Superblue

Out of curiosity, what is your perception of Fernando Torres as a striker?

And have already thrown away the opportunity to keep that crown...

If this is a sign of what 2013 is going to be like I'd rather not bother thank you

I think it says it all about Torres' character and stomach for the fight when on the day it is announced we are finally signing a striker which could put his first choice status in danger, he puts in one of his most inept, piss poor performances in what has already been a dire Chelsea career. If Benitez has the bottle to bench Torres and give Ba the opportunity, I will have a massive amount of respect for him.

Of QPR's 13 points all fucking season, 4 have come off of us!

That was disgraceful and the worrying thing is it only went to show just how reliant we are on Mata and Hazard playing and creating for us. I don't care what people say about Torres and his 'improving' performances - until he scores game winning goals he is no good. Let's be honest here though, until the board accept Torres isn't the striker to take the team forward (he will actually hold us back) we won't be challenging for a long time. We desparately need Demba Ba in and give him a chance because he will score the difference making goals that Torres cannot.

Fucking hell Marin you idiot! Is there a better link than the first row? So laggy!

One of the biggest positives with his 'experience' is being able to pass on the importance of games such as those away at Leeds or QPR which have massive meaning to us fans. The foreign players know the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool and how big those games are, but being from London amongst a cluster of rival clubs, and our hatred of all things north of the midlands, there are a lot of games that really matter which the foreign players need to be aware of. Mata said himself that Lampard told the current players of the importance of beating Leeds. But this should only need pushing once or twice for other players to realise that importance. If and when we play Leeds again, the likes of Mata and David Luiz should be aware of its importance and pass that on to new players.

Yes I don't deny this - I said in my previous post that if Chelsea don't make the attempt with a new contract it will be a poor show and a discredit to the service Lampard has offered over the years. However my point was even if this happens I still can't see both parties finding an agreement: Chelsea cannot offer the terms Lampard is currently on - but he could earn such money elsewhere. Chelsea can no longer guarantee Lampard will play on a regular basis - tons of clubs can offer him this. Chelsea are not likely to offer Lampard more than one year rolling - tons of clubs will offer him a longer deal. No matter his love for the club, I just cannot see him accepting a one year deal on reduced terms with a reduced role.

I've said it on a number of occasions regarding Lampard - the biggest issue is that he is currently one of the top earners at the club and that's what makes his contract extension a huge problem. It is a completely different situation to Scholes and Giggs who are not amongst the highest earners at United and have accepted being offered one year rolling contracts. Wages is the biggest pitfall regarding FFP and we have made a concerted effort in the last couple of seasons to reduce our wage bill, both by offloading high earners and negotiating better with new recruits. Lampard earns between 2-3 times the amount that players like Mata, Moses and Oscar earn who are not just performing now, but are some of our best players moving forward for the rest of this decade. If we give Lampard a new 2-3 year contract on similar terms to what he earns now, it's not just his wages, but it provides a benchmark for players like Mata and Oscar who are playing week in week out to look at wanting to earn, particularly if Lampard isn't playing every game anymore. The other issue is that it is very difficult for us to simply go in and offer Lampard a new contract on a significantly reduced salary and reduced role in the first team, when so many lucrative options have popped up over the past few seasons such as PSG, China and USA, not to mention our own country. I agree that it will be a poor show if Chelsea don't even make the attempt to tie Lampard down to a new contract, but on the other hand I don't want us to offer stupid money to a player who despite being probably the greatest ever Chelsea player, is past his prime.

I wouldn't be against this transfer for the right price. I think people look at his goalscoring record which is good but not great and immediately decide he won't be good enough. However sometimes you have to look past stats and consider that some players are right for some teams. He is a strong unit, capable of winning a lot of headers which immediately gives us a much better target man option to Torres and threat for crosses into the box. He is also deceptively skillful - I'm not comparing him to Berbatov but he has a bit of that style within him, where he can hold a ball up and produce a bit of skill to bring another player into the game. We have goals from lots of different positions on the pitch so we don't necessarily need a 30 goal striker who we suddenly become reliant upon. Somebody like Negredo would hopefully chip in with 15-20 goals a season in all competitions but bring an alternative to what we currently have in the squad. If he is available for under £15m he would be a decent option to pursue.

I still see Milan as the 'bigger' club simply having grown up watching the great Milan sides in the 90's. However Juventus at this moment are certainly a much stronger team, and Drogba would fit in perfectly to their team IMO.

I think we will go for Falcao in the summer, likely as a replacement for Torres. Lukaku may spend another season on loan or return as third choice striker behind Falcao and Ba depending on the amount of games we can provide him with.

I think the talk of his knee is very overated - he's hardly Ledley King playing once every three games. He's played week in week out for West Ham and then Newcastle in the Premier League for the last two years. If he does have a degenerative condition it is unlikely to affect him too bad for the next couple of seasons at least - he looks very fit and sharp and seems to be at his peak. And coming to join us, he won't have to play every game like he does at Newcastle. You would expect us to be able to manage him better.

Very impressive result and we're showing some real fight and steel about us at the moment. The pressing game that all of the players have embraced under Benitez IMO has been a big factor in recent games - a big case in point today was the final 20 minutes. Having taken the lead at Goodison with 20 minutes to go, you know that Everton will throw everything at you, but with the attack and midfield pressing hard and the defenders holding a high line rather than falling into their own box, we prevented them from pumping balls constantly into our box and applying pressure. With the exception of the Jelavic chance they created nothing in those final 20 minutes which for me was one of the most pleasing aspects of today's performance. Very professional today!

People have to look at this objectively - now Torres has started playing better (not to the tune of £50m but better nevertheless), the most important thing for the second half of this season was buying an alternative option to him. It's easy to say let's buy Falcao or Cavani, but buying in January is always treacherous and we should learn from the mistakes of panic buying Torres 2 years ago. Demba Ba is proven and experienced in the Premier League and in form - he has to be one of the least risky strikers we could buy this January. Find me another goalscorer arguably in his peak for £7m! In the summer we can take stock of our situation and maybe look at bringing in a top level striker to replace Torres, but for now this is an excellent piece of business.

Couldn't agree more - people have a misconception of the success of loaning young players because of our previous record.However over the last couple of years we have shown a much more well thought approach to where our young players move to. Some still don't work like McEachran at Swansea but we learnt our lesson and he's now thriving at Middlesbrough. It's a standard lower but the gametime he's getting is invaluable. Our younger players will develop much better out on loan as long as its the right standard for them and they're getting sufficient games - the club has made a lot of good decisions recently in this regard.

He certainly hasn't seemed the same since Mourinho and I do think injuries have taken their toll a little. I've always felt you need decent experience within the spine of your team, but in the attacking three I'm happy with our current options of Hazard, Moses, Mata and Oscar. All are young, full of energy and sharpness and it has made a big difference to our attacking play this season. I don't think Sneijder fits the same as those four, and if Marin is unfancied which seems to be the case and as a result we may be in the market for another player in that area of the field, I would like it to be another young player in the same mould as the other four. On a separate point, I'm just wondering with all the talk about bringing in a new central midfielder, whether Chelsea take stock of the current situation and make a decision on giving David Luiz the opportunity to develop in that position. If this is going to be a transitional year, now is the right time to do it if we are going to. That being the case, it may be a centre back rather than centre midfielder we move for in January?

Merry fucking Xmas

I would take that but me and 7 mates do a sweepstake every year where we get four teams each - I've got Bills who are pathetic, Patriots and Seahawks, and also Giants, so could really do with Giants making playoffs. If Redskins can too, I wouldn't mind cos I do like RG3 - prefer him to Andrew Luck!

He's good...but he's no Russell Wilson! Seahawks all the way baby

High wages of the old guard coming off our wage bill will help with FFP. Drogba was on more than £100k pw as are Malouda, Lampard and Cole. Benayoun and Essien are also on big wages so there is a lot to work with if we move these players on. Also FFP is different to the accounts we post - there are expenses disregarded such as youth infrastructure, etc. so whilst we made a profit of only about £1m in last years accounts, under FFP that could be closer to £15-20m as some expenses are not considered. I can see Roman splashing again in January otr the summer or both.

Happy with that - are they doing the next round alongside this one or afterwards?

Obviously going to draw napoli or atletico!

Luca's first match in charge against them in league cup semi second leg was great too. Overturning first leg 2-1 deficit to beat them 3-1.Robbie's goal that night was unreal! Reminds me of the Vicenza fightback in the CWC semi that same year. Great moments!