Jype

£26m for this guy? I want some of the same stuff they're smoking over there at the Guardian.

If I remember correctly Spurs did agree a fee with Porto but couldn't either seal the deal in time or couldn't agree personal terms with the player. On deadline day plenty of deals get agreed in principle but for one reason or another are never finalized, shouldn't be the case here because we're still over three months away from the transfer window deadline so there's still plenty of time left agree on the contract terms etc. Of course the deal can still fall through but the fact seems to be that a fee has been agreed by the clubs and usually that won't happen if the player is not keen on moving. Sure, he could get a bad injury in the remaining two huge games or just simply change his mind if Atletico win the double and he receives a huge new contract there. Atletico usually haven't stood in the way of their players wanting to leave for bigger and better things but then again, they have never won the biggest double before. Just need to wait and see.

But, but I thought the relationship between Hazard and Mourinho had reached the point of no-return and they can't stand the sight of each other now. If I can't believe the English sports media, what can I believe?

His wages will still be massive (seen £185k a week being quoted) so overall he will only be a little cheaper than Torres and we will be fucked if he turns out a flop. But yeah, on paper £32m will still look 'better' than £50m and hopefully it will mean less pressure on the lad.

Very much deserved, congrats Azpi!

Exactly, we desperately need a cunt of a striker who is always winding everyone up. On the pitch Drogba was exactly like that and it's one of the reasons why he was so good.

He's a nobody who knows nothing. Not following him but sometimes forced to read his bullshit when others are sharing his tweets.

Yeah, earlier today I saw someone re-tweeting Indykaila where he was saying the news of Costa deal being agreed would break tonight. Maybe that's the mysterious "Sky Sources" in this case.

Goal of the Season to Baker for his goal against Arsenal U21s. For those who haven't seen it:

MvG on Jose—"He always kept on supporting me during my recovery. I definitely did not get the feeling that he wasn't interested in me. We saw each other on an almost daily basis and regularly spoke. I decided to recover in London, so I'd stay close to the team and the manager. I appeared in the dressing room as well for home games and always had a certain bond with the team." Sounds promising, got a feeling this guy will be huge for us next season. Mourinho certainly seems to like him and van Ginkel is not like the other youngsters in the team because he was actually bought by Jose and not the previous regime so he knows exactly the kind of player this guy is and what he can bring to the table. He can also start training with Mourinho when most of the first team squad is still in Brazil or on holiday if they're unlucky enough to be knocked out early, so he will definitely have enough time to impress the boss in pre-season. Of course there's still a small chance of him making it to the World Cup as well, seeing as he was called up to the training camp last week, but personally I can't see him making the final squad. Hasn't played a game since September so it would be a huge gamble by van Gaal to call him up.

I know it’s way too early but the other day I was thinking it would be nice to make things a little bit more interesting next season by adding a private money league (maybe something like £20-50 per participant) consisting of our members here, in addition to the TC league that is open for everyone. Anyone interested? Maybe there could also be like an obligation for the champion to donate some of their winnings towards the server costs of TC at the end of the season.

Depends on how the fine is given to them. If it's just €60m from the owner's pocket which doesn't count against their FFP total it won't hurt them much but the other alternative that has been speculated is the club's CL money being reduced by €20m / season for three years and that would also be taken into account with the FFP so they would have to get really creative to pass the rules after the second monitoring period because they were already quite far away from complying even this time around. The squad limits and fines have not been given to City yet because they're going to fight UEFA so no one knows what will happen. Hell, they might still even be kicked out of the Champions League completely if they piss off UEFA enough.

Better win the Super Bowl too.

We could sell any one of those three but then we'd be selling a starter, which Mata most certainly was not. Mata had already been replaced by Willian earlier in the season so we didn't need to spend all of the 37m pounds on a direct replacement. I would guess that most of that money is still there to be spent this summer on a striker or a central midfielder, which are both very much priorities over having a player of Mata's quality warming the bench.

Yes, and because of that selling him was the right thing to do.

Fully aware of the difference between GBP and EUR as I happen to live in a country that uses the Euro. €39m = £32m, no matter the currency it would still be a shitload of money for a benchwarmer. Anyway I'll leave the locker room stuff to Jose because surely he knows better, after all he is working with the lads every day. If he feels Luiz won't be missed in neither the pitch or the dressing room and that the money is better off spent elsewhere, I will trust him completely.

Last year the club recorded a loss of 49m, right? 84m extra earnings is really a lot of money and probably means the club will be posting a healthy profit for the 13/14 season. My estimate would be around 15 million pounds in the black.

I agree to some extent, but if the locker room aspect and the guy's amazing personality are the only arguments in favour of keeping a player who will fetch us €40m then it really is a no-brainer to sell him. I'm pretty sure Luiz himself also favors a move elsewhere because at a club like Barcelona he can be their first choice CB but at Chelsea he will still be 3rd choice at best next season. Also, I would argue that we have plenty of strong locker room players in the core of our team. You know, players like Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpi and Matic, all of whom are actually contributing on the pitch as well and not just in the locker room.

So what? If he can't take one of his mates being sold, in my opinion he is free to go as long as someone pays us enough. It's not like Oscar is irreplaceable or anything and if his mental strength was that bad, we'd be better off without him.

If we are to believe Duncan Castles it would seem like JT will be only offered a one year deal with wages of just 60k a week and it's unclear whether he will accept or move on. Also says Mourinho is trying to bring in a new starting CB (Varane would be my guess) to replace Terry so his role would be much smaller next season if he stays.

Yep, that would probably be enough to bring in an excellent CB replacement like Varane for around €25m, assuming Mourinho is not going to just trust the youngsters we already got, and still have a lot of money to be used in getting a proper central midfielder in. A top class CB and a chunk of the transfer fee for a good midfielder would be much better than having just Luiz who, at the moment, is not really first choice in any position and probably wouldn't be next season either. Love the guy but wouldn't say no to a deal like that.

Barcelona and Chelsea have agreed a fee for the transfer of defender David Luiz. (Source: Mundo Deportivo) €39m the figure being mentioned. That is an insane amount of money for an under-utilized asset.

Saw it on Twitter.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/12/spare-me-the-classy-ashley-cole-comments-his-retirement-has-let-england-down-4724656/ Is this guy for real?

Pjanic just signed a new contract at Roma yesterday.