The only place to be

Lukaku is young. He can still go out on loan for a couple of seasons and return at 23, two years younger than Costa is now. Costa and Mandzukic is a better combination in my opinion than Costa and Lukaku. You want strikers who bring different things to the table and think these two compliment one another well. Lukaku as a third striker doesn't work in my opinion. I'd actually like to see Bamford given that role but a loan is more likely. Feruz could spend another year in the 'B league' and get a few run outs. If Lukaku isn't happy with this arrangement then he only has himself to blame. He had a chance to compete for the shirt with Eto'o, Torres and Ba....now he might have to compete with Costa and Mandzukic. I like the guy but I think I might piss myself laughing if that happened.

It's a set figure the clubs are paid per televised game. Liverpool were shown in one more home game. Liverpool coming so close and losing, and it being Stevie Me's fault....that's going to come up over the next few years decades.

Because we needed a midfielder in the Champions League since Matic was cup-tied and Luiz looks a bit like one. Sometimes. I don't have a huge problem with him. I think he's inconsistent in almost every respect and I think £30 million for him is a great bit of business. Um....the system seemed fine UNTIL one player fucked up and didn't do his job. Then we had to chase the game. It's laughable to put any of that on Cahill....different but laughable.

Chicken or egg? Is our crossing so bad it makes our strikers look mediocre or are our strikers so mediocre that they make the crossing look bad? Azpi and Ivanovic are both more than capable of putting in a good cross - who are they supposed to aim for?

But if that's your competition and you've been getting chances, why get uppity and ask for a transfer? He had more chance playing last season than he does if we actually get Costa and Mandzukic. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

If we need three. I'd envisage Costa being the main guy, spearheading counter attacks and looking for space behind defences. If that doesn't work or we face a packed defence then bring on Mandzukic and look to pepper the box with crosses. Lukaku's problem with being a number two behind Costa is that he doesn't offer anything radically different apart from being left-footed and not as good.

He gets a lot of stick but I honestly think Howard Webb is one of the finest referees this country has ever produced. Sense of humour too.

He's been used a little differently at times this year, either wider or a little deeper, which is what you'd perhaps expect at this level but players coming up sometimes have that. He's still got that raw instinct of scoring goals but he's been inconsistent which (I feel like I'm repeating myself and not for your benefit choulo) is what you get with young players. He just needs support and to go again next season...and not get distracted.

Modric is the ideal choice but it's massively unlikely. Matic is a nailed-on starter going into next season so you're looking for the guy next to him and Rakitic is a possibility, but it looks like he could be set for Real Madrid. That's probably why we're been linked with Paulinho who is possibly a low-risk, high reward type of signing if the price is right. The issue with spending big in that position is that there's then a financial prerogative to use that player. Personally I'd like us to give a chance to the players we've got and look at cheaper players, like Paulinho.

Could be. He's still young so people need to be patient with him but he's a very tidy player. What any player like him needs is targets to aim for and that seems to be something we're going to have for the first time in a few years. Plus the fact he can take a free-kick is a nice bonus considering Costa is the most fouled player in La Liga this year and Hazard was the most fouled player in the Premier League - lots of free kicks around the box next season.

Different players in different positions performing different roles. Not singling you out but there seems to be a rush to assert that Mourinho likes a certain player. Usually it's people highlighting Ramires or Ivanovic and suggesting Jose likes 'technically limited' players. The truth is Jose tends to incoroprate flair players (Hazard, Deco, Sneijder, Ozil, Ronaldo) alongside 'water carriers' to use a Gallic expression as well as those who combine the two (Modric being one of the best recent examples alongside Matic). Rakitic could be seen to be that hybrid type of player so maybe we will go in for him. We do have a lot of young talent though in Chalobah, Van Ginkel, RLC, Baker and maybe even Pasalic so is there really a rush to buy for this role?

I'm sure some of his more devout followers will also try to propagate a myth that he wasn't given chances. He was. In fact he started more games in his preferred position (CB) than Azpilicueta did up to the start of November. In that time Mourinho felt he had to drop him twice and Cahill then won the spot on merit (like Azpi). Maybe Jose has an agenda against Luiz. Simple fact is that the shirt was up for grabs and Cahill won it with his performances whilst Luiz almost could be said to have lost it with his. Maybe the stats are biased against Brazilians though (as one poster implied I am, despite me consistently defending Oscar on here...oh well).

I wouldn't call him a hoof ball specialist because that implies he's a early-90s Wimbledon-style 'route one' merchant which he isn't. But he went from being a player who always tried to dribble out of trouble to a player who would routinely hoof the ball away in ANY direction. It's like someone told him 'when in doubt, kick it out' and he literally felt he had to do that whenever he had even a moment's doubt, so you had this odd situation in a match earlier in the season (can't remember exactly which one right now) where he seemed to just punt the ball away whenever it came near him in the last 5-10 minutes. Cahill is actually getting close to Terry in the 'underrated ability to pass' league. Neither is Frank Leboeuf (still the most beautiful passing defender I've seen - the passes being beautiful, not him....although when he shaved that last remaining hair off...I digress) but they keep it simple. For Luiz it's not the ability to pass that is the issue....it's the judgment. Fact is you acknowledge that in your last sentence. He's 27. We're talking about the same issues he had at 23.

Sorry mate, but 4 games and he features in 3 of them is giving him a chance. The United game was a weird one because we set up without a striker so he can't have too many complaints. What I don't get is why he didn't back himself to beat out the likes of Ba, Torres and Eto'o. Chelsea are his club after all and he was given chances to show what he could do in two Premier League matches and one match against the European Champions. At the time I agreed with you about the signing of Eto'o, but the fact that he seems to have asked for this move has changed my opinion. The funny thing is that if he had stuck around this season he could've been up against three poor strikers for a starting spot. Next season he's going to be up against Costa in all likelihood. D'oh!! Problem is Costa does all that too. If teams park the bus then he can't counter so can he be that burly target man? Possibly. Ideally what you want in a second striker is someone who offers something a little different and something a little more rudimentary which is why the idea of Mandzukic as a back-up striker is probably appealing to Jose.

And yet you bitch and moan about this club constantly and show no connection with the optimism that the majority of fans have and the belief in Jose that most share. I'm sure plenty of tourists going to games are like that.

I'm sorry, but how many times does this member have to imply there's some xenophobic or racist agenda behind some people's comments before he's reprimanded? It's not bullshit. Ivanovic is a very capable central defender and has shown it on numerous occasions, like at Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. He made a couple of errors last season but I would still trust him over Luiz. When Terry was injured for a couple of weeks Luiz was drafted in. Fortunately the first game was against Newcastle who had no fight in them, although Luiz still made a couple of errors. The second game was against West Brom when he lost Anichebe in the 87th minute and he scored. David Luiz hasn't played in defence since. We'll see, but I absolutely think he isn't a Jose-type of player and I think Jose has realised that ever since he dropped him for the second time in November.

Spot on. Page 15 of Azpilicueta's thread is interesting. Some posters moaning about his crosses - seems to be a recurring pattern.

Fantastic effort. I'm sure there's plenty there that people will agree with and just enough to make them think. Measured yet confident.

He was given a squad number, a pre-season and minutes in 3 of the first 4 games of the season. We even gave him the worst competition for a starting spot that you could hope for. He needs us far more than we will ever need him, yet he was happy to go on loan. That's always my starting position.

Um, he was given a chance to be part of the squad this season. He was also brought on in three of the first four games of the season. He had his chance here. He asked to leave. So, um, what??

He's not 'a manager', he's Jose Mourinho. His record is beyond reproach and even other greats like Fergie went 2 seasons without winning a league title. Fuck me it's like people look solely at the trophy haul and don't look at the season in context. He's your hero and you don't judge him fairly. I've also seen the shit you say about this club and it's manager and I think you're the type of fan who cares more about their favourite player than the club as a whole or it's supporters. So I choose to take the piss out of your hero. I could take the piss out of other things but that might be a little unfair....basically though I view you as a supporter in the same way I view Fernando Torres.

You won't be will you? I mean you seem to take a lot of enjoyment in slating this club whilst wanking yourself silly over Torres. Next season we'll hopefully have a proper striker rather than the most despised Chelsea player since Winston Bogarde.

Aguero scored two more league goals than Lukaku this season despite starting 9 less games. Rooney scored two more league goals than Lukaku this season despite starting 2 less games and playing predominantly behind the striker. Stats.....bleurgh!

Spot on. Compared to the fiasco that was our acquisition of players from about 2007 to 2011, the board are doing a fine job. We do our business quickly and quietly, we always seem to get good value and we have a massive amount of young talent. This is all in light of the Torres debacle as well which has severely hamstrung us over the last few years. Some people want it all now which isn't realistic in the modern game, and that's probably a good thing. I like the fact that teams have to use a bit of skill to get in the right players nowadays and look for value, rather than simply throwing endless supplies of money at it. Eventually even the impatient supporters will learn the new reality of transfers in football, or they'll just fuck off and support PSG.

Hahahahahahahaha....patience. His finish against Arsenal was fantastic, as were the goals against us. What he seems to be is inconsistent which (for the millionth time) is what young players tend to be. Like Schurrle, I'd be more worried if he wasn't getting into these positions but he does and that's something that is much harder to teach than actually finishing chances. Mourinho always said he was one for the future so people need to just give these young players time and support them in the tough periods. Immediately writing him off as a backup is, well, shit.