Tomo

If by some disaster we lose Cech and Courtois through injury I think we will be allowed to register Mark, even outside of January.

If Cech goes id like to see us spend on a HG number 2, Ruddy possibly. Teams are starting to spend on high quality back up, Tottenham got Vorm in, Arsenal signed Ospina and City have Caberello. Mark last season actually reminded me of Hilario (who was better than given credit for) come in for a one off game, no problem but I felt he really struggled at the back end of last season playing a run of games.

I said a couple days ago, well drilled and balanced sides will beat this Real Madrid team more often than not.

Ramires and Mikel pivot please Jose.

Had a dream (well nightmare) Last night that one of my best friends got the chief executive job at Chelsea and the first thing he did was give Torres a new contract.

That's why im hoping we get Benatia, I would rather he signs than a back up forward to be honest (with our medical team, I would be happy to take the risk of Costa being fit). Cahill is a good player to play with a leader or a top class CB, but to be the main man i don't think he can, that's why i always said he isn't captain material. If Cahill and Zouma start together in league or CL, I will be having panic attacks pre kick off.

He said it during the season after at some point, and the "other players" had the sense to keep there gobs shut. That's if there was other players.Ash didn't play for weeks yet celebrated our winner last season vs Everton like the supporters.

Torres: I didn't care if Chelsea won or lost.

I said back in May that we had 3 major issues and 3 minor issues to be adresssed. The major one's were top forward, creative deep player and left back, solved within a month, the minor one's are back up striker, WC centre back and CM depth. The major ones were the priority but if we can get a back up striker and/or Benatia would be as close to the perfect window we could have.

Exactly, I genuinely think we would beat this Madrid side more often than not, the AMs won't do there defensive work and if as expected Kross and Modric are the pivot then no true DM protecting an already weak back line. I think they will be a better version of Liverpool last season, will smash some shit teams into submission, but ultimately come unstuck when the likes of Simeone or Mourinho turns up with a smart tactical approach.

Full backs are fine, we have 3 top quality players and a talented youngster, imo CB could do with a prime player like Benatia.

In an ideal world we threaten him with the Malouda treatment and if he doesn't go actually go through with it, and in the mean time find an good foil for Costa.

If Costa gets a hat-trick against Leicester and one at Goodison, he would already be a quarter of the way to Fernandos league tally for us.

In what way are people being disrespectful exactly? Because they don't want him to do well at one of our competitive rivals? If he does well United might do well and if United do well then it could affect us. I appreciate what he did for us, but he's gone now and when we go to Old Trafford I hope (and think) Matic will nullify him, if he had the worse game of his career im happy, doesn't mean I hate him, i mean because our chances of winning go up. I hope he never wins a trophy again in England, that doesn't mean I hate him, I just want Chelsea to win them all. I would laugh if he doesn't have CL football next season, doesn't mean I hate him, he just plays for a club I can't stand.

That's the thing, last night was the Ivanovic we saw under Ancelotti, like TOPTB said when players are making runs and putting themselves in the box Ivanovic isn't anywhere near as bad going forward as popular opinion suggests.

He said in his Chelsea tv interview that he was thinking of shooting but saw Andre in a better position.

I said this in pre season so this isn't a knee jerk based on tonight but I have honestly not been do convinced about a signing for so long, this guy has everything to succeed especially in our system.

Do you remember Seaman in the latter stages of his career? He was all over the place and conceding corner goals against Macedonia. VDS is the only example in recent times that stayed to a high level till he was 40, for one VDS there are hundreds of Cassilas and Givens.

Behind every great defence is a great keeper. The Rio, Vidic and Evra defensive axis that was lauded to high heaven, Rio himself admitted they wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for VDS. If Leti started playing Ross Turnbull then there great defence would quickly look a shadow of it's former self.

Anelka, Malouda and Lamps weren't in 2008, but we should have still acted in advance and looked at long term replacements. As for this earned thing, were you also kicking off in 2004 when Petr replaced Carlo?

The club really cannot win can they?Let players get old and stagnate (like Malouda, Anelka, Essien) we are too sentimental and succumbing to player power, act in advance in replacing a player and we're cunts disrespecting players. It seems like so many are happy to constantly contradict themselves for the sake of having a whine.

Ten years ago the same argument was being made re Cech and Cudicini, i used the BBC forum back then and when it was revealed Cech was starting vs United the place was like feeding time in the zoo.

I can understand the argument for Cech but nothing to earn it? Come on, if we didn't own him then it would probably have took a Buffon like fee to get him outof Leti.

A weak league?

The thing is, our 11/12 team were so crap that no one really cared about any defiency Mata had because he (along with Danny and Rami) were the only ones performing anywhere close to consistently, we were in a beggers can't be choosers moment as a club. Not many complained about Ramires lack of technical ability in 11/12, why? Because despite that he was light years ahead of the alternatives, now there is quality alternatives for him, he gets more complaints. Similar as to why Mata's lack of workrate and off the ball game got mentioned more when we had quality depth in attacking midfield and not Anelkalouda waiting if Juan couldn't play. Also RDM didn't build the team around him, he had Mazacar interchanging, Benitez came in and had to get us top 3, so he did what was best in the short term, build the team around Mata (Hazard and Oscar were young in there first season, so it wouldn't have been fair to put that pressure on then) with the bus firmly parked in behind him. Benitez likes his teams to be solid and tough to beat, if he got the full time gig there's every chance he might have dropped Juan to.