Thomas Williams

Obviously he's really raw, and he's far from the best striker in the world. But honestly, I think if he was given the same starts torres was this season, he would have had more goals for us than Torres has. You'll have a very hard time convincing me otherwise. At the very least he is more dangerous in the air, which gives the opposing defenses something to be afraid of. With our tiny AM's, it would be nice to have some more physicality in the final third (Ba does a decent job of that, but his shooting boots have been lost for a long time. Fact is, despite his technical shortcomings, he finds a way to get goals. He just does. And though I doubt he'd be as a prolific as he has been for West Brom and Everton, he would still do well here. And as a HUGE bonus, he would adapt more and more to our team, and by the time he's 25 he would be among the very best in the world, I guarantee you. The rest of our strikers are just collecting paychecks, Lukaku has something to prove.

Although I understand what you mean, I think it does mean "the support is any less." Being literally in the stands cheering them on I think makes you more of a supporter, even though probably most Chelsea supporters (including myself) don't have the means to do it at the moment. Although no doubt many of us are equally if not more emotionally vested in the team.

I'm loving the fact that the Spurs are 13th in the league in goal difference, can you believe that some thought they were title contenders this year? I have to admit, I thought they were going to be a lot more promising than this with the talent they bought.

I don't think we'll get killed ,but I also don't think we'll win. Mourinho will play the same type of defensive thing he did against United. 1-0 or 2-0 seems like a reasonable score, Our back 4 has looked very solid. I'd love to see Azpi used as RB to deal with Ribery's pace (fresher and faster than Ivanovic), but I doubt it. If Lampard starts I'll legitimately be mad at Mourinho.

Worst game I've ever seen Hazard Play. Our CB's looked solid though, thank goodness.

If Eto'o can score 15 league goals (two less than Lukaku did) then I still regard that as a good buy, that's way more than Torres and Ba scored combined for us last year.

A bit of a waste IMO, but if the transfer market keeps going in the direction it's currently going, he could be worth twice that after two great seasons. It just pains me to know any Willian success will come at the cost of developing de Bruyne who is just dripping with potential.

Sorry mate, I meant that as a joke! I forgot sometimes sarcasm looks like blind stupidity on the internet, but I agree with you 100%, lol. My point was it is ridiculous to have SO much depth that you could afford 5 injuries in the same position and still field a decent side.

You Willian haters will be eating your words when Hazard, Mata, Oscar, De Bruyne, and Schurrle are injured at the same time. Luckily, we'll be able to play Willian, Moses, and Ramires in the attacking band in that emergency.

This. However, it's the teams that can consistently put these teams away that typically win the league. Last year United wasn't exceptional against the top 5, but they always seemed to squeak by the smaller teams if I recall correctly.

Would rather Oscar or de Bruyne play there, even if Willian was free (which he is far from). Think of the CM we could buy for close to 40 million.

I honestly think United have as good a shot as we do this season. I'm not sure why people are counting them out so quickly, it's the same team that finished WAY above us last season, and our signings aren't going to make THAT strong a difference. I understand the difference in managers this year, but van Persie is still van freaking Persie, and unless he gets injured, I can't see us finishing more than a few points above United, even though I like our squad a lot better. They just always find a way.

I think we can all agree Sturridge was/is a great talent. But there was a LOT of sighing whenever he would come on,and instead of taking the easy pass he would blast it into row Z with a dreadful right footed shot. I think a lot of it was that he was trying too hard to impress, but it was still agonizing at times to deal with that awful/selfish decision making. He seems to be managing it much better at Liverpool, and I wish him the very best in the rest of his career.

I love having all the Belgian fans. I kind of knew about Hazard from him tearing up the French league, but players like de Bruyne, Lukaku, etc. I knew virtually nothing about before they came to the club (although I followed them very closely once they did). The Belgian supporters here are demonstrating a lot of expertise on these players that I would not know otherwise. I can't stand people who think less of fans because of the country they're from (whether it's Belgium, Nigeria, Serbia) just because a big player is from their country. As long as they don't let it bias them too badly, I think they're just as good supporters.

I understand where you're coming from, but Mata is just too good to not be a key player. Mourinho can't possibly leave his best player out of his plans.

The reports are that he would come on a free transfer, so if we could sign him for something like 100k wages for 3 years, it honestly wouldnt be that big of a risk, that's not big money we're talking about. It'd probably be a waste of money though if he isn't much better than our current strikers, especially considering he'll only get worse.

"I hope those Drogba goals hurt Wenger. I hope they hurt him bad." ---posted on an arsenal forum Before Drogba scored "It sure would be nostalgic if Drogba scored on us" I miss him so much sometimes =(

I think it's a great idea, it wouldn't take TOO many people for it to start adding up a lot. My brother is really into gaming and he watches a lot of people on this site called "twitch" where you just essentially watch people play video games and they talk or whatever. They offer subscriptions where basically all you get is a few more emoticons in the chat and removes the adds (which most people have ad blocker anyway), and some of the bigger personalities on there get hundreds of subscribers at $5 a month. Surely if some guy playing video games in his house can do that, a site as good as this one could.

I left out Mata, I think Hazard will outshine him this year! Just my guess though.

All good points, but PSG has managed with a certain degree of success. City also has a pretty easy first 6 games, I'm afraid if they get some momentum going at the beginning of the season they'll be unstoppable.

I know you guys are all optimistic, but this manchester city team seems out of our reach this year. They steam rolled us last year, and in the short term their signings look like they'll help them more than they'll help us. Maybe Jose's magic will be able to even the odds, but I'm hesitant. I think we should lower our expectations a bit and realize our squad is still quite young, and second or third place finish wouldn't be the end of the world as long as players keep improving. It will be an exciting season none the less and I think we'll finish ahead of United this year! (which is saying something because we've only done it once, and by just one point, in all the years since mourinho's been gone).

mikel, with more effort/concentration and the willingness to more creatively use his passing ability would be phenomenal in any DM position.

I don't think you guys understand the financial impact of 240k wages. That's 12.5 million a YEAR, and would make him more expensive than cavani since cavani allegedly agreed to wages that were 100k less a week than that.

Fantastic, and your work as always is well appreciated by all the members and guests here.

Cavani et Rooney? Un peu inutile, peut-être. Also, this is an English forum, I don't think the mods would like another language being posted on here.