Superblue

Cavani is valued at £35-40m and falcao probably more. We've already spent a lot of money this summer, Llorente would offer good value!

No evidence directly from the club that we are looking to replace Drogba, similarly to no direct evidence from the club that we are looking to move away from a target man - just media rumours. Drogba however was so much more than an old school target man, that does him massive injustice. Drogba in his prime IMO would have worked superbly with some of the attacking talent we've brought and i would expect RDM to want a couple of different plans to shake things up if they aren't working. Llorente is a different striker to Torres and would provide a different option.

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/907861-man-city-and-chelsea-target-fernando-llorente-turns-down-bilbao-contract £15m and £80k wages is very good value. And we've been pretty shrewd with picking up players for a fraction of their real transfer value nearing the end of their contracts in recent years, so I would expect us to be interested.

I would much rather Llorente, as reports in Spain suggest he's told Bilbao he's not signing a new contract and wants to leave. As he only has a year left on his contract, it's likely he'll be available for around £15m and is looking for his £40k wages to be doubled which seems pretty fair. I think Llorente would be a better fit as a Drogba replacement also than Cavani would.

When he was at Palace in his teens he interested all of the top teams in England and a number of top teams abroad. Many players are in a similar position but never manage to unlock their potential. Moses decided to move to a much more unfancied team where he was confident of getting games at a much younger age at the highest level and as a result has flourished. Compare this to somebody like Bostock who was also highly rated at Palace, went to Spurs and hasn't developed. This kid is young and hugely talented but also now has a lot of Premier League experience. He will IMO develop into a better player for Chelsea than the likes of SWP and Kalou ever did. People need to realise that if we are going to sign the biggest talents like Hazard and Oscar for a lot of money, then we are also going to have to make some shrewd signings also. This excites me, maybe not as much as the aforementioned but he will have an impact in his Chelsea career.

The new players to bed in and have strong seasons to move forward, particularly for Hazard and Oscar who are joining for big money and with big expectations. Top 3 in the league and within 4-5 points of United and City this year will be good progress. Like others World Club Cup is a once in a lifetime opportunity and a competition we've never competed in let alone won before. To win that and one of the domestic cups along with a much stronger showing in the league will be a good season. In regards to the Champions League, it seems to be one of those which brings up cycles - Liverpool used to beat us, and then we knocked them out a couple of times; us and Barca have been back and forth knocking each other out - I just have a gut feeling that we'll draw Bayern in the quarter or semi finals and it will be their turn to beat us this season. Although that would be great to host them after their 'our city, our stadium, our cup' arrogance! In any event anything better than the quarter final will be good, winning it again (at Wembley) would be fucking unreal!

I cannot believe that Zolayes...I'm pretty sure you would have had the legs on him!

Agreed, he's too good to be given a disciplined role within the pivot. As I've said previously central in a 4-2-3-1 and he seems more than happy to drop deep and help the pivot start attacks, and sit in to create a more compact 4-3-3 when defending.

Hazard is not a natural playmaker like Mata is and Oscar seems to be. With those two in the side, it will take a lot of pressure off Hazard to be able to play his own game and not take on total responsibility for the team dynamic. Opposition will also be unable to focus on one player - as last season moved on, teams would get a player to sit on Mata and it took a lot from our team. Opposition cannot man mark three players.

Oscar will play don't worry. He's too talented not to play. For how good players like Marin and Hazard are, they don't control the tempo of games which has been the biggest problem in pre season. We've missed the presence of Mata dictating the game, and RDM will realise just how fluent we can function with two players of that ilk. It will also solve these worries of our formation. Oscar likes to drop deeper than Mata and Hazard and giving him the central role will allow us to switch freely between a more attacking 4-2-3-1 and a more compact and disciplined 4-3-3 when defending with Oscar dropping into the midfield alongside the pivot.

My god, Robert Fleck the man so shit even my cousin, a Swindon Town fan, used to rip it out of me when we were young for us having Robert Fleck. He found great joy that they had a better striker in Fjortoft!

As a '3' they should set up as Hazard left/right, Oscar middle, Mata left/right and then be given freedom from behind them to drift around and link up as they see fit. I get a feeling though if they all play together it will be Mata left, Hazard middle, Oscar right, which for me will be completely wrong. Don't ask me why, just a feeling.

Check my post just above yours mate.

Arsenal fans have seen the impact Silva and Mata have had and assume Cazorla will be the same. He's a good player but is older and IMO not at the same level as the other two.

I think he's already a better offensive option and has stacks of potential to unlock.

£80k is more than ivanovic! Pretty sure this isn't true - remember the english press reporting (and still maintaining) we're paying hazard £180-200k pw, when french press believe its closer to £100k pw. I'd be surprised if he was on any more than £40-50k.

If Oscar convinces Neymar to shun Spain and join us, he'll have already paid back his transfer fee without even kicking a football!

Kid looks a talent, but the above makes our deal for Oscar look even fucking better. We've brought the much more rounded player and the one with 'less flash, more substance'!

Yep agree with this. I always maintained that winning the Champions League would allow me to effectively 'die a happy man tomorrow' as far as Chelsea was concerned. I'm much more relaxed now about giving Chelsea time and patience on my behalf to rebuild. As long as we continue to stay competitive, and re-establish ourselves in the top four over that time. Moses would be a good buy. If Mata, Hazard and Oscar represent our strongest attack, Marin and Moses would provide two excellent and different options. Both positive, happy to stay wide and stretch teams and will give the side a different 'spin' if the others aren't working. However Moses definately can't play striker unless we're planning to play that false number 9 shite, so I feel we would still need a new striker, with or without Lukaku.

I'm assuming this won't stop a first team right back signing. Seems like a good deal to me. From what I have heard this kid is the best talent out of the three we gained rights on (I believe the other two have actually been released from Fluminese), and to get him now whilst he's still cheap is sound business. You only have to look at our deal for Oscar to realise the high prices in the Brazilian market now, so it makes sense to pick him up now, and for only 60% of his true value. Would quite like a similar deal to be brokered for Malouda if a Brazilian club comes in for him. We could raise £4-5m max from his sale so instead to get favourable rights on a handful of the clubs top youth may be a better long term solution. Plus I believe one of the reasons moves for Malouda have broken down so far is because clubs are reluctant to pay a fee aswell as Malouda's wages so this would also help broker his move.

Watford are sponsored by Football Manager?! That's awesome!

Can't see it happening but for a similar price to Azpilicueta i would definately take him first!

The work horse should be within the pivot. Yaya Toure at Man City, Khedira at Madrid - Ramires' position moving forward should be within the pivot, rotating with Mikel, Essien and Lampard.

His performance today epitomised why he is going to be the key to getting a more offensive minded 4-2-3-1 to be successful. Starting as the 'central' of the 3, he is obviously effective in that hole behind the striker. However if space is minimal, he'll look for somewhere with space to operate in a very intelligent manner. He is more than happy to drop deep and build attacks from such a position, which will make him very difficult to man mark and pick up. In doing this he will create space further infront of him for Mata and Hazard to attack, both equally as effective and dangerous. His intelligence to drop deeper at times will also benefit our pivot. It will not only take pressure off them to 'create' which everybody seems to be having a stroke about on this forum, but also adds an extra body at times which can help dominate opposition midfield's in attack and aid preventing counter attacks and being caught out when defending. This kid will make us tick and I cannot wait for him to get here!

They saw madrid coming when selling Diarra! Glad we brought Essien out of those two at the time.