gaamst

Home-grown(minimum 8): Cahill Fabregas Musonda Christensen Victor Moses Blackman (Should be kept as 3rd choice because of HG-status, Eduardo not needed) +2 open slots Remaining squad(14): Courtois Caballero Azpilicueta David Luiz Rudiger Marcos Alonso Kante Bakayoko Fabregas Pedro Willian Hazard Morata Batshuayi 3 new signings (Do NOT have to be Home-grown!) 1ST/2ND CHOICE WBR 1ST/2ND CHOICE WBL 4TH CHOICE MC Also, according to Skysports, it looks like West Ham are interested in Carvalho, who wants to play in the Premier League. If Bakayoko is as injury prone as I fear he is, it would be worthwile paying his £40mill release clause.

So after selling Matic and Chalobah, and sending Pasalic, van Ginkel and RLC out on loan, we're buying Danny Drinkwater for £30mill+? Or worse, Barkley for £40-50mill? Surely there's someone who's thought this through before and during pre-season...

That's what pre-season is all about, isn't it? Everybody's an expert;-)

Cheaper(probably) and better alternatives to Drinkwater(and Barkley): Adrien Rabiot (Neymar/FFP) Amadou Diawara (longshot, will NOT come cheap) Marco Benassi Danilo Pereira William Carvalho *Grzegorz Krychowiak (Neymar/FFP) *Nemanja Radoja *Matias Kranevitter Mateo Kovacic (They've got Casemiro, Ceballos, Llorente, Kroos AND Modric...) Fabinho? Might be to late in the game. *= cheapest options I'm aware that some of these players are too good to sit on the bench, but a 3-5-2 might be the way to go this year, at least now that Hazard(and Pedro?) will miss the first few games of the season.

Can't believe the abuse Drogba is getting, one of his better halfs after coming back, that might not be saying much, but wasn't half bad. I'm a lot more worried about Cesc, he has completely lost the plot lately, his game is riddled with mistakes, might be an idea to sub him for Oscar if we are to continue with this 4-3-3 in the second half.

That sounds about right, mostly in the Champions League or with Argentina, can't really be bothered with Ligue 1. Originally wanted us to go for Alexis Sanchez when he was available, but that never happened of course... Guess we have another season of painfully slow attempts at breaking down the opposition to look forward to, I know that sounds overly pessimistic, just have to unload sometimes, those were some very frustrating 90 minutes yesterday.

Time to cut our losses with Torres, unfortunately watched the full 90 minutes of yesterdays game, and both him and Salah were absolutely dreadful... I know it's never going to happen but if we loaned him out for a year and sold Torres, I'd prefer it if it meant we could get someone in who could play both as a winger and a striker. At the moment I'm thinking Lavezzi could do a good job, natural wide player who can create something out of nothing, and he gives us a third option up front if we manage to ship Torres out. Now, I know close to all of our attacking players are on their holidays, but still none of them are really wingers. Was scared by the severe lack of imagination going forward yesterday, can't remember us even testing the goalkeeper in the second half.

@big blue: You're right, we are currently short of effective attacking fullbacks, but I can't imagine Jose ever dropping Bane and may even continue playing Dave at left back next season. What would you like to see us do this summer, how can we add width and unpredictability to our game without sacrificing stability at the back? Do you believe our forwards will become more effective as a result? Is it even realistic considering how our manager likes to approach games? So frustrating to lose out on the title just because we can't score against weaker sides, I'm not sure if signing a decent striker is enough.

Good point, would take some of the pressure of Hazard though... the guy can't do everything himself. Seems like it was easier for Jose to forgive laziness from his wingers with the 4-3-3 back in the day, just a shame there are very few box-to-box-type players left in football, which unfortunately means this kind of approach would be mostly useless today.

Why aren't we being linked with this guy?! I believe we are in desperate need of width, our first choice wingers aren't even natural wide men. I agree that our first priority should be a striker and then a central midfielder, but we need to strike when an opportunity like this arises, both Liverpool and Juventus have already enquired about him. The guy has scored 19 goals in the Primera this season and has 10 assists. I miss the old Mourinho-days when our fast paced counter attacking play was focused down the flanks with Duff and Robben who brought explosive speed and also loads of flair. DREAM XI 2014/15: Courtois Ivanovic-Cahill-Terry-Shaw Vidal-Matic Sanchez-Willian-Hazard Diego Costa

You should learn to appreciate other peoples opinions, even if you don't necessarily agree with them. No use pretending to have all the right answers, cause there are none in this case. We simply have different views on what his qualities are and I feel they are of better use to us in other areas. I'm also well aware there is a middle ground between a Cristiano Ronaldo and a Kevin Kilbane technically, what I meant was that his skills are no good for getting past opposition players. Furthermore I compared him to Kalou for one reason only, and you said it best: "He[...]has[...]moments where his head doesn't catch up with his feet". But if RDM is planning on sticking to the system that got us the CL-trophy last season, I'm sure he will do just fine. But FOR ME he shouldn't be playing that far up front. We'll just have to disagree on his crossing and passing abilities. Either way, he should definitely be the first name on the team-sheet, cause he is truly invaluable to us. Maybe after Cech, we all know what happens when any of the other two clowns are in goal...

No doubt, Davey, he was crucial in that system, but I'd expect us to challenge more next season considering the amount of money we've spent on creative players. IMO when he reaches the byline, although way before anyone else, he hasn't got a lot to offer. Technically he kind of reminds me of Kalou, he never knows what to do when he is one-on-one with better full-backs, and relies too heavily on his pace. Though Kalou was never really fast, he always seemed to try to run through players rather than past them. Ramires is not a great crosser or passer of the ball either, he usually just gives it to someone else, which is something you'd expect if he played in a more central role, considering the amount of creative players that will be playing in front of him next season. But don't get me wrong, I love the kenyan! Just think his talent is wasted out wide.

Totally agree with you Davey, about the lack of muscle atm, but also with Hulk and the creative talent we possess, Torres would have no excuses for not finding the net. And like you said, a recognized right-winger would bring a sense of stability to the side, and perhaps more importantly it would relieve Ramires of the responsibilities that come with this role. He was actually one of our top players last season, but also looked extremely uncomfortable out wide, and I got that same impression watching him in our first two pre-season matches. A little worried about Frank's performances too in pre-season, riddled with mistakes.

the last two hours have been cruel, need to figure out how to get feeling back in my ass after this, gaamst out!

https://twitter.com/alrickbrown/status/207203680477396992/photo/1 Wondering if there's any truth to this, would be awesome if Lukaku had any say in it, and a relief if it's something other than JUST the money. Belgian quartet woop, woop!