Vagabond

Indeed, the idea was to do it like in FIFA career mode at difficulty level "professional", since that's what they are. Just individually train the players you want to raise certain stats for and they'll automatically get better = profit.

You should trust the process of turning us into a mediocre side, mate.

So are we far enough yet to admit that Enzo isn't the player we can build a team around or is some more pain necessary to recognize the emperors new clothes? We shouldve never gotten rid of our whole midfield to replace it with what we have, especially at the insane money we paid. At least shouldve kept one experienced player out of Kanté, Jorgi or Kova and made Enzo take directions, not the other way around.

Fixed that for you.

All relevant metrics? What metrics exactly and why are pre-assists/assist and goals not a relevant stat for his position? When he came here people told me they were so happy to finally have a class midfielder other than Kante, Kova and Jorgi because he can actually contribute goals and assists from midfield like he did in Portugal. I believe it was you that told me I was talking nonsense when I was sceptical. Still nonsense? No need for a strawman, mate. I never said that there wouldn't be interest, I said that there wouldn't be any interest if we were asking as much as we paid for him. That's a big difference. Actually, come to think of it, I should say no club in Europe would be interested, he could certainly go to Saudi Arabia.

If we put him up for the price we signed him for? Sometimes I'm not sure if people are serious or not, but that has to be a joke, right? I don't know what makes him so excellent. I have to admit, I was against the transfer from the very start, because we massively overpaid for him imho. But from day one I've heard he's world class and super high level, people were mentioning the likes of Modric and Fabregas, so I said "Ok, let's not judge and wait". And I thought if he was all that he'd have the ability to decide games by himself once in a while, so being from wouldn't have been that bad. But I haven't seen it as of yet. So if I am overlooking something and you have seen it, please tell me when. Now I'm sure some people will pull out some stellar stats and whatnot, but stats can be really decieving. I'm watching what I see on the pitch and aside from a nice pass here and there I don't see that supposed brilliance. If we wanted a spark here and there we could've kept RLC or even the much hated Jorginho (yes, I've said it!), doubt we'd be worse off in terms of our table position. Again, all that being said; I don't think he's our problem. He's still a young guy that has a lot to learn. I don't think the midfield is our problem in general. I'm just annoyed we are still playing the emperors new clothes with him in the main role while we can't even beat Bournemouth.

Watched two Madrid games this season and he's more of a false 9 I'd say. Wait, you're serious? You'd laugh at Madrid if they offered us Bellingham for Enzo? Wow. I know you love Enzo and will stay stubborn for a while, but I believe one of these days you'll come around and realize that he isn't all that. We got rinsed and Madrid would maybe offer us half of what we paid. If we're lucky. Ok, maybe not half. Let's say 70M, but Euros of course.

Nonsense. If we offered a straight swap Enzo for Bellingham they would laugh at us. Bellingham actually scores goals which is what we desperately need. That being said, it's the same discussion every year since Sarriball I think. People talk about the midfield while it's our attackers letting us down time and time again. Our problem is NOT our midfield.

The fact is that there can be many reasons why the market price for players is inflated. Players from the top5 leagues -and English players most of all because the PL is the biggest league in the world- cost more on the transfer market than Lithuanians because of marketing reasons, same goes for tournament winners or certain South American "flair" players (Rodrygo compared to Richarlison). If a club decides to buy such a player he will be scrutinized more than others simply because of his higher value, this is nothing new. Is that fair to the player? Not exactly. It's also not fair that a player that's just as good as him but from the "wrong" country will earn less and won't even get the opportunities to (consistently 😂) fail at like Maguire has at Manure. Personally, I prefer paying less for a player that performs similarly and is not as marketable, so I'd skip Rice even though I think highly of him. Same as I would've skipped Enzo since this winter was probably when his price was inflated the most ever and will only go down now that we've bought him. I still believe he isn't special enough to build a team around him, but that's what he apparently actually needs. People here are seriously contemplating spending another 100M to accommodate a player that already cost 100M. It's mad. I can't prove it yet, but I'm convinced the next few seasons and results will prove me right, sadly. Mind you, this is not Enzo's fault -same as it isn't Maguire's-, but the American ownership that was stupid enough to pay that much.

Or maybe Jorgi wasn't as bad as people made him out to be when they used him as scapegoat. Same as Kova was better than both Enzo and Kante yesterday but since he seems to be the scapegoat now he'll magically improve as soon as he doesnt wear a blue shirt...

It's not about how good Benfica and Sporting are but about how good the rest of their league is in comparison. In the PL any team can beat you with a bit of luck. I doubt the same is the case with Santa Clara in Portugal (had to look it up lol). Come on, this should be self evident, we shouldn't be discussing it. Fair enough. I'll concede that Jorgi is not better defensively than Enzo, they're close with Enzo winning the comparison. Which is worrying. If we keep playing him as DM for whatever reason he is simply not worth it, even with how the market is today. I'd like to see him as CM for a few games, maybe then I can be convinced that he's the new Modric. Until then he's not a good transfer in my opinion and doesn't improve our squad in the right positions. Certainly not as bad as Kepa or Lukaku, but also not a Hazard by any stretch of the imagination. Also, I don't want to think about that c**t Graelish, please mention other players when you want to give an example for clubs paying too much from now on. Tbh we're in a difficult position. Boehly wants to get rid of players to evade a transfer ban, but since we won't qualify for Europe top players won't exactly be lining up to come here. How will our midfield look without Mount and Kova, who probably won't sign new contracts with the conditions Boehly is offering? Relying on Gallagher and RLC to carry us together with Enzo won't work when Kante inevitably misses for half a season again. Do we need to pay another 100M for Rice to come? And that's just our midfield...😵. I'm telling you, this last transfer window will come back to bite us.

Not necessarily and you should know that. Intercepting a pass or tackling a player will be much MUCH easier in Portugal (not even a top5 league) than the PL, the huge disparity in quality being the obvious reason. I am really interested in seeing Enzos defensive stats at Chelsea though and would have no problem retracting my statement if you could provide those numbers. But nevermind that. Let's just assume you're right and we can extrapolate his Benfica stats to the PL 1 to 1 (or even more, because it's harder to reach those numbers in the Portuguese league 😅). Is that increase plus the increase in his offensive output (2 assists over all his games here) worth 120million? Are we going to count his offensive output from his time in Portugal as well or are you going to claim those are inflated because Benfica are controlling games? Can't have it both ways.

Nice that you're using Enzos numbers from Benfica, the leader in Primeira Liga. Since we've arrived at irrelevant stats, could you look up the stats for Jorgi at Napoli or Mudryk at Shakthar?

Imagine talking about irony while thinking we're "lucky" for paying a 120M transfer fee for a player we're using as DM that is defensively worse than Jorginho.