Pizy

Every time I've seen him I've been impressed. Wins every header and is very physically imposing. I'd love to have him here somehow, but it won't happen as he's too expensive and we have a few young CB's. City would have one hell of a CB pairing with he and Kompany if he ends up there. Extremely intimidating.

Mangala was asked if he'd rather join Chelsea or City and said Chelsea because of London. Would be hilarious to "steal" him from them, but I think José will give Kalas a shot as well as Zouma. Would be really awesome to have France's future CB pairing at our club, though. Would be the ideal Terry successor.

Don't think their physio's have gone to school. Arsenal's either. Players always get injured and are out for months with injuries that should heal quickly.

0% chance they'd sell him and less than 0% chance they'd sell him to us. Probably -50% chance we'd even want him. Made of more fragile glass than RvP and seems to get injured every other match.

Exactly. What do people expect him to say to that question? "Yeah, I regret moving to England. Fuck Tottenham!" While that would be hilarious and probably true, of course he's going to say what he said.

He speaks better English than some of the English players...

Cue the inevitable "why would Courtois take a step down and return to Chelsea!?" tweets and articles if/when he returns this summer. I'd bet my house that this is the last time Atletico win that league any time soon. Their best players are going to be poached (two of them by us in all likelihood) and almost definitely their manager within the next couple of years. Real Madrid will be much better next season with Bale used to the league and when they replace Benzema with a new striker. Barca will improve too. It'll be mostly idiot Liverpool and Arsenal supporters. Jealous that we're now just as big globally as they are.

I believe so.Also say they must limit their net spend to ~£50m in addition to whatever they make via player sales. So they won't be able to spend a ludicrous amount like they usually do but still should be able to buy all of their targets. This will have no noticeable effect on them at all really in my eyes. Slap on the wrist for them.

So now City will spend only £85m per window instead of £100m?

Really wish we'd unveil all three of our kits at once like some other clubs seem to do.

Well one thing is for sure, if Mandzukic comes here then we 100% need to bring in a new LB. He's awesome in the air and we can't have Azpi on one side who very rarely gets into crossing positions and Ivanovic on the other side who sails 80% of his crosses into the stands. Willian is just about the only attacking player who crosses the ball.

Is Mandzukic good outside of the box, though? Watching him during this seasons CL he looked like a terribly clumsy oaf when he got the ball and tried to run with it. I was under the impression that he was a pure in-the-box striker in the Chicharito mould.

So this thread has blown up due to an article that is from January?

As long as it's in addition to Costa I'd be fine with it. Never good enough to be the main man for us.

Saw a Vine of it on twitter and it definitely looked like a smooch.

This may make me sound like a terrible person, but signing a gay player could actually help our image.

Picture of Rakitic kissing his teammate Coké on the lips during the celebration doing the rounds on twitter.

You see that ultra embarrassed look on his face today when he was subbed out after being a sub himself?Felt bad for him.

Yeah, definitely looks like a #8 to me not an attacking mid. He's done all he can do at Sevilla. Time to move on to bigger and better things. They usually sell for reasonable fees, too, so we should give it a shot.

He really is the type of CM we need. Great range of passing and reads the game well. Can burst forward and join in on attacks well too.

I don't know.I personally wouldn't be intimidated by Raul Meireles if I ran into him in a dark alley because he looks like he weighs about 110 lbs. Ivanovic on the other hand looks like a terminator. Or one of those stereotypical giant Russian goons from a Statham film.

With no caps for his country would he even be able to move here to England? Did Willian have caps for Brazil before moving here? I can't remember. Anyways, he looks like the real deal. Not any reputable sources linking him to us only Metro, but for the £15m they're talking about I wouldn't mind. If Oscar goes through another slump or we just wanted some more creativity than he offers this kid could be valuable.

If there's one stand out thing I'll miss about him if he leaves is how he absolutely trolled and wound up opposition fans. I mean, how can you not love this?

I guess I'm in the minority here but I think it's best that he goes. He didn't contribute nearly enough this past season to merit him taking up a roster spot that could be used on either a young player of ours or a new CM. He's miles off the pace now to compete against the biggest sides and he doesn't bang them in when he was playing in the other matches. It was important to have him here this year when it was all about transition and helping José mentor the players. He surely helped as a leader and role model and I'm thankful for that and all he's done for Chelsea. But this season was about securing CL football and growing as a side with young players. Next season our ambitions will be much higher and expectations will be sky high. I just fail to see where Lamps fits in as a player. He's just not good enough for a side who wants to win the PL and CL. Terry obviously needed to stay as he's one of our most important players both on the pitch and off of it and Ash should be given another year because we're thin at fullback, but Lamps doesn't have an important purpose anymore.