didierforever

last season madrid had strikers - benzema (50), higuain (44), morata (15) attacking mids - CR (55), ozil (52), callejon (41),di maria (52), kaka (26). so that is 8 players for 4 positions. we have 9 for the same 4 position. not much of a difference. in mid we have 4 players (lamps, mvg, mikel, rambo) compared to madrid's 5 (modric, alonso, khedira, casemiro and illaramendi) right now. essien is nothing but a stop gap who will be used in dead rubbers or injuries in the deep mid, center back and full back positions and that is proven by his absence from our CL squad this year.

i dont understand what the problem is here. for once we have a big squad with atleast 2 players for each role and we NEED it. look at the number of matches we are going to be playing. we are not just going to be playing in 4 competitions but also will be trying to win each and every of those competitions. for that to happen you need fit players, healthy players. i mean look at bayern munich. they have a squad exactly as big as ours. last year they had - strikers - gomez, mandzukic and pizzaro (ba,etoo and torres) attacking midfielders - ribery, robben, shaqiri, muller, kroos (mazacar, kdb, willian, schurlle) defensive midfielders - bastian, javi, luiz, tymoshchuk (lamps, essien, rambo, mvg, mikel) defenders - lahm, dante, holger, rafinha, contento, jerome, alaba, buyten (jt, cahill, luiz, kalas, azpi, iva, cole, bert) so its 2 midfielders more than bayern munich. now lets compare the ideal no. of games both team would be expecting to play LEAGUE - 34 (38) DOMESTIC - 6 (6 + 6 = 12) (this is considering that there will be no fa cup replays) EUROPEAN - 13 (13) TOTAL - 53 (63) so we will be playing about 10 extra games (ATLEAST) than what munich does and you have to take into account the number of injuries simply shoots due to continous football. also exhaustion plays a big part , for eg - the bundesliga is shut down for almost a month, and at the same time the PL teams are playing 3 games in a week due to fa cup. we need 22 outfield players to not just play but play to WIN. and at this moment that is what we have.

how can u not love this guy... amazing person, wonderful player... the whole package.

i m confused too. here is bertrand's chelsea career. bought at 16 (2005) 2006-07 - bournemouth 2007 - oldham athletic (6 months) 2008 - norwich city extended to summer of 2009. 2009-10 - reading 2010 - nottingham forest. by this time he was 21. but i am sure he is counted as club trained rather than association trained player.

ya, thats what i thought too but it does not seem to fit so for bertrand. he was always on loan from 17 to 21, but still makes the cut as club trained. or does it simply mean that the player should be in the clubs' books.

i dont think so. the uefa rules have always been a little tougher than PL rules. 8 HG players out of which 4 should be club trained while 4 can be association trained (i was wrong about JT being our only club trained player, bertrand also comes under the same category). i think it was implemented in 08/09.

5 year contract. also our team in this year's youth CL izzy feruz traore rlc chalobah baker ? ake christensen ? killip. NICE... :blue scalf: :blue scalf: :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

i know. even our youth players beat barca with 10 men in their own backyard. plus i think its time we kept a few young players at our own academy too, so that they can qualify as academy-trained. right now we have only JT who satifies that criteria.

i dint know there was a youth CL which was starting from this year. dont want him to go on loan now. should stay here and lead us to CL glory.

yup. qpr hat-trick too, but the charm of performing well against arsenal in something different. he was such a pain in vermalean (who could have been sent off so easily) and laurent's butt.

precisely my point. even 83 points dint win them PL because there was a big difference in class of top 4(3) and the rest of the league. we cant expect the same thing right now. i am not denying that we were GREAT that season. i mean conceding 15 goals in 38 matches is so mean task. alex's original point was that even with a striker force of DD (first year), gudjonsen and kezman in 2004-05, we were able to win the league so comfortably but what we lacked in our striker force was OVERLY compensated by our defence which right now, seems far from reality.

arsenal away last season.

read my reply to alex's next post.

josh is not getting more than a 100 minutes (if that), the whole season. we have rambo, essien, mikel, lamps and mvg for 2 spots. simply cant see how and where he ll play. so all he ll be doing is playing for under 21s which is definitely worse than championship.

thats fine... but 7-0??? now thats a bad joke.

???

our board's desicion with the youth in this windown has been a little shocking. no loan moves for chalobah and especially JOSH MCEACHRAN. and shipping off romelu on loan while keeping BA here.

no no... u got me wrong. arsenal's squad in 04-05 was the almost same as their squad in 03-04. when i said "they were pathetic" (a little exaggeration is okay when it is considering arsenal, ), i meant football-wise not squad-wise,escpacially since this was their follow -up season to the invinsibles. my point was in 04-05, our biggest competition were arsenal, who dint have a very good season or the kind of season every1 was expecting them to have, cant expect the same from city. but the overall strength of the title "pretenders" have increased in pool, tot, united, and arsenal right now. the competition is way more harder than it was back then. there was an actual gap in level after the top4 teams, which is definitely not the case right now (and hence why it was such a big big big deal when everton got the 4th spot). ps - pool were never title challengers back then.

no loan??? why?

the point is how good were the other teams. arsenal were pathetic after their invinsible season, right now they have got ozil in their ranks. united were on decline, same as now. pool were well pool themselves, same as now. but that was pretty much it. but right now, city and tottenham have really good squads. city are playing poorly but if they find the right rythm, they would destroy most of the team and for me they are the favourites. tottenham have got a wonderful squad but they will take some time to gel. i think by december they will gather some momentum and find their feet, not PL but still a formidable force. so considering the quality of teams in 04-05 and now, i feel its not apt to compare.

u think this is jose? how much do u wanna bet that lukaku's loan would cost more than ba's 3mil loan price. i personally can bet everything i have that this will be the case. this deal has the stink of board all over it.

atleast its everton and not wba... but he ll have to fight for a place against jelavic, anchiebe and kone. hope he shows his class... good luck lad...

has he been loaned??? whats the official news??

what about lukaku???

u actually think this is mou's doing? i can bet everythin i have that this is the board's decision. 3mil for BA loan was what we were asking, everton had offered 4mil for lukaku and we let him go for that.