The only place to be

I don't know....to become the best player he could possibly be?? I'm not sure if he has the bottle if being a big fish in a small pond is so appealing to him.

It's a nice feeling to know he might be staying, but you've got to think he's going to be largely a squad player. He's just not what we need right now in that midfield, but he can still come off the bench and make an impact. I also think this means Josh gets another year out on loan which he really does seem to need.

Maybe they've actually waited until they have a coach lined up before making personnel decisions. Maybe they've actually held talks with someone and got his input - that seems like forward planning.

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/15268-the-next-chelsea-manager/page-39 If he's prepared to offer Lamps a contract then I think we're going for an experienced manager who won't have the same problems AVB did.

Good news if true, not just because it means he'll stick around for another year but it coincides nicely with reports of someone special texting him lately.

Ashley Cole goes off, it falls to shit. :lol2:

What a ball by Oscar #runningtheshow.

Fucking Welbeck. What a twat.

Wow.....so suck it Marcelo! But seriously, where is Mourinho's head if he's saying that? Doesn't sound like it's in Madrid.

Genuinely thought that was Lescott for a moment. :lol2: :lol2:

Would love The FA's 150th celebration be ruined - bunch of cunts. Plus Brazil has more Chelsea players in their side and I'm not supporting a team with Cleverley and Welbeck in the team.

I don't recall us going after Wilshere although I could be wrong though. He's a great little player though.

At the same time??? My bet is on Jason Lee and Henrik Larsson - she likes people with weird hair.

And the 'Pancake' rumours. There's a good story to be told once everyone's had a few years in retirement - the Scouse Goodfellas.

There are plenty of good young players we're not linked with, especially at big clubs. There's no doubt he's struggled with making the transition to first-team football, but he's still only 19 and a small 19 year old at that. Look at someone like Cleverley - he didn't make the United first team regularly until he was 22, yet now he's seen as an England fixture for years to come despite him being wildly overrated in my opinion. Josh still has a lot of growing to do yet he's established himself as a first-teamer in a team pushing for promotion. Who knows what he could do in two years? We've never been linked with Wilshere, but I think he could be a decent player. There are certainly question marks over Josh but I'd say a lot of those are to do with his physicality. He needs to grow and learn to assert himself in games, but those are things he can work on. Where Josh excels are in the things that you can't usually learn.

Just thought of a good one - Stevie G. That looked like a done deal and then all of a sudden Rick Parry is on SSN saying he's staying. The thought of pissing off every scouser was delicious and seeing a few of them burning shirts when they thought he was off was hilarious. From a footballing side it would've been interesting to see if Mourinho could've got Lamps and Gerrard playing together in the same team, but ultimately we got Essien instead and Gerrard still hasn't won a title. This season it's been annoying to see Spurs get Vertonghen and in particular Dembele. He could've been great for us in the midfield but it wasn't to be. I can't remember if we were properly linked with Kompany either (might be thinking of Vanden Borre), but he's the one player I would truly love for us to have gotten. Intelligent, aggressive and a proper centre-back.

One minute he's one of Roman's 'yes men', the next he has the ultimate authority on who we offer new contracts to.

Who says it's Gourlay's decision?

I thought that might come out a bit wrong. You know what I mean though. He needs to bite a few more ankles, have a bit more arrogance about him. A bit more Cooper, a bit less Larkham.

Also......and this one is the worst..... Cherno Samba. Rooney not really. Phil Jones a little bit more than the average young English player we get linked with. We were linked heavily with Fellaini and were interested too, but weren't prepared to stump up £15 million for him. Also fun to look at players we're linked with now and probably won't get. Right now that's Luke Shaw.

That's exactly what Josh needs - a bit of spite. Lovely bloke, needs to be more of a cunt.

I think he's off-limits now, but in the future I reckon he could leave. Apologies to anyone I'm about to offend, but if he's got ambition then he'll probably want to leave the Bundesliga at some point. Yes he's at a top German club and he's big in Germany, but so's David Hasselhoff. If you want to be the best you can be then you still have to prove yourself in the Premier League or La Liga. That will probably change as the Champions League grows ever bigger, but right now I think it's the case. That's not to say there aren't reasons to stay at Dortmund but there's a reason Guardiola went to Bayern - he knows he can win the title every year for the next three years and then go to United.

Just a quick thought having seen Gazza in the news earlier, but who are the players that we were linked with that you're gutted we never signed? I remember us being linked with him when he was at Rangers and always thought it would've been awesome to see him here. The other one from that time was Le Tis. There was a point when we looked to be close to getting him for about £5 million (so probably around Hoddle's time) although that could've gone either way. Classic Chelsea player in terms of skill but a lazy bugger. We got Zola instead in terms of skill and had to wait for Benaoyun's arrival to have a nose has prominent. Finally, and this one is still fresh in the mind and extremely painful, Aguero. £10 million cheaper than Torres and would've fitted into this team perfectly. Never hear too much about him in the news and a consistent performer on the pitch. That one hurts to think about.

I'm usually like you about international matches. Personally I think international football is now behind top-class European football in terms of importance and entertainment, but I'm happy that Ashley is getting his 100th cap tonight. It's just a nice milestone for him to reach and I think it's important that he gets more recognition because (bizarrely) he's still underrated by a lot of people. This guy is probably the best player England has had in the last 20 years and one of the few truly world-class players we've developed, yet he still doesn't quite get the credit I think he deserves. Everton build their whole team around Leighton Baines and all of a sudden people think he's ready to clean Ashley's boots?? Plus it's nice to see David Luiz back in action and I hope he keeps Rooney in his pocket all night. A good result is all the Chelsea players coming through unscathed and having good games. In fact I'd love for Oscar to absolutely destroy England and have a part in at least 3 goals for Brazil.

One of the most comfortable players on the ball that we've ever developed. Brilliant vision, tremendous passer and very skilful. The problem is that he's underdeveloped physically. He just doesn't look like a professional athlete and sometimes struggles to get into games not just because of his strength but also because of the pace of the game. He could need another couple of years to get into the kind of shape that someone like an Iniesta or Wilshere is. He also needs to man the fuck up a little bit. His body language can make him look a little scared at times and that's because he's fairly reserved as a person. He has the potential to be a Modric but he needs to up his workrate and just puff that little chest out a bit more because his technique has never been in question.