Luka Modric

[MGuerreiro 252]

okay, but u said gossip, so where's the truth in that. whatever the price is its cheaper than hulks by mile.

I said gossip, exactly because I have no idea if there is truth in it or not. But that's the only reports I've read. And yes, cheaper than Hulk, I never denied it. Simply stated that he won't be cheap in general.

[ZOS 580]

I would probably choose Mikel over Ramires. Mikel is better defensively. Rotate Ramires in against weaker sides.

I believe Ramires should play behind the RW and The CAM since Hulk (if we get him) is an inverted winger, therefore, likes to cut in to the middle hence the opposition DM and LB would try to track him effectively creating a space enough for ramires to exploit with his pace. In addition ivanovic isn't much going forward therefore we can use ramires there. The right wing has been a problem (defensively) for chelsea for the last 5 years or so, I believe this formation solves it. By the way ramires isn't a good back to the wall defender (I never want us to park the bus as often as we did last season) but he can intercept passes, press opposition and he is a decent tackler.

[ZOS 580]

Im confused here, are people dropping big JT, becuase of the court case, or are people actually dropping him. Because if they are then i am completely astounded. In a couple of years it will be more understandable, but for me there is no way ever that he will EVER be dropped for david luiz this season.

Also that midfield is great in attack, but i would rather we have a solid defensive midfielder in there with modric as that team will be way too attacking and cause lots of pressure on the counter attack. Ramires is amazing (no doubt), but with modric moving all over the place being the player maker, we cant really have him moving on up and he isn't great defensively. So mikel may have to come in, or SUPER FRANK.

And i think people are getting overly worked up over having a small team. It is not exactly that small to be fair. Mata and hazard being the only players under 5'9, with torres being 6 foot and hulk being 5'11. We don't have drogba so wont be the powerhouse in attack though Cahill, terry and ivan will be strong and will be a big ariel threat from corners. Also Hulk isn't that tall but is pretty solid (hence the name), though as i said someone like mikel shouldn't get bullied of the ball, (liverpool match being an exception).

Has it ever occurred to you that we needed a solid DM and defend our back to the wall for our lives because we never had a hard working midfield? In my opinion, our midfield players of the past are among the laziest in the league, rarely press the opposition giving them too much time on the ball. Now, look at the teams we struggle against in the league l, e.g. liverpool, they know that if they press our front we don't have a choice but to pass the ball back to cech so that he can smash it all the way to drogba (we don't have him anymore, who do you expect us to throw the ball to, torres?, Hazard?). Believe me, sir, we need someone with a good footballing brain otherwise our front three of mata, hazard and torres will suffer.

[milanoww 81]

Tottenham does not want to sell to a EPL team and says that they want Modric to go abroad with PSG & Real Madrid interested in the Croatian.

Levy: "We'll get a better price in England but we will not sell to a team in our league. Luca understands that.It will be stupid of us to sell Luca in locally,we have other options outside of Eng. That will be the best for us."

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Tottenham does not want to sell to a EPL team and says that they want Modric to go abroad with PSG & Real Madrid interested in the Croatian.

Levy: "We'll get a better price in England but we will not sell to a team in our league. Luca understands that.It will be stupid of us to sell Luca in locally,we have other options outside of Eng. That will be the best for us."

Source?

[milanoww 81]

Telegraph I think. I saw this on twitter.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Fuck...

[bababoom 4,478]

He could of said if last year and it got recycled.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Has it ever occurred to you that we needed a solid DM and defend our back to the wall for our lives because we never had a hard working midfield? In my opinion, our midfield players of the past are among the laziest in the league, rarely press the opposition giving them too much time on the ball. Now, look at the teams we struggle against in the league l, e.g. liverpool, they know that if they press our front we don't have a choice but to pass the ball back to cech so that he can smash it all the way to drogba (we don't have him anymore, who do you expect us to throw the ball to, torres?, Hazard?). Believe me, sir, we need someone with a good footballing brain otherwise our front three of mata, hazard and torres will suffer.

What is your argument here? We need a solid DM to be solid defensively. How is our midfield lazy, they still covered tremendous amounts of ground. Ramires often played in our middle 3, is he lazy? erm no. lampard is often in the top 5 of the 22 players on the pitch in distance covered, so saying our midfield is lazy is, pretty unaccurate. I have no idea what you are arguing agianst as i never said anything about lumping the ball up to torres, or mata, or hazard! And again your saying we need someone with a good footballing brain in the midfield that is what modric is there for. I assume you are saying we don't need a defensive midfielder instead, Modric with Ramires would work in midfield. The problem is with no one sitting in then we will be very vunerable on the counter. Ramires isn't defensively good enough and neither is Modric in reality. It will work great against the smaller teams though against the big guns there is no way Di'matteo would play that way.

So your arguing about something i never stated but anyway.

[Hutcho 8,443]

Tottenham does not want to sell to a EPL team and says that they want Modric to go abroad with PSG & Real Madrid interested in the Croatian.

Levy: "We'll get a better price in England but we will not sell to a team in our league. Luca understands that.It will be stupid of us to sell Luca in locally,we have other options outside of Eng. That will be the best for us."

And that is a bitch. I didn't think he would come originally but then i had hope. The telegraph is generally more relieable than most, so basically its not going to happen.

[Pizy 18,368]

Tottenham does not want to sell to a EPL team and says that they want Modric to go abroad with PSG & Real Madrid interested in the Croatian.

Levy: "We'll get a better price in England but we will not sell to a team in our league. Luca understands that.It will be stupid of us to sell Luca in locally,we have other options outside of Eng. That will be the best for us."

What a fucking idiot.

So instead of getting MUCH more money from a club like us and use it to strengthen KEY positions in your squad, you're gonna take HALF the money from a foreign club because you don't want him to come back and shred you only TWICE a season?

Damn I wanna shank this cunt in the neck.

[ZOS 580]

What is your argument here? We need a solid DM to be solid defensively. How is our midfield lazy, they still covered tremendous amounts of ground. Ramires often played in our middle 3, is he lazy? erm no. lampard is often in the top 5 of the 22 players on the pitch in distance covered, so saying our midfield is lazy is, pretty unaccurate. I have no idea what you are arguing agianst as i never said anything about lumping the ball up to torres, or mata, or hazard! And again your saying we need someone with a good footballing brain in the midfield that is what modric is there for. I assume you are saying we don't need a defensive midfielder instead, Modric with Ramires would work in midfield. The problem is with no one sitting in then we will be very vunerable on the counter. Ramires isn't defensively good enough and neither is Modric in reality. It will work great against the smaller teams though against the big guns there is no way Di'matteo would play that way.

So your arguing about something i never stated but anyway.

oops! sorry! you're right I got carried away.

I was just saying we should change the way we defend. Rather than assigning a specific player (like mikel) to help the full backs, the midfield as a whole should be running around pressing the opposition and minimizing their option in passing and win the ball back (barca are great not because they are a good passer of the ball but because they can repossess it within seconds from the opposition). We need every player on the field to recognize a good passing opportunity when he sees one. Mikel (or essien, or malouda ....) can't do that anymore.

I said our midfield was one of the laziest in a sense that they don't react quickly enough when they loose the ball, they were great in zonal defending, blocking and to some extent in intercepting but they were never good in pressing and forcing errors. That's a big concern right now because of the kind of players we have and are being linked with. In my opinion Torres suffered because of this and our new, expensive signings will suffer too.

[Tricky 301]

oops! sorry! you're right I got carried away.

I was just saying we should change the way we defend. Rather than assigning a specific player (like mikel) to help the full backs, the midfield as a whole should be running around pressing the opposition and minimizing their option in passing and win the ball back (barca are great not because they are a good passer of the ball but because they can repossess it within seconds from the opposition). We need every player on the field to recognize a good passing opportunity when he sees one. Mikel (or essien, or malouda ....) can't do that anymore.

AVB is that you?

Barcelona also play a higher line, pressing the ball is the responsibility of the entire team not just your midfield. Seems some of our current squad were not comfortable with this approach, or perhaps it was due to some of our squad being incredible slow.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

We will never press to the extent that Barcelona does. However our pressing was appalling last season. Half-hearted and lazy. Hopefully with younger legs in the team now they will press and put some level of pressure on the opponent.

[ZOS 580]

AVB is that you?

Barcelona also play a higher line, pressing the ball is the responsibility of the entire team not just your midfield. Seems some of our current squad were not comfortable with this approach, or perhaps it was due to some of our squad being incredible slow.

No, I'm Zoscalus.

Yes, I agree some of them were as slow as a mummy. I want all of our players to increase their work rate. One thing I liked about Torres last season was his drive to win back the ball (remember swansea city at home and arsenal away? He overdone it against swansea and got sent off. He was gaining momentum up until that match, it was a massive blow to )

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Tottenham does not want to sell to a EPL team and says that they want Modric to go abroad with PSG & Real Madrid interested in the Croatian.

Levy: "We'll get a better price in England but we will not sell to a team in our league. Luca understands that.It will be stupid of us to sell Luca in locally,we have other options outside of Eng. That will be the best for us."

Great News! Levi is a good jew after all... now get Hulk already.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

I hope we put in a bid anyway. Otherwise, Moutinho or Cabaye would be on the cards.

[Peace. 4,352]

If the stuff Levy said about Modric/Chelsea is true, then we should go all out for Moutinho in order to piss off those cunts (even if I think we shouldn't deal with Porto anymore).