Leif

I personally believe that, IF we keep Torres (which we are it would seem), Sturridge + Lukaku are fine. If we buy Cavani, all I'll hear on here is - "Y LUKAKU NO GIVEN CHANCE!? ". Also, people don't seem to realise that this was Sturridge's 1st season of regular senior football of his career - and even then, he was dropped for most of the tail end of the season when Di 'sexy' Matteo came in. If given another full season as a rotation option as a STRIKER and not an inside forward on the right, I'm sure that the following season everyone will want Sturridge to be the main man.

Love him. For any new fans we've picked up since the CL win, here are 2 of his most memorable goals. Pefect:

This frustration isn't from the game today. He had a good cameo. Instead, for me anyway, this game just allows me to release the frustration I've built up now that he's worn THREE different Chelsea home kits, and only scored 7 league goals.

Our whole squad could be so much better without Torres. We sell Torres. We play Sturridge in his CORRECT position. We FINALLY have a good English striker again. With Torres gone, Lukaku is the back-up/rotation option, with Hulk capable to play as the striker if needed. When Sturridge is tired out or we're against a weaker team, Lukaku shines. In fact, Lukaku shines so much, that the manager doesn't know who to pick when, at around Christmas time, we face Manchester United. Di Matteo takes a gamble, and plays them both up front. We play a cautious game. Welbeck scores an audacious goal, running from the half way line, jolting past our defenders, exchanging a one-two with Kagawa, to then chip poor old Cech. This goal is quickly ruined by a Vidic own-goal from a Mata-taken corner just minutes later after Cahill headed the ball onto Vidic's left boot. For the rest of the game, we hoof long balls up to Lukaku who battles against a shook Vidic, holding the ball up and flicking it past the final defender for the pacey Sturridge to latch onto. Chance, after chance, after chance... and then a goal. 2-1. Sturridge makes his biggest impact as a Chelsea player. Full time. After seeing the success of Lukaku, faith is restored in the Chelsea board and management, and they now again believe that we CAN indeed succeed with our youth. Over the course of the season, we bleed in the likes of Josh McEachran and Todd Kane against Wigan, Reading etc, even Chalobah, Feruz and Piazon get a few cup games. We're finally looking towards the future. January comes, and unlike usual, we don't need to splash the cash on some panic-buy. Our players are happy, playing with confidence, and we're sitting nicely in 2nd place, just 4 points adrift leaders Manchester City. Match day comes on the first weekend of January, and we face the blue half of Manchester under floodlights while the snow beats down. Sturridge, with 13 goals already to his name this season, marks his return to his old club with his first Chelsea league hat-trick. Heroic is the only word. Lukaku is an unused sub. Hulk came on for Sturridge in the 83rd minute as Marin started on the right. We're now 1 point behind Manchester City, who have United, Arsenal and Newcastle for their next 3 games. We have Southampton, Liverpool and Norwich City. We're getting back to the top. (I can dream, right?)

Can't believe that this is our main striker next season. Completely ruins and makes me forget the feeling. THE feeling. That WE won the Champions League - Without a scoring striker; barring Drogba's few games. Imagine how much we could have won if we had...anyone else. Literally anyone else. Not optimistic for next season.

Has anyone on here ACTUALLY watched Chelsea TV today and seen/heard Jason Cundy even mention Di Matteo? Looking at the Chelsea TV schedule, doesn't look like there would have been anything on yet which would allow Cundy to even be on TV yet.

Note about managers and transfers: I'm shocked that more people don't know this, but it's actually RARE that in a top team the manager is just given a sum of money and then makes whatever transfer(s) he wants (which is what most people assume since they play Fifa, PES and Football Manager this way.) The top scout, DoF (if the team has one) etc. all have their part to say in each and every transfer and staff addition, and eventually, the manager is more like an idea-man who sees a player, thinks "Oh, he'd go well in my team", but then must run it by the members of the board to get their approval before making a formal move. The board want to make sure the transfer is OK for the team in their eyes, won't damage the club's reputation, and most important of all; good for business. Managers like Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson are very lucky to be in almost complete control of transfers. The main top league where managers get the least say in transfers is Serie A. Rarely will a manager have anything to do with negotiations, choosing his own players etc. Juventus are a prime example. Antonio Conte will choose maybe 2 players that are to his liking (Pirlo and Vidal), get the board to approve + sanction the transfers, and then the board will make 3-or-so more signings by themselves and tell Conte: "Do your best with them. Make them work." This is nothing new what we're doing. We're simply an Italian style club I guess. • Our owner is involved in everything. • We play defensive-counter-attacking football. • We don't have much patience when it comes to managers. • We don't use many homegrown players. • We don't give our manager much control. Take a look at Inter, AC Milan and Juventus, and then compare them with us. They have almost the exact same structure. We were simply the first major team to do this in England. Regardless who we get in, or if Di Matteo stays, the transfer policy will remain.

I just want us to sign a good value deal for once, or sign someone we'll make a substantial profit on. I'm probably missing someone really obvious, but the last person I remember us making a good profit on was Robben to Real Madrid. I believe we got exactly double our money back.

Messi scores 3 goals in the strongest possible Argentina line-up against Brazil's "C" team (barring 3 players) - Media jizzes like there's no tomorrow.

Oscar >>> Ganso. Well, maybe not, but he's damn good.

van Der Wiel. Hulk. Fellaini. Moutinho. Azpilicueta. Modric. Tiote. Cavani. Jovetic.

Is a left back.

Starts for Brazil vs. Argentina: Brazil starting XI vs Argentina: Rafael; Rafael da Silva, Juan, Thiago Silva, Marcelo; Sandro, Romulo, Oscar; Neymar, Hulk, Leandro Damiao.

The fact that I didn't even have to mention your name or quote you yet you clearly know it's about you, shows that what I'm saying is correct, otherwise you'd have no reason to think it's about you. uMaDBr0?

And I thought I was embarrassing..

Starts vs. Denmark. I personally don't particularly want him here, but it looks like we may be getting him, so I hope he has a great game!

You know what? This isn't even a joke - We should terminate our link with Vitesse and set one up with Anderlecht instead.

I think we've signed all 3. We probably only want Charly, but bought his brothers too so he wouldn't feel homesick or something. idk.

Cech's hat is so fking cute.

I think I agree with literally everything you just said.

Haven't seen much of him. Will look out for him in the Poland game later.

Big rumour going around: Apparently we're in talks with Barcelona to sign Sergi Roberto, after having a £6mil bid accepted. He won't leave this Summer, but would leave the following Summer instead. . . or something like that.

New Belgian talent we're linked with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DxrISLufM

Lille, Twente, Hoffenheim & Wolfsburg all apparently want to loan De Bruyne.

A reminder of what Romeu does, this time against the current English Champions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Fb5HVy54A