79 replies to this topic

[BrewCrew]

Been saying it for a while, I personally think he brings more than some that are on our team right now. He has never been given a true chance. Now, I'm not saying Kakuta is the answer to everything but I do believe he can offer this team something it is looking for. Those that say "if he was truely good enough, he would have played at his other loans," well I would say what actual chance was he given? Maybe 1 start here and there. Its tough to prove yourself in that kind of time. A manager has given Gael continuous starts, and most importantly, a vote of confidence. With that he can show he has talent.

[barak81]

Katon, on 19 February 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

If Kakuta were easily good enough to play for Chelsea, you'd think Fulham or Bolton would have given him a couple of starts. He's clearly good enough to be a major threat in France; the question for next season is whether he can carry that over to the Premiership at the third time of asking.

And yet we are creaming our selves at the idea of hazzard for 40 million when he is playing in that same french league.

[Zeta Orionis]

Reasonable point, but Hazard is also an international with 25 appearances behind him at the age of 21, Kakuta has made about 15 appearances in total in senior football, and never played above youth level internationally.

[wxwax]

I despair of the attitude that all any of our high-profile youngsters needs is "a chance."

I'm sure mistakes are made in the evaluation process. But when a player is not given playing time by five different managers, perhaps the fault lies with the player, not the managers?

[Snedger]

wxwax, on 19 February 2012 - 06:49 PM, said:

If he does, it's a recent love. For a long time, he didn't play Kakuta. Not many starts.

Maybe it has taken his coach at Dijon a little while to fix the damage done to his game in England before he could start games for them. It is possible that the coaching and style of play over here is poison to him.

[barak81]

Zeta Orionis, on 19 February 2012 - 11:02 PM, said:

Reasonable point, but Hazard is also an international with 25 appearances behind him at the age of 21, Kakuta has made about 15 appearances in total in senior football, and never played above youth level internationally.

Kakuta has a sevear double ankel break which took him out for a while, then he had to serve a 7 month ban, through no fault of his own. not helpful in development.

Yes 4 managers can be wrong and in honesty its only carlo and AVB who have had a real chance to play him but yes, in the wrong environment a player can miss out, managers can bottle it. At chelsea managers bottle it!

With regards with hazzard, he plays for beligium, lukaku and debruyn (sp) have also played for them quite a bit and neither of them are deemed good enough for our first team, Hazzard to my knolege has done nouthing of note internationly or in the CL.

for once, I'd like to see us give some one of kakuta's skill set a run of games with out the preshure of being dropped next game or being hauled of at half time. He wont win every game for us he will have bad games but he is exactly what we need and under the right tutalige could end up being our own home growen star.

[wxwax]

OK, bring Kakuta back on the basis of a handful of good games for Lyon.

Where do you play him? He's been a failure out wide, both for his multiple clubs and also for his France U-21 team.

(They started the tournament with him wide left and eventually benched him too, remember?)

Kakuta only shows signs of paying well when he's in the middle. So, who sits to make room for Kakuta in the middle of Chelsea's midfield? Are you really prepared to make Gael Kakuta Chelsea's #10?

[barak81]

wxwax, on 20 February 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

OK, bring Kakuta back on the basis of a handful of good games for Lyon.

Where do you play him? He's been a failure out wide, both for his multiple clubs and also for his France U-21 team.

(They started the tournament with him wide left and eventually benched him too, remember?)

Kakuta only shows signs of paying well when he's in the middle. So, who sits to make room for Kakuta in the middle of Chelsea's midfield? Are you really prepared to make Gael Kakuta Chelsea's #10?

United did it with cleverly.

Also i'm not going to judge him on loan spells that where clearly the wrong teams, bottom 5 teams tend to prefer the big bruisers who are going to work them socks of to get them out of trouble.

He needs games, he needs confidence in him, bottom line is you should take the risk with players who have ability of that kind. There are plenty of players out there that are going to run up and down the pitch like there on the bleep test, preshious few that will open a defence with a single touch, he wont do it consistently at first but given regular games and condfidence he could become a star. Isnt this what we are looking for, not the quick fix but helping players grown in to this team?

With regards to France, I didn't watch this tournament but I did watch the euros's where he was one of the best player of the tournament from out wide

[wxwax]

I did watch the U-20 World Cup and he was poor. A very one-dimensional player.

I respect that you think he should be given a chance.

I don't think Chelsea is the place to let youngsters work on their game. They win their place at Chelsea by being the finished product, near as not.

If some fans had their way, Chelsea would roll out a starting line-up with McEachran, Kakuta, Bruma and Bertrand. Have I missed any other young players who "just need a chance"?

While those youngsters were sorting out their game at the club's expense, I think we'd peering down into the relegation zone.

It seems commonsensical that these young men be asked to prove themselves before being entrusted with Chelsea's fate, no?

[Zeta Orionis]

Bertrand and McEachran would be in contention for a starting place if I were in charge, but Bruma I don't think will ever be good enough and I'm not convinced about Kakuta.

[barak81]

wxwax, on 20 February 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

I did watch the U-20 World Cup and he was poor. A very one-dimensional player.

I respect that you think he should be given a chance.

I don't think Chelsea is the place to let youngsters work on their game. They win their place at Chelsea by being the finished product, near as not.

If some fans had their way, Chelsea would roll out a starting line-up with McEachran, Kakuta, Bruma and Bertrand. Have I missed any other young players who "just need a chance"?

While those youngsters were sorting out their game at the club's expense, I think we'd peering down into the relegation zone.

It seems commonsensical that these young men be asked to prove themselves before being entrusted with Chelsea's fate, no?

Better them then watch a lazy useless malouda pretty much letting us play with 10 men

[wxwax]

barak81, on 21 February 2012 - 12:01 AM, said:

Better them then watch a lazy useless malouda pretty much letting us play with 10 men

Malouda doesn't get much playing time, though. When everyone was injured he was a last choice. He's a sub at this point.

[ace]

wxwax, on 20 February 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

OK, bring Kakuta back on the basis of a handful of good games for Lyon.

Where do you play him? He's been a failure out wide, both for his multiple clubs and also for his France U-21 team.

(They started the tournament with him wide left and eventually benched him too, remember?)

Kakuta only shows signs of paying well when he's in the middle. So, who sits to make room for Kakuta in the middle of Chelsea's midfield? Are you really prepared to make Gael Kakuta Chelsea's #10?

This is why the loan isn't as exciting as you would hope. He's looked good, but in the position that we have deemed to be Mata's best. Still, I think the natural talent is there and we shouldn't part ways with him yet.

I've always heard that he has had attitude problems. Maybe his continued playing time (and lack thereof at the PL squads) is a sigh that he is growing into a more mature, humble player, one that could be happy being a squad player who is ready to prove his worth in limited minutes and break into our first side.

[barak81]

wxwax, on 21 February 2012 - 12:36 AM, said:

Malouda doesn't get much playing time, though. When everyone was injured he was a last choice. He's a sub at this point.

If only that was the truth, he see's far to many starts for me.... but even if it where again, would that sub position not be better serverd going to a promosing developing player... kakuta could only dream of gettting the pitch time malouda has this season.

[Zeta Orionis]

Very quiet on the Kakuta front since he went on loan to france. Do you think he'll get a chance next season? or is his time basically up?

[Ozztheboss]

Very much raw potential, but still unfinished. He loses possession way to often to play regularly, but have extreme qualities in pace and dribbling that is rarely seen. I hope he's in our squad next season and getting some 25-30 minutes and League Cup matches. To be honest, I'd rather see Kakuta or Piazon fail than to see Kalou and Malouda do it, but it's about matching them correctly.

[Nibs]

I know Kakuta is still not quite 21 but with the signings of De Bruyne and Marin and with the emergence of new youth (yonger!) players I can't help but feel that his chances of ever making it at Chelsea are pretty much dead in the water.

You can only keep so many with potential. At some point others show even more potential and actually fill it.

[BrewCrew]

He actually has been playing really well for Dijon. Its tough to gauge this because the team is terrible. Here is a nice article on him which was written recently:

http://frenchfootbal...ads-in-ligue-1/

[Spiller86]

Thanks for that article Brew Crew.

I myself think Kakuta was always the victim of the expectations game. He's a good player sure, but there were some on here who thought he was going to be the next Ribery. Josh is currently victim of the same thing. Instead of letting him develop in his good time, people are placing the weight of the future of the club on him and any misstep is a disaster.

I don't think his career with us is finished. I think the move to 4-2-3-1 will help him as he has always been more of a central player than a wide man. I don't have a problem if he returns next season and splits some time with Piazon in the central role to rest Mata. He is afterall what 21? Hard to declare a man finished at that age. Plus we have a bad history recently of not giving players a chance only for them to shine elsewhere.

Edited by Spiller86, 12 May 2012 - 01:31 AM.

[dkw]

I agree spiller, but I think the transfer embargo bollocks affected him more than we initially though also. As such a young lad that must have been a difficult 12 months for him, added onto the injury that saw him out for almost an entire season also. I dont think hes a lost cause just yet, but next season is gonna be a very important one for him.