Posted May 14, 200717 yr ...who would it be? Because, with the likes of Sidwell on the way to warm the stands at Stamford Bridge, you've got to wonder if we're going to bring in anyone to take us to the next level. Or else just going to pick up 'bargains' (Like Adam & the Ants, 'Kings of the Wild Frontier' on vinyl. Which is nice to own, but hardly going to impress the Italian guy who owns a signed copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon'...) To go from where we are (2nd in England, seasonal semi-finalists in the CL) to where we want to be (EPL and CL champions) we need players that will MAKE US BETTER. And given the quality in our team, that means buying someone who is 'World Class'. Not multiple 'world class' players, mind you. We don't want to become Madrid. But it's obvious from our results this season that we need SOMEONE who can make a real difference. So...if you could buy one world class player, who would it be? Me, I'm going to go for Eto. Unpopular choice I know, but I think whoever has Eto in the EPL will be like having the Henry of 5 years ago. Someone who will score goals for fun and terrorize defences. And his speed alongside Drogba's brawn? YIKES.
May 14, 200717 yr At the moment, I'd take Kaka in a heartbeat over anyone else. The guy is exactly what we need right now, a creative genius without the glamour and tricks of a Ronaldinho but the class and talent which equals Zidane. How old is he now??24/25. He could only get better. To be honest, if our midfield in 3/4 years time is: Mikel, Essien, Kaka I dont think anything can stop us from world dominance.
May 14, 200717 yr I would have to agree on Kaka although I would be equally delighted with Messi. Eto'o definitely not. Just for a second I shall pretend that my main objection to Eto'o is not that he is tosser and will present other reasons not to have him. 1. Bringing in another striker who will be off to the ACN next season is self defeating. We need to bring someone in who will be available when Drogba isn't. Next season will most probably be decided by a few points again and losing two strikers for a period of around 6 weeks or so could make the difference between first and second. 2. He is hardly well known for being a popular character in the dressing room. This Chelsea team is personified by an ability to not accepting defeat until the final whistle goes and to fighting to get results when the chips are down. Eto'o fits into that mould like G4 fits into waist 28 jeans. We don't need a disruptive influence. And on top of that he accused one of our staffof abusing him racistly which was total fabrication (misunderstanding my rear end) - for that reason alone he is not bloody welcome.
May 14, 200717 yr I would have to agree on Kaka although I would be equally delighted with Messi. Messi at the Bridge would indeed be quality.
May 14, 200717 yr I'd sign a centerback, you fill in the name, that's our biggest weakness at the moment.
May 14, 200717 yr I'd sign a centerback, you fill in the name, that's our biggest weakness at the moment. Carragher been getting rave reviews recently. In all honesty who are the best centre backs around at the moment that you would be happy to see play at the Bridge?
May 14, 200717 yr I'd sign a centerback, you fill in the name, that's our biggest weakness at the moment. Carragher been getting rave reviews recently. In all honesty who are the best centre backs around at the moment that you would be happy to see play at the Bridge? Anyone better than Boularouz, that should be a lengthy list.
May 14, 200717 yr As ive said before i think are starting line up is about as good as you can get so not a massive fan off buying the ready made supperstar!! veron, sheva,ballack, ashley cole another point ive made in the past is that players who play well for one team dont really instantly fit another, ashly is a great example, our football is very different to arsenals, thus why he cant cross to save his life, looks average in our set up.. and thats an established prem player let alone ballalk.... and what about the 70 million quoted for adriano, who has forgoten what a goal looks like for a season and a half.. then you have the other side of the coin, ronnaldo while expensive was harldy world superstar but is now... joe cole had a lot to proove when he came in, gallas virtualy un heard of, lamps not even in the england squad... i could go on like this but you get the jist i do get the feeling that some on here our all to eager to throw cash at the problem when it seems to cause more problems than the solutions. We do need a couple of players, a back up center back and MAYBE a forward. But ill play the game any way cos its fun... going to go with messi and tevez (although i woudnt put tevez in the world star catogory) but i would love to see messi in a chelsea shirt!!
May 14, 200717 yr Ronaldinho. Go on, you know it makes sense. -----------------Drogba ----Robben-------------------Cole ----------------Ronaldinho -------Lamps----------------Essien
May 14, 200717 yr Ronaldinho.Go on, you know it makes sense. -----------------Drogba ----Robben-------------------Cole ----------------Ronaldinho -------Lamps----------------Essien That's absolute rubbish. No sense at all. Correction as follows: -----------------Drogba ----Sidwell-------------------Diarra ----------------Messi Ashley-------JT--------Essien---Ronaldinho Much more balance there.
May 14, 200717 yr kaka. easy answer really. exactly what we missed this season with joe cole injured.
May 14, 200717 yr Longtime lurker. Just thinking...wouldn't you want to take a world-class player from a prem rival? Take CRonaldo from Man Utd and you'd put a big hole in their next season. Just a thought.
May 14, 200717 yr Ronaldo? Why on earth would we want him? We will be back next season to take the title anyway, so long as those injuries dont happen again. It was hard enough seeing Ashley in Blue, could you imagine Ronaldo? The guy is a quality player, but a c**t
May 14, 200717 yr ronaldo isn't really my kind of player, but I do think jose would like him. what I do like about him is that he does have character... seems a typical jose player- strong willed, and with a couple of VERY prominent attributes that (in jose's mind) compensate for a number of flaws/weaknesses. I like kaka, I remember talking to barak and he wasn't then a fan, but his 10 CL goals have kind of brought him to attention on these shores. I like that he plays centrally, that is hugely important I feel, when looking for that special player who could truly improve the whole team- that he is a consistant link between the midfield and the striker(s). for that reason, I'd prefer him to ronaldinho, but the latter is the best i the world as far as I'm concerned. positionally I don't feel we have anyone close to kaka- mikel, maybe but that's a stretch. whereas someone who can play wide and come inside to damage sides with dribbling and passing while not strictly controlling the tempo... we have joe and we have kalou, who both do that. certainly joe. and, while he isn't ronaldinho, you don't look at joe these days and think there's a weakness or an area we should look to improve.
May 14, 200717 yr Kaka would be nice but with so many central midfielders, do we really need another one? Of course he could be used as a forward and that wouldn't be so bad. It's important for us to get a defender or perhaps a striker. Cannavaro, Luca Toni, Makaay, Klose, Adriano?
May 14, 200717 yr ronaldo isn't really my kind of player, but I do think jose would like him. what I do like about him is that he does have character... seems a typical jose player- strong willed, and with a couple of VERY prominent attributes that (in jose's mind) compensate for a number of flaws/weaknesses.I like kaka, I remember talking to barak and he wasn't then a fan, but his 10 CL goals have kind of brought him to attention on these shores. I like that he plays centrally, that is hugely important I feel, when looking for that special player who could truly improve the whole team- that he is a consistant link between the midfield and the striker(s). for that reason, I'd prefer him to ronaldinho, but the latter is the best i the world as far as I'm concerned. positionally I don't feel we have anyone close to kaka- mikel, maybe but that's a stretch. whereas someone who can play wide and come inside to damage sides with dribbling and passing while not strictly controlling the tempo... we have joe and we have kalou, who both do that. certainly joe. and, while he isn't ronaldinho, you don't look at joe these days and think there's a weakness or an area we should look to improve. Ive actually been very impressed with kaka for the last two seasons now, my biggest problem with him is that i feard he would be bullied out of games like haman did in the second half against milan, thats not just a physical thing but a mental one as well, however last two seasons he has devloped physicaly seemes stronger and much quicker (some how) than he was to go with his undoubted skill, just messi is more my type of player if you like
May 14, 200717 yr I like messi too- he can pass the ball- intelligent footballer. ronaldo is a great dribbler, very fast and has a strong shot... but you couldn't really see him looking for a through pass like kaka or playing a one-two like messi. I like smart footballers.
May 15, 200717 yr I think the player who could make the biggest difference to us is Daniel Alves. He is not better than Kaka, but he would make more of a difference to us while we persist with this diamond. In Drogba we have by far the biggest aerial threat in the world. If we could regularly supply him with good crosses he'd score far more than he has already this season. One of my biggest frustrations this season has been the crossing from the fullbacks. We are playing a system without winger so the crosses have to come from the fullbacks and overall we've been poor at this. Bridge has been very good, but doesn't get picked for the big games. Cashley, Ferreira, Geremi, Diarra and Boulahrouz have just four assists between them all season (Cashley 2 and Geremi 2). Given that they've been asked all season to pump in the crosses to the worlds best striker for getting on the end of crosses I think that is poor. (btw, on limited game time Bridge with 4 assists matches all of the other fullbacks combined) Alves would provide the quality crosses we need from the right. Bridge can do it on the left. If we played those two then Drogba would score 30 in the league, with more in the cups and Europe. Kaka at the point of the diamond would be decent too.
May 15, 200717 yr Well, Jose has gone and spoilt it for us with his "we won't sign big this summer" comments (or something to that effect). When you're Chelsea, I think you HAVE to sign big if you want to improve the first team. Sure, we can improve the second or third team to add squad depth and we all know we've needed it this season (CB, RB), but there are some positions (well, one) where I feel a first team addition would do wonders for us. That position is one of the wide attackers, though it would be a boon if he could also play behind the strikers. You may be wondering why I would want another attacker when we have Robben, Joe Cole and SWP, but I have to tell you that of the three, two were out injured for most of the season and the other has only just begun to show some promise. And I still don't feel we're creative enough. So, all things considered, and I don't believe Milan would sell Kaka for all the money in the world, or Barca Messi for that matter, I feel that if we pushed hard enough, we could land Ronaldinho. I know his form has been ordinary this season but I have a feeling that a change of view would do him the world of good. It's only a half chance, but you just feel some changes are in store at Camp Nou. By the way, we don't need world class substitutes for right back, center back or center forward. Cheers, Butch
May 15, 200717 yr ronaldo is a great dribbler, very fast and has a strong shot... but you couldn't really see him looking for a through pass like kaka or playing a one-two like messi. I like smart footballers. Could also replace "Ronaldo" with: Robben Kalou Wright Phillips See the problem? Add in Joe Cole and you have yet another player who can and will find the net but won't create anything through the centre for his team-mates. Robben and Cole are great crossers but aren't going to play defense splitting passes or quick exchanges around the box. For the first time in a long time I think I will admit we missed Gudjohnsen- because that is precisely the option he gave us.
May 15, 200717 yr swp, yes- absolutely. kalou... sort of... i'm talking about players who understand when to play it simple and lay the ball off- to use one or two touches. cole and robben certainly know how to do that. I'd say from our wide players robben is most capable of through passes but also the most likely to try to score himself. he sees the passes, but regularly chooses not to take them. both he and cole could fit into a short passing game. you also need fantastic touch and control- robben has it, swp doesn't. also lamps doesn't quite have it so you see him struggle a bit when we change to a diamond. playing through passes- it's not the wide players you want to look at first, because- simply, they play wide. you want to look at the collection of central midfielders- mikel and ballack are good at it, and lamps is okay, but we need someone better at that. if we signed kaka I would personally shoot jose if he was played in a wide position. anyway- I repeat- the problem is central, not wide. we need a creative player in a central position. p.s. kaka more important than alves (who I also think we should go for)- because we have had width on the right from geremi and diarra this season- whether they make goals isn't as important as having that link between the 3 man central midfield and the 2 strikers... the point of the attacking fullbacks in a diamond is to provide extra options to pass to- of course it's better if they can cross, but it's not the most important thing. for example, cashley got forward to very good effect in the nou camp, despite not making any crosses, he had a significant effect on our attacking- as he gave lampard an outlet. when you play 4 players in the middle, it's obvious that most of your football will be going down the middle and through that no.10- so by default, sorting out the diamond is more important than sorting out the players who don't play centrally.