The only place to be

He's very good on the ball. If we lost Lukaku then I think this guy could very well benefit because he has a wonderful maturity and dedication to his game.

CIty we played some of the reserves. Liverpool we rested about 10 players. Atletico we had players cup-tied and suspended. Without him our squad is no worse.

No nonsense. Makes runs, doesn't second-guess himself and executes with power. He's just a proper striker.

Just going to echo what others have said, but the squad is looking wonderfully balanced. We have players who can perform multiple roles, there's a steel in every area of the pitch, there's vision, every player has quality on the ball and there's depth. Not just depth, but experience, players in their prime and the most exciting crop of young talent I've ever seen at this club. And that's without Hazard, Oscar, Courtois, Drogba etc. Mourinho and the board have assembled not just a quality group of players (and blokes) but seem to have a very specific idea of what they want rather than the scattergun approach of a couple of years ago.

I don't think it's a case of one or the other. What our investment has given us is options and we can go either way.

Azpi and Luiz at full back will make some members blow the load they've been holding for about 9 months. Cahill and Zouma seems rudderless but we'll see. Hope for Gary to step up. Matic and Fabregas....a long way from Mikel and Ramires. Salah, Boga and Brown. Meh, Salah needs to show something, Boga needs to keep going and Brown just needs to do his best. Costa up front. Don't get sent off. As for the bench, enough cover in defence to let Nat have 45 minutes in midfield. Would like to see Bamford tried on the right wing and hopefully Torres shows something, anything.

So you think it's 'ridiculous and arrogant' for Mourinho to not want a player who 'was not willing to fight for his place'. That's just a quite unbelievable thing to write. I get that you really, really, really want Lukaku to say, but you're way too smart to believe what you've just written. For you to believe that, you'd have to wilfully ignore what you know about Jose Mourinho and every other top coach in every sport. Is that what you're doing?

I think Jose only wants a certain profile of player at his club. Jose clearly has a great deal of affection for those players he has managed, going so far as to call former players 'his players' even after they move on. But he clearly wants a certain level of dedication from those players not just to their own game, but to their teammates and to the club. Lukaku didn't give that to him, he didn't give that to the club and he didn't give it to the fans. That's why you'll find so many fans who are fed up with him because we invested a lot of hope in him and when given the chance, he took the easy route out. No disrespect to Everton, but they are a small club and he knew he'd play their week-in and week-out whereas with us he would have to FIGHT for every minute. Lukaku didn't fight. Mourinho only wants fighters. That is a massive issue.

The ones who Jose picks are.

Do you know what Mourinho said to Lukaku last year? He said 'you're going on Romelu' (or words to that effect). The greatest manager in club football gave a young player chances at this club. But you want him to rub his tummy and tell him he's a good boy as well? Lukaku will get praise when he's EARNT it. Exactly. He could have fought for his place. What top coach is going to back a guy who has this attitude? NAME ONE NAME ONE Come on Stats, just one. 20 year olds are men. In fact he's a PROFESSIONAL footballer. He's not some YTS kid plucked from the bootroom. People are disappointed. He was this great talent, he loved the club, he loved Drogba but he let us down. We needed him last season and we needed him to fight and instead he asked for a transfer. He left US. He asked to leave US. Why don't you understand that? He got a chance to play for the club you and I support and he turned it down.

This is spot on. It's amazing how certain posters wilfully delude themselves by thinking Jose would respect a person who asked to leave because he had competition for his spot. When Abramovich took over, did Lampard look at the money being spent and ask to leave? No. He worked harder and scored TWICE as many goals the next season. When we spent £30 million on Sheva and £50 million on Torres, did Drogba ask to leave? No. Yet Lukaku gets chances at the start of the season but looks at Torres, Ba and Eto'o and asks to leave for a club with zero competition.

It's amusing to me how a few posters used to portray Mikel as being 'misunderstood', and those who criticised him couldn't fathom his role in the team. Fact is that after Matic signed, Mikel played the full 90 minutes only THREE TIMES. Man City in the FA Cup Atletico Madrid away Liverpool away He's been found out.

Big fish meet small pond.

Yeah, he gave him a squad number at Chelsea Football Club. He got match time for Chelsea Football Club in THREE OF THE FIRST FOUR GAMES of the season, one of which was against the Champions of Europe. What more do you want? A guaranteed start? Well sorry that doesn't happen at top clubs. You have to fucking FIGHT for every start. You have to take EVERY opportunity and you don't quit. Lukaku did quit. He walked up to Jose and asked to leave Chelsea Football Club. In what world does a winner like Mourinho understand that mindset and accept it?? Would Frank do that? Would JT do that? Would Didier do that? Answer that question honestly. He asked for a move last year. What more evidence do you need?

And 7 of them were sacked....meanwhile we can't give him away. That didn't stop people in the past. They know who they are, how they used to say he was one of the best DMs in Europe, how he was a beast for Nigeria.... and now they've even changed their 'favourite players' selection and don't defend him anymore.

Give this man some likes, clearly he's on his knees begging for them. Although maybe you can help your friend find some instances of me insulting people in the manner you chose to....from behind your keyboard.

Did Frans Hoek not develop that technique?

Point to one insult I've used against a member of this forum OR admit that you are a liar. ONE insult. Go.

Then you ignore them. Or are you seriously saying that Kieran can call people 'idiots' 'scumbag', 'fucking idiot' and 'fucking deluded moron' without a break from this place? Can we all do that then? As for calling Kaplan an 'obvious troll account', um what? He's been fairly active in other football related discussions so I'm not sure if you (a mod) calling him that is justified. Here's the thing. There's clearly a group of people who have similar views about something and three of them are mods/admins so as long as you're in agreement with them, you can call people whatever you want with impunity which is why Kieran will get (at most) a small word in his ear. Of course I could be wrong...but it's unlikely.

It's amazing that when we talk about transfer stories, there's a certain level of quality we look for when assessing the source of the story but when it comes to political discussions, any old cunt with a blog will do.

Is there really a need for the continued insults from this keyboard warrior mods? I know he broadly agrees with Choulo's views but does that give him a free pass to simply lob insults at people from the safety of his computer?

Right now, Drogba is the second best finisher at the club (behind Costa, although 8-10 yards out it's probably very close), he's the strongest with his back to goal, he's probably the second best in the air and he's also a damn good penalty and free kick taker (in fact he's probably our best free-kick taker now...maybe Oscar is better, but it's close). Of course he's lost a lot of that pace, he probably can't go for 90 minutes and he won't be number one but there were games last season where we needed someone like him against teams we were struggling to break down. There will be plenty of games where we're 2-0 up after 60 minutes and Lukaku can get game time or even start against some teams, but there will also be games where we need something different from what Costa or Lukaku offers us. I wanted us to get Mandzukic because of his style of football, but Didier offers the closest thing to that still. He's not going to do a Barcelona-type job on teams because I don't think he has it in him anymore, but if you want a presence in the 12 yard box whilst Luis, Azpi, Willian and Hazard are whipping balls in then I still think teams have something to fear from him.

In the latest episode of TOPTB Is Always Right..... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2706095/Jose-Mourinho-didnt-try-sign-Luke-Shaw-120-000-week-wage-unsettled-Chelsea.html The little prick (or more likely his agent) priced himself out of a move to the club he 'supports'. But I said at the time that there was no chance of us signing a player who would immediately earn more than the likes of Ivanovic, Cahill and even Cech at the age of 19.

He's still strong in the air, great with his back to goal and a better finisher than Torres and Lukaku. You need to relax a bit. We're stronger up front than we were last season and you're moaning????

As for age, he scored this goal less than 12 months ago. Torres couldn't do this if he tried.