francozola

haha done

Shouldn't be too bad, but if it's a niggling injury and he isn't 100% then we shouldn't play him. Keep him on the bench in case JT/Cahill need replacement during the game.

Good price = 20 million at least Brana is a beast and it'll be very hard to replace him. Not only his footballing ability but his determination, his English-type grit, no-nonsense approach and so on. Has saved us on countless occasions with his goals, too. What a legend!

TBH that's what he was doing until these last few months imo. His work-rate and contribution has improved this year, but in 2011 his performances were pretty dire. Anyway I agree, I don't know how on earth he was supposed to score those 2 "clear-cut chances". The defender was right there to make the block. Clear-cut chances that he's missed are the likes of the Utd open goal, against Blackburn in the last minute, away at Wigan (?) where he had an open goal and he scuffed the shot wide in the 2nd half etc etc. The ones yesterday he didn't score because of misfortune, but at least he was in the right place at the right time to affect the outcome.

Is he out of contract this summer? I don't mind him staying as long as he takes (or perhaps he's already taken) a massive wage cut

He's not shying away from chances either. He's actually making runs INTO the box and going for difficult headers. Previously he just kept coming out of the box to receive a ball and then pass it on, because he was so afraid of having a go.

Agree, all it takes is a couple of draws! But I can see Spurs slipping up, however I really cannot see us beating both Arsenal & Liverpool

He's finding some passion in football again. Good to see. Keep it up Fernando!

How many goals have our defenders scored in all competitions this season? Bar Kalou I think everyone had a positive game today! Think Mata should have gone off a little earlier. Had an excellent game today though! But he needs some rest! so should we put in a cheeky 5m bid for Heskey, then?

Great win in the end, but don't like how we relaxed so much when we were 2-0 up. Definitely understandable but luckily we didn't drop points. Thought we played very well in the first half, should have scored a couple more though. But some of the passing was very good indeed. My MOM - Mikel Didn't even realize that! Ironic that Sturridge provided the assist for Torres' goal. Good performance by him in the 1st half but disappeared in the 2nd until the goal

Utterly ridiculous. Fuck the FA. We should go on and win both the CL and the cup just out of spite

Agree. I don't know why it took so long for our board to hire him... He was appointed on 22nd June. He should have been hired much much earlier. He was there and a week or 10 days later we had to depart for the US. Hardly ideal preparation.

YEP. Won't be surprised if some of the journos are reading this and sniggering. Pathetic.

Josh should be an addition to our midfield, not a replacement of Meireles. If he isn't good enough to play for Swansea, why would he be ready for us. I'm not saying he shouldn't be played at all. But he's not ready to start. He needs another loan (where he'll play week-in-week-out) OR sit on our bench and play 20-30 minutes every other game. No way is he ready to start. If we get rid of Meireles, Lampard & Essien are already useless as it is, so we only have Mikel, Romeu and Ramires as midfielders in our team and two are defensive midfielders. Essien should be the one sold. Lampard should be made a substitute player or sold if he's not happy. He is a good squad player. Can't believe some of you don't see that. We CANNOT just have 2 or 3 midfielders in our squad and stick with the past-it Essien and Lampard. Playing 50 games a season, you need experienced squad players. Why is this not obvious? AVB gave him stupid roles and that's why he was shit. He still provides more than Lampard and Essien put together in certain types of games. Anyway I hate this topic now. I hate this bias against Meireles so I'll just avoid it from now on. He should leave. The abuse he gets from fans is completely unfair.

I wouldn't sell him. We are already short of midfield options and Lampard and Essien both are past it. We need to be bringing midfielders in. He is clearly not good enough to be a starter but he is a good squad option. I know everyone thinks he's shit but he's not. He's an average player who does okay when he's given the proper duties in midfield. Plus with so many players leaving at the end of this season, we can't afford to sell him and then be 1 player short next season or have to spent another 15-20 million on a replacement

He has made those comments about wanting to be played up top quite a few times already this season. I've seen them 4 or 5 times at least. Idiot. Just get on with it. Didn't know he only had another year left. Well that sucks. If he's going to be such a bitch about things then might as well sell him now for 10-15 mil rather than lose him on a free in 2013

Good point, but I don't like when he sometimes just gives up on shots. For example, in the City game - early on when Nasri hit the bar with that dinked shot kinda thing? He just gave up on it. Then when it rebounded off the bar he had to suddenly rush into action. I guess I'm being picky but he does this rather frequently and it gets on my nerves when it happens

^ agree. His inexperience really showed in that aspect. Such a pity. If he had joined one or two seasons later (when the old guard and some of the useless players like Malouda, Kalou, etc were gone) he would not have such problems. My opinion of what we need: Hiddink/a Hiddink type manager for the short term - to get rid of the deadwood and put some of the 'old guard' in their place. AVB was given no respect but they wouldn't have done that to Hiddink. Once all of the following: Hilario, Turnbull, JT, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Cole, Lampard, Essien, Meireles, Kalou, Malouda & Drogba are either gone/properly replaced in the first XI by others, bring in an AVB-type manager for the long-term. The sacking of AVB shows that the club are not patient at all with results, so we need someone to come in and stabilize things first. We have so much useless deadwood at the club right now thanks to Roman and our clueless board who did not start the rebuilding process in 07/08. And please stop saying Moyes. If someone mentions his name one more time, I'll punch a wall. Moyes would be as much of a gamble as AVB. Utterly ridiculous suggestion. Also, RDM is not ready for this job imo. These results so far are not in any way an accurate representation of what would happen if he was given the permanent job.

Haha seriously? Luiz has been good for quite a few months now. At least 6-7 games before AVB was sacked. Cech's form has nothing to do with RDM. Torres yeah agreed because AVB was unable to give him any support due to the enormous pressures he was under and he was clearly losing it with regards to man-management. Kalou always performs this way. He's still shit. The goal doesnt change much. He has always worked hard. Doesn't mean he's suddenly a superstar Some of you need to calm down re: RDM. He's done well but I only credit him with the man-management so far which has been good. But thn again the players are so relieved that AVB is gone and hence are happy. Napoli game had nothing to do with him. Fair play Tuesday he got pretty much everything spot on Again, I'm not trying to say he's shit or anything. But he has not in any way proved that he's ready for this job, IMO.

If the likes of jordan fucking henderson can be sold for 16mil, I don't see why we should settle for less than 22-25. He's English AND young so we should definitely get 20 at the very least. Knowing our board, they'll probably sell him for 7million

Could see him insisting a move. He's been running his mouth all season about wanting to play as a striker. Every single interview he says that. It's so fucking annoying. Don't think there's any chance of us having him as our no. 1 striker, so he might decide to move.

I can see him going to spurs

Lol. But understandable since he was injured and probably blocked everything out during the celebrations. Must have been weird for him to see the team react so happily to what he thought was a draw

Agree lol I didn't mean that torres is now ready to become a goal scoring machine or something like that. But he provides more to the team than Drogba ATM. I'd only play Drogba against arsenal and Liverpool in the prem, he does well against arsenal and Torres will completely flop against Liverpool. Also if we get barca, Drogs will definitely be fired up and he suits the tactics more for those games anyway. But his attitude in prem games is utter shit and he also doesn't have energy to play them anymore.