Jype

I don't need to imagine that when I've seen Drogba in his prime with Makelele as DM.

After Birmingham he didn't do well because his knees started acting up, much like Essien and countless of other players only with a difference that his knees got dodgy at such a crucial age and he never got to develop further because he was always injured. It was the right decision to move him on but without all the injuries I'm sure he would have turned out a better player. As Forssell's countryman I have followed his career during and after Chelsea for both the national team and club career. He was very highly rated but like I said, the injuries fucked him up.

Sure, hard to disagree with you there. Other than Mata our squad would be perfect for 4-3-3 with one or two new signings and the recalling of Kevin De Bruyne. A new defensive midfielder to play deep with Lampard, Ramires, Oscar, De Bruyne and a possible new signing as well as maybe Essien for options at the two CM positions would be a great midfield with a variety of different kind of players to choose from. I'm pretty sure Mourinho would be inclined to at least try the good old 4-3-3 with this squad but that would force Mata out wide. Maybe Juan's not as decisive out wide as he is in a central role but if that's for the good of the team I get the feeling Mata wouldn't mind that much, being such a nice guy and all. Also, he started as a winger so he couldn't hate playing there that much, now could he? CF Hazard Mata KdB Oscar DM Cole Luiz Ivanovic Azpi Cech Could work with Mata and Hazard interchanging and occasionally coming deeper so Oscar and KdB could get furher up? On paper that looks great if the CF and DM were good enough.

I'm sure the board wouldn't have agreed to this if they didn't think it was necessary for the future of Chelsea. £5m for a week's work in the USA as well as all the merchandise sales and new fans the club will get from doing this actually amounts to quite a lot. People always call for big money signings and everything but what they don't realize is that the money for those signings has to come from somewhere, the club can't just rely on Abramovich's funding forever. Sucks for the players, at least for those who would rather be on a beach somewhere instead of doing their job, but sacrifices have to be made if they too wish what's best for the club. Personally I'm looking forward to these. Might even get to see professional debuts for the likes of Islam Feruz and Andreas Christensen. Also more of Nathan Ake etc.

Mesut Özil hasn't done too badly at Real Madrid in a similar role Mata would have, now has he? Probably even more assists than Mata has had for Chelsea and the only reason he doesn't have as much goals is because he can't finish for shit.

Mikael Forssell at the age of 22 scored 17 on loan at Birmingham. His career was ruined by injuries though, not much chance of making it at Chelsea with a couple of bad knocks to the knee and the club starting to spend big around that time.

Can't see him leaving this year either, which further proves why Lukaku shouldn't come back just yet despite him being miles ahead of Fernando right now. Still, we can always hope some team out there is stupid enough to be fooled by the glorious 23 goals he's scored this season so we could finally get rid of him. Atletico Madrid, Monaco and maybe some of the Italian teams are probably the only ones who could possibly be desperate enough to take a punt on Torres.

You would really go into the season with the midfield we've long ago deemed not good enough? A midfield consisting of Lampard, Ramires, Mikel, Romeu, Essien, Meireles wasn't anywhere near good enough last season and got us sixth in the league, so what makes you think the same midfield minus Meireles would be good enough now when they've all aged another year and some of them on the twilight of their careers? Ignoring the problems we've had here has been the biggest reasons for our downfall since winning the double under Carlo, even more than the fact we've had a striker who couldn't score in a brothel. If Jose wants to keep Essien, he needs to play him in a similar role to the one he has played at Real Madrid, as a backup to nearly any position on the pitch. Right-back, left-back, deep midfield, attacking midfield, you name it. Can't have him being a starter any longer if we're to challenge for the title and there's no way Essien should be a reason for not buying the world class midfielder which our team desperately needs and I'm sure Mourinho too realizes there's no room for sentiment at this level. He's shown with Ricardo Carvalho at Real Madrid that he has no problem freezing out players from the team, even the ones he likes a lot, if they're not good enough any more so if he sees that with Essien, I'm fairly sure he will at least try to sell him. Getting one or two new players in midfield has got to be the club's top priority this summer, even more so than getting a top class centre forward because for the striker department we could always recall Lukaku who's proven he's capable of scoring at least 20 league goals with the right manager and tactics. Daniele De Rossi and / or Ilkay Gündogan would be the dream signing(s) for me as far as midfield is concerned but getting the German can be tricky so other targets may have to be pursued. De Rossi however could be available for a reasonable price if one were to believe the stories in the media. Juventus also have lots of midfielders who would improve our team massively (Vidal, Marchisio, Asamoah, Pogba) and we could enguire how much they'd want for some of them. Maybe Juve would even want to take a punt on Torres, the striker who's scored more than double than their best goalscorer this season, so a deal could be struck for one of their star midfielders with Torres going the other way, how awesome would that be? For the front 3 I would say one more new signing aside from Schürrle will be needed. Looking at the amount of games our current bunch of players have been forced to play this year, I'd say getting Schürrle alone won't be enough so it's either KdB back or another new signing there, the latter of which is looking more likely at the moment with all the reports of De Bruyne being either loaned out or even sold. If Mourinho sees something in Marin, Kakuta or Piazon to make him believe they're good enough to add proper depth to the team, then maybe no more will be needed but I think Jose will prefer buying someone more proven.

Good thing we have you then.

Rumours on Twitter that Drogba has decided to call it a day and retire. A sad day for football if it's true but I guess it would be fitting for him to retire on May 19th. Still waiting for confirmation, with twitter you can never know. If true, I can see him returning to Chelsea as a coach under Mourinho. Drogba and Mourinho coaching Lukaku into a world class striker would indeed be a mouthwatering idea.

Yeah, not bad for his first ever start in the Premier League. High hopes for this boy.

We would. One more goal scored than Arsenal, same goal difference.

Fucking hell, I'm starting to feel old when there's lads nearly five years younger than me playing for a team like Chelsea.

How amazing would it be if the latter happened? This post-season tour wouldn't be such a dull event after all if it was Mourinho in charge of the team. Personally I don't think it will happen though, sometime in June more likely.

Kind of hoping he retires after today and takes a role in the coaching team. Would be ideal, he certainly knows Mourinho and he's on great terms with everyone in the team, including those who have joined after Jose left in 07. An amazing human being and a great servant for Chelsea FC, thanks for everything Paulo Ferreira!

Cole's contract is expiring next year and he's not even that good anymore, would replace him with Shaw without hesitation next year if we already had both players in our ranks and the option was between releasing Cole and recalling Shaw from loan or extending Cole's massive contract and having Shaw remain on loan.

May 19th, exactly one year after winning the Champions League. :blue scalf:

Yep, that's the one. Looks like we're going to end up in either the last place or second last. Not even the other Nordic countries have voted for that piece of shit.

Can't argue with you there.

I thought it sounded familiar, something I've heard in nightclubs but as I don't listen to that kind of music normally I couldn't put a name to the song but now I listened that on Youtube and that's pretty much what I was thinking about too. A mixture of that one and last year's winner Euphoria by Loreen. Our (Finland) song was horrible, I'm ashamed of my people who voted that shit for the final.

Third season is great.

Real Madrid's remaining two league games are meaningless so they could even announce Jose's departure on Monday if it's true he is to have a meeting with Florentino Perez then. Our season ends tomorrow so we could well hear something as early as next week.

Hasn't he now scored in three consecutive matches? Currently nine league goals for the season, I believe.

L'Equipe saying Monaco have agreed deals for all Falcao, Tevez and Moutinho. If that's true and they're going to sign even more top class players, going there won't be just about the money because they will have a team that's capable of challenging for the title and even in Europe within a couple of years. And let's face it, who wouldn't want to live in Monaco? Getting more money than elsewhere is purely a bonus. Their potential XI if they manage to sign most of their targets: Falcao Tevez - Ocampos - Menez Moutinho Cabaye Assou-Ekotto - ??? - ??? - Debuchy Valdes That's pretty good, isn't it?

I disagree. Currently he'd certainly be a starter in our midfield if he regained the form he showed last season. A relatively cheap player who's already proven in the PL and would probably adapt quickly thanks to his old buddies who are already at the club so what's not to like? Only question mark is if he could stay fit enough to regain that good form but every signing has it's own risks. Of course if the club are planning to spend big on another playmaker type of midfielder then there's really no point spending over 10 million on a player like Cabaye but if other areas (CF, winger?, DM) already take a big chunk out of the transfer budget or other targets simply aren't available then the club could be looking for a bargain signing to fill out the need for a playmaker. Kind of like the signing of Meireles, who in my opinon did a great job at the club and shouldn't have been sold so hastily.