CHOULO19

People lost interest, I guess. The last few barely got to the second page.

"I don't know if the ref will be able to sleep well tonight." I just fucking love this guy!

If you mean me, I didn't have any, I just strangled one Speaking for myself, I'm not upset about the result, a draw away at Soton is not a bad result. I am frustrated by how nothing seemed to go our way even though we really deserved the three points. City drawing at home against Burnley really puts into perspective an away draw at Soton. About the pen, I have no complains whatsoever. I said it after the last match, we can't complain about not getting a pen when our players have been diving.

Feel like strangling a kitten Hey @Jason, can I borrow one of your cats?

Forgot my own rule of NEVER coming on here when we are losing See you all after the match

Yes, but I was just pointing out the difference between "I think that..." and "There is no doubt that....". And you do realize that the top 5 includes the top 3, right? Saying that someone is top 5 in the world does not necessarily mean that he is below the top 3, it could well mean that there are a few that are very close to each other's levels and you do not want to put them in any specific ranking. Finally, saying someone is top 5 in the world is an insult to him? Bloody hell, dude!

That's not very indicative of the team since 4 PL matches are 7 or 8 matches in all competitions. Win 4 PL matches and lose the 3 matches in other competitions in between and the team is in a bad run, win 7 and draw one PL match and the team is on an amazing run.

Pretty clear that there's plenty of doubt about that! You can certainly make a case for him as the best keeper in the world and there is no doubt that he is up there with the best in the world, but saying that he is the best is not fact but an opinion and one that is much less popular than the one that argues that Neuer is the best in the world.

We are on a 5 game winning streak in all competitions. Remember Jose's "quadruple" talk before Stoke?

Griezmann plays as a sort of second striker for them, while if they are interested in Salah it would be to replace Cerci as a back up winger, meaning he would be expected to fill in the roles of Turan and Koke which he really can't. And the DM is hardly reliable. Very often they just recycle nonsense from the Sun, Daily Star...etc. But Atleti don't always press high. In fact, much more often they press in the middle of the park or even in their own half. So, it's less about speed and covering space and more about physicality and tactical and positional awareness. I just think that Salah would be a VERY obvious weak link in their current team. I can tell all the ones he got wrong as well Admittedly, Di Marzio has proved that he has connections with agents and players, but I still doubt that he'd be the first to know if an Egyptian is moving from an English club to a Spanish one! I really don't care if he moves to Sunderland, Inter or Atletico, but I just can't believe the latter. My best guess is that the grain of truth in this rumor, if there is any, is that we've thrown Atleti's name in the mix to raise the negotiation price with Inter.

That raises another question, did we terminate his contract or was he sold for a zero fee to Milan? If it's the first then he probably did get some sort of pay off, but even that I would imagine would be different from wages in FFP, but are obviously still expenses that count in the balance. If it's the latter, then I don't think we'd still be paying him anything because I doubt that a player can still be receiving wages from his previous club when he is no longer affiliated with it in any manner.

Not at all a game for Mikel, imo. They won't sit back like Stoke or Sunderland and they'll be determined to play from the back which means that the key to creating chances tomorrow will most likely be the speed of transition when we win back the ball because they will no doubt have spaces to exploit. I think it's also a must start game for Oscar as we will likely look to press them high up the pitch. If we want to bring someone from the bench into the XI in this one, I would think that Ramires is the ideal choice if 100% fit. Rest Willian or (less likely) Fabregas. A couple of other players who could come in but we have no idea how much Jose is going to change/rest if any at all.

Tomorrow's Daily Star saying that he's been offered a new contract: Pretty much a formality but still nice to read.

Well, his pace is pretty outstanding. Creativity also pretty outstanding for a fullback. Going forward he's been the best LB in the league along with Baines.

The club has really not let much slip out in this one. Even the figures of how much we and Milan were paying of his wages were contradictory from one source to another and some were even saying that Milan were paying all of his wages (Telegraph, IIRC). Obviously now we have all of his wages off of the balance sheet because he is a Milan player on loan at Atleti. I suspect he did take a wage cut to go back there, because I can't see Atleti paying him 10m/yr nor can I see Milan still paying some of his current wages while he is in Spain because that would be terrible deal from their perspective.

Next time we don't get a pen, we really have no right whatsoever to complain about the ref. Wait, I thought Iva was Bane?! You read way to many comics...

Not the wages but the transfer fee which is amortized on FFP. When he was on loan he was still technically our player even if he won't play another game for us, so the remaining fee was divided between this year's and next year's books. Now, it'll all count in this year's balance on FFP.

Don't ask....

If I'm not mistaken, I think this actually means that we're going to have to pay all of the remaining 20m of his price this season instead of 10 this year and 10 next year.

Was thinking more along the lines of:

Now just watch Atletico pull out of the deal to leave Milan stuck with him

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2014/12/torres-makes-milan-move-permanent.html Good bye and good riddance!

Still makes absolutely zero sense. Their whole play is based on collective pressing and defending and physically dominating teams which is why I highly doubt they are genuinely interested in Salah no matter what the papers write.

Aside from JT, the natural leader on the pitch in the team now is Cesc. Irrelevant who you decide to hand the arm band to.