Castiel

I imagine its hard to mistake him for anyone else except maybe, the Predator.

Yes this, and its not unlikely. The most disgraceful final in history on the cards, shaming the game and making laughing stocks out of themselves for the world to see. I'd consider that a successful use of time.

He's even bigger than that. He's quite literally larger than life. I think he'll obliterate the premiership like Drogba in his absolute prime. I haven't been thinking about him because I don't know where we'll find the room, but I'd be terrified to face him in another team. Now I know how our rivals must feel against Drogba.

As has been pointed out, we're hardly the only club with a manager change every few years. We are however one of the few clubs to win top honours frequently.

Well I used to live near Torquay and its full of twats if that helps you come to a decision.

The good news is, if Roman is willing to give total control to anyone, it'll be Guus. He runs his football decisions through him as it is. At least we wont have to contend with mysterious backroom dramas or suspicious player transfers.

Guus to the rescue then! We get to do it all again next summer too.

Even Rafa could manage that Barcelona side to trophies. Not going to be convinced of Pep until he's had to work for it.

We should be doing that anyway. We've almost become lazy with a striker like Drogba who doesn't need creative mastery to score and a box to box like Lampard that can score from the half way line, but thats not to say he wouldn't appreciate it. Torres just thrives on it but he can't handle the long balls being knocked to him like Drogba can, and he can't be expected to hold up the ball with 3 defenders around him like Drogba can. What he can do is poach goals out of exceptionally quick passes and through balls, and outwit/maneuver defenders. A faster, more creative style to our play would improve our goal return all round, not just for Torres. Look at the games against United, the pace they played us allowed such prolific strikers as J.S. Park to school our defence.

Its a final, everyone has everything to lose. Thats the beauty of it. Its all or nothing.

His attitude has been greatly exaggerated. I've yet to see him sulking, moaning or complaining in a match no matter how much sh*t the other team gives him or how many calls the ref denies him. Don't know much about him as a person off the pitch but during all the games I've seen him play he's been a model professional. Also as you pointed out, he's 19! I spent my 19th birthday unconscious in a night club after my friends bought me something called a Singapore Sling.

Having watched him in game I feel thats an unfair label to give him. He really tries to run through tackles and wont go down unless keeping his balance is impossible or if he's forcing a tackle in a dangerous area which he likes to do. I'd like to point out he does that legally, his ball control is so precise that if he's in an impossible situation (surrounded by defenders) he'll make them foul him rather than taking a futile shot or conceding possession. He's a lot stronger than he looks too. I also testify to BrewCrews's post.

It seemed to me that Mourinho was intended to be a long term solution, and it worked extremely well while it lasted. We were practically unstoppable unless the gods conspired against us. But we all know life isn't easy living with Mourinho and the men upstairs must have had good reason to believe that moving him on was healthier than keeping him around. Look at Real, firing one of their top men. Mourinho wasn't bigger than the club.

And Villas-Boas worked under Bobby Robson and Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea and Inter on the coaching staff responsible for 2 PL titles, 2 League cups 1 FA cup, 1 Italian treble and 1 Portuguese quadruple.

They're different players I think. But gun to head, Neymar every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I was just stating mine. People need to calm down. You don't become a Billionaire without being ruthless. You don't become a great club without being ruthless. Its just business, don't take it so personally. Carlo couldn't achieve what he was hired to do, so he left with a nice payoff. When he finds a manager capable of delivering what he wants, how he wants it, we'll have him for a while. That person was almost Mourinho but he proved to be incredibly abrasive.

Seriously beating a dead horse over hurt feelings. Roman doesn't have the best interests of the club in mind? Please. The guy is as big as fan as any of us, you just have to see him attending the games to know that. He goes to the youth team games FFS. His Chelsea project has cost him close to half a billion, thats pretty dedicated if you ask me. He probably wasn't a Chelsea fan growing up, but he sure as hell loves this club now. None of us can know what his long term plans are. But he's managed to keep us in the top 3 teams in the world according to UEFA so far, and I feel lucky to have him as an owner. We could have the Glazers bleeding money out or Tom Hicks bankrupting us. Carlo was sacked, get over it, move on.

When you're worth over 13 billion, real life is FM11.

Having watched him in complete games now I just can't fault him. Aside from his obvious ability on the ball (Ronaldinhoesque skill) and movement (comparable to Messi) I've come to agree with de0gy's observations. He's a team player. I didn't see him make one selfish move. He played several throughballs when a striker was ahead of him, his crossing was impeccable (he has Ronaldinho's ability to place exact passes at any range without even looking). He is fouled constantly and it takes a lot to bring him down. The way he moves with the ball it seems the only way to stop him is to foul. With the likes of Lampard/Drogba/Alex in our squad all capable of making incredible free kicks around the box I wouldn't be surprised if set pieces were our biggest goal haul with him in the squad. I couldn't see any petulance in his attitude at all. Never complained at the refs (and they made a lot of wrong calls against him), never sulked when his team mates kept f**king up the chances he created or any of that rubbish. He'd be an invaluable signing.

Agree it wouldn't be a step up from where he is. I can't see him going to Real no matter how many people have seen him holding hands with Mourinho. Barca might want him and get rid of Villa. He could come to the Prem (us or City) or he could got to Inter.

Everyone is convinced it'll be Harry. For f**k sake. On the bright side he did manage to get spurs playing well (they're actually quite entertaining to watch which has been a farcry from our season) and we do have some world class strikers while he didn't. If he could persuade Modric to come over in the deal I suppose I could live with him using us for a season or 2 to inflate his CV before taking over the England job.

1-0 to Santos, Neymar assist from nothing.

I was half expecting a helicopter to land on the pitch and Roman to personally whisk him away.

The Santos strikers don't deserve his service, scuffed a cracking last minute cross. Having just rewatched Chelsea v Barca 2005 (glorious game) his ball skills remind me of Ronaldinho and his movement reminds me of Messi - and he's got some cracking pace on him to boot. Did anyone catch him keeping that ball in play at the corner flag? I'll never work out how he did that. It was so amazing the officials didn't believe he did it and awarded a goal kick! Astonishing player, if we get him we'll be privileged.