TorontoChelsea

Don't see any way Kakuta gets playing time. If he refuses to go on loan, some mid-table team will buy him which is fine. Our midfield will be ridiculously over-crowded once Oscar comes. We need to be getting rid of two of Malouda, Essien, and Benayoun and sending all of our younger players out on loan.

Hulk is not a striker. He's a right winger. If you need a striker, you go and get one, you don't get someone who can play striker in a pinch just like you would buy Cavani because he's an elite striker not because he can also play on the right. And as for needing a winger, it really depends on the system Chelsea will play.. If they want to play a 4-3-3, then they need a classic right winger. However, I think they'll go with the 4-1-1-3-1 they played last year in which case, Chelsea don't need a pure winger. In fact, after Oscar, we definitely don't need any more midfielders.

I actually prefer Cavani to Falaco because of his longer track record at the top level, but only barely. I'd rate both well ahead of of Hulk. Agree that while our playmaking has been addressed, our lack of goal-scoring has not. I thought going into the transfer period that we needed a creative midfielder to replace Kalou/Malouda and allow Mata more freedom and rest, a striker to replace Drogba who can score regularly, and a backup RB who would be an improvement on Bosingwa. I haven't changed my mind.

There are probably 4-5 players who have to be on every list another 15 that are possibilities. It also depends on what player of the year means. Drogba really didn't have a very good year overall, but was massive in a few big games. Pirlo was a fantastic player all season, but Juventus didn't play in Europe at all. Personally, I tend to go for overall performance. Ronaldo, Messi, Pirlo, Aguero, Van Persie, Iniesta, Pirlo, Kagawa, Mata, Xavi. (So many other players are at the same sort of level-Ozil, Kompany, Lewandowski, Silva,, Ya Ya Toure, etc...it makes it so difficult to make a list you're happy with...) As for chelsea 1-Mata 2-Cole 3-Cech 4-Lampard 5-Drogba 6-Terry 7-Sturridge 8-Ramires 9-Ivanovic 10- Mikel

It would finish Torres as Chelsea's number 1 striker. No way around that really. Cavani is better, younger, more confident, and in better form. (And the Torres improved his form under RDM is just nonsense. He had 4 good games under RDM, Benfica, Leicester, QPR, and Villa. The rest of his games where the same lack of production and quality as usual.)

My thoughts as well. This is indicative of a big problem in news in general now. There is so much emphasis on being first that people always jump the gun on stories. Wait 5 minutes and get the story right.

It would be a pretty blatant lie then to call it "the biggest deal". Hazard was better known, more sought after, and more expensive.

Most of North America has had a ridiculously hot summer. Toronto is supposed to hit 37 today. Not that I'm complaining. I love the heat although 37 with this humidity is pushing it.

It's also the league. The Premier League is the best league in the world and some players have difficulty adjusting. But mostly, it's because players are declining or just not good enough. We just bought Shevchenko when he was declining. He went back to Milan and was ever worse for them . Hard to say Berbatov struggled too much. He's been a disappointment, but he did lead the Premier League in goals a season ago. Crespo did not struggle with us. He scored 20 goals in 49 league games. He just was not comfortable with us. Kezman was a great striker in Holland but was just not good enough to succeed elsewhere and he had a drug problem to boot. etc... Some players succeed in certain systems and not others of course, but if you are a top striker, you should be able to score regardless of the situation. You have to create your own space, your own chances, and your own goals no matter what.

Why? A good striker will play well in a number of different systems. No, Torres is never going to fit into a physical long-ball attack, but we didn't play that last year. We have played 3 different styles in the year and a half that Torres has been at Chelsea and he's been bad at all of them. (And no, he wasn't great under RDM. he played 18 matches under him and had 4 good games). You don't build a team system just to ensure that it fits your striker, you build a team system that fits all your players. If Cavanii costs 60M, he's not worth it, but if Chelsea can get him for 35-40M and can off-load Torres for 20-25M or so, Chelsea would be a much better team for it.

There's no way Cavani would be a second choice striker. He's an elite player and if he's bought by anyone, it will be to lead their attack.

Think it will probably be Ronaldo but I would love it if Leslie Davies won. This list is ridiculous so might as well have fun with it. I was going to start listing problems with the list (Torres is on it, Raul is on it, Lewandowski is not, etc...) but there are way too many to list.

Don't see why. Torres earns, I think, around 175K a week so it's not like 150K is breaking some new barrier. If Chelsea were to get Cavani, it would make sense to sell Torres anyway.

It would be 35M for Cavani which is expensive but reasonable for one of the best strikers in the world.Last year-Aguero went for 28M and Falcao for 40.7M.

If Chelsea get Cavani (a very big if at this point) I think they'd probably sell Torres. Cavani is the type of player who would start 45 games and keeping Torres around to start 15 games would be distracting and expensive (Remember, he also has the highest wages on the club). I'd much rather see what Sturridge can do in a backup roll.

Give me a break. Kaka cost 8.5M Euros and Messi cost nothing. If Chelsea were to spend those amounts on anybody, I wouldn't care. And the difference between Kaka and Oscar? Kaka was named the best player in Brazil before Milan bought him. Oscar's nowhere near that level. He wasn't a candidate for player of the year and he didn't even make team of the year. He was not deemed to be one of the best players in Brazil by people who watch that league and you're trying to argue that he's one of the best players in the world. You're also arguing something entirely different that makes no sense. Your basic argument is "some South Americans can be great, so therefore paying anything can be justified for a South American who might be great". It's nonsense both in fact and in logic. If we went and bought some crappy Northern Irish player for 50M pounds, I could say, "well, how well did George Best turn out"? Just because Kaka turned out to be a fantastic player, doesn't mean that every Brazilian with potential will. Just because a player might have incredible potential, doesn't mean that he's worth 25M. Your example of Villa shows exactly the opposite of what you were trying to say. Real Madrid didn't go after him because they thought he was overpriced, not because he was discounted as you said. Mata was not some cheap find, he was a top young player bought for a good fee of 23.5M. Some people here live in a bubble where spending 20M pounds is nothing. The average Premier League team spent 25M pounds in total last season. There were 3 players in the entire league that were bought for more than 20M pounds. (Aguero, Mata, Nasri). Other clubs are able to get talent, even young talent, even exception young talent for less than 25M pounds.

This is just nonsense. Valencia were in debt and had to sell their players, but you don't think other clubs were willing to pay for Villa, Silva and Mata? You think they gave them away at a discount? That's not the way the transfer market works. They weren't forced to get rid of their entire team in a one week period or something, they were selling one top player a season and lots of teams had tremendous interest in their players. There was no discount. That was just their value and it was fair value. And as I said earlier, having only a year left on your contract, makes your transfer cheaper, but it doesn't cut it in half. You look at someone like Cahill who only had a few months left on his contract and we paid 8M. Does that mean we really paid like 24M pounds for him? Of course not. And Oscar better than Reus? This is the insanity of overrating players based on potential. Reus has been a fantastic player in the Bundesliga for 2 seasons. 29 goals and 17 assists over the past 2 years in one of the best leagues in the world. Most people had him as one of the top 5 players in Germany last season. Oscar wasn't on the team of the season in Brazil. Reus put up better numbers in Germany than Oscar did in Brazil. He was excellent when he played in the Euro with much stiffer competition. (Fighting for spots with guys like Goetze, Podolski, and Mueller.) It doesn't boil down to how much potential you think Oscar has, it boils down to whether you think you should be spending 25M pounds on established excellent young players or on players with a lot of potential. It boils down to whether you think buying youth is more important than buying talent.

So, it looks like a better bargain that the worst transfer spending in history? If you judge anything by what Liverpool did in the last couple of years, it will look great. This is just not true. I have already shown what the cost of players are today. In the last 2 seasons, Mata signed last year for 23.5M. Silva signed or 24M. Kagawa was 17.5M (with only a year left ton contract), Ozil signed for 15M Euros (same contract situation) Ya Ya Toure was 24M. Reus was 17.5M Euros, Ramires for 22M Euros, Etc..All of these players were more established than Oscar and Oscar is going for more than all of them. 25M for a midfielder should get you someone like Mueller or Modric (not for Chelsea because of the bad blood there) not just a promising young player. And "the cost of players today" is pretty much because of us and a few other teams driving up costs in moves like this one. (And Drogba was 26 and a striker and coming off a fantastic season in League 1 and in Europe. Strikers always cost more money.)

It's true that some of those players won't play in 2014, but some of them certainly will. This run of games has been to see what the younger players can do and the Olympics will be a continuation of that.

Because way too many Chelsea fans (especially those who are post-Abramovich), don't care at all about money or value or what over-spending does to football in general. If we bought Oscar for 40M, the same people would be saying "great signing, he's the next Iniesta, who cares how much we spent?". Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have him and I will support him, we just spent way too much money to get him.

The other starters in midfield recently for Brazil are Sandro, Lucas, Romulo, Caesmiro, and Gioliano. This is not Spain or Germany where the midfield are all world-class. This is a very young and unproven team and have been playing their young players as a warm-up for the Olympics so virtually all their starting players are under 23. If this were the World Cup or Copa America, Brazil would be playing a very different starting XI. For example, you look at the last couple of games Brazil has played- none of Cesar, Danny Alves, Lucio, Maicon, Andre Santos, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ramires, and Robinho played. (and Brazil lost both games).

It's true, and that effects value a fair bit, but it doesn't cut it in half. Ozil went for 15M Euros. If he had another year or two left on his contract, maybe he would have gone for 20M Euros or so, maybe even more. The point is that he still would have cost a lot less than Oscar despite a much better pedigree. The issue with Oscar is not that we are paying a little too much, it's that we are paying probably 10M pounds more what a player of his experience should go for. Yes, he's a wunderkind, he's very talented, etc...but there are a lot of players like that out there. He could become an incredible player, but he could also become the next Anderson. There's simply no reason to be paying such an exorbitant fee for such an unproven player (and at a position where we didn't need anyone). 25M for a midfielder should be an elite, proven, young player, not a prospect.

Ridiculous amount of money for an unproven midfielder.25M for a midfielder should get you a young, proven, excellent player and Oscar is far from that. Chelsea bought Juan Mata, who had had 3 years of success in Spain, for less money. City got Silva , excellent in Spain, for less money. Manchester United got Kagawa who has been a dominant force for the best team in Germany for a year and a half for a lot less money. Ozil went for half the price. In fact, Oscar now becomes one of the highest priced midfielders in history. Hopefully Oscar develops well and makes himself worth it, but this is an enormous and needless gamble. Oscar has to become one of the best players in the Premier League for this to even be decent value.

Not only that but strength from a winger is a very very small part of their game. When you talk about the importance of strength, you're almost always talking about a striker, a central defender, or maybe a defensive midfielder. Hulk has many other skills that make him a very good winger, but I don't care much about his strength.

I don't think Willian was ever an AVB target. Roman and the Shakhtar owner are friends.