EskWeston

The papers this morning reporting it that there is a view to a move for him. Which is rubbish unless he seriously impresses, which i doubt he would impress enough for our squad.

It certainly was fantastic, Robben and Duff were electric. Hopefully we can back to near that, but we need to change some of our playing staff first

But you compare Jose's first season to last season and the beginning of this season. We had players like Robben, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Tiago... who were not only skillful but creative and imaginative which alongside the grafters like Lampard, Maka, Terry, Gallas ect.. created the perfect blend.Fast forward a couple of years and all that creativity has gone for various reasons and replaced by great players but more grafters and we left unbalanced, our football the first 2 seasons and the first particulary under Jose was fantastic.....And with Joe, yes Jose took the selfish show pony streak out of him but he was still dazzling us with his skill, Jose didn't take it aways from him. He has lost an edge since his serious injury but he is getting it back slowly...

Lol It could be possible, although i am sure we are looking at Alves again too..

Always good to hear of commitment from the players, especially ones as important to us as Essien is. Lets hope we do keep him here for a very long time as he is still fairly young..

Chelsea outcast Paulo Ferreira is at the centre of a £10million swap deal with Valencia defender Miguel.Portuguese international Ferreira, 27, who joined Chelsea for £13.2m, lost his place last season and is still a bit-part player under Avram Grant.Grant is considering a swap deal to boost his central defence by offering right-back Ferreira in a straight swap for Valencia's £10m-rated Port uguese centre-half Miguel.Agent Paulo Barbosa has flown to Valencia to negotiate with the club's sporting director Miguel Angel Ruiz.Source: The Mirror

MICHAEL ESSIEN wants to end his career at Chelsea. The Ghana international recently signed a new four-year contract but is ready to pledge his future to the Blues way beyond that. He revealed: “With football being what it is, you can never be certain what will happen in the years ahead. “But I’d be very happy if I could play for Chelsea until I stop. It is a great club and I’ve really settled here. “It was always a dream of mine since I was a young boy to play in England. “Chelsea have helped me with that dream and I am glad that I can give something back to the club. It would be good to stay a long time.” Essien, 24, has stayed in close contact with former boss Jose Mourinho but is adamant everyone is pulling in the same direction under Avram Grant. He said: “At Chelsea, we’re all professional and want to do our best for the club and of course the fans. “There is a job for us all to do at Chelsea, we are going well in the league and there is a big game in the Champions League against Rosenborg.” The Blues top Group B despite only drawing 1-1 at Stamford Bridge with the Norwegians back in September. But a win at the Lerkendal Stadium tonight guarantees their passage into to the next stage and Essien reckons it is unthinkable to even contemplate going out. He said: “It would be strange for Chelsea to go out at this group stage.” Essien was revealing his thoughts when he pitched up at NikeTown in London to look at the boot colours designed for him by school children. Just moments before he walked in, actor Dustin Hoffman was walking out after he too put finishing touches to his own signature trainers. Essien said: “It’s fantastic for the kids because I will actually be wearing the boots they have designed in some upcoming games.” Arsenal are top of the Premier League but Essien reckons Chelsea are capable of reeling them in. The midfielder, who yesterday lost his appeal against a red card at Derby, said: “It was a slow start to the season but now we’re in the title race it is so far so good. “I think it will be among the usual four for the title, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. “But Manchester City could make a breakthrough as they are going well now under Sven Goran Eriksson.”Source: The Sun

Would only be good news if he was to take the England managers job, there is no-one better and the fact that he is available makes it that little bit more likely. After his comments though i am still not convinced he would take the job..

Well that certainly is the impression you get of him, lets hope he can get himself sorted and start producing for us..

Other than a few games here and there the football so far hasn't been all that different. The same problem is there that was there under Jose and that is we are lacking creative players.As far as discipline goes, basically there is no problem there other than the fact that we are being targeted. Far worse goes on in every other game but we are the ones who get punished for it.We should be able to sweep Rosenborg aside tonight even with our missing players and even though they are playing very well at the moment. It should be an interesting game though...

Really?? Thats excellant...

First 2 seasons under Roman were fine, it wasn't until we won the league that we started getting f**ked over...I am sure someone at the club has some sort of stats about it, but it won't make any difference. The press don't help either - vermin...

There has always been problems with French players or French based players gobbing off, there have been several comments from Malouda already on various things where he probably shouldn't be discussing it. I hope this isn't true because it is incredibly petty if it is. He is paid enough to organise his own travel arrangements from international duty.

The worst thing is that there is nothing we can do to stop it, even if we had people recording every game and putting together evidence of similar things by other teams that go unpunished it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, simply because they just don't like us....

It did interest me and i responded with my opinion.

Unless he can be effectively used as a winger better than what we have then it is not worth it. Because he will not get in at left back ahead of Bridge and Cole at the moment....

Why is it that only us get done by this..... it's utter bollocks

Well, you would like to think that is a big pile of steaming s**t...Otherwise Malouda is a big pampered nancy boy who needs to wake up to the real world...

And just get rid of Anelka in the summer? The January transfer window is always a pain in the backside, i can see the logic of getting someone in who can click immediately, but there is no gurantee even with Anelka, it took him a while to kick into gear with Bolton....

I hope you are not saying that you would prefer to have SWP than Ronaldinho???

Yup. And it is looking like Modric is our top target for that role. Which considering it is the January transfer window i can't argue with..

It is never going to get taken back but i can understand why the club do it. BlueLion is right, a bit of consistancy wouldn't go amiss, the fact that far worse challenges do not receive the same punishment, our red cards this season have all been very flimsy especially compared to other challenges that received less (i.e. Kuyt, Hunt ect....)

Absolutely right, Sheva could work in a role behind 2 strikers, although if we are playing 2 strikers he should be one of them because that is where is most comfortable as we saw last season even though he couldn't hit top form. There are still things to try but we do look pretty much set on the 4-3-3 formation again which is not suprising given that the team is most used to it and Ten Cate clearly favours it..

Ferreira has had some tough times, but he has looked pretty good this season, hopefully he can come back and carry on that form, but Belletti has been excellant this season apart from a couple of games.