Can't see Marin coming back. He'll stay out on loan till we can sell him.

Bit of a waste of money really, guess it was always a gamble.

Marin was never given a real opportunity last season. Let's see what he can do with regular first team football in Spain first. If he impresses there, we should give him another chance and if he still isn't showing the quality required, then maybe we should look into a transfer.

Apart from the Marin deal, not much else to report. There is an article in the London Evening Standard stating we are planning to make an improved bid for Norwich keeper John Ruddy. Apparently we already made a bid of £5m for him which was rejected, as Norwich want double that.

Link here:

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foot...m-8678331.html

We do need a reserve keeper, but don't understand why Ruddy would want to be a number 2 for use when he's the Number 1 at another Premiership club.

You really do, I always say this to Chelsea fans and they tend to give me a very disparaging look.

They're so beautiful which is why I love watching them.

Disparaging looks ?..Oh dear, that's not nice. But we do get a little embarrassed sometimes, constantly being told we are the world's sexiest fans. I guess it's just a burden we have to learn to live with.

Thinking maybe double or treble hs money

Better to spend 1 day as a tiger than a lifetime as a mouse.

There must be some players out there who care more about playing regularly than money.

Better to be a mouse in your own right than the understudy to a tiger.

But a great team needs 2 people for every position.

To put it another way, he's a current England international and he has to play regularly to keep his place there. He isn't going to get ahead of Cech in the order and Courtois is coming back the season after this so Ruddy would be nowhere near the starting position.

We have to find a keeper who is happy to be the reserve for the season.

Latest Cavani (apparent) news: We have agreed personal terms with him, but are yet to agree a fee with Napoli.

This is one of those transfers that is going to play out all summer until the start of the season.

Is that even allowed?

Not sure what more we can do to get him if Napoli are refusing to budge on the fee.

I can't see how we'll line up if we get him unless Torres and/or Ba leave. Unless we play two up top, but not sure how Mata/Hazard/Oscar would get enough game time if we did that. With it being a world cup year next year, everyone will want regular football and we could just be buying ourselves a morale problem even before everyone starts comparing salaries.

No idea. Just what the papers are saying at the moment. That we are offering around £45m and Napoli still want the full release clause.

A couple of things come to mind here. First, we know that Cavani's release clause expires on August 10, so if any club did want him, surely they would wait until then. At the moment Napoli are still demanding the full fee but if all interested clubs waited until then, they could surely get him for much cheaper.

And secondly, if we're willing to spend so much on Cavani, then we must be able to afford someone like Lewandowski.

Would Dortmund really refuse to sell if we offered something like £30m plus? If he leaves next season they won't get anything for him. He's proven what he can do in Germany and Europe and would surely command a much reduced fee in comparison to Cavani.

To be honest who knows what's happening with transfers atm. The window hasn't even opened yet. Expect much more in terms of rumours with transfers at the club.

Watching Spain the other night I thought Torres was looking as good as we have seen him since his move. Really think we should give him one more season under Jose.

Could that not work the other way though? Once the release clause expires, Napoli would be under no obligation to sell him for £54m or whatever so could slap an even higher price tag on him if they didn't want to sell?

I don't think anyone in the media really knows what is going on. A few days ago the two clubs had apparently agreed on a deal for Cavani and it was just up to the player to agree terms. Now the player has apparently agreed terms but the clubs cannot agree.
Another point is, Cavani himself would seem to favour a move to Real Madrid. I think it's always better if a player joins a club where he really wants to be (Torres always wanted to join Liverpool, he just came to us later for the money) and we will always be a compromise move for Cavani.

I can't see how we could keep both Cavani and Torres happy anyway. We don't seem able to find a serious buyer for Torres, and in my opinion (despite all the problems in the past) I still think he's far too good a player to just practically give away !

Torres' form has picked up lately but he's still a loose cannon. He's made some great performances on the European stage but in the PL he's been beyond awful. I don't want to put up with yet another season where Torres looks like he doesn't give a shit anymore. Cast back your minds to the CL group stages last year and he was virtually invisible. He f*cked up all our counter attacks and his first touch was atrocious. We were literally playing with 10 men all those games and if we still had Drogba, I'd bet my life savings we would have progressed beyond the group stages.

His performance in the Confederation Cup won't change my mind about him. He looked good during the Euros then look what happened after that. To seriously challenge for the PL we need a good strike force and Torres leading the line isn't going to cut it. If we don't manage to get Cavani, we should stick with what we've got and give Lukaku a chance and invest our reported 45 million bid on a DM and a CB.

I don't doubt Mourinho can give him a confidence boost that'll help with his mental issues, but I can't get behind keeping him around any longer. I don't have faith in any improvement he might show to last long enough to make it worth the risk. His record last season isn't impressive to anyone who looks beyond the goal total and, as you say, there were too many games where he basically had us down to 10. Between scoring against Arsenal and getting kicked in the head he was frequently one of the worst players I've ever seen. I can't even bring myself to look up how many games he actually played in that time.....

It isn't even worth thinking about.

For us and Torres' sake he needs to move on. Lukaku should be our focal point next season as he has eveything to succeed here. He wants to become a Chelsea legend. Just look at his dedication:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...port^headlines

^ This guy is our future and it is time we start putting some faith into him!

I agree we can't rely soley on Torres again, i would be happy if he was part of the swap deal for Cavani and send him off to Napoli.

Cavani / Lukaku / Ba would be a mean looking strike force and rival Man City / Man Utd's.

I also dont think we can rely soley on Lukaku next season, hes still very young and only had one season of experience in a mid table team. At the moment he has no european experience, i just cant see him being first choice with us for some time to come yet sadly. He should defenitely be kept around though as im sure he can do a job for us and gain experience to become our true number 9 in a few years time. Dont think we should loan him out again, keep him around and he can play some games in the league / cups etc, but i still think for the big games we will rely on Torres/Cavani(if we get him)

I think we might be underestimating Lukaku in terms of experience. Belgium isn't the worst league in Europe, and Anderlecht are a decent side. He made 98 first team appearances for them in 2009/10 and 2010/11, scoring 41 goals and making 18 assists. I don't know how many full games he had for West Brom, but his Premiership stats for them were quite impressive, 38 appearances, 17 goals and 4 assists.
He's obviously an early developer, big and strong, he's been playing with seniors at a decent level since he was 17. I think he's ready, maybe not to be our first choice immediately, but I don't want to see him loaned out again or spending another frustrating season just warming the bench. Lukaku is almost like a new signing, he didn't get much chance with us before. Forget his age, he's only a year younger than Neymar.

If we get Cavani, we need to ship out Torres to make it work..in my opinion. If we are unable to find a buyer for Torres, I'd be prepared to see how things go with what we've got. Lukaku may be a complete and immediate revelation given a real chance with the play-makers we possess. Torres might just respond to Mourinho, though I admit that's a long shot. We have Schurrie to provide extra punch up front, and we probably haven't seen the best of Demba Ba.

We appear to have missed out on Paulinho, why is there no more talk of Fellaini ?

I suppose it depends on how Cavani feels. If he wants to leave the club then Napoli may feel under pressure to sell him so they don't keep an unhappy player at the club. If Cavani is happy there then there won't be an issue for them with the release clause.

It appears that Napoli and De Laurentiis in particular have accepted that he will leave this summer though, and if this is the case, clubs that want him will feel that they can get him for cheaper once the release clause expires if Cavani wants to move to another club.

4 of our players starting tonight then. Hopefully be a decent game.

Im still surprised Torres is starting, i thought Villa would be a better bet or even Fabregas, but i guess Torres has had a good tournament.

Mata over Silva is a definite yes for me, Silva hasnt been that impressive for me in recent months, lost his form dramatically from a season or two ago.