ethicalstrategy

I was trying to work out who they have bought and for how much: Transfers in: Metzelder (Borussia Dortmund) - Free Pepe (Porto) - 30m Euros Saviola (Real Madrid) - Free Dudek (Liverpool) - Free Drenthe (Feyenoord) - 14m Euros Sneijder (Ajax) - 27m Euros Robben (Chelsea) - 30m Euros Heinze (Man U) - 12m Euros Transfers out: Emerson (Milan) - 5m Euros Cichino (Roma) - 9m Euros Reyes (Arsenal - loan period ended, transferred to Atl?tico Madrid) - 12m Euros Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy) - Free Roberto Carlos (Fenerbah?e) - Free Diego L?pez (Villarreal) - 6m Euros Ra?l Bravo (Olympiakos) - 2.3m Euros Pav?n (Zaragoza) - Free Mej?a (Murcia) - 2m Euros Iv?n Helguera (Valencia) - Free Woodgate (Middlesbrough) - 10m Euros Not only is that one hell of a turnover of players but the net outlay is pretty big too. By my reckoning they have spent 113m Euros/?78m and recouped 46.3M Euros/?32m. That works out as a net ?46m spent. They had better win something.

you didn't see the Utd game on sunday or the international last night? I did see the City-Utd integrally. He was excelent - as Center back. The international no. I will repeat. Micah is a fine fine player, but what has he got that is SOOOO diferent or better then what we already have ? And even if he did...would it be worth a mere ? 1000000 M ? Well he looks better at right back than what we have. I know he isn't the finished article but I can guarantee that he will be a better player than GJ - in fact he already is. He offers a lot more going forward than Paulo. Defensively he may be a little naive but he has the athleticism to get himself out of trouble. He can also cover in central defence and in the longer term move there to partner JT. Physically he is a fine specimen and he has pace to burn. I think he would be a good buy.

Richards - ?20m - Purely because of the inflated cost of english players in their home market. Probably something nearer ?15m would be right Alves - ?27m apparently Paulo - ?5m max - getting on a bit, lost his international place and not a regular at his club GJ - ?3m and that inludes the home country premium! ? - ?

I quite enjoyed the match last night despite the defeat which really wasn't a fair reflection of the game. Some of McClaren's changes were quite mysterious but we created plenty of chances and pretty much dominated the game. The problem is that at international level you just can't afford to make silly mistakes. Robinson's time is clearly up. His confidence is shot. James is the obvious choice to replace him, but I am really no more confident that he won't let a simple shot go through his legs or come and miss a cross. I thought Shorey had a difficult game. He could have spared Robinson if he had only managed to put the ball out of play with his clearance instead of weakly passing it to the opposition in a very dangerous place. I'm surprised that he didn't get more stick for that. He also gave the ball away easily in the second half when we were really over committed in the Germans half and we were lucky not to get punished for that. Richards was very good on the right wing in the first half. his run and lay off for Frank's goal was excellent. He also looked better than Ferdinand when he switched to centre half in the second half. Brown is pants Beckham is not fit and shouldn't have played. Once again he kept popping up all over the midfield in stead of staying out wide on the right. I like him but it's sad to see him scratching around just to try and get to 100 caps. It's a shame. I actually thought Carrick and Lampard complemented each other quite well and it gave Frank the license to get forward which is where he has the opportunity to catch the eye more. I thought he had a pretty good game both in terms of his general passing play and getting into goalscoring positions but he definitely faded towards the end. Joe looked very lively and caught the eye without ever being really dangerous. Lost the ball once or twice in bad positions including in the lead up to the first german goal. Just the sort of play that gives Jose nightmares. Having said that I think he would be well worth a try as the second striker behind Drogba on saturday in place of Kalou. I thought Owen did pretty well considering he hasn't played for over a year really. Lehman made an excellent save from his header. I think if he can get some more games under his belt then he will score if we can create the chances. SWP looked very confident when he came on, even though he was on the left. He really does look a different player this year. I feel sorry for JT because he is going to get bracketed together with McClaren as a failure as captain when we don't qualify for the Euro's. Unfortunately it means that he may well find that he loses the captaincy when McClaren's successor is in place which wouldbe a big mistake. You could see the hurt on his face when we were losing last night. He is a winner and he really doesn't like it when his team aren't winning. The shame is we do have a potentially very strong side when everyone is fit and available if a decent manager could get hold of them and give them some direction and consistency. We are weak in the goalkeeping position and have little depth up front but I can't believe that this team couldn't do well: James - Richards, Terry, Ferdinand, Cole - SWP, Lampard, Gerrard, Cole - Rooney, Owen I'm sure Jose could make that team winners.

you didn't see the Utd game on sunday or the international last night?

Why the uncertaintly of JT's fitness? JM was pretty straightforward about it after the Reading game. He even said that JT could have played against Reading. Alex is much less match fit than JT. Essien is much more of a doubt in my mind. I wonder if we shouldn't really surprise everyone, including Benitez, and play a more attacking game with our new 2 wingers and 2 strikers formation. They will be expecting us to conform to the usual Liverpool v. Chelsea pattern and it would be interesting to see how they coped. I think they and their manager would be rather confused

I know the answer to this one. Please sir please!! http://www.chelseafcforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4579 Your midfield of Sidwell and Mikel - unless you are going to say that you meant replacing him with Mikel! Ah, I see No, I only selected Sidwell because he'd be up against his old team, extra motivation, point to prove and all that..... seems that Mourinho agreed with me, but naturally he didn't dare drop Lampard to do it, so Mikel went out When Ballack is fit again I'd like to see him given a run of five or six games instead of Lampard, and hopefully playing alongside Essien or Mikel. If Mourinho had the b*llocks to do that, I reckon we might actually see the real Ballack finally appear in Chelsea blue! Well Ballack is just about the only player that I would give a chance to of being able to replace Lampard. I just hope you aren't holding your breath for that to happen though. It won't just be your beard that's blue if you are! Good job he took Sidwell off and not Lampard at half time though eh?

No such thing as the EPL. A bit like Soccer - it just doesn't exist It's only our overseas bretheren who use such descriptions. I believe the technical terms should be Premier League (or Barclays Premier League to be pedantic - Yes, I know I am being) and Football! (Sorry - just one of those things that irritates me way beyond any rational explanation!)

He stamped on his leg. At first I thought that Pizarro was making a meal of it but on second viewing you could see that he came right down on his trailing leg. A bit like the Ballack stamp against Liverpool last season. Certainly a yellow, probably worth a straight red. I've watched the replay a few times and I really don't think he did anything of the sort - if anything it looked like Pizarro lunged in a bit (not in a dirt way) but ended up getting caught. Very harsh to send him off but like Loz I ain't complaining. I'll have to have another look tonight! No doubt Pizarro was doing a bit of tugging but it looked like it was the players trailing leg that did the damage not the one he made the tackle with. Don't forget he only got a yellow card not red.

I know the answer to this one. Please sir please!! http://www.chelseafcforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4579 Your midfield of Sidwell and Mikel - unless you are going to say that you meant replacing him with Mikel! Re your earlier post: I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this one. But for what it's worth I can agree that he hasn't been as good for the last 6-9 months as he was in the previous 2 seasons. I disagree strongly that it's got anything to do with lack of effort or committment on his part though. All players go through difficult patches and I think, strangely, that he has lost some confidence because of the England criticism that he has received. I don't think he was helped much by being asked to play a different role to accomodate Ballack and more so Shevchenko. Notwithstanding that, I can't believe that you would really be happy to see him go. Even at his current "reduced" level he is still comfortably one of the best and most effective midfield players in the country. Let's just hope that he can get back to his very best again soon.

I have only seen the Football First extended highlights but I too can't see that we were that bad in the first half. Typically it is harder in the first half because the opponents are able to harry and chase and close down more effectively. The goal was from an individual error and whilst they did cause us problems we played a good part of the half with either an injured centre half or a full back filling in at centre half so it's no great surprise. Second half we started really well thanks to Jose's changes and pretty much dominated them from there. They key change for me was the introduction of Mikel who played really well in the holding role and importantly let Lampard get forward a lot more. We saw the benefit in the goal but if you watch he popped up in the opposition box on a number of other occasions too and his movement was causing the Reading midfield and defenders huge problems. A word for Cech too. If the Reading crowd were giving him the stick that G4 has reported then no wonder he was looking uncertain. Whilst he didn't do particularly well on the cross for their goal it should be pointed out that Doyle impeded him both with his body - which might be considered fair - and his arm/hand - which was most certainly a foul. Despite the reports of a change of style to a more attacking game and new players arrving etc etc the thing that hasn't changed is Mourinho's ability to read a match and make brave decisions and that the team has the heart of a Lion.

He stamped on his leg. At first I thought that Pizarro was making a meal of it but on second viewing you could see that he came right down on his trailing leg. A bit like the Ballack stamp against Liverpool last season. Certainly a yellow, probably worth a straight red.

Carvalho's injury was a groin strain. I would expect him to be out for two or three weeks. Thank god JT is fit for Sunday.

I'll take an "average" Lampard (i.e. 20 + goals, top in assists, works his bollocks off) over Sidwell any day of the week! Not surprised about the hairy palms - I believe it's normal practice for the nurses to keep scissors and other sharp objects locked safely away

Did I miss something? or is it "Have a go at Frank" Day today? I've had a permanent "Have a go at Frank" day for well over a year now Is that Bexhill Rhyming slang Steve? Only 73 days to go before I 'beat' Jamie Carragher's record - no wonder I'm so exhausted all the time They say too much of it can ruin your eyesight. Looks like they were right

I seem to remember that Paulo was subbed off and replaced by Glen when we beat Barca at the Bridge 3 years ago. And I think we will see that Kapo is a bit better than just decent. He had a really good game on Sunday. I was very impressed with him.

Did I miss something? or is it "Have a go at Frank" Day today?

I acknowledge a lot of the points that have been made, but the fact remains that if we play with two wide men and two strikers then we will leave more space defensively. Of course it helps if JT is back and we have a more secure right back but it doesn't change the fact that we will be likely to concede more especially against the better teams in the PL and more particularly in Europe. BTW I can think of some very sophisticated games that we played last year - Valencia in the 2nd Leg, Man U in the Cup Final both spring to mind.

But the big question is do you want sexy football at the expense of winning anything? And you don't think that there was any correlation between the fact that we were more attacking and at the same time less secure defensively?

....we won't win the league playing like that and we sure as hell won't win the Champions League. I'm all for playing positive football but I hope that Jose is smart enough to pick his games wisely. I guess we will see next Sunday! I don't want to pass the ball to death without being able to score like Arsenal or go gung ho in attack like Man U and then find that top opponents can easily snuff you out. I prefer the Nick Faldo approach - measured and sophisticated - rather than the John Daly "grip it and rip it", now let's find the ball approach

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6938143.stm It should be safe to keep him at least for another month then

I think Real Madrid have said to him something along the lines of... Arjen, mi hijo, juntate con nosotros. Somos un club de futbol, no un club atletico. I think they said "Kom naar ons toe, dan kun je met je vriendje Horseface spelen. Bovendien betalen wij je meer." And that's almost a word for word translation

Nothing on BBC Sport or Sky Sports webpages on this. Interesting analysis here though: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 90,00.html Last season we won 16 out of 21 matches with Robben and only 8 of 17 without him, averaging just under 2 goals per game with him and just under 1.5 goals a game without him. I really don't want him to leave!

Cudicini; Ferreira, Essien, Terry ©, Bridge; Diarra (Morais 87), Makelele, Mikel (J Cole h-t); Wright-Phillips, Kalou, Sinclair (Sahar 53). I don't think so!

I don't think I have seen a better keeper at such a young age. When you consider that most keepers don't reach their peak until they are 30 then he has the chance to become one of the best of all time. I'd go with Barak and say that Schmeichel (yes, I did look up the spelling!) is the best I've ever seen. I don't really remember too much of Banks but Shilton was outstanding. To think he won the number of caps he did after sharing the position with Clemence is pretty impressive. (Carjacker take note - there was someone who really had a reason to go off in a huff). Despite a pornstar haircut and moustache and being a gooner, Seaman was a top keeper too.