EskWeston

I agree, if a player is going to become world class then what differnece does it make if you pay that now or when he is 23 and the biggest thing around?However with Rooney he was already proven in the premiership and even then it was a bit of a gamble still. If the club think he is worth the gamble then i think they will pay the money.

No way will we be going in for anymore african players....

We are picking up some of the very best young talent around now especially in Europe. Obviously Stoch we picked up a couple of seasons ago and last season we picked up Tejera who is extrmely highly regarded, and this season we have picked up the likes of Jeffrey Bruma and Patrick Van Aanholt amongst many others who have very bright futures.Our problem is either picking up the ones from outside Europe or the slightly older players who would be verging on the first team straight away.The fact we look like signing Mitrovic is a good thing because we have a lot of forwards at the moment and if the club believe he is good enough to compete with them then that says a lot about him.

Indeed we was looking at him last season, was spotted while the scouts were watching Sinclair playing for Plymouth..

Lampard is not and has never been an attacking midfielder. He is the ultimate box to box midfielder, the amount of ground he covers is staggering, and more often than not you will see him pick the ball up well in our own half, the fact he scores a s**t load of goals doesn't mean he is an attacking midfielder. I agree, as far as our squad would go for next season with the "2 for each position" we stick to i would like to see DM = Mikel/Essien , CM = Lampard/Ballack , AM = J.Cole/New player. Like you say it would encourage a more inventive system of play. I thought everyone came out and said there WAS money available last January (and there certainly was in the summer) it was more of a case of not wanting to get ripped off as clubs were asking stupid money like Bolton for Ben Haim when he had a few months left on his contract... I can't see how this can be viewed as a dig? It is more like stating the bleeding obvious really......

Nothing wrong with that.. But the team is doing very well.

Well the point is that with 3 central midfielders you should have in an ideal world a holding midfielder, a box to box midfielder and an advanced playmaker. With a holding midfielder (Mikel/Maka) and 2 box to box midfield grafters (Essien/Lampard/Ballack) i feel we are lacking somewhat. Obviously we have a lot of midfielders, but i feel it is time to sign someone who play the creative role at the expense of someone in the squad.

Of course, who knows what will happen in the comming months especially with the ACN comming up but we are well in with a shout. If we can pick up a couple of quality players, especially to cover Drogs in January then we can win it for sure. December is a very important month. The way i look at it is we are right up there with the big 3 who have not had to deal with what we have. Man you, Liverpool and Arsenal are playing probably at the best they can, we on the other hand still have some gears to work through...

Yeah i agree totally. If we have 1 player in our squad who can do that role it is Joe. I can never understand when we do what we did at the weekend and play Shaun in that role and not Joe..... doesn't make much sense to me.We have creative players on the wings like Joe and Kalou but we need a bit of that down the middle as well.

Yes there is something missing - Jose.....There is not much more the team could be doing, there is not much more that any other manager could be doing right now, even Jose. We are winning our games, and fairly comfortably too, we are conceding far less that we was last season. Results wise we are picking up the same sort of results that we have done over the last 3/4 seasons.Like i have said, once Jose left everyone pretty much wrote off our season, so to be where we are now is something to feel very happy about. I am very happy that we are winning games and well in the title challenge..

Even if we lose on Sunday against the Goons, and lets face it a draw away at Arsenal, even with Jose in charge, infact even with God himself in charge would be a great result. We will still be right in contention having played ALL of the big 3 AWAY from home.......Forget Avram Grant, the fact that Chelsea FC is where it is in the league today and the results we have had in the last months is bloody fantastic..

He might as well just stay at Zagreb if we are not going to bring him over now and just sign him in the summer! It is different with players like Rajkovic who are young and will get valuable experience at PSV but Modric is an established international already.

Ballack to a certain extent can be a playmaker but not in the way that we really need. Lampard and Ballack are the ultimate box to bo midfielders, they are not the sort of players who are going to create a piece of magic on the ball and tease their way forward. These sorts of players are the ones like Kaka, Deco, Modric ect... who have real creativity.

It would be ridiculous for us to sign Modric and loan him to PSV.......can't see what good it would do at all..

At the end of the day we have Maka who is comming to the end of his career, and Sidwell who just doesn't look like being the sort of player we need at all. It would make perfect sense to go for the sort of player who is different to Essien, Mikel, Lamps and Ballack....And judging by the transfer roumers the club do seem to be looking for that sort of player.

Chelsea are ready to sign Dinamo Zagreb ace Luka Modric and send him on-loan to PSV Eindhoven. Croatian sources say Chelsea are set to pay £16 million for the Croatia international midfield schemer and then send him to PSV for the second-half of the season on-loan to continue his development. Modric would follow the same path of previous Chelsea signings Alex, Alcides and Slobodan Rajkovic, with the latter two still at PSV after being bought by the Blues.Source: Tribal Football

It doesn't matter, the fact is that we are missing a certain "type" of player in our team, that person who will open teams up through the middle of the park. It's all well and good having players like Lampard, Essien, Mikel, Ballack, Makelele and Sidwell - but they are all too similar, we need a bit of flair in the midfield to link up the attacking play better than what we are now.

Midfield playmaker......Pretty much the only 2 places we need more strength at the moment. Although in the summer a new winger would be a good move too....

Lol, we have to win the premiership first.....

I thought the football was pretty good for most of the game. It is good to see us open our style up a bit and let the players be creative and Joe Cole is certainly enjoying that. Some of the passing was very clever and quick. Certainly work in progress but there was some excellant stuff in there..

There is no doubt that we will be buying in January. We need some more quality is our squad but if we are buying we need to make sure we buy the right players...

Carlo is without doubt top class, and that has been proved by his clean sheets since he come back in. But Cech is on another level together, i would always want Cech in goal if he is fit....

I don't want to keep going over and over this topic, but one thing that i will say is that once Jose left i would NEVER in a million years would i have thought that we would be where we are now, well in contention in the league and through to the champions league in top spot with a game spare......I think it would be fair to say that once Jose left given the turmoil and turbulence that was to come everyone pretty much wrote off our season. The fact that we are doing so well and very much in for every cup still means that the coaching team must get some credit for that...

Carlo is good, but Cech is a LOT better. As soon as Cech is ready he will be back in the team. Could possibly wait now till Arsenal game to bring him back....

This game is about as poinltess as you can get in the Champions league. We have already qualified top of our group and Valencia have no chance of going through so there is nothing to play for. I expect us to rest many players in preparation for the big game in Sunday...