The only place to be

And I've repeated that he's better than Mikel. I stand by that. He won't be Chelsea manager because he's not a very good manager. Sure we gave Robbie the chance despite him being a bit lacking in ideas, but Zola has shown in this game, the Leicester away game and the Leeds game that he's not got many ideas. I know some people struggle to separate the idea of a Chelsea legend from the reality of their managerial abilities, but that's my view. He's done well with all these loan players, but Holloway has absolutely bent him over in the first 90 minutes and Palace should have won this already. I'm cheering for a Zola win for one reason - 6 easy fucking points next season.

Actually fuck it... Choulo, I've been hyping this kid because he's been a great player for Watford this year. He's had a bad game but if some fans want to jump on his back because of that then fuck them. He's a better player than Mikel already. As for the England stuff, I said he had an outside chance of being a bolter for the World Cup squad if he got a shot in the Premier League next season. If you want to keep bringing that up then at least make a fucking effort to get it right.

Can't even be bothered with this today. Sorry. As for the game, I think Holloway has totally done Zola in the first 90. Great player, but one dimensional at best as a manager and the sooner Chalobah gets to play under a proper manager the better.

I agree. Not Holloway's biggest fan but he's certainly had his team control this game, rather than letting Watford play their game for any substantial amount of time.

Yep. :lol2: Sums up a lot of the criticism in this thread over the last few hours.

If an offer for £35 million came in for Luiz, it would have to be considered wouldn't it? That's the highest fee for a defender isn't it? I love the guy, I love his character and I love his improvement but he's not a defensive rock at this exact point in time. He's not yet at the level of Terry in 2006 or Vidic in 2009 or even Kompany last year. He could get there, but £35 million is a lot to say no to for 'coulds', 'mights' and 'maybes'. As for Rami....two decent midfielders in the pivot and he's a good utility player. Anything more than £20 million and it's got to be considered.

Except he has sprinted back when he's needed to. My point was that there are far older players than Chalobah who have underestimated the toll that pitch can take on their stamina. Palace have done well to keep Watford's midfield quiet but they're still carving out chances (which Nat has been at the centre of most of the time). He's not having his best game but let's not write him off just yet. Criticising his attitude is just a really.....it's not entirely accurate.

He's 18 years old playing at Wembley for the first time and he's not tearing around the pitch on a hot summer's day....and he's getting criticised for that. Fuck me.

Funny because he was young player of the month in the Championship. Sometimes you just have to look at a team and give them credit for setting themselves up well to stop the other team. Palace have done that and nullified Watford's midfield. Now Zola will need to make the adjustments to counter this. And in the last 5 minutes Nat has got himself back into the game.

Give it a rest mate. He's a good player having a tough game against opposition who are set up for more intelligently than Watford are. But yeah, let's judge him on 33 minutes of one game. Fuck me.

Nope. I'm thinking about starting one though. I think it's more interesting to see Moyes come in and make so many changes. He's got to feel comfortable but he's losing a lot of popular characters.

Not going to start a new thread about this in the transfer section because it's an odd one, but it looks like Rene Meulensteen could be on his way out of Old Trafford. There's been a lot of speculation about who Jose could bring with him and we already have decent coaches here but this guy is very highly regarded and might be someone Jose is interested in working with. Interesting to see that United have lost Phelan, who will probably go into management, but also Eric Steele their goalkeeping coach. To me that last one is a weird one because goalkeeping coaches tend to build a strong rapport with the goalkeepers, in a way that's different from other coaches and players.

Unfortunately no-one. We need to buy a strong centre-back to play alongside Luiz (if that role doesn't go back to JT) which means Cahill, Ivanovic and JT are essentially back-ups. So strictly speaking at the moment, he probably isn't 3rd choice but that would almost certainly be his role going into next season.

Typical Chelsea buy nowadays - young player, lots of potential, cheapish price, could be part of the squad or could go on loan to a German team. Everything I've read suggests he's a pretty good prospect so why not?

Torn over what is the best result for him today. If Watford go up then I think it might just be too easy to just let him stay there next season, whereas if they miss out I don't think there's a chance that he'll spend another season in the Championship. Whatever happens I think he's certain to be playing Premier League football next season, and I'd prefer that to be with us.

The thing is no-one will offer £25 million for Rami. On his day he's phenomenal, but he has days when he goes missing and enters 'headless chicken mode'. He's another player who could go either way under Mourinho who might be able to coach a bit more composure and confidence into him or he might just let him go like he did with Tiago. The simple fact is that we don't yet have a spine to our team like we did in 2006 (Cech, Terry, Makelele, Lampard, Drogba). At best we've got Cech and Mata and then a few players who play in wider positions (Hazard, Cole...maybe Azpi). In my view that's what we need to rebuild which is why we need that big striker we can rely on, a midfield presence (long-term I see that being Chalobah but maybe it's Romeu or more likely a purchase) and that defensive rock. To me, Luiz is the player next to the defensive rock, the one who can bring it out of defence because he knows that other guy and the defensive midfielder will cover him.

That's kinda my point though - any discussion about Luiz is based on potential. Now I think he'll fulfil that potential with the right coaching but it's still potential. He still needs to cut out the errors (he basically gave a goal away against Everton) and until he does that on a consistent basis then any big offer needs to be considered. I don't see him leaving and I really like what he means to this club beyond his defending but he's one of those players who needs to make a step-up next year.

The Arsenal example is overused. Their problem came from underinvesting in their squad and making bad purchases of overpaid, established players. We're still investing in our squad so we're a long way from doing what they did. Luiz is a great player, but he's not at that point where he's the rock we build upon. He still needs to show he can be relied upon at all times - he's gone some way to doing that but he needs to show me a few more months of consistency before he's a key player. He's not yet at that point where you consider him a cornerstone of the team and that's why most people agree that we need to buy that no-nonsense defender in the transfer window.

For me he's still 3rd choice CB and 2nd choice RB so I'd bite their hands off Suarez-style if that offer was even close to being true (£17 million would probably be good enough in all honesty). Whatever happens we still need to sign a centre-back this summer and it would be tempting to take that £25 million and put in an offer for Varane straight away.

I think it's remarkable that we seem to have the monopoly on strong, powerful, technically sound young English midfielders at the moment. The one thing this country has struggled to produce is a Vieira/Toure type player. Probably the closest we've got is Jack Rodwell, or maybe Pogba (not English but I'm struggling here). Yet it's quit conceivable that in 3 years time we're lining up with RLC and Chalobah in the double pivot. Is he ready now? Nope. I agree he should spend another year here as part of the youth setup and get game time in league cup games (maybe even CL group games) but I don't see him going out on loan. In fact I don't know if a loan is something every player needs so it'll be interesting to see what development path this kid takes.

Positional sense and decision making come with time. He has the physical and technical skills needed and has looked good at centre-back for the youth team. Too early to say at this time but he's got a good chance of making it.

It really isn't. Both the offers for Luiz and Ivanovic (if they're real) should be considered. At the moment, neither one of these players is a key player in my opinion. Luiz is close to being one, but we still need another no-nonsense player alongside him. As for Bane, if the rumours of a £25 million bid from Monaco are true then I don't know how we could say no to that. It's not a case of us being a selling club, but in the modern game every club needs consider any worthwhile offer especially if it gives them freedom to invest to make the club better.

And you're basing that on what exactly? The amount of bashing some people do is unreal.

He'd have a voice, but I like the system we have in place at this point in time. Jose has to fit into this club as it is in 2013.

American sports fans really aren't as stupid as some people here think. They understand the concept of a friendly match - in fact their own sports teams have exhibition matches before the regular season too, so they knew what this was.