Jype

"FIFA have confirmed goal-line technology will be introduced at the Club World Cup" Good to see those cavemen have finally arrived to the 21st century.

What the fuck Liverpool? :lol:

SeB

Most of the people who don't want Maicon would actually prefer the cheaper alternative Debuchy so I fail to see your point. Personally I would be fine either way and I can see the pros and cons of both choices.

Would have thought there'd be interest in him from better leagues than Ukraine after being very impressive in the Euros. Then again I've heard some whispers of him being somewhat inconsistent for Genoa and that he only plays for the money and not really ambitious to win anything major in his career. Nothing wrong with that of course but imo it's a shame to see a talent like that wasted.

He leaves when he wants, he leaves when he waaaants. Robin Van Persie, he leaves when he wants!

From what I've seen him play he has always impressed me. 10 games or so isn't much but I like him. Benfica value him a bit too highly though.

I don't think anyone here is saying Maicon is shit or anything and I'm sure he would do one hell of a job for us but only for a couple years and then he'd just leave with no re-sale value. At first I was quite against this myself but I'm slowly warming up to the idea of having him at Chelsea. For the prices quoted (£6m and £80k wages) we could do a lot worse, but I also believe it could be invested more wisely too. If he comes, I'm okay with that but if we decide to go after another target I wouldn't complain either.

Don't really give fuck about the football and whether he's fit to start the season when there's something this serious, just hope he recovers. The English media seem to be more worried about the fact he may have to withdraw from the Olympics rather than his health. Disgusting cunts the lot of them.

That shit's bad. Hope he'll be okay.

Deco was decent but who can honestly say they wouldn't have rather signed Modric? Those were the options then.

A shame he's gone to Tottenham, I liked the man before today. I wish him all the worst now and may Spurs now get relegated.

Sorry to hear that, I know how highly Napoli fans rate him. Any rumors of Lavezzi's replacement yet?

He played less than 200 minutes in the whole tournament and still managed to get 3 goals and an assist. If he was that prolific in the league for the whole season it would amount to over 50 goals in total. I agree that it's still way too early to claim he's all of a sudden back to his best after scoring a couple goals because we've all been down that road before and have ended up disappointed every single time but ffs, there's not much more he could have done with so little playing time and to win the golden boot despite starting as a substitute in all but one match is somethings exceptional. I'll admit I've recently been one of his biggest criticizers but today I'll be getting my first tiny piece of that humble pie. If he continues that form when the season starts, I'll have a larger slice.

http://desmond.yfrog...e=640&ysize=640 Could't get it to work as a picture in this topic but here's a link. :confused:

Apparently the Spanish newspaper Marca are reporting that a deal is very close to being agreed and the player himself has opted for Chelsea over PSG. Still not warming up for this but let's hope he will prove me wrong if he indeed is coming. The deal reminds me of Belletti and he did very well for a couple of years...

The youngsters don't develop if they're only trusted to play when the team is leading safely by a couple goals or destined to lose and already given up, like it mostly was those few times Lukaku got a sniff of first team football last season. Of course I don't mean they have to be thrown straight into the deep end like Bertrand in the Champions League final but the occasional start every once in a while wouldn't hurt.

That's awful but if that really is the third kit then 2 out of 3 successful designs isn't half bad.

I'll forever be thankful to José for helping us win our first Champions League title and in the future I will rather remember him for that and not for the bad performances in other games.

Bye King Salomon and good luck to the future. :blue scalf:

Arbeloa > Maicon any day for the last couple of years. You simply don't play in the starting lineups of the Spanish national team and Real Madrid if you're shit. Probably one of the most underrated defenders out there. But that's enough off topic, back to Maicon.

As crazy as it seems, this time I 100% agree with TMO. People who think Maicon at the age of 30 would be more than happy to sit on the bench with tiny wages compared to what he currently makes at Inter are delusional. It's not like he's already at the point in his career where he goes to a smaller league or takes a smaller role when he's not good enough to play with the big boys anymore.

Debuchy isn't really a promising youngster who requires a lot of playing time to develop but a 26 year old who's already good enough to come and challenge Ivanovic for a starting spot. A little competition for a place in the team is always healthy and there's still more than enough games for two good players to share them. Maicon on the other hand has been on the decline for a couple of years now but with the reputation he has he would still be at least as expensive as the other options and I would hazard a guess he would be on a lot higher wages too despite supposedly coming in as a backup player. And who's to say he would be happy to sit on the bench a lot either? Of course if he's really available at a cut price and is willing to take a pay cut to be second choice for the champions of Europe, then I would happily take him, but that stuff only happens in our dreams and in Football Manager, doesn't it?

Good to see the board have finally grown themselves a functioning set of brains.

Hope this doesn't happen. For the last couple of years most of our signings have been mostly sensible and this would be another Deco / Modric case when for nearly the same price we sign a +30 has-been instead of a younger talent who's close to hitting his peak as a player. Obviously he's still a good player but for how long? Rumors of Inter looking at Debuchy to be Maicon's replacement if the Brazilian is leaving. Why shouldn't we try to buy Debuchy instead?