EskWeston

Watching the footage on CTV last night it looks like he is going to be fine, which is a good job because we really need him for this game to keep Ronaldo under wraps. I have to sa though, what a shocking tackle from Maka, hope he doesn't do that tonight or he could be seeing red........

I don't think he is ever going to be the type of winger we need. He isn't fast enough and is very reluctant to take defenders on.

Would be a mistake to start Malouda in my opinion. Everyone will be up for this game and on top form hopefully so we have to start with the pace of Kalou and the trickery of Cole.

It is hard to say because different games are big for different reasons. You could say the game against Bolton where we won the league for the first time in 50 years was our biggest! Or many others. But considering this is the final of the biggest club competition in the world i would say that yes, this is probably our biggest ever game..

Well here we are, a couple of days away from the Champions League final. We know that if we are on top of our game then we can win this one. Priority for us is to stop Ronaldo from playing which will cut out their main threat. We will be too strong for them in midfield and we need to take advantage of that. Either Frank or Ballack need to play higher up the park to support the attacking play more than they have previously. I think the team is going to be pretty obvious: ...............................Cech............................... Essien......Carvalho..............Terry...........A.Cole .............................Makelele............................ .............Ballack....................Lampard............. J.Cole....................................................Kalou .............................Drogba.............................. It will certainly be a tense game but it will be incredible to see JT lift that trophy up at the end of this game!

This is one problem we are going to have this summer, we have a lot of fringe players who we will want to look to move on, but because they are on such good contracts they are happy to sit on the bench all season and pick up those wages!! It shows a lack of ambition from me, you would think SWP would want to move on and be a big player for another club..

I think there will be a few on the market. Rijkaard, Laudrup ect.. plenty with excellant credentials so i guess we wait and see and hope we snap one of them up ASAP..

I agree, we have been seriously lacking in the wings since Duff and Robbens departure, we need to get the best now and make us fly again. We have falling into signing average players who look good in an average team and i would hate to see us do it again.

I am sure i read something a couple of weeks ago that Frank said he is going to stay and in talks over a new deal!

Out of all those players i think only Drogab and Malouda are not dead certs to leave. So there is going to be a turnaround of players this summer, it was inevitable, whoever the manager is going to be will want to make their mark on the team.... I am sure Carvalho will stay though

We have made the mistake of buying average players before due to hype and it just doesn't work. I would much rather play Sinclair than sign Downing, Sidwell, SWP, Malouda, Ben Haim, Pizarro ect... should all act as warning as to the type of players we should be looking for.

Please tell me you are joking!! My god i couldn't think of many worse players for us to sign for that position....

Lol, are we turning this into "What pro footballers we have played football with?" Ok, i played in the same team as Paul Konchesky.....

I don't think there will any more stories about us being linked to players until after the CL final now. Any new announcements could cause player unrest before the big game, but i would expect afterwards a bit of a flurry of activity to get some deals tied down.

Nothing in that story really. We all know players will be comming and going, nothing new there. And the comment about him not knowing if he is staying, it depends on the context really, he could mean that he doesn't know if the club will want to keep him rather than him not knowing if he WANTS to stay! 2 different things completely... We certainly need to keep Riccy he is top top class.

Welcome back Sue......

Lol, excellant story, something to remember isn't it - doing JT in a game of footie. lol

Lol, funny how that happens isn't it.

Sydney Russell..... i suppose you must have gone to either Barking Abbey or Eastbury if you lived in Barking? Your probably roughly the same age as me as well if you went to school with JT!

Nice to get to know more about our members You grew up in the same sort of area as me! Born in Barking and lived in Dagenham for 22 years, went to college in Hornchurch and have now moved out to Wickford with my missus...

Right now i can't see Real Madrid, Barcelona or AC Milan having a bigger appeal than Chelsea! Yes we may not be "established" as a massive club but all 3 of those clubs are not exacltly having the best times of things. Don't forget that we pay our players more than pretty much any club and even thse 3 clubs mentioned would find it difficult to meet the wage demands. The only player i can see really wanting to leave is possibly Drogba, i feel that anyone else leaving will be due to us offloading them to sort our squad out.

If he wants to win trophies then why would he go to Madrid? Surely he has more chance of winning things staying with us than if he went to Madrid.... For me Essien is one of the most important players for us to keep. In top form, still a very good age and a very good character....

There definately was a story about Real Wanting Essien. But i was wondering what the information was on Essien himself wanting to leave... Lots of teams understandably will want Essien, but i can't see why he would want to leave or has ever indicated that he would.

What information have you heard regarding Essien and where did you hear it from that would make you think that Essien would be on his way, particulary if we win the CL this year? I think the majority of people would find it very hard to beleive Essien would leave at the moment...

Well he could be used in either role and i think we could quite easily use him in either, if we are playing 4-3-3 we need a creative player to play higher up the park in the midfield 3 anyway and he would do a good job. Although he looks very good on the left wing too. Considering he is only 18 he would be a great aquisition, not had the best of seasons at Barca but considering he is contesting places with Eto'o, Messi, Henry, Ronaldinho and Co. it is pretty good