manpe

Good, so automatically an improvement to what we have.

Can he defend? Can he cross? Can he run up and down all game? Can he link up with his winger?

"If I was wearing a Chelsea jersey, you have permission to kill me." Is this quote true?

Does anybody else here want us to reinstate the good ol' classic 4-3-3 if we sign Fabregas? Him and Oscar as the more advanced mids, Matic guarding their rear. They could go forward and wreak havoc interchangeably like Lamps and Ballack used to. At times this new and popular 4-2-3-1 does my head in, even though it's not much different, but one of the CM's seems to be much more restricted in attack and the lone advanced mid is in turn too isolated.

Grew up idolizing him. Now he's gone. I don't really know Chelsea without him, it's something new for me.

Every single goal of his is in my top 3.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He's a dirty gooner and I don't really prefer him here. It would be really difficult to associate him with Chelsea and not with Arsenal and Barca - two clubs that aren't exactly in my good book. But if there really aren't any alternatives available for a reasonable price, then I guess I can turn a blind eye.

Well it seems Spain's playing style aka system doesn't suit him.

Did you just call luiz young?

Schwarzer and Hilario have been released so I'm not sure why they're in the list, so out of the given options I chose Courtois, Cech and Blackman. Given Cech's injury record and the fact that he's going through a lengthy one now, it could very well be the repeat of 2004 when Cech de-throned Cudicini, now him being the one making way for an up and coming kid. In an ideal world we'd keep both and let them battle it out, but what's most likely going to happen is that Cech stays as our undisputed no.1 and Courtois extends/goes on another loan and we sign a cheap second goalkeeper to fill the ranks.

What else is there on the front? Adidas? I don't get that quote. Did Luiz say that?

Have I missed something? I found out about Luiz just now on this forum, but I don't see anything about Costa.

I liked Luiz, he was different and I remember when we were playing very lacklustre and unimaginative football, Luiz was one of the very few who seemed to want to do something every game. People weren't putting it past him to become a future captain. For all his faults, I liked him. But it was clear he didn't fit anywhere in Mourinho's team - not a reliable defender, not exactly the kind of midfielder we want either. He surely will fit in another team with a different setup, it's just not us. If the reported fee is correct, then it's a win win situation for the club and for him. He gets to play more, we just raised the funds to sign player(s) we can actually improve our team with. All in all, this transfer gets a thumbs up of approval from me.

Mourinho explained it once years ago. To answer it shortly, he believes an extra man in midfield makes a decisive difference.

I don't think so. Mourinho basically pioneered the original 4-3-3 with one striker in england and I think he's played like that in every club he's managed. The chance of us playing with two central strikers is very slim, I can't see Mourinho deviating from that. Though I would love to see us try it, preferably against smaller teams, it feels wasteful playing two deep midfielders against roll-overs.

There was a period when they had no English players in their regular starting line-up, I did say "used to".

Serious question: What happens when Cole, Lamps and JT leave? How do we meet our HG quota? We can't assemble the whole squad from foreign league players alone. And perhaps even a more burning question - where will the English blood come from? I don't like those teams that have no national identity in them, I used to make fun of Arsenal 'cause of that, but soon we might be in the same situation. Mourinho said he liked English players, but who can we realistically replace them with? I hear only foreign names being thrown around, except for Shaw of course. Basically what I'm afraid of is that we'll lose a huge chunk of identity when those guys leave. Sure we might become a kickass team with all foreign players bought from around the world, but it just wouldn't feel right. When you lose national players from your team's core, something goes missing, especially in derby games. Anyway, this is why I feel we absolutely cannot let all three of them leave at once, it would be too big of a blow to our identity. Maybe release them one by one every upcoming season, but still the questions/worries I posed above remain.

I remember people strongly suggesting he had the "match highest earner" clause, so he earned (or earns?) the same as Torres. Frankly I've no idea if it's true or what he earns or what he will be earning, I'm just glad we retained him.

Have I missed something?

Have you considered that maybe it's not in Jose's hands? Ever since his signing it's been pretty obvious that he's been protected by higher powers. If Jose says he doesn't know whether he'll stay or not, shows that he has no real say in it. What's more telling is that he didn't say he'll definitely stay in a situation where his contract isn't expiring, so there's probably at least some consideration of axing him.

I consider robbing Liverpool the league title a mini trophy for us. So glad we ruined their season

-delete-

Very interesting read. I too am somewhat fascinated by San Francisco after seeing a documentary that was centered around the Golden Gate Bridge. It just looked beautiful. Also the steep streets with those prehistoric cable cars. Just looking at pictures makes me want to visit that place. Anyway... Have you ever visited Europe? If you have, then what countries and how did you like them? What were the most obvious differences between them and Brazil? Did you encounter any European stereotypes (French women with hairy armpits, Austrian trannies with beards...)? If you haven't visited Europe, then would you like to and which countries? I have one Brazilian acquaintance who recently moved to Estonia, and he said that one thing he noticed was that doors open to the outside here, as opposed to inside in Brazil. I joked that it's a cultural difference, that over here it symbolizes our cold dislike of visitors and the door opening outside is a way of saying "go away, you're not welcome". While in Brazil it means the opposite - a warm welcome into your home.

Oh yeah? That's one question less to ask on the hot-seat.