ShedEnder91

Yep. All pretty sh*t to be honest how the areas changing but that's life. It'll be a worrying time for a few of the decent boozers that are left if we're out of the area for three years too.

I do feel sympathy for people like Claude but seeing the divisions in the crowd yesterday, Arsenal as a whole really can do one. The fear of change and acceptance of (as the host said) just being 'there' without pushing to win really isn't very endearing at all. I suppose it's just a case that those who want change are always going to be more vocal than those who are happy with the status quo. Claude nails it, that they're scared of change. Personally I'd always gamble that the unknown could be better, rather than sticking with being consistent also-rans.

Bazoer is a very obvious player for us to be linked with. Looks decent but there's so much promising youth in our ranks that you wonder where our priorities lie.

I think there's a slight difference there.

Enjoy it. Your boys have been the best team over the course of the season and it's a once in a lifetime thing for a place like Leicester.

I think supporters are just more clued up on the realities of football finance these days and want to see the club that they invest time and money into being as competitive as they can be with their resources. It's also about being ambitious and wanting to see your team field the best 11 players as possible. For some that includes Willian, for others there might be better alternatives.

I like Forster. He's a good keeper and seems like a decent bloke too but I think the level of ambition of this club should be such that we should be looking to acquire and keep the best young players in the world, not sell them. He's also another player in his late-20s that we'd be bringing in which goes against a lot of what we were doing just a couple of years ago. This club seems confused about what it wants to actually do; one season it's all about reducing the age of the squad and signing young players, now it seems like we're signing players approaching their 30s to win now. It seems almost rudderless.

It looks a bit like Pato's just lazier....so I'd say it's a genuine Pato 2016.

That's probably a popular view in some parts and I absolutely agree that relying solely on stats is pointless. Stats are a tool and should be used accordingly. Willian works hard but does he actually influence games? Does he influence a game to the point where he is worth £50 million or is irreplaceable? I'd say no.

If he wants to leave and we get a massive fee then it probably makes sense. Make no mistake though, this would be the first time under Roman Abramovich that this club has sold a player who would be part of the first team and has the potential to be the best in the world. Robben might be comparable but he was very much in and out of the team and suffering from injury niggles in his last season, so it wasn't such a massive loss (at the time). We don't have enough players with the potential to be the best in the world that we can just cash-in but this is where the club probably is at the moment. If I was an outsider I'd suggest Roman's short-termist view was finally coming home to roost.

Mason Mount will be lucky to make it here my opinion. Tidy player but I don't see much to suggest he'd break through. Tomori has stepped up a lot and is an interesting one. Could go either way in my opinion. Completely disagree with what you've said about DaSilva apart from the size stuff. He's almost Verratti-height which could pose some problems but positionally he's fantastic. He's tasked with doing so much in that team that maybe he gets caught out once or twice but I'd put that down to players not doing their jobs and moving across to help him. Bear in mind the lad has been playing above his age for a while now and despite having three youth cup wins is still eligible next year. Agree that he could play anywhere on the left and in the middle (reminds me of Alaba a bit in that regard) which is an indication of how mature he is for his age.

It's more to do with a lack of class and 'nouveau riche', plus there used to be a noticeable amount of Burberry and Stone Island at the Bridge but that's the same at every London club. Now everyone seems to be sporting Barbour.

Chelsea's new thing for signing players who used to be good like Falcao and Pato reminds me of the days when we'd sign George Weah....except the Weah-bear was still pretty decent. Hopefully this is just talk to get other teams conned into interested in buying him.

The problem is that he's never been a very productive player. His assists stat in the league is low this year, but it has been each of his three seasons here whilst his key pass stat is relatively unchanged. Also how many of those key passes are set-pieces? Willian has taken a lot of corners and if you look at the Newcastle game for example, he has three key passes to his name but two of those appear to be corners. Doesn't that skew that statistic slightly? He's good at this, he works hard. Is that really worth passing up £50 million when we have players like Pedro and Cuadrado who can do that too? We sold Ramires for half that when he was fairly exceptional in that regard. I don't think we can ignore output though and selling Hazard when he's a proven matchwinner and could regain form ahead of Willian who is a role player seems a little unambitious on our part. Considering Conte could watch all the film on Cuadrado in the time it would take to watch the Captain America trilogy back-to-back with piss breaks, I think he may well have had a look. But I think the lack of available film also tells it's own tale. Cuadrado had 300ish poor minutes with us. I wouldn't write a young player off in that time so I'm not going to write him off either, especially when the coach likes him, he fits the system and he's looked good for Juve.

I really don't see us staying 4231 so we don't need a number 10. A midfield three of Matic, Fabregas and Nainggolan with Loftus-Cheek and hopefully Nat Chalobah and Lewis Baker backing them up could be brilliant. If we didn't own Cuadrado I probably wouldn't be pushing for us to sign him, but the fact that we do and that Conte really rates him....I just want to see how he turns out under a coach with that type of faith in him.

I agree that he didn't adapt well under Jose but coming in at that time was a real tough ask. If you believe the reports about Conte wanting him, about Atletico making an enquiry about him and even look at what he's done this year at Juve then I think he deserves a second chance. Again, less than 400 minutes under a different coach isn't really a big enough sample size for me to disregard everything else although I totally understand why some people have reservations. If he comes back he gets a clean slate. But I think this is all unlikely to happen. I don't think even the Chinese would pay that much for him.

That's if we need to replace him. If Conte goes 352 then I don't see how he fits in the team anyway. BUT if we remain a 433 team, or even a 442/424 then I think we're overlooking one player - Cuadrado. We own him, he's had an impressive season, Conte apparently loves him and the argument against using him is based almost entirely on 312 league minutes last season isn't it? I just think £50 million is way too much to turn down for a player who is a nice link-up player who might be deceptively productive because he might get a lot of secondary assists. Bear in mind he has just two years left on his contract and will be 28 in August, so the other option is to give a four or five year contract at £120,000 to a player who has scored 3 goals in the league since the start of October. That's one more than Eden Hazard and is still more goals than he scored in the league all last season.

Ok, I'm just saying it's unlikely. Izzy is a nice little player but I wouldn't say he was exceptionally gifted in any area.

I probably didn't explain myself very well. Izzy Brown doesn't (in my opinion) have the potential to be a top-level player. He's decent but not exceptional. Charley Musonda on the other hand has a tremendous amount of potential. Fair enough on your point because it did seem like I saw saying that age was the only reason not to write them off when it is actually about talent and potential. As for Willian, he's a fine player, he works hard and he's been one of the better players this year but is he a top class player worth £50 million? No, not in my opinion. I think there are areas of our team we need to strengthen and we could use that money there, but I also think that his willingness to run and his tidiness on the ball actually hides the fact that his production and contribution to the team isn't actually that great. Players like Hazard and Costa are matchwinners, and I'd even throw Courtois, Fabregas and Matic into that category when they're on form. When Willian is on-form, is he a matchwinner? I don't think so. For me he's a role player and you absolutely need those, but they aren't £50 million players no matter how much the market gets inflated.

But isn't that what we're doing here? Talking about selling a player who hasn't the heights 100% of the time and doing so for a £20 million profit (if the reports are true which they probably aren't).

Izzy Brown will almost certainly never get there, but Cuadrado and Musonda? Charley in particular is way too young to write off yet and has been very impressive. I'm not entirely sure what the requirements are to be 'near Willian's level' to be honest. I respect his hard work but it's not like he sets the world alight.

I don't think anyone is dehumanising them but this is the business of football. You're right that the decision ultimately comes down to them but people here will obviously have the needs of the club at the forefront of their thinking.

So he's like Imbula? Sweet, that's exactly what we need.

Cuadrado was useless for us but he came in at a tough point in the season where we just didn't change the team, so he was getting minutes here and there. He was unimpressive and there's a good argument to sell him now when his value to Juve would be fairly high but Conte likes him and he's versatile. Plus he's actually looked decent for Juve this season. Is that enough to sell Willian? I think Willian is a little overrated by some people, and £50 million for him is about £15 million more than I'd happily sell him for. Willian will also be missing for the start of next season if he gets his way and plays in the Olympics and Copa America. Not sure how that affects Cuadrado or other players, but it's unfortunate that when we're looking to bounce back under a new coach he might not actually be here. That's not me having a pop at him, but it is slightly frustrating. Also, yes Serie A is a different proposition and it didn't translate well last time, but considering we're chasing Pogba, Vidal, Bonucci and Nainggolan then I don't think that will be much of an obstacle to our thinking.

Oscar and Willian aren't prize assets though (don't tell the Chinese). Oscar could possibly have a future under Conte although that's looking iffy and Willian has never been especially productive. He works hard/runs around a lot but his numbers are quite frankly pathetic. If teams are prepared to pay way over the odds when we have players like Pedro and Cuadrado already in the squad, and youngsters like Kenedy, Musonda, Baker, Boga etc. waiting on the sidelines, I think it has to be looked at seriously.