Rag

That's what they said about Frank when we signed him.

No, we're not one of the top five teams in Europe, but to put things more in context, we're talking about expecting a player who has already proved himself at the highest level in a team currently of equal (if not better) standard than our own to play for a mid table PL club on loan for another year, to 'prove' himself. Would you do that? If we're serious about this policy of investing in youth and promoting to the first team then we should do so, not keep sending him out on loan and hope he's happy about it. It's only going to end up costing the club.

Excellent hold up play from Lukaku there for their first.

Been confirmed by the club.

Yeah, currently playing for Athletico with a Europa and Super Cup winners medal, Barcelona sniffing around him and many naming him as the best young goalkeeper out there, I can really see him considering a year spent playing for West Brom on loan one step back to take two forward. I love Chelsea but I think you might have a skewed perspective on our current standing in European football.

I'm not saying he's old, I'm saying if we have an equal or better replacement ten years his junior, better to replace cech within his contract and for a fee than either let a very promising young keeper go for little or nothing or let cech go for nothing. There is no need to hand him another contract.

Can you see the club handing him another contract at 34? Says who? Everytime I've seen him play he's been equal in quality to cech.

And he only has three full seasons left at the club and would fetch a good transfer fee. Courtois is probably the best young keeper on the planet, good enough to play for Athletico, be linked with Barca and from a business/footballing/future sense makes far more sense to risk losing cech than him.

I'm not talking about sticking him on the bench, he's got three years left on his current deal, but I can't see him signing an extension at a club he never players for. Unlike Lampard and Cole, Cech already has a first class replacement signed for the club, it's time to start using him.

Barca reporting to be lining up a £10m bid for him. He needs to be back to the club end of the season, we can't be letting a world class 20 yr old keeper go.

He's been doing fairly well at Watford, but his managerial career is hardly impressive, Robbies beat his hands down, Poyet has been doing a better, more consistent job at Brighton and the play some nice football. If we were going to employ a former player, I'd choose him.

Moses was the best player we signed in the summer.

We need another centre back, a defensive mid with more passing ability than Mikel and far better awareness, maybe that's Luiz but I'm not sold on that either, a right winger, we need crossing ability down that flank, and a point man, someone who can hold up play as well as win balls, our 15 attacking mids need to get on to knock downs and lay offs.

You'll find them in mountaineering/outdoor shops.

I blame Torres.

All this Torres hating is going a bit too far though, I hate the Blairs but I don't bring it up every day.

The only one treating the playing staff as untouchable is the fat one, Ramires would be playing with Malouda if I had my way right now. But the same underperformers keep getting rolled out. Hazard clearly needs some time on the bench.

So a good manager stands back and watches a 2-0 home lead go down the drain before making one sub, our most out of form player after 78 minutes? Have a word with yourself.

We'll win on Sunday and Rafa will be back to patting himself on the back.

Even the CFC twitter accounts is disappointed, that's rare.

I wonder if Gourley still thinks we've improved under the fat c**t.

I don't know much about the guy, but the Youth team certainly has improved under him (however much that has to do with anything). He looks to be doing a better job then Arse-hole-sen. I think Directors of football are a reality in most clubs and generally don't come from illustrious footballing or managerial backgrounds, but then it is also clear that he is some influence in managerial decisions and more influence than the manager/coach when it comes to signings. Personally, I think we could do without 'Directors of Football'. Especially ones that are around when Torres gets signed for £50m.

Tell that to all the 'La Liga is the greatest' muppets. Spanish football has been the greatest problem to financial fair play since day one, but it only became a 'issue' when RA took over. Which shows that the biggest problem in European football are the muppets at UEFA. Spanish teams go in and out of Administration like it was a cup run, Spanish banks (those bastions of risk aversion) lend the clubs millions in euros they have no hope of getting back all under-pinned by the local and national governments with low interest loans to clubs in the form of 'tax deals'. In a time when 28% of Spain are on the dole, Athletico Madrid owe the taxman €155m that they pay less than 2% interest on. The absurd 'beckham rule' came to an end last year so it will be interesting to see what happens in a couple of seasons time, but until the Spanish FA are bought into line FFP is just a joke without a punch line.

FFP is a sound principle, as is running clubs as a business, but it needs more definition than just a bullet point list of how much a club can spend in relation to turnover. If that was the way any business was run, no business would ever expand. RA has spent millions, but the clubs revenue and value has grown millions in relation, without the investment, there would be no return, it is the debt they should stop, not the investment.

We have Lakuka who has scored 9 goals in 19 games and is already owned by us. Why sign this guy? I just don't see the reason for signing someone that won't be considered our number one striker, we already have two perfectly good players to compete for the second striker position and Torres (for the league cup games).