Sorry, it would be Jose for me every time. I would even buy you a drink in celebration.

Did you see the documentary about him the other night ?
With Jose, even losing never seemed to be quite so bad.

I see your point on Lukaku/Ba and Marin/De Bruyne (DB and Lukaku both have a lot to prove so show they belong in a Chelsea team week in week out.

But Butland... the boy was in the England Squad, is undoubtedly going to push Hart for his jersey in the next 2 years; he'd be completely wasted on your bench (clearly very good for you but for English football it would have been a waste). It'd be like when we tried to keep Foster on the bench, these keepers need football week in week out.

Courtois is your man of the future, he seems bright and willing to stay out on loan for a couple of years before returning to Chelsea (his words)... Butland should stay where he is, maybe be looking at Liverpool, Everton or Arsenal in a couple of years.

Courtois is the future, its a shame that Petr Cech is only 30 and could have at least another 6 or 7 years at the top.

It will be a very difficult decision for CFC to sell courtois, (perhaps they were looking at Butland as a replacement?) the only option for me would be to sell him as part of a deal for Falcao.

Why would Butland take the step down to those clubs?

Ha, well I guess he'd get to test himself against better strikers week in week out playing in the prem, surely better than sitting on a bench?

You could say that of any reserve keeper

Tonight's line-up:

Turnbull; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Cahill, Cole; Ramires, Lamps (c); Oscar, Mata, Bertrand; Torres

Not impressed - Turnbull's not up to it, Lamps/Rami doesn't work well, Bertrand's a left back, and why on earth leave out Ba!!

Look on the bright side - we have Marin and Benayoun on the bench!

See you at 21:37, Demba Ba.

D'oh

Terrible from Rafa the dope yet again.

I predict Ba will come on in the 82nd minute

Cech's injured then i take it? Lamps/Ramires we unfortunately have little choice but to do with that formation. No Ba and playing Bertrand out of position again though is ridiculous!

LFC fans finding out why Sturridge was only worth £12 million!

Ba not starting again? Just why? Is Rafa trying to kill his form?

Bertrand doesnt inspire me either, and sadly we have noone else than Turnbull for now. Still think we should recall Lukaku though. 2 strikers just isnt enough no matter what anyone says.

No one says it is enough - we say he wouldn't play if he came back. Like you said, Ba isn't starting again. Imagine how Lukaku would do as 3rd choice....he'd come on in the 87th minute if he's lucky.

Another team parking the bus

Another lifeless, passionless performance.........

Yes Mata, use your body strength and fight for that ball! Such a great player to watch, I have no doubt in my mind he will become world class in 2-3 years time.

Mata-Torr

2-3 years? he is world class now.

And cannot get a game in the spanish team, we should sign him up for england.

Torres assist. Great finish from the magician.

Good luck to MotD trying to get some highlights out of that shit.

Nah not world class yet. He still has a tendency to give up fighting for the ball when players close in on him. Plus he's not good defensively off the ball. Spain's game is all about posession and since Mata doesn't like doing the 'dirty work', Silva will always start ahead of him.

Are you watching the game ninjy?

He is world class, hes fantastic one of the best players in the premier league right now(and all season). Was fantastic last season too. Hes been better than Silva all season.

He would walk into any team in the world right now.

The young Chelsea squad will be fantastic in a year or two. When people slate Mr Roman, saying he has no policy they really dont know what they are talking about.

If its true that Roman chooses the players, he is quite a good judge!

Sort of. Crap stream keeps cutting out...

Yeah Silva's form has dipped a bit lately but he's much stronger on the ball than Mata is. If Mata can toughen up a bit and defend more he will be the complete player. Until then, Del Bosque will not play him as you can't have a player in midfield who's not willing to retain possession at all costs - especially when Spain play tiki-taki football...