Leif

So according to this latest and probably most concrete report he'd cost around £49.3m on £130k a week compared to Torres costing £50m on what, £150k a week? At least it's slight progress

So from further reading and shit it would seem Radio Marte are similar to Napoli as what Chelsea TV is to us. Also football-italia are a reputable site. They only post news or rumours when they're confident they're concrete. Been using that site for 2 years.

1) Impossible to be 'great' unless he changes his name to Fredodinho. Also is Neymar not a striker then? What is he? A support striker? 2) True but many players deserve to be in that Brazil team over others. Diego Alves over Julio Cesar as an example, Dante over Luiz considering how he's performed for Munich, arguably Alex Sandro who while in a 'lesser' league than Marcelo performed much more consistently and outright better. Also Ramires would likely be starting these matches had he not been left out of the squad for being late. 3) Can't argue with that. 4) Ramires may or may not be a better player - but he's certainly proven more. Clutch goals vs. the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City. Consistently being a thorn vs. any European opponent he came up against for Benfica. Also compare his 34 caps to Paulinho's 15. That's not by accident. More caps than Fernando, Paulinho, Hernanes, Gustavo, Sandro & Romulo. How has Ramires managed more caps than Lazio's best player & a Bayern Munich regular? Because he's a great player. A proper great player.

We also lost to QPR but none of their players are good enough for us. Also Paulinho's club Corinthians are currently struggling mid-table this season, if that adds anything to this.

But so does Fred.

Playing for Audax São Paulo, FC Vilnius, ŁKS Łódź, Audax São Paulo Esporte Clube, Clube Atlético Bragantino and then Corinthians by the age of 25 doesn't exactly scream £17m-rated player to me. Regardless how good he may be he's yet to properly prove himself. I think it's a silly figure.

This is the radio station which said a week ago that we'd made an official inquiry or something. Apparently they *used* to be reliable according to Napoli fans I've seen online, whatever that means eh.

We bought Ramires after great performances in Portugal which, in my opinion, is a really decent league. £17m for a soon-to-be 25 year old coming from Brazil is just wrong. We paid a premium price for a young and incredibly talented Oscar and he didn't cost much more than £17m. But Paulinho? Does he have much more than he's already shown? From what I've seen I'd be distraught if my club paid over £12m for him.

17m hahahhahahahahahahha

Jesus christ. He's the owner of a football club. He OWNS a player. That player is under CONTRACT. The clause in the contract means we can only have him for the RELEASE CLAUSE which has been there for years; or he could just accept a lower amount of money and weaken his team in the process WHICH HE DOESN'T NEED TO DO. Napoli's president has done nothing wrong. Is it new to people that football is a business as well as sport? Napoli are the second best team in Serie A. They're not a team in Egypt or Thailand demanding some huge fee for an unknown player. Our owner shares the same mindset as him. Would it be better if we didn't insert large release clauses into the contracts of our players and accepted small bids for our key players like Mata? No. It'd outrage fans. Napoli are no different. They are a big club. We can't just have who we want all the time.

Not a single person is saying we should keep him, are they? I should probably look a few pages back. I didn't think that was being debated at all.

People aren't saying "Let's keep Torres, he's good now". People are generally saying that should he stay, which looks likely, things could look brighter for him next season as he has improved more each season he's been with us and it's unlikely he'll regress under Mourinho. Maybe I missed a post which lead to all these "You still want Torres here?" comments currently being posted. All I see is people saying he's improved, most of which is followed up with "I still think he should go", then people going "LOL YOU GUYS ARE IDIOTS THINKING HE'S BACK" type posts. Is this going to be the new Mikel thread?

Yeah, they have different roles, but typically the same position. Both start in the '2' role currently, one of which is taken up by Mikel assuming he stays and then the other seems ready for the incoming Van Ginkel. (Based on his agent's comments he's been assured he'd be a regular starter in our team.) Having Essien, Lampard, Ramires, Mikel, Van Ginkel and possibly McEachran all able to play there would be overload regardless whether Essien/Lampard see much less action next season. Then there's the fact that Romeu may even stay on top of that. Kondogbia's development would completely halt with all those players aiming to play in the same position. It's generally believed in Spain that he won't be moving this summer anyway.

I think they will. Messi and Ronaldo get compared despite playing in completely different positions with different styles, Lamps and Gerrard etc, Messi and Cruyff, Makelele and Viera will likely be debated about too. Hazard could be playing as a #10 one day like Zidane did. They have a very similar skill-set - but Hazard has far more pace. Zidane wasn't as good as Hazard was at the same age I believe although I could be wrong. Blackburn and Newcastle United turned him down at one point (idiots)

I think i'd rather fight a family of bears than have us sell him.

Well it was until you bumped this topic

Napoli actually want to sell. They have a very big project in mind which'll take loads of funding which they'd like to do through player-sales. They've already spent half the Lavezzi money on players and pre-agreements etc. If his clause runs out they'll become desperate I feel and accept a much lower fee than his current release clause. They won't start demanding more money than what any club is even willing to pay for him at the moment. They've got a great poker face don't they.

I actually always thought (by 'always' I mean the moment I found out we were about to sign him) that he would eventually end up at Valencia to fill the eventual void left by Albelda. Quite similar players but Oriol is the better passer definitely. I think the Valencia supporters would really love and appreciate him. Just the type of player they need and if it's just a loan it'd be a good one - they're in the Europa League so lots of potential playing time. If this doesn't materialise I hope Villarreal go in for him to try and replace Marcos Senna for a season. Having him in a (potential) relegation battle next season would show a lot about his personality & determination. Ideally though I'd rather he stay and let Essien ( ) go. Big fan.

We all know he'll end up here. No I'm not joking. We want every attacking midfielder in world football and I believe Mou is an admirer. And it's another Spanish friend for Torres which has to be our priority.

In around 15 years people will be debating who was better - Hazard or Zidane.

Van Ginkel for around £9m, Courtois for £8m, Lukaku for £10m (don't get it wrong, that is all we've paid for him) and De Bruyne for £7m. That is incredible.

A lady-friend in Kent just sent this over at half 1 in the morning. What the fucking fuck is this?

'3' of Hazard - Mata - Schurrle/De Bruyne (whoever earns their place) Van Ginkel in the midfield '2' alongside Mikel (especially if we can perform how he has recently for his national team.) Oscar then forces himself into the side. Competition is healthy. Must say though that with Ramires being in Jose's plans i do not see Kondogbia coming here at all at this point.

Can't believe if he scores 2(?) more goals in this competition he'll break yet another record. I know a lot on here don't believe he was the best striker in the world while at Liverpool like some claim, and I guess I agree, but he was definitely one of the best. And you know if he showed this Spain form consistently for us? (Anything is possible with Mourinho), I genuinely believe he'd finally get something like 15 PL goals at least with us next season. I still want him gone, no doubt. But I think he can do the job next season if we slightly alter tactics. Oh, and the Shevchenko transfer is still our worst of all time. The amount of money Torres won us (sort of) with the corner which got the ball to Drogba's head in Munich or his goal in the EL final can't just be written off.

I'm not bashing him, good performance, but stop overlooking the fact that Spain didn't play a pressing game tonight. They completely sat back and also built up slowly for the majority of the game. Without the pressing of course Mikel could show off more mobility. He won't be given such time & space in most PL games. Also low pass completion again. For every "UGH NICE THROUGH-BALL MIKEL!!!!" there's complete strays. He needs to work on this. I like his hair now.