Leif

Yep. Almost like-for-like technique with how they choose to pass the ball and cross. Both equally adept to playing out wide or through the centre and adjust their play accordingly. Both like a little rabona here and there. Both have this incredible way of getting the ball to dip after shooting it quite high making it really difficult for the keeper to save. Here's Ronaldinho at a similar age I believe to what Hazard is now. Play just like eachother. (Edit: Actually, Hazard is a lot less selfish. So not quite the same.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H6yScZqbEY

Hazard reminds me of Ronaldinho. And Luis Figo. Combined. With not quite as good ball control + crossing. But better finishing. And better pace. And dare I say it, even more excitement. And a better bum. And I find that cool.

If Suarez was re-born and played on the wing instead of occupying a striker role, this is the sort of player he'd be. He's not Ronaldo at all. He lacks the aerial ability, finishing, movement, strength, vision etc. Despite being less selfish than Ronaldo both at the same age and currently, he seems to have these tunnel-vision runs where he genuinely for whatever reason is completely unaware of teammates being around waiting for a pass; quarter of the time (just a bit of a guess from what I've seen) getting himself in front of goal and lacking the composure to finish well. However, I actually think his ball control is equal to Ronaldo's currently and far beyond what he had at United It's like the ball is his best friend just following him around and clinging to his feet. It's incredible and unlike anything I've seen in recent years. So in my eyes,- Positives: Dribbling, Ball Control, Pace, Audacity to try quite amazing things, Pace pace pace (again). Negatives: What I mentioned. I certainly think he has the potential to reach the heights as some of the greats currently in the game, but I think he's currently closer to Quaresma or Nani than he is Ronaldo. I'm also worried this would turn out just like the whole Kakuta roller-coaster. That said, I want him here purely out of curiosity. He intrigues me.

That picture shows what Mourinho brings to a club. I doubt we'd be seeing that picture with any other manager at the helm. I'm sure Mou told someone like Bertrand or whoever to accompany Schurrle for a bit, show him around, make him feel comfortable etc. It makes the whole club feel united and feel like a family. It's important for a player to settle in socially with his teammates and not just on the field. Very glad he seems so happy and comfortable here already.

Well no, the majority of football supporters and pundits rate Casillas and Neuer above him..

Mou says Cech is still best in the world

"Why would you post your own quote?" - Leif

Sell Moses to Everton for £9m or so. Promote Lalkovic or Feruz (sure, there's way more expectations here, but Sterling was thrown into the deep end at Liverpool at the same age without any silly loans). I also think being thrown into the team like a man would do Lalkovic the world of good. Boom. Just an option

Along with the guys over at Juventus I thought Leonardo was probably one of the best Sporting Directors currently in football. Players aren't stupid and they know about Sporting Directors at clubs and with him gone some of the attraction of signing for PSG is also gone with that, especially considering Thiago Silva is now likely to leave next season. Anyone else thinking this Cavani deal might not happen all of a sudden for some unfathomable reason?

So do we have the best back up 'keeper in the league now? Or am I forgetting someone obvious? Would anyone else like us to do something similar to what City did last season (but keep our class if we reach the final) and play him in all League Cup or F.A. Cup games? Gives Cech a good rest, gives Mark a good chance to continue showing his worth before the World Cup and gives our Aussie fans something to dribble over . I certainly believe he's good enough for such a run personally.

PSG are fucked. They have so much money, yes, but it was Leonardo doing all this incredible stuff for the club. He had a hand in transfers, marketing, communications; everything. He was the glue which held so much potential chaos together. The reason for him leaving however is because he got a year-long ban for THIS:

The moment he makes an appearance for us he becomes a record breaker here. He'll be the oldest player we've ever fielded. Not the biggest of records but it's something

Well not undisputed #1, yet he still managed to be their top scorer (by far) and ended the season as the 4th highest scoring player in the league. Isn't that something which should be amplified a bit? I mean there's talk about 'we need to sign a top striker' etc. but surely ending the season as the 4th highest scorer in the toughest league in the world at the age of 19 when his team was packed with players less technically gifted than Bosingwa suggests he is a top player. I still don't see any reason why he shouldn't just be given the #1 striker role. Cavani would have been given it had he arrived, as would have Lewandowski and Falcao. Why do they get a pass?

Still unsure as to why people think he's not good enough to be our #1 striker. He has almost everything. The only thing he lacks I think is set-piece taking ability, but that's not a huge deal given the amount of players we have in our team who're perfectly capable. He's got the best physique out of all strikers in the top 5 leagues in my opinion; balancing strength, pace & stamina very well; great finishing, decent enough heading which I'm sure Jose will improve, good passing and even a good first touch now (the major gripes I had with him when he first joined). I don't understand what any other available striker; bar Suarez and his unmatched dribbling ability; could possibly offer us which Lukaku can't.

Strootman to Roma all but done according to reports in Italy. Good for us if true.

He commits too many fouls for me personally. 8 cards last season including that red vs. us. As a striker that's shocking. Regardless how good or not good he may or may not be however, It'd be spitting in Lukaku's face if we signed him. If the argument for not getting Suarez is 'we want to be a club with class' then this thread shouldn't even exist.

I think he's average. He's just had 'his season' last season. Just like Jelavic, Cisse, even Ba etc. had theirs. I remember those first 2 exact players been preached about by quite a few on here saying we should replace Torres with one of them. Look at them now. Shadows of their break-out seasons in the league. I expect Benteke to follow the same path.

Ooooo, Feruz training with the first team I see.

Wages around £200k a week. Won't be as cheap as the transfer fee suggests. However I am absolutely loving the idea of seeing him in an Atletico kit next season. Courtois, Villa and O.Torres (assuming he gets more playing time) will be beautiful to watch assuming there's no unfortunate injuries.

I know there's the 'he's not a pure striker' talk which goes on, and I agree for the most part when the talk is that he's not the blueprint striker we should look for, but was Zola a pure striker? No. Messi? No. Totti? No. Del Piero? No. I could go on and on. But all of them did occupy a striker role at one point or another; Totti & Messi doing so as lone strikers with the others usually acting as support strikers. Jovetic is a lethal finisher, incredible dribbler, even a decent playmaker. I'd never go into a season thinking "Right, Jovetic is the main guy up front for us!" (Lukaku would be my preferred option) but he would be perfectly capable of playing as a striker, really, if we wanted him to. He reminds me of Suarez in a way you know. Watch a couple vids of him, do some research, and you should see what I'm getting at. He'd also offer us the chance to play with 2 strikers up top some games. Lukaku - Jovetic would be a huge upgrade on the highly successful Toni - Jovetic partnership which Fiorentina used to great affect last season. Literally the only concern regarding him is his fitness. He's still being linked to Juve though more than any other team. Jovetic, Tevez and Llorente would be a rather decent stockpile of strikers wouldn't it?

Reports in Spain that Atletico Madrid want to sign him. They have £30m to spend in this window and don't want to spend more than £10m on any player meaning Gomez who was previously linked is out of the question, hence Ba's name popping up.

I think De Rossi is a player who's just getting better with age. At around 26/27 years old when most players in his position would be considered to be in their 'prime' his tactical understanding of the game wasn't very good, but his pace was far better than what it is now. (Pace was always a big part of his game. He'd get dribbled past half the time then quickly try and turn round and hit a slide-tackle on whoever got past him. This is how his red card tally began racking up.) Those have switched now though, with his understanding of the game being incredible and his pace being around half what it was. This loss of pace though isn't an overall loss to his game, as his tactical understanding now typically prevents players from getting past him - full stop. I think we should go all out for him. Reason being, you also have a somewhat playmaker in De Rossi as well as a hard tackler when he's in your team. With Italy we often see him as a ball-playing defender with almost as much playmaking responsibility as Pirlo, and with Roma when he was used correctly he and Totti typically dictated play; Totti providing the through-balls and De Rossi with the short and quick passes with the occasional incredible long-ball which more often than not split the opposition's defence right open. The most admirable trait of his, at least in my eyes, is the fact that he does every single job you can possibly do in the team. He'll do some playmaking, and then the moment his pass goes astray or his teammate loses it, he will chase down whoever of the opposition just got the ball assuming they're within his 'zone' which he typically roams and hunts them down like a rabid dog. He'll then calmly hit the ball accurately up-field to launch a counter-attack. At other times when his team is under-pressure, he's given the freedom to play like a less pacey but more all-round version of Ramires; You'll find him at left-back, as the striker, as a winger, as a centre back etc. He's even played as goalkeeper a few times for Roma when he needed to. He genuinely plays like a hybrid of Xabi Alonso, Mascherano (during his Liverpool days) and Ramires. Honestly. If he'd been playing for a top club in either England or Spain for the past few seasons he'd be everyone's favourite player outside of their own team. He still has plenty to give. Nothing suggests he's slowing down. Like Pirlo, like Di Natale, like Totti, like Del Piero, he will keep going until a very late age. I won't even touch on what he brings to a team personality-wise. My fingers will start to bleed. I feel £15m, even £20m if it came down to it would be acceptable (at a stretch) for him. You know why? You end up paying £7m-£10m for the defensive midfielder De Rossi and then £7m-£10m for the playmaker De Rossi. 2 players in one. Sign him or i'll cry.

Monaco signed Toulalan. Shame. One of the best defensive midfielders around.

His career is that of one of the biggest underachievers in domestic football. That's reason enough to join us. You win cups every single season here. 1 league title in his career is shocking.

Wanted him more than any striker but at the same time I've been wanting the board to start being more sensible even more. It's not that we 'can't compete with PSG' - that's untrue - we can pay the fee for anyone in the world I believe; but we seem to have shrugged of a lot of our naivety. (By 'our' I mean those who work for the club when it comes to transfer dealings. Further proven with the buy-back clause now inserted into Bruma's contract just incase.) Very happy for Lukaku also. Much easier to get a chance to prove your worth when you don't have a newly bought player with a colossal transfer fee starting ahead of you. My main attraction when it came to Cavani was the fact that he's like a Drogba blueprint - only with a few of his traits actually being better than Drogba's. However, I seemed to forget that there was never and still isn't a guarantee that Jose will revert us to similar tactics he used whilst he was here his first time round. Maybe an all-in-one striker like the Cavani's, Drogba's etc. isn't what's needed for us now. PS: I think the fact that we didn't cave into Napoli's demands is a sign that this talk of a proper 'project' isn't just hot air this time. A potential project could be ruined if too much money is spent on 1 player and they don't quite work out.