Jype

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.

I don't really see how that would make any sense. Draxler is good but seriously, what would be the point in signing yet another fucking attacking midfielder when the team is already full of them but clearly flawed elsewhere? De Bruyne is getting offloaded not because he isn't good enough but simply because there isn't enough room for all these quality players. And to think that we would also have to pay money their way to get the deal done. If he somehow ended up at Chelsea, it would be nothing but the club pulling off another 'willian' so that our rivals don't get their hands on Draxler.

Spurs are shit.

Watched the second half and what a game he had. Two goals as well as an assist and he was unlucky not to get more, he made a great pass to Atsu whose shot hit the post and had a few chances of his own to get the third goal. Even though being a star man in the Eredivisie isn't much, at least he's playing a lot of games and getting his confidence back. At his age that's what matters most. Next season will be crucial for his development when he gets sent on loan to a tougher league and he has to prove his worth there as well. Maybe the Bundesliga would be a good fit for him next year?

Piazon assist for Vitesse's third goal.

And another goal after just 50 minutes.

Got a feeling there's something real in this rumour, Mourinho probably attended the Belgium - Colombia match last month to watch Guarin in action. Not sure whether he'd be a good fit for us because I haven't really seen much of him since his Porto days but if he's capable of playing in the pivot next to Ramires or Mikel, then I wouldn't say no because it's not like there are a lot of reasonably priced options available in January and we desperately need a new midfielder. Guarin would be eligible in the Champions League which is a huge plus for a January buy. Would also give us time till next summer to address this problem properly and some of the more attractive options could be more easily obtainable by then (Witsel, Pogba, Gündogan etc.).

@SBerahino: Wow i cant believe it, thats fucking shit!!!! Looks like someone's not happy about Clarke being sacked.

Come back as Jose's assistant, Steve!

Ba Schürrle - Mata - De Bruyne Essien - Mikel Cole - Luiz - Cahill - Azpi Schwarzer

Oh how times change. In the summer people were telling Barcelona to fuck off and wanted to keep Luiz no matter the offer but now some of the same people would happily ship him off. What has he done wrong really, other than a couple of months ago have a few bad performances which didn't even result in the team losing points?

I wouldn't be so sure about that tbh. If he went on loan now his situation would be analyzed again next summer and who knows, maybe by then one of the players currently keeping him out of the side, at this moment that would most likely be Juan Mata, will have moved on and a bigger role could be offered to Kevin. Or if there still wasn't a place for him in the team, then at least from Chelsea's perspective selling him only after the World Cup would make most sense because his value could be significantly higher if he was one of Belgium's World Cup stars instead of being being labelled as a Mourinho reject who couldn't handle being at a big club. For Kevin himself making the permanent switch only in the summer could allow him a move to some proper club like Dortmund and have a good pre-season with his new team instead of rushing into a decision of moving to a midtable club like Wolfsburg where he will be able to keep his place in the national team but not much else really.

Yes, because spending a shitload of money is always the best solution.

Happy for the three points but that was painful to watch. I will just try to pretend I didn't watch that and be optimistic about the coming games. Just one question to Jose though, why leave the substitutions so late? Schürrle and Ba both had an immediate impact and the team looked like scoring again with them on the pitch but coming on at +80 minutes is way too late to actually do anything meaningful. Schürrle should have been awarded a start anyway after his performance against Stoke last Saturday, seriously hope he plays against Arsenal.

Ramires what was that

Get Schürrle on for fuck's sake.

Fucking knew Chamakh would score

Sloppy passes, must do better...

What a match of football this was, best of the season so far maybe. Not afraid of this Arsenal at all, bring on next week.

edit: Fuck, wrong topic.