The only place to be

Backtracking.

Honestly, I don't know. Maybe suck it up, spend £600 million knocking the stadium down hoping the council help us acquire the extra land we would need and spend three years playing somewhere like Twickers. Battersea was probably the ideal place with Earls Court a close second. Whatever happens the club needs to be open and honest with the CPO.

It's amazing that Henrique got so much mileage out of calling Mourinho classless. Once again he enters a thread with the sole purpose of antagonising members. Why people rise to the bait I don't know.

I'm not sure he does self-awareness.

You should watch the game and then see it's not just an excuse. The amount of runs he made and Iniesta or Pedro just held on to the ball was getting a bit silly in the first-half. 'Supporters' sticking the boot in early I see. How about you wait until he's in a Chelsea shirt before you start giving him shit. Or are we now at the point where we're not even going to support our players before ripping them to shit.

The bar is set lower for Costa because he isn't the self-proclaimed 'complete striker' who is too good to be on our bench. As it is Costa is actually getting criticised in his thread. Truth is both players are being let down a bit by those around them, although Costa is getting in good positions and just laid it on a plate for Busquets.

A new record for people slating a signing....before he's even signed.

Buying a player for £12 million who is now worth about double that. Sack them! Sack them all!

I think the point about fitness is a massive oversimplification and doesn't take into account the individual player's own fitness. The fact is his contract will be four years at most meaning we're talking about a guy who will be 33 by the time he finishes here. That's no different from Ashley Cole or Patrice Evra are now. In fact Luis is younger than Ivanovic and Baines just to put him into context. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a young player who is available at a value price at the moment whilst we have to bear in mind that we do have younger options coming through the academy. What we are getting is one of the top left-backs in Europe for a couple of seasons minimum. That's not to be sneezed at.

Really? How so? No it's not. And Luke Shaw is that English core? He's the only English player we could possibly sign/produce in the next 5 years? We can't promote young lads? He's unproven, he's overpriced and he's not as good currently as Luis. Maybe five years down the line we can sign him like we did Ashley but this club is about winning the league next season.

Gotta be a favourite for first manager sacked.

That wasn't too different from what we play against a lot of the time though and I thought he was pretty poor. His movement was terrible and he'd sometimes come quite deep to pick up the ball, but just be two yards away from the guy in possession. The when he'd drop off to receive the ball his first touch would let him down. Let's not forget he was injured very recently and it did show. He didn't look to be moving too freely which is why I think he was replaced.

A two-year loan similar to what Courtois had might be his best option if he wants to play here long-term because he doesn't seem happy with anything other than a starting role....and there's question marks over whether he's good enough. Costa is a great player with space to run into, like Lukaku but better. Against packed defences with his back to goal, Lukaku is at best unproven although on the evidence of yesterday he doesn't seem capable of providing what we need as an option B. It's why I'd be happy if we did get someone like Mandzukic in because he has that good control in tight situations. At the moment I'm not sure how Lukaku is most valuable to us.

Here's the thing - as a professional footballer he's light years ahead of where Drogba was as the same age. But Drogba came to us as a 26 year old with good technique and presence. As players arriving at this club, they're quite far apart in those terms. That comparison is probably weighing on people's perceptions of him, and maybe even his own opinion of his talents. Is it inconceivable that he might not be ready to lead the line for this club until the next World Cup? Might he need that amount of time to mature?

Should be but newly promoted sides on opening days are usually hyped up beyond belief. Wigan in 2005 was an easy one on paper but we were lucky to get three points that day. Cardiff at home to City last season is another one. I don't like newly-promoted sides on opening days. Yup. It's a tough run in sandwiched between Champions League games but if we can get through that period and be amongst the top three (hopefully higher but keeping expectations low) then that four month period after is where we can pick up some serious points. Fergie used to say that if United were 5 points off the top at Christmas then they could definitely win the league with their experience. I think the same applies. It's unkind scheduling but if we can use the squad effectively for the midweek CL games then we've got enough to win these games. Of course if we win all these games.....

If we can get to the 22nd of November and be near the top then we've got a run through to the 11th of April where the toughest game is Man City (31/1). That's TWENTY ONE matches where we should only face one top four team. The title can be won there. That's 63 points up for grabs. Whilst our last 6 matches are toughies, 4 of them are at home.

Opening day away to Burnley. Shit. Tough game, almost certainly going to be moved to Sunday or Monday. City at home September 20th. Man United at home, Arsenal away and Liverpool at home in our final SIX games. From 30th of August to 8th of November, we'll play Everton away, Man City away, Arsenal at home, Man United away and Liverpool away on alternating matchdays.....Fuck. That first three months is as tough a fixture schedule as I can remember, plus there will be Champions League matches. If we can get through that then the Christmas period is kind (Stoke, West Ham, Southampton and Spurs) but then the run in is tough with three teams looking at either the title or top four (Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool) and three teams who could be fighting relegation (Palace, West Brom and Sunderland). Not kind scheduling.

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?