Tomo

If you keep one i would keep the 19 year old, although both are well behind on development, at 19 young players should be on 6 bar (5 bar minimum).

Even if we were still playing with Malouda, Anelka and Kalou as our front 3 with Essien, Mikel and Lampard behind them week in week out, i would still watch every single Chelsea match, it's like a drug. At the start of this season i started to watch MOTD and the football league show in full again but gradually i got bored and Fifa 13 coming out has put pay to me watching anything other than Chelsea matches now

Why is it widely assumed Torres was completely a Roman signing, Carlo has always been a big fan of Torres and wanted him pretty much from day one (something Wilkins confirmed i believe). Despite contary to popular belief, Torres was a Carlo buy, if anything Roman said to Carlo im freeing funds for a forward who do you want? which then Carlo said Torres. Either way Torres was 100% a Carlo signing.

Tbh their wasn't that much demand for Oscar so with him their might have been a chance for us, Hazard however not a cat in hell. Their is still quality players around even if you are in Europa. Suarez, Yaya Toure, Falcao and Sahin moved to Europa teams despite their being CL teams that would have taken them in a heartbeat.

Put it this way, i am on my 8th season and i have managed to sell once and that was on a knockdown price.

Great change report for me, every single player bar two improved Shows that sometimes a transition season is nessesery for the greater good.

Yeah they have in general been awful since Big Sam has left, but in Coyle's first full season for half of it they were very good, as shown by the fact that had they won at The Bridge just after christmas that season they would have actually leapfrogged us. Plus speaking of Big Sam i reckon he is so under rated as a manager it is almost criminal, its no coincidence two of this three teams he managed in the Premier went down the season after he got sacked and the other avoided it by a point. He is just as good as managing teams on a shoe string as Moyes imo, if not better.

Who else remember how well Bolton were doing in 2010/2011? If the beat us at The Bridge just after Christmas they would have gone above us. Coyle was known as one of the best young manager's in the country and his name was quietly getting mentioned with top jobs (even some CFC fans i know wanted him in had Carlo got the boot). Talk about falling from grace.

I see where your coming from, when i started following football and then for a good few years i was a fanatic, guessing scores, watching any and every game that was on that was live etc etc... Even a few years ago i was watching MOTD and the football league show every week (unless i was out then i would record it) without fail. If im honest my love and enthusiasm for Chelsea is the same as it was back then, i will still keep interest exactly the same way and watch every game with a few exceptions but my love for football in general is slowly sliding. For example most weeks now i just record MOTD and skip straight to the Chelsea match, i rarely even bother with the other games unless a Chelsea loanee scored. So to cut it short, Chelsea my interest and enthusiastic is still as strong as day one, football as a whole on the other hand .........

It won't clash with their summer breaks that would still be as normal, although i didn't think of the pre season angle, having a full club pre season then going straight off to Internationals for just under a months might be an issue.

The last one felt like yesterday and now club football is being halted again by these tedious international breaks, i think something has to be done. It's lose lose for clubs, playing well your momentum is halted, playing shite and your mulling over it for a whole 2 weeks. Something has to be done, there are just a nuisance to the club calendar, but the key question is, what can be done? Why not do half the qualifayers in August and the other half the next August? It will give the national coaches a month with his team, he will learn a lot more about the players at his disposal then when it's 2 games here, 2 games there then we can forget about international's for a year and get stuck into club action. Yes it might not be nice waiting an extra month for the new season, but if it meant nine months of uninterrupted club action, it will be well worth it.

until a year after he is made captain.

Nothing top's his Olympic team of the tournament when he had Neymar virtually in defensive midfield

Football expert Garth Crooks has tipped James Morrison for an England call despite the West Brom midfielder having 23 caps for Scotland. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2214503/Garth-Crooks-tips-James-Morrison-England.html This guy is like a walking facepalm.

Is fifa replicating injury phrone players onto the game? he picked up a 4 month injury, got him back for one game and he did it again. My mate signed Robben for Arsenal and he's hardly ever fit either.

For me it's a mix of them all

If he is looking for a mere stepping stone to Madrid, he could not have made a poorer choice of club if he tried. We are not Arsenal.

first half or second? because the second half after Dempsey's goal the ball was near enough permanently in the final 3rd of Tottenham's own goal. It made our approach at the Nou Camp look like a display off all out attack.

@, All that suggest's is Robbie is a very clever man altering his tactics depending on our opponent's strength. If AVB did that more often he would still be manager here. Yes there be the occasional tactical fuck up (ie QPR) but in general im more than happy with what i have seen from Robbie in the tactical side of things. Based on whether Robbie is the man to lead us long term, there does seem to be a lot of fate in how Robbie has got where he is today. Roman delaying AVB's sacking hoping he will turn it around, he sacks AVB a week after Hiddink (who would have almost certainly got the job if he was free) took the Anzhi job. Roman has gone through numerous high profile manager's in an attempt to win the Champions League but who finally delivers it? the Chelsea legend who really got the job by default. Robbie was never a Roman man so to speak, if Robbie does end up being the long term manager craved as this club then it is to quote Neville written in the stars.

@Blue Armour, He scored a few goals but his overall play post Blackpool at home was dire. The rest of the midfield (despite being on horrible form themself's) had a respectable number of games in between their terrible form where they shown glimpses of their true self's (Anelka away to Sunderland is the prime example of that). I didn't see that from Flo once in the "bad moment". He scored 13 that season 6 of them came in his first 4 start's the last of which being that Blackpool match i mentioned.

Im sorry but that's insane, at his previous clubs he played an attractive brand of attacking football but last season when he got the job here he realized he didn't have the resources to be as attacking, so reigned it in and produced the tactics suitable until now where he has the players to attack, attack, attack he is. I would rather have a manager who makes use of his resources to give the team the best chance to get results (Robbie, Carlo, Fergie, Jose) than a manger who has an idealistic view of the game and will stick to it regardless of how detrimental it is to results (Wenger, Holloway, Rodgers - i imagine Pep will soon be added to this list also).

@Blue Armour, sorry mate but im with @Kojo, here, the last game Malouda has had where he has played to the level he is capable off was the Blackpool home match over two years ago. He was terrible for the whole season after that match, and like Kojo said, the rest of the players despite being on shite form too, had some matches where they showed glimpses of their best form, Malouda didn't have any, infact i started a thread about it at the time, so i might report Kojo for robbing my material http://forum.talkche...-to-be-dropped/

Which is why he could have been a decent squad player to have now were playing good, add that by telling him he has a new contract to play for (even if he doesn't) and i reckon we could have got a decent squad role out of him this season.

If the development value is over 10 the players will improve (possibly in skill bar) if they are under 10 they will decrease (possibly in skill bar). 10 they can go either way.

The AVB angle will motivate the players who were here last season and RDM. Only AVB can match the determination in that camp in that sense.