Jype

Didn't they get like £15m from Arsenal last year when they sold Chamberlain? Maybe they saved that money? Cracking player, God knows why he chose Southampton over the likes of Liverpool and Inter Milan. (ok, snubbing Liverpool I understand but surely there were a lot of other clubs interested too)

How can we ever be sure of anything? That's right, we can't, but in hindsight I can say I would've loved to have a player like Berbatov for last season. Of course we all thought that Drogba, Torres, Sturridge and Lukaku was already more than enough but wouldn't you say that it didn't quite work out the way we planned when our two first choice strikers scored less than 15 goals in the league combined?Anyway, this discussion is now getting a bit pointless because despite me thinking he would have been of some use to us last season, none of us really wanted Berbatov last year and I already agreed with you that I wouldn't want him now and if we are going to buy another striker it's going to have to be someone better than Dimitar.

What I meant was that Berbatov could have won us points all by himself by scoring a bucketload of goald against those shit teams like Wigan, Norwich, Fulham who we struggled against last season. Drogba was a beast, but only against the big teams and Torres was the same old Nando we've got to know in the last year and a half and didn't score against anyone. But like I said, I'm not sure if a player like Berbatov is what we need anymore. All depends on how Torres does but right now that's a wild card and anything can happen. If we're buying a new striker, then maybe he should be another top class striker who is capable to be the main man in case Torres fails us and Berbatov isn't that.

Fuck me, I would have been happy with anything but QPR, hate those cunts.

You just described something we were definitely lacking last season. We had Drogba who only turned up when it really mattered and Torres who didn't even turn up at all. A player like Berbatov would have been perfect for us then and he would have done the job when no one else bothered and Didier would have have been there to take care of the big occasions like he did. With Drogba now gone, I'm not sure if that's what we need anymore.

Happens in iPad's Chrome as well, so I guess it's more of a problem with the site or the iPad itself and not just Safari.

He has played 82 times for Chelsea in all competitions, or at least according to Wikipedia. In his first two seasons he played mostly as a substitute and last season was his first as a regular starter so I wouldn't read too much into his statistics.

Following in JT's footsteps, I see. Anyone know Nottingham Forest's defence better than me, can Sam be a starter for them? Hopefully he can enjoy an injury-free season with lots of playing time and come back to Chelsea next year as a better player.

I have no idea, but can't see any reason for delaying it anymore now that Brazil's games are over.

Apparently he's going to be living together with Luiz, that should be fun!

You don't agree that AVB was one hell of a manager for Porto? He did win them a treble in his one and only season and went the whole season unbeaten. I'm sure most Porto fans would rather have kept him than give him to us.

Just like we thought everyone would when facing Torres - Drogba. It's not always so simple. And IMO I think an attack consisting of Rooney with Nani - Kagawa - Valencia behind him is better and more balanced than Rooney, RVP, Nani, Valencia. One of Rooney, RVP and Kagawa will always have to be on the bench and that simply adds more depth and not necessarily improve the quality of their best XI. I didn't think that squad depth was a problem for them to begin with (at least not in attack) so I'm not too concerned. I predict the same to happen to United what happened to City last year, that having many quality strikers doesn't mean they will all score goals like they did when they were the main men at their previous clubs. 15-20 goals for Rooney and RVP each would be my guess and that's not too much better than Rooney 27, Hernandez 10 and Welbeck 9. Welbeck's and that Mexican cunt's goal tally will go close to zero this season, if they stay there at all.

A striker who can't create anything himself and who, if not given excellent service by his teammates goes invisible every time. Yeah, that's exactly what we need.

Nothing wrong with what he said imo, and I for one would be more worried if he wasn't unhappy with sitting on the bench and just focused on ripping off the club à la Bogarde. Only thing is, that after making such comments he must be prepared to make one hell of an impression at West Brom or he will look like an idiot.

I know it's not so simple and not everyone has the same influence as Barcelona, but wouldn't hurt to at least try!

Yep, a cheeky double deal for Azpi & Ayew would be great but can't see it happening because Ayew hasn't even been linked to Chelsea. Still, a great player and shouldn't be too expensive seeing as Marseille are desperate to sell but I suppose we can't buy every half-decent player out there.

So he's off to Marseille then? Maybe somehow related to the Azpilicueta deal? If Kakuta leaves on a permanent basis instead of a loan, I hope we take a lesson from Barca and try to include some sneaky buy-back clause to the contract so that we can try buying him back if he suddenly flourishes when given a proper opportunity and starts to realize his potential which we all know is still there.

You do realize there's a logical reason for that? He's on the last year of his contract, 4 years older than Hulk and would demand much higher wages. Also he also has a history with injuries, next thread please!

Are you implying that Messi couldn't do it on a cold Tuesday night against Stoke?

I don't have any problem with Mikel and I thought I made myself clear enough, guess I was wrong and should've explained myself even better so that everyone could understand. Someone asked to list players I would rather take instead of Mikel, so I was simply answering to him. I consider Mikel to be a quality player but I still think there are players I would rather take over him to play in our 4-2-3-1, not because they are necessarily better players but because in my opinion they would be better suited for our needs. If the correct term to describe a player like that is a box-to-box midfielder, then so be it. I don't really give a shit about the terms but I do like to think I know a thing or two about tactics in football. Having a player like the ones I listed playing next to Mikel could be great, or maybe playing with two of those skillful box-to-box midfielders with good passing abilities as well as a good workrate to do their fair shares of defensive duties (for example De Rossi, Vidal etc.) would be an even better way to go forward. All I know is that our midfield seems to be currently lacking something in the double pivot area and if we are to continue with a similar formation next year too, then maybe it should be time to invest in new midfielders. I'm not expecting any new arrivals there this season, having already spent a shitload of money improving other areas of the team but maybe if Lampard leaves or takes a significantly smaller role next season, then we should be looking to buy a proper top class midfielder there. Like I said, most of them guys on my list are unrealistic for us and either not even wanting to join our team or being way too expensive even if they wanted to come, but the player type is there and that's what we should be aiming at sometime in the future, when improving the midfield comes our first priority. Feel free to think differently, just my two cents.

Not a Mikel critic (far from it actually, I like the man and rate him highly) but if I had to make a list, it would be something like this: Busquets Mascherano Xabi Alonso Javi Martinez De Jong Yaya Toure Tiote Alex Song Vidal De Rossi Schweinsteiger Players I would take over Mikel any day for the double pivot in our current 4-2-3-1 formation. Some guys from my list might not be that much better in terms of quality but are completely different types of DM's who at the moment would be far better suited for our team and it's tactics than Mikel. As can be seen, hardly anyone from that list is a realistic target for us so we have to place our trust in Mikel and I don't have anything against that, in fact just the opposite but let's not be deluded here and think Mikel is the second coming of Jesus Christ or something. edit: someone has just posted a similar list.

I think Mata will be used significantly less this season than last, but only because we now have more options for his position and don't have to rely on one player too much. Mata needs some serious rest after playing over 50 games last season and also taking part in the Euros as well as London2012. This season he needs to be handled properly so we don't burn him out in the middle of the season where he wouldn't be of any use to anyone and Oscar is the perfect replacement to play at CAM whenever needed and considering that he can play elsewhere too, I'm confident that all of our new signings get enough playing time without it being too costly for the players we already had. Song would be absolutely great, but sadly I don't think we stand a chance of getting him. Either he stays at Le Arse or goes to Barcelona.

Granted that's not a lot of competitive matches, but you also have to take into consideration all the friendly matches before the Euros and also before the Olympics so in reality it's a lot more than that. And wouldn't you agree that even though he didn't play too much, spending the whole summer with the Spanish national team and training hard every day is a lot more stressful than simply sitting on a beach somewhere and just relaxing? Clearly he was exhausted even before all that so who knows how tired he must be now... I guess it's a good thing we have Oscar now because he should more than capable of replacing Mata if he needs rest and then we can just take someone like Marin from the bench to play where Oscar would normally be playing (assuming he will be a starter).

They're just bluffing and trying if someone is stupid enough to pay €36m. Everyone knows their club's financial situation and they simply can't afford to let him go for free next summer and they are going to accept much less than the full buy-out clause. Something like 15 to 20m would be my guess, depending on how much competition there will be for his signature. If (and right now that's a biggish 'if') we are going to buy another striker in this transfer window, Llorente would be by far the most sensible signing and I would love it if we could pull this off. Much cheaper transfer fee and lower wages than Cavani and also I get the feeling he would be more suited to our needs, meaning he wouldn't necessarily be the undisputed #1 striker like Cavani would be and that would also give Torres a fair chance as well. Llorente has also always struck me as a levelheaded guy and with the other Spanish players already in our team getting Llorente too would make sense. If he really is available and whoever decides these things at Chelsea thinks we need another striker, I say this is our man and we should buy him and fast!

The way I see it, Brana is now banned for three Community Shields, am I right? Hilarious if that's the case.