Jype

Matic is no doubt the better player, not to mention much better suited to our needs, but he would cost roughly double Guarin's price and is cup tied for the Champions League too so I'm not sure. From what I've seen Matic is a great talent and probably the best realistically available midfielder in the January window but it depends on what Mourinho and the board are looking for. If the club have Matic as the number one choice and consider him affordable and don't mind the fact he's cup-tied in the Champions League, then it's a no-brainer really but if the idea is to get a reasonably priced squad player who's eligible to play in all competitions and then take a pick of the much wider selection of central midfielders in the summer, it's better to buy a player like Guarin and wait till the next transfer window to really take a look at who we need and who's available.

Okay, maybe that was out of line. I'll accept a warning if you think that's necessary. You go right ahead, I won't mind.

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2013/12/18/5219960/fredy-guarin-chelsea-inter--milan-transfer-rumour-financial-impact A decent read.

No one is saying they want to make him a defensive midfielder because that would be ridiculous, but turning KdB into a sort of deep lying playmaker everyone is crying out for wouldn't be that far fetched. For what it's worth, in my opinion De Bruyne has all the tools required to become an excellent player in that role but it's clearly not gonna happen so no point discussing it further.

That's what irritates me the most about this. It's more than understandable that he isn't getting many chances on the wings or in the #10 position because there are many quality players competing for those places too and so far the others have made better use of their opportunities than De Bruyne has but why has he not gotten at least one chance in midfield? It's not like Lampard has been all that great this year and at 35 he simply doesn't have the legs to play so often anymore. It's ridiculous that even Essien who has been woeful this season keeps getting chances ahead of KdB when it's time to rotate so one must assume there's something going on behind the scenes we're not being made aware of.

Nah, I'll stick with 15-20m euros. If no team is willing to meet the asking price now, it's better to just send the kid on loan to one of the interested teams and sell him once he has consistently shown signs of top form and proven to everyone he's well worth the hefty fee. If he also has a good World Cup his value might actually be even higher than that come next summer but selling him now for a modest price of around 10m will once again make the club look like complete mugs as soon as he starts performing at his own level again, which really should only be a matter of time once he gets back to playing regular first team football. Anyway, I don't even think that an asking price of around €15-20m will cause any problems if the plan really is to let him go on a permanent transfer. I honestly believe we will have the top Bundesliga teams with the exception of Bayern Munich lining up to sign him and Chelsea as the owner of De Bruyne can name the price and it's up to them to meet it. I'm still hoping everything would work out for Kevin at Chelsea but at the moment it's not looking very promising for him. If Jose really rates De Bruyne but isn't playing him just because there's too many players at the moment, he should be sent on an 18 month long term loan to a team like Bayer Leverkusen and examine his situation after that. That is of course assuming De Bruyne is handling this in a professional way and not burning any bridges to the people at the club because of the way he's been treated this season. No offense but you're a fucking idiot. De Bruyne hasn't played much at Chelsea, which is understandable given the level of the competition for places in the team for a player of his position, but he has played plenty for other teams and proven to be a much better player than that kid from Genk who wasn't even a regular call-up for the national team but is now one of their most important players. If his level has gone up a few notches, why shouldn't the price have gone up too? Going by your logic, I suppose the value of Thibaut Courtois hasn't risen much either because he hasn't proven himself at Chelsea.

How is it absurd, do you think that's too high or too low? €15-20m sounds fair to me. He was bought for around €7m and in the two years he's been contracted to Chelsea he has without a doubt progressed a lot as a player so it's only understandable that the club want to make a profit if he goes. The De Bruyne we saw last season at Werder Bremen and who plays for the Belgium national team would arguably be worth around €25m in today's ridiculously inflated transfer market so even if he has had a bad start to his career at Chelsea doesn't mean the club should just concede a loss and let him go for peanuts.

The team have always showed up for the big games this season so I don't see why that would change, 1-2 Chelsea with Mata scoring both of the goals.

Torres Hazard - Mata - Willian Ramires - Mikel Cole - Terry - Luiz - Azpi Cech If everyone's fit, I would go with that. Any news on Azpilicueta's injury?

Hasn't Azpilicueta already had his left knee fucked up once before when he was still at Marseille? Hope he's okay.

In that case you will be disappointed. According to Dan Levene at least Mata, Cech and Ramires missed the trip up north completely.

You are asking the wrong question. The only question worth asking is whether or not Guarin could improve the overall quality of our squad by offering Mourinho another option in midfield till this problem can be properly addressed next summer. Answer to that question is yes.

90% of this forum was also against the Schürrle transfer. Just saying...

I assume that's a dig aimed at me and what I said in the post above yours. No, Mourinho is not the perfect man nor is he the perfect manager. However, he is our manager and I trust him to do what he believes is best for the future of this football club. If Mourinho wants a player, let's say Guarin because it's his topic we're discussing here, but the fans and the upper management want to see someone else what do you think is the best way to go forward? To buy the player our manager wants to work with or buy the flavour of the month player our fans and Abramovich have fallen in love with by playing fucking Football Manager of FIFA?

I admit I'm not an expert on Juve's finances because I really don't give a fuck about that club. Doubt they will sell Pogba in January either way, it's not like they could even use the money to strengthen these other areas because no sensible club would sell them the players they want in the middle of the season. That's how the transfer business works, everyone gets the major deals done in the summer and the January window is usually there only to allow clubs to buy squad players to get them through the season. Deals like Torres are the exception, not the rule. I haven't been commenting on whether Guarin would be a good signing because I haven't seen enough of him to form such an opinion, all I've been saying is that players like Pogba, Vidal etc. are not realistic signings for January and it's better to get at least someone than to ignore the problem outright because we desperately need another pair of legs in midfield. Guarin most definitely is not the type of player our squad has been crying out for but then again, none of the available ones are. Whether the player we go after is Guarin, Cabaye or someone else entirely, I really don't care but I trust Mourinho to get the player he wants and who he sees as the best fit.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Better to spend £15m on a stopgap who will play a big role for us this season and remain a squad player for the following seasons to come than ignore the problem completely and risk fucking up our season big time. Meireles was a similar stopgap after failing to sign Modric and he played a huge role in the club winning the Champions League. Are you saying we would have been better off not buying anyone back then when it became clear Modric was out of the question? And yes, I very much agree that the Willian signing was unnecessary to say the least, and that the money spent on him should have been used to acquire a quality midfielder instead. I don't particularly agree with you on Marco van Ginkel beng a pointless signing because he really looked like a good player who could have played a big role for us this season. Anyway, at the end of the day what's done is done and all that's left is to try and do what's best for the club right now.

If you really believe any of those would be available in January you're deluded. Pogba and Vidal are both enjoying life at Juve where they are fighting for the league title and it's not like Juventus need the money either. Dortmund won't sell Gündogan in January when they still have a very good chance of winning the Champions League title and the player himself will want to keep his options open till after the World Cup. De Rossi didn't want to leave Roma last summer so why would he leave now when the club he loves are a serious title contender for the first time in a very long while? And tell me, which available English central midfielder would be an upgrade to our current squad? And please don't say Ross Barkley because he's an attacking midfielder, not to mention the fact he probably won't leave in January either when Everton are doing so well and at least by playing every game there he has a good chance of making the World Cup squad. Players like Guarin, Cabaye and Rakitic are the ones we can realistically go after in the January window and I really don't see a problem with that. Getting any of those guys now would be an improvement to our current midfield and they would also be able to play in all competitions, unlike the names you mentioned. And the people saying they prefer this or that player of the available ones, will you for once trust Mourinho to know what he's doing? If he wants Guarin and not Cabaye, then Guarin he shall get. Haven't we learnt by now that it's really no use buying players that the manager does not want? The time to get a world class midfielder is definitely upon us and Mourinho knows this too but he also has enough experience not to go chasing windmills like poor David Moyes last summer with his unrealistic pursuit of Fabregas for the whole transfer window which left him empty handed in the end.

Fuck, ignore not working on Tapatalk so I'm being forced to continue reading your posts. I wasn't taking anything away from Arsenal and Liverpool, they've done just as well as us this season in the Premier League but not much more to be completely honest. And aren't you forgetting that both of them are already out of the League Cup, Arsenal finished runners up in their CL group and Liverpool were shit enough not to have any European football to begin with? The way you've been going on about these teams could fool someone into believing they're both better than Barca of 09 and according to you we have zero chance of finishing above them unless we sack Mourinho on the spot and spend 200m on new players in January. Is that really your idea of 'fair criticism'?

Yes, he was brilliant last season. Not only because of his goals, which were definitely a bonus, but for his defending too. A no-nonsense defender like Gary Cahill makes just as many defensive mistakes as Luiz does but never gets anywhere near as much stick for them as Luiz does, why the fuck is that? Because he's English? I don't even know why I replied to you, it's been clear for a while now you offer nothing to this forum. It's funny really, your name is "BlueMourinhoKing" and you have Jose in your avatar but still you do nothing but criticize Mourinho and our players every chance you get, while at the same time praising teams like Arsenal and Liverpool who haven't really been anything special this season either. Why don't you go support them instead? Don't bother replying, you just became the third member ever I've placed on the ignore list.

Potential bad news for Romeu as Valencia have just sacked their manager Djukic. Hope the next manager won't relegate him back to a bit-part role.

Nah I'm not concerned, it was always obvious I wasn't going to stick around in the top 200 of over 3 million players forever in the overall competition but it was good fun while it lasted! Around a month ago everything started going to shit when I didn't yet have Suarez or Aguero and they were on fire but after getting them too I have been able to maintain my lead quite comfortably. Of course I'm only six points ahead of Barbara and some others too so it won't take much for one of them to claim the top spot from me now, but looking at the squads I have mostly the same key players as they do so apart from choosing the right captain there's not much that can be done to get the advantage at this stage.

I had already used my free transfer to get rid of Koscielny who got injured but now I have to make some additional changes after Aguero was confirmed to be out for at least a month. City's goalscoring form is just too good to ignore so I decided to go with Negredo, at least till Aguero gets back.

Just seen someone call AVB the Freddy Adu of management. Spot on.

Looks like things are finally getting better for him at Valencia. In the first few months of the season he didn't even get a chance and played only one league game and a couple of Europa League matches but since the beginning of December he has started four out of five matches and I've heard he's played very well. The potential is definitely there and should he maintain good form for the remainder of the season he might actually be a part of an answer to our problems in midfield. When AVB was at the club Romeu looked like a serious talent but there was a long period of time where he did fuck all and then he was unfortunate enough to get a season-ending injury when it looked like Benitez was ready to give him a prominent role in the first team squad but hopefully those setbacks are behind him now for good. Ramires, Romeu, Van Ginkel and some DLP type of player could be a solid midfield for us next season, if everything goes according to plan with Romeu's loan and MvG makes a successful recovery.