Leif

The pro-Costa posts in here are disturbing. Purposeful ignorance & sugar-coating, even deviating from the points at hand, with little to no rational thought or context. Just, 'He's better than Torres - how dare you say he should be sold?' with a lie here and there sprinkled in, like 'last year even a handful of us were pining for Hazard to be sold' - we were not. You were not. Nobody on here was saying sell Hazard, and nobody on here is saying Costa has been a shit Chelsea player. People are saying that now is a time where we're just entering that long term ride with him; yet we know he isn't a long-term player, and so based on the fact his mentality seems less than impressive, and his consistency should be questioned, we should cut ties. Simple. Nobody in their heart believes Costa is simply 'shit' without further explanation, so to build pro-Costa retorts based on that is stupid.

wow, what a feat.

I'd feel more confidence with him up front. T

We're neck-and-neck the best 2 teams in England. We have the firepower, they have the chemistry. If we don't win the league, fingers must be pointed towards only Costa & our lack of goals from midfield.

The reason I believe he's considered 'the best CM' by some, is because it's simply absurd and unheard of having a 5'4 player anchoring a team, in the Premier League no less, and yet still outperforming pretty much all of his peers, both on paper and on the pitch. It makes you wonder how much greater he'd be still if he was simply of average build. He's surely thought about that. And so he's taught himself to read the game to a standard Pirlo & Makelele would be proud of. Thus when everything's considered, I'd say he's the most hard working, or perhaps most talented CM there is right now. Not the most effective, not the 'best', but he absolutely carries a magical factor other players simply don't. With everything possible against him, he's going to win the Premier League twice in a row, being a key player both times. I don't think it can be argued that the CM's who're 'better' than him (like Modric/Busquets/etc.) are pulling off anything nearly as impressive currently. It's like having 1 hand and coming 3rd in a boxing tournament with 20 participants. You haven't finished first, but you're sure as hell the most impressive considering you only had half the ammo as the others, and it's doubly impressive when you've probably been dismissed in having the chance to work with the best coaches due to how you look. If Floyd Mayweather was 6'5 like Lennox Lewis, his feats would be far less impressive, and he wouldn't be given nearly the same amount of praise that he's had. But because he's 5'8, yet can kick it with guys up to 6'2 if not more, he has to be considered an anomaly. Even Messi gets extra bonus points over Ronaldo often, just down to the fact Messi had more work to do, being an autistic man-child and all, as Spike would put it. He's the most impressive midfielder in Europe.

The best scenario is buying a top winger, but just for once, not making them an automatic starter before even playing a single game for the club. It keeps them on their toes, keeps our in-form player happy, and eventually 1 of our 2 wingers will get injured or have loss of form, at which point -new signing- comes in, hopefully fights hard to try and earn a spot, and finally we've got healthy competition for places and genuine headaches each game about which players should start.

I love process of elimination like this. Based on this I agree, no other club in the top 5 leagues could surely go in for him. But I wonder about Dortmund if they get a huge sum for Aub. For Belotti, there may be no better-suiting club.

While it's true they don't even play the same role (Nainggolan has played closer to Hazard or Hamsik's role this season than Matic's), it's obvious the Belgian is more versatile, it's clear which of the 2 has had more poor seasons, and there's a night-and-day difference between their mentalities. That said, expectations would obviously have to be managed in the dream-world where we sign Naing. In a midfield 2 with Kante he'd probably stop venturing forward as much as he does now, and it's only since he started doing so, that he graduated from a Tottenham/Atletico/Roma tier player to a player worthy of winning any league. Again though, with that said, sometimes even when a player's had an attacking mindset, and you remove that, you see that their defensive game was secretly improving the whole time too. That's the case with Luiz, and I think it's a likely case here. There's a chance we haven't seen the best of him still, which would be crazy, really.

Fun fact: Sanchez is from Chile, but did you know, Chile are more known for their fish than their sportsmen? That's right, nowhere else in the world can you get such a collection to choose from in regards to fish. There's all kinds. But there's more. Despite these vast reserves, it is Portugal who are said to cook fish the best. Who knows how they got that claim; they just salt the fish then fry it like any old fish, but it is known. If you go to a restaurant, and you ask for fish done Portuguese style, they'll know. They'll do it. And you'll know it's only better than regular fish due to marketing. All of this can be applied to football. Our players are the fish, and our clubs are the boats. Let's make sure we only pick those with the perfect meat for our pots, and not fall for the beautiful scales.

Skipper mentions Belotti quite a bit and that's who I'd go for too. He seems to remind him of a more all-rounded Costa, and he reminds me of Benzema. By Benzema I mean, a striker who'll rarely go 3 games without scoring, does all the basics right, but still unfortunately isn't bringing a leader's mentality. All 3 players strike me as unusually quiet & perhaps very modest in their aims & self-belief. I like a striker to play as-if they're captain of the team, which I think Belotti would do some games but not every game. He's more than worth a punt regardless. He plays like he's 30 & in his prime, and worst case scenario, you end up with one of the best strikers on your bench. *& his link up play isn't the greatest, but it's more honest than Costa's. He's looking for the right pass to make every time; his priority is not falling over. He's also got a more powerful shot than both.

This had 'how could he ever be a long term option?' written all over it when we bought him.

Strange for Sky to be tryng to help us out for once.

Twice the player Kalou was, but he'll end up half the legend.

We will not drop in quality by bringing Loftus Cheek on.

#Sterling just got #Pounded.

oh Tottenham scored, nevermind

I can't tell if i'm nervous or accidentally ate lactose

Don't let this game distract you from the fact there's been 5 goals in 35 minutes in Real Madrid's game

I missed the first 20 minutes; why'd Costa get sent off?

Seeing Matic on the bench makes me instantly want to pound my hand

This is long & barely worth reading. Love

Actually, pressure from the fans has a huge, understated influence over which players do & don't start. If the crowd let Conte know what they think of these Costa shambles, it may lead to bringing in Bats who could perform a miracle, or at the very least have Conte/the board understand our stance before next season, meaning we can get a replacement in - not the following season after that following even more predictable patterns of frustration both from us & Costa. Conte would feel huge pressure if he literally heard Bats's name ringing around the stadium all game, and he'd buckle and serve what we ask for. Arsenal fans have only started booing Wenger in full-droves, and suddenly, the board, Wenger, everyone is listening. If they hadn't been blindly chanting his name for the past 6 or so years, he would've already been gone, and they would've already been turned into a title contender. We won't lose the title because the fans are chanting for Costa and Hazard, but fans blindly being positive will lead to lapses in standards all-round, which'll allow other clubs who're more ruthless to get ahead. If Matic played for Juventus, Madrid, Bayern etc. in his current form, he'd rightfully be booed out of the team, and next season a replacement would come in. But because we're too precious and sensitive to aggressively scapegoat underperformers, we can expect Matic for another 5 seasons.

#SaveUsEto'o

If the blue lenses aren't on, Tottenham are the only team to have played like champions this season. They've been just as we were when Roman first took over. They're the best team in the league and they barely have a bench player I can recognize. The only difference between us & them is Pedro & Hazard turned 3 games from sure-draws to flukey wins. Give them Hazard or Pedro and see what they'd do with real mentalities on the pitch.

We are shite; there's better link-up from a kite. Get this chant going next game.