keep the faith

Willian is a player Jose really wants. Remember our final season under Jose when everything went horribly wrong and the players seemingly turned against him? Willian performed for him, week-in week-out, running tirelessly and diligently, which is what Jose really likes. Jose always give Willian a cuddle whenever we play them. He whispers sweet nothings into his ear. Believe me folks, Jose really wants him.
 
Martial is a player Jose really hates. He doesn't run tirelessly and diligently for him, in fact he doesn't appear to respect him, much as our players didn't. He can't be trusted to do what Jose wants on the field, which is basically to operate as a full-back.
 
The trouble is Jose can't afford to have Martial in his squad. The art of management, as our former manager Tommy Docherty once observed, is to keep the players that hate you away from the ones that like you. Jose needs to sell but to who? Who's going to pay the money? Who really needs him? 
 
I'm convinced we can get this done if we really want to. In fact, I have no doubt about it. It just depends if we want to. We don't need a left-winger. That's the last thing we need, but maybe we want a centre-forward, which is Martial's preferred position by all accounts.
 
We could potentially buy Bailey and Martial for the same sort of money as we sell Willian and Morata, if the will is there. Sarri turned Higuain into a phenomenon and he converted Dries Mertins from a winger into a prolific striker. He could do something with Martial, hopefully.
 
Willian is 30 in a week or two. He has two years left on his contract. You get the feeling he wants away. He just hasn't been able to cement a first-team place these last few years. Maybe he wants another challenge, more money, who knows? He's a good player but not a great one, although he can be a great one on his day but not often enough. When his head's screwed on he is a committed player you can rely on for workrate and attitude. He's nowhere near the level of Hazard. We can afford to lose him, but we'll need to replace him.
 
30, two years left, if we're going to sell now is the time to do it. This is the best time we'll ever get.
 
I'd be willing to give Morata another year but I'd be very happy to see him go if we got a replacement. Martial and Bailey for Morata and Willian? Who wouldn't say no to that? That would constitute a very good window in my view, and an exciting one.
 
Pace, skill, youth. Yes please.
 
Jose appears to be at loggerheads with the Utd board. You get the feeling all is not well with him. He's not happy with his squad. He wants a player he knows and trusts and that's our trump card. He doesn't want Martial about the place and there won't be too many takers at the price they're asking and it will have to be somewhere Martial wants to go. Meanwhile AC Milan want Morata ..
 
I think we should wait for the phone to ring, as it inevitably will. Utd want Willian. They will grow more and more desperate unless they want Jose to go into full retard mode before the season's even begun. We wait. They call. They enquire about Willian. We say he might be available. We ask them how Martial's doing. We say we might be interested in a swap. They so no dice. We say fine. We hang up and we wait, until they call again. A swap? A swap. But Martial's worth more than Willian. We hang up again. You got to love Marina. We wait and they call again. Did you say a swap? That's right Woodward, we said a swap.
 
Believe me folks, if we want this to happen we can make it happen. In fact it's not going to be very difficult. This one is playing right into our hands.

Napoli clearly have overplayed their hand.
From being Billy big ones they are slowly but surely retreating from that stance.
I keep reading that there is a agreement in principle in place and  now I am starting to read that once we get past 1 July Napoli will find themselves in a position whereby they become duty bound to honour a full years salary.If that’s correct it sort of explains the something of their approach.
The 1st of July is a key date in football contract terms, it’s the date on which all player contracts  start their annual cycle and indeed it seems that the contracts of the majority of managers and indeed head coaches have the same annual cycle, the main difference  between employment rights for managers/ coaches and players is that it’s incredibly rare that a player is sacked mid contract.
We all know that far too many mistakes were made last season in term of player recruitment at Chelsea  but just because we haven’t been told what’s going on behind closed doors it doesn’t mean that the club aren’t pushing forward with plans.
Perhaps I am being far too optimistic but I can’t help but feel that at this point it’s more about brinkmanship and whilst it is frustrating I genuinely believe that once Contes position is sorted then other things will fall into place.
To date very little transfer business has been done by PL clubs. In total just 22 transfers in have been completed. Of that number 9 have been completed  by Brighton, Huddersfield and Wolves and in that 22  around half are Bosman transfers or clubs taking up the option to sign players on a permanent basis following periods on loan.
 
 
 

I just want us to compete at a high level.  We should expect to win and be disappointed when we don't-that's a sign of an ambitious club.  Seeing the way we moseyed around the park against City did my head in on the replay.  And it isn't the first time this season players and manager alike have put in dreadful, lackluster performances.  It appears everyone in football from the manager to the fans are spoilt.  Players are professionals, they should go out and try to win every single game, show their competitive spirit.  When they don't do that then something is very, very wrong.  

“We played with fear. To play football in a great club, it means you must have a personality. It’s simple to play when there is the confidence. Especially in this type of moment, you can see who is [ready to play] for a great club, to play with personality and also to risk something.”
Antonio Conte's most telling words after the Watford defeat and, perhaps, the first indication that radical change in player personnel will happen if he is allowed to continue in his job. For continue he must, not only to right the wrongs he has openly admitted to regarding team selection, but also to put an end to the continual flow of managerial departures every time the going gets tough at Stamford Bridge. It has become the Bridge of Perpetual Sighs throughout Roman's rule, as we the fans mourn the passing of a managerial loved one far too often for our own good, let alone the well-being of the club. The Guardian's Barney Ronay has already referred to this latest performance as 'a 90 minute Viking funeral for the Conte era' pronouncing death by missing adventure in the rest of his article. Sadly, he is probably right, but if ever there was a reason for breathing fresh life into the boss, as opposed to giving yet another coach a kiss of death call, it is the young talent emerging from the Academy and the mandate he has to get it into the first team as soon as possible.
For Conte that time is right now, or next Monday to be precise, against West Brom in what amounts to an archetypal risen-from-the-dead moment when he has to roll away the stone currently blocking the pathway from Academy to first team football and allow some of the kids to venture forth into the cold, unforgiving light of a Premier League match. Much as he might want to send out the same bunch of regulars to redeem themselves, Conte can't, unless he wants to dig his own grave in a sub-plot generously offered to gullible fans by the media in exchange for their loyalty to the Italian. Instead, chances have to be given to as many of the side just defeated on penalties by Lincoln City in the Checkatrade Trophy semi-final as he can justifiably shoehorn into the starting eleven, with at least one other waiting in anticipation on the bench. Suicidal many may say, but surely some sort of statement of future intent is necessary, even if it means leaving a few previously damn near permanent members of the first team out of the picture altogether.
Without wishing the current three-day respite to turn into gardening leave longevity, my casualty list has to be headed by Tiemoue Bakayoko, though I have some sympathy for him, confronted by late replacement referee Mike Dean, who as per usual needed no second bidding to make a spectacle of himself by giving Baka two early yellow cards simply for being not very good. Gone are the days, it seems, when you had to cut a player in half 'Chopper' Harris style to warrant a yellow, although I doubt Watford players would have been treated in the same way by this official, who throughout his career has been nothing if not scrupulously unfair and totally inconsistent. Radicalism being the watchword and paying due regard to Andreas Christensen's injury, other names listed should be defenders Gary Cahill and David Luiz, making way for a quartet of Under-21 players who have shown they are worthy of fast-tracking and, while in the mood to cull anybody who didn't perform against Watford, I'm afraid to say a decidedly jaded Victor Moses sits on the bench alongside the following:- Willy Caballero, Reece James, Emerson Palmieri, Cesc Fabregas, Ross Barkley and Willian.
Next, the starting X1 that will need a captain and Thibaut Courtois and Dave are the obvious candidates, but, in keeping with the whole Children of the Revolution vibe I want Conte to bring to this table-topping squad, they should both stand down in favour of Ethan Ampadu [deputising for Andreas Christensen] and before the laughter on this site gets too loud let me point out that it will not be too long before this kid proves his leadership qualities for his country, let alone his club, so the sooner we tap into this JT-esque attribute the better. Now for the full team in 3-4-2-1 formation:-
Thibaut Courtois; Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Ethan Ampadu; Dujon Sterling, Trevoh Chalobah, N'Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso; Edin Hazard, Callum Hudson-Odoi; Olivier Giroud.
Such a high level of radicalism is wishful thinking, of course, but it would be nice to know exactly how far in this direction Antonio is prepared to take us, if at all. To give those Watford selections an opportunity to redeem themselves en bloc is in itself bordering on an admission of defeat and would only serve to strengthen the belief that he sees no real alternative to more of the same with, hopefully, a different outcome. That, to my mind, if it proved to be anything other than an emphatic victory, would be a worrying sign - no kick up the backside for the players who thought they were in the comfy seats without competition for them and, perhaps more importantly, no indication that the Conte era can be extended beyond the one season wonders label it will obviously have stuck on it should we not start the development process immediately. Stumbling on in similar fashion after scrapping and scraping a victory against West Brom would be like watching a much-loved boxing champion start to take far too much punishment far too early in their career.
Roll those punches Antonio. Risk something. Trust in the enthusiasm and personality of youth and remember how young you were when you made your Serie A debut.. Roll away the stone.