BlueLion.

A footballer's career is short; his prerogative is to earn as much as he can to support his wife and children for the rest of their lives. If you can earn double the money and work half as hard in your own job, you're telling me that you wouldn't go for it?

Why? It's only natural to compare him to one of the three other outstanding goalkeepers in the division (Lloris and Cech being the other two). I agree - but, unlike Cech, who always had outstanding competition, I believe Thibaut will become the undisputed greatest GK in the world, simply because all of the major competitors for that crown are on the way out of the game - Neuer, Cech, Buffon are all in their 30s.

This will be a Shrewsbury-esque game, akin to our win over them last season in the COC. Tight, tense 2-1 for me.

Hiddink's biggest contribution to the team since his arrival is his utilisation of full-backs, pushed high up the pitch (all down to the Lord Mikel effect, I assure you). Azpi and Ivan have arguably never been so potent as an attacking duo.

Agreed, especially regarding form. Costa has almost always been a Lampard-esque "score en masse" type of goalscorer. Lots of goals in a short spell, then nothing for a little while. His form in front of goal will dry up soon, but Hiddink has reinvigorated him, as he did Drogba in 2009.

He's back to how he was last season. A c*nt. But he's our c*nt, and we all love him when he's being c*ntastic.

His judgement on crosses is horrendously poor at the moment. This worries me, as it is usually his biggest asset.

That'll shut the nay-sayers up until we bottle a 2-0 lead against MK Dons and go out of the cup next weekend.

Haha, each to their own, but I'm not having any of that! You have to take technique and circumstance into equal consideration - Zidane won a Champions League final with that goal. Alli helped Spurs beat Crystal Palace. For the record, I don't think that Alli goal is even close to being the best in the PL this season - Martina against Arsenal has that one all sewn up.

On TV in the UK... that'll do for me. #ArmchairFan Running a grassroots team, it's almost impossible to get to weekend games now.

Or, @Cosmin, you can just hide his sig, as I've done...

Christ.

The fact we've left our business until this late in the window is proof Emenalo has to go.

That's karma for us dicking them over several times. Also, karma for us fucking about. The window's been open for three weeks ffs.

Buzzing we've signed the lead singer of the Script.

Imagine if Mourinho hadn't been an idiot and pissed off Eto'o, we'd still have a very, very good second choice striker at the club.

Instant legend for scoring against Thundercunt FC.

Do NOT give him the fucking number 9 shirt. It's cursed.

A fair point, but Cech had Terry and Carvalho, who, IMO, is the only defender in our recent history who you could say was better than Terry ever was, in front of him. Courtois has an ageing Terry and either a youngster in Zouma or a bang average defender in Cahill in front of him. A keeper really is only as good as his defence. Courtois isn't as good as Cech yet, but we shouldn't expect him to be. He's 23. He's better at 23 than Cech was, IMO. I didn't say it was a mistake. I'm saying he should arguably be saving it. It was an acute angle from which Funes Mori scored. Yes he had to gamble on his positioning but the instinctive position would have been to have held the final quarter of the six yard box. He made it harder for himself by gambling on the near post. It was an error of judgement, more so than a mistake.

Agreed. It's mainly me being a hypercritical bastard when it comes to goalkeeping, more than anything else.

I disagree with that, but each to their own. His decision making is particularly poor at the moment. Versus Everton, the first and third were avoidable from a team perspective, and though Courtois wasn't directly at fault for the Funes Mori goal, I would say that's amongst a number of goals he's conceded that he should arguably be stopping. He is nowhere near his best at the minute but frankly he's getting no help from his defence whatsoever.

True. But he was available at the time. He'll probably never, ever play for us (Magnus Headman, anyone?), but I'd feel better having him on the bench in the Parc des Princes if there was an injury to Thibaut or Asmir, as opposed to Blackman or Beeney.

Don't get hung up on the analogy. Whoever you put in each category, you need bread to make a sandwich. My point is that the bread - Mikel - is the simple thing that starts everything off. Then you can layer your butter, beef, and mustard. If you couldn't tell, I had been drinking the night before I posted that

He's experienced and a cheap wage. Short-term option. Not to mention he is considerably better than Blackman,

Buying older goalkeepers as a back-up is a good policy. Amelia is a very good third-choice option, and Begovic is clearly the best second choice goalkeeper in world football after Claudio Bravo.