Fernando

I saw the match on Fox Soccer plus. Saw some spark of genius, but still got some ways before he is in the big leagues. However I did like what I saw.

Montero from Real Betis has improve from his time at Villareal. Most people know A. Valencia from Ecuador because he plays at United, but I like Montero better. I think he got more skills then Valencia. The only problem with the boy is that he does not have enough stamina...sort of like A. Johnson.

Depending how Josh does in his loan with Swansea, we could easily see Josh and Romeu in that double role. They even did play in that role in the first Carling cup game. All we will be missing is that LW, which I am sure AVB will figure out by the summer transfer window. P.S. Can't forget about Kakuta. If somehow the boy finds his game back in France, then we will have to consider our midfield formation.

Maybe. But talking about Real Madrid Kaka and Ozil, a player who impress me was actually Canales. He was not going to get much chances from Madrid due to having those two and a lot more players, so his loan to Valencia was great. Sad that he got injured. But I would not mind throwing a bid for him to steal the player away from Mourinho!

Yeah as I said in the past it went downhill for Mourinho and every coach by not replacing Duff and Robben properly. Getting Malouda, and Kalou was laughable! And neither Joe Cole was as grandeur as Robben or Duff. One thing that also hurt Mourinho from making the difference in those CL games was a creative player. He had Deco for Porto, Sneijder for Inter, and now Ozil for Madrid. At Chelsea who was his creative force? Lampard is not in that mold of players. He is mostly a finisher..... Now giving that Chelsea is so used to a 4-3-3, and AVB is keen with that formation, we have the right ingredients to bring that style back, but this time with more flair. Mata gives you something different which we never had in the Roman era. Add to that a growing talent like Sturridge on the RW and all we will be missing is a LW...which for me could be someone like Hazard. And if young talents like Kakuta, Piazon, Lukaku and Josh do manage to come through and delivered, then we could be set for something even greater then the old Mourinho days. All we need is time and patience with our current manager.

And further difference is that United keep a same manager, while we fires our manager after every bad spell, and thus new managers cannot really see what an old manager saw for a whole season....

Tittle contenders and CL contenders....getting a bit too early says me. Even if we where to get Hazard and Goetze in this transfer window i will not put us in that category. This season is for Chelsea to either finish 3rd or 4th. Anything else you are setting yourself to be disappointed. My expectation for Chelsea with AVB in his first season was no trophies and 3rd or 4th place. Second season an improvement of the team. Better game playing, and an improvement of position in the table. 3rd or 2nd place finish. With maybe one trophy going our way like Carling Cup or FA Cup. And third season is when AVB should really brake loose and start killing everything. I think that is a modest goal for a team in transition.

Yeah this is what Zola said: Torres 'in bad place' http://www.skysports.com/tv_show/story/0,,12384_7434072,00.html And what Wise said: True Blues http://www.skysports.com/tv_show/story/0,,12384_7434146,00.html

I think what made more sense to me about the topic of wages was this, what Kostas posted:

Wow that was long! lol But I will say you have a point as well with the exception of what seems meaningless to you might not be meaninless for another person.

I really think the subs he has been making in the past few games are more to protect the game. He is trying to guard the result and try to get the 3 points. I guess AVB has learned some lesson in trying to be to open..... Our team is still not good enough to show of like we used to do in the past.

Yup Mourinho is close to reaching his objective at Madrid. He might do one more year and then decide to come back to EPL. Funny feeling i get is that he will go to City and that will suck for us. And another manager that could handle those ego and do well was Hiddink.

Should have, could have. It's not like United is that much different. The majority of their games they play like crap and barely win. And if you forget we just beat City!

Well I am wondering if we get Hazard will we need to buy a creative player since Mata will be filling that role? As well we got Piazon, Kakuta, Lukau and Josh coming through. So in 2 or 3 years they might be ready for first team action...

Having Hazard and Sturridge will be a reminiscent of the days of Robben and Duff. Preatty much went downhill for Mourinho and every coach since then by not properly fixing these two area.

The fact is that they where after Nasri and Sneijder, and that showed they had not much confidence in what they had. Same like us, we went after Pastore and Modric. They didn't get two players they wanted, and neither did we. So we will wait for the right player at the right price just like them.

It is for the sake of it! Ferguson was in for Sneijder and Nasri, but could not get him. So because he could not get him he will buy some other player just to fill that gap? No! The same as with AVB here. Well I am done talking with this topic because it's obivous that is not just AVB that operates like that, and if you can't see that then I can't argue no more.

But it's not easy, and they usually wait for their target. Not with this "back up" plan just to buy a player for the sake of it. If the right player is available and the price is right will buy. Otherwise no.

You are talking like it's that easy. If it was, coaches like SAF and Wenger would not have to suffer to bring the right players in.... or back ups.

Back up is to wait for the right player and not buy just for the sake of buying!

You are acting like our club is not doing nothing, and that is a misconception. In the summer we tried to get Modric, and Pastore. Chelsea are trying to be more financial conscious now, and can't throw money away like the early days of Roman. Carlo was like that, and I don't think it's a conincidence it's the same today with AVB being cautious in spending money like crazy. I really think the whole money spend on Torres and David Luiz was more down to Roman freaking out with the team due to the position we where last year. Otherwise we would be continuing our cautious approach of spending on players.

Another hard win. Was ugly, but who cares. Need to start building the confidence. I am liking what I see from Torres. Very good sign. Get some player like Hazard in, and Chelsea will start looking much better in attack. And great to see Essien back!

Descent first half by Chelsea. Torres looked better. But the movement of the ball is still slow. Hopefully AVB can identify this problem and bring the right players in the coming transfer windows.

It's the same as spending our time writing here. We can't effect anything the club does, what AVB does and such. So why do we do it? Same reason as to why people discuss about finances....

• Cahill to earn around £80,000 a week at Stamford Bridge http://www.guardian....-medical-bolton Kinda mess up if Mata gets less then him..... Very bad move by Chelsea to cave in to his wage demand!