Jype

Only 26 years old too so it's not like Song has been shit because his career is on the decline, he just hasn't got a chance at Barca. With midfielders like Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Busquets, Thiago (last season) in the team it's no shame being stuck on the bench.

I could do better in 10 seconds than those guys have with Photoshop, just need to visit chelseamegastore.com and add a custom print with Mandzukic 18... Bullshit rumours in the Croatian page, but I still feel like there's something concrete in this.

£150m total losses for the first FFP monitoring period, first a loss of £100m in 12/13 and then £52m last season. Last time they only got a better (yet still pretty bad) result because of the 'sale of intellectual property' for £47m. Whatever the fuck that intellectual property might be, they did state it was only a one-time thing, and without that they'd still have been down by a £100m last season. For the ongoing financial year City, like every other PL team, will get a massive boost in their broadcasting revenue but will that itself be anywhere near enough to get them closer to breaking even? I wouldn't be so sure...

Already said this in the David Luiz thread the other day but I would gladly take him. He was class in his final season at Arsenal and there was definitely a reason why Barcelona even wanted him in the first place. A reasonable price for a HG player who's only just now nearing his prime and would probably suit our team well, we'd be stupid not to at least consider him. Don't know whether I'd be happy if he was our only signing in midfield but as a Mikel replacement we could do much, much worse. Got a feeling City might soon be in for him though. Because of the FFP restrictions they desperately need a few more HG players in and at the moment there aren't many better available than Alex Song.

Would be amazing IMO. Atletico have history of developing some of the best strikers in the world and I believe going there on loan for a couple of years would really turn Lukaku into a world beater so if he was still committed to Chelsea by signing a new deal before going there, we'd be stupid not to let him. At the moment he still has some clear flaws in his game and isn't really ready to be our number one but at a club like Atletico he would most certainly get better and better every day and in the meantime we would be fine with having players like Costa and perhaps Mandzukic as our strikers. Having played proper top level football, including the Champions League, at Atletico for some time Lukaku could then come back at the age of 22 or 23 as one of the best players in the world or be sold for a price deemed appropriate for such a quality player if the lad himself wanted out. No idea why he'd agree to extend his contract if we still planned on loaning him out, but there have been rumours to suggest he might be open for it.

Yeah, they have to keep their wages at the level of 13/14. However, some journo just said they included Mancini's big pay-off in their wage bill instead of putting it in the 'excludable' category. I suppose that's smart, now they can even increase their total wage bill for next season by getting another few players in but their total wages will still be smaller than this year when Mancini's pay-off is not there anymore. The excludable items are ignored by the FFP so if they'd done like we always do and exclude it, their FFP loss would have been a little smaller but now they'd have to get creative with the wage bill and they probably knew they won't pass FFP anyway so it didn't matter if the loss was £5m more or not.

That depends on who's playing next to him. I think he could be good alongside Matic but with someone like Ramires it would be disastrous.

He was one of Arsenal's best player in the 11/12 season, I recall him getting into double figures with assists while playing as a DM. Remember him making a lot of magnificent long passes to Van Persie that led to some great goals. At Barcelona he's been shit, though he hasn't really been given a lot of opportunities either. Would take him ahead of Mikel as a squad player any day but for starting players we should aim higher.

Did you read the comments?

Marko Marin: "Sevilla want to keep me, they want to buy me outright" I know it's not very ethical to take advantage of people with clear mental disabilities but if someone in the Sevilla board is actually willing to pay something for this guy, we should take the money and run.

I remember reading somewhere a while back that the other 50% is owned by a party that has ties to Chelsea (that's why we even got the option to buy Markovic on the cheap) so I don't think the price will be any higher than the €7.5m for the other half as well.

That's just a flawed and ridiculous way of thinking. If Matic hadn't been involved in the Luiz deal, he would either have been sold for peanuts in the summer of 2011 anyway or sent on numerous loans where he most certainly would not have made the same progress he did at Benfica. It's very unlikely he would have turned out the same player if we'd kept him. Fact remains Luiz joined the club for €25m and will now be leaving for a price more than that. In his time at the club he has been a massive part of a team that has won Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League trophies in three years. How anyone can say that is not a good return for our initial investment is beyond me.

He could still be useful as an impact sub if the team needs a goal in the last 20 minutes or so, but I wouldn't really want to see him be a starter anymore. However, we could just as well be using one of the youngsters for the occasional super sub role so if we ever want to start giving youth a chance now would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Matic + new CM signing will most likely be the preferred pairing in midfield with MvG and Ramires (or another new signing if Rambo is sold) as options on the bench. Fifth choice CM will still get a decent amount of minutes throughout the season, especially if there are injuries to the others, but do we want that to be Lampard or someone like Chalobah, Baker, Ake or RLC? I would be more inclined to choose the latter option.

I know teams always do that in advance but at least they should keep the bus well hidden till they've actually won the damn thing.

I'm worse, I do the same and even keep replying to him even though I know it's pointless trying to reason with the guy.

Which part of direct quote do you not get? I understand you might be having some problems reading, considering your grammar, but if a guy says something in an interview and it gets reported by not one but multiple media outlets all over the world then how the fuck can you just ignore that? If anyone here is making assumptions and relying on them, it's you.

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It matters fuck all what you feel, those are direct quotes by Lukaku reported by the Telegraph, a respectable newspaper in the UK. If they were making shit up and calling it a quote they would be hit with a law suit, I feel.

If Lukaku's career at the club is over, I'd be very happy if we signed this guy in addition to Costa. Watched a lot of Bayern this year as I've been living in Munich lately and let me tell you, this guy is fucking good. Costa + Mandzukic would be amazing, defo one of the best strike forces in world football.

They have a bus ready and everything. Will be super embarrassing if they don't win it now.

Yeah I know we're not getting Vidal or Varane, was just commenting on the departures. Agree on Lukaku, if he's willing to play second fiddle to someone like Costa it really is a no-brainer. If not then sell him for 20-25m and buy someone like Mandzukic instead, wouldn't be the ideal scenario but if Romelu wants to go to a team where he'll be first choice that doesn't leave a lot of options, I'm afraid. Cole should be released, I'm not letting a few decent performances cloud my judgement because he's been shit for a couple of years now and is on massive wages for someone contributing so little these days. Agree on Lampard, he should stay for another year. Provides another option in midfield and can still do the job when a goal is needed but shouldn't be a starting player anymore IMO. Still undecided on Ramires. On his day he can still be a great player but there haven't been too many of those days lately, quite the opposite really, and I really don't like his disciplinary record, this season he often got the team in trouble with his rash challenges and idiotic actions. We should at least look into the possibility of selling him and discretely try to find out how much we could potentially get for him and then make a decision on his future. But yeah, either way we'll have a lot of money to spend this summer. Only selling the on-loan deadwood like Romeu, Moses, Marin, Bertrand, Kakuta will bring in a lot of funds, not to mention the first teamers that could also be sold like for example Luiz, Mikel and Ba. In addition to that there's some money left from January and players like Essien and Eto'o will also be off the wage bill, which will also be a significant amount of money saved and maybe invested elsewhere.

Actually his list only contains 6 first team squad players (Luiz, Mikel, Ramires, Lamps, Torres, Cole), four of whom would be directly replaced if we got the players he suggested. Anyway if we sold / released all six, we'd be quite thin up front and only have Matic and MvG left in midfield so only one incoming player for each position simply wouldn't be enough, no matter who they were. Would need at least one squad player in midfield, unless Mourinho was for giving a proper chance in the first team for at least two out of Chalobah, Baker and RLC which I personally can't see happening next year when the pressure is on us to win the league after a trophyless season. In defense I'd say we will be fine with getting just a new left-back to replace Cole and maybe another CB as well to replace Luiz if there's still enough money left and Mourinho thinks one is absolutely needed instead of trusting Kalas and / or Zouma. Remember that Ivanovic can still play perfectly well at CB and I have a feeling he will be playing there more next season with a new LB and Azpi as our preferred full-back pairing so Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Kalas/Zouma will be enough I think. For a backup left-back we can recall Van Aanholt or Bertrand, although I don't think the latter is willing to be a backup anymore and will probably be sold this summer.

Plenty of other Champions League clubs that could offer him a contract, for example Monaco, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray or maybe he'd fancy going back to Russia with Zenit or CSKA Moscow. Wouldn't mind him staying for another year as third choice but can't see it happening.

Yeah, would need to watch the interview to understand the context but at least on paper it seems like he's having a go at Jose. There were also some stories in the media at the time that Eto'o was furious with Mourinho's comments so can't know for sure.

Three games itself doesn't seem like much but when we consider the fact that the team had only played four matches by the time Lukaku decided to fuck off elsewhere it's a whole new story. If you think he wouldn't have gotten more opportunities, even a lot of games as a starter, throughout the season if he'd been just a little bit more patient and stayed then I'm afraid you're delusional. If he'd acted like a good professional should, he would have trusted the coach and waited to be given a good run of games. If he would still have been unhappy about his playing time halfway through the season then there's of course the January window and he could easily have secured a transfer then and still make the World Cup squad, much like De Bruyne did.