Superblue

Perhaps from our scouting of Schurlle, we will have noticed Lars Bender?

Could he complement Ramires? I know they have played together for Brazil - would it work? Wish Romulo wasn't injured. He is the player we could really do with!

Really disappointing as Rafa seemed to like him a lot. Have Real Madrid cut short Essien's loan? If so I would register him in January if fit as an extra body in the squad. We'll still need another midfielder though.

Apparently his injury not that bad - only about 3 weeks. We should seriously consider him for one big reason. IMO for some of Ramires' deficiencies, he brings an engine in the midfield and dynamism which the rest of our midfield cannot provide. Without him, at times we look slow and ponderous. Diame for £3.5m would give depth in that position. Also his ball ability is underrated. A lot of people were quick to dismiss the signings of Moses and Cahill and have been pleasantly surprised by their contributions. £3.5m is little risk for a player who could potentially step up to the next level by moving to a bigger club.

And add to that he is currently in on merit through a string of effective performances. It was always going to happen that Oscar and Hazard would suffer dips in form and inconsistency , given their age/experience and first season in England. Oscar will become a great player over future years at Chelsea i've no doubts about that.

Well I'm not going to change my mind after he's scored in two consecutive games, but the signs are promising that we can get some better mileage out of Torres. Stepping up and taking the penalty is what most impresses me - we have been crying out for new leaders, and Torres is one of the most experienced players in our squad and needs to start stepping up and leading by example.

Read somewhere that Diame at West Ham has a release clause of £3.5m! Now I like Fellaini but he isn't worth £25-30m. Diame would be an excellent buy for that price if true. He would suit Benitez's high pressing game perfectly, and he's very sound on the ball too. This isn't just based on him single handedly destroying us for West Ham last week, he has been their best player all season and was also underrated for Wigan last season. January is difficult for us because we are out of the Champions League and we currently have an interim manager. Is there any point spending £20-30m on a player who possibly a new manager next season doesn't fancy?! When we could feasibly buy Demba Ba and Diame for a little over £10m, beefing up our options in two areas we are lacking, and who come with Premier League experience.

Confirmed not travelling to Japan, hopefully he'll be fully fit afterwards. I do find it a little ironic he has missed the Super Cup and World Club Cup after we won the Champions League despite his red card in the semi.

With Terry nearing fitness it might give us another game or two seeing Luiz in midfield. I think at the moment he's the closest thing to a deep playmaker we have, he covers ground well and presses teams. He actually looked pretty disciplined aswell compared to how he can be at the back.

Napoli are the ones that stand out for me and they'll certainly be gunning for us after last season. Inter are in the middle of a much greater transitional period than we are experiencing and Ajax are decent at best, certainly made to look better then they are by City this season. The rest are all perfectly beatable. If we take it fairly seriously then we have a real good chance of winning it IMO.

At what point can we draw Spurs? AVB is taking this comp really seriously, it would be fucking great to knock them out of it seen as we were the team to put them in it in the first place!

Well we cannot complain - the damage was done earlier in the group games, and as a lot of people have said if this is the price to pay for Munich then I would take it every day of the week. Better to be first holders out in group stage than never have won it at all (cough Arsenal cough!) Let's take some positives though - 1. The Europa League is a competition we haven't won before and hopefully will not be in again. Therefore I want us to win it! 2. More european games will only add to the experience that the likes of Hazard, Oscar, Moses, Romeu, Bertrand, etc will gain playing in European games. It will help us in trying to right the wrongs next season if we're back in the Champions League. 3. We can win the Europa League and make amends for this season by going and winning the European Super Cup next season!!!

I'd take him in a swap for Torres - anything to get rid of Torres!!!

The one thing I would say about Llorente this season is the way he has been treated at Bilbao is nothing more than a disgrace. When we look at how fragile the confidence and self belief is of our 'main' striker, if he had been in Llorente's shoes, he probably would have just retired from football.

I've said a number of times that when the likes of Walcott, Llorente and Huntelaar all have six months left on their contracts and should be available for under £10m, and Demba Ba's release clause is reactivated for £7m in January, we should be looking at this group of players. All would do a good job (far better than what we currently have!) of leading the line of our first choice striker for the rest of this season well enough do get us our bare minimum goals (top 4 in the league). Strikers such as Falcao and Cavani would not be realistically attainable in January, unless of course we pay obscene amounts of money and in all likelihood get mugged off again like the Torres situation. We could buy somebody like this in the summer and added to one of the above that we could move for in January and an ever improving Lukaku, we would have a much more impressive and potent strikeforce than we currently have.

He will only insist on staying whilst he's first choice. The moment we get someone better in and he isn't playing he'll soon throw a strop and hopefully fuck off. And the article says he insists he's been a success?! Us winning the champions league does not make him a success, he's just lucky he was here at the time getting a 'piggy-back' off Drogba!

Being shunted to the left wing didn't help.

I think he is also capable of making his own chances and taking them. All the talk of Torres not getting the right service - he cost £50m and can't even create his own chances! I wouldn't look at Ba as a short term option. He's only 27 and we could protect his knees by not playing him all the time. He would provide significant depth in our strikeforce for a few seasons. A strikeforce next season of Lukaku, Ba and another (top striker) sounds so much stronger than the shite we have this year!

£7m release clause is again active in January - this should be who we buy. His knees are worth the risk for that sort of money and even going to the ACN shouldn't deter us, he would be a great buy.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/anzhi-makhachkala-ready-to-give-chelsea-1468641 Please be true! If it is a possible fee hasn't been mooted, so I would wonder what it would be? If we got anywhere near £15-20m I would snap their hands off!!!

Rumours doing the rounds that if Real lose to Atletico tonight then Mourinho will leave. If this happens then Roman has to swallow his pride and get him back! He would get the crowd back onside and the players playing for both him and the shirt. There is no better fit for this football club than Jose Mourinho! I'm supporting Atletico tonight! C'mon Falcao!

2015 i think

A winger cum striker sounds like he may be a direct replacement for Sturridge if the rumours are true about him wanting out. Therefore we still need a genuine striker to compete (or hopefully replace) Torres. I will be extremely pissed off if we sign both Taison and Schurrle because neither are natural strikers and once again it will be the board tip toeing around Torres' fragile confidence. In regards to Taison, don't know anything about him but as some have already said, the squad requires beefing up.

This moment should have been his chance at Chelsea. With Drogba (and to a lesser extent the likes of Anelka and Essien) now gone and Terry and Lampard out injured, the team is crying out for experienced heads to take up the mantle and lead the team. I currently look at who we have available and I see three players who should be able to give us that over everyone else based on their age and experience - Cech, Ivanovic and Torres. Cech has been largely excellent all season but can only do so much as a goalkeeper. Ivanovic has stepped up his game in the last couple to lead and marshall the defence. Torres has done nothing. He offers nothing, at least at the beginning of the season he was working hard but he isn't even doing that anymore. When we need him to step up, he hides away. For a player of his experience, that for me is unforgiveable. It's requiring the likes of Hazard and Oscar to carry the weight of responsibility on their young shoulders and at this moment they're struggling and need support. I've got no time for Torres anymore - he's moaned ever since he's been here and his performances and work rate have become increasingly worse to the point where it is now pathetic and disgraceful. And to think he said at the beginning of the season that he could fill Drogba's shoes...

I'm glad we finally look a solid unit defensively again, but until we possess a genuine goal threat we won't get anywhere. Teams have clued in and press up marking our three in behind Torres, leaving them no space to play. They can do this because Torres has no pace and no willingness to run in behind teams. With a striker with pace and movement it would stretch teams and push them back giving space to our midfield. I worry for us until January and I worry even more that if a genuine striker is not signed (not just a back up for Torres) then we won't even make top 4 this season.