Leif

Atletico don't sell to them. At all. They offered something crazy for Aguero, Aguero wanted to join them, but they wouldn't allow the transfer to happen. The fans would go crazy. On top of that, why would Real Madrid buy?

Juventus do not player with wingers. When they play a 4-3-3, they play with the usual defence, a deep-lying playmaker in Pirlo, and 2 box-to-box midfielders in Vidal and Marchisio/Asamoah. The "3" in attack is more like.. well, it's hard to explain. It's usually Matri through the middle, Giovinco as a SUPPORTING striker (not a winger), and then Vucinic who drifts wide to become a winger when he wants, or plays like a 2nd-striker. When they play a 3-5-2, they play with 3 central defenders, 2 wings-backs (De Ceglie/Asamoah on the left; Lich/Isla on the right), the usual MVP midfield combo like in the 4-3-3, and then 2 up-top (usually Vucinic and Matri/Giovinco) who can do as they please.

He's certainly not joining Real Madrid. He's surely not joining Manchester City. (It's easy to think they just want to buy everyone, but they're not that stupid.) Who else can afford him? Chelsea, Zenit, Manchester United, Tottenham (assuming they have cash left over from their sales), Bayern Munich, Anzhi, Porto, Barcelona, Benfica, Hamburg at a stretch, PSG, B.Dortmund, AS Roma at a stretch, Juventus (but they don't spend big), Schalke at a stretch, Real Madrid, Liverpool (but they won't spend big and properly), Manchester City, Sao Paulo, and Inter Milan depending on sales. I may be missing someone obvious. Who out of the above are in need of or wanting another striker and could realistically sign him? Chelsea & Schalke (if Huntelaar was to leave). (Manchester City could lose a screw and go after him, but I doubt it.) Sounds simple... right?

Just a random fact I came across. Shevchenko played 46 league games for us, scoring 9 league goals. Torres has played 49 league games for us, scoring 9 league goals.

Well if he is actually the person in this vid, he has pretty skinny legs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/aug/22/i-am-the-secret-footballer-video

The funny thing is, Juventus and Chelsea are probably the only 2 teams I can think of who don't rely on their striker scoring the goals. Most goals from both teams come from midfield.

Re-sign Ballack. Keep him until he's 50. Make him captain. Sorted.

So... you're saying "support has nothing to do with anything" due to us beating 2 teams last season? ... ._____. As has been reported by numerous outlets, and as all followers of Bundesliga know, Bayern Munich supporters don't 'support' their team the whole game. They boo their players often; such as Robben, for any slip-ups they make (unless they're a club legend.) I don't understand how you can use Barcelona as an example either. Every single goal we scored against Barcelona last season was a 'lucky' (as some would call it) counter-attack break; twice initiated by Ramires. Aside from that, we barely left our own half. I'm not trying to sound condescending, but how much of Lichtsteiner have you seen to confidently say "He (Ivanovic) is better than Lichsteiner"? To then mention Azpilicueta who hasn't even played a professional game for us yet is just... foolish. He cannot and should not be compared to anyone by our fans; unless of course you watched him a lot last season with Marseille? No. Barzagli is. Every single area of his game is superior. Watch a few games of Juventus's last season if you want to really get into this. He was certainly amongst the top 10 central defenders last season as any credible follower of Serie A, pundit or journalist will confirm. Finally, as for 'Ivanovic going through a rough patch', that's not good enough. When we talk about players coming up to a game and who's 'better', form is what's being talked about. Otherwise we'd be saying we have the best striker in the world, the best box-to-box midfielder in the world (Essien) and one of the top 3 central defenders in the world (Terry.)

Lichtsteiner is a far superior right-back to Ivanovic. Barzagli is superior to Cahill and Luiz easily, as is Chiellini. Terry is probably even with Barzagli if I'm to be completely un-bias, while we have the superior left-back. I really don't see how that's a even at all. Also, the support of the fans has a lot to do with everything. When Newcastle United fans were singing "Your support is fucking shit, your support is fucking shit" a few weeks ago, our fans hid for a few minutes while Newcastle went through a spell of possession. Support can be the "12th man."

Juve's goalkeeper >>> Chelsea's goalkeeper. (I believe Cech is better than Buffon under pressure, but when it comes to talent and ability, Buffon is slight ahead IMO.) Juve's defence >>>>>>>>> Chelsea's defence Juve's midfield >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Chelsea's midfield Chelsea's front-line >>> Juve's front-line Juve's chemistry >>> Chelsea's chemistry Juve's tactics >>> Chelsea's tactics Chelsea's sudden game-changing players >>> Juve's sudden game-changing players Juve's support (in the stadium) >>> Chelsea's support (in the stadium) Chelsea's manager (when it comes to trophies won) >>> Juve's manager People on here expecting us to win may be in for a shock. I know you should always support your team and it's good to be optimistic, but c'mon. Yes, we won the Champions League and FA Cup, but we finished 6th in the Premier League (behind both Newcastle United and Tottenham) and are about to go against the Serie A Champions who went the season undefeated in the league. I'll stop preaching about this now though!

Is Cahill only getting these votes of confidence because he's English? ._. Although he shouts a lot on the pitch, he doesn't seem comfortable in press conferences or in interviews etc, where your captain really does need to take control, otherwise he'll end up getting slaughtered by the press. As for Mata, I don't think it would be wise making someone with such a small voice who can still not speak our language too well our captain. Although I really don't want him as captain, Cech feels like the obvious choice. It shows what our team has become (I'm not trying to be negative.) Just a few seasons ago, players like Ballack, Carvalho, Drogba, Essien, etc. would all be in with a shout.

There are no Lampard 'haters' on here. There's simply people who see that he cannot play in the double-pivot too well. We cheer him when he plays for Chelsea, and cheer him when he plays for England. Today was no different. However, his goals today don't mean he's suddenly the best player at this club. We're all right/wrong.

It's sad that Falcao is already amongst my top 10 favourite strikers of all time, especially considering he's never played for us. I just love every single goal that he scores (the ones vs. us aside.) Oh well. You can't always live in the past like Loserpool.

I rather stupidly put all my winnings from today on a Colombia win. I fear they'll be conceding soon. EDIT: Annnndddd forget that Made over £150 in total tonight!

Cavani is the type of player to go down a legend for the club he plays for. Falcao is the type of player to go down a legend for the club he plays for, the country he plays for, and football as a whole. (From what I've seen of them over the past few seasons, anyway.)

Best striker in the world, hands down.

FFS ITALY! RUINED MY BET!

My accumulators are going crap. One of them is for France and Netherlands to win, but Netherlands look like conceding at any moment, while France have stopped moving forward. (Both are leading 1-0.) My other one is for England, Italy, Portugal and Belgium to win. Portugal are tied 1-1, England will win, Italy look crap at the back (currently lead 2-1) while Belgium are just wasting chances (leading 1-0.)

In my opinion, aside from when Lahm is playing at left-back, Cole is still the best LB in the world when on form. However; despite all the tweets to Arsenal fans, passion shown on the pitch etc, it's always felt to me that he's really an Arsenal boy at heart. I know; not every player we sign can support Chelsea, but due to the above, I somehow don't feel any 'love' for him like I do for our other players. It's never felt like he is Chelsea to me. I'll be very happy if he stays a while longer if he continues to be great for us playing-wise, but if he leaves, I'm fine with it as long as Bertrand looks good enough and ready to step up properly.

He's returned to light training. Good news.

Chelsea have named the biggest playing personnel in the Premier League for the new campaign: [CREDIT: Dan Levene/ @BluesChronicle] The Blues have handed in a mammoth squad list containing 83 names: most youth & academy players. It shows how much investment Chelsea have made in youth: with their junior list longer than that of any other club. The first team over-21 squad carries few surprises: except the inclusion of Florent Malouda; and the Scrabble-winning extent of Hilario's full name – it goes off the edge of the page! Home-growns (8) Cole, Ashley Lampard, Frank James Moses, Victor Turnbull, Ross Sturridge, Daniel Cahill, Gary James Terry, John George Bertrand, Ryan Non home-growns (12): Cech, Petr Ivanovic, Branislav Azpilicueta Tanco, Cesar Luiz Moreira Marinho, David Santos Do Nascimento, Ramires Torres Sanz, Fernando Jose Mata Garcia, Juan Manuel Mikel, John Obi Malouda, Florent Johan Ferreira, Paulo Renato Rebocho Marin, Marko Hilario Meireles Alves Sampaio, Henriques The U21 list contains names already seen in the first team (Oscar, Eden Hazard), those on-loan (Josh McEachran, Thibaut Courtois), and those playing at junior level for the club. There are high profile additions (the Musonda brothers), and one or two impressive middle names on display (full credit to Todd Arthur Lucien Kane). Under 21 players (contract & scolars) (63) Affane, Amin Ake, Nathan Benjamin Ashton, James Alexander Baker, Lewis Renard Bamford, Patrick James Bangura, Samuel Beeney, Mitchell Ryan Blackman, Jamal Clint-Ross Chalobah, Nathaniel Nyakie Christensen, Andreas Bodtker Clifford, Billy Clifford, Conor Cole, George Conroy, Dion John Courtois, Thibaut Dabo, Fankaty Sheikam Davey, Alex James Davila Plascencia, Ulises Alejandro De Bruyne, Kevin Deen-Conteh, Abdul Aziz Delac, Matej Dos Santos Emboaba Junior, Oscar Feruz, Islam Figueira, Walter Gnahore, Ambrose Gnahoua Gordon, Benjamin Lawrence Gordon, Alastair Hazard, Eden Hazard, Thorgen Ganael Francis Houghton, Jordan Howard, Tom Ince, Rohan Kakuta, Gael Kalas, Tomas Kandi, Chike Kane, Todd Arthur Lucien Killip, Ben Kiwomya, Andrew Alexander Lalkovic, Milan Loftus Cheek, Ruben Lukaku, Romelu Menama McEachran, Joshua Mark Mitchell, Reece Steven Muleba, Jonathan Musonda, Lamisha Chashi Musonda, Tika Kafusha Nditi, Adam Eric Richard Nortey, Nii Nortei Omeruo, Kenneth Osmanovic, Anjur Pappoe, Daniel Mills Phillip, Adam Piazon, Lucas Domingues Pirez Araujo, Jhon Alexander Saville, George Alan Seremba, Ismail Ssewankambo, Isak Ssali Starkey, Jesse Aaron Swift, John David Van Homoet Bruma, Jeffrey Kevin Vidal, Oriol Romeu Walker, Samuel Colin Wright, Kevin

Can't wait for the Azzurri game! Hopefully my sexy De Rossi play as well as Osvaldo who's capable of some of the best goals you'll ever see.

100%.

... i'm seeing that now.. please don't hurt me..

How dare you doubt me. *slaps you*. YOU LIKE THAT BITCH? HUH? YOU LIKE THAT!!!! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR QUESTIONING ME!!! *Throws last night's half-eaten curry at you which we couldn't finish due to finding cat hair in it*