Leif

I'm under the impression that Jose favours Oscar over Mata because Oscar offers more defensively & work-rate wise. That's what the general idea is, yes? If it is, is there any excuse for Mata? I mean surely if Oscar is being favoured due to his work rate etc. Mata should just pick it up in training and start working hard on his defensive side and fitness. He's better going forward than Oscar already but evidently isn't working hard enough. Unless Oscar is being selected because he's taller...which I'd doubt.

Today is probably the best day of his life. Until he wins the CL with us.

Do people just skim past the posts which suggest it's purely a business deal before posting things like "Why would we want him?" This transfer has nothing to do with our current first team. Absolutely nothing. If the rumour is true and he's available for under £5m, you can bet the loads of other top clubs in the world are in talks or at least have been in talks with his agent(s) and Porto too. You just can't not sign him for that cheap otherwise you look like a foolish club. He'll leave for at least triple that figure.

Mourinho said this will go on until the very last day of the transfer window and he has little reason to lie about that. A lot can happen in 5 or so days, especially in football. Still a few twists and turns remain.

Mourinho did what had to be done. You just cannot lose to such a big rival so early in the season in his books. It doesn't fit his philosophy or psychology even to show early weakness and to have all cards on show. He's got us past Man United away already this season yet we still don't even have a clue what our strongest XI looks like. This makes us incredibly hard to scout for opposition teams. Everything Mourinho does or says is done for a knock-on affect. He wanted us to draw. So we drew, for more reasons than we're even discussing; Us winning would have possibly left a bad taste in Manchester United's mouth, meaning there'd be more chance of them not being willing to sell Rooney to us. Us losing however would have made United look stronger and Rooney would perhaps not even want to leave afterwards. But no instead we were safe, we drew, and now everything can continue to go along nice and neutral for now which is what we need when we're just getting into the season's rhythm. Clearly we had an agreement with United (which has seemingly been broken, dickheads), but even more clearly we were playing for a draw and got what Mourinho wanted yesterday.

Has this topic predominantly just gone from "See, told you guys the deal would never happen" to "This deal is far from over" over the same quote in 20 minutes?

Can I have the lottery numbers while you lot are at it?

I feel sick

Why would it be a false 9? Schurrle is naturally a striker. It'll just be a normal set up really. Not a fan of Lamps playing. Van Ginkel or even Essien would have allowed Ramires a lot more freedom to press.

This club does make me laugh.

Eto'o will win us the world cup.

After having one of his best career games the other week, he's currently having one of his worst games today. He's just not doing anything... and neither is Van Aanholt actually.

It's hard to judge how good he still is considering he's been playing with mostly dogshit players in a dogshit stadium for the past few seasons. He still has most of his pace (Acc and Top Speed; Agility has gone down) and his finishing is pretty much the same as his Inter days. He just doesn't break offside lines as often like he used to. He drops a lot deeper now, typically being deployed in a position behind the striker to start with. (With Lacina Traoré in your team you have to make some room for him.) The Eto'o of old would have worked wonders in our more conservative systems where we wanted 1-0 and 2-0 results. The new, slightly changed Eto'o is built for this current set up of ours since his link up play has improved tenfold since most posters probably saw him. The only thing which concerns me is if he can maintain his fitness in the Premier League. Russia to England will be a culture shock for him on the field.

You saint.

Just put West Ham in my Accy to beat Newcastle United today (Draw no Bet). Have I just made a big mistake? I can't decide.

Man City look like favourites for the league this season. Why? They have top quality players in every position and in depth. They have 4 or so strikers who would be undisputed #1 strikers for the majority of the other clubs in the world. Man City's strength is scoring goals, so they focus on goalscorers. Jovetic, Aguero, Dzeko, Negredo. How did Juventus go about winning Serie A last season? By having the best defence record in the league, players being: Chiellini, Cáceres, Barzagli, Bonucci, Marrone. Juve's strength is their defence and thus they've kept it packed with players to ensure injuries etc. won't be too costly. Now a team who use the exact same formation as us and are best to compare to, favourites for the league this season, Bayern Munich: Thiago, Ribery, Robben, Shaqiri, Gotze, Muller, Kroos. That's 7. You play to your strengths. Our strengths are mainly in retaining the ball and making a lot of passes in the opposition's box area (roughly). As it's our main strength, we must make sure that the players responsible for this strength are properly covered and up to scratch. Moses did a lot this pre-season, but half as much last season. We shouldn't pass up signing a should-be-superstar just because "Moses is a fine squad player". You don't win titles with a "fine" squad. You win titles with an exceptional squad. Willian is a better player than Moses. So why not sign him? Don't be scared of depth

This move actually makes more sense to me now when I think of it this way: Hazard/Schurrle (Left wing), Oscar/Mata (Middle), De Bruyne/Willian (Right wing). That's 2 top players competing for 3 separate positions, while all being able to cover in those other positions themselves. This, to me anyway, is a good amount of competition. Now it just becomes a question of whether Moses leaves or not, and if so, who replaces him on the HG quota (if that would even be needed, I don't have a clue.) Or if De Bruyne goes out on loan for the season which'd crash the forum.

According to the Guardian his deal to Spurs is officially (to them) off.

How do you make an informal inquiry? Do you get a member of your staff to locate a smokey bar and sit down in a booth a few booths away from a Chelsea representative, then ask the man politely in the next booth if he could pass on the following message: "Is Mata available for a potential transfer? Pass it on.", then get a completely scewed and inaudible sentence in return?

Ultimately, regarding Mata; the board itself and Abramovich himself - they like Mata, yes? And if you're liked by the people who control the manager to a big extent you're in good hands at the club. I doubt the board which scouted & negotiated for him along with the owner who's seen him bring rejuvenation he sought so long will want to let him go - especially to a direct rival - especially when you consider we have the deepest pockets in the league alongside Man City. Mourinho hasn't manipulated the media and played mind tricks on Manchester United for nothing. He wants us to be at a psychological advantage. That advantage would be completely lost if Mata joined United. He'd also lose the man with the most experience with the style of play Roman wants in this era. A fan favourite. A great player. Mata can't join United.

If we sign Willian I'm gonna feel like that Dudley boy from Harry Potter; Really spoilt on Christmas with expensive (thus REALLY REALLY GOOD!!! ) but unwanted presents. But really, who cares if it makes us seem spoilt and even stupid? At the end of it if we forget pride etc...getting presents is the jizz! Let's accept this bad-ass present from Abramovich Claus and let's show off our big new shiny present to all the boys in town starting with Spurs.

I want him just so Tottenham can't have him. Mature.

Incredible. Going from Benayoun, Moses(?), Sturridge ( ) to De Bruyne, Willian & Schurrle.

Ramires had: Touches: 120 Pass Accuracy: 94% Tackles: 5 Dribbles Completed: 2 He's finally playing... Brazilian

In Ba's last 12 starts we've won 9 games. 1 draw and 2 losses vs. Man City.