Jype

So have they officially announced it or not?

I refuse to believe all these rumours until it's been confirmed that Spurs have paid for his flight.

Benfica seem to have 11 Eusebios on the pitch today, nice gesture from the club.

Oblak, Maxi Pereira, Luisão, Garay, Siqueira, Matic, Enzo Pérez, Markovic, Gaitán, Rodrigo, Lima Will be keeping an eye on Markovic and Rodrigo too.

No, we bought Ramires in 2010 and Matic only moved there in time for the 11/12 season.

Matic, Mikel, MvG, Romeu and Ramires as our midfield options for next season would be great. If we have a defensively solid pivot, we don't necessarily need the "world class deep-lying playmaker" everyone seems to be craving for because we have much better options in the attacking midfielder department than most teams in the world and they can work their magic as long as the defensive contribution from the two midfielders is better than we're now getting from Lampard - Ramires. Will definitely watch the Benfica - Porto match today. I don't believe the rumours that Matic has refused to play because the Benfica chairman seems like a guy you don't fuck around with. If we're getting him, I suppose they've agreed he will play his final game today and after that they'll let him go, no hard feelings.

Oh my bad, I thought Cahill was born in -84 like Ivanovic. Still, my point stands because with Ake, Chalobah and Kalas we're talking about players who are 18-20 at the moment and can easily be candidates to replace our current defenders within a few years even if we got someone like Zouma. I wouldn't be so sure that we'll have any of our current four CBs three years from now. Terry is almost guaranteed to be retired, both Cahill and Ivanovic will be well over 30 and may be offloaded already and at the moment I wouldn't even bet on Luiz staying beyond this season, let alone still being at the club in 2017. Like I said, more than enough opportunities for each of the three youngsters to claim a place in the team if they're good enough and if not, the club would definitely be doing the right thing by investing in a player with world class potential now.

Because maybe Zouma is a better player than any of those three? Even if we got Zouma, there's still more than enough room for some other youth players to break through because it's not like Terry can go on forever, the future of Luiz is by no means certain and both Cahill and Luiz are 30 year this year as well. We'll be needing some fresh blood for our CB department sooner or later so why not get one of the hottest centre-back prospects in the world when he's still available for a reasonable price rather than wait till the problem gets so urgent that we end up spending massively for some proven world beater anyway?

Arsenal have a buyback clause for Fabregas.

Off with them gays, they don't deserve to live normal lives among the rest of us, is that what you're saying? Seriously?

Why? Because the gay people will automatically try to rape the straight ones when they drop the soap? Grow up for fuck's sake.

That's just screaming for someone like Pepe to walk by and two foot the cunt.

Yep, and organizing the defense is just as much a responsibility of the goalkeeper than keeping the shots out of the net.

Courtois must come back next season and as harsh as it may be, Cech should move on. Of course Cech could stay and allow Mourinho to do something similar to what Ancelotti decided to do with Real Madrid, which is to play Lopez in La Liga and Casillas in the Champions League and all domestic cups, but I really don't see the point in that either and Cech deserves to be a starter somewhere else if not for Chelsea anymore. Or we could just loan Courtois to Vitesse.

I was under the impression that challenging for trophies is good for the club and that's exactly what we're currently doing under Jose. Oh well, maybe I was wrong and the mighty Bushman knows better.

Thanks for the Civ4, @Rmpr!

Walcott out for six months after rupturing his ACL against Spurs, will miss the rest of the season as well as the World Cup. Huge blow to his teams but most of all to himself, hard to say how much it will affect his game which relies massively on pace. Arsenal will probably be on the market for another winger now.

Piero Ausilio (Inter's DOF): "There was a contact with Chelsea, and that makes us proud since he is an important player. They have the okay to speak to the player’s agent, but should he remain we would be happy. We have no desire to sell him, he is an important player and he is proving it." So does that mean they've accepted an offer from us and are waiting to hear from Guarin and his agent on whether he's moving?

Just seen pictures of De Bruyne's agent in Abu Dhabi with the Wolfsburg management and rumours from Germany suggest it's pretty much a done deal. Loan with an option to buy for around 20-25m.

He scores when he wants.

Not going to discuss this any further because right now I have better things to do like actually watching the game, but didn't Lamps score two goals in that West Ham match? Clearly Jose made the right decision that time, maybe Frank was brilliant in training that week or something. Mourinho said earlier that De Bruyne hasn't gone the extra mile in training like the other attacking midfielders have so it's his no one's fault but his own that he's been marginalized. Great player, but things just didn't work out for him under Jose and it's best for everyone he's moved on. Massive profit for Chelsea and a better suited club for the player himself, to me that's a win-win scenario if there ever was one.

Because maybe at first he was planning on giving him a proper chance but then at the last moment Willian, a player much better suited to Jose's tactics, became available and there wasn't sufficient interest in De Bruyne anymore?

Yeah, I agree. Hopefully Ramires gets taken off sooner rather than later in the second half, would love to see Baker today. Bertrand is a mystery at the moment. A little over a week ago he was still supposedly out with an 'injury' which appeared out of nowhere really, got a feeling he will be gone before the window closes. Don't know why he'd be sold though, nowadays anyone's a better option than Cole and Bertrand has always been a very solid player imo.

Unfortunately De Bruyne is as good as gone so surely Mourinho doesn't want to risk him getting injured in a match like this and potentially miss out on a +20m transfer fee. Agree on Kalas though, today would have been a perfect chance to give him his full debut.

Fuck off Eto'o