Corner

Put these together, and it sounds like an awesome rap.

I think we should keep Luiz in defence, buy Cabaye and use him in the pivot. I've been screaming out for this to happen for ages now.

Well, QPR did spend a lot of money this season, but they fucked that up too. How dare they do this to us! I do agree though. I hate that we don't have a local fierce rival who can challenge us.

*anthropomorphic If you're gonna be mean, at least be mean with correct spelling.

He really is insane. But I can't help but admire his confidence in his own insanities sometimes. Mad bastard.

I agree. Some fans don't really care but I just wish we had more home-grown players, and especially players from our own academy breaking into the first-team but we might have to wait a few more years for that to happen. Regarding, I'm not sure he will ever reach Ashley Cole's level, it's hard to judge. I can imagine Chelsea selling him within the next few years and buying a Spanish left-back (maybe Monreal?) to replace him. Or Portuguese, someone like Coentrao.

No, we can't afford to lose any games, I agree with you there. But losing to Everton would not be embarrassing. Almost everyone expects this to be a tough game, even with Fellaini and Gibson out.

Haha, tell that to Trapattoni! He doesn't seem to have the same faith in McCarthy.

I'd rather head over to Wigan and have a look at the likes of McCarthy and McArthur.

I wouldn't go that far. Everton are a very good team that are playing well this season and they have been our bogey team for the past 6 or 7 years. On top of all that, it's at Goodison Park. It's not going to be an easy game, that's for sure.

Wow, I genuinely thought I was the only person on here who supported him the whole way through and still think it was a mistake to sack him to this day.

You're right actually. Mourinho surpassed it by 4 points.

That's okay if you disagree with me. But I think you may have misunderstood me a bit. Or more likely, I wasn't clear enough. I'm not suggesting for a second that the Chelsea board didn't do any research when signing Oscar. I don't even think they over-paid for him. But I think a lot of fans (not the Chelsea board) were more excited about Oscar because he was more expensive and the media hyped up that signing a lot (Oscar being Brazilian could have had something to do with people's excitement too. Naturally, most people get excited when they find out their team is signing a Brazilian, which is understandable of course). There are also other factors to take into consideration of course. I'm not an expert on Brazilian football (so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here) but I was under the impression that Internacional are in a fairly healthy financial position. So they could have held on to Oscar for maybe another season. But there was a lot of pressure on Wigan to sell Moses. He had proven he had what it takes to do well in the BPL and he had ambition to play for a bigger club. If they had not have sold him, then they could potentially have had to deal with an unhappy player for at least another 5 months. Regarding Oscar, I'm a massive fan of him, as my avatar suggests. Not just because he scored a wonder goal against Juventus, but I do catch the odd Brazilian Serie A game every now and then, and I was very impressed in every game I had seen him play. Then the Olympics, in which I was even more impressed (he was pretty much the star player of the tournament). Also, this season so far for Chelsea. He hasn't fully adapted to the style of play in the BPL yet, but he has shown many glimpses of his ability. But more importantly, in my opinion, his vision. And on top of all that, he seems to be very humble (always a nice trait in a young player). EDIT: Fucking hell, I must be having a very boring day. Posting way too many long posts. Apologies for the unnecessarily long reply!

The Chelsea board and a lot of Chelsea fans (and a lot of football fans for that matter) automatically think a player is world-class if he costs anything above 30 million, it seems. For example, Oscar and Victor Moses. I'm a big fan of both, but there was a lot more excitement about Oscar's signing than there was Moses'. Most people had probably seen Oscar play one or two games in the Olympics but were watching Moses play every week in the BPL. Moses had proven he was a great player, even against top Premiership teams. But because we paid less for him, people naturally weren't sure about the signing (not everyone of course). Oscar cost us 25 million, so people assume he is a world-class player because of his price. I blame the media for this as there's always going to be more hype about a signing that costs close to 30 million pounds. (No disrespect to Oscar, who I actually do think is a world-class player).

Exactly. That's the thing, a player can easily get back to top form after a broken leg heals. It's more ligament injuries that fucks up a player's career it seems.

I'm not trying to come across as some Barcelona know-it-all mate. I was just nitpicking anyway.

I agree with all of this. But you made one mistake. Pedro and Villa play the same positions, but Iniesta doesn't actualy play as a wide striker very often anymore. He's usually the more advanced player of the 3 in midfield. And Alexis was bought for the same position as Pedro and Villa, like you said, but that was to provide another option. They needed more power to go their pace. Pedro may be quick, but he's not strong. Alexis constantly harasses defences, which is why he is still being chosen over Villa for most games, even though he is off-form in terms of goalscoring. A very good point though. We do need to consistently buy or produce top players. And Chelsea don't exactly depend on producing talent, so we buy. But every once in a while, a cheap buy can be very useful. For example, we picked up Azpilicueta for 7 million pounds, an absolute bargain if you ask me! And Moses (who was bought for around 10 million pounds I think?) may not be one of the biggest names in football, but he gives us that other option or Plan B. For a top club, it's finding the right balance between buying world-class proven players and finding the odd bargain that is so important, in my opinion. United have done this very well over the years. Buying players like Rooney, Van Persie and Berbatov, but also Hernandez (who is an excellent Plan B for them).

Oh no... I knew someone would say that. Of course we drink more than Guinness though. A lot of my mates hate Guinness, including me (although I don't drink anymore). Yeah? I'm actually not far from Limerick. I'm from Tipperary.

Thank you! To be honest, I was a bit afraid of saying it because I've said things like 'Pelé is a cunt' on other forums and people attacked me to no end. I just hate his personality.

Yeah I know he's his agent. It's just so bloody annoying. I've never heard any other agent comment publicly about a client so much. You could be right about Pelé. I always got the impressions that he doesn't want Neymar to outshine him and his reputation to be honest. Pelé just comes out publicly and says all of this crap about Neymar. He seems to think everyone cares about what he has to say. He may be a legend, but it's so annoying! /rant over.

Really? I would have thought Ireland would be first.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11833/8365263/Santos-forward-Neymar-eyeing-Barcelona-move-in-2014-after-World-Cup I really wish his father would shut up. Although this is obviously just a ploy to get other teams such as Chelsea and Man City to offer him more money. It's just so annoying how Neymar's father and Pelé won't keep their mouths shut about Neymar's future.

Why do so many people on forums take it personally when someone's opinion differs from theirs? It really really baffles me. Just get over it. There's no need for insults. If you want to have a debate then that's good. But if you can't have a debate without insulting someone, then it's best not to say anything at all. Just my two cents.

Um, I'm not sure if you're joking. But we're linked with Mario Suarez (Atletico Madrid defensive midfielder), not Luis Suarez. EDIT: My mistake. Didn't see Luis Suarez being mentioned in the article.

No, of course not. But... apparently one of the main reasons Hazard came to London was because it is close to Belgium. And I know Madrid isn't extremely far away from Belgium, but this suggests Hazard cares A LOT about his family. Would he want to move his family to two different countries in the space of 5 or 6 years? Not everyone is good at adapting like that. I don't know. I've just always got the impression that Hazard cares a lot about family. And he has always said how much he wants to play in the Premiership. I don't ever remember him mentioning La Liga.