CHOULO19

I look forward to people moaning when Jose starts him for quite a lot of games next season.

This was posted in the Mourinho thread, but I thought the people in this thread need to give it a read as well. Jose talking about FFP to the official site: http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3212071/title/mourinho-one-direction

Since we gave him to Benfica to shave 2m off the Luiz deal, it is actually 20 times! Must be some kind of record; we should be proud..

They were actually, but good luck getting people to follow that rule..

Seriously, they should be sued for that tittle!

That's a very interesting point. Mikel definitely has what it takes to play with his back to goal, but if he is to played further up the pitch, can he, after laying the ball off to a fellow midfielder, then join the offense and attack the second/third ball and score on a regular basis? Unless you mean that he is still deployed in the pivot but only exchanges places with Oscar during the play? If it is the latter, I think there will be plenty of gaps if we lose possession because Mikel is usually the one who covers and protects the back 4 when we lose the ball. We may have to play him next to another defensive midfielder for that work. But again, very interesting proposal. Would love to see someone attempting to implement here or even at Barca with Busquetes.

Hazard is nothing like Neymar. Eden is a much more effective player. Yes he likes his rabonas, but he never does tricks just for tricks sake. He does uses some excellent dribbling skills to directly influence the game. In fact at the start of the season, a lot of people were complaining that he should take defends on more often. Hazard has also showed this season that he can be extremely disciplined tactically. One of the main things I like about Hazard is that, unlike Ronaldo, for example, he can fit into the team system and play for the team, he does not need a system to be built around him. Neymar is none of those things atm.

True, I don't deny that, but I was never a fan of players who try to be too fancy. Often when people send me youtube links to some Neymar tricks, true they are usually very difficult tricks that must have took A LOT of training, but all I see is a pass that he should have played to make the attack more dangerous or an early cross that could have resulted in a good chance...etc Only one genius has ever managed to integrate his 'street-football' skills into professional football and that was Ronaldinho. I very much doubt someone will ever be able to repeat that feat anytime soon.

No I said, I'd rather have someone like Moses in my team. Neymar is obviously much better technically but his work-rate is terrible, he is physically weak, and I am yet to see him fit in any teams tactical system. He's certainly no where near worth the 57m that Barca paid, while Moses is completely worth the 10m we paid, imo. On the bright side, he can entertain kids at birthday parties with all those tricks

Again, I'm not discussing his performance which is of course expected to be great because he is by far the best player on the pitch, I'm talking about that pass in particular. It was a great pass. It's not a big deal, it's just a pass and I was just making a remark that it was a great pass just like I made a comment that Oscar's was a great pass as well. It would have passed a regular remark just like the one about Oscar if some people didn't get butt-hurt every time someone gave Mikel a deserved compliment. So, I'm sorry Mikel made a great pass if it is going to hurt you so much.

I disregarded the level if opponent because I was not judging his whole performance. I did not say he was brilliant against Tahiti. I said it was a brilliant pass. That pass took great vision to spot and excellent passing technique to execute just right. That has nothing to do with the opposition.

What does that has to do with anything? It was a brilliant pass regardless of the opposition, just like Oscar's pass was a few days ago. Do try to cut down on all the hate, it's not good for you.

Even in the champion ship he was inconsistent. If he's moving to the PL it is most probably to a relegation battling team.

It's off-season...there's really not much else to discuss!

Plays good against poor opposition?! You are completely overrating him!

If Torres scores a "Van Busten" against Tahiti, yes I will praise him. Was excellent vision and execution of the pass regardless of the opposition.

Brilliant through ball to set up Nigeria's 5th:

Interesting theory, except all of Fabregas, Pedro, Busquetes, Martinez, and Mata were regulars with the senior NT before the age of 21. The fact is, the current crop of emerging young Spanish players is no where near the previous one in terms of quality. The team that has dominated the world for the past 7 years is not one that is likely to ever be repeated. The reason that there are no U21s with current senior Spanish NT is because they are not nearly good enough to challenge the senior squad. And Hazard was already the highest rated young talent when we bough him, most of us thought that he could become one of the best in the world. He can certainly become better than Juan in the future, but was he better than Juan this past year? Not a chance.

Welcome to TC Dustin. Any friend of Barbara is a friend of ours Hope you stick around and join the discussions.

I think you're underrating him too much and I think he makes an excellent squad player. But anyway, like I said, he won't be coming here so let's agree to disagree on this.

Yeah the bandwagon started because of some silly mistakes and a few penalties given away when he first arrived. Right now he just makes mistakes like any other CB (except Nesta, of course ) but his mistakes are just highlighted more by the media and everybody because he has a reputation of making mistakes, and also because his mistakes tend to be silly and due to lack of concentration. In fact, Cahill, for example, makes much more mistakes than Luiz does, especially in movement and decision taking, but his mistakes are rarely mentioned.

I just felt the need to point that out because when it comes to discussing transfers, especially about players with certain hype around them, predictions and opinions are often mistaken for facts.

I think he is an excellent prospect. I think he could become something special if he is managed well, make the right choices and stays away from injury. I just don't know that he will definitely become something special. And I definitely don't think he's better than Mata atm. If he moves to city, he will most likely rot on the bench and never reach his full potential.

You obviously don't like Ballack and your opinion is biased against him while Ballack is one of my all-time favorite players so my opinion is biased in his favor. For me it was a horrible and cynical tackle. He never even went for the ball all he wanted was to injure Michael. But let's agree to disagree on that. No the argument is that he is an inconsistent average injury prone player who's on the decline. The cunt thing is just the cherry on top.

No, YOU can see that he has that in him, I personally cannot.