The only place to be

Romeu needs games. He won't get them here. I'm not a massive fan of Essien coming in but I doubt there's any teams out there for him so we might as well use him. I think he can do a job for us as a second or third choice midfielder behind De Rossi and Ramires (which is what I'm guessing will be the first-choice if we manage to sign DDR).

A lone striker needs strength to hold up the ball, intelligence to make the right runs and the ability to lay the ball off and bring other players into the game. I'm also not sure when Rooney had this amazing pace in his game. He's not like Michael Owen whose entire game was based around pace - Rooney has always been about technique, strength and power. I haven't seen any evidence of him losing any of this. What I see is a guy losing motivation. He scores 34 goals in a season, and United bring in Van Persie so Rooney has to play second fiddle. He's never really complained when he's been moved out to the wings, but it's mystifying why someone like Fergie felt he could just diminish his role so much without expecting a negative response eventually.

Does selling Mikel reduce the quality in midfield? Essien is back, Chalobah is back and we've signed Van Ginkel and possibly De Rossi. To me, that midfield is massively better simply through the acquisition of De Rossi and the coaching of Mourinho. At the moment I'd have four players ahead of him (Lamps, Essien, De Rossi, Ramires), plus I'd still want Nat and Van Ginkel to get time to learn their trade. Add in Loftus-Cheek in League Cup games and I'm not entirely sure where Mikel fits.

Chelsea fans BOOED Drogba when his diving got out of hand. Can't quite remember what season it was but we certainly didn't tolerate that shit and he bucked his ideas up (save for the Barca game which was fairly masterful as a one-off tactical decision). Suarez is a player who has missed 17 games in his career just for biting opponents, and another 8 for racist abuse. The fact he's shown an inability to learn and actually keep himself available for selection is a massive red flag to be honest.

Essien, Lampard, Van Ginkel, Ramires, De Rossi, Chalobah, McEachran. Possibly Oscar and Luiz. Mikel still has value if we sold him, Essien probably doesn't but he can probably give us two more seasons of service whilst the likes of Nat develop. As for the price, £15 million is two Azpis, one Lukaku or the combined cost of Courtois, De Bruyne and Kalas.

Seems as though we're talking him up whilst Moyes is trying to talk him down. Still think he's the best option out there for us regardless of who else is available or not and really think Mourinho could get so much more out of him. The idea of him dropping off and bringing players like Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Schurrle into the game is very exciting.

He played out of position in midfield, but to call the experiment a failure is complete bollocks (shocker). He provided us something we were lacking in that midfield and that was passion and drive. He didn't have the fitness levels required but he still stepped up when other players in that position showed a distinct lack of drive, passion and bollocks at times. He is still very much a CB but he showed his true colours last season when he did a job he wasn't familiar with to the best of his abilities which is why he gets so much love from the fans (and is also the reason other players simply don't receive the same level of affection within Stamford Bridge).

Very suspicious timing and hopefully a prelude to us signing him. Throw in De Rossi and it's a fairly spectacular transfer window.

Josh wasn't thrown into the deep end. His problems came under AVB who declined to send him on loan, and then didn't use him. By the time the loan to Swansea was sorted they had a fairly settled side. Feruz is a completely different proposition to Josh in almost every way. Josh is someone you have to build a team around and he has almost no value as an impact sub. Feruz could be a bench option because he offers so much pace and explosiveness. He could potentially do something at a Palace or Fulham or just drop down to the Championship. Personally I'd be happy if he stuck around next season because I think Jose could be good for him.

Fair play to Alex who was talking about us getting Schwarzer in. Nice bit of business - experienced, cheap and an upgrade on what we had last season. Plus he's always seemed like a good pro and a sound bloke. Just another great bit of squad building business by the board.

In three years on Merseyside (where he arrived having been banned for biting a player) name one way in which he has changed? At this moment in time, he's banned for the same fucking thing he was banned for when he arrived....but yeah, this time it's different. The guy doesn't even take responsibility - he blames the media. For what???? Putting the pictures of him biting a player on their newspaper or reporting the racist insults he used over and over again against a black player?

Personally I just assumed he was lying when he said that. He probably thought Madrid was his next destination so he started laying the groundwork for a move.

He has a point about 'highly dubious business practices' but it's naive to think that applies solely to Abramovich. You could go through the owners of any sports team and probably find a few dubious practices where national wealth has been acquired 'immorally' or there are dodgy practices in play. We all know how Roman got his money and we all ignore it or rationalise it to make ourselves feel better. But I also do the same thing when it comes to World Cups and Olympics being awarded or any number of business practices associated with either the Champions League or simply the sponsors of these competitions. The reason we can acquire cheap players from certain nations (especially African nations) is because our country exploited these continents for centuries and are still reaping the rewards. I'd shudder to think of some of the business practices that were commonplace amongst those men (no women of course because we live in a patriarchal society still) who first invested in football clubs. But let's not forget why Matthew Syed was on Sky Sports News - he works for the Times, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. If he wants to talk about 'highly dubious business practices' then maybe he should also look at who pays his wages each month. He has a point, but he is being very myopic or very naive.

I'm not quite as anti this deal as some people, providing Ruddy is happy with benching. He's a big guy, he's English and if he's happy with the situation at Chelsea (he'd be back-up to Cech and then Courtois) then we're potentially looking at 10 years of service from him. Plus he's a good keeper, which is always nice to have in a back-up as well as providing that competition to keep the number one on his toes. In the past, players like Turnbull have cost us goals which we simply can't afford.

Cheating on your other half is a bad thing to do, but it happens. Ultimately it's between him and his missus and they seem to have worked through things. But if you're saying that the 18 games Suarez has been banned for just for racism and biting came from mistakes in 'the heat of the moment' then why would you want him at a club competing at the very top of the game where the pressure is even more intense? Maybe if he'd just been banned ONCE for biting, but TWICE? Alarm bells.

Congrats Stingray. Hadn't seen this thread so was a pleasant surprise to see you win it. Much deserved.

Commercially, Rooney really has been in a league of his own over the last decade. He was the top-selling shirt for a while and had a ton of endorsements so things like image rights are worth a lot and that's sometimes factored into a player's wage. Ideally we'd be moving on Torres too.

Sleeping with prostitutes and fucking around with fireworks really aren't as bad as racism and biting a fellow human being in my opinion.

There would be fans ready to suck him off as soon as the club stuck his face on a plastic flag.

I'm all for the young players getting a chance, but we need some strength there so that we can play the likes of Van Ginkel, Chalobah and even Rami. This guy could become a real favourite too. He's a proper leader and someone other players can look to and be inspired by. That's what we've missed in that position at times over the last couple of seasons, probably since we lost Ballack and Essien suffered his injuries.

Personally I never got that bent out of shape about Rafa's comments, and I really don't care what Rooney did on the pitch. That's part of the back and forth between fans and players to be honest and I've never known supporters to be that sensitive about such things. There's a massive difference between that type of thing and a player who racially taunts other players and bites them, on two separate occasions no less.

He's missed about 18 PL games simply through bans for racist language and biting opponents. Good player but he'd actually be unavailable for the games away to United and Spurs if my working is correct. Let's also not forget that the reason he's desperate to leave Liverpool is because of the awful British media (reporting on him biting people...how very dare they?).

He repeatedly said the same word to Evra and in my opinion (and the FA's) he's guilty of racist abuse. I'm sure he's got black friends on his Facebook page ergo making him not racist, but I really don't want players like that representing this club. As for JT, that is a discussion for another day.

Bad boy image? He's not fucking James Dean, he's a racist toe-rag. Fantastic player no doubt but it'd be a sickener seeing him holding our t-shirt.

Suarez is a racist cunt who bit a player. Rooney hasn't done anything close to that.