Tomo

I think Eto'o would be fine as a squad option next year, his experience alone would be invaluable not to mention he is a big game player, the other 2 however can't leave soon enough. Regarding the 2 games i agree with Villa as they were leaving stupid amount of space, Palace played with such a low block he would have found it tough. That said he would have buried the chance Torres got in that game.

Munich was incredible, an amazing underdog story but that was it, underdog, we were rubbish that season and could barely string 2 wins together for the most part, Munich was an incredible moment but it didn't change the fact we still had a long way to go before we were back at the top pyramid of football. Last season was a little baby step in the right direction, Hazard, Oscar and Azpi helped breath some fresh energy in a stale squad but we still had the problem of the squad being terribly unbalanced with no distinct style of play. Jose has come in, and we are looking like a club with a direction again, Jose has set a blueprint to make us a solid counter attacking team in the mould of Leti this year and Bayern the year before, no more floating around in endless transitions making strange signings with no plan on how to integrate them, no more player power, no 50m flops getting unconditional minutes over vastly superior players, the manager is incharge and it's his way or the high way.

I really think that the Lukaku factor is being massively overplayed. Their seems to be this general consensus that he's our best forward and if we kept him we would have been champions, personally i don't think either are true. Eto'o has managed 12 in all comps despite being heavily rotated and barely getting full 90 minutes all season, under the same circumstances i reckon Lukaku would have got around the same tally for us. If Eto'o and Lukaku both stay to back up our new forward presumably Costa, you will be in for a shock when Jose regularly choses the maturity and experience of Samuel of the bench and when Costa is unavailable.

Bushman has been overlooked here.

The thing is Luiz is good in CM with Matic but say god for bid Matic gets a long lay off? Luiz isn't any where near as comfortable with Lamps and his partnership with Rami is a ticking time bomb.

Using his goal/assist record for me is far to easy a way to look at thing's and overlooks what he actually brings to the table. Now im not saying he will reach that level but Bergkamp is imo the most naturally gifted player in PL history, yet look at his stats and you will see a striker who during his time in England netted once every 3 and a half games. The balance Willian offers is amazing, it seems a cool trait these days to mock wingers doing the dirty work but ask yourself this? if we give Willian offensive freedom, who the hell protects our full back next time we play Everton and 2 off Piennar, Oviedo and Baines are bombing forward at will? I see some think 'but if we wanted a work horse winger we could have got one for 5m' possibly but i bet that player would have serious technical limit, wouldn't be able to bring the ball out and keep it under pressure like Willian does naturally, and this said player would probably get dispossessed in dodgy positions, which seldom happens to Willian.

If we can't get rid of him this is the next best thing, the 5m we save could fund the next bargain ala Azpilicueta.

Its the under 21 league, so technically Hazard can play if we want him to due to the 3/4 over 21 rule. Baker and Ake only have one final, so they should have enough in the tank for a cameo.

I would rather give Eto'o an extra year than bring Drogba back as a player. Partly because of the whole thing of THAT kick being his last for Chelsea, but also because, apart from the end off season big games, he was poor in his last two season's here. It also might take him a while to settle back into playing in a major league again, like it did Eto'o and he was 4 years younger than Drogba would be this season.

There's no chance RLC and Christenson will play, they have 2 final's to play this week and will be pretty drained. Those 2 have as much chance of featuring as Dabo, in other words none. Kalas will probably start, MVG might and one of Baker or Ake might come on as sub, other than that the first team will play, furthermore i want to win this to hit the 80 point mark (something to build on) and you never know, Newcastle could do us a favour and help us snatch 2nd.

I initially was against the 2 WC keepers at the club, still a bit skeptical, but with the Lopez/Casillas situation at Real where Lopez got La Liga games and Iker the cup comps, could that be a way to go for next season? Courtois in league, Cech in cups. That is probably the smoothest way to make the transition bar selling Cech the minute Courtois arrives.

He still has a long way to go before he is a first team player, blew very hot and cold in the final. His raw talent is obvious but if he is going to use a play me or let me go ultimatum to the club at this age, only one thing will happen.

Expanding on the goal stats from our forwards earlier. Torres in the prem - just under 1 in 6. All comps - just over 1 in 4. Eto'o in the prem - just over 1 in 2. All comps - just under 1 in 3. Ba in the prem - just under 1 in 5. All comps - just under 1 in 4. Also bear in mind Ba has barely got 90 minutes since arriving and Torres got unconditional full outings between Drogba leaving and Ba arriving make it even more damming for Nando. Ba is not very good and no where near Chelsea standard but nothing will convince me he's worse than Torres.

Don't even joke about that

I don't know what's worse, that goal return or the fact we have let him play 109 times for us in the prem. Eto'o is 10 goals behind with 88 games in hand, yet up to about 3 months ago people were still saying Torres was best out of the two.

19 league goals in 109 games. To put that figure into perspective Eto'o has 9 in 21 and Di Santo for Wigan had 13 in 92.

I would love to keep Eto'o as a squad player for one more year, should he accept it. I still think he has it in him to produce big performance's with correctly managed game time, his return of 12 goals this season has been impressive considering the circumstances.

Imagine if most of these players in the team this season played in the U18 league instead of the reserves/U21? We would dominate that division like no tomorrow.

It has been brought up a few times on various sites that i read, some doubt if a striker will make much difference because of the way we play. I do agree that we still need a lot more than merely a forward to sort our overall game out, for sure.

The myth is slowly creeping in that because our system isn't solely based on the striker that a top one won't make a great deal off difference. What i would say is look at the difference a fully fit Eto'o makes compared to Torres and Ba, so imagine an even further upgrade in Costa. Im not saying he alone will turn us into a unbeatable machine, but all the knock downs from Ba that go nowhere, the passes both cock up and the lack of movement from Nando especially, Costa would do those basics even if he is playing awful, which is already a bonus.

If City don't win, a replica trophy will go to Cardiff on the last day.

Like Norwich last year the tie should have been over by halftime off the first leg, we got away with it this time thankfully. The progress with our youth system is mindblowing, 5 finals and 3 wins in 7 years is unbelievable, the next step is getting the best one's in the first team. We are also the first team to reach 3 YC finals in a row since the Busby babes. On another note that Roberts kid for Fulham is something very special.

Wilkins said Carlo wanted Torres and we nearly got him after the WC before he signed a new Liverpool contract. The board didn't help matters, but it's laughable how Carlo escapes blame for that season, sterile tactics, kept reapeating the same thing over and over, naming line up's in press conferences, getting tactically outsmarted by Kenny Dalglish of all people.

The board made the signing's before he got here, i think the RDM full time spell showed Roman that pretty football isn't pretty at all if the results don't follow, hench why Rafa was brought in, to get us CL footy and maybe a cup, object achieved but it weren't pretty. Regarding Carlo, a lot of people here stuck up for him and often used the 'you lack loyalty' jibe to people that wanted him out. I wanted him to get another season to rectify it, but i do put a fair portion of the blame for that season on him, which is why it annoys me when i keep reading things implying that his tenure was all roses and sexy football, it wasn't.

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/premier-league/ballbesitz/wettbewerb_GB1.html We have the highest ball possession in the league. http://www.squawka.c...otal#desc#total Filter by chances created, and you will see us 2nd. Not bad for a team that supposedly only plays defensive football, and has no creativity. A couple of top strikers will sort this out. Eto'o has been good but can't play week in week out anymore, Ba and Torres hinder this team so much.