lionsden

Costa is Minala's biological father.

If no one is going to say it then I will but has his age been verified. I refuse to believe I'm older than that Methuselah looking man.

He was very composed and played well for the most part. Midfield is where his future lies though that's if he wants to make it here as we have far too many defender as it is.

I have been an advocate of him since his youth team days but let's face it he's his own biggest obstacle and largely responsible for the stagnation because of his lazy lackadastical attitude that he exhibits on the pitch and lack of hunger and desire in his game. I have seen him too many times just stand around, completely uninterested in the game and just happy to let games pass him by, that's a terrible attitude to have and reflects lack of ambition and desire to grow and develop. For balance, It wasn't all his fault though and our board as to share some of the blame The sacking of Ancelotti: Under the Italian, he showed huge promise, desire and hunger and looked destined for greatness, i still remember his league cup debute against Newcastle and his MOTM performace in the UCL against Marseille very fondly. He was progressing and flourishing under a manager that trusted and believed in him. It's no surprise that his decline coincided with the sacking of Ancelotti and it's been downward from there. Then the hiring of AVB who was absolutely terrible with the youth. He showed absolutely no desire in any of our youth or integrating them into the first team. that became apparent when he secluded them from training with and using the first team training facilities. With Josh stagnating on the bench and not getting any minutes on the pitch he then decided to loan him out to a team that already had the position that he plays in covered with Leon Britton and Joe Allen. What followed that loan spell is all down to him however as lack of stagnation can be blamed on someone else but a lack of desire and hunger on the other hand is a character defect. All in all the lesson here is the youth need stability but also the right attitude in order to fulfill their potential. It also helps if the manager is one that shares a passion and philosophy for developing young talents.

I hope we do better than Khedira. He's so uninspiring and unnecessary since we already have matic who is a much better DM. Ramires,Van Ginkel,Chalobah are adequate cover in midfield. It's either buy top quality CM/DLP or stick with the current options as far as i'm concerned. He doesn't bring any unique qualities or added value to the team.

What a finish.

I will never forget this goal

I feel it boils down to initial perception or first impression and how people often find it difficult to shake it off and change their opinion of a player. Schurrle to them as always been a back up player to Hazard at Chelsea and some may find it difficult to accept his promotion to the starting 11. It's the same with regular starters, It will take an awful lot to convince people that a regular starter is no longer good enough or deserving of the status and should be relegated to a squad player. Some were still defending Torres and considered him still good enough to start regularly despite 18 months of awful and inconsistent performances. perception is everything.

How much did you win

His misses probably. leaving Chelsea will mean lower wages and in turn less money for those luxury shopping spree.

Meanwhile reports are saying Torres is very keen to stay at Chelsea despite strong interest from Inter. I will party like a rockstar the day we finally cut ties with him

Messi winning the golden boot wasn't the only farce of the night then.

. . . . . .

I will e-slap whoever still considers him a mere squad player for Chelsea. he's comfortably ahead of Oscar and willian and congrats to him. He deserved it.

While i appreciate his ability to retain possession, we are not Barcelona who emphasizes tiki taka above all else. His main objective is/and should be to create and score and it's impossible to achieve being passive. He will have to shake off his mikelitis and be much more aggressive and direct next season. As much stick as people gave Moses, that kid was direct and aggressive, it just a shame he is very limited.

He's a defender that plays with his heart rather than his head. How can a 27 year old have the tactical and mental discipline of a 10 year old and what's baffling is how he never seem to learn from his mistakes and his inability to quickly shake off a mistake and recover. He will never become a good/great defender imo,it's past that point now. When he's having his usual bad games, he fails at even the most basic of task for a defender such as man marking,tackling etc. Selling him is increasingly looking like the best decision has made in years.

My one criticism of him apart from the obvious one (lacklustre end product in terms of finishing and delivery into the box) is that he's more worried about retaining possession rather than being direct and aggressive.

He's worth a box of rice krispies. nothing more

Ramires isn't a world beater but he isn't that bad. I will even go as far as to say an in form ramires is very bit as good as khedira if not more. so let's calm down

They finished above other 19 teams at the end of a 38 game marathon and that's all that matters. they won and we din't. History books wouldn't describe them as "lucky winners of 11/12 and narrow winners of 2013/14" but as winners pure and simple. if it was that easy why couldn't one of the other 19 teams including us stop them from winning it 2x in 3 seasons?

Well that's that, was fun while it lasted. off to the Paulinho thread we go

They should have sent jose a bottle of don perignon. ungrateful lot

And that's it in a nutshell. They are the favorites.

It's easy. They are the defending champions and have won 2 of the last 3 premier league title. that's a known quantity and that's a winning pedigree.

This was my initial statement " on paper that team should walk the league" the bolded clearly indicates that they have the best squad on paper and have the potential to walk the league but football rarely follows logic and it's played on the pitch rather than on paper. but you ignored that part right from the start. La liga last season was a perfect example. Real madrid and barca had the best squad/team on paper in la liga last season and most people would have predicted the two to walk the league leaving AM and the rest in the dust and even though theoutcome was different, does that mean the initial assessment was bogus and that the two Spanish giant didn't have better players/squad than Atleitico? If they lose yaya they still have enough quality cover in midfield and they also lost him to the nations cup the year they won their first league title under monsieur which didn't make a difference to the ultimate outcome. Well pardon me for showing more confidence in known quantity over unknown quantity and as for the bolded it still wouldn't change the fact that they have the best team on paper