staying at the top come hell or high water, his team's don't have a good track record of chasing down team's, which is what we could well have to do this time looking at those fixtures. But on the flip side if we end October top it would be a very very strong position.

The start we have is brutal.

Was he really that good in the first place? Or did we cling on and overrate him a bit because our team was bang average at the time?

getting there from the tube is a fucker.

Arsenal have their coaches, can't see them rocking the boat, we all know Wenger is a stubborn man and wouldn't agree to that even if Cech kicks his heels in. Although if he does go we have a ready made replacement in Silvino Louro so while it will be a blow it won't be the end of the world.

Szczesny is an Arsenal fan aswell as player, apart from Spurs were be the last team he joins.

Im pretty sure it won't be long before Varane gets in ahead of Cahill if it takes time atall.

It would make sense tbf, he's came here played a bit part but made a decent contribution winning a couple of medals then wants to go and play week in week out. Infact I called it in January that the very scenario could play out, I hope im wrong tho.

Even Schwarzer was a shadow of his Boro self for us as was Freidel at Spurs (his staticness drove them insane). Even Schmeichel and Seaman declined rapidly at the end. Keeper's like Van Der Sar maintaining world class level upto 40 is very rare.

What gives me some hope is Drogba had a stinker of a calendar year in 2008 (every bit as bad as Falcao at United) but recovered and was better under Hiddink then 09/10 he exploded and was unstoppable (37 goals only 1 pen in 41 games is a crazy record).

What I do notice from my experience's not only online but in real life is the people who rarely see him think he's overrated and overhyped yet the one's who watch him regularly think he is a great player and will only get better. £50m plus in isolation is a lot, but 10-12 year's of one of the best player's in the world would make that price worth it.

Hogsdon is perfect for a middle club with no ambition and happy to just get by. For clubs/countrys with ambitions to improve and evolve he is horrible, England will get to the Euros by default and get humiliated again.

City and United (possibly Arsenal too) will spend big this summer, we must match them, we should know as much as anyone that not refreshing the squad leads to massive problems eventually and if you want to create an era of dominance you cant stand still even for one season. I have faith we wont make the same mistake as we did in 2010 however despite winning the title comfortably we still have holes in the squad that need adressing, proactive CB, another quality CM (not as defensive as Matic but more astute than Cesc and Rami in that department), maybe an AM a striker, it will not only improve our first team but give us more quality depth of trusted players which we lacked this time. As Cechs replacement Begovic is ideal but realistically we will probably get Ruddy or Green, defence Varane's the dream but realistically Alderwierld would be a top addition, we need a DCB than can stand on his own two feet with JT out because lets be honest the Cahill-Zouma combo has been anything but convicing in the all be it limited time theve had togetherr, CM Pogba ideally but again might have to look elsewhere, strikerr looks set to be Falcao, guess on a loan we cant lose. Clyne/Stones and a good depth player to be extra greedy. Basically last decade we didn't improve when we were on top, we must this time, we are heading in a very great path, but we ain't there yet.

Fair enough, I'd be happy with Ruddy, my ideal would be Begovic despite not being HG.

Theres a reason he has never even been second choice for Stoke and that is because he isn't very good, i saw a lot of Birmingham games with him there and he bordered on awful half the time, his shot stopping was horrendous i remember a game vs Boro in 12/13 when Birmingham won 3-2 and even Turnbull would have saved the two he let in. Im with you in the HG back up, but we need to be aiming for better than Butland imo.

Is it because he's a "liability" or is it down to instructions by Jose? Ivanovic basically plays like a winger half the time so we are hardly gunna have the other fullback bombing forward all the time. When Cesar has gone forward he has contributed some decent play, prime example Costa's winner at Anfield.

Drogba was playing ahead of Remy on merit before Christmas. Remy got injured vs Marinbor, Didier then scored 3 in a week and was on good form after that, as soon as that changed Remy was back at #2.

City mean business this window now the FFP rules are being relaxed. We need to match them, we can't let City be the big window winner's like they did for us last summer.

I think the biggest clue is we are getting linked with RBs and not LBs (Cresswell aside but he will clearly be nothing beyond cover) is the biggest clue Cesar has LB on lockdown until he declines. For all this Jose loves Ivanovic talks he is 100 times more likely to lose his place next season than Azpi.

I don't get the way the do they track back line is used in a joke manner. Fullbacks are constantly judged on what they offer going forward infact even Cesar gets criticised for not offering a lot going forward (although I believe that's more down to instructions but that's for another argument) despite being as good a defender as anyone around right now so why shouldn't the question be asked in reverse for wingers?

All this talk about milking Arsenal or getting player's in return forget it, we have no position of strength in this deal whatsoever, he wants to leave and it appears the board will give him the choice of were ever he wants to go. We will probably get a solid £10m but that's about it.

Yeah but considering their is no more club games till then the window practically is open in everything but formality.

It is, but so is the best part of two decades with the best keeper of his generation.

I don't get the obsession with big game record's, no player has a flawless big game record, they are big game's for a reason. Cesc has had his moment's in big games himself, not least assisting a world cup winning goal.

No it isn't, United took over half a decade to replace Schmeichel properly and Arsenal still haven't really replaced Seaman, I can't stress enough how lucky we are to flick from one world class keeper to the other. Say Cech leaves this summer and Tibo next? Who could we bring in that's anywhere near the level of Courtois? We could end up with our very own Barthez. Quality world class keeper's are gold dust in this day in age, there's a reason Real are prepared to break the bank for this guy and unless we can replace him like for like (we can't) we shouldn't even consider letting him go.