Jype

Did you know that after Guardiola took over in 2008 Barcelona have a net spend of minus 220 million? Considering the homegrown talent they already have, outspending 99% of the clubs is a bit overkill, wouldn't you say? Some cynical person could even go as far as say they bought the titles. As a Chelsea fan we can't really take moral high ground here but it's naive to think Barcelona won the trophies just because of the La Masia graduates they have in their team because many of their core players have been bought for some of the biggest transfer fees ever and all of their players are paid ridiculously high wages. If they couldn't compete in the wage market, most of their supposedly loyal academy products would have fucked off years ago.Also, they bought Pique from Manchester United, essentially making United the club that made him. Same goes for Cesc Fabregas and Jordi Alba, they may have played for Barcelona when they were kids but they're just as much bought players as most of our players are now and we don't take credt for making them the players they are now. Or would you consider Real Madrid to be a respectable club that raises world class players in their academy and then gives them a fair chance in the first team if they now bought Juan Mata from us for 50m?

Barcelona also have one of the most expensive squads in the world and they pay the most wages to their players. No one gives a fuck whether or not you have a bunch of homegrown players in the team if you still feel the need to buy the most expensive players every transfer window. For example, during Guardiola's reign they paid nearly fifty million euros for Chygynskiy and Keirrison, the former turned out to be one of the biggest flops ever and the latter has never played a game for Barca depite the 20m price tag. I could go on, but that's hardly relevant.

Denied by Abramovich's PR people, Chelsea FC and according to the Telegraph now also by the FBI themselves. Apparently it was only a plot to make some money by spreading a false rumour which immediately affected the stock prices of some of the companies Roman is involved in. Quite clever actually if you think about it.

I thought he was supposed to be at the Bridge today to watch Russia play against Brazil.

That's bullshit, although I expected nothing more from Martin Lipton. He can't seriously be saying we were wrong to loan Courtois and let him get extremely valuable first-team experience at a top team who had just won a major trophy and have been challenging for even more silverware this season. Maybe it would've been better if he stayed and played only a handful of games in the Capital One Cup, eh? Cech has been injured quite a bit this season and everyone knows Turnbull and Hilario aren't really up to the challenge but then again Courtois is way too good to be just a backup. As for Lukaku and De Bruyne, they were deemed not ready during pre-season and these loans have been the reason why they're so good now because they've been given the chance to shine at a smaller club, a chance they wouldn't have had at Chelsea due to more experienced players being picked ahead of them. Now they have shown their quality and are now ready to take a significant role at the club and it's up to the board to give them the chance, they've earned it. Each and every one of those loans made sense at the time but what the board did after is where they fucked up. They sold Meireles after loaning out all these players, leaving the midfield very thin. Maybe De Bruyne could've shone at Chelsea too if he were still at the club after the summer transfer window but the loan was agreed when we still had a few more players in midfield and no one saw a place for young Kevin and though it was better if he gets more experience elsewhere first. I'm sure that at some point the board started to regret that decision but it wouldn't have been very polite to ruin Werder Bremen's season by taking one of their star players away from them midway through the season and it would only have reflected poorly on the club as far as future transfer dealings go. Also, Lukaku wasn't anywhere near the first team last summer with both Torres and Sturridge ahead of him. Maybe he could've been recalled instead of buying Demba Ba after Sturridge was sold and Torres had failed us once again but I believe Lukaku preferred to stay at West Brom for the good of his development and anyone can see it was the right decision, he has improved his game massively this season.

Finland just equalized against Spain in the 82nd minute. Wasn't expecting this, hope we can hold out for the draw.

Yes, my whole post was about the marketing values of the players and not about how good they are on the pitch, can't really compare their abilities as Neymar still plays at Santos. Until Neymar has the balls to join one of the big European clubs or performs well at international level (WC 2014 at the earliest, I won't judge him based on the friendlies and the Confederations Cup) people can't honesty say Neymar is already at the level of Messi and Ronaldo, the world's two best players. The way I see it, Neymar is much like Hazard was at Lille. The Brazilian league is up there with the Ligue1 imo, but both are somewhat behind the EPL, La Liga and the Bundesliga. The potential of the players is definitely there and everyone knows it but they can't be compared with the best until they've taken the final step and started playing with the big boys. Hazard has now taken that step and hasn't disappointed, now is the time for Neymar to do the same, be it with Chelsea or someone else.

Isn't that exactly what I was just saying?

Great news. Hope he doesn't play this season though, no point risking his recovery by rushing him back because he's not a key player who we desperately need. Just let him heal himself properly and make sure he's fully fit by pre-season.

You have got to be kidding me. At the moment I'd say Neymar is right up there with Messi and Cristiano as far as marketing goes and once he moves to a big European club his marketing value will rise even higher. http://www.sportspromedia.com/notes_and_insights/neymar_is_the_worlds_most_marketable_athlete/ These guys even go as far as say he's the most marketable athlete (not just footballer) in the world right now but I think they're looking a bit too much to the future. Right now Messi and Ronaldo are definitely ahead of Neymar but he's not far behind. We all know how hyped and sought-after Eden Hazard was last year and he didn't even make the list there so you have to understand that Neymar's value is huge. Will be interesting to see where Neymar ends up. The most sensible transfer for him would be Barca or Real Madrid but the way he still keeps on flirting with Chelsea makes me wonder. He's not once mentioned United, City or some other big European clubs but often talks about how his dream would be to one day play for either one of the Spanish giants or us. What I do know is that the idea of having Neymar, Hazard, Mata and Oscar rotating the three AM positions in the 4-2-3-1 would be ridiculously mouthwatering and looks something like my dream squad in FM12 used to be.

I believe that's from the Steaua match, notice the Europa League badge on Terry's sleeve.

Actually Demba Ba is only a year older than Olivier Giroud, the soon to be 27-year-old 'youngster'. From the players you mentioned I would say Ba is right up there with Dzeko / Giroud and while he may not exactly be at the level of Robin Van Persie, the best striker in the world, that doesn't mean he is a bad player and people are overreacting to his wastefulness against West Ham. Sure, he should have scored a couple of goals from the chances he got but other than that his performance was top class and with a little more concentration in his finishing people would be creaming over how good he is. I really don't mind having a striker who, despite occasionally being wasteful in front of goal, always gets in those goalscoring positions because of his great movement and everyone else around him get more space too because the opponent are really scared of him.

Lampard and Ramires in midfield, like that's worked out so well for us before.

Ángel Di María? Could well be on his way out if Real Madrid splash the cash on Bale this summer, also he's a Mourinho signing and has been rumoured to be on our radar in the past too.

Good read, although like some people have already mentioned I would have added Witsel, Cabaye and maybe Strootman in the mix as well. Don't really care which individual we go after this summer but one player in the Moutinho / Modric / Benat / Witsel / Cabaye / Strootman mould is a must. All of these guys are great players so I guess we should just go after the one who's available the easiest. Didn't know Benat is out of contract in 2014, it could maybe force Real Betis to sell him for a reasonable fee...

I remember a certain semifinal four years ago. So glad Arsenal are out, they'd probably have gone on to win the damn thing with us finishing fourth and suffering the same fate as Spurs last season, karma and all that. Or Spurs could have finished fourth again and be dropped to the UEL for the second time in a row despite getting top4, that would've been priceless.

Nice to see you online, hope you're having a good time over there! With Chelsea, it's been pretty much the same old bullshit and not a lot has changed while you've been away. Benitez blaming the supporters for the team's bad form and other fun stuff like that. Last game was great though, what a comeback against Manchester United at Old Trafford, haven't seen them so clueless at home since they were beaten 1-6 by Manchester City last season. Hope we beat them in the replay, tomorrow should be another somewhat important match in the Europa League, of course the importance of that game depends pretty much whether you rate the competition or not, I do. Being 1-0 down against Steaua ain't that bad if the team's motivation is anywhere near the level it was last Sunday against United. Keep us updated on how you're doing there, would be really nice to read some more.

What a second half performance. If the lads play like that from the start United will have no chance in the replay. For once Benitez' substitutions really had an effect on the game but can't give him too much credit for the changes because before the game most of us were already calling for Hazard and Mikel to play from the start. Perhaps it was good this way, now they didn't know what hit them when the game changed so quickly after the double substitution, if both had started the game I doubt their impact would've been as critical as it was in the second half because Ferguson would have had more time to prepare.

Our midfield of two is so much more balanced with Mikel in it (and without Lamps but that's a story for another topic). I was furious when I saw he was on the bench today and I'm glad Rafa realized his mistakes sooner rather than later. Mikel and Hazard coming on so early changed the game in our favour.

"She said no Robin", great from our fans.

After seeing the lineup I placed a cheeky 10€ bet on United to win with the cunt Hernandez scoring the first goal. Doesn't seem like such a bad idea now, eh?

Cech what the fuck

Cech what the fuck

Hazard and Terry on the bench, Lampard and Ramires in midfield. We're fucked.

Maybe so, but would Torres and his family agree to move to Russia, China or something? A return to Atletico out of pity is the best we can wish for imo, otherwise we're stuck with him.