Barbara

if not at all. With Mourinho in charge I'm not sure he won't be sold this season or the following. And his behavior was ridiculous after the sub. He played shit both matches and he's all angry? The fans should be angry - on him - not him on Wilmots - although Wilmots is a dummy.

All comparisons to Messi and Eden is doing just the same as the Argentinean... no-show for most of the match, then a couple of good plays and responsible (even if in Eden's case indirectly) for the winners. I'll have that.

injured

I like a lot of names in your post. I'm a Benteke fan - although I know he is no ace. I also think with Lewandowski arriving at Bayern there won't be much space for Müller. Balotelli could soar under Mourinho, I really believe Mou to be the manager to get the best out of him, and as I just said on the Mourinho's thread, I'd rather break the bank with Suarez and sign no one else than get Costa + LB + another striker and whoever else Mourinho has in mind. Or Sturridge... if we swallowed our pride for Matic we could do the same for Daniel too - and it wouldn't even be that expensive, though I'm not sure he'd be interested to come back. Anyway, I have a long list of targets that I'd rather have here than Costa. Costa is like only ahead of Mandzukic to be honest and Lukaku himself. I just read that Lukaku will probably land in a loan for Atletico... if that's the case, we need a better backup than Torres asap - although Lukaku as Costa backup has always been redundant and pointless.

He did say he was lazy and Marca reported there was a discussion afterwards http://www.marca.com/2014/06/21/en/football/national_teams/1403387285.html more details in the Spanish version http://www.marca.com/2014/06/21/futbol/mundial/espana/1403370505.html "The player was very upset about his small part in the WC and accused the manager of having something personal against him. Del Bosque fired back saying the player was selfish. Reina was near them and tried to stop them from making a scene in front of the media. It was a tense riff and one that might have consequences in the future although that wasn't the first episode of the morning" The first episode is the one showed in the video and according to Marca del Bosque felt like Fàbregas was lazy, but the thing is Pique abandoned the session and their team then had one less player. It's a mess. edit: in different news... what a difference a month can make: The moment I saw him with the Blue shirt and saw his facebook and twitter accounts all Blue, I was a goner. It seems like my hate is too soft, hahahahaha.

Mourinho talked about Suarez for Yahoo. I don't have a link but he said he's absolutely fantastic when he's not diving penalties - lol I'd rather us to break the bank and bring Suarez rather than buy 3-4 players, now that we already have Fabregas. We can live without a new LB for another season. Iva-Azpili aren't the reason why we haven't won anything last season. And I'm absolutely aware of what a cunt Suarez is - although he seems to have matured some last season. edit: found the link https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rio-report/mourinho-amazing-suarez-gets-credit-deserves-isn-t-090702289.html

There's a reason why my faves members from the forum are French. They know it all. Amazing analysis mate.

privacy. I don't think I have stalkers. If you have any account, add me there, so you can see the tweets straight from there. I tried to link them here - in that feature that appears the tweet, but as the account is protected it doesn't show... Sigh... I prefer Benz + Lukaku over Costa too. Lukaku + Costa makes no sense it gives us no versatility at all and against the parked buses from last season with our AMs sucking to create, we're faded to struggle again as they aren't suited for that kind of game imo.

I hope he isn't. I haven't watched more than 20 matches of him, so I hope to be wrong. found a few more tweets, lol, I was so much more annoying back then, age does wonders for someone, hahahaha Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets but then there were many injuries and he never was the same again. I don't know who's responsible for him on Chelsea but this person knows Reply Delete Favorite 6:14 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets little of football or is hopeful that Torres will be his old self. I've watching football for too long and saw many cases like his. Most Reply Delete Favorite 6:15 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets yeah Didier. For God's sake just take Torres off and pls do not bring him back for let's say 30 matches Reply Delete Favorite 6:02 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets I said before Torres came to Chelsea I made it clear 1) we didn't need him; 2) he's not worth 50M; 3) he's not the player he used to be Reply Delete Favorite 5:53 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets the more I see of him the more sure I am I couldn't be more right. I hate to see my teams wasting money on players like Torres and Kaká Reply Delete Favorite 5:54 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets I know Ancelotti totally lost it when I see Drogba on the bench and Torres playing. Dear God, how can he be so clueless? Reply Delete Favorite 4:35 PM - 1 Mar 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets on twitter reading about this miracle #wherewereyouwhentorresscored Reply Delete Favorite 3:46 PM - 23 Apr 2011 I'm laughing my arse off reading my old tweets, lolReminiscing session is over though

my tweets Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets and that comes from someone who DEFINITELY DOESN'T approve Torres move to MY TEAM despite his quality as a player Reply Delete Favorite 10:24 PM - 31 Jan 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets it's like Kaka 2.0 all over again. I should try to manage the teams I support. Those people can take some very stupid decisions Reply Delete Favorite 2:42 PM - 6 Feb 2011 Barbara C S C Batist ‏@BabiLira_ Protected Tweets kudos to LFC. I have more reasons than ever to think Torres deal is as bad as Kaka deal but better times (and players) will come Reply Delete Favorite 4:05 PM - 6 Feb 2011 Not only I was right about Torres, but about Kaká too. Maybe that's a gift The thing is I used to have a small crush on Torres back then, because of La Roja, so I thought he was cute and didn't think even that about Kaká so I was more bitter about Kaká than Torres. But I still hated it. I'm looking for more tweets, lol. There were some hateful tweets.

For the same reason I was positive Torres would be a fluke. He overachieved at Liverpool. I've requested my twitter archive to find those tweets. People see a couple of stats and have their mind made about a player and don't see their obvious limitations. One doesn't even have to be very smart to notice those small (and sometimes even not that small) flaws. But well, at least I can put a bookmark in this page and save those posts... And I'm in the minority here, everybody thinks he'll be great, I don't. There are a very few that are weary like me. Lukaku seems to be the same as Costa and Torres, but he's still under development and I've been waiting longer to make a final assessment. But from what I've seen so far from him, he's the same as Torres and Costa. I'd say Costa > Lukaku > Torres

I wish I could get a few tweets of mine when I came across those news. I don't remember ever being so pissed at a signing my club did. I've never rated Torres - even when he was on his best - for the same reason I don't rate Costa. I can recognize a player's good moment and right doings, but I hate players that lack technique. I like my players talented and technical, not simply poachers, or workhorses... I see Costa better than Torres when he was good, but not by much and I'm sure at some point he will derail to the same mediocrity alley Torres has gone. It's unavoidable. Players like them don't last much anyway because it's based on things that don't last much. Costa is better than Torres was when we signed him, Costa will do better for us than Torres did. I won't be surprised if the improvement isn't a remarkable one. He doesn't have what it takes to carry on imo and if he has a couple of good seasons for us I'll already be happy. I fear he might not even have those. I've made mistakes predicting players' careers before, of course I did, but there were more hits than misses by a large distance. I'm not against us getting Costa if we get another top striker or at least someone very promising and about to peak that isn't named Lukaku.

that's generalizing. It's no secret Costa is better than any of our options to the NT attack, but unlike Chelsea, Brazil had really no other option while Chelsea may have many. Lukaku and Costa are more of the same and with useless Torres we don't have any technical striker to bail us off the jail if it comes to that. I don't like Diego Costa because he's limited in my eyes. While I think he could improve both Chelsea and Brazil, Chelsea can buy other options while Brazil only had him. So I'd welcome him more at Brazil than Chelsea because Chelsea have other options while Brazil don't. It's not rocket science. I wish I had access to the Torres speculation thread... I'm sure I'd see a lot of similarities to the Costa thread right now and I won't be surprised at all if Costa ends up being yet another shot at water. He's better than Torres, but the same way I was cursing everyone and their mothers in Chelsea when we signed Torres - before he even touched a ball for us, I'm more than weary about Costa as the big or at least the only striker we're signing. It's a recipe to uncertainty in my mind and that, my friend, has nothing to do with him playing for Spain or Brazil... I don't even care much about Brazil NT... I care a whole lot more about Chelsea and this isn't the ideal business in my head. Far from it. And then if he comes and God forbid he proves to be just what I think he is, then people - maybe even you - will make his thread Torres 2.0 while they were all wanking themselves about him now. At least I've always cursed Torres from day zero - even before day one. If Costa ends up only fairly better, than I'll be happy to have had the same opinion about him through and through. But you know what will make me even happier? To be proved wrong and the guy be spectacular playing for us. I just think he shouldn't be our only or biggest striker target. I rate Benzema higher than Costa, and if I could have a say, I'd want Benz to play both for Brazil and Chelsea, but while one is impossible, the other is far-fetched. But my opinion isn't because I'm bitter about a player choosing Spain over Brazil. I'm not even bitter about it to be honest and he did nothing for Spain that Fred hasn't done for Brazil too: dive a penalty and have not even one shot on target. that's a bad and shallow argument if you don't analyze it further. He split appearances with Higuain for two seasons, he had an injury and he plays by Ronaldo's side. Those things can influence in a player consistency and show me one striker that doesn't go through dry spells? Consistency is much more apparent in the striker position and guess who's going through one dry spell just now? Is Karim the best striker in the world? Not even close, but this inconsistency argument is the same about Schurrle while he was in Leverkusen. Just stats bullshit and a player having a dig of form here and there - in addition to starting about only half matches in the season and having one of the most selfish players by his side (which is not a dig at Ronaldo, he should be as selfish as they get with his quality - chances of him scoring are bigger than any striker by his side).

Let's replace him by Pep then... I'm sure all the fashion image complaints will be gone.

That's ridiculous. I disagree with you and Bir_CFC that he needs to wear a suit to sell or represent Chelsea's image properly. To be honest, I've never liked the idea of suits in a football match, but I respect it. His clothes don't represent his image or Chelsea's - except for the few people that give a fuck about what the manager is wearing. Thankfully those aren't the majority.

if we get Holland again we will, but I believe we can get past Chile

I think he was just okay against Mexico going forward. He was still a beast pressing (it seems like only he carried on the pressing that was so successful for us last year at Confed Cup), but he was an after thought in the attack. And it was an important match for us in the WC... so well, what's the theory now? He was rightfully subbed and I hope he plays much better against Cameroon..

nobody is mixing anything that others weren't mixing already. the overreaction on this forum sometimes is annoying as hell. Mourinho is working as a PUNDIT for Yahoo, as such he's entitled to say whatever he wants and that doesn't make him classless, at most his opinion won't match ours. If it was any other Portuguese saying it, for example, any Portuguese pundit saying it in their country would they be labeled classless? No, at most they would be labeled as nonsense or someone who has no idea what they're talking about - and that's for the people that disagree with him. But as this is Mourinho it has to be turned into something it's not. He's Portuguese and passionate about his country and of course, football. He was speaking with this heart, and he's not Pepe's manager, he's not the NT coach... And if you call someone classless you're labeling the person, any argument can be used to defend them as a person. now if you say that was a classless comment, then it means he crossed the line at this moment, but he isn't a classless person. That's why people felt compelled to show some of the classy things he does, one of them, philanthropy.

That's my main point too. He will improve our attack just like Eto'o improved (only I expect him to add more than Samu did for obvious reasons), but we need to have a guy like Benzema, for example, or Eto'o of the old. Especially if we're keeping Lukaku... what in the world will we do with Costa, Lukaku and Torres in a match our AMs fail to create? The only thing they can create by themselves is body fluids - in Torres case not even that as he doesn't even sweat due to lack of effort.

It's no holier than thou talking. it's simple basic math with basic odds analysis. a league where you have more than 2 teams running for the title is obviously harder to win. A league that divides money more fairly have better 'weaker' sides that lead top teams to drop more points. why do you think EPL often has champions with much less points except for the odd outstanding champion here and there? Did I say the best? no, just the strongest and hardest. that's easily proved by numbers and has nothing to do with opinion. The opinion came from the idea that 3 titles out of 10 is massive under-achievement. I think that's crazy and even a bit spoiled. And to say we underachieved based in the investmens is not only spoiled but also foolish when at least other two teams also made big investments. City injected more money than us in the last few years...

kids must look so cute in the collared shirts

I think that's a significant run. Going 21 matches, nearly five months without having a big match allows us to focus in the UCL while also being able to treat the league with the seriousness it needs.Last year because of the little age of our key players, we had trouble focusing in the EPL matches prior to our UCL games, but we did fine in the EPL matches after the UCL games. If Mourinho can fix that in the team's mentality, it'll be a big step. Never understood the reason of it and if it's not asking too much, I'd like to know why it can't be posted. Except our winter slump comes in the fall, lol Now, looking only in the matches prior and after UCL games I'd worry again more about the matches prior than the matches after it.In terms of group stage, we have Swansea H, Villa H, Crystal Palace A, QPR H, WBA H and Newcastle A prior to UCL games. Most of those matches are home and Palace away doesn't include a trip, but I'm not that much worried about distance we'll have to fly - although it's certainly still a factor - I'm more worried about the mental aspect. We simply tanked the matches prior to the UCL games last season and we didn't have much trouble winning the matches following UCL. Following UCL games we won Fulham home 2x0, Norwich away 3x1, City home 2x1, WBA home 2x2, Sotom home 3x1, Palace home 2x1. Those are 5 wins and a draw compared to Everton 0x1 away, Spurs 1x1 away, Cardiff 4x1 home, Newcastle 0x2 away, West Ham 3x0 away, Stoke 2x3 away prior to UCL matches. Tthat's 3 losses, 1 draw and only 2 wins against Cardiff and WHU. It's been very clear to me we lost the league last season with the wrong mentality as much as we did for the lack of a striker. There were matches were the players simply didn't put up a fight. They were apathetic and seemingly uninterested, I wanted to punch some sense in them. Mourinho needs to motivate but also demand more commitment from them especially in matches that happen before our UCL games. And I have a really tough time believing that those fixtures are fair and not coolly calculated by FA. They make it very clear every damn season. Still it won't be enough to hold us back. I'm confident in a very good campaign and I think the 21 run in that TOPTB mentioned will be our biggest triumph in terms of fixtures. Let's just hope we approach those 'doable' matches with the same mentality we approach the big ones. That was out biggest setback last season and I hope the trophy-less season was a well lesson learned. If those players continue to pick which matches they're going to draw their blood and which they'll approach as if it was a walk in the park, they can find another park to walk... we should approach every match with the same focus. Not sure if you're serious, but in the most competitive and difficult league in the world, we won three titles in a decade and you think that's massive under-achievement? I think you're dismissing our competition and the strength of this league. This isn't Ligue 1 or Euredivisie. Or even La Liga and Calcio that normally have two teams running for the title, so it's a 50/50 run. This league is much closer and therefore having three titles in 10 attempts seem like just an amazing achievement of a team that literally went through a make over. You don't simply inject money and the titles start piling up. It takes time and I think we did very well given our competition...

I don't even know where they got that idea he had the Barça DNA. Just because he was there as a kid until early youth it doesn't mean he had the DNA. Actually the DNA was being developed there while he was already in Arsenal because those philosophies don't get developed overnight. He was way too direct for the Barça DNA. I think he had the club identification, all his friends that were with him while they were kids were still there, it's the club he's supported since a kid and etc. Maybe in that way he had the DNA but he was never the kind of player that would suit them and still the guy managed to get 42 goals and 45 assists over three seasons. That's not bad at all, actually isn't the average (14 goals and 15 assists) better than anyone in our team maybe except Eden? (I don't remember which were Eden's final numbers). I don't believe he'll score 14 goals from the pivot, but with his vision and direct game I can see him carrying on the assists - or at least getting nearly the same. I know he was played much forwarder in Barça - many times as the hideous false 9 thing, but if he gets himself in the same positions around the box as Lamps used to get while we were attacking, I can see him having as many assists even from the pivot. I just can't wait to see this guy playing for us and wearing our shirt in a match. I'm counting the days. We won't ask if a prospect to the club can play in the pivot for a long while because we'll have it covered. It's a relief.

Is the fee excessive just because he's a LB? Because fees look so inflated lately that I really don't think 25m euros (not pounds) is that much. Yes, it isn't a bargain like Cesc, but unfortunately we can't do great business like that all the time. What was Matic's fee anyway? I don't remember but it wasn't about 21m pounds? I think 21m pounds is nearly 25m euros, right? And I saw no one complaining about the fee although he's a couple of years younger. Also as many said, we need some experienced players to balance out the squad. If Thibaut comes, the only really experienced guy we have is Terry. Cahill and Cesc himself have been around the corner, but Luis reaching an UCL final, being 28-29 adds more experience and we need it.

that's what I've been thinking too. If we are to sign another midfielder, I think it has to be a defensive one with skills, that would replace Ramires in the squad (not necessarily only in the starting XI). With Cesc with us I don't see any need at all for any other mid. We have Matic as the holding and most defensive player. We have Cesc, Oscar and Ramires to play if we decide to go with a 4-3-3. We still have Marco and maybe even Mikel in the team, in addition to the kids coming from youth (and who will certainly be used to fill up the homegrown quota). Are we looking to have a situation like we did with the AMs last season only now with MDs? We had tons of AMs and saw two of them kissing goodbye half way through the season. If we now pack our midfield more than it already is it means two things: 1) players are either being sold or loaned or 2) we're overdoing it and looking for the KdB situation to happen all over again. Either way I think it's stupid. Ramires is useful to have in the squad and Marco should receive as many chances as possible instead of being loaned (don't believe he'd be sold as we just got him last season). Unless there's any truth in those Oscar rumors, I don't get why we should sign Kroos or any other midfielder.