teh_Stig

True, but we don't play in La Liga. I think having slighty larger, more phyiscal players is useful in our league. Obviously, I'm not saying that I would discount Cabaye because he's not 6ft tall. I'm just lamenting that he isn't taller.

My only concern with Cabaye is that he's not a very big guy, and we're building a pretty short team.

We should send Super-Secret-Agent Joe Cole to talk to them too.

Hmph. Unless we're confident in our ability to sign Debuchy, we'd be very remiss in letting Arsenal pick him up for $6.5m.

Well, he looked really good today. Obviously, I'd be more enthusiastic about him if he played in a stronger league, but at just over 1mil in value, he may not be a bad gamble to take. Certainly worth watching him a little more closely, to be sure.

If we lose Sturridge, he's worth considering. But, Sturridge would leave for a lot less than it would take to bring Mueller in, so it still wouldn't be smart business on our part.

Surely we have enough depth at his position - he plays more or less where Mata does, right?. Do we really need to sign him (regardless of his affection for the club)?

Well that's certainly a big difference in price. I really hope we sort it out though.

Well, I haven't heard much about him, or seen him play. But, from the highlight videos he looks to be quick and a good passer, with decent crossing. It's pretty hard to get a good feel for his defensive ability from a highlight reel though. If I had to guess, I'd say he was a winger that got converted to RB at the academy level. I assume someone out there has seen him play more - how does he look? At 2mil or less, he seems like a smart buy regardless. He'd certainly be on lower wages than Paulo and VDW if nothing else. I don't see why we couldn't replace both Bosingwa and Paulo with VDW and Clyne. I'm sure they'd both learn a lot as Ivanovic's understudies.Oh the other hand, haven't no vetran EPL-player depth at right back would be concerning.

Yeah, it's all database error-y. I think making a temporary replacement thread isn't unreasonable considering we can't even read the old one.

I totally agree that Torres is getting better and better. I'm just concerned about our depth at that position. I'm 100% ok with him being our target man up front next year, but what happens if he gets hurt for a month? Who do we start? Sturridge, Lukaku (who really, really needs to be out on loan next year anyways)? I'm not comfortable relying on Sturridge for that depth. I'm not saying we need to bring in a Cavani or Falcao to be that depth player - it would be a waste, and almost inevitably alienate Torres, but we need somebody.

Mmmmm depth... However, if Drogba leaves, I think we'll sign Hulk or Hazard and a proper center forward, rather than both Hulk and Hazard. I don't think we can afford all three. (at least in terms of the wage bill).

He's a young talent, that obviously really wants to join the team, so signing him for cheap makes sense (especially if it gives us a 3rd Belgian to help encourage Hazard to join up). A couple of explainations for the loan-back deal: 1) Genk may have been completely unwilling to let him go mid-campaign. And this was a condition we had to allow for in order to sign him. 2) We don't expect Malouda or Kalou to be gone during the window, so there's not really room for him. 3) If the rumor that he'll be loaned out again next season to a non-Genk team is true, it's obvious the coaching staff doesn't feel he's quite ready. Though I'm sure this would be re-evaluated at the end of this season. 3b) If we're going to loan him out again, then it's reasonable to conclude that he is not seen as an immediate solution to our winger shortage, which lends credence to the idea that we'll still try to bring in either Hazard or Willian during the next week.

The problem with Sessegnon is that he's been excellent for Sunderland this season - their best player in my opinion. Sunderland is by no means out of relegation danger, especially if they sold Sessegnon. I certainly agree that he would be a very smart pick for a squad player, but the price we'd have to pay for him is going to be so absurdly inflated at this point in the season... I know it always is in January, but I can't see them letting him go unless we can pull off another Meireles-ambush signing.

I don't think he's going to Chelsea or ManU. He'd never want to sit on the bench, and all of the top 7 clubs are pretty solid in terms of their starting keeper. The exception being ManU, but there's no way they'll buy Vorm just to have a 3-way battle for the starting role - it would just be silly, and expensive. And once you get past those clubs, unless he want's to move to Stoke or Norwich, he'd have to move down the table.

So here's a question: with all the discussion about the sources of questionable-reliability, what sources other than Chelsea, Lille, Hazard, or his agent would we consider serious, and worth listening to?