Don't forget Rooney, Chico and Welbeck.

Who needs to defend with those options?

Congratulations!


Defending is a sin in football! No one likes to see boring, negative, hoof-the-ball-up-and-hope-for-the-best football. We all love sexy football. We all want goals goals goals!!!!!!

So Chelsea in talks with Newcastle's Ba , as we speak .

Could be a good move for both teams . Newcastle will be better with Cisse as the lone striker IMHO. He scored some tremendous goals last season .

Would have been happy with a point today, so to come away with 3 after going a goal down is a huge bonus!

I know this is Chelsea we are talking about, but if they don't give Lamps another contract then those in charge really have gone bonkers.
Lamps never relied on great pace, so as long as he stays fit and hungry he has at least another two good years left in him.

Oh no it's not.

I bet you weren't a defender.

We seem to have hit a brick wall in our negotiations for Demba Ba. The talks with the player were unproductive, he was not happy withe the terms on offer, and Newcastle say they have not had a bid that matches their expectations.

As I have just said in the Newcastle thread, I don't think this is any simple 70/80k they are pushing for but a stupid package for him, his agents ect. Makes sense now why talks stalled with Newcastle

Yes, it's not so simple as many of us thought. The £7m release clause appears to be just the start, his agents want a fat pay-off as well.
Then there's his contract, I'm guessing he wants something like 70/80k a week as you say, but without any of that on a payment per match basis ? I believe you guys split it half and half ?
I don't know, it's beginning to sound like more trouble than it's worth.

I have even heard suggestions that he asked for 100k. Starting to sound like more trouble then its worth. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in Russia

Yes, it's a difficult one. Without the knee problem he's probably a £15m+ player. But if he wants a full contract it starts to look very expensive. A re-occurrence of his problem and we would be stuck... with him unable to obtain insurance.
I read he's on £20k a week, with a further £20k each time he plays with Newcastle ? Obviously he's going to be looking for a better deal, but maybe he's just being too greedy. I think he also pockets £2m from the buy-out, but his agents want another lump sum on top .

Better hope we have a plan B that doesn't cost £50m.

Carlo Cudicini is on his way to LA Galaxy. I'd have him back here right now. Can't stand the thought of Turnbull getting some playing time.

Either way, we need another striker in ASAP or get Lukaku back.

Sounds like Ba and his team are after a big pay day, they probably see this as his prime opportunity to get a massive pay off. I think we will probably still end up signing him, but perhaps its more trouble than its worth, especially if his knee is as bad as everyone says.

Should be plenty of other options out there? We need a striker anyway. Maybe this will push the club to head towards Villa instead, although i expect he would want high wages as well. I still think Falcao is a possibility, never say never in football, he may have said he wants to stay till the summer, but i think if we got an offer accepted by Athletico and started talking actual numbers to him he would be swayed to come now rather than later. He may well just be saying that to keep Athletico and their fans happy, and so it doesnt look like he wants to wangle his way out of the club as other players do.

I hate defending...that's why when I used to play Netball as a kid I was always a goal shooter.

I don't mind watching defensive football though. Sarcasm doesn't work well over the internet. We won the CL by defending for our lives and I wouldn't swap that for 'sexy' football. Ever.

Even if we don't get Ba, I'm sure the board have other options in mind. We're letting Sturridge go and I don't think the board are that stupid to let us go into the rest of the season with just 1 striker. (Well at least I hope not).

Still think we should recall Lukaku, he was great for West Brom today. He will get game time with us. I think i would rather just have him over Ba at the moment.

17 hours and still no striker

Lukaku >>> Ba. One is already ours, the other appears to be a massive pr*ck.


Home to QPR tomorrow. On paper, an easy game, but they - somehow - kept us to a 0-0 earlier in the season. A repeat of last years game would be nice....

Lukaku isnt even first choice at West Brom, it makes no sense to keep him there in our current situation. We should take him back in a heart beat, we need a striker and he is in decent form at the moment.

I agree. I reckon he looks more dangerous than Torres.

bring him back and play him

Hi fellow Blues! Been lurking on this forum for ages so thought i would get around to registering an account this year.

Nice little run we're on at the moment, just hope we keep it going tomorrow. Bad enough we gave QPR a point earlier in the season, don't want to give them anymore.

I definitely agree too that it would be a lot more preferable to recall Lukaku than sign Ba. I just hope we don't let Sturridge go before we've actually brought in someone first.

Anyway, should be an interesting month in store!

Lukaku was ok, but I wouldn't have said he was great. To be honest, I couldn't see us starting with him in many games, unless it was an emergency.
It's hard to believe he's only 19 though, he's going to be a big lad when he grows up !

I think we should have persevered with Sturridge until the end of the season. He was never given many chances to play up front, but in the few games he did play in his favoured position I thought he looked promising.

I don't know what the plan is now as far as a striker is concerned. Are we looking to buy someone for the future, a serious signing. Or are we just looking for a stop-gap signing to see out the remainder of the season ?
The powers that be seem determined to carry on with the Torres "project", so perhaps a budget priced deputy makes sense.

Welcome, new person

Under any other manager I think Lukaku would now be considered first choice at West Brom, but Steve Clarke is a fan of that stupid constant rotation policy. He's still not getting as many 90 minutes as he needs, but he's getting more time there than he would with us....rightly or wrongly.



I wouldn't be shocked to see Ba end up at QPR. It would be a shame as he'd be a great option for us, but there's no sense in getting rid of one - apparently - troublesome player only to bring in another.

the above poster is spot on. sturridge is a good young english player and will go up in value. unf he is also greedy, never passes and has a questionable attitude.

people are questioning us getting rid of cole and lamps / terry. but they fall into a similar category. they seem to sack managers themselves. great players and legends but they seem bigger than the club.

Demba Ba withdrawn from Newcastle squad as bid from Chelsea accepted to meet Ba clause