He might not have been great this season, but the year before he had 17 goals and 10 assists in 27 league starts. That is far from 'average'.

But he has not been average.

If you actually look at his goals (and assist's which are a major part of his game) then there is not one single piece of evidence to say that.

As you suggested to a poster to watch Oscar, I would suggest you do the same with Rooney

Ive watched rooney, he was average this year. far from world class.

Has anyone said he was world class?

This is your problem.

It's either A or Z forget all the places in the middle

"far from world class" is not average

And now we have gone from two seasons to last season?

Why is that? is that because people have pulled you up and given you facts why that is not the case?

Could we get back on topic?

Cech apparently going to arsenal for £14m

Remy is not happy about being 3rd striker, and the club are looking for offers of £15m for him.

Mikkel is also a step closer to the transfer door.

I can't understand why on earth you would risk losing Remy by bringing in Falcao.

It's a bit of a gamble hoping that Falcao's form was just a one off whilst at United. Maybe he's worth a punt but not at the expense of a player who has done a job whilst he's been at Chelsea.

Just a thought…. do you think we should try to take one of Arsenal's keepers as part of the Cech deal, if it goes through? We're going to need another back-up for Courtois anyway, and I'd favour one of theirs over the likes of Rob Green or some other over-the-hill keeper.

Trouble is we need 3 strikers.

Should we buy a striker of a level that wont upset Remy? Or should Remy look at Falcao's form last season and think "I am better then him so will be ahead of him"?

I think if you were bringing in a striker such as Benzema then he might not be as bothered to take a back seat but to Falcao who although is a very likeable bloke was very underwhelming at Utd.

Rob green is no back up - ive never rated him and i hope that he does not sign for us.

But he should not be willing to take a back seat to anyone coming in. His mentality should be I am in front of you and I am going to continue to be 2nd choice striker by what I do in training etc

Indeed. Begovic would be the perfect signing, but he'd need to be convinced that he could fight for Courtois' place in the team, and wouldn't be merely a bench-warmer.

Thats fine, if you know that you will be given a fair chance.

Falcao may be played, as was torres, when we clearly had better options to use.

See how good demba ba is playing now!

A bench warmer at chelsea would still get a PL medal, and play in the champions league or other tournaments.

It depends if a career at stoke and winning nothing is better than a handsomely paid career at a top club and getting the chance to play in the CL and win things.

Other players are totally irrelevant.

Will Remy be given a fair chance there is little or no evidence that he won't be. He was last season and proved himself.

I did say at least 20.
We've got to be brutally honest and admit that he's gone backwards as a player over the last two years, so we've got to accept his valuation will have dropped a fair bit. Imho, 22-23 million would be a fair price for him now.

You seriously think a club will pay £80 million for someone with a very dodgy hamstring?

At that time he was well worth that kind of money!
Our player of the year two seasons running who scored and created dozens of goals a season. Completely bonkers decision to let him go, just because he didn't run around like a headless chicken.

ahhhh I have missed all the nonsense about Mata

What happened to the bring back Mata campaign? Did we get past 2 men and a dog signing up?

Well he lit up old Trafford.... No wait.... He had one good game.

Think he has done quite well at Utd.

But I would't care if he won the best player in the league award or voted worst player in the history of the league.

Due to the parking the bus headless chicken tactics (trademarked by "spoon fed by the media" PLC) he was never going to be of any value to us.

If we had got 10m or 50m for him it still would have been great value as a player not playing no matter how good he is hold no value for us.

I don't get the bitterness towards Mata. He left because the club were happy to let him go, he didn't orchestrate a move. He's been a perfect gent towards his old club and if anyone has cause to be miffed about his leaving it is him.

I could understand if he had done a Tevez and started bitching about his old club at every given opportunity.

Thank you for that post.

I really don't understand the negative comments about a nice guy who played so well for us.
Sadly, i think Mata's confidence was rocked by Jose, and doubt he'll ever be quite the same player again. He was there to score and create goals and he did his job brilliantly!
He was the best goal scoring, creative midfielder in the Premiership, yet he gets sidelined for players who don't do either:
One simple fact that will never change is goals win matches. If we had that goal power and creativity in midfirld in this team, we'd be strong contenders for the CL next season!

I don't understand any bitterness about Mata either. That's not to say I'd want him back though, he was a great player for us in his time here but is in our past now. It's hard to argue with the sale in hindsight, given the success we've had since then.

Hopefully there will be no bitterness aimed at Cech if he ends up at Arsenal.

Only if we lose De Gea and he overlooks us.