BlueLion.

Re-opened and moved to Football Banter so people can discuss the transfer in this thread, rather than across others.

Don't understand the bashing of Torres. Was Atletico captain for three years, so he had more experience of captaincy than anyone else on the field in Chelsea blue last night. Again, couldn't care less about the performance or the result - just glad the season is over. I can't take any more of this.

Playing with two goalkeepers, everyone else out and position - and Hilario up front - is definitely a bold move from Rafa!

23:06 kick-off?

Available for £12.8m supposedly. There was an article on Gazzetta della Sport, which has been removed from the website.

I've turned off notifications so unless I check the topics, I rarely see where people have quoted/mentioned me!

That poll was created the week after Munich, so of course Drogba was going to win it. However if it'd have been Lampard that scored the equaliser and then the winning penalty, it would have been him. If people genuinely think Drogba is the club's greatest player ahead of Lampard, Osgood and Zola, then seriously smh.

It's a shame as he is Chelsea through-and-through. I can see him staying on with the academy as a coach, and would love to see him as part of the first-team coaching team one day!

Oscar is heads and shoulders above Coutinho. I won't lie - Coutinho has impressed me since joining Liverpool, but he has hardly been a revelation. Oscar is a far more mature and complete footballer. I know who I'd rather have in my team!

The good thing would be, if Torres did leave this summer, at least we can turn around and say "well, he scored 23 goals last season, more than Dzeko, Rooney, Tevez....". That would at least restore some credibility.

Spot on, mate. As ever, we have to be realistic and realise that Roman is more likely to spend £25 million on an established star than give players like RLC two/three years to break into the first-team, but the difference between 2013 and 2003 when Roman first arrived is that we now have genuine quality in our academy. The chances of youngsters playing for this club has increased. Only slightly, because of the instant demand for success, but the positive aspect is we are producing top talent.

GMF have regurgitated that Sky story as well. I think it is absolute bollocks to be honest.

I disagree. Ba is probably one of the top five/six strikers in this league. Who is honestly better? Tevez, Aguero, van Persie, Suarez for sure - but is there anyone else? Michu had a good season but he is a midfielder by trade and is still "learning" his new role; plus I think defenders will be wiser to his act next year (as we saw with his goals drying up after January).

I think this is a "realistic" team - we are of course strongly linked with Schurrle. Coentrao seems to be a player Mourinho really rates, and I can see him bringing him with him á la Carvalho to introduce a new Portuguese staple within the team. De Rossi, I'm not sure if we have been linked with him, but he would be an ideal signing for me - either him or Alonso for that deep-lying position. And of course, Lukaku might not even be here next season, but I would love to see him lead the line.

Yawn. Can we just have a bit of a break please? My body can't take any more football-related stress.

Happy for him. Thanks for everything, Rafa.

No, he's going out on loan. We need a top quality second choice keeper, and if Lopez is happy to come here for two years as 2nd/3rd choice, this would be a good signing,

Superb signing - nay, perfect signing.

On another note, from the 90 second highlight reel, RLC looked very exciting. Will watch the game after my exam later. Well, maybe the first 60 minutes. All went tits-up after Cech went off

Already won a trophy, doesn't matter. ^ This.

This absolute God of the Arena:

Well, yeah, because that's an assist.... that has been standard since the FIFA Technical Study Group's report on the 1986 World Cup.

^ it's off Amazon. Not even advertised on our megastore website Edit: however the same image is being used on Play as well!

I think it may be a fake cover anyway. If you look in the top right corner, there is a black box on top of Cech's photo. Just pissed off there will be no special features, or if there are any, they will be shitty little 5-minute featurettes.

^ that one is the real one. It has been returned to UEFA, but after winning the EL we were supposedly given dispensation to parade both trophies. But that one will have been handed back by now, and we'll get a replica cast. If/when(?) we win it for a fifth time (probably won't be in my lifetime!), we will keep the real trophy and UEFA will commission a new one, as happened in 2005 for Liverpool.