Leif

Just checked my original post when I started this thread in November. I was 179lbs. Today I'm 138lbs This is the first time since I was around 5 years old that my BMI hasn't declared me as 'overweight'. I probably could have lost 41lbs quicker than I have but I hit a slump at one point when I got to 152lbs. The weight stopped coming off so i 'gave up' and went back up to 166lbs which took a while to get off.. again. Now I'm just waiting for my delayed gynecomastia appointment. Once that's done, I'll be having 6 weeks rest, and then i'll know what a flat body feels like. Excited.

If the argument for not getting him is 'he's a cunt' we may as well ship Terry and Cole out right now. Terminate their contracts. Right now. Homewreckers.

I personally don't believe most of the "Chelsea have had a *insert number* bid rejected." etc. The news comes too prolific. We can't be submitting the bids we supposedly are so quickly as for each million added to a transfer fee there has to be more evaluating. I think either the deal is done (as in, Napoli have actually accepted a fee or we've simply stopped bidding quite a while ago) or we've actually only bid once or twice and 3rd time will be lucky.

But that's exactly what we are..... anyway we don't need to 'follow' any clubs. We're a leading club.

It's not our money. Signing Torres didn't set us back. Shevchenko didn't set us back. And people seem to completely be misunderstanding how FFP works. There's no reason why this deal shouldn't go through or, possibly, hasn't gone through already.

Joint most tackles tonight.

He is Brazil's best player. Not the inconsistent Neymar, not even (IMO) the inconsistent Thiago Silva. Neymar will grab all the headlines but Oscar creates them.

Oscar makes Hulk look like SWP.

Oh also, it'd be nice to sign Luis Muriel before he becomes one of the best strikers in the world Reminds me of #9 Ronaldo. Just not as clinical.

If we do indeed sell Luiz, which I'm doubting, I hope we consider Musacchio as under Mourinho his career could be given new life. Very cheap too. Another option would be Ezequiel Munoz who just got relegated to Serie B with Palermo. Exact same can be applied. Career needs given new life, loads of potential, not filling it. Very cheap too. I'd prefer Musacchio out of the 2 however as his positioning is better and he's less aggressive.

Godin is inconsistent. Reminds me of Agger in a few ways. I wanted him 2 seasons ago. I don't think he'd be a good buy. Hopefully the link is just made up.

I'd take Morata. As a reserve player. I think he'll be lucky to reach the heights of Negredo one day. Hopefully he'll become something more like Soldado though as I like him for some odd reason. I think he was the first young Spaniard I properly started tracking a few years ago. Would much rather sign Jese.

Looks like Luiz is drunk

There's a debate about to kick off (I think) in the Schurrle thread regarding where Hazard's best position is. May as well do it in this thread! My opinion is that he is lethal on the left when he's on form, but quite a bit more timid on the right even when on form. On the left it's no secret he's more of a goal threat. He can cut in with ease since he's hard to tackle and then he's able to take a pop at goal. On the right hand side though, when he wants to score, he'll often drift into the centre and hope a player (such as the right-back or Mata) will then cover his flank as he drives directly at the goalkeeper. This was seen at Lille a few times and quite a bit under RDM at the start of the season (although when he got into those central scoring positions he often went for the assist instead of the goal which surprised a bunch of us.) If we're going to persist with him on the left and basically base the team around him we're probably looking at a future 30+ goal a season player, similar to Ronaldo in his freak season with United. If we're going to put less emphasis on him and deploy him on the right, obviously he'll be crossing instead of shooting a bit more, so I guess we could expect more of a 'Figo' type player out of him than Ronaldo. (Maybe a bad comparison because I actually prefer Figo to Ronaldo but prefer Hazard on the left.) I think more fireworks and 'oooo, ahhhhh' moments will come from the left, but more 'magic' touches with Mata will come from the right. If next season we play with a forward who drops deep and opens up gaps between defenders, It'd be best having him on the left and trying to use him as a main goalscorer. If we were to bring in someone like Lewandowski (unlikely), Higuain etc. - basically a more poacher type player - it'd probably make more sense trying him on the right so he can start trying to whip crosses in and tally up his assists IMO.

He's still young. 21 is a young age in football. He has all the time in the world to turn things around and under the right manager in a good environment that's very possible. Same happened with Balotelli really. The only thing though which I want to be discussed really is if (it's a big if) he turned things around and blossomed into the player we originally thought he could be, where will he play? Hazard has one of the flanks locked down. Schurrle could lock down the remaining flank and make it his own. Mata and Oscar have the centre, and if De Bruyne is retained then he can play all along the '3'. Would Kakuta just be used as a rotation option? Would he be content just being a rotation option? His career is just a big question mark.

I'm finding it odd that when people criticise Mikel and get excited about a potential departure (which as supporters of this club, they have every right to do) without name calling or immaturity towards other members who do want Mikel to stay, that the members who 'defend' Mikel (and want him to stay) are the ones to then launch personal 'attacks' on people & say that they lack intelligence and are only posting in this thread when it suits their agenda. The same ones who suggest that they understand his role more than others due to some superior level of knowledge or maturity are posting snidey comments in this thread just because some of us want a player gone and then they act like peace-makers in other threads to get 'likes' and feel superior. Stop it. It's embarrassing. Of course there's a few people who want him gone who're retaliating and getting involved in the immaturity themselves but it really is more these 'respected' members doing the instigating in this thread; Basically coming in and saying "You guys who want Mikel gone don't know shit. I'll just like Seb's post without actually backing up my own opinion and just say I agree with him while continuing to bash your opinions." Stop going around questioning people's intelligence, calling them ignorant, saying they have an agenda and saying they're purposely making things misoncstrued when it's the fucking 'peace makers' of this forum disrupting the peace! If you have anything to say regarding Mikel, say so in here. If you want to launch personal attacks on people go to The Pub or reevaluate yourself. This is a thread to discuss opinions etc. on a player. Not discuss opinions on a member for having a certain opinion on the player.

Please. Please do. He created magic time and time at Vitesse. He just needs his attitude sorted out. If Jose can give him some rumoured Crespo treatment maybe this could work. We're already stacked in his position though and I can't see someone with his talent being happy with a bench role.

I only see Marchisio working in a 'flat' system, whether that be 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-4-1-1 etc. He's the sort of player who'd compliment Carrick very nicely in a midfield duo. He'd fit like a glove at United.

True. But what are our alternatives? A 4-3-3? That'd mean Mata (probably) being benched or being put in that deeper '3'. Would Marchisio - Mata side-by-side work? That's right away more aerial duels lost in the centre than we currently lose and a lot more running for Mata who we know isn't the most... fit.

If you take away his work rate you're left with a slightly above average player. He'd obviously be starting in the 'pivot' *shivers* if he came here, and the whole point of no longer wanting Ramires to be a starting option there is largely due to the fact we want someone who'll stand there and keep his position, like a more mobile Mikel. Well that's what I thought anyway. The whole reason Juve started using this whole 3-1-4-2/3-5-2 formation was to get the best out of MVP - Marchisio, Vidal, Pirlo. None of those are 'pivot' players. M & V like to run up and down the pitch all game. The way people berate Lampard for running up midfield into an attacking position and leaving his partner would be exactly what happens again with Marchisio.

He has no real reason to leave. Although not the most likely situation in the world, he could win Serie A next season with Napoli if Juventus get complacent. Benitez is great in European competitions and they were already great in the Champions League before, so under him they'll be even more defensively sound as a unit while still banging in goals via Cavani himself if he stays, meaning it's possible to maybe make the semi-finals with some luck next season. As for Napoli, they don't really need to sell. They've still barely used the Lavezzi funds you know and seem to have realistic low-price yet high-level players on their radar. The only real reasons for wanting to leave is the fact that London/Madrid are much friendlier cities than Naples and obviously on paper he has much chance of success with a slightly bigger club. We can't just go around buying any player we want. Napoli aren't Barnet.

I'd rather get his teammate before his market price shoots up to something like £30m. He'd be special under Mou.

Marchisio is a box-to-box player these days with decent playmaking abilities. We're not looking for a B2B midfielder. It's already being said that Ramires doesn't really fit into our system and that's mainly down to the fact that he runs all the time whereas in the 2 central midfield roles the majority of us want someone who'll position themselves quite deep and anchor the midfield. Marchisio would be lost in our system.

This place is becoming so rude, it's almost funny. People aren't 'ignoring' a new quote about Mikel to suit an agenda or anything like that. The quote simply hadn't been posted on here yet and thus no one was aware of it. People on here don't scavenge Twitter day and night and comment on new quotes 2 minutes after they were posted. If something new has come out, sure, post it and discuss it or claim fame for being the first to share the news, but to berate others for not commenting on it yet is stupid. Regardless, the new quote can be interporated 5 or more different ways so it shouldn't be said "this proves the Mikel move is nowhere near complete/real" or anything like that.

That Turk newspaper are reliable when it comes to Gala, less reliable when it comes to Fener, Besiktas etc. Kinda like how Marca favour a certain team and post actual news regarding them and then degrade their rival, or how certain papers in Italy favour Milan or Juve but post BS about other teams. This move is a go IMO.