Strike

would love to have Walcott here. pure pace and a surprisingly good finisher. is he leaving in January or waiting till the summer?

Mikel is good. but hardly world class. he does the job expected off him although he's no Essien or Yaya Toure if you will. Passing is not a big concern as he is tasked with just keeping possession but he's not the beast of a midfielder we want in CDM. he rarely ventures forward and that's because his movement is not as good as Essien or Yaya. he plays well with Ramires. Rami's movement and his strength make a good combo but with Mikel and Ramires, we basically have 2 DM's and Ramires' passing is pretty poor. Mikel is a good option to have in the squad - to throw on if we lead.

what now? our wing options cut down in addition to central mid and attack. can't see a decent winger or striker available for under 15 mil. Raheem Sterling maybe - he's holding out on a new contract isn't he?

lol. One year we turn over a profit...can't wait to see what the finances look like next year. with FFP in play, better tread carefully while dealing in the market. Falcao? Impossible

yes and i hope we can minimise the financial set back. how much do you get for winning the EL?

would've put Drogs in there. but yeah Falcao, Ronaldo and Messi are too good to leave out

not weaker. but we do lack depth in several areas. midfield and attack is quite evident but in the case of the attacking mids, we haven't used the options available to us. Marin has been fit for about a month now? yet to start a game

the depth in midfield is shot to it's knees now with Romeu's injury. I hope we can get a cover in January or a bargain deal for someone who can distribute the ball well rather than just tackle and keep possession. the midfield is already without Mikel and will lose him for the African Cup of Nations. Worst case scenario in our search for midfield cover - get McEachran back in the squad as for the team, lampard and terry returning now and we should see us go on a run in the next few games. all easy on paper - except Everton away. hopefully we are safely nestled in 3rd position come January

title aspirations grew when hazard started tearing up defences and then mata got into form. the win against spurs was the peak of our RDM team but one loss aided by Clattenburg ruined the team's momentum. players should be blamed as they never recovered from that loss. at one point i believed that top 3 was a minimum and we would be challenging for the title. now - top 4 - priority

i believe we should readjust our season objectives. secure Top 3 finish and try winning the Europa League/FA Cup/CWC Rebuilding is best left to the summer where we install a better manager - Pep or Jose preferably

yeah. i get it. completely irrelevant post then.

true. the way stoke and west ham play, you really need a wide-screen TV to follow the ball.

you'll be hoping he becomes a Chelsea star no doubt.so not really an option as a 3rd striker now? WAGNH must be right. this maybe a sweetener for Wilfried Bony

3 playmakers "rejected"(for want of better term) in Spain are tearing up Premier League defences. Mata, Silva and Cazorla. Even Michu is in sublime form. Pablo Hernandez and Suso etc seem to be doing well. if you look back there were Xabi Alonso at Liverpool before.Ivan Campo at Bolton - 2002-2008. Fabregas at Arsenal. Arteta at Everton/Arsenal overlooked by Spain all these years. Ofcourse there have been exceptions like Albert Luque, Jordi Gomez and Albert Riera but it Really begs the question. English clubs are good for only hoofing long balls aren't they? Stoke and West Ham are thriving in the league this season. The exception to this is Swansea who play on the floor and they have 2 of the Spaniards mentioned. Also, there is Arsenal who play on the floor - marshalled by Cazorla. The only players England are capable of producing are pacy and tricky wingers. Bale(accepting British players now), Lennon, Walcott, SWP, Dyer, Routledge, McLeary, Moses, Chamberlain, Albrighton, Jarvis, ...i can go on but the point is England can't seem to produce quality playmakers. Jack Wilshere , Paul Scholes are the only English playmaker i can think of. Joe Allen ( borderline Welsh playmaker) but i can't think of anyone else. Lampard and Gerrard are also borderline 'playmakers'. Hardly Wilshere or Pirlo level in passing.

i don't think there is a good CM available on loan atm. only we were daft enough to loan Essien. don't think anyone else will loan their players unless he is having squad problems. Darren Bent comes to mind but he's a striker

http://en.toty.uefa.com/ Voted for Cech, Cole and Drogba, don't think Mata / Hazard (and Silva/Toure etc) deserve to be there

Analysing our options - to get a better idea so that people stop saying Hummels, Witsel and Falcao. We will have to overpay by a lot to get them ---Defenders--- Martin Skrtel, Mehdi Benatia, Mats Hummels, Angelo Ogbonna, Daniel Agger have all signed extensions to their contracts recently and have existing deals that run up 2016-17 2 viable options for us to try are Hummels' team-mate : Neven Subotic(expiring 2014) and Andrea Ranocchia (2015) --Mids-- Axel Witsel was mentioned a few days ago but he has a running contract upto 2017 and I don't see Zenit agreeing to a cut-price deal. Wesley Sneijder has apparently agreed to join PSG Yohan Cabaye, Sergio Busquets and Marouane Fellaini don't have long left in their contracts (expiring 2015) also, Joao Moutinho contract runs out in 2014 --Strikers-- Demba Ba - http://metro.co.uk/2...calate-3246776/ has a release clause of 7.5 mil and contract runs out in 2014 Klaas Jan Huntelaar - out of contract in the summer (expiring 2013) - will decide future in January although Arsenal seem to be ahead of us in the race for his signature Loic Remy - Contract up until 2015 Wilfried Bony - contract till 2015 and Vitesse are our feeder club. Should be no problem if we do want him Radamel Falcao - the man on everyone's lips - contract runs out in 2016. unsure whether we can afford him now with reports of a 48mil GBP release-clause -source:transfermarkt

and i didn't aim it as a lack of knowledge or appreciation of the sport. i don't like american sports (except Basketball and ice-hockey) and believe that football should referred to as football and not soccer. american/aussie football barely use foot as far as i know. just call it rugby or something

Welcome mate! Enjoy your stay

lol "Soccer"...it's FOOTBALL. You kick the ball with the FOOT.

Vitesse Arnhem? aren't we funding that club? i mean sending our youngsters on loan there. Is he a Drogba or a Obafemi Martins or a Heskey?

Higher than David Villa now?

down with a viral. reading the usual shyte at the pub all morning. Spike and Ryan, lol

hehe. that would be brilliant. Is there anyone available? to add a bit of depth to the attack? Huntelaar and Ba are the only ones i guess.

I am not jumping on his bandwagon just yet. Firstly, I haven't watched Falcao enough to make a fair assessment. Over here, La Liga means just Real and Barca (although it has improved after ESPN took over the rights) and the games are in the middle of the night. anyway, my point is, he costs around 48mil Pounds now. given that we won't get the financial boost of winning the Champions League and the fact that we turned over just 1-2 mil profit (inspite of the CL winning bounty), Falcao is unreachable atm. Financial Fairplay wise What we could try is a structured deal with 25mil + Torres and let them keep Courtois for another season. Maybe throw in Malouda as a Christmas present