Jype

SeB

Lukaku on the left wing now. What's the point in that?

Who cares what it does for Torres if it's for the good of the club?

Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing on the information brought to us by Daily Mail. Lately they have been right about stuff regarding Chelsea with Neil Ashton getting a lot of inside information from someone inside the club so it might just be true. The Mail are also telling Ba would earn £40k a week basic and then another £40k based on his fitness and performances. That would great IMO.

Demba Ba’s agents successfully held talks with Chelsea tonight who are expected to trigger his £7m release clause tomorrow [Daily Mail]

Haha, I know but I watched the game and in the end it was Drogba who knocked them out with one of his trademark big game performances. He scored two goals and that was it for the Senegal fans who started rioting and the game was abandoned. Btw, you forgot Kalou from your list.

Nope, Senegal didn't qualify as they were drawn against Drogba in the play offs.

Why wouldn't we be? This would be a perfect January signing and pretty much the best we can hope for. Players like Cavani or Falcao aren't realistic signings at the moment but considering the fact that someone has to be signed, I'd be very glad if it was Ba.

Is anyone really complaining though? To me it looks more like people are acknowledging the fact that there is a slight risk in buying Ba but I haven't seen many saying that the risk isn't worth taking.

Nope, haven't even made a bid yet, although with the buy out clause it's merely a formality if we agree a deal with the player and his agent. Considering the fact that he's failed two medicals in the last three years makes it hard to get excited before the deal is finalized by Chelsea. Personally I'd be more than willing to take the chance even with the injury record but the club may not think the same...

If he got a minor injury to keep him out for a couple of weeks it could even work out in our favour if he didn't go to the AFCON.

That's a very weak lineup for Everton compared to what they can deploy on a good day. No Fellaini, Mirallas, Gibson and Coleman for them. As for the Chelsea lineup, the lack of Mikel is bad and I'm not exactly looking forward to Ramires at RW either, although countering the threat Baines possesses is a key part of doing well in this game.

Before he joined Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga he was playing in Belgium where he suffered a serious injury to his knee that kept him out for 8 months and the word is that the surgeon who operated him fucked something up in his knee and another bad knock could easily mean the end of his career at top level. When he joined West Ham in January 2011 he was in fact on his way to Stoke and everything had been agreed but he failed the medical there and a quick check at Wikipedia tells me he also failed a medical at VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 2009. West Ham were desperate to get him to save them from relegation and didn't care about the injuries and Newcastle did brilliant business with little risk when they got him for free after West Ham were relegated. The dodgy knee is the only reason he is available so cheap, although some credit should be given to his agent who successfully negotiated a relegation release clause in his contract at West Ham and now this relatively low buy out clause at Newcastle.

What's the cheapest way to travel from London to Manchester?

Just because it's someone else's money doesn't mean we shouldn't care. I always want what's best for the club and sometimes signing all these hyped players on inflated transfer fees and unreasonable wages without thoroughly scouting if they really are the best choice for us won't do the club any good, in fact it may even cause disharmony within the squad if someone is paid twice the amount of money for being a worse player. I'm sure a player like Mata is not happy to earn only a third of Torres' wages despite contributing much more to the team, but Juan is too nice a guy to cause any problems over it. That may not be the case with all players and sometimes these expensive flops can really come and bite the club in the ass, in addition to them playing like shit of course. I'm not saying Cavani would be one of these flops, quite the opposite really because I feel he is one of the best players in the world and would even fit our team nicely, but all I'm saying is that the "it's not my money, so I don't have to give a fuck" attitude is just wrong. Also, some could argue that in the end it is the match going fans who pay for these players. If the club signs a couple of more Torres's they're only going to keep increasing the ticket prices etc. to make up for the lost money.

From my family I got a scarf, couple of shirts and some money. For myself I bought FM2013. The best for last, a week in London. I'm going to the Bridge for Chelsea - Wigan and as it happens to be during my visit I also bought tickets to Wembley for the England - Brazil match as well. Got the money from an online casino so it probably won't qualify as a Christmas present but since the money was won on Christmas Eve, I'll treat is as one.

Just added a bunch of people on Facebook who had posted their profiles here, so if you get a friend request from a random Finnish guy, that's probably me. Here's a link to my profile if anyone's interested.

Hard to believe Spurs could afford his wages. Isn't he on £150k a week or something?

This is my first Christmas as a TC member (I registered in November 2011 but only started posting around February this year) and let me just take a moment to thank you all, this really is the best online community I have ever been a part of. Merry Christmas everyone and remember to have fun!

Looks like I'll be able to come attend at least one match at the Bridge this season after all. I had already given up hope about travelling in the near future because as a poor student I don't normally have that much extra money lying around but today I got a nice little Christmas present from one of the online casinos that offer free spins to their slot games. Nearly 2000 euros of completely free money on my account now, waiting to be withdrawn into my bank account.

Here you go: http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/1712965

Remember he's only 42 years old and started his managerial career at 36, considering that he has been anything but meh. I admit he probably wouldn't be an ideal manager for us at this very moment and I don't even know if he speaks English but I aways liked him as a player when I was a kid and now as a manager too. Maybe not now but one day I would love to see him in charge of Chelsea if his impressive career continues like this. That's enough off topic by the way, back to Benitez.

That's why I said possibly, first we'll have to see how he does for the rest of the season at Atlético but so far I've been very impressed with Simeone both in Europe and the La Liga. For his first year in charge a win percentage of 69% with a team like Atlético Madrid is not something you see every day, that's higher than Guardiola's first season at Barcelona and close to Mourinho at Chelsea. I've watched a lot of their games, mainly because of Falcao, and I have liked what I've seen from them.