Pride of London

I think so too, all he's missing is the first touch, all subsequent touches, the finish, vision, creativity, a footballing mind, enough ball control and pace to make it happen. That will come in time :)

We're signing loads of young Belgians to tempt Hazard over... Grooming Arsene Wenger would be proud of.

I don't know if he's proven but he's definitely Belgian... it's so obvious we're signing anyone good from there to get Hazard to want to come. Hardly subtle

In January we lacked creativity , flair and pace on the wings and midfield. We proceeded to buy a defender and a striker to shore up our strongest positions. As it's transpired said shoring up of the strikeforce and the subsequent development of Sturridge and Lukaku has given us too many options, One game in and we're already questioning who should start etc. It's an issue, albeit one that hundreds of clubs wished they had Defense and GK department look absolutely rock solid. Decision to loan out Courtois to the club where weakling De Gea was under no pressure from attackers is questionable, will he come to us in the same sorry state? Could do with better cover in the actual squad for Cech, but overall good. Flair: Nobody in the Midfield has any flair, Lampard has a great strike no questions but he's slowing down, Ramires has improved immensely, Mikel remans solid defensively, Benayoun only midfielder with strong understanding of Torres game still. Creativity: Kalou and Malouda are painful to watch, Malouda doesn't have the pace to beat defenders, Kalou doesn't have the composure to finish the chances his hard work creates. Area for improvement, noted by AVB Pace: Cole has it, and can cross, Bossy has it and can't cross. Malouda has none, Lampard is losing his, Ramires has some surging runs. Romeu unknown quality, Benayoun tricky enough not to need it, Drogba strong enough not to need it, Torres rehabilitated. In short we need a RW and LW with pace to stretch defenses, and someone in the Middle with the vision to be one step ahead of defenses. We're Rock solid defensively, have a great strike force. Imagine a girl with a great rear, a great rack but a flabby middle section. At the moment we're the Snooki of the premier league.

Well I think that would be a last resort, realistically an aging striker who is too ponderous with the ball, and a player who trips over himself and often can't finish aren't going to be high on many managers wishlists, and those whose squads they would strengthen might not be able to afford their wages/ know that they'll be tough to shift so will save a few bob for wages.

Well City have 1 billion in Etihad money coming over the next decade... if Uefa allows this I can't see why we couldn't have a brand spanking new Sibneft Arena with a similar deal... FFP will be a joke if City aren't stopped.

Sorry if I was being a bit defeatist there, just a hangover from watching Aguero the other night, maybe we can be a bit optimistic, I'd just like to see us get a players to put pen to paper between now and closing day... Just have a feeling the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham will try to up prices on the players we're after because they can sense weakness. Instead of making the wage bill higher we should have a been a bit more Arsene-esque in my opinion and sold on players who were just after peaking to bring in the youngest new players at premium wages... for however long we had our finger in that damn, it'll take that long for us to repair the situation imo... we've made great strides with youth this window, but would like to see a bit more experience at the same time.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/1285/Jupiler-Pro-League/article/detail/1305062/2011/08/16/De-Bruyne-Misschien-voor-einde-van-de-maand-akkoord-met-Chelsea.dhtml De Bruyne claims to be in talks with us, loaned back to Genk for a year then joining us... De Bruyne, Lukaku, Courtois and hopefully Hazard... With AVB as manager I was hoping for Brazilian signings not so much Belgians, here's hoping they do well tho

Must remember that the tried and failed Wenger method only stopped working when the old brigade in the stalwart defense started retiring and weren't replaced, and later the grittiness in midfield provided by Viera was fleeting. The Wenger model could be followed for blooding new creative talent in the interim if wages are the issue as to why we're not buying, while our veteran defense keeps us hard to beat. Could be a short to medium term gain.

United have presitge, City have deeper wallets... AVB might become the new Wenger get them in when they're young time will tell, if we can't get the creativity and width we need this aging team will become a rotting corpse in the next couple of years. Remember Wenger's greatest success was adding the flair and creativity to the spine of a workman like backline, Dixon, Adams and company... His problem was his inability to recreate the fantastic defense he inherited in later years.

Kuyt was an excellent purchase, up and coming less than attractive talent could see that they wouldn't get discriminated against at Liverpool... Now they've got easily the ugliest bunch of young players in the league, although significantly less talented that the Dutchman.

Last day of the transfer window if we're even in for those lads the deals will be outmatched Robinho style. We have to improve our rivals know this, why wouldn't they try to scupper our attempts. The same trying to buy of Tottenham, they hate out guts, they won't do us any favours. We're looking 3 bob short of the pound and the vultures in the league will look to keep us that way. Until September 1st I will remain cautiously pessimistic.

United and City are going to be the top two teams in England for many many years at this rate, United much like Barca and Real have the prestige to get the real talents, while City now can far outmatch us and any other teams wage structure. Our success was based largely on the good management of the best money could by, you can't deny that we've been a lot more Arsenal-esque this summer buying in unproven talents and failing to land anyone decent. Being a player proven in the premier league doesn't always matter as Aguero proved tonight... Pity we didn't take a risk and seemingly played it safe by getting Torres... We could long rue that day.

Duff is way better than Malouda, sneaky bid for him. See if we can lure Robben back while we're at it

Truly devastating news, the amount of dedication it must have taken to play yesterday is staggering as well. Here's hoping that he is found safe and sound. Best Wishes.

I did indeed, stupid mistake

Ah it's not Yossi's fault he's ugly, don't be nasty!

Motta or Hazard ideal, but would accept anyone who can run, keep control of the ball and cross well... I'm looking at you Malouda

In the big scheme of things drawing with Stoke isn't a disaster, their ethic is to be extremely difficult to beat and they've got the players to frustrate the best teams. Nobody goes there for an easy game and outside the top 4 or 5 teams they are the hardest team to beat. Lets just see how other teams fare against them playing at home before we jump to conclusions. Wait until the January transfer window before we write off the new arrivals, and lets see if we can offload some of the dead weight before the end of the month too. At the end of the day, we've drawn against Stoke but we've picked up no knocks. United beat a much weaker outfit, and their centre halves both went off injures, and they have a dodgy looking keeper. I know whose situation i'd rather be in and it isn't United's.

You think Stoke will be a challenge, fair enough, but Sunderland and Newcastle aren't world beaters...If we're going to come anywhere this season we have to believe we're going to beat the also-rans , and be very unhappy when we don't. Sunderland's midfield only got a lick of possession when inferior midfielders to ours got knackered and their best player had to be taken off, a weakened Arsenal reduced to 10 men were held by Newcastle. I can't understand why you'd rate either team based on inferior sides to ours capitulating. If anything what I saw yesterday would make me confident of winning against all 4.

Brilliant response from Sunderland, thought they looked dangerous until Sunderland got into the game with the goal then just completely capitulated. Thought Carroll's disallowed goal was the slightest bit harsh, but i was watching on a dodgy stream so can't say for definite. Liverpool look like a mickey mouse team still... happy days!

Sorry if I came across a bit dismissive there, I just mean to say that I didn't really think that matter was really in doubt. Of course it's good news, but it's confirming something strongly suspected, he didn't say anything majorly out of the blue which seems fitting with the new management, we're playing our cards very close to our chests.

Ah but Terry reckoned Sturridge would be the first on the team sheet, he'd never have said that if he didn't know Sturridge was rated by Villas-Boas and that he was going to stay.

Those stories are quite shocking really, when did things start to change? Are there still racist chants coming from our support? What do most fans think about the likes of the Ultras and the Headhunters? It's strange to be honest, my earliest memories of football, we had Ruud Gullit as manager, and we seemed to be up there with Arsenal as having an international ethos. Would foreign supporters need to think twice about coming to the Bridge these days or is it all in the past? <p class="ipsLikeBar right clearfix" id="rep_post_402782" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: right; font-size: 11px; "> Back to top Quote MultiQuote

Completely wrong mate meant for the racism in football thread ! Two tabs open and feck all sleep are my excuses sorry lads/