The only place to be

Harsh, but at least he's stopped calling people 'retarded'. Oh wait....

Luiz isn't close to JT in terms of leadership. JT has NEVER bottled a challenge or put in the type of performance that Luiz did against Cardiff. There's a reason why Mourinho dropped him TWICE. There's a reason why Mourinho wouldn't pick him as defence. And there's sure as shit a reason why some people (not you) consistently question Mourinho's judgment whilst indirectly praising Laurent Fucking Blanc's transfer acumen in signing him.

Great performance and nice free kick. Shame he never could do it consistently for us because on his day he's a great defender who just has issues with his mentality.

His problem is that he's already established that he was too good for our bench last season and needs playing time. What exactly has changed? He's still seems as petulant and impulsive as ever.

Very, very rarely. You're suggesting that people read informed, articulate articles and make judgments accordingly based on reason. They don't. People tend to read newspapers to reconfirm their pre-existing biases. Sports journos tend to just write around narratives that are already out there so people will read their articles and nod along. Occasionally you get journos who write contrary pieces to be different and gain attention that way.

Not true actually. Reporters do pay attention to the general consensus and write accordingly.

I think this deal affects Illarramendi more than Isco. Apparently he's off to Porto on loan a year after moving for €30 million

Interesting aspect that he brings up is Costa's relentless and tenaciousness. Even in Spain's poor games, he still worked the channels well making intelligent runs that simply weren't picked up on by the midfielders most of the time. What typified Torres's decline, and even Sheva's, was that their heads' dropped. They'd look like shells of their former selves, almost like little boys at times. Hopefully Costa isn't like that. He doesn't look like the type of guy to lose that fire, although the worry is that he goes the other way and the frustration leads to him lashing out....a bit like Drogba could.

It's much tougher to step up from being an 18 year old 'star' in the youth team to the first team. The pressure to succeed each week is immense and matches are won in the minutiae....unfortunately young players will make mistakes as that is the nature of inexperience, but successful teams really can't afford one player out of eleven to make errors. What you need is an established team who are good enough to cover these deficiencies until the young player learns and contributes more. We don't have that. We've not had an established midfielder like Matic for a while for instance, but now we do we may well be able to accommodate youngsters like Chalobah, Van Ginkel or Loftus-Cheek. When Ray Wilkins came into the team, we had finished the last season in 12th place. That season we would finish 17th. The season after 21st. Contrary to popular belief (amongst some) Chelsea have not always been a top four club challenging for the title and the European Cup.

Because there's absolutely no logical reason not to have one.

Best Moment CL Final Going 3-0 up against Barcelona in the first 38 minutes in 2000. Going 3-0 up agianst Barcelona in the first 19 minutes in 2005 (still the most devastating performance I've seen). Di Matteo in 1997 cup final before we'd even sat down. Best Game CL Final in 2012. Twenty years after my first match. The Barcelona games, the Napoli game. Chelsea Liverpool 4-2 FA Cup 1997. Matt Harding Stand with the tv studio (Hansen, what's the score) in the corner between MH and West. Favourite Goal Impossible to answer. Worst Moment Rafa. Craig Burley's backpass at Villa Park.

I think you're placing far too much stock in the internet fans and the bs spouted on Twitter. Even on here most people are fair-minded about our players so I don't know where you get off comparing Chelsea supporters to Barcelona supporters.

Excited, but also realise he has doubters and plenty of stuff to prove. Hope he just comes in, does the business and we can have a bit of stability in that position.

Love him. I really think he'll be one of those players who will get important goals for us because he's just got that knack of making intelligent, unpredictable runs. Really excited to see him link up with Costa as the right-wing/second striker making runs beyond him much like he did in the Fulham away match. Fantastic attitude, amazing engine, good touch and finishes.

Nice one. Still a very capable keeper although it raises questions about Cech and Courtois if we're going to go into next season with three non-homegrown keepers. Glad he's staying though.

A guy in the prime of his career who has been utterly usurped by other signings and is still happy to say just seems totally unambitious to me - ironically that's what has defined his playing style here. The myth of this colossus of the Nigerian national team has surely been put to bed too with his recent showings. The likes of Van Ginkel and Chalobah need gametime and this guy needs to show the desire to be an important first-team member for a decent side rather than a bit-part player for us. We replaced him with Matic in January.

His penalty reminded me of Diana Ross in the 1994 World Cup Opening Ceremony.

There's a thousand miles between saying positive stuff about Chelsea and calling United the biggest club in the world. But fine, they put the money in front of him and he'll say what they want. To be frank he's not the sharpest tool in the box so I doubt he even read it.

Ashley was having ankle problems at 29. He certainly didn't let it affect his performances for a while, but physically you'd have to think Luis is in better shape than Cole was at the same age.

Because it does matter. When the guy comes out and says his favourite team is Chelsea, to then talk up United.....he's a cunt. I have no problem with him going to United but football isn't just a business.

What a turncoat fucking prick. I don't care about PR bollocks, this little twerp was tweeting about this club on a regular basis. Just one more gloryhunter from Surrey. How very 90s of you Luke. Don't tweet about this club again.

Henrique's posts do get more bites than a defender marking Suarez don't they. It was his third time doing this, he's already had two bans so of course it was going to be heavy especially doing it in the biggest international tournament going. As for his credentials being removed, what choice did FIFA have? What reason did he have for still being there? HE HAS NO BUSINESS HAVING CREDENTIALS. That's why they were removed and why he was told to fuck off. That doesn't mean he's being treated like a criminal. He's being treated like a person without appropriate credentials.

The weird thing is, you clearly recognise that it's a gamble. There is no guarantee that he'll actually live up to the potential he has and even if he does, the £100k p/w that he's reportedly earning is massively unjustified and hugely problematic when you look at the established internationals in our squad who earn less than that. Your post is a confusing mixture of certainties and hypotheticals. Obviously you can't say that until a bit further down the line. A terrific signing would be going back to the rumours on page one of this thread and signing Shaw for less than £5 million. Buying him at the price that will probably be the highest of his career is not good business, but then neither was the signing of Fellaini and Mata. Yet we just signed a homegrown player who has 89 caps for Spain, has played in a Champions League Final, captained a top four Premier League side and has won La Liga, the World Cup and the European Championship....all for less than United have paid in transfer fees for Shaw. IF Shaw achieves every measure of his potential than United have probably got value for their purchase. But that's a big IF. £10 million for Franny Jeffers and £15 million for David Bentley could've been bargains if they'd maxed out their potential too, but there's a reason it's called potential.

It's amazing that there are even some Scousers on RAWK who have held their hands up and said that for a THIRD offence of such a disgusting nature that there's no defending the ban....yet once again you choose (because it's very much a choice) to swim against the tide for no reason other than to be different. That's the thing about modern discourse - it's easier to be a contrarian than it is to be articulate or reasoned. When 100 people agree on something, it's harder to stand out from the crowd by constructing an argument full of wit or insight. But be the 1 person to disagree and you're certain to get that much more attention. Go on Twitter and you'll see people get attention not through their intellect or reasoning, but by being more extreme than the rest. Or maybe you genuinely believe the stuff you post...but I doubt it. Once again it's his third ban for the same disgusting act. Personally I think he could've got five or six months and it would have been fair.

For those keeping count the guy has missed 26 games (domestic) for Biting opponents now. Throw in his 8 match ban for racism and he's missed almost an entire season just through being a disgusting cunt.