Spiller86

Agreed. Callejon role is Pedro to a tee.

Not like he set the world on fire at Newcastle. Two goals in 13 games. Found his level in my view.

Would seem odd for a meeting with Juve's sporting director to imply he was moving to us. Not that we have a sporting director for his agent to meet with...

Getting bored by this now. It has been a month since the FA Cup final, pre-season is two weeks away and we have made no actual progress with a coach or in the market. We also still have not appointed a Director of Football. Something not at all reliant on paying out Conte or Napoli. Just sought it out. It's beginning to look like a shambles which has a huge impact on our future prospects.

Poor attitude, sooner he is on his way the better.

Unbelievable. Looks dumb from the outside. If it didn't cause an issue for the Barca or Atletico players then it shouldn't have been an issue.

Interesting that Carlo would want Luiz. Luiz drove him spare when he was here if I remember correctly.

Totally agree. Conte did claim last summer that we couldn't compare Bakayoko and Chalobah. He was right Nate is about 3 times better.

https://napolipiu.com/marco-brachi-lamico-di-sarri-conferma-aspetta-il-chelsea-e-vuole-un-azzurro Interesting article. Chuck it into Google Translate.

I think you're pretty close big blue. Kante is the only player of our current midfield I would absolutely like to keep. Fabregas might do okay in a system that lets the ball do the work and allows him to stay further forward. But his legs are gone in my view. Ideally we would sell him this season, but as you say that is unlikely. I don't think Bakayoko suits Sarri's system at all (assuming that is who comes in) He might be a backup for Kante as the box-to-box player. But his touch and awareness on the ball suggest to me he isn't up to it. It really is appalling that Fabinho, the vastly superior player, went to Liverpool for 5m more. Again you're right we will keep him though. That leaves two spots. Assuming we're signing at least one new midfielder we then have a straight shootout between Barkley and RLC. I agree Barkley on loan in a similar way to Zouma last summer makes sense in that context. Again there is much to answer for last summer's window. Bakayoko in particular. He looks a fish out of water now in Conte's system let alone in one that focuses on ball control and decision-making under pressure.

My perspective Jack is he didn't do anything wrong, but he didn't do a hell of a lot right either. He was a bad buy because of injury, he missed 18 games due to injury. 10 of which before he even debuted. Not his fault of course but just stop buying injured players. When he did play I saw little encouraging. In a number of FA Cup and League Cup matches against smaller teams he was just functional he didn't take the game on at all. Now I understand we want more English players but tbh our English core should be coming from within. Not expensively hired from elsewhere.

I hope this deal happens regardless of whether it is loan to buy. When you're not getting in the team over someone shoehorned into the role it's safe to say you weren't a good buy. Not his fault of course, he seems a nice guy, who was a panic 'you'll do' buy at the very end of an awful transfer window. Would have been better to give those minutes to Dujon. Sadly it seems to me that if Sarri comes in we'll have Hysaj join as well. Now he is a good player, but that would leave more numbers in front of Dujon, James et al.

Paredes seems to be one of those linked as a potential replacement for Jorginho. Torreira is another one linked. Have you watched him at all?

From what I've watched of Napoli, I'd see Kante playing a role closer to that of Allan. We need to find someone to play that deeper role. Jorginho seems a bit like Fabregas. Great on the ball but vulberable off it and lacking in speed. Seri seems a bit similar, faster but a defensive turnstile. Diawara from Napoli interests me although he played very little this year, Weigl from Dortmund is another option. I actually think it might be worthwhile buying N'Zonzi from Sevilla. He played a similar role under Sampaoli and did it well.

Ndombele is incredible. Dare I say has a bit of Essien about him. He isn't a flat track bully either, his best game of the year was against PSG. Bit more to his game defensively than Ruben, but he won't be joining with Bakayoko and RLC already here. I want to believe Ruben can make it, I think he will get a chance at the start of the season. It'll be up to him what he does with it. My challenge is how we fit him, Fabregas and Barkley as very attacking players into 5 midfielders. Our average number of midfielders in the squad when we played 433 was 5 plus a younger player/rotation. 2007-08: Lampard, Ballack, Makalele, Essien, Mikel with Sidwell. 2011-12: Lampard, Essien, Ramires, Mikel, Meireles with Romeu I would see Ampadu as the sixth midfielder next season. I think we also need at least two new midfielders so we'd have to find spots for Kante, Fabregas, Bakayoko, Barkley, RLC, plus two midfielders and that's assuming Drinkwater leaves.