francozola

Don't really know how it happened considering the amount of football he has played. He has a huge fanbase already.

^ lmao. Piazon is no way ready for first team action. It will be 18 months at least until he is ready, if at all.

He would have been better than Casillas for sure imo. Casillas isn't as good as how people make him out to be (IMO)

Such a pity. If not for Stephen Hunt's boot, he would be #1 right now.

Hate it when these newspapers/statistics sites add in some random person just to emphasize how pathetic the others have been. Ever since Howard's fluke goal, it's been him. The joke is funny the first time. Not after seeing it everywhere. And for an actual newspaper to print it...... sigh

IMO he has been given plenty of time. The creativity issue is still understandable... that isn't really his fault. But his touch, ball control, confidence in front of goal, inability to run past defenders, etc hasn't shown much improvement since he joined us and if after 18 months (and 50 million pounds) he still doesn't produce the goods.....

During Shevchenko's time we had plenty of quality players in our side so we didn't suffer that much when he flopped in a goalscoring sense. Drogba took charge. Now we only have a bunch of old players. We simply cannot afford to give him more time.

^ In that article Jaimin posted.

lol somebody probably posted a link on a Groningen board

I would prefer to have him stay at Chelsea. As an attacking option, I'd rather see him coming on as a sub than Malouda or Kalou. He is young, hungry, quick, and defenders don't know anything about him. We should give him a chance. If he doesn't get much playing time, then send him on loan in the summer. But I think we should have a little faith in these young kids and give a couple of them a chance when the more experienced players in the same position aren't doing well. I'd certainly prefer to see Lalkovic and now De Bruyne coming on and playing them against tired defenders instead of Malouda coming on and shooting from 80 yards or Kalou falling over the ball.

"When Willian arrived at Shakhtar in 2007 he penned a five year contract, which ends on June 30, 2012." Does his contract really expire in 6 months? I'm sure Shakhtar must have made him sign a new contract since then

Ohhhh! I completely misread the second part of that paragraph. :doh: Sorry, RottenBanana!

Excellent read. Thank you so much for sharing and translating. Where was it posted? In a newspaper?

Comparing how much television money teams from the PL and La Liga get. Amount for PL teams is under "Total" and amount for La Liga teams is under "Ingresos"

How was the Portsmouth game more important than QPR? They're in the same competition so I don't get it...?? If anything, QPR is a "more important" game because 1) it's the fourth round and 2) they're a better team (although that's probably debatable lol)

I will be furious if Arsenal sign him and we don't even make an effort

yeh but he's sitting on his ass so that picture is accurate

Honestly, I think Henrique & Kez should get married :)

I knew something like that would pop up on twitter soon. Its like the modric saga all over again. It's just there to get your hopes up. I believe that we will start february with no new additions.

Drogba has done a great deal for this club but he has also thrown his toys out of the pram quite a few number of times and has done some embarrassing things in the Chels shirt. "not being offered the contract you deserve and being told your free to look elsewhere" Sorry but I don't agree with this at all!! He doesn't deserve a two year contract! He is 33 years old for crying out loud and has lost so much pace and strength. There is absolutely no way in hell imo he deserves a two year contract.

Definitely agree that he isn't that bad in midfield. I thought he did rather well on Saturday (as compared to the others) and sometimes he does make me think that he would be a decent substitute player to have. But then I think about all the things he's said to the media & how he's tried to manipulate the club into giving him a new contract, his 50-yard shots that go into orbit, his brainless decisions, his obvious discrimination against Torres, his selfish attitude in general, and the amount of wages he's on paralleled with the effort he puts in...... thanks for the memories but it's time for you to go, Flo Mo.

Excellent article. Two things... 1) I completely agree with your point that he cost us two points at the weekend. I said the same thing in the Torres thread and got blasted. Someone asked whether I blame Ramires for costing us two points against Spurs a month back when he should have buried that header and my answer is yes, I do. It's not just me being harsh on Torres by blaming the draw on him. But it was such a pathetic joke of a miss. If players miss half-chances, that's another story. But to miss a chance like he had, no fucking excuses! come on! 2) I think you are being a little harsh on AVB. Yes, I agree that he has subbed Torres off a little too early sometimes, but to say he did it "just when you felt the magic was a moment away" is untrue imo. It's not as if Torres was getting (and creating for himself) 5 or more chances every match. He has hardly been having one or maybe two really good chances in each game this season. And his first touch and ball control has been average in most games as well. He's only had 2 or 3 games where he's been anywhere near as good as his Liverpool days in terms of those abilities. I also think AVB did a lot of right things in terms of managing Torres in the beginning of the season, where he made it clear to Torres that he was going to make him the 1st choice striker at the club. He tried to ease the media pressure on Torres as well. Torres was suspended against Bolton, Everton & QPR because of his own stupidity.. He started against Arsenal and Blackburn but was abysmal in the former and average in the latter. He was also abysmal against Liverpool in the league. Drogba started against Wolves and played very well in that game. Then came the "most important period of AVB's future" in the eyes of the media which was the three games against Newcastle, Valencia and City. Drogba started against Newcastle, scored a good goal and had a decent game. He was superb against Valencia. Nothing great against City but not horrific either. So I can understand why Drogba was favoured during that run of games. I was extremely supportive of him at the beginning of the season and during that little run of 4 goals in 6 that Alex mentioned above, but it's been going on for so long now and I see no improvement in terms of his confidence. It's just too much work having him in our team imo. Sorry for being a little harsh but I want him to leave. I want us to let both Drogba and Torres go in the summer and start anew. Also: "but luck is only what you make of it, and Torres is doing very little to make anything happen whatsoever" YES. THANK YOU.

How do I change my board settings? Things like how many posts I want to see on each page, etc. I can only seem to find the general settings tab which has all the profile stuff but can't find this.

It was a joke. But I am getting fed up. If you look back at the older posts, I was actually really supportive of him at the start of the season. But the patience is wearing thin and half the time I just want to call him a fucking joke because that's what that miss yesterday was. It cost us 2 points. Yes, the other individuals played poorly as well, but he had the best chance, and he missed it. So the blame lies on him. It's a hard life being a striker. imo it would just be easier not having him in the team any more. It's too much work. Everyone is Torres Torres Torres. And he doesn't do what he's supposed to. If he doesn't come good (and by good I mean score 10+ goals) by the end of the season, sell him and start over.

Ashley Cole is 32 years old. Do you want him to be our starting left-back until he is 50? Right-back maybe you are right. But, a youngster MUST be promoted to Ivanovic's replacement, OR someone else must be bruoght in to be his backup. I cannot take any more of Bosingwa. We need a midfielder because Meireles and Lampard are not good enough to be starting in the team. You CANNOT just rely on Mata. Your philosophy is just to stick with what we have because we don't need any more? THat's why we are in this shit-hole right now. Because no one in our board realized that you have to replace players. And I don't mean buy all of those "world-class" players in this transfer window or even in the coming summer. They should be brought in over the next two seasons. If we just stay the way you want it to, we'll remain in this shithole forever. Because other teams will improve themselves. IMO we really need a squad overhaul. Players that should leave/be replaced: Bosingwa, Ferreira, Cole (not replaced but his performances should be reduced), Meireles (ok as backup), Lampard (backup and if he's not happy he can leave), Essien (unless he does really well for the remainder of this season he should be sold or kept only as backup not a starter), Drogba, Kalou, Malouda, Torres (unless he becomes a superstar, I don't want him here any more it's just too much fucking trouble) To become the powerhouse that we were in 2005-2008, you need world class players. You can't just sit on having Meireles and co. in your team. It must be done slowly but this process should have started years ago. Instead we are stuck with these shit players. In 2005 we had world-class players in Terry, Carvalho, Gallas, Lampard, Essien, Makelele, Drogba, Robben, etc. They may not be world-class in the way Messi, Ronaldo are. But they were the best in the business at what they were supposed to do.