The only place to be

Southampton targeted Mikel in the game at the St Marys last season from what I recall. In fact any team that presses high tends to focus on him in that regard. I also think that leaves us without anyone to actually pass the ball forward from midfield.

Shola Ameobi is 32. :carlo2: That blew my mind. I can't think of many other players who have had such uneventful, unimportant, pointless careers. I literally can't think of a single thing he's done, except be subbed on or subbed off. In between those slow trudges to the touchline I can't think of a single noteworthy act committed by this man. And he's thirty-fucking-two.

Nathanial Clyne Luke Shaw James Ward-Prowse Morgan Schneiderlin Adam Lallana Part of me would give up the three points just to see our club put out a core of young, mostly English talent like that. Southampton really are a credit to this league, they're fearless and whilst their position may be 'false' it's by no means undeserved. They may only have one song but their fans can be proud of that team come what may and if they do beat us then it won't be by luck. It will be because they're trying to do things in a different way. Hard to hate a team who does that and they've got some genuinely nice supporters in my experience.

I take back everything I said about Danny and our handling of his career. We fucked up. We let one of the most electrifying English players of the last decade leave because we bought Fernando Torres and that is one of the biggest mistakes in recent Chelsea history. But he had to leave. If he wanted as good a career as his potential would allow, he needed to go to a club that would give him a chance and Liverpool was that place. This season we could have a strike force of Sturridge (9 Goals) and Lukaku (7 Goals) but instead we've got Torres, Eto'o and Ba. It's fucking laughable.

Thank fuck because we were absolutely diabolical in both those matches. £60+travell+food to watch balls fly in off strikers half and have that be the highlight of your trip? Is that what Roman wants? Is that what Chelsea supporters want? Results aren't everything in football. There's more to it than that, otherwise we'd all just run off and support City or Barcelona.

I agree. The premier league peaked in terms of having the best 'top' teams when us and United reached the Champions League Final. Those two teams would probably walk this league, but since then both of us have declined despite us winning the Champions League.

Except it doesn't seem that's the case. Without Lukaku's 'request' he may well have still been at Chelsea this season 'competing' for a spot with Torres, Eto'o and possibly even Ba. In fact if you look at every young player from Ake's age onwards, they've all either stagnated or regressed since Jose was appointed. I used to be a firm believer in this club's youth policies but I've seen nothing over the last six months to encourage me that players like Chalobah (gone from a first-team regular at Watford to a bench player at Forest), Piazon (minutes in the competitive Spanish league to first-team regular in a weak Dutch league) or Lukaku are actually going to make the transition from promising youngster to first-teamer here. In fact I take back everything I said about Sturridge. I WAS WRONG DANNY. You did absolutely the right thing leaving this place and going to Liverpool. He will develop better there, he will be more appreciated there and he might even win more there (although that's doubtful because we'll simply outspend them over the next ten years because our owner is richer than their's).

Spot on. I'll stop short of calling Mourinho a coward for basically throwing Lukaku under the bus like he has, but I've defended Mourinho as being the main man at this club. He should have the final word on these personnel decisions so saying stuff like he did yesterday is bordering on pathetic. This shit about him asking Lukaku to explain why he's on loan is beyond embarrassing. The reason (the ONLY reason in my mind) that he's on loan is because Jose said he could. That's it. For Jose to sit in a press conference and rely on insinuation and implication rather than simply coming out and saying something is a return of the Jose who eye gouges people in my opinion. It's classless to pick on a 20 year old who has very little right to reply.

And apparently the club haven't been in contact with Lukaku for two months?? I honestly can't believe that's true, but if it is then what does that say about our club's commitment to developing young players? The fact that a talented proven PL player felt that he wouldn't get a fair chance here is perhaps the biggest indictment of our 'youth system' yet.

There's a big difference between Piazon and Lukaku. Lukaku is a key part of his international team, played about 200 first-class matches and in his second third full season in the Premier League. Piazon will likely never be a part of this club's first-team. Lukaku seems a very self-determined person. He's intelligent, hard-working, dedicated and is all about football. He doesn't fall out of clubs late at night, he doesn't fall out of models early in the morning and he phones his mum before watching dvds of other matches. That kind of devotion to your craft can make you a bit impatient, a bit impulsive and occasionally it leads to you saying things you shouldn't. Being a 20 year old man does that as well. What he needs is guidance....all this talk about eggs needing a mother is fine in press conferences but when you don't bother to contact someone for two months, you have to wonder about the commitment someone has to actually hatching these eggs. The simple truth is that we had the choice between a 20 year old striker who scored 17 goals in the Premier League last season and a 32 year old who went to a fucking shit hole in Russia for a massive fucking paycheque. One has scored 7 goals in 8 games, the other is out injured and 75% of his goals come either from absurd keeping mistakes, referees failing to understand the most basic rules of football or Liam Ridgewell having a micro-stroke whilst in possession of the ball.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2515830/Jose-Mourinho-hits-Romelu-Lukaku-revealed-Chelsea-striker-demanded-UEFA-Super-Cup-final-loss-Bayern-Munich.html For fucks sake.

According to Lukaku, the club hasn't been in contact for a couple of months. Last season he made a point of saying that the club would talk to him about what they wanted him to work on. If Mourinho wants to give him a friendly reminder about something, why doesn't he talk to the lad? This all seems remarkably poorly handled.

So we've got three midfielders available, we got success playing a three man midfield and you want to rest two of the midfielders? We're thin in that position so how we can rest them I don't know. There were about 5 days between the Basel and Southampton games, so resting them really wasn't an issue and was probably far outweighed by the prospect of building on the win against West Ham.

Apparently we've got to wait for him to tell us, because Jose doesn't seem willing to. God knows what the fuck Jose is playing at because it seems remarkably petty, essentially calling out a player for NOT saying something to the media when the ultimate decision should rest with him.

Enjoy your pint

Much like Southampton, YOU'VE ONLY GOT ONE SONG, YOU'VE ONLY GOT ONE SONG, YOU'VE ONLY GOT ONE SONG!

He just wants to play by the sounds of it. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe he should've looked to go to Russia and simply got unfit whilst cashing in the big cheques rather than being what appears to be the model professional.

15 minutes against Hull coming off the bench for Torres and 25 minutes against Villa where Demba Ba started probably made him think that it might not have been a fair competition. Then we signed a 32 year old out of retirement. In a world cup year when he faces stiff competition for a starting place I think he probably felt he needed to be selfish. Going to Wigan won't be a massive help to his development, but unfortunately I don't know if staying here would've either. De Bruyne had no premier league experience and plays in a position in which we are overstocked. Lukaku scored 17 premier league goals and his competition was a has-been and a never-will-be...and then old man Eto'o. I know you don't look to make cogent points that make much sense, and you won't reply to posts, but even for you that's a weak point. He actually had the 'cojones' to step up and take a penalty in the Super Cup, unlike certain other players as well.

So Lukaku said Jose hadn't been in contact with him and Jose suggests it was his decision to leave? Great.

First you say it's easy to replace keepers, then say it's difficult to find one with his ceiling. United took five years to replace Schmiechel and Arsenal still haven't replaced Seaman so when you have the chance to move from one worldie to another (possible) one I think you have to take it. Then you say keepers aren't worth £25 million....but then say there are only a few examples. . I've heard of lots of keepers who have looked good coming up through academies (from Richard Wright and Steve Simonsen forwards) but very few actually make it to the level Courtois has in the short time that he has. Put it like this....say he's worth £30 million. That's £3 million per year for a decade of service. I'd have paid that happily every season for Cech and Courtois looks like he could be every bit as good. To me, keepers are an area you can save money but end up regretting it later. The last bit about his attitude is simply unfair. I have no problem with arrogance in keepers (look at Schmeichel) but this guy knows his own worth. He's the premier young keeper in the world right now, wanted by one of the best teams in the world and we actually own him. Competing for a spot in goal isn't simple either. It weakens the team in my opinion by eschewing stability in favour of a flawed competition and I think it could actually set back his development. No-one who has followed this club for any length of time could possibly ignore Cech's contribution to our success, but that should surely remind them just how important a truly world-class goalkeeper is and how much of an opportunity this is. There's already a fair case to be made that Courtois is better than Cech on current form.

I would've thought the price would be closer to £20 million and if he continues to improve then that's probably about right. You're looking at over a decade of stability at that position, a home-grown player and the fact that he's a Chelsea lad is always nice. I don't know a single Chelsea supporter who wouldn't want a core of young English talent at the heart of the team and left-back is an area where we aren't especially strong looking to the future (compared to the right where we have Azpi, Kalas, Kane, Wallace and Aina). Would love to tie this transfer up but it won't be easy.

So you think we should sell Courtois to Barcelona? Because that's the choice we have to actually make. Courtois, by all accounts, won't come and sit on the bench and he's quite right not to so we either play him or sell him. It's all very well amassing these young players but at some point you've actually got to take a chance on them, rather than clinging to them forever.

What I'm saying is that if you have another option who you think offers more to the team then there's no problem with using him. I know you don't think Oscar is a playmaker but most people (including neutrals) do. Managers have also looked to change the way players play the game in order to better serve their philosophy. Our best and most influential player this season has been Oscar as well. Sure you can.

It is possible to think that he's one of the best players in the league but also a liability in a certain type of team. Personally I always thought we'd eventually have to choose between Oscar or Mata at some point.

Oh shit....and there's only 26 games left this season. Oh well, we tried.