Leif

He wouldn't be 'back up' for cup games or random EPL games. He'd be in direct competition with Mata for a starting spot. There's every chance he'd play better than Mata and even displace him. Our team lacks competition for places. There's no good just having Marko Marin's laying around. They're not competition for Hazard, Mata etc. They just give them a rest. We need a player who tries to displace Mata, so both players raise their game.

This debate going on about whether or not to rest Mata? This has been my point. This debate wouldn't even be a debate if we had someone like Isco too.. just a thought.

Anelka is training with PSG. Could sign a deal to fill the void of most their strikers leaving. They look awful when Ibrahimovic is rested/suspended, and Anelka would be a great deputy IMO.

There's people now comparing him to Essien a few seasons ago lol. what. just what.

It's like people want Marin starting *just* because he's Marin lol. Whenever he's played for us, has he improved the team? Has he made it look more likely that we'll be the winning side? For me - No. Why would you guys want to keep starting a player who doesn't positively add to the team? "HE HAZ PACE" no. He has good acceleration coupled with quite awful agility lol. This isn't Fifa or Football Manager where it takes '90 minutes in the side vs. a cup side' to 'unlock dat Messi potential'.

He really needs to start dropping deeper to control the game - not just control the final 3rd. Basically it'd be better for our team (probably) for him to make similar runs and take up the same positioning Cazorla often takes at Arsenal.

I must say, I wouldn't mind the club placing a cheeky little bid for Alex Song... could be a good move potentially.

Benat is 5'9", Lampard is 6'0, and Cesc is 5'11".

You're not supposed to play your own players *just* because you produced them. Anyone who doesn't support Chelsea can clearly see that this 'amazing potential' Piazon 'has' is a myth. He's barely 'ours' anyway. We just bought him from Sao Paulo lol Cleverley has never been 'shit'. Only a casual football follower would think such nonsense. Did you ever watch him at Wigan by any chance? Hm? Watford? Barcelona and Manchester United are balanced because they don't change their manager every season - not because they don't 'jerk off on every fucking player in europe' (name 1 other player I've been pushing for us to buy btw to back that statement up please.) United produce their own players? Who in their team came from their academy? Evans who made his debut half a decade ago, Giggs who was playing before quarter of this forum was alive, Welbeck, Scholes who needs a walking stick, Cleverley and Fletcher. You make it sound as if you can compare their youth usage to Barcelona's. Laughable. Cleverley is NOT United's "important player" hahahahahaha. Rooney, RVP, Scholes, Giggs, Vidic, Rio, De Gea - all more important to them than him. Are you saying you want to pass by the chance to sign the best Spanish player of his generation and use Piazon instead just because we bought him and he's played with our reserves for a season or so? We're Chelsea - Not Barcelona or Manchester United. You tell me to stop with the Arsenal comparison after comparing us to 2 teams. Lolwut. I've no idea how long you or anyone else on here have supported the club, but if it's not been long, I'm really sorry to break this to you - With our current owner, we will never have that format of producing our own players and using them lots in our senior team. Please just understand that. It is not happening. You see how Real Madrid work? That's how Roman wants this club to work - only with Barcelona-style football seen on the pitch.

I think he'll be lucky to ever get close to Robinho's current level IMO.

"Fellaini to Chelsea with Lampard going to Manchester United." I seriously doubt that will happen like some of the media are reporting, but if anyone would actually be ok with that they need their genitals set on fire.

What are you basing that on though? He plays centrally at the moment - so his job isn't really to track back, whereas it is the job of Moses and Hazard. Hazard never tracked back before coming here, and Mata isn't a child. He can easily learn, adapt and adjust his game. Infact, if he couldn't learn how to track back, I'd be scared to have such a player at this club. All players have to be able to improve their game in some areas. As for being better in the middle - so is Hazard. But he plays on the wing. No reason why Mata can't either.

Loads. But the only ones I think who'll actually ever play a significant role for us are Chalobah at a huge stretch, Kalas at a biggish stretch, and McEachran at a big stretch. Cannot see anyone else in our academy making it here, regardless how talented they are. Then of course there's Courtois who many are mentioning, but he's not exactly a 'youth player' since he's playing for one of Europe's top clubs every week.

He's not a defensive midfielder. He cannot play the anchorman role well at all. He doesn't have the positioning to be a defensive midfielder. He doesn't have the passing to be a deep-lying playmaker. If he's 'good enough to be a defensive midfielder for the European Champions', why on earth are Everton opting to use him as a supporting striker/attacking midfielder instead? lulz. Partnering him with Ramires like so many suggest would be suicide. Not a bad combo for a midtable team though.

People saying "No" to Isco because we have Marin, Moses, Piazon (lol), whoever - they genuinely make me question how much they know about football. This post will make me sound so cocky, big headed, or just like a dickhead - but seriously... you need your head checked if you don't want the best Spanish player of his generation to join this team. It's honestly sickening how so many of you want to settle for mediocrity like we're Arsenal or Tottenham. I do not give a flying fuck about Marin. You don't turn down a player like Isco to keep a player who's been shit the last 3 seasons because "he has potential 2 be tha German Messi xoxoxox". He doesn't even play in the same position as Isco! Why are people making that comparison anyway!? I also want to smack the faces of everyone saying we shouldn't get Isco because we have Piazon lol. Are you serious? GENUINELY are you serious? How on earth do people believe Piazon is some magical 'Kaka' player? He doesn't play the same position as Kaka, is FAR away from the senior national team, and the only thing he's done of note for us is winning a penalty and getting an assist against an Aston Villa side which we had already destroyed before he came on. "Top teams don't have 2 or more quality players for each position" - Bayern Munich say "hello". Juventus say "hello". Real Madrid say "hello". It honestly infuriates me (the mentality of some people on here). I'm positive that some of the same people saying "We shouldn't get Isco because we have Marin/Piazon" (neither of which even play in the same fking position as him) would turn down Messi because "we just signed Ba and our central midfield is a bigger priority." The opinion that "having 3 or 4 top class players in one position means other areas lack that same quality and will suffer" is the worst thing I've ever heard. How big is a squad? Around 25 players? How is having 3 or 4 top quality AM's going to affect one of the richest club's central defence? Someone try and explain that to me using sense and not hypotheticals. Also, above I read something about would I rather have Ba as our only striker while buying Isco and Schurrle - err, what? We have both Ba and Torres at the club. Us paying £15m for Isco instead of £11m for that Taison guy is hardly going to affect our chances of getting another striker in anyway if Torres leaves (finally). No idea what the Schurrle comment was about. Also, signing the player who's tipped to potentially being the best attacking midfielder in the world in a few years time does not affect at all whether we get more 'truly great centre backs' or not. What was that comment about Barcelona having so much attacking talent that Villa can't get into the team and they have 'no central defenders'? Haven't they been the world's best team for a few years now, no? So that comment was pretty much invalid unless it was said to actually support the idea of getting Isco. Jeez. Finally, do people not remember that Mata was actually good on the left wing last season? Do people not remember that Hazard is right footed? Do people not realise that, in theory, we could have Mata as a left winger who tracks back, Isco in the centre behind the striker, and Hazard as a winger who tracks back? That would leave Oscar as our only back-up/rotation option on the bench. People must stop seeing things so black and white. There are many ways this could go. That trio could potentially be one of the best attacking combos seen in the last decade. (No long articles about how Moses must start because he offers more 'balance' please.) Those 3 would be incredible at retaining possession. Assuming we then get a DLP like Benat (for example), keeping possession would be a breeze. If you keep possession, you rarely have to defend. (Of course I'm not suggesting that Mata/Hazard would have no defensive responsibilities at all,though.) Note: Marin = Winger, and one of the most disappointing players in the Bundesliga before joining us. Piazon = 2nd Striker/Winger, who mainly gets this praise because he looks appearance-wise similar to Kaka and is from Brazil. Moses = Winger. De Bruyne = Central Midfielder capable of playing in the hole. So how many attacking midfielders do we have when Hazard & Mata are already playing on the pitch? Oscar? The one who most of you are saying "will play in the double pivot"? Whoah. That's showing great depth at attacking midfield isn't it? Stuff of champions that is right there.

Juan Veron, Kezman, Mutu, SWP etc. Our scouts aren't exactly world class!

People saying "Don't call him shit if you haven't watched him play"; please don't suggest he's good enough for the European Champions if you haven't seen him play. I doubt he'd be happy with a squad role, but I'd actually much rather bring back Kakuta and take a big risk with him than sign this pathetic (yes) excuse for a player. Well, pathetic if he ends up in the squad of the European Champions. He's at the same level as like... Arshavin (on a bad day). Kakuta, Lalkovic etc. would be much better as squad players. This guy is good enough for Tottenham.

Is this someone from the forum? Is this a joke?

Just so people don't have their hopes of this move completely crushed (even though not many, if any, reliable places are reporting this) - if you see a guy on Twitter called La Masia who has around 16k (I believe) followers and is a Spanish football enthusiast saying "Isco isn't leaving. He's in talks to sign a new contract. Move on.", don't take his word for it. He isn't some agent or journalist - just some guy who loves Spanish football and has a well-written blog. Too many people are taking what he says seriously. He isn't an agent, he doesn't know Isco's agent (I assume), and why wouldn't Malaga sell their prized asset? They already sold Cazorla didn't they?!

Don't understand the people who think we don't need him. Whenever we rest either Hazard or Mata our team is simply not good enough in attack. We want to be a TOP club don't we? Well a TOP club has many TOP players fighting for EACH position. Who's threatening Hazard and Mata? Oscar and Piazon? lol no. Oscar has potential and is a good player. Piazon isn't even an AM, neither is Moses, Marin etc. We're one of the richest clubs in the world and the current European Champions. Why settle for anything other than the very best? McEachran doesn't play AM. De Bruyne is clearly a future pivot player. Marin is a winger - simple as that. He wouldn't be a 'back up' option. He would be a top rotation player which we need. Jeez. People talk about how we need more strikers when we've got Torres and Ba yet think we're 'ok' when it comes to our creative midfielders. No. We play around 2 games a week these days. Again - what happens when we rest Mata or Hazard?..... and why does that happen? Because our options aren't good enough when it comes to rotation. Do people not realise how incredible Isco's talent is? Anything near the reported price would be a steal.

Can £40m Bale do this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5bTmy04dqE8

Everyone I know of who attended are saying this was the best away atmosphere in years - I agree. CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE, WE'VE GOT UNTIL MAY!

Love his gestures towards our fans. How did he get that in!? What a perfect touch.

Neither - Happiness.

The flares our away fans have started using give me boners