EskWeston

I agree. How much longer do you give him though? He is 31 now with a year to go on his contract to take him to 32 when his current contract finishes.... a 2 year contract would take him to 34, he may well want a 3 year contract to take him to 35. It is very very hard to know if he will be able to play at this level 33, 34, 35? Who knows. And he he can't keep up we have him tied down to a contract and won't be able to move him on.

Quite a few fancy a move to us at the moment, Deco, Robinho, Ronaldinho, Quaresma, Van Der Vaart have all stated an interest in comming to CFC. Who knows who are real targets are and if they REALLY want to come or not, we are a massive club and will attract the best players. I can' say i have seen anything from Bentley to say that he would be of any use for us as a winger in our team. Our wingers need to play more as forwards than midfielders. I am sure that Ronaldinho isn't always sitting in the sun on wonderful pitches in La Liga all the time. We have no idea what Ronaldinho's mentality would be, and i can't think of a single player of any ability that has not fancied a game for any premier league club playing up north. It's not like years ago when in the winter pitches were like swimming pools, even in the middle of winter the Premier League pitches are pretty excellant. We need some big players in some our key positions, and the Wingers is the main one, we HAVE to get those signings right or we will struggle to be the attackign threat we want to be.

With any luck his performances in the Euros will enable us to ask for a bit more money for him. I can't see any way of him staying on with us next season.

Scolari has been singing Ballack praises so i am sure that won't be an issue. What is an issue for Ballack and for our squad in general now is the ages of our players and the contracts that they want in terms of length. Playing at the very highest level into your 30's is not the easiest thing to do and it is hard to know how long a player can keep it up for

To take Bentley purely for the sake of making sure we have british players is crazy. Bentley would be another Sidwell, there is no way that he will ever be good enough for us, especially on the wing where we are desperate for some improvement and big improvement. The arguments about certain players either being "too lightweight" or "will not fancy a cold night up north" are arguments that i think in general no longer apply. The same has been said of plenty of players, Torres for one, who have come to the PL and been perfectly comfortable.

So you would pick Bentley over Robinho? Our wingers need to act more like forwards in a 4-3-3, which is why players like Ronaldinho and Robinho would be good fits. We have seen the lack of penetration we suffer from without the sort of top class wingers we should be having.

Of course he wouldn't be awful in the premier league. That argument doesn't hold anymore, plenty of players like him make it in the Prem now. He is a quality player and would be a great signing. All of those 4 would be.

Didn't realise he only had a year left on his contract! Judging by his current performances he can carry on with us after this season...

Wouldn't be a suprise, this has been THE persistant story even before Scolari took over. Usually a sign that the story has at least a very high probability of happening.

Well we are being linked with a few decent ones, Robinho, Quaresma, Ribery, Ronaldinho....

Still a lack of creativity and pace in that team. We need to go back to the days of Robben and Duff when it comes to wingers, fast, creative and will cause problems for defenders. Malouda and Bentley are far too pedestrian for that role....

Very wary of signing players on the basis of a good international tournament. It doesn't always mean too much as we have seen over the years. Some of the best players in the world do not perform and some of the more average players play fantastic.

We could sign plenty of superstar players without causing any disruption to our main playing squad. We are lacking in some creative spark within the team. Given the types of player that we are interested in it is clear that the club and Scolari recognise what we need are looking to install that to our team. We could end up with a squad that is quite incredible: Keepers: Cech, Cudicini, Hilario Full Backs: Bosingwa, Ferreira, Cole, Bridge Centre Backs: Terry, Carvalho, Alex, Ivanovic Midfielders: Essien, Mikel, Lampard, Ballack, (Deco/Van Der Vaart/Arshavin), (Young attacking mid) Wingers: Ronaldinho, Robinho, Kalou, Cole Strikers: Drogba, Eto'o, Shevchenko, Di Santo Would be a pretty special squad. The only real issue that you have with a squad like this is keeping everyone happy. But it could certainly be done.

Scolari is a clever man and he knows what he wants and what he has to do to get it. A lot will depend on the style he wants to play and the formation he wants to play. He will do exactly what he feels he needs to do to bring the results and football he wants. It will certainly be interesting to see how exactly he does it but i don't think there is anything for us to worry about.

Doesn't mean he has any connection with Lamps, or any idea what he is going to do

Absolutely, if Bosingwa can take that form over to CFC then we have finally got that position nailed down. Thought he was excellant last night, really kept the germans on the back foot down that right hand side. And Deco was very impressive too....

It is hard for players to play at the very highest level at the sort of age Maka is now. He did incredibly well last season, but i think given the chances in the club this season i think now is the time to look forward without him and build our midfield without him, which has been hard up till now..

Was you watching the same game as me? Deco was probably the best player on the pitch, was very impressive. Attacking was never Portugals problem, their most obvious problem caught them out in the end and that is the lack of a top class striker..... Cracking game though.

It is a very suprising story. Although i do think that maybe it is time to let Maka move on and for us to build our midfield without him. I thought he may have ended up with still in some sort of coaching capacity - but doesn't look likely now.

Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele has agreed to move to Paris Saint Germain, according to French radio station RMC. The news will be a surprise to the Stamford Bridge fans as, despite being a veteran, the 35-year-old has been a popular and key figure for Chelsea in the last five years. The Parc des Princes outfit approached Makelele for the first time in summer 2007, but the midfielder decided against returning to France. It appears the former France star, who announced his international retirement following Les Bleus’ elimination at Euro 2008, is ready to embark on a final challenge with PSG. Paris’ new president Charles Villeneuve wants the club to bounce back after two catastrophic seasons and signing domestic stars Makelele and Lilian Thuram is reportedly his priority. An announcement is yet to be made by Chelsea or Paris Saint Germain, who were unavailable for comment when contacted by setantasports.com. It has also been reported that France reserve Jimmy Briand, currently playing for Rennes, has also agreed a summer move to PSG. Source: Setanta Sports

SWP should definately be one who leaves. Although any sort of transfer news for him has gone very quiet! Had plenty of time and just isn't going to be good enough for us, and we need to imorove our quality on the wings desperately.

I doubt we would get him for that little. £20m seems to be the figure bounced around. Which would still be a great deal. Players of his quality CAN go on a long while, Zidane and Figo are examples of that.

They have run the Ronaldo thing as much as they can now, he has said enough times now that nothing will happen until after the Euros, so they have no-where to go with it for the time being.

Doesn't Scolari already have and assistant? If this is true then clearly they are looking for someone to help with translation.

Frank was in the paper only yesterday, showing clearly he is on holiday. The press will make the most out of this while they still can. They have got to have something to sell their bog roll havn't they?