It wouldn't surprise me if Mourinho has one more transfer up his sleeve before the window shuts, but I think any deal will hinge on being able to shift Torres first.

We're going to need another striker in the near future anyway to vy with Costa, even if we do scrape by with Drogba/Torres as back-up this season. Can't say I've seen much of Destro either, but he's around the sort of age we probably should be looking at.

We don't 'need' to keep Torres at all. At this point a plank of wood would be more use.

I not actually sure the league would accept "a plank of wood" as a player on the team sheet.

We need 3 strikers in the squad. At this time in the window it has to be one out one in. Even if we offered silly money for someone we need to fill that spot with a player in the same position.

If Torries goes I wish him all the best and hope he gets back to his best. His time at Chelsea and his "lack of personal success" is as much the clubs fault as his (from memory only Lamps has scored more goals then he has since arriving) but someone has to come in for him more so with the rumors about Costa currently going around

Costa out with a hamstring injury?

Sky Sports News HQ ✔ @SkySportsNewsHQ

BREAKING: Chelsea say Diego Costa has a "minor muscular injury" and will be monitored over the next few days. #SSNHQ

Torres to Milan? Not sure I believe it as all our business has been done early this window and his face is on all the kit promotions and billboards this season. I'd be happy for him to go if we get another striker in or promote Bamford as he's become a bit of an albatross.

The timing is unfortunate with the Everton match this weekend. Two of our ex strikers with a point to prove could make it dicey.

Chelsea
Schalke
Sporting Lisbon
Maribor

A - Athletico Madrid, Juventus, Olympiakos, Malmo
B - Real Madrid, Basel, Liverpool, Ludogorets
C - Benfica, Zenit, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco
D - Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasary, Anderlecht
E - Bayern, Manchester City, CSKA Moscow, Roma
F - Barcelona, PSG, Ajax, Apoel
G - Chelsea, Schalke, Sporting Lisbon, Maribor
H - Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bilbao, Bate Borisov

we got lucky in our group, city have a tough group. arsenal and liverpool should go through.

its worked out pretty good for us - hopefully city will have several hard games to play which may affect their PL form.

Dont think anyone can have a problem with our group.

Yes it be silly to think we will walk it but I dont see anything there that should worry us too much

The cliche goes, there is no such thing as an easy game.

However we should be beating these teams and topping the group if we have title aspirations - the same is true of all teams. When we won it a couple of seasons ago - we had to go through one heck of a challenge!

Yes, happy with that.

Pretty sure we have the easiest group of the lot, should qualify easily. Maribor look an easy 3 points for every team home and away, but i wouldnt worry about Schalke or Lisbon either. Im sure we will drop points but we should have no difficulty in getting out of this group. Topping it should ofcourse be the goal.

Absolutely.

Thats the problem LFC and arsenal have. They should get 2nd, but that gives them another difficult round afterwards. I think city will struggle again.

On the striker front, Mattia Destro's name's getting mentioned a lot now for about £20m.

Whether Torres goes or not, we have to get another striker in. Costa may or may not be available and the squad depth needs to be improved in that position.

I was hoping Torres would leave but if Costa is injured im not so sure anymore. To go into the season with just Drogba and Costa would be madness. Destro would be an OK signing, not sure if he would answer our problems but i would take him over Torres!

Pleased with the group but let's not forget Basel last year.

True, that's why I'm happy to have Schalke again from that pot. A repeat of last year's 6-0 aggregate score would do nicely. Good draw for us overall.

Really sounds like Costa is going to miss tomorrow.

Fingers crossed it's just Jose playing games - Everton are difficult enough as it is.

It's being reported that AC Milan have agreed terms with Torres. But there still remains some doubt about an agreement being reached between Torres and Chelsea concerning severence payments.
It's also looking doubtful that we will be able to persuade Roma to part with Destro. Having sold Benatia to Bayern, they no longer need the money. So, with time running out, Chelsea appear to be looking around for alternatives.
Who could we bring in before Monday's deadline..Remy ? Bony ?

Done now apparently. Free transfer with no severance package.

I'd take either, but we also need to be rid of a foreign player, so bringing in either of those would still mean 2 having to leave. Torres needs to go either way. If we lose him and don't bring in another striker we're still no worse off.


Hope they gave him as thorough a medical as we did

Apparently remy is the replacement. I'd rather have kept ba

I suppose Remy would be a decent stopgap measure. At a price of £8-9m at least we can't lose much on the deal. Similar to Ba with his medical problems, but Remy has also been accused of having a bit of an " attitude". In the games I've seen he appears to blow hot and cold. Great in one game, then in the next he can give the impression of not giving a damn.
Doesn't really work very hard defensively, I don't think Jose will like that.

Why would two have to leave if we bring one of those in? Wouldn't it just be a case of one in, one out if Torres is the player being offloaded? If I recall right after we loaned Romeu out we'd solved the issue of having too many foreigners.