lionsden

Fuck signing Costa, the person we should be signing is Atletico madrid's chief scout and our striking problem is solved for the foreseeable future. forlan-aguero-falcao-Costa.. .the consistency is ridiculous.

What's next. . . who's better Aguero or carlton cole. I have never seen Hulk have a decent game in the last 2 years atleast. if anyone thinks Ramires/Torres are frustrating then watch a typical Hulk performance over full 90 mins. he's one of those players whose hype absolutely defies logic and the fact that you are even comparing him to Costa proves that.

I need to watch him more then. only if Josh would grow some balls and develop the right mentality because he actually has the skillset to be a regista but his softness and weak mentality is holding him back

Isn't he an AM?. what we need is a DLP and the only gettable one at the moment at a right age due to the scarcity of players who fit that mode is Oliver Torres. We should have gone for Veratti when we had the chance before PSG got him.

Please please be true http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2583773/Inter-Milan-chief-Stamford-Bridge-Italian-giants-ante-bid-sign-Fernando-Torres.html?ico=sport^headlines

Though it may seem a controversial opinion . . . he's been by far our most consistent performer this season. And I said it back in December that he was a legit contender for the award alongside hazard. JT and cahill too deserve special mentions.

Is he under strcit tactical instructions to slow the game down uneccessarily and ruin attacking moves one after the other. That can be the only logical explanation here plus he's been enrolling and receiving superb education from the ivanovic school of crossing.

You just described william perfectly there except for the great part.

Defensiely he's right up there with lahm for me. It's on the other end of the pitxh where he needs to contribute more and add to his game. Fantastic player, versatile too.

No and no one has suggested that however the best ones usually show "glimpses of their potential" at as young age as 18/19/20/21 with varying degrees of success. Oscar on the otherhand has never shown evidence to justify how highly rated he is at club level and comments such as "he has the potential to be one of the best playmakers in the future" lacks any basis. People label him, as a special talent with massive potential and I'm judging him based on that. If he were to be judged along the levels of Jordan Henderson (who has been brilliant this season btw) and other average all round midfielders then I wouldn't be so harsh on him but when people hold him to such high esteem and he's not justifying the hype whatsoever then awkward questions have to be asked. Hazard too is still inconsistent and not at world class level yet (some may disagree) and is the point you were trying to make regarding youngsters however the young Belgian has shown enough evidence to justify the hype and it's easy to see why he's so highly rated, same cannot be said for Oscar.

I have never rated Oscar so that makes your point redundant. he's always being overrated to me. and what's wrong with demanding more from players anyway. are you suggesting everyone starts accepting and settling for mediocrity?

Cech, JT, Lampard, Cole, Azpilicueta (fast becoming my fav at the moment), Hazard,Cahill, matic et al. Does that answer your question?

"He has the potential to become one the best playmakers in the future" and we are still waiting for him to show even glimpses of this mythical potential. Virtually every highly rated youngsters that people have used the adjective for (Hazard, Gotze, Neymar,Isco) have shown glimpses of their playmaking potential in abundance at club level be it in past seasons or currently except our overrated amigo. And being tactically astute and scoring a few cracking goals doesn't constitute playmaking btw not the last time I checked anyway.

Work ethic and extremely low productivity is what £30m gets you these days where attacking players are now judged and praised solely for their "work ethic" but then again Marco reus only cost dortmund £15m and Cahill and Azpillicueta cost next to nothing so I guess there's hope for those that demand value for money afterall.

What was our tactical approach then? it certainly wasn't free flowing attacking football. The only decent showing performance wise was at the etihad and that's what 1 in as many encounter against them.

And any technical director with some iota of sense would have recognized the risk of making signings without a manager or managerial approval . that's just common sense stuff. that didn't stop him from going bizzack on Brazilian and Belgian "talents" and bunch of attacking midfielders etc . . . .like my 10 year old nephew playing football manager . You mean he should also be exonerated from blame for the signings he made when we were without a manager and how majority of those signings didn't address the needs to the squad?

Based on what? It certainly isn't based on technical ability nor finishing ability. Sturridge was a superior finisher at Lukaku's age and his technical ability in miles (like 20 000 miles) superior to Lukaku's. I mean sturridge has scored 28 goals in 35 pl apps for LFC. . . that's Zlatan/cavani like numbers.

So he's spent £277 million in that time and we are still no where near Europe's elite in terms of squad quality, depth, performance etc. that doesn't sound like great value and transfer dealings to me. 90% of the players he signed are either out on loan or sold because they aren't good enough or surplus to requirement (ironically). with the amount we have spent, we should never be in a position where we have to defend deep and play like stoke city against big boys like barca, Bayern et al in an admission of inferiority. we should be in a position to go toe to toe, literally, with the very best. (packing the bus isn't going toe to toe btw). We have spent significantly more than clubs like Dortmund, Juventus in that time and they have at the very least achieved as much success if not more than us while not relying on wimbledon tactics to do so because they have sufficient quality in their team/squad. Edit: it gets even worse because guess what, we have actually outspent every single club in Europe including Madrid and Man city in that time upon further check and review. City spent 208 million while Madrid transfer expenses was 217million. that's fucking horrendous any way you slice it.

And why would he want to come back?

Ok fair enough. In that case jose gets the blame for the reshuffling and downsizing of the squad but even before that and objectively speaking, do you not think emenalo was a bit too optimistic with his signings and could have done a much better job with the amount of money he has spent?

I'm sorry but I judge results and substance/tangible rather than potential especially when it concerns football at the highest level and huge capital and investment. He became technical director in 2011 and since that time He's managed to turn us into nothing but one of europes biggeet loan sharks and his signings hasnt significantly strenghtened the current first team to the level you had expect given the money that has been spent since that time. perhaps when these potentials actually become reality and the likes of lukaku,courtois,oscar and co starts making quantifiable and significant contributions directly in the first team that elevates us I might give him some credit. For now he's no better than a wall street trader gambling huge sums on his investment paying off in the future. Not impressed one bit until I actually see results.

Are there still some people who believe Torres is the superior striker and deserves to be ahead on the pecking order? grandpa eto'o is and has always been superior to Torres. Even in Torres's prime, he was always inferior to strikers like Eto'o Zlatan and David Villa and people can point out his ballon dor nomination all they want. . . . .

The most frustrating thing about his game is how he tries to play like a Suarez despite having the technical ability of an Andy carroll.

Your argument about 2 players away from a complete squad butresses my point that most overrate our squad and players a great deal. Then again complete squad would be relative to the standard one wishes to set and judge a squad by. If the aim and ultimate goal was to become/rejoin Europe's elite then we would have needed more than just 2 signings to complete the squad. for starters, Ashley cole is on the way out and Ivanovic's only real competition at right back is the current first choice LB. Secondly we have no regista sans midfield controller. so with the signing of a defensive midfielder in Matic, we are still desperately lacking a top class midfielder who can orchestrate play from deep and be the link between defence and attack. our Xavi/Bastian/Gundogan/Pirlo if you will. Add to that Lampard,an AM forced to play in CM, is obviously on the wane and likely on the way out in the summer, Ramires clearly lacks the technical ability and intelligence required to play and flourish in CM at a club with big aspirations and Mikel isn't the most reliable midfielder around which imho leaves Matic has the only real midfielder worth his salt in the current squad. Also despite all the attacking midfielders and wingers we purchased over the last 3 seasons, how many of them actually good enough and consistently produce the goods. Oscar must be the most uncreative no 10 (if you want to call him that) at any top European club statistically and visually and William, for all his technical ability consistently lacks the end product and schurrle isn't much better for all his intelligent attacking runs. And I'm not even sure others like Marin and Moses are even good enough as squad options which again leaves only Hazard as the genuine quality out of all the AM's and Wingers we have. A classic case of quantity over quality. The same can also be applied to the striking position. Ba is clearly not good enough, Eto'o is past his prime and Torres is unreliable and has never been since his game has deteriorated to the point of no return which means that unless Jose rates and likes Lukaku and sees him in his future plans, we would require more than just one striker signing. I'm not so sure it would only require 2 key signings, one of which we have already made in Matic, in order to complete the jigsaw. You will have to forgive me for having high standard.

Since we are on this what we want fantasy how about a clone of a young Van basten and Romario. that will do nicely.