EskWeston

Yes, Paim came on for the reserves on Monday in the 60th minute. Set up our second goal, which you can see on the highlights here: http://www.talkchelsea.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2539 He looks to have good ability and judging by his past potential he could be a real find for us providing we can bring out his ability and get him playing the Chelsea way. But having just signed him on loan and him only playing 30 mins in the reserves the club have no idea how he is going to turn out yet so there is no way he would be included in the CL squad. Besides he wouldn't count for any of the "home grown" categories so there isn't a space for him anyway.

Lol, another joke of a club!!! Remember when they signed Tevez and Mascherano how they thought their club was going to be massive!!! Can't stand Curbishly though..

It would be a tossup between the Arsenal going under from lack of CL revenue and Liverpool trying to find a way back in because of their eeeeeestory that would make my day

Their fans expect to much from them and then complain and protest when things don't go their way, this in itself heaps pressure on the manager and the board. But like i said, Newcastle FC in general is a bloody Joke....

Top 4 is what counts because of the CL spaces, of course it makes things VERY interesting if there is more clubs who can realistically land those spaces. The CL revenue is counted on by most clubs.

That maybe what they are worth, but they would surely have an idea as to how much each is willing to put in? Some more than others ect..

The fans can take their shame of the blame for the state of their club if you ask me....

He is getting slated from many sides at the moment, and you can see why. But he had no option in reality, he forced himself into a corner and was then left with only city as an option. Not sure if that is because we wouldn't raise our offer or if Madrid wouldn't deal with us though.

I agree, to make things more competitive is always good. We know what it feels like to be handed a massive windfall like that and i am sure the city fans are over the moon!!! I don't think their targets are very realistic though which could cause them problems but it will be interesting to see what happens at city. And i hope we stuff them in the next game

Cutting our wage bill down is certainly a massive help for us going forward. We cleared out a lot of players this summer which means we are making a profit on transfers this summer and also cutting back on wages. If we can seriously start using our academy and producing the talent then we will be in a very healthy situation.

Did the Gooners report us over the Cole affair? The Man you/Berbatov thing really does stink. Man you broke the rules by discussing terms and even having a medical before being given permission to do so. Just because they later got that permission doesn't make it right.

The thing is this season for them is, would we be saying that if they didn't sign Robinho? They have looked fragile and not quite right so far. Will just Robinho on his own make THAT big of a difference to them?

Not just those games, but the lack of depth upfront we have now. Letting SWP go and Sheva go without replacements. Effectively we have Di Santo and Sinclair as replacements. Which in itself is a good thing, but factor into that Malouda's apparent lack of effort and Drogba's injuries it does leave us light.

I would certainly love to see it. Especially Stoch, i think he is worth a few run outs this season for sure.

I would think that unless we suffer a major injury crisis then none of them are likely to see the bench in the CL!

Of course there is similarity. They have seemingly landed themselves in a situation where there can afford any player they want! That is what happened to us when Roman took over. We will see what happens with them, the new owner seems to like talking big thats for sure - but can they produce the players and the results? Of course there are differences, mainly City not being in the CL, plus we already had big names come to our club before Roman, which made us an attraction. But they are talking about players like Villa, Gomez and now even Ronaldo for the next window. Will these players go without CL football? I doubt it, Robinho as has been said was a completely different kettle of fish.

Actually just doing the maths, Sinclair will be available as a club trained player when we submit the updated list on 1st Feb for the latter stages of the competition.

Yes of course. Both lists contribute to the squad. You can have as many players as you like in list B as long as they meet the requirements - basically if they are 21 or under and been with the club for 2 years solid (going on loan interrupts that period)

Because we have no space for him: List A: 1. Petr Cech 2. Branislav Ivanovic 3. Michael Essien 4. Ricardo Carvalho 5. Franco Di Santo 6. Didier Drogba 7. Michael Ballack 8. Florent Malouda 9. Jose Bosingwa 10. Paulo Ferreira 11. Deco 12. Salomon Kalou 13. Carlo Cudicini 14. Alex 15. Juliano Belletti 16. Nicolas Anelka 17. Henrique Hilario 18. Assocoation Trained: Frank Lampard 19. Assocoation Trained: Joe Cole 20. Assocoation Trained: Ashley Cole 21. Assocoation Trained: Wayne Bridge 22. Club Trained: John Terry 23. Club Trained: None 24. Club Trained: None 25. Club Trained: None So we lose 3 spaces because we have no Club trained players other than Terry. Of course you could argue it may have been better to include Sinclair and not one of Ferreira or Belletti............... i think Sinclair is eligable as a "club trained" player next season.

We have been extremely lucky that Mikel is eligable for list B this season. Excellant news for Miroslav Stoch and also looks like Mancienne will be staying with us this season rather than out on loan. The club really messed up somewhat with Sincair though, not planning ahead with the CL lists so that he can be included in either list A or list B!!

The squad list for the group stage of this season's Champions League has been announced. Clubs are allowed to submit an A List and a B List, both equally eligible for selection for games. Regulations mean the A List consists of the majority of the first team squad while young players who have been at Chelsea for a period of time make up List B. The squad lists are: A List Petr Cech Branislav Ivanovich Ashley Cole Michael Essien Ricardo Carvalho Frank Lampard Franco Di Santo Joe Cole Didier Drogba Michael Ballack Florent Malouda José Bosingwa Wayne Bridge Paulo Ferreira Deco Salomon Kalou Carlo Cudicini John Terry Alex Juliano Belletti Nicolas Anelka Henrique Hilario B List John Mikel Obi Rhys Taylor Sam Hutchinson Michael Mancienne Miroslav Stoch No club may have more than 25 players on List A during the season. Eight places on List A are reserved for 'locally trained players'. A 'locally trained player' is either a 'club-trained player' or an 'association-trained player' and no club may have more than four 'association-trained players' listed among the eight. This is an increase from last season's three-plus-three rule. A 'club-trained player' is a player who, between the age of 15 and 21, and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months. In the case of Chelsea, an 'association-trained player' is a player who, between the age of 15 and 21 and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with another club affiliated to the FA for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months. These regulations mean Chelsea's A List will contain 22 players for this season's group stage. A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1987 and has been eligible to play for Chelsea for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday. This means John Mikel Obi is able to move from the A to the B List this season, opening up a fresh place in the A List. Spells spent away from Chelsea on loan by Scott Sinclair make him ineligible as a club-trained player or as a B List player. Following the submission of these lists, a club may register up to three new eligible players for the remaining matches, such registration completed by 1 February. Source: Chelsea FC

Newcastle are a joke of a club if you ask me. Always thinking they are bigger than they are and are constantly screwing themselves.

We certainly shouldn't moan about another club having huge amounts of cash to spend. The Robinho deal certainly left a sour taste though, but like i said Madrid took advantage of the situation with City comming in with a load of cash. Robinho had no choice but to leave after what he did and said, and Madrid almost certainly gave him only one option - City - and he took it. Berbatov could have gone to city - he didn't he chose to go to Man you because Spuds for whatever reason backed down with United and accepted what happened. Even with all the money in the world City will find it hard to attract any mor big name players until they have CL footie, they took advantage of the Robinho situation and lucked out - fair play to them. I am more than happy to have some more challenge for the premiership. Arsenal and Liverpool are the ones who should be worried by this not us.

Well as Joe isn't particulary suited to playing as virtually a second striker i would say that he is just waiting for Drogs to be back and play the 2 up front: ...........................Cech...................... Bosingwa...Carvalho.......Terry.......A.Cole ...........................Mikel....................... ..........Essien/Ballack.....Lampard............ ...........................Deco....................... .................Drogba........Anelka.............. Of course we have the option of playing either Kalou or Di Santo as strikers also and playing a 4-3-3 with proper wingers. But Scolari seems to like playing all the midfielders he possibly can, which is understandable considering the quality. Jose did the same thing.

The question is, what would have happened had Man City not just found a couple of billion quid down the back of the sofa? Would Robinho have come to us as planned? Man City certainly gave Madrid a get-out... but there was still every chance that Madrid had no intention of selling to us, whatever their reasons are for that. Spending money isn't the only key factor. We have set ourselves up as a massive club by spending big! Now we have invested in the academy and it looks like we are determined to use that to build for the future. There is still no clear indication of young players being given the chances to force their way into the first team. Di Santo and Sinclair are right on the fringe but we will see this season. I believe we did certainly need a player still to come in, we don't know yet if this will cost us, it may do but lets hope not.