Tomo

Considering inflation 30m back then is about 50m now i would guess. In an ideal world we would wait until Luke has proven himself further, but sadly we don't seem to have that option.

In all seriousness Phil Jones had top potential but was completely mismanaged by Fergie.

In principle i agree, but if we get a good decade and a half out off him the price tag will be the last thing on our minds. Rio Ferdinand is leaving United after 12 years off service, not one United fan gives 2 shits about his price tag now.

If, for argument sake, we got 90 points but another team went crazy and hit 94. while we also lose the CL final on pens vs Barca, do we still sack Jose despite getting a points tally that would be more than enough 99 times out of 100 and taking our CL right to the wire? It's not as simple as win x or y, infact knockout comps shouldn't be used as a bareometer for a managers ability until a good few are won, or are you telling me you would want Alex McLeish or Juande Ramos walking out of the Stamford Bridge tunnel and turning left to take his seat?

For 30m, we could tie down the left back position for over a decade, Shaw would also be part of the homegrown core that every football club needs, he is also a Chelsea fan. Yes 30m is a bit steep, but sometimes you just have to pay that bit extra. We can't let him go to United, we just can't.

Crespo WASNT a flop, the rest were but Crespo wasn't (ill always bite when i see that).

If both play the LC and the early FA games that's a good 9-10 apps in itself if all goes to plan, both can cover at RB which is an added bonus. I remember in 11-12 Smalling and Jones were young defenders but Fergie managed to challenge for the title and find appropriate game time for the pair, no reason Jose can't do the same.

Kalas and Zouma could be a beastly partnership if developed right. We should keep them both next season and give them 15-20 games each. The only issue is because they ar both so young, we won't be able to play them together much immediately outside of domestic cup's.

Am i the only one who doesn't think he's captain material?

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.