capriccioso

Hutchinson is done, I think. He's just had too much time away from the game. McEachran and Kakuta are on the verge of losing their potential, they'll have to prove they've still got it this season. Bertrand is set to be the successor to Ashley Cole, van Aanholt probably won't make it here either.

The one thing I worry about with a Mata-Hazard-Hulk/Marin front trio is that it will make it virtually impossible for us to shit our way through games like we did in the CL this year. I don't think the trio have the firepower between them to win games consistently and repeatedly for us (I'm of the opinion that they will produce consistently good performances but only turnout match winning performances every month or so). We're not Barcelona or Real Madrid, we can't outscore every team out there.

Funny thing is our previous number 17 always got the better of number's 7 and 10 With regards to the Hazard-Mata conundrum, why not get them to frequently swap places? Every 2 minutes or so Mata comes into the middle and Hazard takes Mata's place, rinse and repeat.

It can be easy to predict penalties sometimes. You could just tell Robben was going to miss, especially after John Michael Nchekwube Obinna had a few words with him. David Luiz's penalty was another one, it was either going to be top corner or Row Z- it wasn't going to be saved. Similar to the Bruno Alves penalty in the Euro semi final, I think every football fan called that miss. And the guy that went first for Portugal as well, with that dickhead run up to the ball.

In which case 'Alright, lads.' far outstrips anything . The Liverpool third kit is awful, though it's a massive improvement on that fake kit which was being circulated.

12 GOALS!!! But to be fair you can compare just about any of our transfers (except perhaps Mutu and Bogarde) with Torres and the player will come out looking better than Torres. He's not the best barometer, a better one would be someone who was good but not great- Anelka, perhaps.

That was a bit of a self-mocking post as I have an enormous nose. But yeah, 50 goals for probably a 20 million transfer fee and a huge wage packet (in excess of 200k/week, probably) doesn't sound like a good deal.

No, Navas still cacks himself if he leaves Spain for more than 3 weeks. The transfer would be doomed from the start, he probably wouldn't even learn English. Jose Antonio Reyes all over again.

And what is it you do, exactly? Buy a few shirts every year and a season ticket? What's that, about a thousand pounds all up? Overseas fans contribute in the tens of millions every year. Get used to it mate, we're more important than you. Far more important than domestic fans in the current climate. Why do you think the club keep fucking you over with ticket prices, but trip over themselves to make themselves appealing to foreign fans? Why do you think they go on tours to Asia and America? If you don't like it, go support Millwall. Your superiority is laughable, overseas fans are the present and future of this club. Funny you say our whole fanbase, the vast majority of football fans of any top flight club are overseas based. I can say 'fuck you' to all English based Chelsea fans and I'd be insulting about 0.5% of our total fanbase.

Delightfully imperialistic. 'You're not from England therefore your opinion is irrelevant'. 'You don't attend games so you're a wanker'. For the record, it's much harder for us to catch Chelsea games. All you need is a few pounds and a train ticket. This is quite a meltdown for anybody to have, let alone a new member. Have you ever heard of the word globalisation? Or television? Or Web 2.0? Stuck in the '30s are you? Thinking about going out and giving Harry Hun a good old British thrashing, 6 of the best, trousers down?

Yeah but until he moved to Barcelona he had never scored a goal in a CL knockout match. He still only has 4 goals scored in CL knockout ties, which is a terrible record for a purportedly top class striker.

Points against signing him: He's the Mario Gomez of Italy. Put him under any pressure whatsoever and watch his skull crush itself. He's not good enough for his wage demands. He's old. He has an enormous nose.

You have quite a record with predictions, so I'm not going to disagree with you. Except my dislike for him has never stopped me cheering for him. I'll still be a hater every moment he's not on the pitch, no matter if he scores 3 or 70.

I guarantee you if David Villa had been fit Torres wouldn't have even been on the plane to Poland, and rightfully so. 12 goals in 65 games. 29 years old. It'll only get worse from here.

But that's the hallmark of an excellent midfielder. Short simple passes that maintain possession.

Ah, Bosingwa, our Monobrow Menace What's the touted price? Could do much worse than Maicon, especially if we can get him in for less than 10 million.

Parker might be a better tackler than Mikel but he's incapable of passing the ball at all. Mikel's standout attribute is the accuracy of his passing. Gerrard isn't as good as Lampard, in any context. I understand you were trying to compare the teams but I think you chose a pretty poor example in England, because they're not very good

Maybe but Ramires is at his best as a right winger. Mikel and Lampard have a good understanding and they're more technically rounded than Ramires so I would prefer them to start as much as possible. Ramires has explosive pace, wonderful stamina and is a good dribbler of the ball, making him more suited as a right midfielder who can get up and down both ends of the pitch rather than an out-and-out, get to the byline and cross style/cut inside and shoot winger.

Torres hasn't improved or even flatlined. He's declined. He's picked ahead of Sturridge because Di Matteo doesn't like him and he's picked ahead of Lukaku because he's not ready yet. Negredo was horrific in the one showing he gave for Spain so obviously Torres gets picked ahead of him, and tiki-takanaccio doesn't like big men up front so Llorente's out. From those four he's only better than Negredo and Lukaku. Both are young and will catch him sooner or later.

What?! They're not at all comparable! Wellbeck-Torres Young-Hazard Rooney-Mata Walcott/Milner-Ramires/Marin Gerrard-Lampard Parker-Mikel Wellbeck is better than Torres and Rooney and Mata are roughly the same talentwise. We're better than England everywhere else.

Fair enough, but don't you think we have decent backups in Meireles and Essien?

So you expect to pay 40 million for a player to sit on the bench? Yes. Mikel's 24, he can take that with ease. He could probably do 70 a season without breaking a sweat. Lampard can probably get through 50 as he's phenomenally fit. If there are injuries, that's where Meireles, Romeu, Essien and McEachran come into play.

That could so easily have been a post about Salomon Kalou. As Kez once said, 'work rate doesn't stop him from being an awful footballer'.

Yes. How can you, with a face like that? More seriously, he's not a classic number 10. Buying him suddenly won't make us much more dangerous. Mikel and Lampard in centre midfield is a pairing that is good enough, they don't need to be broken up by spending 40 million on a guy who's equal/slightly better than them..