Matterz

I think a loan to AC Milan could do him the world of good, there is a lot to learn about defending in Italy and its a big club so he would gain valuable experience. when he comes back he will be twice the player

What about Ashley Cole?

He is still class, if he is good enough to play internationals for Engalnd and to perform well for Milan he will have no problems coming off the Chelsea bench. Will give us great depth and open the doors for a whole new fan base, shirt sales, etc... He is Engalish, another plus, and has immense experience. Plus it would piss of the Mancs who think they are so clever with their capture of Michael Owen.

I never said they could excel in any position, what im saying is that should we have big injury issues we have more than enough players wo can provide cover.

Ballack is the spearhead or focal point if you will for Germany, at Chelsea he is not which is why he is out shined by Frank and Co. When Lampard doesnt play, then we see Ballack step up to the plate, His performances against Barcelona alone last year prove how valuable he is to this Chelsea team. I always feel as though he gives 100% to the team and is willing to sacrifice a lot of his own glory for the benefit of the team. He has been an integeral part of a side consistently competing for Champions Laegue and Premier League titles. So in my opinion he is every bit as important and consistent as any othger of our regulars.

And how does this win football games and silverware?

He reminds me a lot of Babel at Liverpool, came with high expectations but struggles to deliver, and occasionally shows glimpes of quality but never enough.

Jason Cundy reckons Mikel is the best thing since sliced bread

This is of course assuming we dont make any further signings? Maybe we should sell Kalou and replace him, bring down the number of African players we have? If that becomes the case then only 3 will leave and we wont have such a big headache. We could always sign someone or bring back one of our loan players in January though. Maybe 25 is magic number with players coming back from loan? I dont think we need more than 8 defenders, especially seeing as none of them are African and Belletti and Zhirkov can cover in both Midfield and Defence

Quality defensive play is often over-looked im afraid, just use our two games against Barcelona as a great example

Not necessarily the highest paid, but definately on par with the highest.

Kaka wishes he was as good as Super Frank

Its good to see that the club arent wasting time with contracts either. Hopefully they commit the above mentioned as well, then its just up to Terry to commit to Chelsea and one or two more good signings and we are good to go for the season.

Can we close this topic now?

Again Scolari, just like Mourinho, didnt have the squad he wanted. Yes he wanted 23, but he also wanted Robinho which he didnt get, not did he get an alternative player. So again whether Mourinho or Scolari wanted 23 is irrellevant because neither had the squads they were looking for. Besides that I think you are missing the point, our squad is so versatile our players can play anywhere which means we have more than enough cover in every position. The only signings that should come in should improve on what we already have. So if Deco leaves for example, we replace him with a better younger player ie. Sneijder or Van Der Vaart. Or if Kalou leaves, then we replace him with Aguero, Villa or Pato if at all possible. The key is really to get the replacement first before you sell your leftovers.

Its just so much easier for them to take him on loan, id rather we sell him though, he proved what he can do for them now they must pay.

Yeah is a good young talent but lets face it there was no way he was going to get into our first team anytime soon. If we look on the bright side we now have Sturridge who is miles better imo

Its not always about attack and flair, Ballack brings experience, tactical awareness, Brilliant positional play and a masterful ability to read the game. he is also a superb passer of the ball and a big physical presence in the midfield. He brings so much that people dont see.

They agreed the terms of the new contract awhile ago but Malouda has only signed the contract yesterday, Mikel will probably sign his new deal shortly too and im pretty confident of new deals for Joe Cole and Drogba too.

I couldnt agree with you more, I still think there is a lot of time left though to still make more signings, plus im quite sure a handfull of players will leave as well. But as it stands we are in such good shape already, if Liverpool lose one or two of their midfielders we would have to fancy our chances this season.

I just think Ballack gets a bit overshadowed by the performances of Lampard and Essien, i dont think people take too much notice of how much Ballack actually contributes towards the team each and every game.

Injuries can destroy any squad. fact is we can have 2 players for every position but in all honesty our players are so versatile they can play anywhere so we will always have cover. You can always keep a few younger players around as cover. And by the way, it didnt work out for Jose because he didnt have two players for every position. He only had 3 centre backs, one of which was Bhoularouz and we all know how that ended. With the squad I have mentioned above, we actually have 5 players who can play at CB, Terry, Alex, Carvalho, Ivanovic and Mancienne.

Im getting a very postive vibe from the entire squad which is great going into the season. Hopefully this will envcourage John Terry to come out and say the same thing

I think the beauty of our squad and particularily our midfield is just how versatile they are, our midfielders can play anywhere and in just about any formation. This diamond seems quite strong and formidable, I think Ancelotti will want this deep lying playmaker though if he is stick with it.

I couldnt agree more with Mr Ancelotti that a 23 man squad is the way to go. I remember Jose having a similar philosophy, which is three goalkeepers and two quality players for every postion. It appears the 4-4-2 diamond will be the formation of preference for Carlo which seems to be working well. This means that players need to be let go as the squad shapes up. Below is how I would see the squad of the final 23 and where I feel we actually need to strengthen. GK: Cech, Turnbull, Hilario LB: Ashley Cole, Zhirkov RB: Bosingwa, Ivanovic CB: Terry, Alex, Carvalho, Mancienne DM: Mikel, Belletti LM: Malouda, Joe Cole RM: Essien, Ballack AM: Lampard, Deco ST: Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge, Kalou With this we can let go of Shevchenko, Pizzaro, Ferreira, Di Santo (loan) and Sinclair (loan) This also puts some question marks over Deco and Kalou, if we want to bolster either the midfield or up front I feel we would need to sell them. So afterall we can have our big name signing either up front or in midfield or maybe even both and still have a nicely balanced squad.