CHOULO19

It's not a diamond but 4-3-3 with drogba wide on the right. Our manager sure likes to take a chance.

I remember him saying so at the start of the summer transfer window. Besides in his last match with inter in the Italian super cup, he was practically saying goodbye to the fans at the end of the match.

Arsenal want him...then he's not for sale.

I'm not sure Torres will start, AVB can't start Torres 3 games in a row and still tell drogba he has an important role in the squad.

It's not about the money, the player wants to leave, he can see Inter are falling apart. And Murati is no Levy, he won't force him to stay.

I'm not sure that porto want to sell any player to chelsea in particular. They didn't take it too well when AVD decided to leave them.

I'd love it if we brought Hamsik, better than giving tottenham 40m

Just a rumor I think. Juve have many wingers and don't need him.

Unfortunately that species is nearing extinction!

I don't think that we really need him, he is very similar to Sturidge. If he comes either he or sturidge will end up on the bench for most of the season which is a real shame since they are both talented young players.

Well, promising youngsters are always a 50-50 chance. The problem is a manager who is established with the team can take that risk often like SAF did with Welbeck and Cleverly this season, and he would still have the trust of the fans and the board of directors of the team if things don't work out. But if a manager is new to a team like AVB (and really almost all our managers in the last 10 years) he is much less likely to take a risk with a young player unless he doesn't have better options, for fear of things not going too well and him loosing credit with the fans and owners.

I don't know, I'm really convinced that AVB is the kind of manager that will give Sturridge a chance on the right side, especially with the promising results of the pre-season. He was our best scorer.

Actually he just signed for chelsea, so it's more like 'into the blues'!

Possibly to replace terry who I can't imagine play every match in 2013 at his age.

It makes no sense. Why would we want a player to sit on the bench since we know mata will be starting in the left attacking winger position. I agree with Killamanjaro, I don't think he's much better than Patrik van Anholt.

:goodpost: I totally agree that's the case at chelsea now, and AVB has the tough job to come up with the solution that pleases the fans and the owner.

No mata can't play midfield. He used to play as a striker, then was asked to play as an attacking winger at valencia when vicente was injured and david silva left for city.

Reading some of those posts, they seem to imply that he's a world-class player. Maybe I'm missing something but I see him as a player nearing the end of his career, who in his peak never had the quality to be a chelsea player. Besides this is a chelsea forum, everyone is entitled to his opinion about the chelsea players. I mean I don't think Benayoun himself would be this defensive if he read that a chelsea fan hates him.

I agree, I watched hamburg on sat, he was their best player, even though bayern put 5 past them it would've been at least 8 if it hadn't been for bruma. Manciene was a disaster.

wow, things took an ugly turn here....back to topic I think we would all agree that if it lands us modric it wouldn't be too bad to let benayoun go.

Our first proper signing of the summer...If modric signs this would actually be a fruitful summer. Welcome to the club Juan.

Actually I wouldn't mind a swap deal for Krasic....not that Juve would agree.

I believe it's a sign of being Manu!

I don't know what everybody is so upset about. we got the points and the win. A win like that can only bring moral up and bring the players closer to AVB. Best of all is that Lampard is getting back to his usual form, he was our best player in the second half along with Anelka, he played the right passes and was first to go from box to box. Next week is a totally new game and circumstances and hopefully we'll have an extra player or two for that match.

Honestly I think that this result is better than a 2-0 win in terms of moral. AVB's subs were brilliant and we played very well in the second half....I'm a happy man