The Mak

1. Oh the irony. 2. Step into the position we currently have an overflow of players for. Rooney currently has a 'niggling' injury which usually translates to a long-term problem - while Mata, Oscar and Hazard hardly missed a game all last season. People have been on here for weeks saying that his fitness is a problem and now he is injured before pre-season; I don't think it's a coincidence. I think it should say something and I don't think it should be dismissed simply because of stuff he has done in the past. In the more recent past he missed most of the season and still wasn't fit by the end of it. And if it truly 'wasn't a big deal' I'm sure he wouldn't have to fly all the way back to Manchester, no? I don't want the club to risk being stuck with one of, if not the, highest earning player in the PL who lives in the treatment room...I'm not trying to be argumentative or anything, just realistic. This is the last i'll say on Rooney: I think some people are having the 'Torres' mindset again. I mean this in terms of simply focusing on the big name of the player and his past glories, instead of the player he is now.

Oh look, fat boy is injured before even kicking a ball...I for one am shocked! Shocked I say!

Bit late responding now, but I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you! (My daughter is actually getting Christened on Sunday and things have been hectic!) Anyway, where I was coming from on the whole Cavani thing was that if we were actually in for him (which I'm not even sure we were to be honest) any self-respecting player these days would be be pushing for a move to the PL, even if they were offering a few million less than the transfer fee. But I suppose Ligue 1 is becoming more attractive. It'll turn more into La Liga next season though; two-horsed race and all that. But I still think it's nothing compared to the PL, call me biased! I do agree though. Because either way, competition for him or not, PSG would have have to pay such a price and Napoli would then have to sell.

But a player surely has a say on where they go? ADL can hardly say: "right, they met your release clause, off you go son!". I'm sure it only allows PSG to speak to Cavani, if he doesn't agree personal terms or doesn't want to play in a shit league he can tell PSG where to go. That's why I think he's a bit of a hypocrite, he always said he'd leave for a bigger club, well I don't think PSG are any bigger than Napoli right now... Anyway, I digress. De Rossi!

He could give 2-3yrs max (as a starter). It'd be perfect timing all around because we can only hope Chalobah/Aké/RLC are ready to take over by that time.

Why thank you! That's always nice!

He's either seen Eva and been told that she's in charge of 'rub downs' or he's just seen Branna's arse! I'll let you guys decide which!

Indeed. I don't know much about him myself, but if he's confident and comfortable on the ball (which it sounds like he is) I can't see him being too far off the mark as being a decent squad player for us in his first year. It might be better if people think of it this way, Moses, Marin and Yossi or Schurrle, KDB, Moses, Van Ginkel? However, if he does really want a world cup spot, it'd be best if he went on loan to somewhere like Werder Bremen.

From AS.com eh? More like BS.com! Am I right? ...is this thing on?

Don't....just don't

It's about time we got a bit of dutch magic! From what I hear, he's mainly a CM who likes to go forward? I could be wrong, but it may point to us alternating between 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 for certain games as a lot of our AMs are also comfortable on the wing. I'm all for the signing, but it's still not addressing our main concerns. These: The pivot in particular is in dire need of a world class talent or some experience. It's where we fell down a lot last season. If it came to it, I think we could go another season with the defence and strikers we have at the moment, but only if the pivot gets a top, top signing. Maybe if even two, especially if the links of Mikel to Turkey are in anyway true. We can't get distracted by buying more flashy attacking youth when we also need players who can get the dirty work done as well. However, I think this may be a leftover Emenalo signing that Jose simply gave the green light to. I don't think Emenalo is too adept at picking defensive players, so I turst Mourinho to get it right. I think the next signings will be influenced more by José... P.S. I think MVG should probably go out on loan. He'd add great depth, but the likes of Werder Bremen would take him in a second and he'd start nearly all their games.

PSG have to do that because their league is so shit. And where does Cavani's preference fit into all of this? ADL can hardly say "ok, these people paid the release clause, off you pop son!". No, Cavani has to agree to go there and if he does, he's an hypocritical idiot in my eyes. He's always said "leave for a bigger club". PSG are hardly bigger than Napoli, maybe in bank balance but that's it. In fact, Cavani probably has a better chance of winning the CL with Napoli. If he goes to us or Real, yeah sure. But PSG are simply the overcompensating new boys on the block; they have next to no European credentials whatsoever. I know I'd rather go to the team that won two European trophies in two years than a mega-rich team who had to scrap to win one of the shittiest leagues in Europe....

I'd drive him to Turkey for that amount.

Great shout! I also nominate Alex for his epic banhammer wielding skillz! To be fair, you did get rid of a few tarts this month!

stingray/ulsterchelsea, I can't decide!

Sorry, but fuck United and fuck Rooney. We have Lukaku. The beast that came off the bench to score a hattrick against them last season. I'd rather have 15yrs of the man mountain who already loves Chelsea, instead of 2-3 good years (if even) of a waning Rooney - the moaning money grabber.

We should just get Jose to buy all of Porto's scouts. Saves all these over inflated fees! I mean, surely they're cheaper than any player Porto have sold us and attempted to sell us? And some prices they put on their player's head is just ridiculous. I'd be glad to see them without their main source of income: ripping everyone else off!

Thank fuck for that.

For the amount of coverage this topic gets from everyone, I haven't seen one solid source that explicitly links De Rossi with us...

I'd say it'd be pretty balanced weight for midfielders, but can it be if it's attacking midfielders vs. defensive? It's all so complicated, but deliciously interesting and nerdy!

There seems to be a weird obsession with fans and 'home-grown' players. Honestly, why the hell do we really care? The club will always ensure we have enough, one way or another. I personally have never seen it as a big deal. I certainly don't see it as much of a valid point when spending a couple of million that could be invested elsewhere. As Alex said, we may as well have kept Turnbull in that case. Worst case scenario, we promote Blackman as 3rd choice and get a different back up (which is what I thought we were doing in the first place). I don't see a point in signing the likes of Ruddy either. He might be back-up now, but any keeper that comes here knows that they might even be 3rd choice in a couple of years if Cech stays while Courtois is no. 1.

Love all this stuff. @TorontoChelsea, where did you get the figures exactly? I do Statistics for Psychology and I'd love to mess with some fun figures for a change! (sad I know!) I was thinking about this, but I'm unsure how you would combine each stat into an overall stat exactly. Still, it'd be interesting to see stats like: passes complete in opposition half vs. possession given away in own half!

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8796332/ Bundesliga: Schalke president Clemens Tonnies says Julian Draxler could move on A German left-sided, right-footed attacking midfielder...wait, don't tell me, I've heard this one before...twice...

We won't get him. Seems more like a cheeky bid than anything else. We'd be mad to increase it and Ruddy would be mad to come here.

26 guests watching this thread and one member (me)...wtf