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!

anyone else in here hitting the refresh button like crazy on the official website right now???

Both Essien AND Torres. Remove Kalou and it's actually a pretty decent side, something like this: Cech Bosingwa Cahill Luiz Cole Mikel Essien Lampard Mata Torres Drogba

Got lost in translation here, sorry, I meant it as sarcasm. I'm Norwegian so it happens I guess. "...he too was one of those players who look good on Football Manager", I just as well could've said on youtube or some place else where people can create profiles or compilation videos which is meant to replicate someone from real life or show of their qualities in a short and shallow fashion. My fault, the sentance was a little off, should've said "who ONLY look good on Football Manager".

Aww... I wish I hadn't seen the Heskey-video before, just so I could see it again for the first time, it brough tears to my eyes, brilliant stuff. On topic though, I would love to see Adam Johnson join us in the summer, and maybe another winger who's a little more exotic, like Willian or something south-americany.

In contradiction to what Jessie J sings in her song, for me it's all about the price tag with this one. Any crazy amount, and it won't be worth it. I remember the last winger we brought in from Porto, barely, but still. Not saying he was anywhere near as good when he arrived, but he too was one of those players who look good on Football Manager and have a massive reputation in real life football just because of one extraordinary skill, and like Quaresma had or has with his outside-foot shots, Hulk is famous for his cutting inside and powerful end product. I'm 50/50 as to weather we should go for him, I believe there are better options, but in any case he is better than the Maloudas and Kalous, and if the figure is below 30mill, I guess I'd also forget about the price tag and try to make the world dance.

Just me airing some thoughts... I saw RDM's post-match interview a moment ago, since when has low energy-levels at the end of the season been a problem for us? I've been hearing this a lot lately. But surely we're always expected to challenge in all four competitions, and usually we're right up there come the end of the season. There is really no excuse for tonight's performance, if nothing else we should always be able to expect a certain level of dedication from the players. Believe me, I know we've come a long way from where we were when AVB got the sack, and especially in Europe we've played with a lot of heart, but I think it's fair to say that we got none of that in tonight's game. Perhaps rotten legs are being mistaken for tired legs, I don't know, but in particular I'm worried by the level of performances Essien has been putting in since coming back, and we all remember well what a huge player he was to us! I really believe it was his injury that set us back a while ago. But what now for "the bison"? Is there anyone who thinks he'll ever be back to his old self? I'm especially worried since he never really had time to find his old form again after his injury-troubles started back in 2008, it's been on and off ever since. Also, Malouda's got absolutely nothing going for him at the moment, and it doesn't help that he's playing in the number 10-role, but I heard someone mention that his contract is expiring, so I guess he's "finish". Just a little Mancini joke there, couldn't help myself. We managed to get rid of Anelka earlier this year, and it was probably for the best, even if I find myself missing him at times, especially when I'm looking at Daniel Sturridge post-AVB. God, what happened there? Does he have a personal grudge against Torres or is he physically unable to pass the ball? Seems to be a pretty severe case of tunnel vision. Under AVB he looked like an obvious choice for England in this summer's Euro-finals, but now I'm not so sure. At least he's got a lot of good years ahead of him, and I still hope he decides to spend them with us, even if he doesn't get to play as a striker. We all know about Turnbull or any of our backup goalkeepers, so I'm not going to waste my time bashing him or any of them for that matter. And Oriol Romeu should have an entire thread based on his performance tonight alone, cause it was a real horror-show, but again he's a young talent, and we all know that is something we cannot afford to waste at this club.

Any news on Luiz? He was heavily featured last night before the match, but nobody said anything about how he's doing. How's it looking? 50/50? And also, does anyone know about the new home kit? Will it premiere this saturday? Just saw Torres looking sexy as hell in the promos

Just one man's opinion, not everyone will agree with me(that this match was more important), and I can appreciate that, but again the words I used were "for me,...". And since I'm a little worried about this so called revolution and exactly what will happen this summer, I cannot understand why people would want the cup over participation in the most prestigious club competition in European football. I'm not trying to make it sound like mine is the only right answer here, an FA Cup-win would be totally tits, all I'm saying is I believe it's more important to be able to offer CL-football next season and that it's the single most important qualification if the changes we are making this summer are as significant as they are made out to be. I also feel like I'm attending as many matches as time allows me to and I think of myself as a committed anglophile, but I do not nor have I ever lived in England, so you got that one right. I still believe that I know the English game pretty well and what it means to people, and hey if I didn't I would've never watched Peterborough-Southampton on the same night that Real Madrid played Bayern in Munich a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry to tell you I am Norwegian(here it comes...) and it's been a rough couple of years working over the English faithful again after what happened in the semi's in 2009. You wouldn't believe the stick we got, my friends and me, I guess in parts it's understandable and for a while we actually had to tell people we were Swedish! I hope you won't take offence from anything I'm saying here, it could be a case of bad English if something doesn't sound right.

Had to go for Bertrand, didn't really offer much going forward today, but he's solid yet again, very, very solid.

The amount of matches we've played in this short period of time is something we should be used to by now, I agree we looked a bit tired today, but the starting XI as well as the game plan was totally wrong for me today, Tiote's injury didn't help us either, it absolutely killed the game. For me, this match was far more important than the one coming up, and for the life of me I cannot understand why people see it differently, especially considering the fact that we need to be in the champions league next season if we're going to have any real chance of attracting the kind of players we need to progress this summer. Also, you might as well play Drogs if you're not going to play Mata, Torres is useless without him, don't get me wrong I can understand that, both Florent Malouda and Daniel Sturridge offer absolutely no creativity and before Mata came on, I think Torres hardly had a touch on the ball. And when Mata finally was brought on, it didn't take long before Drogs came on and Torres was pushed out wide, which made no sense to me at all. Lampard should always start these types of matches for me, and it doesn't help that Meireles is the one who gets the nod when he doesn't, I think if you look at his season overall and his last couple of matches especially, he hardly offers anything at all going forward, most of all because of his passing, which is absolutely attrocious at times, something I was not expecting when we signed him. Anyway, after Torres was made to play as right winger, everyone was pushed inside the box for whatever reason with almost 30 minutes to go and we started lofting balls, what's up with that? And 98% of the crosses from deep were cleared easily and possessed no danger to Newcastle at all. I'm dead certain we would've been more of a threat playing our natural game, this approach also makes Juan Mata completely useless, I barely saw him after he came on. Naturally I'm extremely disappointed after tonight's game, I love Di Matteo but this sort of proves to me that he does not have the tactical abilities to take this team forward, I believe he is the right man for right now, as they say, like Kenny was for Liverpool last season, but a motivator who more than anything else just lets his players play doesn't last very long in my view. But I've always loved Di Matteo, and I hope he'll consider staying on as assistant manager should we decide to hire someone else, although he could probably get whatever job he wants if we win the CL-final, and even now. I honestly wasn't planning a letter, but I guess writing about these things is good therapy. Anyway, win or lose, up the blues!