Maverick

Given our current form and lack of goals in the last few months you surely must be kidding that he is not the right signing. We are severely short on firepower upfront and Torres surely adds that to our team. Drogba and Anelka look anything but threatening and if it means splashing 50 million to keep our hopes alive at least in the CL I think its a gamble thats worth it. Besides its time we got a striker who is ready to take over from Drogba. P.S: As far as inconsistency goes you have surely not compared his stats to the other strikers in this league.

Will be a good move if Torres is signed, dont see him getting any game time when he will be 5th in the pecking order.

If past record is anything to go by then its safe to presume that irrespective of their performance in their loan stint they are highly unlikely to get too much game time next season. Having sent these two yougsters on loan makes are bench look ever so weak with the likes of Chalobah/ Mellis being asked to step up. With 3 more players leaving the club (makes the tally to 8 including summer departures) it makes me wonder how good is Carlo at mathematics.

I believe we will sign him and we would be robbed by Benfica AGAIN !!

Robben, Lucio and Cesar are probably the ones I feel could have made it.

No it doesn't since Carlo doesn't throw a youngster in a big game. He'll play Malouda in the midfield (left) and play Kalou in the front three.

Cole makes it on merit but Drogba's exclusion is baffling indeed. The UEFA and Fifa are clearly giving a lot of weightage to Barcelona and their players performance but I am not too sure if that is the way to promote attacking football. Conspiracy theorists will obviously point out the lack of recognition for the premier league.

Very unfortunate to see him out injured considering that Craddock too has been out for long periods and he would have probably got a start as a CB and prove himself. Hopefully he'll be back soon and relive the form that he had at the end of last season.

We'll probably accept it considering Carlo doesn't fancy him breaking through and another loan deal wont make a difference. Burnley will perhaps put in a bid too and that may be the one which Cork would prefer.

Surprised to see the number of time Germany is ignored by people advocating scouting specific group/ region. We all witnessed the revolution thats taken place in Germany and its no surprise that the stars of the German team moved on to a bigger stage. There are many more players in Germany that have come through their youth ranks and the likes of Toni Kroos, Marko Marin and Muller convinces me that there is a lot of talent coming through that country. It would be great if we could snap up a couple of them in the coming future.

He is when he wants to

Dont see him being good enough for us and if Drogba is the benchmark for us then he is some way off it. To be honest I dont see any top team making a bid for him and if he was considered "not good enough" at Spurs I dont see how a couple of seasons at Sunderland has changed him. A goal scorer for sure but nowhere close to being good enough for us.

Dont see this happening on a couple of counts - 1) Wont be our # 1 choice striker and I dont see him making a move to a club to continue to play 2nd/ 3rd choice striker. 2) Wages will be a huge issue and given our cost cutting measures I dont see us bringing him. 3) Probably the most quoted reason when people talk about him and its his attitude. Our squad is built around the grit and determination of the likes of JT/ Lampard/ Essien/ Drogba and Ivanovic. I just dont see him as a part of the bunch.

Its evident that Milan dont wish to gamble on his fitness and its visible in their signings this season (Zlatan, Robinho and Cassano). Also dint he say explicitly that the only club he would leave for is Barcelona. So I dont see him moving to England in any scenario.

Anyone who has been watching Serie A would know that he may be a world class player but far too fragile to make the transition to the the premier league. Pato is very similar to Robben in sense that he miss far too many games in a season to have a substantial impact.

I am not sure whether its a policy at Chelsea but the general trend in our signings (for the last 3 to 4 seasons) has been that we seem to be looking at only established players in the last few seasons. Therefore the scope of unearthing a gem reduces when you go about signing established players and its likely to cost a bomb. Our focus has been very youth oriented and we do seem to have some gems of our own that are currently knocking on the doors of first team (Sturridge, Kakuta, Van Aanholt etc). So I dont agree to your point entirely and not to forget there seems to be a general reluctance from our management in spending money on transfers.

Good luck to him but I dont see him staying there for too long unless Kenny has plans of continuing at the helm next season.

Been injured for the last month or so, though they (Woves) seem to be missing his services in the midfield.

And expect us to be linked with every player, even Adrian Mutu !!

Apparently this is our first loanee in Scotland and we dont have resources to gauge his performance in Scotland. Which is one of the reasons Gordon is being recalled and the player is keen on proving himself.

The only team that has any aura in Europe today is Barcelona. Apart from that none of the other clubs seems to have any semblence of aura as most of them seem beatable be it home/ away. Full credit to Barcelona for maintaining their aura if not add to it by whipping Real by 5 goals. Specific to our league, even United are just about scraping to results at home as we saw last night against Stoke and most of our rivals continue to drop points home and away.

I dont think Carlo is getting the sack and I dont think this thread should exist.

Dont exactly recall Carlo using wingers in his time at Chelsea or during his days at Milan. He clears prefers a formation that doesn't rely on the luxury of a winger. It would make more sense to go out and buy a striker who is more adventurous in attack than Anelka/ Malouda. We lack that trigger or creative spark that our rivals (Nani, Silva, Johnson, Nasri) currently seem to possess.

Maybe I sound like a cynic here but last season we had a stronger squad and the competition was not as severe as it is this season. We had to just cope with United (run single handedly by Rooney) and mind you we beat them by just 1 point. So it was not as comfortable as many portray and I for one believe that being knocked out of the CL was a kick on the back side that helped the team. That's what the best managers do - handle big egos and ensure that they are back to their best and "contributing". if Carlo is unable to bench Anelka after a series of such poor performances then I'd say we're backing the wrong man. He surely seems too rigid tactically and if he is unable to man manage it draws a lot of questions which currently seem unanswered.

I agree. Things are not back on track and a win may have brought false optimism and could have had an impact on the transfer window. I am not too sure if we are buying anyone but if we aren't we better show some b##ls by dropping some passengers (Anelka/ Essien/ Malouda) from the starting 11.