The only place to be

Play in a second-rate league for 30-odd games and you lose that sharpness when you come up against a PROPER team. One game doesn't make him a poor striker, but he just needs to push himself harder.

#daretoblahblahblah

At some point does he go from being a great right-back doing a superb job at left-back to being just a great left-back?? Just a fantastic lad though. Amazed he got cramp towards the end - almost looked human!

Which is weird because which suggests that it wouldn't be a difficult one to replace.

But...but...but....the football isn't pretty enough. It's always funny to see the same faces pop up after a bad result, but stay under their rocks when the greatest manager in the world once again proves why he's the greatest manager in the world. As others have said, have it you fuckers.

I think the PSG game was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back to be honest. Maybe it was his highest profile mistake, but the criticisms of him were by no-means unprecedented. I thought Cech had a good game last night, but didn't do anything you wouldn't expect a top keeper to do. It was just nice to see him decisive at crosses again to be honest.

I guarantee no-one associated with this club would despise Cech. It is very easy to go overboard after a strong result and make judgments based solely on that game. We didn't have Matic last night, so is he now not needed? Luiz played well in midfield....should we now not look at midfield options? Ba scored - sorry Diego, we don't need you anymore. These things have to be looked at in the context of a whole season, and based on that I think most Chelsea fans would say Petr has had a bad season. If Courtois had been at the club this season, I have no doubt he would've got his chance and maybe even supplanted Cech as our number one.

He had a good game....let's not go overboard. Does last night's performance mean we don't need Hazard or Matic in the squad as well? PSG were poor, they were poorly coached and failed to take the chances they did create. Are people now saying that Luiz's performance actually mean he should play in defence, or that we don't need a midfielder? Because what I'm seeing are a load of snidey comments from 'supporters' with no real specifics about what last night actually means for the club going forward.

Nice diplomatic phrasing there Anyway I love Andre. Still got that dodgy barnet going on but I really do think he's a top player and even when Eden went off I had faith that this guy could do something. He's a perfect example of people expecting far too much from players in their first season at the club when they come from abroad. It takes time to acclimatise not just to the league but to the country and to what Jose expects from you. He took his goal clinically (he is German after all) and was unlucky not to get a second, but with Eden out for a few weeks we need this guy to continue to step-up for us.

He was absolutely tremendous last night. Great on the ball, strong in the tackle, didn't stop running and gave everything out on the pitch - you couldn't ask for more from a player. He deserves all the credit and plaudits he's getting because when the guy does put everything together, he's a fantastic player and on nights like last night you need that. You also need it in the 50-odd other games in a season, not just the big ones.

I very rarely say 'I told you so', but I'm going to indulge in a bit of that because I've also been wrong about a few things so.... What is surprising is the number of people giving up in the match thread and saying the tie is over. Have a fucking word with yourselves. We can turn this tie around back at the Bridge like we did in 2012. I did tell you so after the first leg. Another legendary night to add to the history of this great club, and another reminder of the phenomenal character that exists here. Even after we lost our most dangerous attacking threat I still felt we could beat this PSG team because they might have money, but money doesn't buy you the passion and ferocity that we have....something you get from playing tough games week in and week out. Everyone stepped up. Cech made up for his errors in the first-leg with an assured performance and vital saves at the end. The back four worked their bollocks off all night. Schurrle hit back at the morons who call him 'mediocre' and showed just how vital he could be for us going forward. Oscar and Willian did more than simply work hard last night, putting in some fabulous balls and showing some tremendous vision. But a lot of credit has to go to a few much-maligned individuals. Firstly the strikers were great. They caused PSG trouble and Ba took his goal well. He seems like a nice guy and I doubt he'll ever have a moment like that again, but he did what he needed to do when we needed it most. MOTM for me though was David Luiz. I criticise him a lot and I'm fairly certain he's off in the summer but he was absolutely fantastic all night. He didn't stop running, he was strong but also restrained himself from going over the top, he played some lovely balls and that moment when he got Cavani booked was absolutely beautiful. But all this is orchestrated by one man. No other manager would be running down the touchline to give instructions to individuals after such an important goal and it's moments like that which remind me that we'r very lucky to have a manager who is a true one-off. He was brilliant, the crowd was brilliant and the players were brilliant in all the ways PSG's weren't.

Or Costa, Mandzukic and Bamford (although I suspect Bamford is going out on loan again)? I'd be happy to see Costa and Lukaku as our two strikers next season but I think Lukaku has burnt too many bridges. Sounds like utter bollocks but if you can provide a reputable source for this 'well-known fact' then I'll accept that it must be true.

I actually respect Cruyff as a footballing mind, but he's completely wrong. Jose goes out of his way NOT to blame his players under normal circumstances and he's actually being fairly honest for once. How many players talk about the special relationship they had with him? Having said that he's right about Jose only caring about results and I have no problem with that. The 90 minutes in between the whistles being blown is almost incidental to the final result but that doesn't make him short-termist.

But leave him on the bench for a few games and have his competition be the worst striking trio in the top half of the table and he'll ask to leave the club? We're going to hopefully sign a world-class striker in the summer - will he be happy having a striker like that as his competition or will he walk into Jose's office again and ask to go to a club where he's guaranteed a start?

Are you sure. to Bayern Barca Real Madrid Atletico Arsenal Liverpool Man United Man City PSG Monaco Borussia Dortmund Everton or Spurs He's a great young talent and he's done amazingly well, but if we sell him and bring in Costa then we're going to be in a stronger position going forward. It's a lesson to other young players - don't ask to leave the club because you might not come back.

From the article. Courtois’ key strengths are the fact that, despite his huge frame, he is agile enough to get down quickly to low shots and he inspires confidence in his defence by commanding his area.

Pre-season is meaningless. It's about fitness more than anything else, but in the first few games Mourinho gave starts to Torres, Ba and then Eto'o. It's not unfair to think that Lukaku would've got starts as the Champions League started ramping up and we also had League Cup games coming. Honestly, I just wish he'd never asked for the move because I think he would've been a massive player for us this season. I just don't think Mourinho is the type of guy you can ask for a transfer from and expect him to forget it. He places far too much stock in character and there's no way this isn't a red mark against your name. It's just a shitty situation all round.

Him on his own would be a disappointment, but him and Costa together would be a great move.

I knew that was a Neil Ashton story before I even clicked on the link and I'd be very surprised if this wasn't a purposeful attempt to get the fans to turn on Torres and force him out of the club. I understand most dislike him but a lot of supporters pity him and still support him - if he for a moment looks like he's trying to Bogarde us then that sympathy can turn to anger very quickly and we'll make it very uncomfortable for him at the Bridge. Don't care what it takes, we need to get shot of him this summer and move on.

Against Hull he got 15 minutes. Against Villa he got 25 minutes. Against Man United we didn't start with a striker and Torres got 30 minutes coming on for De Bruyne. Against some German team whose name escapes me, he got 22 minutes after coming on for Torres who scored for us. United was a weird one because we didn't actually play with a striker and the German team was a glorified friendly so I might exclude them if that's ok. So in the other two games he was actually getting more time on the pitch as the games went on, yet he decided that he had no chance of getting more than 5-10 games a season because Eto'o was signed? Fuck me, he was even trusted with a penalty in the shootout.

The interest seems to be coming from teams like Everton and Spurs rather than the top clubs. Is Daniel Levy's judgment of players better than Mourinho's? It's amazing how we criticise someone like Rooney who puts in a request to leave the club but defend Lukaku. This is a guy who said it was his dream to play for the club yet a few games left out (not unlike Schurrle and Azpi faced) and a bit of competition (weak competition at that) and he's asking to leave Chelsea Football Club??? Oh it's a world cup year. Well that's great. He's guaranteed himself at least 3 games at a world cup he's got an outside chance of winning.

We generally seem to have about £50 million (net) available per season to spend on players. Now if you factor in the sales of Luiz and Lukaku (say about £40 million in FFP terms) plus Mikel, Ba and a couple of others I think we could easily hit £100 million. Throw in the wage savings of Cole, Torres (hopefully), Eto'o and a couple of others and we certainly have money to spend which is why Costa AND Mandzukic doesn't seem too unlikely.

Really has an 80s feel to it, but the badge is embroidered and I like the darker blue tone to it. To be honest though it's a blue Chelsea home shirt. It's gonna sell.

It's very hard to just walk into a Jose team though. I know there were question marks over his fitness, just like there were with Schurrle, but I'm certain that if he had worked hard in training he would've got a shot. Lukaku should've just looked at the players he was competing with, backed himself to displace them and knuckled down rather than asking for a move. Maybe it was a heat of the moment thing or maybe he was trying to force Jose's hand but whatever the motives, the end result is a lot of burned bridges. Like I've said before, he needs Chelsea much more than Chelsea needs him. Agree totally, but I just think no-one is going to expect someone like Jose to take a request like that favourably. If you don't want to play for the club then Jose has no problems in letting you go, but I also don't think he forgets easily. He's got an ego and he can probably be a spiteful prick at times, but he's also a winner. Lukaku could've learnt under one of the best managers in the world but instead his agent is discussing a move with a club who doesn't even have a manager.... Honestly, Lukaku needs better people advising him because the ones he has right now aren't doing a good job.