Tomo

I really don't see the big fuss on this Liverpool team, i swear they are only hyped up because of their history. I mean up to about March they were toe to toe with Swansea, yet who were getting talked as dark horses to make a late top 4 push? Who cares if they won 3 in a row? they did the same under Woy at one point, they got 7/9 in their first 3 under Kenny. Tell me this apart from Suarez, Gerrard, and maybe Sturridge (at a push Agger), who would be anything other than a squad player for us? (including Coutinho, his poor work rate would drive Jose mental). Most of their fans think Moses will be first choice, our 7th choice attacker if going to start regularly for a team supposedly challenging for top 4 and maybe dark horses for the title? It just doesn't add up, i seem to be the only one that thinks it's 6th place for them this season (at best), quality wise they are still a long way of the current top 5 imho.

If say Fabio for Manchester United had a fantastic loan at QPR and then went to Everton, the same people bashing our board/Jose would be praising United for giving a young player a great loan programme and a real chance to prove his worth in the PL and be bashing our board for not doing similar to our's. We can't win.

How on earth do our fans not support him? seriously? what do we have to do to support him? demand he is a number 1 striker here (a position he wasn't even at West Brom)? I hope (actually screw that i know) he will be a great player for us in the future but he isn't yet i don't see the shame on admitting that. He has gone on a fantastic loan, short of going to Athletico Madrid, i can't think of a better (realistic) loan he could have gone on. The way some are reacting you would think he has gone to Yeovil or Vittesse.

Sorry but i had to respond to this. AVB? this the same AVB that refused to play a 22 year old promising left back in Ryan Bertrand outside the league cup, and when Cole was injured choosing Bosingwa to play a left back ahead of him? The same AVB that wouldn't give minutes to McEachran outside of the league cup? even off the bench when we were winning comfortably (admittedly that didn't happen too much under the Portuguese). The same AVB that gave ignored Lukaku himself despite a misfiring strike force? Also he treated Lukaku so bad to the point where he said he will never forgive Andre. He played Romeu a bit for about a month, but as soon as he had a few bad games quickly dropped him too. You could say Sturridge, but alternatively we could say Mikel and even Huth to a lesser extent for Jose in his last time here.

Hopefully when he scores at the Shed End he will remember not to go to the away support this time

Message me some question's and ill answer them best i can

I think they were more preparing for a possible situation than anything else, i don't think anyone actually fell out of love with Mata. I love Mata but i don't think he is irreplaceable, i don't think any player in the world is quite frankly, Manchester United lost Ronaldo and since have won 2 title's and lost out on the other two by 1 point and goal difference, Arsenal lost RVP last summer and despite dropping a place gained in terms of points. They gained a place and in points the season before that despite losing Cesc and Nasri. If the worst comes to the worst and we lose Mata any time soon, we should be able to cope and if we can't then there's something seriously wrong with our team. Don't get me wrong under no circumstances do i want Mata sold, but i think people were trying to say the team will still be strong enough to kick on if it happened or happens in the future.

Some of you are sounding like the receiving half in an abusive relationship with this "he has changed". If Jose couldn't get Kaka back to life, how on earth will he with Torres?

Actually that is not true (well not straight away anyway). In 04/05 they started the season like a steam train with no handbrakes, they were actually playing better than they did at any point in their unbeaten season, they thrashed Everton 4-1 at Goodison (a game they drew 1-1 in their unbeaten season), beat Blackburn 3-0 (only won it 1-0 the season before), slaughtered Norwich, beat Fulham 3-0 (a fixture they needed a VDS error to win in the unbeaten season), beat Charlton 4-0 and after the 9th game they were 5 points and 20 goals ahead of Chelsea. At one point it looked like they might have gone unbeaten back to back, and in an even better style. Arsenal were top class in 04/05, they were just beaten to the title by an absolute freak of nature team.

No that's not true but it seems every time he scores old wounds get opened up and very few actually discuss the goal he scored or the game he had, just the same "we should have given him more of a chance" (which we should have). I mean Anelka had a good game for West Brom on Sunday and his thread wasn't even touched.

Spot on, too many people think with their hearts and not their head's (in general, not just on here).

I hated him at Barcelona just like i hated Rafa at Liverpool. But (im only speaking for myself) when i found out Rafa was Chelsea manager i put that all for one side, focused on the positives he had as a manager and got on with supporting him (while he was here) and the team. For me it's the same with Eto'o, it will be more respect for the job he does (like with Rafa) than love. To put it simpler Eto'o's my striking Rafa while Drogba's my Mourinho.

I have given my thoughts on the Lukaku loan in his thread, so i won't repeat myself here. Many managers in the past play players out of position (Fergie on Kagawa a quick example in my head, you can't single out Jose for that) and Van Ginkel has just joined a new country at a young age, Ronaldo was often an unused sub in his first season at United, same for RVP at Arsenal.

A team that are probably going to be in the bottom half or a team that are likely to be in the top 7? We are not a charity.

If we were choosing one player to keep and one to sell, then no keeping Ba over Lukaku would have been the wrong choice on so many levels, but having Ba as 3rd choice and letting Lukaku develop his skills at the 6th/7th best team in the country is a genius move for both club and player in the long haul. If we loaned out Ba he would have came back to us next year as he is a now (a decent squad player) but Lukaku is going to have a genuine chance to grab a #1 spot at a club (which lets be honest he is still 2/3 years away from getting here) challenging for Europa if not top 4 places. Young players don't often get such high caliber loans, Lukaku has been given a fantastic opportunity here.

like who?

What about Mirallas?

If he has that type of mentality i would drive him to a new permanent club myself.

We have more of a hope with Ba tbh. Torres has been shite for 3 years, Ba has been shite since Febraury so there's still enough time to say Ba's on a mere bad run of form, where with Torres is goes deeper than that. Eto'o will surprise us this season i think.

Like i said before, im not convinced the plan was to loan him, but when the Everton chance came along, it was too good to turn down, and we haven't fucked him, we have given him a very very good loan at a top 7 side in the best league in the world, if we loaned him to Vittesse then i will agree, but simply he has been given a great opportunity here, probably one he pushed for himself when he heard of Everton's intrest. He would have played enough if he stayed i have no doubt about that, but at Everton he will most likely play every week, i personally reckon he pushed it when he found out of the interest.

I don't get this shit league thing, ok the Russian League is not the Premier League but also it's not the Hungarian 3rd division (no offence to that league). The Russian league has Anzhi, Zenit and the Moscow clubs who are pretty strong players like Witsel and Hulk are there, players like Arshavin and Akinfenev made there name there, only 5 years ago Zenit won the Europa league and that team were amoung the best in Europe at the time. Ok the Russian league isn't the best league in the world, but it certainly isn't shit, that's for sure.

Has anyone thought that maybe the club/Jose weren't actually planning on loaning out Lukaku, but then a top 7 club managed by a gaffer who has a good track record with youth players, came in then the Jose thought this would be too good a chance for Lukaku to miss on in his long term development? Maybe this is why the club held firm when WBA came in with a late hyjack insisting he is still going Everton. If he was sent to Vittesse or in the Championship i would understand the anger, but i think this is a fantastic chance for Romelu. All this does for me is make me rue not signing Cavani even more.

Imagine if he was made interim instead of Rafa? "well i got the call after Chelsea lost to West Brom on Saturday, Gourlay was telling me Robbie was on thin ice and will be sacked if they lose in Turin, and then asked if i would be interested in taking over, triffic, can't wait to get started especially working with Eden Hazard, triffic family man".

The knee jerk reaction of Lukaku going out on loan is well, well over the top. Maybe it actually wasn't the plan to loan him out but when a top 7 team who has a manager good with young players came in, it was maybe too good for the player to turn down? Yes he is better than both Torres and Ba, but both their career's have stagnated, we don't need to work out a plan for those two because the damage is done as far as there concerned, Lukaku we need to do right by his career in the long haul and as far as im concerned this is a fantastic loan for him.

I think we can still sell players to countries who windows are still open, after all we sold Meireles to Fenebache late last year.