The only place to be

Reading the statement and it's very heavy on the 'improving publicly-owned' areas bit which might appeal to a Labour council and the fact that they're looking to get locals on-board with anything right from the very start suggests this is probably a long-term thing. Looking at it cynically though and it could just be a token gesture that they know will lead nowhere and once again reinforce the notion that we need to move elsewhere, but whatever happens a 60,000 seater stadium is some way off.

Always nice to hear official stuff from the club about stadium expansion/relocation but I don't see what's changed beyond the recent elections putting a Labour council in charge. If I were to be cynical then I would say this is the club making it very clear that they're exhausting all possibilities with regards expanding on the current plot so as to appease the CPO before submitting a new plan to move. Earls Court could face some issues with the new Labour council but even then there's absolutely no guarantee a stadium would fit with the redesigned plans whilst the Battersea redevelopment would really need to face some catastrophic funding issues for that to be a possibility again....although it's Battersea Power Station so that's not exactly beyond the realms of possibility based on it's history. With a new council being elected there's always a sense of a fresh start so maybe there's some hope to be had there but my gut feeling is that this might just lead to some minor tinkering with regards egress areas. Looking at the land we actually have, a 60,000 seat stadium would probably require something radical happening and some time at another stadium (always thought Twickenham was a possibility). Just got to hope for the best and some friendly, open, engaged minds on the council.

Unfair to judge him to harshly on that showing. Algeria defended pretty well and Belgium looked a bit clueless for the first hour or so. I'm never sure how good a measure of a player's quality the World Cup actually provides because it's a fairly unique atmosphere, but the worrying thing was just how poor his touch looked. Put him into space to run onto the ball and he can be a devastating presence but starve him of space and he looks fairly useless. One thing I thought was odd were his runs into the six yard box, or lack of them. There was a ball across the box in the first-half that he simply didn't attack and it's something I've noticed he does a fair bit, preferring to hang around the penalty spot rather than look to play on the last man. His biggest problem is that he talks himself up so much that he makes a rod for his own back. Watching him yesterday with the words 'I'm a complete striker, I'm a complete striker' in the back of my head just makes every poor touch ten times worse. He needs to focus on his game and stop talking.

He's better than Shaw and Rodriguez. I'd rather go with the better option and look to develop someone like Ake than take a wild punt on Shaw or Rodriguez. This fascination with him being 29 makes me laugh sometimes. 29 is not ancient and should get us at least 3 good seasons out of him which is a remarkably long time in football. Zola was 30 when we bought him and that turned out okay. So was Makelele.

Because some people here think he is obviously better than those players so he would've EARNED the place. Why is earning something such a tough concept for some to understand? Azpi understood it. Schurrle understood it. Even Ba understood it. The truth is we probably needed him but he ASKED to leave because the minutes he was getting weren't what he felt he was entitled to. That's what it comes down to. Now look at the players that Jose likes and trusts - how many of them ask for transfers because they aren't getting enough minutes in the first four games of a season?

I don't believe you're senile,,,,not do I for a moment believe you're old,,,,, But do try and forget the act for a moment,,,,,and read the words that I type,,,,I simply questioned the allegiance of his sycophantic apologists whose arrival coincided with the Belgian influx,,,,,and whose loyalties might lie with the player and not the club,,,,, ,,,,,

Bollocks. If he was 'obviously better than the competition' then he would've won the spot. He was already getting chances in the opening matches and that would've continued to be the case in my opinion. But for some reason that wasn't good enough for him. For some reason he didn't back himself to win that spot and establish himself at a team pushing the Premier League and Champions League success. Maybe it's a lack of bottle or maybe he's got some misplaced sense of entitlement (which judging by some of his comments isn't impossible) but he's shown NOTHING to suggest he has the mental attributes needed to succeed at this club and play under Jose. If he hasn't got that then he won't be missed and nor will his sycophantic apologists who masquerade as Chelsea supporters but are quite frankly nothing of the sort.

So if he's obviously better, why wouldn't he have proved that over the course of the season and won his spot? This is the point I don't understand. Is Jose not going to select him? Did Azpi not win his spot? Did Jose not show faith in Varane? Here's the one question I need answering. If Lukaku is obviously better than the competition then why did he ask to leave?

Oh boo hoo, he didn't start at the beginning of the season. God forbid he showed some patience and worked hard to win that shirt. Other players have shown that ability but apparently that's beneath Romelu. In reality it's no skin off our nose if he talks his way out of the club. We'll get a decent fee for him and bring someone else in and still be successful. He can go off and have a lovely career far away from SW6.

He said himself that his season at West Brom in some way entitled him to start for Chelsea. The guy is fucking delusional, or insanely entitled which is impressive for someone who has done pretty much fuck all in the grand scheme of things. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut and work hard and he would've probably had a good shot at starting for us next season. Instead he went to Jose and asked to leave. He did pretty much everything he could to sabotage his Chelsea career and he still can't shut up.

A real chance? You mean handed to him on a plate because he got chances in 3 of the first 4 matches and then asked to leave because his competition was Torres, Ba and Eto'o. Those are all facts. I'm sure he'd love to go to Atletico because there's no competition there. Juventus might not be his cup of tea because they might sign someone else. I suppose it's a good thing that Benteke got injured otherwise he might've asked for a transfer to the Algerian team.

He'll always have a place at Everton or West Brom. The thing is no young player has found as much good favour with Chelsea supporters off the bat as Lukaku. His talent, his resemblance to a Chelsea legend and his professed love of the club meant he had to do some mind-numbingly stupid things to make a lot of fans so ambivalent towards him. And boy has he done that. He seems intelligent but he just says the wrong thing over and over and over again that you wonder if there's any self-awareness rattling around inside his head. What type of people is he surrounding himself with if there's no-one there simply to tell him to shut up once in a while? He's just so frustrating. Last season he had the chance to establish himself at a top Champions League club....and he asked to go to Everton.

I'm not entirely sure how you're in a position to know that, but I disagree with it being a 'fact'. Chelsea is one of the world's biggest clubs. If Lukaku doesn't want to play for us then that's fine by every single supporter this club has because we'll survive without him.

If he wants to play for a club like Chelsea then he should probably stop talking so much.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27852571 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/15/qatar-world-cup-bid-2022 I know some people like to have a pop at the English media (often from a position of naivety and ignorance) but it's actually something the people in this country should be rightly proud of for the most part. When it comes to investigative reporting, we have a fine tradition of fine work as well as one of the best examples of a truly free media. That some would try to besmirch that is utterly pathetic.

I think it speaks to your naivety that you use terms like 'neutral media' when there is no media without bias anywhere in the world.

Every time you post a link I get this sense of deja vu, that I'm going to Google the source of a quote in your link and see something that undermines the credibility of the comments being made. I wonder if that will be the case this time. Goes to link...sees source of comments are the CEO of a telecoms firm called Ooredoo. Googles Ooredoo and finds Wikipedia article about them. Looks at who their chairman is....Saud bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani (born February 28, 1966) is a Qatari prince[1] and former minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Rinse...repeat....rinse....repeat....

So your source is a media outlet who can't get the name of Rupert Murdoch correct? One of the most important figures in world media, and they get his name wrong? Bravo young sir, bravo.

He's never had a decent target in the box.

Mikel and Ramires out for 30-35 million and Song in for 10 million. Matic and Fabregas as main starters with Song, Van Ginkel and Chalobah backing up as well as the possibility of Tiago is a strong line-up.

Crosses to whom? Brazil's problem is a bit similar to our's in that neither of us have a decent target man (or had in our case hopefully).

And here we have Luiz in a nutshell. Great game but falls asleep/loses concentration and the opposition capitalises. It was hardly a moment of genius that undid him either, simply a near-post run that he didn't track...much like Anichebe's run against West Brom. Football is a 90 minute game and it only takes one mistake for the other team to knick a goal. If the referee hadn't been bought then it probably wouldn't have been so easily swept under the carpet, but that's PSG's problem now.

That would be the former Secretary General of FIFA....I'm amazed that this leading light in the world of free media, the Gulf Times, is the only news outlet going with this story.

So any reputable sources?

Any other sources for that story apart from a newspaper called 'Gulf Times' whose chairman is Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah??