The only place to be

That selection of keepers does raise an interesting point. Look how long it took United to replace Schmeichel. Look at how Arsenal struggled to get an established number one after Seaman. Khan played until he was older, but it cost Bayern €22 million to replace him. Buffon has lasted a while but he's still the most expensive keeper ever. Replacing world class keepers isn't that easy, and rarely is it that cheap. We have a chance to go from one of the world's best 4 keepers to another. That opportunity might be unique in the history of football (could spend my day researching that.....nah).

The Southampton game? Unfortunately that game pretty much summed up Mata's place in our system. He did nothing wrong but we just weren't firing like we have been in other games. The introduction of Willian and Oscar brought pace and directness to the game both in attack and defence. It's not an isolated incident either. Mata simply doesn't fit in our team anymore and making space for him completely changes the way the team plays. Benitez got away with playing him because he built the entire system around him and accepted that he will bring certain weaknesses to the team. That's fine when he's playing well but on off-days (and he did have them) then the whole team looks poor. You've got yourself a great player but he has to be used in a very specific way. Fortunately you've got a tactical genius in charge

Wish him the best of luck. Actually thought he showed some flashes of the old Michael this season but that just made me miss him even more. From our point of view this is just one more step in the right direction though.

In light of his recent transfer to Manchester, Juan Mata has decided to rename his blog. Instead of One Hour Behind, it will now be named Twenty Years Behind.

Seriously people, lay off him. Juan Mata is one of the most cultured, intellectually curious footballers in the Premier League.... And he's got to live in Manchester. His blog is going to be fucking boring from now on. Monday - saw a canal. Tuesday - went to the Trafford Centre Wednesday - Ryan Giggs showed me his stick collection Thursday - spent the morning playing catch with David De Gea - I won. Friday - had a go on the boss's daughter....she smelt like Wilfred still....I miss the canal.

So this is the video in question right? Firstly, why is the Maccabi keeper fist-bumping players not being mentioned? Secondly, the player next in line to the Maccabi keeper is high-fiving. What's the difference? Thirdly, it looks like every Maccabi player has their hand up to high-five. It just seems so fucking innocuous to be honest. He didn't spit on them, he didn't avoid contact and he seems quite happy to be employed by a club owned by a Jew and with two other Jews on the board.

Give Mata a break people. He's a footballer and he wants to play football. It doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate us and it doesn't mean he's ungrateful and that we should start burning shirts with his name on. :confused: He's served us well but we simply have no need for him so of course he'll be happy to move somewhere we can can be fully utilised and also earn twice as much as we were paying him (that's another issue...eventually he would've wanted to receive the wage he felt he deserved and he'll get that at United). It's a good move all round. We've got rid of a player we don't need for a healthy profit, we've already replaced him with Willian, we've bought in a young player who seems to suit the team a lot more (proper squad depth vs the fake squad depth Mata offered us - depth only counts if you're prepared to actually use it) whilst denying Liverpool a player they wanted and Mata gets to play football regularly again. The only downside is that it might reinvigorate United but there's a one word answer to that thought.....Moyes.

Wllian was Mata's replacement. Jose viewed Mata as an inverted right-winger. He ended up signing and playing Willian as a replacement. Salah is Mata's replacement in so much as he'll take his place on the bench....except Salah actually offers what Mourinho wants to play. Willian is first-choice right-winger. Salah will rotate and come off the bench. MATA. WAS. REPLACED. BY. WILL. I. AN.

If we weren't investing in another young player then I'd be right behind you. Atsu himself is older than Salah and probably not as good. In buying Salah (or Atsu or even Piazon) we have young assets, each at a different stage of their development but all with a fairly good chance of retaining their value or even increasing it. That's without taking into account the possibility that they contribute in a footballing sense. Ultimately it comes down to value, although of course we need to develop these players too.

Are you the German LionsDen? Never see you do anything but moan....the good thing is you're usually wrong so I predict this guy will be the next Ronaldo. We've got a young player who suits the system we play....good enough for me.

That's nice, but Jose was key to changing the mentality of this club. Roman provided the cash but Jose provided the character, and it was that character that was still in the club when we beat Barca and Bayern to win the Champions League in 2012. The resilience, the strength of will, the backbone....that was Jose. He has been one of the most important men in our history and without him we don't have Drogba and we don't have the Lampard we had for almost a decade.

CALLED IT!!!

He's a central attacking midfielder. We need a right-sided one to replace Mata in the squad. How many 18 year olds has Wenger handed debuts to this year? Gnabry? How many has Mourinho? Baker. Mourinho needs to establish a side first before he starts introducing youth. I've grown to accept this and give him a chance.

From Twitter. Salah to sign before weekend and be given the No. 10 shirt vacated by Juan Mata #CFC #Basel #trolling

You joke but remember how we forced Benitez out after just six months?

That's such a short-sighted view of the situation, ignoring the fact that we threw roughly £7million at Piazon to get him in the first place. It's almost like you're talking shit. Chelsea's transfer policy over the last 3 years has seen a fairly radical change so that even when we sell unwanted players like Mata and De Bruyne, we make roughly £25 million in profit. Even the Matic deal was fairly well-received not just by Chelsea supporters, but by opposition fans (like yourself and Gilvorak) too.

I've all for using young players but Piazon isn't a left-footed right-winger. It's as simple as that. He might be a good choice to bring in as cover in the middle or on the left but I don't see him being used on the right. Atsu may have a shout, but Traore is still very young in his development. Give him until the end of the season and then judge. Salah has Champions League experience, is a decent price and seems to give Jose exactly what he wants on the right side of midfield. There's not a lot of downside to this transfer and tremendous upside.

2 of them are primarily left or central attacking midfielders, the other is vastly more expensive IF he's available. Thank fuck someone else can see that. He's young. He has CL experience. His value probably shouldn't drop much whatever happens.

People forget just how injury-prone he was and how bad his form got.

I do agree, but what he seems to be doing is building the squad he wants and shipping out some dead/unsuitable wood. I like his ruthlessness in some ways.

Bet you were gutted when he missed that penalty in the CL Final. Were you crying into your Bayern shirt because he couldn't come back and destroy us? I don't think you call comment on Chelsea supporters considering your posts in this thread. As for Salah, he's probably a little further along than Atsu or Piazon and he seems more capable of fitting into this system than Mata or De Bruyne. As it is he'd be a squad player behind the player who beat Mata out for the right-wing spot - Willian. Enjoy your pint.

That's either a blatant lie or you're misinformed. It's always been known that he wasn't the hardest working player and that was evident last season, despite being a fantastic attacking force. Jose's arrival and his system simply made these flaws far more apparent and simply precluded Mata from being chosen on a consistent basis. You might have preferred Guardiola or Klopp but Jose is our manager and deserves our support. If you can't give him that then go support a German team.

But....But...he can't replace Mata, even though Mata was replaced on the right-wing by Willian and Jose wants an athletic, left-footed, right-winger and this guy is promising, cheap and young.

Fair enough. I still think Man City are weak in midfield beyond Fernandinho and Toure. Few clubs have the perfect squad and I think our's is approaching a very balanced state.

That's utterly pathetic.