barak81

Clearly the press are just throwing mud and seeing what sticks.... Crazy thought... If Conte is staying (my personal preference) does that then why make an anouncement at all? Pre-season will start next week with Conte at the helm... simple

Na, I'm pro conte but he has to take the blame, its clear to anyone with eyes that we have played the whole season with basically one center mid. (Makes Kante look even more impressive) Fabregas is so shot its unbelievable, why have the club not got a specialist working with him on acceleration and a bit of explosiveness because the guy can not run.. like at all and bakayoko is not what we hoped he would be.. so do something, recall a player on loan, put Ampadu in there (pre injury) maybe christenson on can step out? be inventive because we literally have had no cover. The guys is clearly a great manager, i'm just not sure he cares anymore

Something I wrote elsewhere to a liverpool fan who posted this: Because of the volatility in the market, the net spend is a completely irrelevant, indicator.. for instance, a Chinese club spending in excess of 40 million on Ramires is insane for example and then 60 mill on Oscar. The only true marker is your gross outlay for players,there is no way a stoke can spend as much as a Liverpool or Chelsea, coutinho is a statistical outlier as are the Chelsea players mentioned above and you should probably take it over 3-5 years as teams are always going on about this transition thing. Based on that you are actually 4th over 5 years . You are also 4th since the inception on the premier league in 92, so were you are positioned currently is probably a fair reflection of were you should be. by the way Spurs are joint 5th with Everton who probably should have a head look at themselves. (the later not the former)

Just to double down on the point above you can see giroud played a very big part in bothe goals, he's a focal point that keeps the play going, you could call it high percentage plays but it seems to be what conte wants

Hears the thing... contes number one priority for a striker is not goal scoring... I'm not saying it's not a factor but if you look at his Juve team you had a lot of goals from midfield because he had strikers that would bring others in to the game, both skill sets that morat and giroud posses ( I don't really rate the latter) michy is a pure goal scorer , his first instinct is to turn and go... I just think this is a conflict in what conte what's

Feel like michy could end up being a salah or KDB??

This is like saying I prefer Crabs to Genital Warts!! (sorry I had to go there...)

Dixon and Townsand (Wash mouth out with soap) then Stien, and Spencer... luckily Gullit joined ... could never bring my self to shout Glenda, don't know why In all honesty when not on the playground I was a keeper, and my guilty secrete is that i Idolized Schmichael ... I tried to kid my self that Beasent, Hichckock and Karine were all top notch but deep down i knew...

In the same game, he scored a great lob as well and the reff gave 2 offside goals against us that cost us the game 3-2 if I remember correctly . Thats probably as well as he ever played in the top top games most of the time he was anonymous.

I think there are some key differences 1) Torres was establish in the PL, he didn't have the first season excuse It's morata's first year 2) It was clear Torres has lost a yard of pace Morata looks fine with the pace.. passes the eye test here. 3) He wasn't getting involved in games, he went hiding. I don't think you can accuse Morata of hiding. Ultimately it's up to him, he has had success in the league but is going though a sticky patch, if he's the player we want him to be he will mentally get through it, if not then i guess he will be of back to spain.

Have to say Coco, quite shocked at this thought processes. Mostly because although we have never met Iv'e been reading you're posts along with a few that remain for close to two decades.. you have seen it all. Including drogba who was reffered to as championship level player by many. Maybe it's me that has the blinders on, who knows. I see a player that is an excellent footballer, has all the tools and comes up with big goals who is in a bad run of form. Does he need to stay on his feet a bit more? yes, same could have been said of a number of strikers we have had over the years.

Conte doesn't seem to rate him. I get the feeling that with Conte you get a very small window to audition, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Moses and Christiansen two examples of players that absolutely grabbed there chances with both hands and haven't looked back. Moses has had bad games but seems once you have that equity built up conte is going to forgive the odd bad performance.

I'd say i'm pretty confident this is going to happen. Right now we are pretty thin at LWB. Conte clearly doesn't see kenedy as an option beyond cup games so we need somthing

Never been the biggest fan of pedro, has come up with some big goals spurs and everton spring to mind and has more of a instinct for goals then willian but never seems in complete control, often over runs the ball and never looks up. Lets say that the ball from Willian in to hazard yesterday for the 3rd goal, Pedro doesn't play (hope i'm thinking of the correct instance) Pedro probably provides more expirence defensively and that's where Charly will struggle at such a young age, but I would have Hazard and willian as are starting two behind Morata with a center mid combo of knate plus another, meaning we now have Drinkwater/Baka/Fabregas/Barkley competing for one spot... Charly would be my first choice of the bench for either Hazard or Willian unless we change the shape.

If it comes of it's a great deal I think. Provides us with a presence up front. I'm a huge morata fan, think we have our selves an great player there but we need backup and it's been clear for a while that conte does not fancy michy much

We could basically say that we are playing with 6 players then, the back 5 plus the keeper, because, Everyone in-front of them has been pretty poor since xmass.

No because Morata actually has a very good first touch :) but i take you're point. People really need to show a bit of patients with the lad, first season in English football, first season as the main and ONLY man (lets face it) goals either come through him or hazard or not at all, this is the problem. THis is the first time he will have had to deal with being in the spotlight during a period of bad form, every player has to deal with it and so will he, it's the job of conte to help him with that

That was tough watching last night. At one point we looked like we didn't want to score. The reff had a shocker, he went to VAR for a corner and a throw but not for the penalty shouts? for me Morata was a pen, the guy puts his arms on him and pulls him back, morata's reaction is irrelevant, many ex-refs have said you have to go down now to make up the ref's mind. Staying on you're feet doesn't pay! But, we shouldn't be relying on the reff, it wasn't quite barcelona level, and you can say that out of the two keepers Willy, made the better saves in 90 mins. Always been a big fan of willian but he played with such contempt last night and got punished for his lack of respect, didn't pass the ball, tried to go round everyone, slowed the game down and wasted movement of others. Baka and drinkwater in the middle offer nothing offensively, the former is so frustrating because he looks like he has all the tools but won't use them! Michy is pretty much done but i have no idea who's going to back morata up, can't see the carrol deal happening and prefer it didn't to be honest. Luiz demonstrated how good Christensen is, was caught out of position a few times and guilty of over playing, that said he was one of the only ones trying to inject some energy in to the game! I would actually play him center mid going forwards for the rest of the season

Or david luiz

I think this is not entirely correct, the players on 150k are only worth what the market will pay for them, Willian will not get more then that any were else so why would we pay him more. If a player can get a higher salary at another team its got nothing to do with out structure it's about them maximizing their worth

I don't think it's that crazy a deal. lets call it 45 million transfer fee (including the agent) plus 18 million for 3 years.. that's the thick end of 90 mill for an elite level player who needs no adjustment to the premier league and we have a ready made position for. Now lets examine the alternative, to a similar quality player. I'm not as up on European football as I once was, so I'd have to guess. lets take Dybala at Juve, in today market the transfer fee alone will be 100 million. Then he's be looking at wages in an around the 150 mark maybe as high as 200k. but lets go low for now - that is 7.8 mill a year and 23 hand half mill over 3 years a cool 123 mill (not considering agent fees). You could argue that Dybala's shelf life is longer, and you would be right but also no guarantees he makes it in this league. The resale value is of little interest to me because you never want to see you're best players sold in their prime, we would hate to ever see profit for Hazard for example I'm sure. Another factor to consider is that we are in a 3 way arm wrestle for the CL spots with Liverpool and Spuds, and on recent form it's safe to say we have lost a little bit of leverage, if Alexis is the difference maker here thats worth about 40 million on it's own. The deal add's up fiance wise. The only small issue you might have is giving Hazard Parity.

Zero belief this happens

New fan here, don't read English so good, wanted to ask, are we in relegation or bottom half of the table? Is it 2015/16?? I looked at the table and it read to be that we are well positioned, not in great form but not cut loose from the pack .. it's read to me that there is all to play for

Mod, it's not true, I don't need videos to remind me how often costa and drogba missed infuriating chances, videos are just not made that often. I watched the games and remember that neither were what you would call deadly infront of goal. Comparing moratas goal return at this stage is it not as good and maybe better ?

Absolutely can't believe some of the drvial on here... Neither drogba or Costa were perfect in a "one on one" situation. Drobga only managed 16 goals in his first season with us, same again in his second, and I remember him getting absolute pellets, despite us winning the league both years. Costa does not score the goal Morata did against untied, and probably doesn't get the one against Madrid either. Both great players but neither of them perfect. Morata is a great player, he takes that finishing up a level and he's world class, it's that simple, but even now he has been massive for us this season and won us a lot of big points. how is this for some predatory finishing