BlueLion.

Sam, stop it. I've only just put clean boxers on.

Yes, and this whole idea of him playing there is based around Ivanovic leaving. There is some speculation over his future, but even if he stays, we need as much RB cover as possible, especially with Bosingwa gone. Ultimately we have Ivanovic, Ramires, Ferreira and Hutchinson that can play at RB. However should Terry, Luiz or Cahill become injured, Ivan would have to operate at centre half and we would be light at the back - hence why I have put forward this argument about Ramires being used as a fall-back-full-back option. Hulk's arrival would totally change the dynamic of the side, and that may mean losing Ramires because of reduced game time. Potentially. Worse-case scenario. A bit extreme I know, but he is such an exciting player. Agreed. The great thing about this discussion is that it shows how important he has become and how rated he is amongst not just Chelsea fans, but supporters of other sides. A good friend of mine is a Liverpool supporter who says Ramires is the player he would sign if he had the option to sign any player from any Premier League club. The dynamism he has is greater than any other player in European footballer; not one springs to mind who is a more athletic player than Rambo. He may not be absolutely Brazilian in his technique, but he is still a very special player. It surprises me there are people on this forum who have very recently been calling him average. You bring up an interesting point here, and this relates back to my original post. Ramires does not have the technique to be a playmaker - I can tell you agree with this as you mention the need for distribution; effectively a deep-lying playmaker such as Pirlo or Alonso. Whilst Lampard has an eye for a pass he is really the only true player who can facilitate that role. If that means we need players with greater distribution, it will be Ramires who is left out. Mikel is a better passer of the ball and retains position well. Ramires is an entirely different option but I am simply fearful that he will lack game time.

I have nothing against Kalou. I made an article a while back defending him, my attitude has not at all changed. He gave it all on the pitch, even if that wasn't good enough. However, I like a trier, so I rarely had many real complaints against him.

Haha, act your age, not your shoe size, it isn't very becoming of you at all.

I think this will be less of a case next season. Mata will have adapted more to the English game, and have appearances at a European Championships under his belt. Furthermore it will have sunk in that we are European champions - morale will be awesome amongst the players at the start of next season considering all the silverware we could potentially have won by December (Charity Shield, Supercup, Club World Cup). But back to my point, Mata will be even better next season. He was incredible in his introductory season, but he will continue to grow and develop as he gains more Premier League experience. Add in the returning Kakuta and McEachran, you have young (albeit unproven) players with exciting qualities including good distribution. Marin and Hazard are both creative players who can make good passes, and Benayoun may stay for the final year of his contract as an additional option. I have no idea why we loaned him in the first place!

Haha cheers mate. It is a nice gesture, but ultimately a foolish sentiment, to want to retire such a famous and coveted shirt number.

Well that just about sums up what you contribute to this forum. GIFs and monosyllabic responses. Grow up and when you can string a decent response together you may converse with the big boys. That line-up there relies on us not signing Hulk, whereas what I was saying relies on us signing him, so it's a little off the mark to compare tactics, but what the hell! I do agree with you that his potency would definitely be limited, but I would say even if he is not going to be a full-time right-back, that we could certainly employ him there if injury dictates the manager to do so, or we wish to play with an ultra-attacking line-up. But my concern for Ramires is he is too good not to have playing for us every week. He has become an integral part of the side, and he is probably the most prudent signing we've made over the last two-three years. If Hulk does indeed sign up, he will no doubt take that RW/RM slot, and you will see the triumvirate of he, Mata and Eden swapping over during the course of a game. I don't think Ramires would be happy as a super sub, in all honesty. All the kid wants to do is play football, and it would be criminal for him not to feature. I suppose, as part of an ultra-attacking side, you'd start him ahead of Mikel, but Mikel himself has come on leaps and bounds under di Matteo as well. As for your second point - this is Ramires we're talking about! If he isn't sprinting then he isn't doing his job correctly! I think Essien's time is certainly up at Chelsea, I completely agree. Like Ramires, so much of his game relies on his physical abilities and dynamism, but the bloke literally has no knees. He now moves with such lethargy it is painful to see. Happy memories of him sailing across the pitch have all but gone now. He is a spent force and he must go to a slower league and reshape his game into a deep-lying midfield role. I think that is going to be the (pretty obvious, in fairness) reality of it. It will depend on the next manager's style of play, preference of personnel, and his tactics to face a particular opponent. My case for Ramires at right-back is not necessarily a permanent one, but would you not agree he can 'do a job' there if the situation calls for it? He showed against the world's supposed-best attack in the Nou Camp that he is a good enough reader of the game, and also has the necessary positional discipline to perform an attacking role from RB without being overly zealous. But I do totally agree with you that Ramires played "nice football" on the right hand side of the field. He naturally loves to defend, so he gave great protection to the right flank. He also established a good partnership with Mikel, who would fill in whenever Ramires ventured forward, and vice-versa. My concern is that he may well not play the football he deserves to next season, which is a shame. He is the player I enjoy watching most for Chelsea - more than even Mata. His dynamism is incredible and his passion and enthusiasm for the game is infectious. It would be criminal if he plays anything less than 40 games next season (fitness permitting) - and this case would suggest he can play more often, in a variety of positions.

Hah, I like it. In that case your liking of the player is acceptable. I'd compare myself to Joey Barton. Bit of a cunt tbh.

truly amazing contribution.

Cap, are you just trolling or is Kalou genuinely your favourite player? I don't dislike any Chelsea player, but he frustrated the fuck out of me 99% of the time.

A thought that occurred to me amidst all the Hulk-Hazard-transfer-chaos is where will Ramires fit into all of this? Roberto fancied Mikel in the defensive midfield position, and also Mata 'in the hole'. It is highly likely Hazard will begin as our left winger with Mata in the free role behind the forward, with the two able to interchange. Hulk would line up on the right, Torres through the middle. If di Matteo stays - unlikely, I know - then that leaves one more midfield position for Lampard and Ramires. It is highly unlikely that Lampard will be benched; his performances under di Matteo were as good and consistent as anyone, and with Lampard in the team you have a guaranteed 15-20 goal addition to the side. Against Barcelona in the Nou Camp, Ramires played at right-back and put in arguably his best shift for the club. He has all the qualities to be a good right-back - he is fast, tenacious and a very good reader of the game. His tackling is not quite up to the standard of Mikel, but the thing with Ramires is his ability to recover and attempt a second block of challenge. As I have said, his reading of the game is excellent as you see him making as many interceptions as anyone else at the Premier League's big clubs. Another key element is his stamina - the full-backs have to be athletic at Chelsea, and he fits the bill. The only thing that lets him down is his inconsistent crossing and passing ability, which - although better than Bosingwa's - is a little lacklustre. But if you weigh up all the pros and cons, you certainly have a convincing case for the Brazilian. As to whether he would want to play there is another matter. We will have a lot of games next season - potentially 60+ again - and in a utility role he will be very useful. He can operate at CDM, CAM, RW, and now I think we could see him feature at right-back should the situation call for it. But my question is this - could Ramires become a full-time right-back for us? With Ivanovic the focus of speculation over a £23 million move to Real or Barcelona, we may well be in the market for a new right-back. Furthermore we have been linked with van der Wiel once more since Bosingwa's departure was confirmed. Putting him there gives us a real attacking thrust down the right, and would save us having to heavily invest - especially when you consider that young Todd Kane could be ready to feature for us in two-three years time. Your thoughts?

The whole idea of retiring Drogba's number 11 is an absolutely absurd idea as far as I am concerned, on two levels. Firstly, if we retired Drogba's number 11, we'd have to retire Lampard's number 8, Terry's 26, Cole's 3 and Cech's 1. We'd be running out of numbers because of the amount of greats there are at this football club. We'd also have to retire Osgood's 9 by that same logic, and so on and so forth. Raul's number 7 was never retired at Madrid and Juventus are not retiring Del Piero's number 10 shirt. Secondly, you do not retire any number from 1 to 11 unless in extreme circumstances, for instance with Maldini at Milan. Terminator X will tell you of the marketing value of these numbers, and as the original jersey numbers they are a small tradition in football, but an important one. The numbers 1 through 11 are prestigious and attract the big players. Until squad numbers were introduced, these numbers were what young footballers aspired towards as it represented first-team football. Zola's 25 has been retired because he is the greatest player to play for this club. One can imagine 26 will be retired in John Terry's honour as well, as our most successful academy player and captain. But you cannot see any other numbers being retired. Numbers are significant. Look at Madrid passing the 7 on from Raul (eventually) to Ronaldo. What we need to do is find a player worthy of wearing Didier's shirt. I am not taking anything away from Drogba. You all know how much I loved and backed him. But he has moved on, as great players have done in the past and will do in the future. He may have stolen our hearts, but he is not stealing our 11 jersey as well. Besides, he wore 15 for a quarter of his time here!!

Latest piece of UCL winners merchandise:

Don't be so fucking ungrateful.

Cech <3 Makes up for Drogba leaving.

Won't be surprised if he has a good tournament as he'll have good players around him

^ what is more annoying is there is nothing we can do about it without donations.

The megastore are selling the new season review for £20 - but you can get it off Amazon for £11 with guaranteed release day delivery. It naturally covers every match and goal. Extra bonus material includes interviews with Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic and Salomon Kalou as well as a montage of the season's most memorable moments. However it is only a one-disc set - so rather than paying £20 and ending up disappointed because there is no footage of the full 90 against Liverpool in the FA Cup or the Munich final, do yourself a favour and have it on the cheap!

This reminds me of the Robinho saga.

Right-back should be towards the bottom of our list of priorities. Ivanovic and Ferreira are more than good enough for that position. Ramires is capable of playing there. We also have some exceptionally good full-backs coming through our academy.

Cheznehgsugsojhdy is just an obnoxious cunt, like Neuer. There's certainly something going around the goalkeeping contingent of European football at the moment; first Neuer and now this voyeur.

I am not saying we should sell him necessarily, but I am saying I dislike him as a person and as a player a lot of the time. Unlike Lampard, who also talks a lot, he can't walk the walk.

His technique in the shoot-out was phenomenal. The Olic one; he went with his 'wrong hand' as it was the upper-most hand and pawed it away. Perfect technique for a shot at that height.

Maybe in three years we'll sign him on loan for three months like Arsenal did with Henry, just so he can play against the Gooners

^ only if you don't win it.