manpe

Going for the draw at best with that line-up. Gonna be embarrassing, probably will not bother watching it.

Willian is not a scorer. He's only 3 behind Costa, it's more of a testament to Costa's shit season. In the early parts of the season when we were at our lowest, he played better than anyone else.. it doesn't reflect in numbers, because he's a workhorse and his main contribution is what he does on the field, not in numbers, but for him those numbers are very good. Barbara's post is spot on, in a normal season he's a supporting player and nowhere near our main star player, but this season he has given his all and didn't sulk like everybody else.

So now it is our chance to win Leicester the title. Must win for Spurs tomorrow, but must win for us too. Hopefully the players will be up for it, especially Hazard (he hates tottenham!)

So Costa, Traore and Pato. Not so sure in the quality, Pato hasn't played enough to form any kind of opinion nor is Traore good enough to challenge Costa.

Exactly my thoughts lol. They probably want everybody sold, because Willy is at the bottom of the list.

Lol @ Wenger. The guy has lost it, he's probably asking for the sack.

Seen spuds win the league.

Stop being so pessimistic. Leicester have beaten far better teams this season than United or Everton or even us. Can't see them stopping now.

Just recently realized it's Medhi not Mehdi Fix the title!

If Arsenal sign him it must mean he is not that good, so we better stay clear.

Agreed. This obsession with age needs to stop. Our academy is destroying cup competitions and some of our loanees are setting the world alight, we don't need to look to other clubs for talented youth just for the sake of it. Let's not go down the Arsenal route of living in the future, never in the present. The only benefit of getting Stones is that he is home-grown and English, we will desperately need them once Cahill and JT are deemed surplus to requirements. For the time being, I'd much rather we let Ivanovic go and replace him with an established defender between age ~25-30. Ivanovic's departure would open up space to sign a truly good non-HG player. Cahill or Terry can eventually be replaced by Christensen, another boy, so we don't need anymore in a position that requires maturity the most.

That midfield still lacks quality. Radja alone will solve only a part of our problems, we need quality in depth like every other top team has. An injury/suspension to Radja and all of a sudden we're back to the dross of this season. Mikel, Oscar and possibly Matic need to go and open up those foreign spots to better quality players.

Where can I see full member list? I know it was possible prior the update, but now I can't find.

On the subject of Fabregas and Lampard (I know it is rudely off-topic and may offend Nemanja if he ever reads this thread), but I remember how Frank used to completely bully Cesc every time we played Arsenal or Barca. It was like they had something personal between them. Btw, look at these This is what I mean by us being a battering ram, and Franky was one of the softer guys.

They didn't have to be, we weren't a creative team, we were a battering ram with incredibly all-round players with specific world class traits (no jacks of all trades but master of none bullshit). The partnership between Lampsy-Drogba and Lampard's consistent 20 goals per season meant we didn't need anymore goal providers in our midfield. Essien provided his fair share of goals as well. None of the three you mentioned will be able to reach such heights in terms of offensive contribution I'm afraid.

It was a clash of completely opposite philosophies. Possession attack vs. countering defense. Atletico are so good at what they do it's unbelievable. I agree with the guy who said that this is what we should have become. In this state we are closer to Aston Villa than any of the two.

Can we call it Chelsea Youth Cup now?

That midfield you named lacks offensive power and is solely focused on destroying, not creating. Mourinho would love it of course. Throw Fabregas or Pjanic next to Kante and Radja and we're golden. Matic and RLC would still get good minutes as direct backups. Regarding defence, it's clear that JT is not good enough anymore if we want to play a high(er) line, which we need to start doing eventually. Cahill and Ivanovic are not good enough full stop. One or two of them can stay as backups, but nothing more. Zouma needs a proper ball-playing partner, a Carvalho to his Terry if you will. If we fix our midfield and central defence, then we could even go another season with Ivanovic and Azpi as full-backs, but eventually we'd need to move away from such archaic pairing as well.

Kante yes, but I always thought we are linked with him because every top club is linked with Leicester's top players, especially us because of our situation. It's "easy rumours" for newspapers, very plausible, but not necessarily true or even realistic. Haven't heard of any alternatives to Kante or I simply can't remember. There is still plenty of time for things to change of course.

I really would like to see a City - Atletico final, with Atletico winning it. It would be awesome - the team I am cheering for wins it, the team I want to suffer loses after coming so close. Having an all-Spanish final would be too cliche. Bayern vs. Real wouldn't be bad either, but I don't like them. I'd much rather Atletico be in it, I like them and Simeone very much. However, I predict that the final will be between Atletico and Real. Am afraid City will implode like they always do, Atletico will (hopefully) hold their own in Munich.

Both would fit in the same line-up nicely. At the moment Nainggolan is closest to actually replacing Ramires, anybody remember him? We never replaced him, now we have. Matic's replacement, if any, is yet to arrive. Have we even been linked with a DM yet?

Sky and ESPN reporting, it's practically official now.

Diego? Really? He has been horseshit until Jose got sacked.

Yes, exactly. Doctors would need to wear company logos on their smocks as well and have product placements in O.R, with 15 minute commercial breaks during operations. As I said, something is fundamentally wrong when such are our priorities and when advertising industry is one of the most powerful in the world. Don't think anybody can argue with that, unless you profess that telly clowns and jocks deserve what they earn while people with practical input in making the world go round are just an afterthought. It isn't just limited to football, all entertainment industry is blown out of proportion. It is more of an economic-philosophical discussion and points can be made against capitalism, you can agree with the ways things are set up, it is your right, but me and Mata don't agree (even though he is inside the system reaping rewards). Money, to some extent, is also destroying football. Salary caps should be introduced.

You're right in terms of football making insane money and salaries being proportionate, but this is where something is fundamentally flawed in society. Entertainment industries are rewarded far too kindly, when in reality they bring nothing progressive to the world. Yes, entertainment is all good fun and necessary, but the gap between people doing real useful work for society and people who kick a ball about for our amusement is far too big. But this is how things work nowadays - the more appearances you make on telly in between commercials and the more people your status/brand attracts to watch those commercials, the more handsomely you are rewarded. Regular folk, who work their asses off and are having trouble making ends meet, are cast aside, because they don't generate any significant revenue to the fat cats, and are therefore insignificant. As I said, this system is fundamentally flawed like the world itself, but within the established multibillion entertainment and advertising industries the players' wages do make sense. We just have to accept that there is no justice, equality or reward based on merit. Television clowns are more important than, say, scientists, architects, engineers, doctors, teachers, soldiers, police officers, firefighters, regular do-gooders who make the world a better place day-by-day etc.