Thomas Williams

Premier league: 1)City ( I could see them splashing big cash to have even more talent-laden team) 2)Chelsea 3)United (always relied on Fergie to succeed, I say it takes a while for them to adjust) 4)Arsenal 5)Liverpool 6)Tottenham (bale leaves) UCL--Bayern, I can't see them as anything less than unstoppable for years now, I always believed Barca was overrated, I think if anything Bayern is underrated, close to the best in the world at every part in the pitch, and their cover for every part of the pitch is still world class, they're enormous. If they really do get Lewan....(shudder) as for all the cups, who knows..

Everyone calls him slow, but he's a lot faster than most give him credit for. He has long legs so its more stride-like when he runs, but he can cover ground quickly and he is a surprisingly good dribbler. That and his crossing and shooting would make him much better on the wing than moses IMO and of course he could cover mata's CAM position if we play a 4-2-3-1. If we move to a 4-3-3, he would make an excellent RCM and with oscar on the left and a good true DM in the center. I think we'd have a formidable midfield. Regardless, he could cover almost all our attacking midfield positions and be as close to as good or better.

Today Torres scored in the 75th minute to give chelsea their 75th premier league goal and ensure the win to give Chelsea 75 points for the season. 75 + 75 + 75 =225 2 + 2 + 5 = 9 El Nino is back!

How about 25 an hour, not to mention great benefits and a generous pension program, because he's worth it

I am EXTREMELY skeptical over the reports of 120k a week. I'm sure it is much closer to half of that. If they are even close to the real contract though, it finally makes sense why it was such an ordeal to get him a contract, if he was demanding about twice what Mata earns (almost all reports say 70k a week). Not to mention I've heard Ivanovic earns under 40k a week. Surely Lampard would be willing to have just an average salary if it meant playing for a club so dear to him? I mean, he is about to be closer to 40 than 30 in a few months...

^This. You would think it would be possible to coach out of him, I don't think it's an ability thing, at least to the extent he does it. He's obviously a good tackler, he just needs to be coached to come out and disrupt play more. Maybe Mourinho could fix 'em

I think he has the talent to become and out and out winger on the right, and if he works on his crossing a little he could give us a lot of the width on the right side that we could really use. He has a much higher ceiling than Moses IMO, and at times he could cut in and use his excellent shooting to catch a goal the opposition isn't expecting. Would be a lot better than putting oscar on the right. However, I think he's only really necessary if we keep up this 4-2-3-1, if Mou comes and switches us to a 4-3-3, we'd likely see mata on the right and hazard on the left and Schurrle would just be some very welcome but not as needed cover for either one. No matter what, at worst he's providing a cover for either wing, which we've sorely needed as evidenced throughout the year with the likes of Marin, Bertrand, and Benayoun having to play it. No club anywhere near our stature should play those players on the wing (except marin, I feel like he has must have more promise than he shows, its just untapped). Anyway, I think our conclusion is we're OK/Happy with the deal, but I doubt many of are jumping up and down happy about it. I can almost certainly guarantee you at 26-27 we will be able to sell him for a profit if we want, so its not a horrible financial venture at the worst.

Why not Kalas? Azpilicueta is EXTREMELY overworked, and almost all of his bad performances can be attributed to absolute fatigue. He hustles all game long and doing 2 games a week for several weeks is doing him more harm than good. From what I've seen of Kalas he's more than ready to handle our capital one/bottom table opponents, and with our 60 + game schedules, he could easily see 20-25 games a year as well as training with the team, and Ivanovic could always be a cover if one got injured. I kind of like the idea of Kalas competing with Azpi for minutes. The only sad thing is they are both such quality young RB's that I'd hate to see one hold back the other, although I think it would be good for the season and free. ....I'll stop derailing the thread.

Benfica were quite good, but that was expected by me at least. They aren't a Basel/Sparta Prague, they are UCL quality just like we are. I'm glad we had the character to beat them even though the team is obviously on its last legs after such a grueling season. Chelsea FC certainly has had some dramatic finishes as of late, glad they're finally starting to turn in our favor.

I think he's very underrated in the air,and probably one of the best last ditch tacklers in current football. That said he can be caught ball watching a lot and can certainly make a goal-costing mistake. I'm surprised he and Luiz don't make a better combination, with David pressuring earlier and Cahill defending the aerial and last second balls. Edit: I suppose it's because they're both so error prone, that if they both make a mistake then it's a guaranteed goal against us. My favorite CB pairings are Luiz and Ivanovic/terry or if Luiz can't play Cahill and Ivanovic. Still believe Cahill will only be a squad player for us, although one of the best squad CB's in the league if you ask me. It's a shame because he would be a sure starter at midtable team and would probably develop better with more regular playing (and having a regular CB partner).

I'm sure he meant if Lampard get's the deal! English idioms are difficult for those learning the language, so I can understand the confusion in "goes through" and "falls through." Perhaps you know, being Israeli yourself?

Most hated who doesn't deserve our hatred----------------- QPR Most hated because of history---------------------------------- Leeds Most hated in London-------------------------------------------- Tottenham (can't bring myself to hate the luckless arses as much) Most hated personally(because they keep beating us)---- Man City Most hated for teething and general hatability---------------Liverpool Our true rivals, domestically and in Europe, the true team in my opinion to rival us in the Abramovich era in being the best team in England -----Manchester United-------

Can't hate him, I feel like he really does try for us now, it's obvious he's been putting work into his fitness as well. For some reason he's lost his true striker qualities and I think it's impossible for him to find them. I genuinely want him to succeed, both here but I'd rather him do it at another club. If he went to another league and did well, I wouldn't be infuriated, just upset that he could never do well here. I can appreciate what he's done in Europa if I don't factor in his wages/transfer fee. Honestly, if he was signed for 12 million and was on 50,000 a week wages, he'd be one of my more liked players for his hustle and goal scoring in Europe. Sadly we pay much, much more for him and he can't live up to it so I'd like the club to move on from him as soon as possible of course. Certainly can't say I hate him personally at all, even if I hate that we signed him.

I do think Luiz could become a great captain one day, but he'd have to learn from Terry and Lamps. Terry was always the perfect captain to me, like you guys said, always so passionate but seemed to be level-headed and intelligent when needed. Such a tough act to follow, but where Luiz will always shine is by showing more passion than humanly possible.

The issue is, if we put him on the squad and he doesn't deliver, we'll almost certainly bench him and severely stunt the growth he could have at another club. Putting him in Chelsea shirt would be a gamble that could definitely turn out brilliantly if he succeeds quickly but awful if he doesn't, but certainly it would be a gamble.

That being said, I'm not horribly against Lewandowski if we can get him cheap, having a star striker ALWAYS helps (united) and Lewan has proven himself in European football, which Lukaku has not. However, I will only take him in addition to sorting out our midfield, not in place of.

That's not how my football teams saw it. If you were a DM you were "defensive" but you were a part of the midfield not part of defense. I guess we're just arguing semantics at this point and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Americans did categorize it like that (so many of our sports, e.g. American Football have such clear offense and defense that we probably like to make all sports like that) But I agree with the idea of trying out Lukaku as our starting striker and just heavily investing in defense and the defensive/playmaking midfield. If Lukaku has that kind of excellent foundation, he will score and assist loads, I can promise you that (his service from West Brom borderlines on terrible sometimes IMO). I think that would make us a more sound team than buying Falcao and still having a problematic pivot and ever-aging Terry. Besides, with Azpi, Luiz, cole/bertrand and a world class CB signing, along with Cech/courtois and good DM's, who is going to score on us? mata and hazard alone could score enough to let us win, much less having the beast of Lukaku up top. Think how well we'd maintain the ball.

Saw this is an online Forbes article http://b-i.forbesimg.com/zachslaton/files/2013/04/Top-Four-Odds.png came from this article http://www.forbes.com/sites/zachslaton/2013/04/19/projected-epl-table-with-5-matches-to-go/ It predicts the final position in the EPL based off current success, but also factors in the amount paid on players and also some sophisticated modeling that includes pythagorean expectations (if you are unfamiliar it was really successful with american baseball, it basically calculates the "luck of a team" based off the goals they score an allow. E.g. Manchester United had more points than they deserved mathematically, and therefore should lose some points over time as luck tends to balance itself out). Anyway, it gave Chelsea a 90% chance of finishing top 4 a few weeks ago (week 33) when we were in a much more worrisome position imo, and I thought that prediction was bollocks- I thought we were looking at much closer to 50% considering our remaining schedule. Looking back now though, it seems Chelsea now have all but guaranteed a spot in the Champions league, so maybe all that math and such has something to it after all. It also predicted United would start dropping points, but I feel that's more easily explained by the fact they don't care anymore, lol. EDIT: In his most recent article: This now means that Spurs only have a 41% chance of finishing in the Top 4 while Arsenal sit at 66% and Chelsea have a 92% :cfc:

That tottenham forum is getting so pathetic its almost sad, they're coming up with hypothetical situations where they beat us and we "tie aston villa" I'd hate to be in a situation where I had to hope my rival team draw against a team they be EIGHT NIL back in December.

Yes, we're going to finish top 4. You heard it here last!

beating tottenham is almost guaranteed enough, but beating United certainly won't hurt

Honestly, I think Cahill has improved on not making mistakes maybe even more than Luiz. Just not as noticeable because an error free Cahill is still not on the same plane as a few error Luiz

Eh, fair enough, but I think he's been better about it in recent times. I must just remember the good things in people.

Theonlyplace to be for me as well. Very well spoken, nonaggressive, and to me he always comes off as a true supporter.

In terms of talent alone, I might be tempted to take 40 mil for a defender with as short a period of consitency as Luiz has had (he's getting there). But his intangibles and the fact that i just plain love him mean it would take way more than he's worth to pry him from my grasp, haha