OneMoSalah

Are people still going on about this... who cares? We didn't need him then and we didn't need him to win the title the year after. We have Hazard, Pedro, Oscar, Willian... we are more than capable in attack, its not like we still have Malouda and Kalou. If people are still so worried about how Mourinho treated Kevin or Kevin's form or whatever then they are supporting the wrong team. Hes a good player but not irreplaceable and we still have the best player in the league (also best Belgian) so we shouldn't be overly worried. Its the same with the Sturridge, Lukaku, Luiz and whatever ex players threads, we haven't really sold anyone who was irreplaceable in modern times.

Hopefully see 4231 with Cesc-Matic in the pivot, Oscar as the 10, Costa upfront. We aren't going to get physically dominated or overrun in the midfield by Arsenal if we have those 3 in the team. Pedro if he is fit must start too. Can see us winning this one even playing shite, Arsenal always seem to struggle against us despite the Charity Shield game but still.

Played not too bad, final ball still has to be a bit better in some situations, that free kick he took in the first half was horrendous too but hopefully he can get a game vs Arsenal. Could see him doing good against Oxlade-Chamberlain and exposing him defensively as well. Only one game but he looked promising.

What does it matter? If your positioning and reading of the game is as good as JTs you can play with anyone at full back. Also Matic plays a big part too he covers a good bit of that left side in front of JT and Azpi at times.

Matic > Kondogbia. In every aspect. He looked piss poor in the Milan derby for me apart from the times where he had space to run into in a counter attacking situation but even then his decision making was iffy. I feel Inter have the least creative midfield in Serie A out of the bigger teams. Melo, Kondogbia and Guarin are all more box to box/holding players with better physical attributes than technical attributes... without Perisic and Jovetic playing they will struggle to create chances and even then Perisic wasn't at it last night and only Jovetic looked bright for them in patches,. They will be alright defensively this year though I think.

Now is the chance to try out Baba at LB in my eyes... Wouldn't mind seeing this Begovic Azpilicueta - Zouma - Terry - Baba Ramires - Matic - Cesc Pedro - Costa/Remy/Falcao - Hazard

Cech has always been class but he was never really as good as he was before his head injury I feel. Wouldn't say Begovic is better than him either though. Anyway as long as Begovic realizes as soon as Courtois is fit hes gonna be dropped its all good. Courtois is the best keeper in the league in my eyes.

Can't see why anyone is actually bothered about Roberto Martinez, when you consider he was a shite footballer who didn't do very much and has been a pretty shite manager who hasn't done very much, hes won an FA cup after getting Wigan relegated. Hes a nobody, let him talk to the media about him singing in the shower... his best achievement apart from his first season at Everton, has been dwarfed hugely since by Brendan Rodgers, Michael Laudrup and now Gary Monk at Swansea. I don't see the hype of why he is the next big manager... As for John Stones, no longer worried if he comes here or not, had his chance why didn't he not just do a Gallas and force his exit through. Who cares what Everton fans thinks if you want to play for Chelsea.

Chelsea 2 Everton 0 Back to winning ways, hopefully wipe the floor with them and have everyone complaining how we didn't score more, would be nice for once. Costa to show them who's boss.

Back 3 would be suicide in England I think, you lose a bit of protection in the wings when you have a wing back on each side and 3 center backs as opposed to a full back and a winger in front on each side. Look at when United played it last year, the amount of space out wide that was left for opposition teams to exploit.

Herrera is quite a complete MF player tbf so thats not that bad, he had great defensive stats in his last year at Bilbao as well as his attacking stats which were more than decent enough. I would of taken Herrera here to be fair but not over Fabregas, to play in a 3 with Matic and Fabregas.

Anyone else think Jonjo Shelvey has a real chance of cementing his place in the England team? Looked good so far in the PL and not out of place either in the England team. Shocked Carrick doesn't get a game though. Like even the 2014 WC, imagine starting Gerrard over Carrick... to play as a deep lying midfielder....

I still remember the days when people said we should play him as a CM.

I hope his slow start means he wont do what he did last year. He had 15 assists until January, made so many key passes and chances per game but then after that he got 3 assists, made less key passes and less chances.. to be fair some of the finishing was horrible but even then still he dropped a bit. Slow start hopefully means he can prolong his form for a bit longer.

Why sign him and not include him in the CL squad? Makes no sense. Ridiculous. Worse than when we signed Lukaku and didn't include him.... baffling

Excited to see what he can do for Rennes.

Hes a headless chicken. Hes shite. With all the talent in England's line up... well if your wanting guys like Vardy to start as your #9 against say bigger teams, good luck.

Didn't realize somebody who was so close to winning a treble last year could destroy Juventus, when they played some amazing football too. And is Serie A over after 2 games? Juventus will still win it. Inter's midfield is solid but has no creativity, if Medel - Melo - Kondogbia is better than Pjanic - De Rossi - Strootman or Khedira - Marchisio - Pogba then I'm not exactly sure how? I'm not sure how they lined up but Juventus have the best squad in Italy. Mandzukic, Morata, Dybala and Zaza will each score 10+ goals each I'd imagine. Cuadrado, Pogba and Pererya will all chip in with goals. Bonucci and Chielleni are still the best CBs in that league. Its just a bad start, they will win it. Celtic aren't top of the SPL but they are head and shoulders above everyone else too, same thing for Juventus, in the long run nobody will catch them. Allegri didn't destroy Milan either, selling Kaka and then a few years later Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic did.

Roma and Juventus are still better teams but its a good window for Inter and also AC Milan had a good few transfers.

Still not completely convinced, think we should have looked for another CM to compete.

Still don't know what to make but for 2.2M or whatever if hes shite hardly anything but if hes good or even decent to an extent, pretty good money for that.

Doesn't matter if it was Jose or the board but it was a pretty disastrous window in comparison to City and United in particular. Sure United have spend their money oddly but gradually improved and so have City. We got Pedro fine but we still lack in the CM department and also CB and still don't feel Baba is gonna be the LB that is a long term option unfortunately.

He wont cost as much as Martial, mainly because Anderlecht are easier to deal with and tend to normally move their better players on for the sake of their development if they get a good offer, they don't have the same sort of finances teams like Monaco do so they can't really afford to ask for a crazy crazy fee.

Ih? Are you mad haha. Austin having a 15M price tag is so strange its unbelievable. Hes one dimensional, other than the one goal he scored against Southampton he has never displayed a good level of technique. When Danny Murphy (well I think it was Danny Murphy) said he was surprised no teams had moved for him for 15M I generally laughed. Leicester would suit him well, but someone like Everton, Southampton, Liverpool, Spurs... even then he would look out of his depth. He is like Rickie Lambert, a good player for smaller clubs but in the real world he is not even as good as Rickie Lambert. although to be fair for a big English number 9 Lambert has actually got some pretty good technical ability which he displayed at Southampton. Jamie Vardy is just a headless chicken. Rooney is by far the best option England have upfront and he should play either in a 4-2-3-1 behind Sturridge or 4-4-2 in tandem with him.

So we go after Stones for most of the summer, then fail and like 2 days before the window closes then make a move for a CB who had already agreed a deal to Valencia and then for Marquinhos. Why was John Stones our #1 target when those two are better as well? My mind is frazzled.