If we had nobody there or a player not of the same level I dont mind paying that sort of cash for a full-back but its not somewhere we need to spend that sort of cash on plus its only because of his nationality that the price is so high. We have other places the money could be spent somewhere else where we do need money spent.

Utd need a player of this type (and need to be seen to be spending money) we do not.

He is worth the money to Utd but just not to us at the moment

I agree it's far too much.

That said, we will need some English players very soon.

No, i dispute the lfc vs newcastle result yesterday. The Ref handed liverpool the win with one of the worst displays of bias this season. Without that chelsea would and should have been second.

nearly 30 million for an 18 yr old teenager who hasnt really played in europe or internationally?

Ridiculous. I really hope we only compete for him just to push the money united have to pay up.

What about all other refereeing decisions that go on throughout the season? Do they not get a shout?

You didn't finish 2nd because you bottled it in the latter stages against Sunderland and Norwich

Simple as that

err not quite that simple.

We didnt finish second because we didnt get a result against sunderland and norwich, AND because Dowd showed his bias yesterday AND because the ref botted it in the city vs liverpool game too.

Liverpool will not finish top 4 next season.

Morally 2nd

Hopefully we have already tabled a bid for costa, be good to get him before the world cup.

re Ba, Eto, Torres, Willian and Salah.

It would be a mistake to get rid of all 3 in one go!
Ba just isn't good enough for a top 4 side. Eto has done a decent enough short term job but that should be that with him. So, out of the 3, i would keep Torres, who i still think has something left in him and can do a decent job as a second striker.
Willian hasn't dissapointed me! He's pretty much what i expected from him - Lots of energy. A few goals. A few good games. A few flashes of real talent. But overall a rather ordinary player and certainly not good enough for a team that wants to win titles and CL's. In fact, his lack of end product, along with a poor season from Oscar and our number 9 problem, were the main reasons why we didn't win something.
Imho, he's a decent Euro League level player, not a top CL level player.
Salah, looks like another player who's more about speed than any real football talent.

Not from what i've seen of him!!!!!!!!
Another Andy Carroll, but with a sexier foreign name.
That would make 60 plus million on Costa and Mr average Willian. That will show we are still throwing money around like there's no tomorrow.

Ba is a very handy player to have around. He is big, strong and holds the ball up really well that suits our smaller players around him. We would have won more games with him up front than torres.

Eto'o has gone, so no point in considering him.

Torres shows sometimes that he does still have it. (0% of the time he is garbage though. Perhaps he needs a change of scene.

Willian has had a great first season. I normally dislike players who are all about work rate - but this guy can run all day every day. He never gives up. If he can work on that final ball he would be fantastic.

Schurrle has potential to be a great player - a must keep!

Salah for 9 million is a great signing too. Pace to burn and has scored goals already.

So who is the answer to our #9 problem?

I have no idea!
We're obviously not going to get any of the real top ones like a Suarez, so why not wait and see if any new talent comes through in the World Cup?
i don't think Luka is good enough for us either, but i'd rather we give him a go than spend a lot of money on Costa.

Suarez is a flat track bully. I would rather spend the money that it would take to get him elsewhere.

Is Costa the right man? I dont know, From what I have seen from him lately I would say maybe yes, He the sort of striker that is really going to annoy players and seems a nasty peice of work which is a plus point. He dont mind getting down and dirty and knows where the goal is.

Last 3 seasons he has been improving season after season (16/10,44,16 and 50/36) has Champions League experence and now has had experence of a decent title challenge.


Any big signing is a gamble (and more so strikers for Chelsea) but he seems to tick quite a few boxes

Diego Costa has had a terrific season though. A total of 36 goals from 50 appearances in all competitions according to the latest figure I could find, that's impressive by any standards.
But I do have reservations myself, he didn't exactly set the world on fire before this season, and the PL will be a new experience for him. He doesn't look a great ball-player to me, but if he's a great goalscorer that's what we need right now.
The danger I see is that if he fails to get the required goals, he would have even less to offer as a footballer than than Torres or Eto'o !

Costa with Lukaku as backup wouldn't be that much of a risk and his value could go up after a good world cup as Spain's front man. If we have the chance to get him for £32million before the world cup and a potential bidding war with other clubs, we should go for it.

Prices go up after the World Cup and we should have done all our scouting during the season, Buying players "because they had a good World Cup" is a good way to waste money and time.

We should know what players and what type of players we want already, Getting into bidding wars is just a waste of our time. Get it done fast and cleanly. No messing around making silly bids.

I agree with not going in for Shaw. He's young, English and has a bright future, but he's a left back. The money being mentioned is ridiculous. We should be looking at what we paid for Azpilicueta and Ivanovic who can play a number of different roles across the back four and are both arguably better than him.

Can't agree there, I think he's a fantastic all-round player. He's been scoring goals everywhere since he was 18 years old, a total of 220 in 362 appearances at the last count.
I probably wouldn't want to pay the asking price now though, I agree with you there. Anyone getting him now will have missed out on a couple of his best years. It's a pity we didn't follow through and get Aguero when we expressed an interest, same with Tevez come to think of it.

For me his personality just would not fit. He is too much hard work and would need to much attention. Great player but I just think the issues that come with him are to much to make it worth while, This season all has gone well for him but I like to see what he is like next season when the pressure is really on for him and Liverpool.

Sorry I haven't posted on here in a while but.....

Costa deal apparently agreed!

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...er-diego-costa

Have we finally got a genuine top level striker?

It would appear so.

Nice work if this has actually been sorted out so early. Hopefully we get all our transfer business sorted out before the world cup starts. Would be good to know the details of the deal and if they're taking Torres or he's going to Inter.

If he's who Mourinho wants it'll be good to get it done early. Can't say I'm overly sure about him though.

Its a risk yes.

Im hoping the 32 million figure is true. The 50m price tag quoted a few weeks ago would have been too much and cause so many terrible media comparisons with torres.

A swap of mata for costa +2m doesnt seem a bad deal.

(as much as i like mata, we need a striker)