JDY

The worst thing about the article is if you read the 'best rated' comments people actually believe that the club are treating him disgracefully.

Was at the Bridge when he scored that bicycle kick vs Leeds. Amazing goal. Always used to do his celebration when I played Sunday league

The funny thing is that he gets criticised for what is a common trait of a centre forward - selfishness. But it only gets highlighted with Sturridge because his finishing is bad. Once he improves on this aspect he will be a very good player. Unpredictability is his strength, not his weakness.

Good read. Going to start taking more notice of Laudrup's transfer targets! PS: Does anyone know where you can download full matches?

The lay off to Frank was class. I held my breath today as I thought it was him down clutching his knee! But it was Ramires thankfully. (inb4racist)

Again, can he do it on a warm evening in Barcelona?

Ramires was in the wars today, especially in the first half when Stoke were pressing forward. Think he made 5 tackles in the space of like 15 minutes! Great energy.

Rarely do you see a player that has been so good for a club 'replaced' by anyone. Another player has to step up, adapt, and will bring different qualities. Arsenal didn't replace Henry. United didn't replace Ronaldo. Liverpool didn't replace Alonso. We didn't replace Drogba.

We saw him alright!

I'm basing it on the quotes that came out a while ago from his agent that said under no circumstance will he be offered a new deal. All I'm saying is that if Frank knows this, then he shouldn't be saying to the media that he doesn't know if the club will offer him a contract. All that is doing is putting pressure on the club from the media & making the club look like villains again. I mentioned in my other post that he's probably doing it unintentionally, as he's just desperate to stay.

I agree. This whole situation could've been avoided if Frank didn't play dumb to the media. If he just said something like 'We have planned talks over a new contract at the end of the season' none of this would be happening. But instead the image of the club (not that anyone liked us anyway) is being dragged through the dirt again.

Will we see Eden on a cold day in Stoke?

The situation is an absolute shambles. I respect the clubs decision in letting Frank go, financially you can see the logic behind it & for the rebuilding process under a new (and hopefully long term) management team. But the way the situation is being handled is ridiculous, from both the club and the player (resulting in the leeching media). Someone mentioned his name earlier as an argument for Frank staying with us. But in fact that situation was very similar to this one. That being Raul & Real Madrid. It was made clear that the 'higher ups' in Madrid wanted him to leave, as they were on the dawn of a new era with Mourinho at the helm. Raul accepted the fact that his time was up & unless he wanted to sit on the bench being fourth choice he would have to move. Similar to Frank, he still had something to offer and demonstrated that when at Schalke. No hard feelings or bitterness during the departure, that's how it should be. The only odd thing was that for such a legend at Madrid he was given quite a low key send off. With the Lampard situation, it's been made perfectly clear that the club won't be offering him a new deal. I doubt they will change their mind on it, no matter what he does for the rest of the season. I'm sure Frank knows this to, and this is the point that I don't understand. When Frank is interviewed on his future at the club, he needs to stop acting like he doesn't know if he will be offered a new deal or not. The media have absolutely gone to town on the club because of this and vilified our treatment of a club legend. It's obviously not intentional from Frank, after all, he only wants to stay and it is understandable. But the club have already made their stance, so I honestly think it would be best for Frank to just accept it, and have him or the club announce that he will be leaving at the end of the season. The longer that this drags on, the worse it will be. The last thing anyone wants is Frank to leave on a sour note.

Can't argue with £8-12m

Realistically what club would want Torres if we tried to offload him?

Then say it to the people who bring it up. Why accuse someone of double standards they haven't criticized the likes of Luiz or Mikel if they make a mistake

Correct me if I'm wrong but most of the comments since have been slating him. But I agree about Luiz, and if it was Lampard nothing would be said. Look, they were two bad mistakes. Unfortunately ones that cost us the match. I'm not going to sit here and and keep going on about how bad they were. Just because some choose vent there frustration here doesn't mean everyone should. I'm sure we were all thinking the same thing when both goals were scored.

Sigh.

Unfortunate mistakes that could've happened to anyone. I sense Ivanovic is the type of character that will come back stronger and not let his self confidence crumble like others (Yes, him).

And they believe he isn't a 'Chelsea level' player, interesting.

Balague just said it's highly unlikely that he will leave anytime soon, and is looking to sign a new contract with a bigger release clause.

Just a heads up, it might be worth watching Revista De La Liga on SS1 at 6:30pm. They might have some updates on the rumours linking us with Benat, Isco etc.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Whoscored.com also has Mikel and Moses ranked as Chelsea's 15th and 16th best players respectively. They also have Torres as our 4th best player. Now statistically Torres hasn't done too bad, but we all know from watching him week in week out how frustrating he still is, despite scoring more goals. The point I was trying to make is using statistics can be very useful, but they shouldn't be treated as the holy grail to make a judgement on how a player is performing. I agree that 4 games isn't enough warrant spending £15m on a promising player, but I'm sure the club will have better judgement in this regard. For the record, did you also see him play in the Olympics for Spain? He was God awful, but then again the whole Spain team was. It reminds me of the people who said Chelsea shouldn't buy Oscar based off him performing well against 'poor' players in the Olympics. In that case Isco and co would be no-hopers. On to your last point, I agree that the club has to be smart when buying players and take into account what we actually need. I'd much rather us sign a player like Benat as we're in desperate need for a player like him. Signing Isco for me has Guardiola written all over it. As I mentioned before, he might not be signed for the no.10 role.

Stats can be a little misleading at times. I'm not going to wax lyrical about how great he is as I haven't seen enough of his games to make a full judgement. But I have seen his games in the UCL and he was by far the stand out performer, every match. From what I've seen, he reminds me of a hybrid between Messi and Iniesta. Fantastic dribbling ability and incredible control. I haven't seen him much in the league, but it seems he hasn't performed to the same level. As I said, the stats you mentioned can be misleading. If I was to tell you another player in Spain averages only 1.4 key passes per game and is dispossessed 2.7 times per game (Isco 2.8 times), would you know who I'm talking about? Lionel Messi. If I was also to tell you another player averages only 1.8 key passes per game and is dispossessed 2 times per game, would you know who I'm talking about? Andres Iniesta. Don't get me wrong, I agree that his shooting can be wasteful, but his decision making will improve with age. I'm sure if Isco was playing with better players (No disrespect to Malaga's players), he would perform better. After all, Malaga's top goalscorer has only hit 5 goals this term, and after Messi there is a host of Barca players on 5 goals. It's easy to look at the assist count and say that the player isn't doing what he's supposed to be there for. I honestly think all this talk of where he would play would be irrelevant if Guardiola and Isco were to come to Chelsea. If Pep were to use the same blueprint he used at Barca I wouldn't be surprised if Isco is used how Messi is at Barca.

Biggest potential? Charly Musonda Jr. for sure.