Taylor Swift

I swear my hands became fully awake when I saw 'Luka Modric signs for...' Fucking shit thing to wake up and see though. At least we've still got 4 months to bring in other players. No big deal.

Of course not

Does it matter much? It's only one click away. I voted yes, btw, and I did so because there'll still be plenty of stuff to discuss in the footie section (Euros for example) and the transfers and rumours will only get crazier; the season hasn't ended, we still have 3 more games to go and it's already crazy!

I would say that any player that is willing to sign for a club without actually having a discussion with the man who'll be his manager is an absolute moron of the highest order. I'd expect it to go the way you're saying, except maybe terms and such will be agreed with his agent/s (or in the process), while the player has a chat about Keegan about the club and his possible role in the team in the other room.

So it's not simply Deco or Modric then since Diego's also in the poll.

I must say, even if some of the transfers don't come off, I'm hugely impressed by who the board and KK have tried to gone after so far. This is really punching above our level (atm) and showing some ambition.

So when's this meeting supposed to be? I'm gonna tell my mate in London to be on the lookout for Morty boy

So is it £12m or £20m?

We're signing both, man. Get with the program.

As opposed to Man U yesterday you mean? One game doesn't really make a good case for rebuttal. Before the away goals rule was introduced, teams did regularly go away and shut-up shop because obviously there's more of an advantage playing at home. The away goals rule was designed specifically to encourage away teams to at least try to score a goal, and from what I've seen, it does work (i.e. away teams do look to score). Unless you have some statistical evidence (which would be interesting if someone was that bored) that says otherwise, I think it's going to stay.

Worst team of the season will just be the Derby team. A more interesting team would be the 'underachieving' team. A few of our players will surely get a look in but even bigger players (like Ashley Cole) might be worthy of a place.

Almost spot on, but there is absolutely no way you can have Essien over Gerrard. Why? It's clear to most people that Gerrard and Torres has been the most formidable partnership in the Premiership this season, think about it, which two players have had a better link-up this season? Gerrard has scored 11 goals in the league this season and has directly created another 11 goals, aside from being instrumental in pretty much everything Liverpool do. He is the backbone of the whole club, and in my opinion has proved himself to be the best centre midfielder in the world this season. Essien on the other hand has scored 3 goals, and has 6 assists. He hasn't even been a first team player for a lot of the season and missed 5 games whilst he was in Africa alone. Essien does not do for Chelsea what Gerrard does for Liverpool and has certainly not been better than him this season. I think Essien is a big part of the reason why Chelsea are only 3 points away from one of the best footballing teams in Europe.

James Sagna Vidic Ferdinand Evra Ronaldo Essien Fabregas Young Adebayor Torres Subs: Friedel, Carvalho, Hleb, Rooney, Anderson, Santa Cruz and Barry That's mine after 5 minutes thinking about it so it's subject to change. What's yours? PS. I was tempted to put Beye in but Sagna's just been better throughout the season imo.

It was good to see Ronaldo showing up when it matters Who would have thought that after the first leg, the tie that was the most entertaining would be the Liverpool - Chelsea one? Honestly, what were the odds of that? Barca taught Man Utd a lesson today in possession football. As good as Man Utd are, when was the last time they only had 35% of the possession in any single game? When was the last time their midfield was penetrated so often and effortlessly? Tbf, even though it ended 0-0 and Barca didn't capitalise on all the possession, I thought they were only always about one pass away from scoring a goal and I expect them to score at OT considering that Man Utd will have to come at them.

van der Sar Hargreaves Brown Druggie Evra Carrick Park Scholes Ronaldo Tevez Rooney

Valdes Zambrotta Marquez Milito Abidal Xavi Iniesta Deco Messi Eto'o Probably my guess.

I think Bellamy would do an excellent job in Owen's current role

Scholes dropped? Thanks, Fergie, you're the man!

Will the top players want to come though? I see us spending about £35m (net £30m) purely because some of the top players will not want to come (yet). If we have a good next season (top 8 say) then I can see another £35m being spent next summer and us probably pushing on for a champions league place. Best case scenario anyway.

It's awfully frustrating at times when Martins has the ball and insists of slowly jogging with it. If KK can instill some ruthlessness and force him to take on more defenders, I think we'd have a cracking player on our hands. He already works hard and has an eye for goal. Just needs to be quicker in possession (whether laying off or dribbling) and we'll have an even finer player.

That's true. New regime, new style? Edit: reminds me of the sudden news of us having signed Viana. I do hope this secrecy thing becomes a standard way of doing business.

I don't even think we need a striker with good technique like Viduka if we're looking to replace him. We should be looking for someone with more mobility and pace because at least he'd offer us more of an outlet (since Martins is our only one atm) and when we counter-attack, we'll have an extra man to help (since Viduka's almost always too slow to get into the box). If we're sticking with this formation, he doesn't even need to be the most lethal of finishers because we're creating plenty of chances as it is and I expect the new midfield to contribute more in terms of goals.

Has anyone here seen him often enough to comment? Seen him twice in the Euro quals and looked like he could control the ball and pass it. I guess £20m sounds about right.

Would like us to sign either a younger fb than Enrique to back him up, or an older experienced in the Prem player who's willing to rotate with Enrique. I'd hate for us to sign some world-class LB. I know that sounds daft but wait for my reasoning before jumping all over my back. There's no need for a world-class LB because the marginal benefit of doing so on the pitch wouldn't be that much (because Enrique is good) but the fee that this new LB would command would obviously be huge. Thus, it'd be better off spending the bulk of our budget on players who play in impact positions (CB, CM and CF) because we're not really strong in those positions. Even though the fee would be massive, it'd be justified by the marginal benefit of having these new players in these impact positions on the pitch.

Do they usually play 4-4-2? Who's up front? Ashton and Sears?