CHOULO19

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I think USA had a very good generation the past decade or so, and the level of the MLS has gone up so much during this period, but I think they are still miles behind when it comes to coaching especially on the youth level. Clubs don't have the academies that you see in England which is why you don't really see many young prospects coming from there. That's why I can't see them winning a WC anytime soon. If anything England are much more likely to win it in the foreseeable future because they have players that have played at the top level and have the experience of winning major trophies with their clubs. On any account, both are mile behind the likes of Germany, Spain, Netherlands, France, Brazil, Argentina and so many more.

I'd deny that, but I'm actually about to change the light bulb which just burned out!

Oh please, you mechanical engineers are just glorified plumbers :P

And how many times has he pulled an incredible save when it's 0-0 or 1-1? Almost every single game! Of course he makes mistake, every keeper does, but like I said before, Petr is our "Get out of Jail free" card. Cech being error-prone is just about the most ridiculous notion you could come up with. Petr is one of the most consistent keepers in the world; much more consistent than the likes of Neuer, Buffon, Casillas, Hart(LOL)...etc

I REALLY hate biology!

Our NT actually scored a very smart FK goal on Tuesday. I was shocked! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg59TI11IoI From 1:02.

That's an excellent point. You are "involved" with your club on a daily basis. You read the news and analysis every day and watch them play every week once or twice. While, with the NT, you barely have a match every month or so and even longer in years with no WC or continental cup. That's why clubs feel much more personal, imo. Recently, my country almost pulled off an absolute miracle, going from being ranked something like 160 in the world 2 years ago, to almost qualifying to the WC this year, and it was very good to watch but I got more emotional when Hazard scored the second goal last week than in the entire NT campaign.

A few of things: - Traore is technically not a Chelsea player but a free agent as he still does not have a contract with the team. - Karim Rekik is on loan from City, not us. - And Chalobah is the highest rated Chelsea man on that list a couple of places ahead of Ruben. I feel that the likes of Ake and Atsu, even Lewis Baker and Bamford deserve to be on that list more than someone like Cuevas, for example. Boga definitely deserves to be on there, maybe even ahead of RLC. His performances last season, especially in the NextGen even though he was often the youngest on the pitch were extraordinary. Don't know too many of the youngsters from other clubs to really judge.

I doubt too many clubs will be rushing to pay 40m for him. Anyway, it's all speculation, and by the mirror as well, so we have no idea if that is actually what Porto are asking for or not.

Not sure we'll need that protection against Cardiff. The thing with Essien is that he's still a decent player, but he just doesn't have something that he does better than the rest of our CMs. He's not as good as Frank at going forward and scoring, he's not as good as Mikel in the holding role and he's certainly not as good as Ramires in the box-to-box role. That's why he's been stuck on the bench.

What a performance! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ohn7Y6oK4

Good instinctive finish. Hopefully he can open his account for us this season soon.

Clearly and OG but he did very well for the goal. Granted Egypt were just terrible on the day. No, don't think so. It'll be Frank because he will likely score against teams like Cardiff and Ramires because we're just not the same without him.

That's true. He seems to be doing very well in Netherlands which is just fantastic for him. Hope he keeps his form and and stays away from injury and it would be a fantastic season for him.

That's very much debatable. They're all good young players and there is absolutely no guarantee who will become the better player. Point is, we are not in any way desperate enough to pay 40m for him.

Mother of all pointless discussions... Great! Can you give us a specific date, please? Perhaps the exact hour? Thanks.

He's even played it many times for the youth team with Feruz as a partner and even a couple of times as a lone striker IIRC. I've always thought that his future will be there and that this LW is just a phase he'll pass through till he is ready to play as a striker at first team level (not our first team, just to be clear).

Or we can go for one of the many highly rated CB prospects for half that price or, god forbid, we can give one of our own highly rated CB prospects, namely Kalas and Omerou, a chance.

Not disagreeing with any of that. I think his movement is the best among our three strikers, and his acceleration is still good. But when it comes to pure pace he's unfortunately lost most of it. A few times in every match he's been beaten for pace by defenders, especially against Steaua where the defender always seemed to have a couple of yards on him.

I've said it a few times before after watching his movement, and not as false 9. His movement is that of a proper number nine; just excellent for his age. He even played that role for us a couple of times in preseason under Robbie and I thought he was very impressive. His movement was miles better than Torres (not saying much, I know) and he even scored a late equalizer against PSG. The counter argument was that his finishing was poor. But his finishing seems to be improving a lot now, so I would love to see him given a chance as a striker.

40m? Porto can f*** right off!

Eto'o? Pace? May be compared to Ba, but he's really slower than most strikers, atm.