Blue Armour

Chelsea will probably sign Chuck Norris before they sign Neymar...

Not really a winger, but he can play off the striker and drift wide like Anelka, plus he's super strong and can take free kicks...a good choice IMO barring the price tag...

I'd rather Bayern buy Godin and we keep Alex (can't keep having the defence merry-go-round)....Alex's thigh surgery was probably the main reason why Cech didnt win the golden glove this season..As for Luiz he should at least be tried out in the RB or DM positions...Until he curbs out the mistakes from his defensive play he isn't fit to play in the centre....

Meh...a lot of spanish papers favour Real madrid...so no surprises here....

I'm not sure but do you ever get the feeling that the club makes good decisions when things are going bad, and bad decisions when things are going good?

Apparently Inter president Massimo Moratti told Italian media that he's unhappy with Sneijder's recent comments regarding the future...I wouldn't read too much into it, but he did say something similar when Mourinho left and Rafa got the boot....

Legend or not, I still say we keep him..if Ramires and Mikel both get injured (very likely in this league), we need a backup CDM. As I said earlier, we need to strengthen the squad and so we need to ADD not replace..What we do need is one more CAM, since Lampard is the only one we have, and Benayoun gets injured too often. Since its unlikely that McEachran will be used on a regular basis(though I would like him to be) we should sign someone like Sneijder, etc.. If the club removes someone to accommodate excess wages, I rather it removed some dead weight, rather than a regular contributor....

I still feel he's got it, but I've noticed that Essien plays a lot more cautiously (this season) when going in to make a tackle or going after the ball when defending...(usually he harasses the opposition when they have the ball and quickly charges forward after getting back)..maybe he's worried about getting knocked in the knees again....

Ron Gourlay's takin a nap....

To tell the truth I wouldn't mind if the new manager can get them to play close to their 100 percent...

Whoever comes in now, I hope its someone who knows the players to an extent...it will be irritating to see our players, especially the youngsters, having to prove themselves all over again...

Q3: also = if and when do you think we'll get eliminated from the champions league

Yes...and for a fact, this season some of the older barca players like Xavi and Puyol had more fitness problems than usual...but it didn't affect their team as much as ours for obvious reasons....

Really? I thought Arsenal had pretty good back-up goalies like that whatsisname Schezny....but then again all their keepers are only fit to be back-up goalies...

Good Topic...I was surprised with Ash Cole in particular, that he kept playing game after game despite his well documented ankle problem....Might explain why he had trouble in defence during some of our matches...I really hoped Carlo would have rotated him with or at least tried out Van Aanholt for some of the matches in midweek,etc...

But those were England internationals leaving from clubs lower down the table...

Knowing our club, this could well be a long summer...the Robinho and David Luiz deals are good examples....

Our midfield passing is also lacking speed and decisiveness at times...Don't know what happened this season, but our play seems a far-cry from period in early 2010, when we used to score from one touch passing.... don't know if its because of new tactics, new players or if the opposition have just figured out our act.....

At least the agent says that the deal isn't dependent on De Bruyne.

Mikel's only problem as far as I can see, is the occasional loss in concentration,.... which is draws a lot of flak because he often happens to be part of the last line of defense in our games when the rest of the mid-field and the fullbacks stampede forward, leaving him in charge at the back. But that shortcoming can be easily overcome with time..Remember how fantastic he was when this season began?

What I don't get about this "sell mikel/essien" argument is the fact that we're trying to add something that's missing from the team and not trade parts of it for something else. If we were giving up someone who was no longer contributing/contributed like Quaresma or SWP it would have make sense to sell them...

He did say have a great weekend...

With De Bruyne reluctant to moving to a rival Belgian club, Chelsea could loan out one of their own youngsters instead....

That's because Real can afford to sign flops....

(Since we're still talking abt Mikel in the Sneijder topic ) I always felt it was weird that Mikel plays holding mid for us, when he plays/used to play a no. 10 role for Nigeria. He could have been used in the position behind two strikers when Carlo was trying the failed diamond formation. Think about it: quick short passes, and can hold the ball great with his strength. Cant shoot for nuts though....