capriccioso

And yet, he has a better dribbles/runs past opponent per game ratio than any other player on our team.

Just throwing this out there, but I felt accepted after about 5 posts . And I wasn't part of the old clique.

Bump.

I won't get a thread like this if I leave, will I? :(/:Goober: I do agree with other posts here, he chose to leave and if he doesn't want to come back thats his choice.

There's a fine idea, play the match overseas! It would go down better than the 39th game. It can be marketed as "The two most successful clubs in England last season go head-to-head in a battle to secure the prized McDonald's Community Shield"

Meh. Point is 4 years ago we wouldn't even be talking about 'what if' passes from Kalou.

Yep. Moneyball teams like Liverpool would pay insane amounts for him when they look at how successful he is statistically. Here's a good article: http://www.eplindex....a-analysis.html A club like Liverpool would pay top dollar for that: "100% crossing accuracy? We can make Carroll a 50 goal a season player with that!" Of course, we know those stats are misleading as he's probably attempted about 2 crosses all season at the time that article was published, but a lot of clubs aren't arsed properly scouting a player and will go in for him anyway. Even if there is a case for him leaving, we can recoup a lot of what we paid for him. 6 million I reckon, meaning we paid 2 million + wages for 60 goals and 39 assists, which would make an already decent signing into a great one.

He would have had about 6 assists already since February if Mata (seemingly the target of all his through balls) was just a little bit faster. I'm not blaming Mata, speed is something that is totally out of your control. Had those passes hit say, Sturridge or Torres, we could have seen them all as goals. I think he got like 3 in about 15 minutes to Mata in the Spurs 5-1 win but Mata either just couldn't quite make it there in time or miscued the shot.

First: He didn't celebrate the Spurs goal because his family, friends and countrymen were in all kinds of trouble. This is a guy who celebrate fluke shin's into the net as hard as he would a 30 yard piledriver. To suggest he deliberately didn't celebrate that goal because he hates this club is ridiculous. Lampard is actually trying, thats the difference. He had opportunity to pass like this under Villas-Boas. He took distance shots when they came up. Cole, Essien, Malouda? He repeatedly said none of them were part oh his 3 year plan. Beyond that, the lot of them laughed at him when he announced his tactics before the Napoli game, that's why they were dropped. Villas-Boas came out the next day and denied that but he was obviously in damage control, even he would not have been crazy enough to drop them for no reason. Essien certainly isn't trying anymore. I know he's crippled but look at him, he laughed that day when he conceded the penalty and didn't care whatsoever. He may have some foundations or whatnot set up in Africa but that's just a PR scam, all footballers have things like that set up. Terry does, would you use that as an excuse to call him a gentleman? Finally, the 4 of them played a role in the sackings of Scolari and Villas-Boas.

I wouldn't say that, he's certainly improved on his passing. The Kalou of 2008 and earlier was not capable of producing those through balls that he has been playing of late. By end product I'm assuming crossing, since he's an erratic but at times excellent through-baller? The two main things he lacks are consistency and crossing. Consistency, I don't think is an area we can expect to see much improvement in him in future as he's already 26. Crossing, there's always hope, however slim that he spends an entire summer doing nothing but hitting in crosses

Quick comparison between Torres, Shevchenko and Kalou: If Torres is to be pound-for-pound as successful as Kalou, he must score 360 goals and make 240 assists in his Chelsea career. If Shevchenko was pound-for-pound as successful as Kalou, he needed to have scored 240 goals and made 160 assists for Chelsea. Worst player to have played for us in the modern era? Far from it, and that's without even bringing a certain Winston Bogarde into the issue.

Rio Ferdinand's season described.

Good shout

Speak for yourself. The only time I will ever riot is if Tom Henning Ovrebo dares show his face in football again.

They will of course be in blue, right? I've always thought United's seats were class.

Love it. Bayern just don't know when to shut up and it's going to cost them. Drogba hat trick in the final, one for Kalou as well.

Fuck off you uneducated plebian. Every single football club in history, with the exception of Celtic '67 that has a European title to its name and is still a force in football was a financial 'cheat'. Every one of these clubs received an enormous cash injection prior to victory in the European Cup. Open a fucking book before you open your mouth next time. You cheated, now you don't like it when we cheat. Hypocritical wankers. You were ruining football back when Roman Abramovich was nothing but a poor kid from the gutter. To paraphrase Karl Marx, accumulation of wealth at one pole, at Bayern Munich, is nothing but the accumulation of the enslavement of German football clubs on the other pole.

What is that mug Grant still doing in management? Haven't clubs figured out he's rubbish yet?

Well, someone's been busy. First Sauber, then Battersea, now this. Credit to the board for not acting like the bunch of muppets they usually are.

And before the anti-Kalou brigade come steaming in with "he's rubbish and he always has been", that post wasn't to defend him as a player. That post was to defend him as a boy who pulled on the Chelsea shirt with complete dedication every single time. No more, no less. At least give him some respect and even a choked thank you will be enough.

Yeah, thats right, for all the disparaging comments on him in here, you forget that he has scored vital goals for us. Deserves better than a "fuck you and if we see you in the next billion years it'll be too soon". Unlike the majority of our players he tries his very best every single game, even if he's just brought on in stoppage time. He doesn't sulk, he doesn't continually complain about being played out of position, he doesn't publically question the manager's tactics, he doesn't get involved in backroom politics or involved in any of the unsavoury activities our better players get up to both on and off the pitch, and yet he is loathed and called things like a cheater and a con artist. The way he conducted himself through the AVB 'era' where he was frozen out purely because he didn't like the contract he was offered was exemplary, the only player in our squad other than him that I can imagine shutting up and getting on with it no matter what happens off the field would be Paulo Ferreira. Look at what Lampard, Essien, Cole, Malouda did- tantrums, played rubbish- better players but as men not fit to hold a candle to him. It's no miracle to see why some of our squad have lifted their game, its not because Di Matteo is a magician, its just that they are a bunch of toddlers who just wanted to get rid of the mean nanny who didn't let them throw the toys out of their pram. Now he's gone they are more than happy to play as they did before. And yet those overpaid primadonna's are exalted by people just because they happen to, when they give a fuck, play better than him; or as in the case of Essien, are living off past glories. He may not have been the best player we've had on our books, but its quite shocking to see him foot the blame for a lot of things when we've had 50 and 30 million pound players perform half as well as he has done. For 8 million pounds we've received a fair return, better than anything Torres is likely to come up with and yet we all, myself included, have orgasms whenever Torres scores one goal or gets one assist. How fair is that? ]

Fair enough, and you're exactly correct with why I see him as a role model. He's a footballing version of me.

Fucking lol. Even Brendan Rogers is turning the plebs down At that rate they'll be choosing between McLeish and Grant

That's an interesting point. Who's left of Jose's signings? Essien, Kalouda, Cole, Drogba, Hilario, Ferreira are all I can think of offhand. And all but Essien and Cole look likely to leave this summer, and even Essien's not a certainty to stay.

There are loads of clubs interested in him Kostas, ranging from Juventus and Arsenal down to Besiktas and Liverpool but I think he's starting to feel homesick and wants to go back to Holland. Unless he gets a contract here, which he has often talked positively about. Also, I'm pretty sure he holds a British passport as he's been here for long enough. I think he had a Dutch passport beforehand anyway.