Tomo

I said at the beginning of the season there is no chance we will go from 6th to 1st. Im half way through a u turn, if we beat United then i will make a complete u turn.

A lot are worried about Bale vs Ivan, im more concerned about Lennon vs Cole. Ivan has a good record against Bale, Cole against Lennon on the other hand i still get nightmares from that winner Lennon scored in 2006. The only reason i don't want Bertrand to start this one is because JT is out and we need the experienced leader in the back line (Ryan is better against pacy players).

A bit off topic but right now there is now pressure on BR. If he is under pressure for his job and/or ends up in a fight for the top four, Suso and co will end up in the stands quicker than you can say teenager.

Are they talking about the Granddad or the worlds most expensive back up?

I reckon we should try and get some managers to make it 32 quota again.

What planet is he on? White Hart Lane last few years have made The Emirates look like a world cup final atmosphere.

Fuk knows but we need width for this one as we won't get much from Gallas and Caulker add that to Dembele and Sandro infront were be asking for trouble playing without width.

Walker's form at the start of the season has been terrible aswell, if were going to base form on what could happen in this game we might aswell not bother tracking Walker because all his crosses will go into row z and he isn't the most intelligent footballer at the best of times. Cole for some reason has always had trouble with pacey wingers, Walcott handed his arse to him in the 5-3 last season, Valencia's done it a few times as has Lennon himself. I don't actually rate Vertonghen's defensive side, which is why i would start Moses to have a go at him, we could get some serious joy.

@TorontoChelsea, Remember the match at WHL in 2010? we were 2-0 down and Bale was running riot, Ivanovic came on the pitch and Bale might aswell have been subbed off at that moment.. As you mentioned he did a number on him in the Stamford Bridge game a year later then as i just mentioned a few weeks ago for Serbia Bale's influence from open play was pretty much void, why? because of Ivan. Bale might get the better of him this time, who knows? but that battle is far from the biggest worry for us, im actually more worried about Lennon vs Cole.

He didn't have much 'protection; when Sebia faced Wales a few weeks ago and he did an impressive number on Bale then.

Ivanovic has come up against Bale three times and owned him every time so i don't know where you got that idea from.

He seems to be above the law at this club. Not even Lampard and Terry would have got away with saying they didn't care about results, there would have been about 10 pages worth of uproar if it was any other player, has Kalou ever said that then i wouldn't even want to think, but no we can't criticize Torres for saying he doesn't care about results because he might see this thread and ruin his confidence.

Terry was one of the few players that didn't turn against AVB last season.

I just fail to see Anelka' reasoning behind the "we forget about players when their over 30 statement, why? because we don't offer them long term deals with pay rises, boo hoo. One year contract's are more than fair when you get to your twilight years, its all Giggs and Scholes get's offered, the only difference between them and our players is they actually accept that fact.

Had this been Sturridge who said that he would get chased out of Stamford Bridge. go figure

and if he develops like he should he will lose him early on too.

Got it in one, we could start a model where we give any half decent young player first team chances in mid teens, but were not only be a mid table club, we would lose them by the time their 22. Look at what happened with Everton and Rodwell and Rooney.

That bit agreed, but were they really that cold in contract talks? All the players that have departed had an offer on the table but they wanted longer or more money, in some cases both. The same will be the case with Cole and Lamps, there will be an offer on the table for them, whether they accept it is another kettle of fish.

Was it cold? or were they just not rolling over for contract demands any more?

Because we have learned from our past mistakes, back in the 00's we were far too sentimental, which led to our squad stagnating and hitting stupid level's of lethargicness late 2010. Is Anelka saying we should have stuck with him, Malouda and the rest for the next 10 years out of gratitudefor what they did in the double season? Given the age of most of our starters this time two years ago, i wonder if Anelka is on drugs.

Shed or Matthew Harding, stay away from the East or West whatever you do.

The sad thing is if Rooney or some other media lovechild like Chamberlain or Walker did that, they would be lauded for showing "passion".

Id rather take a punt on Deen Conteh if im perfectly honest. Van Aanholt's defending is horrific and his football brain is erratic. Take away his pace and the odd thunderbolt what have you got? Leicester fans wanted him dropped for Bruno Berner and eventually got their way.

He's gone, we saw this with Drogba and Joe Cole, thinking they would sign the contracts eventually, neither of them did and left. Lampard might accept reduced terms for the world cup swansong like Superblue said as his options will be limited but Cole can go elsewhere in Europe to clubs that will happily match his wages and better the length of contract so there is no two ways about it, Ash is on the way out of Stamford Bridge, lets make the most of him while we still can. I would assume (especially if Robbie is still around) Ryan Bertrand will be made number 1, my biggest worry is who will be made number 2, Deen-Conteh has disappeared off the face of earth and Van Aanholt is crap.

@LDN Blue, Qualifayer's for both tournament's are how many games? 8-10, there be more than enough space to fill them in both August periods then it will give Roy 9 months to go up and down the grounds to access any player available to him.