Reddish-Blue

Martinez's work is so amazing that Wigan have only managed a 29% win record. He's survived a few relegation threats and just won the Fa Cup against a below-par City.

If this turns out to the true....I'll be glad that Falcao chose Monaco! :blue scalf:

We're sending out the message that we just love to stockpile young talented footballers. Then we loan them out for 2-3 seasons, see if the manager wants them or just sell them off. We could have one of the best attacking trios in European football over the next decade: Hazard - Mata - De Bruyne/Oscar (assuming one of them eventually becomes more of a CM) Signing Torres was a mistake, selling De Bruyne would be disgraceful.

If we manage to sign a new DM/CM, get Romeu back to full match fitness...it'll be interesting to see who plays the DM position next season..

Cole is a much better LB than Clichy will ever be. Cech is a world-class goalkeeper. Hart isn't at that level yet, he needs to perform consistently at UCL level. But yea, overall...I do agree that City will be a better team next season.

Liverpool does suit Sturridge better....but their coach has also put faith into Sturridge. He's a much more confident player at Liverpool because he's playing regularly and he knows he's got the coaches full support.

I'd be happy with a frontline of Lewandowski, Ba, Lukaku and Schurrle. The only worry is...can we offload Fernando?

IF Jose doesn't come....Roman would probably persuade Hiddink to take over. But you're right...there aren't many top-class coaches out there...

Tottenham for sure, hate them the most. United and Liverpool always put up a good fight...

Hiddink would be awesome....but i'm worried about his age. We should give Hiddink the football director role at Chelsea...he'd be a better option than Emenalo.

Lucas only had two options....PSG or Man United. Real Madrid wanted him in 2 seasons time.. Then United pulled out because they didn't want to pay over 30 million. That left Lucas with an easy option...take a massive pay increase and go to PSG or stay in Brazil for another year..

Agree with your post. Sturridge just wasn't appreciated at Chelsea. If we gave him half the opportunities Torres got....i'm sure he'd be able to beat Torres' goal tally at Chelsea I'm glad that Sturridge has found a club that will utilise his ability properly. Kinda pissed that Liverpool only paid 12 million for him

I think Martinez was right...when he said that Moses moved to a top club one season too early. Hopefully as Moses matures in the coming seasons, we see more consistency in his game. He's got all the tools to be a solid player, just wish he'd try to take on the opposition LB more often McManaman will be a star, he just loves to beat the opposing fullback one on one. He must have given Clichy nightmares throughout the whole game

Hazard will be a massive miss. Wouldn't be surprised to see a penalty shootout...

True but most of his performances in midfield have been solid enough. It will be interesting to see what our next manager does with our midfield in the coming seasons...with the likes of Chalobah, Aké, the returning Romeu as they can all play DM...

Ba and Moses were not very impressive against Villa. I was expecting to see a bit more energy, work-rate from Moses...he looked a bit lethargic. He'll be a good homegrown squad player for us in the coming seasons...but we need to invest into the RW position. As for Ba, he just looked tired throughout the whole match.... Then you look at the younger, hungrier Benteke doing well for Villa...and you can't help but wonder.. if we give Lukaku a proper chance, he'd give EPL defenders nightmares for the next decade

Awesome stuff by Frank Lampard to become our all-time leading goalscorer. Now, he should be allowed to depart on a high and possibly make way for talented youngsters such as De Bruyne.

Lampard and Ramires as a pivot...was always going to fail. Ramires isn't a fucking DM... We won't win this game against a fresher, hungrier Villa side.

All we need is a win and we basically guarantee UCL football.

I think if you take away two top-class players from any team, they'll look like absolute crap. You take away RvP from Arsenal last season, they'd finish mid-table...take him away from United this season, they wouldn't have won the PL title so easily... You take away Bale from Spurs, they'd be below 6th for sure... In most cases, the team's performance is based on the brilliance of 2-3 players...unless you have a strong tactical system like Dortmund, Bayern, Barca of 2-3 years ago... I'm not saying that Benitez has 'achieved' anything at Chelsea...but your example applies to most clubs.

Not many "above average" managers available for an interim job...

Fellaini to United makes alot of sense. Good deal for both clubs...Everton gets around 20 million and United gets a midfielder.

Some people will never see the importance of Benitez's work at Chelsea. I agree that he's a complete cunt & has been clueless about substitutions since his Liverpool days...but he's steadied the ship. He hasn't overachieved (by winning trophies) or underachieved (by finishing 5th or 6th). He's satisfied the minimum requirements of an interim manager. Now, both parties can move on without too much of a fuss.

we got humiliated in the UCL because of Robbie :blue scalf:

It's always funny seeing Benayoun on the pitch...such a useless player. He must love life at Chelsea....just train with the first team squad, make a few time wasting substitute appearances and then collect your weekly wages. Why did we keep him this season? To be honest, I'd rather see the skinny Josh McEachran on the bench than Benayoun..who kissed the Arsenal badge and celebrating when RvP beat us last season