Celery1989

Interesting point. That's fairly late already in his development. I quite liked the look of him, but he's far too raw for a 22 year old. Unless he develops substantially next year on loan he will probably make for decent FFP fodder.

Really excited to see how Belgium do this World Cup for obvious reasons. I have £5 on them to win the whole thing at 22/1. Improbable but this competition looks wide open to me, and if they click then who knows. Hoping to see Oscar continue where he left off last week. Ramires may get a run out today as well apparently... Russia v South Korea - Couldn't really care less to be honest. Won't be staying up for that one.

Had a cheeky £2 on 2-1 USA Dempsey to score first. £150 thank you very much .

You have to admire Germany. They're missing arguably their best player (Reus) and a wealth of options in midfield (Gundogan, the Benders) yet you wouldn't know it based on today.

Great signing. Fabregas fits the bill perfectly and should provide the creativity from deep that was sorely lacking last season. It's going to take some time for me to truly appreciate him given his Barcelona/Arsenal roots but I'm sure a few killer through balls to Diego Costa/Eden Hazard will assist with that .

As has been explained by others, great deal overall. I think Rakitic represents great value too at the price given.

Yeah i guess. Luiz still looks like a mistake waiting to happen though.

Don't get why some thought Luiz played well. Arguably at fault for the goal and didn't have any real control in defence. Ok on the ball I guess.

Good start to the competition. I have to say that Brazil didn't impress me at all as a team. They are very suspect at the back and lacked any cohesion in attack. Oscar was excellent, but other than him none of the attackers made any real impression. I couldn't understand why Oscar was stuck out on the right wing to start with? Surely Neymar on the left, Oscar as no.10 and Hulk on the right is the logical formation? Once Oscar was allowed to come inside he start dictating the game as he should, although in fairness he put in some terrific crosses from the right too. Croatia look a solid outfit, especially with Mandzukic to come into the side. I think they'll pose a real threat to whoever they draw in the last 16.

Good move for Kalas and for Chelsea. I expect Ivanovic will be the primary back up to Terry & Cahill and to Azpi at RB too this season. There's an outside chance that we still sign someone like Varane but I would think that Zouma comes in as the no.4 CB. I do worry a little bit what happens if/(when) JT picks up yet another niggle. Perhaps we ought to invest into someone like Varane and let Zouma grow on loan for a year? This may well be JT's last season anyway, so another year on loan for Zouma certainly wouldn't hurt him.

Haven't yet seen a general World Cup thread, so with only 6 days to go until the start thought I'd create one. Who's gonna win? And who are England going to inevitably lose to on penalties (if they even get that far).

It's been a while since so many big characters have left the dressing room in such a short space of time, and this does concern me. Ever since Jose came to the club for the first time the most important attribute the team was able to develop was its character, and I worry whether the younger generation have that same determination and resilience as the Old Guard did. When you look at how we limped into third position last year, it’s clear that we need others in the squad to come out of their shells and assume leadership roles. The likes of Cahill, Ivanovic and Matic come immediately to mind. I’m confident that they can do this, but whether any of them are natural leaders in the way that JT, Drogba, Frank and Cech were remains to be seen. It may be that we find the required personalities through the transfer window. If Cech moves on as well, which is possible, then JT would be the last one left of what was once an unbreakable spine. That would be a big hit to our dressing room, but perhaps it what we need for the youth to emerge and form their own spine for the coming years.

I actually quite like the idea of Milner at Right Back. Certainly has the energy to get up and down the pitch and also the quality to link up with the RW and deliver the ball into the box. Unsure about him defensively, we'll see how he gets on I suppose.

How do people feel about England's chances? I think we'll do well to make it out of the group. I reckon Hodgson will organise them well and make them hard to beat, but ultimately Italy and Uruguay will prevail. It'll be a great experience for a lot of the youngsters all the same. If England do make it out of the group then I reckon they could progress to the quarters. None of the teams in Group C are better than England IMO, maybe the Ivory Coast but not by a lot.

This looks to be one of the most open World Cup's in recent memory. There doesn't really appear to be clear a favourite; If you analyze the squads of the top 8 or so nations, all of them have a glaring flaw. I guess Brazil might just have an edge being the home nation. I'm sure they'll be in the semi's with the likes of Spain and Germany. For what it's worth, I don't think England will get out of the group.

I have no real issue with Frank moving to NYC if that's the case. I wouldn't mind if he were still part of the squad, it'd be great to have his experience in the dressing room, but last season showed that he hasn't got much left in the tank. Overall, I think it would be better for the club and Frank if he were to move to NYC as this would create some space in the squad for a top class CM, something we desperately need. The only annoying thing here is the Man City connection but I don't really have anything against them. A testimonial game is absolutely essential for the man. It would surprise me to see Frank go to the MLS given how much Christine is on TV over here. Lots of air miles for her by the looks of things!

Great goal by Eden. Love it when he runs at defences, he's clearly at his most dangerous when running at pace.

Torres made the Spain squad…Lmao.

I can see this happening in an FFP-driven sense: Let's say we sell Mikel for £10m, bringing in Tiago for free represents a great deal. Arguably a small upgrade on a similar player yet me make money in the process.

We had that for the majority of last season and, in my opinion, it was one of the main reasons we were unable to break down certain teams. When we're playing the top teams, then I'm all for using two 'destroyers' in midfield. However, when we play the lesser sides who defend deep we need someone who can set the tempo from midfield and find the incisive, killer passes through for our AM's and Striker to run onto. Ramires doesn't have that ability, Matic looks like he might but again it's not quite his nature either.

Makes little sense to me. Tiago's still a decent player and would be a good addition to the dressing room but in terms of quality he's no better than what we have. If Mikel is leaving then I'd have Tiago as a backup but he's not good enough to start for us in my opinion. He's 33 so this would surely be just a stopgap. As far as the balance of the squad is concerned, I can't see that Tiago, Lampard and Mikel could all be in there. Especially when we have Matic, Ramires, Van Ginkel and you would figure that we'd be signing a top quality player to.

Went to 20 odd games this year overall. I thought Palace, United, Schalke and Atletico's fans were all very good at the Bridge. Wasn't there for Galatasaray so can't really comment. The best home support we had was in the Spurs game. Being a late kickoff and 4-0 up the atmosphere was that much better than it normally is. The Willian song went on for about 10 minutes in the Shed as well! I thought we were great away at West Ham. Unfortunately missed Arsenal in the COC and Liverpool. Was in Madrid where I thought we were awesome.

Now that Labour have taken LBHF how does this affect our chances of potentially moving to a new stadium? I almost get the sense that the club know that we aren't going anywhere any time soon. Battersea was our golden ticket but that ship has sailed. I think the club will just bide their time for the next few years until a site that as yet hasn't been available perhaps comes onto the market. I don't think there's anything else that can be done at the moment.

Any news on the Wimbledon game yet?

Great business if this happens. When you weigh up Luiz' value and the fact that he still doesn't really command any particular position in the first team then for £35-40million it's a 'no-brainer' really IMO. If he does leave, I'll remember him very fondly indeed. I've always stuck by him and felt that, with a bit of maturation over time, he could become a big player for us. However I think we're better off selling him as we can use the funds to but a natural playmaker in midfield and maybe even challenge United for Luke Shaw. A few things: 1) How on earth can PSG spend £40 million odd on a CB that they don't really need when they've already contravened FFP rules? How can they get away with this? It makes no sense to me. AND there's talk that they would want to sign either Oscar or Hazard - Neither will happen any time soon but, really, what planet are they on? 2) The fact that we are selling Luiz suggests two things: • JM has confidence in Kalas and/or Zouma to be the 4th choice CB which would be nice to see(Is Kalas 'homegrown'?) • We'll surely be in the market now for a Centre mid. Sure we've got Matic, Rami, Mikel, MVG and possibly Lamps, but Mikel might well be off and MVG is an unknown at this stage. Jose will surely know how desperately we need someone to dictate the play in midfield.