bogey77

Lewandowski has one of the highest conversion rates around with 24 goals in 98 shots in the Bundesliga. That is probably a bad example of wasteful. Cavani and Ibra have the same percentage as RVP. Now Falcao has excellent conversion rate. Falcao, Lewandowski and Messi are the only 3 strikers that are above 24% in their leagues. One goal out of every 4 shots is not wasteful at all. Wasteful could be the 14.7% that Ronaldo puts up. He 121 more shots than Falcao and only 6 more goals. That does support the argument that wasteful does not necessarily make someone a poor player. Unless you want to say Ronaldo isn't a quality player.

I wouldn't consider RVP wasteful. Statistics can be manipulated to some extend but I don't know how one of the highest conversion rates based on shots to goals can be considered wasteful.

Don't know who Remodez considers clinical but based on Premier League stats, the only actual striker (with at least 12 goals) with a better percentage than RVP last year was Berbatov. There is a fellow named Lampard with an even higher percentage but he isn't really a striker!

Its happening, tickets go on presale tomorrow and on sale on Saturday through ticketmaster.com.

Roma was already in North America for a tour and Chelsea for their tournament. Real Madrid and Inter Milan added a match on the same date in St. Louis. It seems a couple of clubs decided to pick up a few extra dollars without adding any major travel. I don't think their should be too much read into it.

Those stats are from the middle of March. By the end of the season Rooney's stats had fallen significantly below RVP. Note that the article still have RVP with 19 goals. He finished the season with 26. By the end of the season Rooney converted 14.4% and RVP 18.4%. Just an FYI.

I don't want to make you feel bad but I have a number of friends that have attended a match at the Bridge for the first time within the last couple years. They have all said that although they appreciate the history the building was a bit of a dump. I would hate for the next generation of fans to attend a match and choose not to return because of the stadium. I understand the history and nostalgia associated with the Bridge, but sometimes a good business decision is necessary. With FFP, that number will have to increase. Part of the reason Chelsea needs to improve revenue. We won't always be able to just buy someone because Roman puts up the personal cash. That is why he is trying to build a new stadium. He understands that is required to have continued success.

Ake is only 19, he is still growing. I wouldn't focus too much on his size at the moment. His playing form is the most important factor at the moment.

That ^^ is an Americanism? I have never heard that phrase before I saw that post. Is that supposed to mean the offseason? We make up too many words over here. In case you can't tell, I am from the USA.

But he looks nothing like Geoffrey Kondogbia!

But he hasn't been sent off. You can't fault him for pushing the boundary when all he is doing is taking advantage of the situation. Again, if he starts to get sent off, he will need to adjust his style of play. Until then, it could be considered an advantage that he has over others players.

Didn't we already cover the fact that Luiz has never been sent off while with Chelsea? Therefore, him riling up other players should be viewed as a positive until the point in time that he starts seeing red. If getting sent off becomes an issue, I would expect the style of play to change a little. But until then he should take advantage of physical style.

He does that when he is inside the box to avoid giving away a penalty because of a handball. I find that to be a reasonable trade off rather than giving away the penalty.

I think that you may just have a preference for Terry over Luiz. You will have to come to terms with the fact that there is no perfect defender. Everyone makes errors from time to time. It also seems like Terry may make many of the same bad decisions as Luiz does. Whoever serves as the primary defender for Chelsea will have to live up the comparisons to Terry. The problem is that most people remember the best moments of a favorite player and tend to forget the poor moments.

He just needs a little blonde hair dye and he can replace Marin in that picture. Maybe he can borrow some from Torres since he doesn't need it anymore.

And this ^ is based on the fact that successful German national team players never succeed at top clubs?!?!

I agree with most of this ^ but if we can't offload Torres does that change your opinion? Selling Torres could pose quite the problem with his high wages. Plus, at the moment he doesn't seem to want to move (although that could change). The question becomes, if we can't move Torres does that lower what we should pay for Cavani? Or are the two issues mutually exclusive?

I think that is a very fair statement. It is a risk and perhaps more so than with Torres. My concern is that if we don't get rid of Torres but acquire Cavani. That would leave us with two 50 mil strikers and Lukaku. I would worry that Lukaku wouldn't get the playing time needed. If we can get rid of Torres then I would be happy to have Cavani and Lukaku.

I think you meant a broken clock is right twice a day. All of my working clocks are either right all day or wrong all day.

My favorite part of that article was: "If you want a more offensively minded holder than John Obi Mikel, Kondogbia is probably one of the few players on the planet that would actually be a step in the opposite direction."

Hazard and De Bruyne can both play the middle. Moses seems to work on either wing. Schurrle seems to play more of the left but I have seen him play both wings. For what its worth, Oscar seems to play the middle with Brazil. It looks like we have 6 versatile attacking midfielders that don't have to be locked into one position. We could easily start multiple combinations that should be effective while giving some overworked players a rest. Would you complain if we started schurrle, hazard, oscar or hazard, mata, KDB or schurrle, KDB, oscar or any of the other possibilities? Each combination should provide a little different style that can attack effectively.

I agree, that is too much for him. You have to give Napoli credit, they said it would take activating the release clause and it looks like it will be to our benefit. Protect us from ourselves. If we can't get Cavani or Lew, we should be better than last year just by adding Lukaku. Plus, he should get more playing time without having to fight for time against a huge signing.

I am in the group that is neither for or against selling Mikel. If they choose to sell him, they should have a replacement in place. Seeing as we are light in the DM already, selling him would mean at least 2 replacements. If they buy one replacement with the Mikel money, could a youngster like Ake serve as an effective second replacement? I haven't seen enough of him to make a judgement but he looks pretty solid in the games I have seen him. If he can play at close to Mikel's level and we buy a DM that is better than Mikel, we should be better off.

I wouldn't have an issue with this ^ either. Works for us and would be acceptable to at least some of the parties involved.

I wouldn't sell it as a stepping stone. I would sell it as a business deal. It offers Lewandowski a pay increase for next year, it gets Dortmund a transfer fee, it gets us insurance and time to get Lukaku ready and the only loser is that Bayern has to wait an extra year. It also could get us a profit after a year or two. Sounds silly but this is silly season! I wouldn't expect it to happen but it can't hurt to get creative when presented with the scenario in which Dortmund, Bayern and Lewandowski are currently involved.