francozola

Rather see him come off the bench in games than Malouda or Kalou

^ Nah I think 8m would be enough to sign him because his contract runs out in June

Web-chat with Romeu. Not sure how real this is... the language and writing style makes it seem fake. Although I suppose he got a translator to post everything for him http://uk.yahoo.euro...atid=5167d16616 Only copy-pasting certain bits.... Comment From Culidris Do you think that one day you might 'do a Fabregas' and return to Barcelona? I'm not thinking about going back, either now nor in the future. I have a great opportunity with superb team-mates. I'm trying to focus on getting better in London. Hopefully things will go well, I'll get a lot of time on the pitch and then we'll see what happens. Comment From Sergei How's life in London? What's it like? Do you live near Torres and Mata? It's good in London, I really like it. On a personal level it's one of the world's great cities, it's surprised me even though everybody had been telling me that it was great. I love its style. I live near Juan, near the centre of the city. That way we can get together easily. Torres is further away, near Chelsea's training ground with his wife and kids. Comment From Ignacio Is it true that Mata has changed Chelsea? Is he really that important to them? Which other players have impressed you there? Yes, I believe Mata has given us a lot of what we were lacking, with the clarity of his passing and his vision. He's got a lot of assists, and is a player who is doing really well. He distributes the ball to Ashley, Lampard, Fernando... He's good; decisive. John Terry has impressed me a lot too, he has great movement. He's an example to a young player like me, a captain who knows exactly what he has to do. Comment From Felix What's it been like playing with Lampard, Terry and Cech? Who's the most fun to be around of the non-Spanish players? Cech speaks five languages, he's hilarious, and he can speak to you in Spanish. They're all easy going people, global stars, but really easy going. They help you, even though they're so well established in the game. Terry is always cracking jokes, David Luiz is always up for having a laugh. The changing room atmosphere is great. Comment From Andrew You've been playing regularly recently, but do you think you'll keep your spot in the first team when Essien returns? I'm not counting on it, we'll have to see. When I arrived I never expected to go straight into the side, I expected to work hard and continue to improve, to be ready to make the most of it when the opportunity came along. I take things one day at a time, I don't think about being in the side for two months or a year or whatever. Comment From Lol Why did Pep Guardiola stop picking you two years ago? Was it anything to do with the Supercup defeat by Sevilla that you played in? I don't think it's that he stopped picking me, more that he started picking other players. I don't think it had anything to do with the Supercup, those of us who made debuts in that match worked hard and did well. Comment From Namorado Have you seen Cech's new mask? Are his team-mates worried for him wearing it? I've not seen it yet! Peter is a gladiator, though, he'd play with a broken arm if he could. I'm not worried about him, if there was any real trouble he wouldn't play. The other day he broke his nose against Blackburn and just carried on like nothing had happened.

I honestly don't know what I'll do to myself if Salomon fucking Kalou gets a new contract

Terry has two years left MAX. We shouldn't be looking at CB options because they play well with JT

If he was 3-4 years younger, then maybe. But he's already 26. What's the point? He ain't that great either.

Has Justin hacked Artinho's account???

Think Kyle Walker should be given a go at RB. I don't rate Micah Richards at all. He has the potential to be a world-class player but lacks a footballing brain imo

I honestly don't see him leaving unless we finish outside the CL places 2 or 3 years on the trot

Yes, this is scary indeed. You forgot Kalou lol. But yeah, it's scary that none of our front 3 players have scored virtually any goals at all for a year and a half. I know Malouda was our top scorer last year but that's a load of bollocks. he was shite for the whole season. The only decent goals/game record is held by Sturridge, and even he is missing at least 2-3 glorious chances every game. It's not creativity that we're missing atm, it's the finishing. We're creating enough clear-cut chances to score 4-5 goals every game whereas compared to last season we were absolutely atrocious.

Okay I get your point but it was done to get him before other clubs are interested. And you can't suddenly complain about the fact that we overpaid. We've overpaid for every player we've bought since Roman took over. We shouldn't judge his quality right now. He will improve a lot over the course of this season. However, one worry I have is that I'm not sure if he fits into AVB's playing style...

Agree - though for the long-term I do feel we need a better defensive midfielder too if Romeu doesn't work out.

Oh stop going on and on about him. Nobody said that he was going to be scoring 20+ goals for us immediately. Nobody even expected him to be a starter in his first couple of seasons. He was bought for the future.

:D that's hilarious. Where did you get the quote from? Simply love the guy.

It was when he scored the penalty against Liverpool in the epic 4-1 win at Anfield

Yep agreed! And now he'll have to wait two weeks before the next game........... which is against Liverpool The red card against Swansea was really really stupid. He would've done well against Bolton and Everton.

Agree with that. A strikers role is too important. And he's the type of striker that doesn't make any contribution to the team except for goals. If it was Rooney we were talking about, then he still has a big impact on the game even if he's not scoring. But Torres isn't that kind of player.

Agreed. Sometimes I'm yelling at him to shoot when he gets into a good position but he keeps the ball and makes a pass and it's always the right decision. His footballing brain is unbelievable.

AVB would not have been hired if he was required to start winning trophies immediately or face the sack. If Roman had such a demand, he would have hired a more experienced manager.

Welcome! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

UB, did you honestly think at the start of the season that we had any chance of winning the league? Deep down I knew we had no chance. However the appointment of AVB signalled that we are looking to revamp our team and that cannot happen over the course of a season. It's unlucky that we are going through this transition at the same time as when Man City have built a perfect team (apart from defense, which is shite) to contend for the title. This transition period should have happened last season, but after winning the title in 09/10, nobody paid any attention. We started off so well but when the first domino fell, everything collapsed. The resurgence in March and April was mainly due to a combination of things - Man Utd's consecutive losses against us & Liverpool in the space of 5 days rattled them and we managed to improve our performances a bit to sneak wins against the likes of Wigan and Spurs which kept us alive. I don't get why so many people are suddenly so pessimistic after the last two weeks. We will NOT drop out of the Champions League places. Jeez. AVB can't solve everything in one transfer window. There's a lot of deadweight around which will be cleared in the next 2 windows. And with regard to the teams fighting it out for 4th place, Spurs look the likeliest. Liverpool rely too much on Suarez. If he gets crocked they're screwed. Same applies to Arsenal and RVP. Newcastle haven't played any decent teams yet. They've got City and United next. Lets see how they fair.

Things have quietened down quite a bit. Hopefully a good sign.

Hmm, true. But the Man City of present is a better team than the Man Utd that challenged us for our three titles - purely because of the number of quality players they have. Injuries won't affect them as much as they would affect other teams.

After Torres' shocking miss on Saturday (ironic thing was that he played well up til then) I am really losing my faith in his ability to score us goals. I was all "he's on the way to his best" after Genk but now he's got me thinking again. Sure he may get goals here and there but can we rely on him to score when it matters? No. Not at the moment anyway. We need to address this problem. Sturridge is missing quite a few chances atm which is also a little worrying but he is learning and should be given time. Drogba, Anelka, Kalou out in January. We need a reliable goalscorer. But it's still not a huge deal because we have players who will chip in with a few here and there. We do need someone upfront tho imo

Very happy for him. Glad the clown Carroll wasn't selected.