Shotgun883

No, if you read a post 2 later I also said change that to “young unproven player” All of these were invested in before they became prohibitively expensive. Some were loaned out for experience and didn’t make it (MvG, Chalobah, Delac) some were loaned out and whose value increased to such a degree we had to sell at a massive profit or play when we still weren’t sure (Ake, KdB, Lukaku) and some are now first team players (Courtois, Zouma, Christiansen, Moses) It’s like trawler fishing, to get the good fish, you have to catch a lot of stuff you didn’t actually want.

Ok maybe I misspoke replace youth team with “young unproven player” and also include Hector and Piazon who are In he exact same position as those you just mentioned.

Youth Team players who never made significant appearances for Chelsea yet were sold at massive profit: Ake, KdB, Lukaku, Djiloboji, Traore, Hazard, Salah, Bertrand, Atsu, Sturridge. All in all I work that lot out to be in excess of £80 mil profit. Most of their wages were paid by loans clubs too. Whilst I can agree with Piazon and Hector in hindsight, they will not lose us significant money yet could have been tidy profits if successful. The ultimate low risk high reward scheme in football. I cant disagree more about player acquisition. Whilst I think it would be amazing to see us buy a true worldie, I can only think of a single first team player (Remy) we have bought in 5 years who hasn't paid us back either by a decent sell on or trophies. Neither of which we are particularly lacking in.

Fair play to him, wants to play CM, we aren't guaranteeing him that. I think he should ask James Milner how being guaranteed a CM spot at Liverpool goes. For me he's an ideal signing. CM, RW, RWB cover with the potential to be first choice in those positions. But if he chooses Liverpool then Cé La Vie. Choosing one nearly team and stepping down to another without even the consistency of FA cups.

Isn't Fabregas on everyone's wave length. When given the time he was today he is the best footballer on this team Think its fair to say we are missing Hazards directness too. Pedro likes running onto the ball and Willian hasnt got the same cutting edge as Hazard.

Completely lost their focal point in Lukaku and replaced him with Sandro who lets be fair even in todays market looks expensive at £5 mil. Would love to have seen Rooney as a proper 10 infront of a decent Double Pivot. Cannot see how they are going to play him, Sigurdsson and Barkley in the same team.

That was poor. Nothing to do with fitness, absolutely about not paying attention and sensing danger. Marvelous Athlete who still needs to learn how to play football.

His goal rate isnt though.

Pedro, poor miss, Moses shocking miss. This could and probably should have been 4.

He goes to ground there and that's a penalty. Those two diving cards recently obviously making an impact and making him stay on his feet.

I think you are about right there, Ox and Drinkwater would add the depth we need, id add Shaw in there too if Utd go for Rose. I think all of them could be done reasonably cheaply, whatever that means in this market, £100mil combined (Euurgh) and would solve our other problem, Home grown players. Think you are bang on about Remy, no one will pay his wages and no one will offer us a price which would be more valuable than his intrinsic 3rd choice striker value. Unless we get someone else in who, Lorente for instance, I just dont see the value in selling him. BTW, Drinkwater, Lorente, Remy... Really setting my sights high.

His fitness is in question, im sure our staff could work their usual magic on that but his position... At Southampton he basically was a wing back but in a 4 man defense. He has an absolute engine on him, much like most Pochettino players and under Conte I think would thrive. He has a much higher potential than Danny Rose.

Let Utd have him, there is no way Levy would sell for anything like his true value. Id be happy with taking Luke Shaw off Utd's hands to free up some cash for them.

Potentially 60 matches with up to 3 a week at some points. It only takes a slight injury to go to be left with no cover at all. It's why I've been a big proponent of Sanchez, we haven't had a backup CF who gets games elsewhere on the pitch since Anelka.

You mean the three games in which Michy was the only CF in the squad not wearing an Athleti Shirt. i think Bats should be second choice, I also wouldn't think that LLorente would be a bad purchase but we can infer nothing from pre season friendlies whilst conte is reshaping the entire team.

A fit, reliable Jack Wilshere is a player you could build a team around. I would have him at Chelsea in a heartbeat. A fit, reliable Jack Wilshere would not be available from Arsenal. There is a reason why at 25 he's played less than 150 games. Unless the penny drops and he makes fundamental changes to his lifestyle and manages to stay basically fit for 2-3 years he will never be more than potential.

Id argue Man Utd last season struggled with a similar problem as us the season before in that its relatively easy to counter Mourinho's tactics, you cant be counter attacked if you don't attack. Mourinho likes his grafters but they haven't had that amount of magic that allows then to unpick teams at will. Zlatan did that to a point but you cannot rely on one player. He does not know how to build a team up to beat teams, he only knows how to exploit mistakes in his opposition.

I wanted Lukaku but I think its fair to say as a comparison and a sounder for compatibility; Teams that play against defensive units hoping for a point: Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus Teams that play against teams that think they could win; Everton, West Brom Lukaku has shown that he can play in the latter, Morata has shown he can play in the former. Its going to be an interesting season.

My bigger issue about Emenalo is that the club have never seemed to be able to trust themselves to choose a path and stick to it. As soon as there seems to be a drop in form they sack the manager, revert to type and stymie progression. How can you go from Scolari to AvB to Ancelotti to Mourinho and expect the players to match each of their very different expectations. How many players have we bought for a system we do not play?? Torres, Batman... when have we ever had a striker who plays on the shoulder? Cuadrado, Salah, we haven't had wingers for 10 years! The Lukaku flat track bully argument is one that can be legitimately throw at every striker outside the top two. Just how many times has Messi scored against us eh? Of course he has scored less against the top 6. They conceded less goals than those below them. It's a given. My misgiving is that I don't think Lukaku plays in a way that Conte wants his striker to play. I don't care how many goals he scored in Everton's system, if we can't play to his strengths then he'll flop. This is Emenalo's job. Coordination of player and manager recruitment as well as development of the youth. So far he's doing a great job of selling the youth. I just wish he could sell them to our current manager.

Heres my 2 Cents. I agree the comparative lack of transfers is troubling, the rest of the league are clearly making moves to try and catch up and we need to improve to maintain our position. HOWEVER... We have no idea who the board are actually trying to buy. Newspapers live to make money and any news sells papers. They are 99.9% of the time wrong. To say we missed out on a player is to be certain we were after that player. Does anyone think we are actually after James Rodriguez or do we think his agent is trying to get him off Real's books? Names. At the moment we are linked with big name players from top level clubs for big money. When has this EVER worked out well for us? Our mid budget signings from middling teams have always proved our most successful Ivanovic, Azpi, Cahill, Didier, Essien, Hazard, Lamps... compare that to Sheva, Torres, Veron. We have a very good squad and improvement will cost a fortune (or a good amount of cash at a big risk) AND hinder chance of the youth players been given games. I for one would prefer to see Conte making upgrades where available, cost effective and a clear upgrade and keeping the squad players from the academy (U23 year old with potential). Bakayoko for Matic with Matic sold to allow Chalobah to remain in the squad. Mourinho's Rule of "2 first team starters for every position" kills progression and always has. We all want the best players but we do not have a competitive advantage anymore When Everton can spend £100mil not to mention the other 5 teams in this league as well, we need to box clever and use our resources properly. Signing a central midfielder to play in the pivot for the cost of Cristiano Ronaldo like many wanted us to do last year for Pogba is folly and as im sure we saw, Kante for a third of the cost proved a much better signing.

Err... Us virtually every season ever. We have never really played with a goalscoring striker. Didier only managed 20 league goals twice in his career for us, Hasselbaink only did it twice. Anelka got the golden boot in a title winning team and only managed 19!! Our strikers have much more been about bringing others into play than being out and out goalscorers themselves. Its probably why we havent had any luck with half our fwd choices, they just havent been the type of striker than plays the Chelsea way.

Maybe a little premature but I will 100% agree with you if we sell or loan Zouma AND stick to a back 3. I agree we need a top quality bit of competition for Cahill/Dave* but I think beyond that we should have Zouma, Ake and Christiansen all at the club and all getting a reasonable bit of playing time in the 3. If we move to a 2 again I can see the justification for only having Luiz, , Cahill, Christiansen and AN Other. Our current system allows Ake to be a absolute nailed on option in 3 different positions, I have no idea why we have allowed that kind of versatility and talent to move. Its a real shame we just do not want to put our neck on the line for any development of OUR youth. £20 Mil is alot of money and I do applaud the board for rinsing that much out of a club the size of Bournemouth but if is further proof that the Transfer market is absolutely mental and cannot be our first option when it comes to squad players. First 11-15 players, absolutely, buy the best you can, beyond that we should be using the youth team players we believe could have a first team role in the near future. *who I only mention because I would like to see him at RB/RWB.

I dont disagree, however we have truly made our bed with the Diego situation, had we played Batman we wouldn't be held at gun point with our other negotiations now Diego has made his intentions clear. He is either: Not good enough and thus we spunked £32 million for no reason or We were incompetent in our utilisation of him thus we have spunked a years worth of development time and potentially decreased his value. Either way it paints a poor picture on his transfer. I think he has potential, we wouldn't have parted with so much money without, I just don't think we have any idea how good he could or how he'd fit Contre's system because we haven't seen enough of him.

Lets be frank, Oscar for Kante + £33million is the best piece of business in the PL ever. Shame we blew that £33 mil on Michy and then never played him but hindsight eh.

Which is partially because we don't play with a 10 and thus don't have any in the squad. We don't have any particularly great wingers either, doesn't mean selling Cuadrado was the wrong choice. In the right system KdB is an awesome player and certainly better than anything we have in our squad now but if we did play that system we wouldn't have sold Mata and would have played to Oscar's strengths better.