Barrettinator

You make a decent point although Cesc is 5'11 so not exactly a short player but he isn't some beast in the air either.

Makes me think we should find an English backup GK that can make that up. Pity Hart wouldn't fancy our bench.

I think the Spurs of today inspire a lot more fear in opponents than Arsenal do as well. When Arsenal are in tune, they can make a mockery of almost any team outside the top 6. But all you have to do as an opponent in that bracket is wait for their December to February/March collapse and pick them off.

Zouma had a ligament/ACL injury though and was out for about a year. Van Dijk had a foot/ankle injury and was only out for 5 months or so. Already running on treadmills right now. Not the same at all.

Arsenal do in fact have way too many of those matches where they should win but end up bottling it though so he's not wrong, is he? Don't think it's a matter of being used to Barca. He wasn't a Barca kid, only spent about 2 years there (unlike Pedro who's a La Masia kid and 3 time CL winner and would have had a right to cry about our state last season). He played for Udinese for a while and whatever other Chilean clubs. So he has had his fair share of losses in his career. This isn't on Sanchez. Everyone knows Arsenal are perennial bottlers.

"Best team in the history of the Premier League because they didn't spend as much as previous champions and it wasn't pure luck like Leicester" "THIS is the greatest achievement in Premier League history" "They can go on to win the Champions League now for sure. They're up there with Real Madrid and Barcelona" I'd f**king shoot my ears out.

Verratti is almost never played alongside a short(er) midfielder. Imagine being Tony Pulis (or even Jose with Fellaini & Pogba). All I'd have to do is lump the ball up to midfield above our front 3 press and win it there then play it in the space between our wingbacks and CBs. Easy chance created.

Bench Kante? Blasphemy.

Tbo's gone from an ungrateful loud mouth to a loyal absolute lad recently. Seems to be fully committed to Chelsea long term now. I particularly like how he publicly slapped those Madrid rumours down back in January. Any idea what Rom texted him? Rom: "Tbooo!!! How's the weather in London? You must be enjoying your new league title." Tbo: "Yeah Rom it's fantastic. Great weather, great city, great season, great title, chance to f**k Arsenal in the arse soon. What more can you ask for?" Rom: "So hang on a minute, when do you lot get your medals?" Tbo: "That should be on Sunday mate" Rom: "Can I come watch?" Tbo: "You can either watch from afar or come get your own medal next season mate. Choice is yours. This is going to be my 3rd already. I love my life!" Rom: "f**k me." Tbo: "Think I overheard someone at the club saying they might go for that Spanish w**ker from Madrid in the summer." Rom: "What? No, f**k him! He hardly even kicks a ball, the wet haired tosser! I've got to do another interview then. Got to find me another journo to rant to. I really miss London." Tbo: "That's the spirit, my man. Life is beautiful. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a new contract to sign. Cheers!"

I have an opinion on him based on a 5 minute video, a 9 minute video and an official 3:44 min video from the Bundesliga YouTube account actually. Not quite the same as a random 3/4 minute video mate. I get the point you're trying to make but there are much better CMs out there on the market.

Bit of interesting news. I love Verratti a lot. I really do. Fantastic player. I just don't see how playing him and Kante together in midfield won't have downsides. They're both shorter than Messi ffs. Verratti's even shorter than Kante. We lose a defender for set pieces and we lose almost all aerial duels in the middle of the pitch if this happens.

Apparently, Conte has fancied him in the past.

I wasn't watching at the time so it's irrelevant now, isn't it? Not even sure why we're having all this debate about f**king Keita. He doesn't improve us. It's that simple. No chance he becomes a Chelsea player over the summer. I'll bite my tongue and swallow it if he does. I think Tolisso is Juventus bound actually. They're about to have another really good window. They're also after Douglas Costa who I think would fit well at Juventus.

Credit to the lad for grabbing his opportunity with both hands then. Bit similar to how Rashford got his break.

It's not quite the same with watching a movie now, is it? And even as far fetched as that example is, if I watch a movie trailer and I'm unimpressed by the trailer, I'm almost definitely not going to waste my time watching the movie. Think that has been answered for you.

I don't know how many times I have to repeat it but here's another: If you @dkw still don't get it then I'm afraid there's no other way I can explain it. He's not an upgrade on ANYTHING we currently have. Would you go out in the market and buy exactly another Alonso (or even a slightly worse Alonso) or buy someone that's better than him? How hard is it to understand this, really? Christ. Oh and the only person that ever thought Moses wasn't Chelsea quality was Jose. Every single Chelsea fan saw him working his arse off in pre-season and he did play decently for us in 12-13. Not sure who ever said Costa wasn't Chelsea quality. Have you made that up? The player who scored 37 goals for Atletico prior to joining us while we were battling with Torres and Demba Ba was said by someone to not be Chelsea quality? Arrant nonsense you've just pulled out of nowhere. I'll give you Alonso, because even I had my doubts about him. Thankfully, this Keita lad is only in your dreams. He ain't coming here and that's that. Move on.

In your head maybe. Listen, Naby Keita is not Chelsea quality. You can stop crying all over the forum now.

As I've pointed out already, YouTube can make an average or even a sh*t player look like a world beater. But it almost always makes a good/great player look great. Think of any great player and watch highlights/compilations of that player on YouTube. Almost no chance they come out looking average.

6 matches for example, is 8 hours and 45 mins. That's hours and hours of match footage. It's not quite the same as 20-30 hours of footage - 26 hours of footage is about 20 matches which is pretty much a third or a quarter of an entire season's games depending on how many matches that particular club plays. You didn't really put much thought into that, did you? As for Fiorentina, pretty much every half decent defender goes for above £20m these days so I'm not sure why you think this is unique. And you keep going on about this "limited footage" shtick. Please provide footage of the matches you'd like me to watch. The "few matches". I'd be happy to watch in my spare time. I'm that interested.

Thank f**k. Can't wait till Jose has him on the bench behind Lingard because he supposedly doesn't have the same "attitude".

Lad was born in 2000. f**k me, I feel old.

Absolutely not.

Anyone with a half working brain would know that "an" instead of "and" in that line was a mere typo. But I guess if you're hell bent on being a w**ker, you'd deliberately ignore the part of your brain that indicates that to you. So I say "go get me some bags of ice" and you go order 5 trucks full of ice because "I didn't specify, so one could assume" ehy? Do you realize how silly you sound? Listen, it's not that hard to understand, 1 game is already an hour and half. More than one game is already multiple hours of football. "A few games" - say 4 or 5 to gauge your player - is already "hours and hours". There. Pretty easy to understand, isn't it? But I guess if you want to be a w**ker then what I meant was 20-30 hours, so suit yourself on that. It's not news that inferior players can look good on YouTube. But one thing that's almost certain is that quality players almost always look good on YouTube. It's hard to find a quality player or at least one with a lot of potential who wouldn't look good in a compilation of highlights and I'm sorry to say, Naby Keita looks bang average from the footage that's available online, even the one presented on the Bundesliga's official YouTube page. I'm not going to watch a bunch of boring Bundesliga games just to painstakingly form an opinion about some unknown player. By contrast, I've seen Tielemans play for Anderlecht 3 times this season and he has looked a real talent every time. Even from the very first game I saw of him, he looked quality. Before then, I already thought highly of him based on....get this....YouTube highlights. Same goes for Bakayoko and Tolisso. I can go on and on. Sorry I'm not a seasoned football scout like you with years of experience working for football clubs mate. I'm sure you know a lot more than me based on your vast experience there. As a football fan, I'll pass on Keita. If I was a West Ham fan with mid table or at best Europa League aspirations, I'd absolutely jump at the chance to sign him. I'm a Chelsea fan and these days, my dreams and that of most Chelsea fans (and I assume yourself included) are of winning the CL and the league title. For those aspirations, this guy falls short. Why? He doesn't bring anything to the table that we don't already have. Oh here's a little homework for you, if you'll indulge: mention the attributes he has that are supposedly unseen on YouTube that he'd add to our team which we don't already have in Matic, Kante, Fabregas or Chalobah. That should be interesting. As for Alonso, it's funny that you say he was one of the most highly regarded LBs when Fiorentina fans were happy to get rid of him. But apparently, you're a seasoned football scout so maybe you know better than them as well. Alonso is a serviceable LB/LWB. Nothing more. Nothing spectacular. There's a reason you'll find most Chelsea fans thinking we need a better option starting there for the CL next season. He performed better than what I expected but he's still nothing spectacular. He just happens to be our best (maybe even only) option there. Remember how we had to recall Ake because we had zero cover at LWB? Ah well, what do I know? Just a wee little clueless YouTube football fan.

I'm pretty sure if Conte can turn a 29 year old Luiz who was pretty much set in his ways already into a disciplined CB and arguably the best in the league in just one season, he can do a lot of good work with Christensen. Wouldn't be his first time working with young CBs either (see Bonucci). Not sure I rate this Mere kid above Christensen from what I've seen. It would also be demoralizing to our youth players and those out on loan. Shows we don't believe in them at all. There's just too many implications to such a signing, which is one of the reasons I'm happy we never got Stones (who has proven to be overrated anyway). If I'm not mistaken, Christensen would also count as homegrown, so there you go. There's just too much down side for 20 year old CB from La Liga who also would be a huge risk to buy, especially coming to a new country. I hope Emenalo and co aren't looking at such options.

Hopefully Arsenal miss out on top 4. Would make our case for going after Sanchez much stronger.