Superblue

We also signed a key player in the Mourinho era at the age of 30. A player considered by many the greatest defensive midfielder in Premier League history. So good he even had a position named after him. Under most people's logic on here we shouldn't have signed Claude Makelele.

Of course, I didn't mean my comment to come across so selfish. The most important thing is his health and making a full recovery. The secondary part of my comment was simply that he's an important part of the squad so I'm also hoping we can see him back on the pitch doing what he does best as soon as possible. Bacterial meningitis is the worse form. That spreads quickly and can cause amputations, kidney damage, potentially death, etc. Viral meningitis carries many of the same symptoms but the long term affects are much less concerning in most cases.

The way I see things with Maicon is that a couple of years ago he was arguably the best all round right back in the world and certainly the best attacking right back. Those attacking instincts won't have disappeared. Yes, he wasn't great last season but he was by no means poor. He can still get up and down the pitch - he's 30 not fucking 40 (and remember is younger than Ashley Cole)! And his ability in the final third could potentially give us an extra dimension to our attack, especially against the smaller teams who will defend deeper. Ivanovic is the better defender, but if you look at the other right backs available - Debuchy, etc are all more in the Ivanovic mould then they are Maicon. Maicon is still the best attacking right back currently available on the market. He will provide something different to Ivanovic and that is important for us next season, having different options. The report somebody posted a couple of pages ago made for interesting reading, and provided evidence that when given sufficient rest, Ashley Cole and Maicon are still two of the very best full backs in world football. We as fans have been clamouring for Cole to be rested for games for ages, and since Robbie has done so Cole's performances have been generally excellent again. Being managed in the same way Maicon can have a similar impact. This transfer will give us 7 defenders in our first team squad (Cole, Bertrand, Maicon, Ivanovic, Terry, David Luiz, Cahill) who I would feel confident seeing any combination of lining up. I haven't felt that way about our defence for a long time.

Hopefully he makes a full recovery. As Robbie showed at the end of the season we need everybody in the squad and even if Sturridge is backup to Torres at the start of the season he'll still be an important member of our squad.

Yeah agree with Konoha - out of all of them Romeu would be the least likely to miss and for someone so young it will be a good experience for him. I'm more miffed about Luiz and Matabut there is nothing we can do. If Mata needs a couple of games to be eased back after the olympics at least it may give Hazard a couple of games in the centre to see how he performs and also maybe an early chance for Marin.

5 confirmed so far mate - mata, romeu, luiz, bertrand and sturridge. Spain need to trim their squad from 22 to 18 so romeu may get cut (mata won't)

IMO it should be Luiz + 1. If Terry gets a lengthy suspension for the racism charges he'll find it hard to come back and dislodge Cahill and Luiz. Our centre half options are frighteningly strong at the mo.

I am pretty psyched about the possibility of buying Hulk and Maicon. I can understand the reservations towards Maicon but as a squad player for the next couple of seasons he would be an excellent addition. After the enjoyment of watching the likes of Rambo, Luiz, Alex and Belletti, I just love Brazilians at Chelsea! Against teams planning to defend most of the game at the Bridge next season, Hulk and Maicon could provide a serious threat on our right. Hulk's tendencies to cut inside a lot will give space for a marauding full back to run into outside. Maicon will suit this well.

A good player, but I think it was worth paying the little extra and getting Hazard. I don't want to draw PSG in the Champions League mind, they have some excellent players and a lot of potential if they all click well.

That's awesome lol, but it does look like Torres is getting that selfish streak back which can only be good for Chelsea. There partnership can only get better next season IMO with Torres outright first choice. Throw into the mix a more creative unit around these two in the likes of Hazard and Marin and hopefully a couple more, and I see potentially a very promising season next year. Spain's fourth - scored in Kiev, MADE IN CHELSEA!

Might be good for both parties. Despite Maicon not being at the level he was perhaps 2-3 seasons ago (I've always rated him higher than Dani Alves - he has a much better end product), even at soon to be 31 he still has a lot of football left in him and still has an abundance of pace and stamina. These Brazilian full backs never seem to lose this no matter how old they get! (Roberto Carlos, Cafu) He is certainly an upgrade on Bosingwa, and offers Chelsea the 'attacking' option at full back, whilst Ivanovic provides the more defensively solid option. You have to believe that if we buy Maicon, Hulk is a must too. The pair would be lethal on the right hand side, given Hulk's preference to cut inside, Maicon would be left with plenty of room to rampage forward. Such a deal gives Chelsea a very good alternative and option at right back for the next 2-3 years, which gives them time to assess their long term options in that position whether that be from the academy or somebody purchased. For Maicon, he is moving to London and to continue playing at the highest level. There is a good growing Brazilian/Portuguese contingent at the club to help him settle in quickly and he knows given the amount of games the club plays every season, he will play at least 25-30 times a season. This gives him plenty of gametime, without burning him out which will likely prolong his career.

Every top club has a handful of players in their 30's. If Malouda, Benayoun and Ferreira leave as expected we would only be left with Terry, Lampard, Cole and Hilario if my memory serves me right so i think the reduction in squad age has been done pretty well over the last couple of seasons.

Ok so you're his agent are you?

Yes i am aware. What i'm saying is you can't really slate MAICON when he would be an upgrade on what your club has.

Please don't encourage him. A lot of very good threads on here have been ruined in recent days by pages of hin arguing the same thing. He may not be fully responsible but its not a coincidence he's argued with so many different people on the forum.

You have very little room to argue when you have arbeloa at right back.

Yeah they effectively continued paying his contract so it could have been another two years pay off but this was always going to be unlikely. Otherwise it would have been about £5-8m pay off in all likelihood, so i think it was a clever tactic, as i said particularly after we recruited from within so weren't paying two manager contracts after he left for the remainder of the season.

If they're roughly the same price i would take modric - premier league proven and would clearly weaken spurs as he is their main man and they won't replace him adequately IMO whilst tight ass levy pulls the strings.

It is being reported today that AVB's pending arrival at Spurs will save us over £10m. As opposed to previous managers who received huge pay offs, we negotiated with AVB when he was fired to pay his £100,000 pw wages until he found a new job, rather than a lump sum pay off. Therefore once his move to spurs goes through next week as expected, we won't have to pay him anymore. That is more good work from the board IMO to save huge pay outs, especially considering robbie completed the season on his assistant manager wage and his new contract will be a lot less than AVB's (reportedly between £2-3m pa). We're european champions and it finally looks like everyone is pulling in the same direction to ensure the club acts as european champions.

Yes he played in Japan before moving to Porto.

Ballack said before the match that he thought Bayern would win because of the advantage of playing at home. He said he personally couldn't lose with whomever won the final. However I feel that he would have secretly preferred Chelsea. He lost a champions league final here, not to mention other heartache in the competition, and knew how much it meant to this club having never won it before. There were also a lot more players in the Chelsea team who were former teammates than in the Bayern team, and I'm pretty sure he is held in greater regard amongst our fans than he is with the Bayern fans.

The club is in an extremely difficult position. Given Lampard is just about to turn 34 his ability to play so many games as previous seasons could easily start to diminish and he could start struggling more with injuries where little niggles are no longer possible to play with and a 3 week injury starts to take 4-5 weeks to get over. Alternatively Lampard could also very possibly cope with another 2-3 seasons playing between 30-45 games a season.

He'd play wing back which will suit his game, and maggio on the right. Good move for napoli but glad we're not going for him. Hopefully bertrand gets a proper chance from now.

Well it was only 'a dream' we'd win the champions league this season. It all depends on roman but i wouldn't rule anything out this summer!