Jype

Actually according to the official website he will wear 22 to honor the club legend Ross Turnbull.

Why a loan? Either keep him or sell him, simple as that. He was great for Newcastle and we got him for below his market value because of the release clause only seven months ago so surely there's someone out there willing to pay enough for us to break-even.

Haven't seen him but you just know a player isn't really any good when Porto are about to let him leave for less than 5 mil. What is going on at the club right now? This transfer window bullshit, can't take it anymore.

Wouldn't read to much into that. The journalist asked whether or not it was true that Mata could be on his way out and Mourinho responded by saying he's going nowhere. How else could the guy summarizing the press conference have put it when he needed to let people know what question Mourinho was answering to when he said those words? That being said, the situation does worry me but the phrasing on the match report doesn't mean anything.

Can't believe they are about to fall for the good old 'transfer request -> apology -> new contract with bigger wages' trick once again. I honestly thought he wanted to leave for footballing reasons this time around but guess not if he's now willing to sign an extension. Fair play to Rooney though, not everyone has the balls to pull off a stunt like that even once, let alone twice. This kind of stuff really does reflect poorly on United because they're simply letting the world know Rooney is bigger than the club. If they let one player blackmail the club like that, what's stopping their other star players from doing the same whenever they think they deserve more money?

Can't fucking wait for the window to close next week, can't stand these rumors anymore.

Can't wait for Mata to start and score against United tonight and shut up all these cunts who want him out. He's scored against them in all of our last three league meetings.

Selling a player because he's not good enough usually works out well for everyone. The player will have got a lot of money during his time at the big club and there's no shame in admitting they're not cut out to be one of the best players in the world by moving to a club closer to their level and the bigger club can move on to a brighter future with someone else. However, when a player has no doubt been the club's best player for two seasons straight it makes absolutely no sense to sell him because there aren't many players out there who can fill the void. The star man doesn't want to go because he's fully settled in at the club as well as the city and knows he's loved by the fans so forcing him out of the club just so someone new can be bought in his place is harsh. And I believe you misunderstood me, I wasn't having a dig at Mourinho or the club for doing what they think is best for the future of the club but rather at the so called fans who wouldn't mind seeing Mata go. Seriously, the little Spaniard has been a revelation to this football club and this is the way some people wish to thank him, by telling him he's no longer wanted because they prefer some flavor of the month player who has done fuck all for the club? The way @BlueMourinhoKing said 'everyone will forget about Mata' once we get someone new is what strikes me as plastic. The people who are happy to see our best player go to a direct title rival just so the club can spend a lot of money on some flashy new player instead of staying loyal to the quality player we already have on our hands is what irritates me. I would love getting Wayne Rooney in the team but not if it meant losing any of our current players in an exchange deal. If you think the backlash is bad every time Sturridge scores a goal for Liverpool, multiple that by a 100 and you'll get a pretty good idea what it would be like each time Juan Mata helped Manchester United get a step closer to winning their next league title.

And that's exactly what's wrong with football these days. People expect the players to always stay loyal to their clubs and then turn on them the minute they express their willingness to leave for pastures new but the same people won't think twice about ruthlessly sending one of their own packing when some flashy new signing is on the cards. Fucking plastic is what it is.

Looks like the Mourinho-hating Spanish media will do anything to destabilize the club less than 24 hours before our big game. How typical...

Like that's ever going to happen. You do realize that the odds on all five being injured at the same time is basically equal to the odds on me shagging Mila Kunis tonight and waking up the next morning to a text message saying I've won the lottery? Spending £30m on a sixth choice AM who's only desperately needed in case of severe injuries (essentially how you just described the player and his role in the team) would be beyond ridiculous and the idea of him becoming a key player by driving one of our current quality players away doesn't sound that good to me either. You need to get your head straight, there's no such thing as a 'Willian hater' out there, unless we're talking about Spurs fans, but that doesn't mean we have to be overly excited about the signing and not to worry about what might happen to some of the players we've already grown to love. Of course now that he has signed every single one of us who opposed to this transfer will support him no matter what and acknowledge the fact that we are talking about a lad who's very, very talented but are we not allowed to share with you our concerns about what kind of impact this signing can potentially have on the rest of the squad?

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3436444/title/terms-agreed-for-willian On the official website now. Still waiting on the work permit but other than that it's done.

He's not going anywhere, just posted the following tweet. @DeBruyneKev: Finally in my new place. About time. Happy

Hernandez won't play? Best news I've heard all day.

Mourinho trolling Spurs in the presser was great but I'm still not a fan of this transfer. From what I understand, it's now Moses who is leaving. Having Mata, Hazard, De Bruyne, Oscar, Willian and Schürrle is crazy depth really. Hope Jose knows what he's doing and is able to keep all six of them happy when they're competing for three places in the team.

This is getting scary, it really is. A while back I didn't believe for a second we would let Mata go but now I'm not so sure with all this talk of Willian. I would welcome the idea of us signing Rooney but he and his club can fuck off if it meant us losing Mata, it just wouldn't be worth it. Chelsea should never in a million years even consider the idea of letting him go to Manchester United. If they really demanded that and Jose would prefer Willian and Rooney over keeping Mata, the Spaniard should be offered to nearly any top club outside England and the money got from the transfer then used to make a ridiculously high offer of more than £50m for Rooney, making it very hard for United to say no. Not the ideal scenario but at least it would mean United not getting one of the best players in the Premier League in exchange. Making the direct swap between Mata and Rooney would come back to bite us in the ass sooner or later, of that I have no doubt.

A decent and mostly fair comparison but I've got a few issues with it. First of all, you have 12 players in the starting lineup. Remove Welbeck/Torres and it's 4-2-3-1 for both teams. On the goalkeepers I think it's unfair to give that one to De Gea outright. He's a wondeful shot stopper and all that but he still has some weaknesses like dealing with crosses and other physical situations. I'm not saying he hasn't improved in that department but that doesn't take away the fact the flaws still exist. Cech is in my opinion a more complete keeper with no particular weaknesses and while is reflexes aren't as fast as De Gea's, his experience alone should tie this one to 1-1. Then the RBs. Rafael may be in better form than Brana at the moment and seems to be developing well too but I would still consider Azpilicueta our main right-back and his form last season was not that far behind Rafael's. Also, if I'm not mistaken Rafa is still out for our match so shouldn't you be comparing our right-backs to Smalling or Jones? Smalling/Jones at RB against Azpilicueta is a point for Chelsea but otherwise Rafael edges it narrowly. Agree on the central defense but I'm not so kind on Cole and for me this one is 1-0 for Evra. As for the midfielders, why on earth would you compare Carrick and De Bruyne? That makes absolutely no sense because in his career De Bruyne has played what, maybe 20 minutes worth of pre-season in the position Carrick plays in. Carrick is ahead of Mikel for sure but let's save KdB for some other comparison, maybe the one against Zaha which De Bruyne wins every day of the week after his brilliant season in one of the best leagues in the world. Ramires is much better than Tom Cleverley in my opinion and he is usually at his best in big games unlike Cleverley who is still very much unproven with the big boys but I respect your opinion and I can see why people rate Cleverley too. Is Rooney available for you? If not, replace him with Welbeck and that's a clear win for Oscar. Rest are fine by me so for the starting XI's the scores are pretty even with my reviews and both teams can edge it depending on who plays at RB and ACM. With Rafael and Rooney your lot edges it 7-5 but for Monday's match I'm not convinced either of them will play so without them the score is 7-5 to us. Guess we should just agree that it's pretty close no matter what, eh? For the rest: Schwarzer vs Lindegaard 1-1 Cahill vs Smalling 1-1 Ivanovic vs Jones 1-1 Bertrand - Fabio/Büttner 1-1 Lampard - Anderson 1-0 Essien - Jones 1-1 (lol had to use Jones again, you guys really don't have enough CMs) van Ginkel - Giggs at CM 1-0 Schürrle - Nani 1-1 De Bruyne - Zaha 1-0 Moses - Young 0-1 Torres - Hernandez 0-1 Ba - Welbeck 1-1 For the starting lineups the scores would have been similar last year too and it's really no surprise Chelsea have enjoyed so much success in the cup competitions in reent times. The first eleven has been excellent all along but overall the squad has not been good enough to challenge you or City in the long run. However, now our squad has improved massively over the summer with recalling the Belgian loanees and adding good players like Schürrle, van Ginkel and Schwarzer. So far the only addition to your squad has been Zaha but with the potential departure of Wayne Rooney one can't with a good conscience say your team has improved from last season. Outside of the first eleven I'd say we have the advantage over United and in a long season that can have a huge impact on the title race. The last and most important one comparison of them all: Mourinho - Moyes 1-0

I seriously hope this doesn't happen. On one hand it would be great to fuck over Tottenham's plans once again but we have absolutely no need for Willian unless we sell one of our current AM's and why would we do that? Mata is one of the best players in the PL and Moses is a good squad player so which one would he replace? Replacing Mata with Willian would be the worst piece of business the club have done since Torres, especially if sold to a title rival like Manchester United and Moses the sixth choice AM hardly plays any important games anyway so splasing out €37m for his replacement wouldn't make sense either. Fuck the media, they've brainwashed me into worrying about Mata's future at the club.

Not a good match and I think Villa deserved something out of this but I'll happily take the three points. A hard game was to be expected with that lineup so I'm very happy for the result but something needs to change if we want to win next week's games too. Lukaku has to start and something must be done to the midfield, not to mention the defense. Hope Luiz and Azpilicueta are ready by then. Lots of controversial decisions by the referees. Ivanovic against Benteke was a clear red card and he was very lucky to stay on the pitch. Not giving them the penalty was an okay decision due to Agbonlahor pulling Terry's shirt but I've seen those given many times as well and had it been the other way around I'd have been furious. Was Brana's goal offside too? Anyway, top of the league for now. KTBFFH!

Horrible first half, hopefully some substitutions will mix things up a little. At least with Mourinho we won't have to wait till the 80th minute before subs anymore.

I'm hearing Ba and Mata for Torres and De Bruyne, otherwise the same team as against Hull.

Bitches please, this guy is the one and only Eddie:

Not really. Our coefficient is third highest after Barcelona and Bayern so even if we finished last in our group and got the minimum amount of points available we'd still have a coefficient of around 120 minimum and at the moment a score like that would still get us comfortably in the top 6. Finishing third in the group and going a long way in the Europa League can actually be better for the coefficient than say reaching the QFs or even the Semis in the Champions League. For example we got 30 points for last season's European campaign while Benfica, the other CL drop-out and EL finalist, got 28 points but teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid only got around 27-29 points for getting knocked out in the CL Semi-finals.

Stupid rules when something a club did or didn't do five years ago still affects their chances in the draw. Clubs like Porto and Benfica literally can't fail to qualify for the Champions League through their domestic league and even if they don't get past the Group Stage they still get a decent amount of points for their coefficient and because of that they're always in either Pot 1 or 2. Then there are clubs like Man City, Dortmund, Juventus, PSG etc. who are way more likely to do well than the Portuguese but because they weren't this good five years ago they're now punished in the draw and given much tougher groups, making it even harder for them to do any better in the competition this time around. In my opinion they should make it that the points accumulated in the previous season or two would be multiplied, making it much easier for clubs who do well one year to get easier groups the next time they participate. For example it's nothing short of a joke that last year's finalist Dortmund are in Pot 3. They will need to get very lucky to get an easy group and on the other hand it's very tough luck for the team in Pot 1 who draws a team of Dortmund's quality from Pot 3 when someone else gets a team like FC Copenhagen. Anyway, there's nothing us fans can do about it so no point complaining. After last year's farce I want an easy group, maybe something along the lines of Ajax, Anderlecht and Dinamo Zagreb. However, I could bet a house on us ending up in the same group with Rafa Benitez' Napoli?

It's about the politics. The saga with Jose Mourinho and Barcelona signing Neymar were bitter blows to Florentino Perez and certain people were starting to question whether or not he was still the right man for the job of Real Madrid's club president so a flashy new Galactico signing on a world record fee will go a long way convincing the fans and the media. This is Real Madrid we're talking about, they don't operate the way other clubs do and it doesn't matter one bit if the player is ridiculously overpriced and that their squad is already stacked with quality players in the positions Bale plays in. Money is no obstacle because they get loads of money from La Liga's unfair TV deal and also the Spanish banks keep grating them massive loans with zero interest despite the fact many of these banks are all close to bankruptcy, Spain's economic situation being what it is.