Superblue

Yes but he can hardly argue when we've won the fa cup and champions league. We needed our experience to stand up at the end of last season to dig us out of a hole. However the club are making steps to bring together a younger more dynamic core group of players and if he doesn't buy into that and would rather move back to barca then he should leave. I don't understand how he thinks he'll get more game time there then he will here?

Backs up my opinion which is that silva is currently a slightly better player but mata had a stronger first season in the prem than silva. Hopefully mata will go from strength to strength next season, especially with more technically sound players around him and put this argument to bed before it becomes the spanish gerrard/lampard debate!

Rumours that Chelsea will give Mata time off after the Olympics and as a result he won't likely be available until September. I read somewhere he has played 2008/09 season wiv valencia, confederations cup with spain, 2009/10 season with valencia, world cup with spain, 2010/11 season with valencia, U21 championships with spain, 2011/12 season with chelsea, euros with spain and now olympics. It means he hasn't had a proper summer break since 2008! The most important thing is for Mata to continue fresh and injury free because a firing Mata will give Hazard the chance to adapt without as much pressure on.

What a legend! You can't help but love his light hearted nature.

People forget that he's still young. Yes he has shown a selfish streak in a negative light but he's still maturing. The turning point was an incredibly selfish display against leicester and there were explanations for this being that it was just after muamba's heart attack and he wanted to score for him. It doesn't make it right but he's young. In a central striker position a selfish streak will not show up as bad and hopefully even be a big positive (hasselbaink anyone?)

This just shows him up as the cunt he is - it's pure jealousy that he lost his captaincy to Terry

Does his PR manager go by the name of Rio by any chance?

This is quite frankly pathetic!

Whether its sensible or not, it's human nature to say back 'do you think i just called you a ...........'

84 games for Sao Paulo and Internacional combined isn't bad experience for a 20 year old. 19 goals and 22 assists is also very good statistics for his age. I believe he's also about 5'10 so he certainly won't be small and slight and easy to bully off the ball. Once he becomes acclimatised to the English game he should be fine, and maybe given time can work in the double pivot. As I said in my above post, he will be being brought in with 2013-14 in mind and the long term successor to Lampard.

Whilst also perhaps offering genuine quality cover to Mata or Hazard or whoever is going to be playing in the hole next season. I think this transfer is being made in mind of 2013-14. Bringing him in next season will give him good time to adapt, play some cup games and weaker teams in the league, and he can also get to grips with the English game as he will still be eligible for the new U21's format. I think they'll be looking to get him 15-20 games next season possibly as Lampard's understudy. I think the price being quoted could be heavily incentive based, and a lot of the money being paid is certainly for potential. However I have said this countless times - I would rather we do a deal like this, as opposed to letting him move to another European club for a year or two and then have to pay double in a couple of seasons to buy him. If he has only played one full season in Brazil he must be a fucking big talent to have already played a handful of times for Brazil with such little experience under his belt.

Anyone know what the wages are likely to be?

But apparently terry met ferdinand afterwards with ashley cole to clear it up. Ferdinand has denied this apparently but cole is backing terry up. Trying to clear it up after the game is surely a basis to support terry's argument for what he said on the pitch?

Apparently Rivaldo is aswell.

I would love us to buy Hulk but we could theoretically buy Oscar, Walcott/Moses and Maicon for about the same price as Hulk which does make much more sense.

From how i interpret sone of the transcripts on the internet, after the game Terry asked Ferdinand if he had insinuated that he called him a black cunt. Ferdinand said no, but apparently Ashley Cole backed up Terry because he thought Ferdinand was talking to him (Cole) calling him a black cunt. If Cole's word stands i can't see how Terry can be guilty.

That was when Spurs were linked. He'd say anything to stop those cunts chasing him!

That's not a very nice thing to imply about his own brother

I always try to be quite open to any transfer rumours/wishes for players and listen to the opinion of a few people first...but I will never, ever accept a player who isn't good enough to play for those North London cunts!

Ahead of Drogba??!!

At that price i would rather we brought moses for £8-10m or walcott who with only a year on his contract would cost about £10-12m. You could buy eother of these plus Maicon for that fee.

He's an unbelievably talented player, and sometimes that can take away from the fact that he has also been a prolific goalscorer over the past 5-6 years. The biggest problem for me is that he will be 31 in October. At least with the link to Maicon the figures being talked about are about £6m which is reasonable considering he will have no resale value. If we can buy Ibra for no more than £12m I would buy him in a heartbeat but I cannot see Milan selling him for anything less than £20m.

Real Madrid and Man Utd play the same 4-2-3-1 system and I don't see them having this problem. You're basing this opinion on three games - two against the best possession team in the world (and one of those with ten men) and another against a top european team playing at home, whilst we had 4 suspended and 2 centre halves who had only trained 3 days in the last month. We couldn't afford to open up in any of those games. A new formation takes time to implement but I thought the team took it on board pretty well. With the exception of games like Arsenal and Liverpool in the league which involved resting an enormous amount of players, the formation I thought made us look more threatening going forward - Spurs and Liverpool in FA Cup, QPR, etc. IMO the 4-3-3 formation had become too rigid and predictable. We had to evolve. It's one of the reasons Man Utd have done well for so long under Fergie because he isn't afraid to change the side every few years and evolve it. We must do the same because the 4-2-3-1 formation is the new popular hybrid of the 4-3-3 to allow for a more fluid style of football. Have faith.

If Essien can get a full pre season behind him then maybe. I'm still of the belief Ramires can play the double pivot role and play it very successfully for us given the opportunity.

For how excited i am about Hazard playing for Chelsea, and how much I would love to see Hulk here, the club should still look to build the team and attack around Mata next season to move forward. We don't know how long it will take for new players to adapt at the club. I don't envisage 'second season syndrome' for Mata, I actually expect him to get better. I try not to let youtube videos influence my opinion of a player but I know just how good Mata is so enjoy this one I found and remember this was his first season in the Premiership.