Strike

Roger Federer wearing the half-scarf just makes me happy

yes. I think the plan all-along was to get one of these two because Chelsea is barely linked with Lewandowski or any other striker. or...stick with Torres. who knows

Carefully worded to gain public sympathy. no one should buy this. i hope this is the last we've seen of this cunt in England

Put it this way; when people speak of Cavani - they use words like "powerhouse striker, strong" etc but When people refer to Falcao, they talk of him being the 3rd best player in the world Cavani is a great striker but Falcao will bring that extra psychological edge with him.

In the past month, we've signed Jose 6 times.

Firstly Begovic is unrealistic. He was in fantastic form, atleast at the start of the season and he won't throw away a promising career by sitting on the bench here. Cech and Courtois are already here, so there's no way any quality GK will come, especially not home-grown. We will be signing another Turnbull if it's home-grown. If we are signing a backup GK, we have to look at the unpopular leagues like Scandinavian or Eastern European. Arsenal - Szczesny (backup when he was bought), Fabianski ManC - Pantilimon ManU - Lindergaard (Kuszack before him) these are striking examples of good backup keepers coming from unpopular leagues and doing quite well in England(except Fabianski) edit: as far as HG backups go, Butland was our best bet and he rejected Chelsea's offer.

Yes with Turnbull as 3rd choice. we can hide 2 HG players as backup GK's then

yes. as 3rd choice, he'll hardly ever be on the pitch. that way the club can hide 1 HG player among the GK's yes. i hope his contract is extended

Yes but also consider that Mata is the better dead-ball shooter. Good technique and fairly consistent in hitting the target. on a rough estimate, he hits 6-7/10 on target and Luiz maybe 4-5/10. luiz is still learning and improving though. gotta admire him for that

So Luiz is the first-choice free-kick taker now? He was pathetic before; fairly accurate now but still think Mata should be first-choice taker

are we even keeping him? We'll have a hard time finding 8 HG players if we keep selling guys like Sturridge, Turnbull etc

Good thread - little similar to the Summer transfer window thread but it's good to see users' opinion on summer activity in one thread. I'll be very realistic. Lewandowski to Chelsea doesn't seem to be happening and Dortmund won't sell Gotze, Lewandowski AND Gundogan in the same window. Ins:- Schurrle - £20m Benat - £16m Lukaku - loan return Outs:- Michael Essien - £14m Lampard - Benayoun - Ferreira - Hilario - Malouda - all Free Total: - £17m

Meh. Neymar to Barcelona

Hazard vs Ben Davies. As good as the young lad has been this season, I think hazard will just dance past him

yep. They are reliable as far as German news is concerned but other than that, total BS

Yes. Looking at it objectively, most of the rumours have spawned from Daily Star and Daily Mail. Two of the most unreliable piece of rubbish you can find. after intial rumours, it has just snowballed into this supposed big-time rumour because the papers got quotes from Jose, Didier, Torres etc. Also, i can't for the life of me, figure out how Bild - a German source - has the inside track on this story over Spanish and English press. Some of it maybe true but most of Jose rumours are guesswork and nothing more. We will have to wait till end of the season for any movement

Cometh the moment, Cometh the man - David Luiz!

Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Bertrand Lampard Ake Moses Oscar Marin Torres Bench: Turnbull Azpilicueta Luiz Cole Mikel Ramires Marin This is what I'd play today. League has to take priority now

Ah Yes. That explains plenty of inconsistencies in our financial report this year. btw, the manager coming in will also warrant a sizeable wage. Imagine we sign 3 players, Schurrle, DLP and ST. Can we afford a costly player on all 3 positions? i,e higher than 25mil on all 3 positions? I don't think so edit: Mods move this as well

I didn't get your point though.

Lampard and Malouda leaving is a good boost wage-structure wise. We can cover 2 marquee players coming in + spend on 1 more but the issue is the cost of the transfers.

Under Roman rule: Profit and loss 2011-12 Profit £1.4m 2010-11 Loss £67.7m 2009-10 Loss £70.9m 2008-09 Loss £44.4m 2007-08 Loss £65.7m 2006-07 Loss £74.8m 2005-06 Loss £80.2m 2004-05 Loss £140m 2003-04 Loss £87.8m If you look through that, how is it that we suddenly made a turnover of SIXTY NINE million? sure, a few sponsorship deals helped but the CL win was a (i can't stress this enough) huuuge part of the revenue generated. In the next 3 years, Chelsea are allowed to make loss of 36 million pound(?) so I'm not sure how much we can spend.edit:Anyway I doubt FFP will stop Roman from spending but that's another issue.

Yes. It's one thing to say we can get better for 46 million but to say Falcao will not add to the squad is just plain stupid. . Granted that we are a midfield-oriented team but a class striker up-front means that in some games where we're struggling to put away teams, he can nick the points for us. Lewandowski will be real value for money though.

bump. Statistical Analysis of Managerial Options-> http://www.thechels.co.uk/4227-chelseas-next-manager-a-statistical-analysis/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

It makes you wonder how a German source has inside information on a Spanish team's Portuguese manager going to England. Spain and English Press are still guessing. Nothing to get worked up over just yet