Luiz4Chelsea

God if it was up to the people on this forum every player had his contract extended and then been sold 7 times over this season. We really need to calm down a little. We lost a game, and we lost it from the first to the last minute, a completely used day, but it can happen. Particularly if you play every 3 days with an inexperienced team. People wishing Sarri back obviously forgot about the absolute snail race among all CL contenders at the end of last season. Before lockdown we scored an average of 1.65 points per PL game, then restarted with Leicester 5 points ahead of us and 3 points ahead of ManUtd, who had a far easier schedule. Since then we have upped our game to 2 points per game, and still have CL qualification in our own hands. If we're gonna make it, no idea. All I know is if Lampard worked with the attitude of most people on here we wouldn't even have to show up on Wednesday.

Why not keep doing both?

Ridiculous decision, but thank God. Fair play to Kepa, who knows if that had been reviewed without his reaction

If we're not gonna sign him he could at least help us out with a clean sheet tonight

Nah a transfer Alaba to Arsenal is not happening on so many levels

Not sure how well they know each other though considering Alaba is Austrian

Probably not uber realistic. Bayern is not exactly known for selling first team players. The only parameter that could make Bayern consider this move is the spectacular emergence of Alphonso Davies, which has meant that Alaba played the entire season as CB so far. Interestingly, the move could then depend upon Bayern's success with one of our other potential transfer targets, Dayot Upamecano.

Alriiight we won't sell Christensen, excellent performance. Haven't been this happy with him in a long time. I still consider dunk an interesting option, but if we keep defending like last night I will soon discard that

Funny you mention both Alonso and Zappacosta though. I agree Alonso was a brilliant transfer and believe there's still a place for him at the club. As to Zappacosta - him and Emerson are today regarded as classic examples of our recent mediocre 20-30m transfers, two or three of which could have afforded us someone like Alex Sandro. But at the time - having alonso in mind - I remember clearly thinking "yes hit me up with more of those sweet Serie A fullback bargains". I might feel that way again if we were to sign Gosens this summer. Everyone agrees that we shouldn't waste our time with Bakayoko/Drinkwater/Zappacosta/Emerson/Batshuayi transfers any more, and while that's true, it's also a complicated statement. As long as we're not in the position to buy (almost) world class players only, hindsight will be 20-20. Yet, if we are in that position this summer, we must capitalise on it.

Agree with pretty much all of this, and if a massive CB transfer became achievable I wouldn't think twice about it, not even for money concerns. My considerations evolve around a scenario in which such a transfer doesn't appear on the horizon, and in such a situation I don't see why exchanging one of our CBs - with a financial par for par outcome or even a little profit - in a way that could slightly improve and stabilise us for next season, would hold us back in the long run. There'd be no negative impact on FFP and it wouldn't stand in the way of any big money transfer when it becomes attainable. I feel like there is consensus on a few matters regarding our CBs - 1 out of the 4 shows every potential to become great at some point in the future (Tomori) - 1 out of the remaining 3 might be able to shape a title-worthy pairing with another world class signing - 2 out of the remaining 3 should already manage to build a better pairing than what we are seeing currently If we were to conclude that one out of those remaiming 3 will simply not improve us at any point now or in the future (and even if no Skriniar / Romagnoli etc. is available this summer) I see no harm in replacing them with a more experienced, stabilising player for next season. Some have brought up Thiago Silva, now I might prefer Lewis Dunk. With the latter we'd have to hope that he hasn't lost too much quality, with the former I'd have hope he might turn out really good. I don't actually believe that dispensable player would be Christensen cause I'm convinced lampard thinks very highly of him, and if I'm honest I might comsider him the most likely to become part of a world class pairing in the future. I've just had a frustrating sense of stagnation with him in the last two years, but I mustn't forget he's only 24. Maybe it could be Zouma, or maybe a replacement for Tomori if he goes out on loan...

As to your question about Christensen: I don't care about who's interested in buying who, but I believe the following: if we agreed on a straight swap Dunk-Christensen with Brighton this summer, next season our defensive performance would improve and theirs would get worse. Now I know that's a bold statement and I'll happily have Christensen convince me I'm wrong in the next 6 weeks.

Now my point is less about selling Christensen (just gave the example because of my frustration with him over the last 2 years) and more about buying Dunk. Maybe they could even form a great pairing. I think what all this comes down to is that I have a largely unsubstantiated suspicion there may be an undiscovered gem in this league, potentially available on the cheap. Now I realise that I'm not very likely to be right with this, and I'm the last person to wish for another XX.000.000 gapfiller signing. I just really like the way he plays and his credentials, and feel like they could help us out over the next few years. Generally I share the belief that with better defensive coaching our current defenders could already do a lot better.

I can't really get to the bottom of your point - does he look like a good CB next to Brighton's average squad? Or because he's being carried by Brighton's great defense? Personally, I don't see why it would be so much easier facing the same premier League strikers playing for Brighton rather than for Chelsea. And aren't like 70% of transfers of top clubs based on the player having performed good at a smaller club and the hope he'll continue to do so at a bigger club? I know he's 28 but I remember a few years ago ManCity bought a bit of a no-name player called fernandinho at that age for quite a bit of money and that turned out pretty good. I like the fact Dunk has experience captaining a Premier League team, in my eyes that's exactly the leadership and rough edge we're missing from Christensen. No my excitement towards Dunk as a target is obviously entirely based on the idea he might be available for considerably less than the 50m GBP reported last January.

Are we seriously evaluating James' defensive abilities based on the 2 minutes against Villa last Sunday, the first 2 minutes he's played in three months? Because in that case we have to sell Tammy straight away after Sunday, entirely useless performance. Sounds a bit fickle to me

I didn't say James is better than Azpi, in fact Azpi is one of my favourtie players in our squad. My original point was about disagreeing with the notion that Azpi was on his last legs and couldn't even serve us as a back-up RB any more. Azpi is indeed a better defender at this point, in fact he is by far our best full back defensively. He is more experienced and more of a leader as our captain, so particularly in big games I'm glad to have him on the pitch. Yet, there have been more than a few games this season against lower tier sides that we struggled to break down, in which I was desperate for James to be brought on for Azpi to offer more of an end product. I personally can't recall at all that James has been constantly found out defensively this season, certainly no more than either of our LBs. Even if so, his apparent errors that didn't lead to goals against us are matched by his constant supply of brilliant crosses that were not converted. As to standout performances: I believe to remember that James put a definitive end to anyone's interest in Zaha last year. He also strongly contributed to the turnaround against Ajax. Bottom line is I do believe that James is ahead of Tammy in his development at this point. Not sure about his state right now, but pre Corona I always felt like we can strongly rely on James. Now, I am thrilled with Tammy's numbers this season, but I do worry about where things will head from this point. We are expecting him to become this fokal point for Werner to play off next season, and I'm convinced he has the technical ability to do that, but at the same time it seems like a light breeze can push him over. Giroud's physique means his hold-up play is superior to Tammy's, and unfortunately the same applies to converting chances at the moment. I'm hopeful and optimistic regarding Tammy's future with us, but I am way less sure about it than I am with James. Ultimately, the former has profited from playing in one of our weakest positions, whereas the latter plays in the position of our Mr. Reliable captain.