Jase

http://football-italia.net/43913/official-milan-appoint-seedorf Milan have appointed Seedorf as manager till 2016.

Saint Etienne defender Kurt Zouma could be on his way to join Chelsea this summer after he claimed Jose Mourinho spoke with him last month in an interview with French paper L'Equipe. Though under contract until 2017, the 19-year old French centre back has an agreement with the club that will allow him to leave this summer and has suggested that West London could be his next destination. “There was advanced contact last month. At the start I thought it was a joke but afterwards I quickly took his call seriously." “When a great man like Jose Mourinho calls a little player like Kurt Zouma, it’s nice. It doesn’t happen every day and it’s a big sign of respect and confidence.” “If you tell me to go to Chelsea, I’ll go there immediately! Especially after the call from the coach. It’s given me ideas.” Should Chelsea wish to get the defender, they would have to reportedly shell out £10 million for the France U-21 international. However despite the interest from the Blues, Zouma has not ruled out joining other club in his homeland. "Why not a step up in France? For me, Saint-Etienne are already a big club. But after that, the top teams are Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco. It would be a good career plan. Abroad, it’s make or break. But it’s a risk worth taking. "I won’t necessarily choose according to the league. It will depend on playing time and the state of mind of the coach and the squad." Zouma will be available for selection once again after serving a 10-game ban for breaking Thomas Geurbert's leg of Sochaux last November as St. Etienne host Lille in Ligue 1 action this weekend. Click here to view article

Just only watched his interview on Sky and since when he started speaking so clearly?! Looks even less gloomy and with more facial expression too..

Yeah but it's not like they are just going gung-ho without any regards to defend. They are scoring at free will right now which is just rather ridiculous and makes any goals conceded almost redundant. It may affect them when the Champions League return but their squad is big enough to cope with that, without any injury(-ies) to key player(s) obviously. And it's in our best interest in the Premier League that they beat Barcelona and progress further into the competition.

But City are likely to outscore them, like what they have pretty much been doing this season. And not to mention, even Fergie hasn't done too well in the past 2 seasons at home against Mancini's Man City, never mind Pellegrini's.

But they still won in the end, didn't they? Not sure why need to be picky on their goals being deflected or not and all that when we ourselves had matches like that such as the one at home against Crystal Palace where they arguably deserved a point from. For this one, I can't disagree as Tiote's goal should have stood and Remy should have scored at least 1-2 goals in the second half with his chances. True true but if they continue winning, don't think they care one jot. I mean they are pretty much outscoring everyone else at this point. They might struggle in the upcoming big away games (though they didn't do too badly at our place in October) but if they can win the rest of the away games and their home matches, then they might win the title in the end as it would take someone with incredible consistency to match them.

I wouldn't rule them out of getting 6 points at United and Spurs. The former, unless they get in January reinforcements, are very average right now and the latter have a rookie manager that seems to be one of those typical English dinosaurs, tactically.

Fully updated 4th round draw after the replays last night (though there is still one more to go). Sunderland vs Kidderminster Bolton vs Cardiff Southampton vs Yeovil Huddersfield vs Charlton/Oxford Port Vale vs Brighton Nottingham Forest vs Preston North End Southend vs Hull Rochdale vs Sheffield Wednesday Arsenal vs Coventry Stevenage vs Everton Wigan vs Crystal Palace Chelsea vs Stoke Man City vs Watford Bournemouth vs Liverpool Birmingham vs Swansea Sheffield United vs Fulham

Inclined to agree with you on the injury thing there but TBF, City have done well in recent away games. Their last away defeat and in fact overall defeat in all competitions was back in November against Sunderland. Since then, they have won 6 and drawn 2 in the subsequent away games, which is already an improvement compared to their early season struggles. Though it has to be pointed out that, 6 of their remaining 8 league away games are against the current top 10 - Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham, Manchester United and Hull City.

Hmmm, I'm in favor of that.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19q6i2_nemanja-matic-first-interview_sport

One more to boot...

Done. Your login name still remains the same.

Well, he is. Just checked Whoscored and Football Manager () and both had his birth date down on 1st August 1988.

No offence but why on earth are people discussing whether he's 25 or 26 years old now? Hardly a matter as long as we know he's born in 1988.

Posted it in the Shaw's thread. Would certainly be interesting and see how it affect things there - transfer activities being one.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jan/15/nemanja-matic-chelsea-midfield-jose-mourinho-benfica?CMP=twt_gu Jonathan Wilson on the signing of Matic...

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3622226/title/matic-signs

In a non-related event at Southampton which may turn out to affect this transfer in the future... Nicola Cortese on brink of resigning as Southampton chairman As a result of that, Pochettino's future is also in doubt.

You're right, the mods here are shite. We - the admins - meanwhile are boss.

Chelsea's Eden Hazard vows to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo and lift Ballon d'Or

And yet MvG won't return till next season or at earliest maybe May, which kinda even contradict your definition.

Blimey. The efficiency you write and put up these articles is relentless! On the other hand, Lampard out for the foreseeable future with injury? He's already back in training reportedly or even then, he will be back at the end of the month.

Hardly a news anymore at this point but whatever...

Going by the same news people have posted, it seems that Matic has gone through 75 357 medicals to sign for us...