capriccioso

I shall succumb to my mixed South Asian heritage here and say that cricket is the best of the lot, except football. Back on topic, he's having a laugh back in France. Seeing 3 clubs squabble over him like a bunch of drunks over the last slice of pizza. Basically him and his agent will make a huge packet whoever he signs for. Intelligent stuff.

No, no, Rami, your opinions are what you believe in and it's not our place to question them. We just disagree, is all. Anyway, back to Torres, I don't know what to do with him. He hasn't shown enough promise for me to put my trust in him. I really think if we don't retain Drogba we need to splash the cash on a proven goalscorer who's not out of form. Someone like Falcao. Or perhaps give Sturridge a tryout at striker.

Now you're hurting my head Good article here about Man City getting the 'Chelsea 2003-2006' treatment in terms of being forced to pay miles over the odds for players: http://www.independe...rs-7771301.html

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, precision and technicality will always be beaten by shouting and smoking and power.

We're going in too deep, I'm afraid, hypothesising about a hypothetical transfer.

I've had enough of this pretty football nonsense. Nothing is more beautiful than a wonderfully orchestrated counter attack.

Style of play and whether or not it is embedded in our club are moot points, anyway. The key thing is our way has brought us so much success. Why change something that works?

The banter . I do believe the chain of being goes like this: NSW>Queensland>England. Anyway, 200k a week? For a 20 year old? What are we going to do if, God forbid, he breaks his leg in his first training session and thus never reaches his potential? Absurd money for someone who hasn't even peaked yet.

Every player signed before 2011 is accustomed to this style of play and as evidenced by the Villas-Boas affair, go to pieces when its taken away from them. Short of buying an entirely new squad we can't change.

Australia . And KOF is right, regional NSW beaches are better than Sydney's. Queensland's beaches are great fun if you want to be stung by a jellyfish. Hazard should take note of the strong support Australia gives to this club as opposed with other clubs. Now, quick, hide this page before BlueLion see's it

The best for this club is 4-3-3 Mourinho style, with each manager adding his own tweaks to it. It's part of our DNA. We can't change it now any more than Barcelona can play like Stoke.

No, he's not the type of guy to carry a team on his shoulders like Drogba has done for years. I think he's better off being a star rather than the star.

Has the Premier League fixture list come out yet? How great would it be if we hosted Tottenham on the first matchday and decided to parade around Big Ears at half time?

What a campaign. From the group stages down to the final itself we were clinging onto staying alive. We pulled through by the skin of the teeth, and that, for me, is more satisfying then winning every game 6-0. I would probably be happier if the latter scenario were to happen than I am now but the drama of the campaign, the fact that we were just one slice of bad fortune away from going out at several points along the journey, made it all the more compelling.

That's harsh. He is/was an arrogant fool, but he still didn't deserve what he got from the club. He had our best interests, as he saw them, at heart and worked tirelessly to try and achieve what he thought would be best for the club. Also he didn't want to sign Lukaku.

Where are our medals? Also, thanks for everyone who voted for me and congratulations to the winners all those nominated

My point was that it's easier to replace a dribbler/skillful type player than it is to replace a target man/power type player. It's only been 5 years since we were talking about Ronaldinho as irreplaceable, and Messi has come along and Barcelona haven't missed a trick. It's plausible that in 10 years time Messi will hang up his boots/leave Barcelona and they'll already have a readymade replacement lined up who will pick up from where Messi left off. I don't think the same thing will happen for Chelsea with a new Drogba style player coming along.

They shouldn't have, given the precedents. It makes us look a bit tacky.

Why did the other suspended players come out in their kit at all?

Man United didn't do it in 1999: Keane was captain, if I remember correctly and Scholes was one of their best players. They didn't come out in their kit.

I revise my earlier position, he could actually be importance to us. Our players are excellent at lifting their game several notches for the big games, but get complacent when playing the littler teams. Someone like Gomez who thrives on little teams could be the difference for us. Lets not forget he has 25 league goals this season (last season?), albeit against dubious opposition, we don't have anyone capable of getting 25 in matches against Wigan, Stoke, Liverpool, QPR, etc. Whether that is worth the massive fee Bayern will demand is another story.

It shot the Bayern morale to shit, while van Buyten for Muller was one of those epoch defining substitutions. Up there with those changes Tinkerman Ranieri made for Chelsea in 2004 and more recently, Ferreira for Bosingwa by Villas-Boas when Chelsea were 1-0 down to Fulham with 10 minutes to go.

Bosingwa's getting a lot of criticism but he had a good game and was obviously thrilled to have won. Terry, on the other hand, jeopardised our chances of even getting to the final and he came out in his kit to try and edit history so when people look at the photos 10 years down the track they'll think he played.

Fair enough. He's outright 5th then

Who's to say Real/Barcelona have the same appeal to him as they would to a Southern European/Latin American? He may be very happy in the Premiership. I don't think we'll see any of that Fabregas 'time to go home' or Ronaldo 'it is my dream to play for Real Madrid'. Man City can pay him twice what Real and Barcelona put together can, and he's certain to win some trophies in his career regardless of which of the Manchester's or even us he signs for.