bluedave

From what I understand, Alonso and the club have been conscious to ensure they don't share/leak anything they don't need to.
If Caicedo was training, there wouldn't be any pictures. They would want him to be under the radar so Arsenal don't know if he is / isn't playing.

FWIW the original article was made up by ESPN Brazil, which is as reliable as Nicolas Jackson 12 yards out from goal. They tacked on some speculation to a short interview and called it "news".
For selfish reasons, I think he's in the perfect position. Like in 2005 where Mourinho could start Duff and Robben and bring on Joe Cole in the 60th minute, we lose no attacking momentum if one of Palmer/Rogers gets subbed off. Estevao can change a game off the bench.

Sort that midfield situation solidly and we could even see Estevao starting at his favoured no. 10 role which actually allows Rogers and Palmer to take up their favoured inside right/left spots.

Theres a lot of CBs who spend a significant amount of game time as a midfielder nowadays, I think the 2 positions are much closer than theyve ever been before.

Adam Clery did a pretty good video on Fernandez's strengths and weaknesses. The TLDR is, he's good on the ball but a liability off it, and maybe Elliot Anderson will do all the "dog work" that Fernadez can't/won't do. I personally think his weaknesses significantly outweigh his strengths for us and he just seems like a right twat, so I'm glad I won't have to endure seeing him playing every week anymore.

https://youtu.be/Qd5rwf-rPiI?si=EPAQnNfiH5uFuufd

I've said it before, but it baffles me how differently most Chelsea supporters see his "talent" compared to (what feels like) a general consensus among "football people", pundits and the media, who seem to consider him an "elite" midfielder. 125 million is ridiculous for such a flawed player; the market is completely insane and something has to give.

The vast majority of our fans up in arms about us not signing him hadnt even heard of him until yesterday.

Note the word could. Do you believe every bit of click bait internet speculation?

This is needless doomerism. It's been three games and Estevao is coming off a major overuse injury. The world does not need yet another Christian Pulisic, Ansu Fati, Jadon Sancho etc who are mentally and physically busted before the age of 24.

For the sake of the team, Alonso also has to juggle between allowing players to build momentum, getting results, and getting players match-fit and ready to peak for the mid-season.

Neither of those players are likely to be more Premier League ready than Essugo may or may not be. Which actually makes it more surprising that BlueCo didn't try, in fairness.

He had a single injury in his senior career at 20, how is that 'injury-prone'?

I've never thought of it like that, just a very simple man phrase to explain the one thing he does. He gets into the box and scores goals
Like lampard
Except lampard could also tackle, intercept, run and lead.

I think you are letting your vendetta against the ownership blind your judgement Scott, this was 100% down to the poor management at Monaco who thought they could juggle the two deals.
City didn't play anybody, they had no idea Monaco would make such a hash of it. In fact WE played City, they paid well over the odds for Enzo and even had to add a few million to get a player nobody else wanted, including us. It's not as if they poached our best player, he was a very expensive ok midfielder, Rogers will more than make up for him.
We will survive easily until January with what we've got, and with the improvements we have already got I think we will be more competitive and certainly more enjoyable to watch than the last few seasons, and come January we will get who we want.

We managed to sell a lot of sh*te, brought in some cracking players, solved a potentially poisonous situation with Fernandez and made profit. A few years of f*uck ups wasnt going to be sorted in one window. We have one game a week and im pretty confident we will be fine. Wee Barco, step on up young man. Im still feeling positive for the season ahead.

Some pathetic panty wetting going on here just because we didnt buy one player, after we essentially made every change needed to the squad.
We needed rid of certain players, other than one they all have gone and most for a good profit. We brought in the experienced defenders and keeper we desperately needed, we totally refreshed the attack into possibly the best front line in the league now. We have brought in midfielders, though we perhaps do need one more we now have an opportunity to play youth players in the cups without needing to "give 1st teamers game time".
Some of the over the top posts on here are so laughable at times.

He didn't want to play for us so good riddance.
If we don't specifically replace I'm not overly bothered, I'll take the style of play and the enjoyment of watching it without him in the team weve had so far all day long.
Even with the way we've started and the excellent transfer window we've had so far (in and outs) the negativity on here is baffling, and the stubborn refusal to give the club any credit for it is just plain petty, I'm sure some on here would prefer to see us fail so they can say they we're right about blue co.
I'm looking forward to this season for the first time in a few years.. its a great feeling !!

My preferences in order
Sell Enzo. Sign a quality replacement
Sell Enzo. Sign no one
Sell Enzo. Sign someone sh*t for too much money
Keep Enzo.
It seems like option 1 just wasn't on offer.

On the bright side, none of then are Enzo

Do people really think our lot weren't sorting transfers in until after they sold him, theres no rule to stop us negotiating for a player as we wait to sell fernandez.

Great opportunity now perhaps for our teenage midfielders Reggie Watson and Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, who both impressed enough in pre-season to be given first team squad numbers by Xabi Alonso, who certainly knows a bit about what it takes to make a decent central midfielder !

Move the thread. To the bin.

We've just won two games that we lost last year, with Caicedo not available (fully) for either. We've swapped Santos for Barco which feels like a even swap. Otherwise our midfield is the same.
We're not playing in Europe. We can survive without adding another midfielder to January. Our season will not be "f**ked" 😂

City are insane. We significantly overpaid for him after the 2022 World Cup, and they've now gone for the bait hook line and sinker. Thank god the idiot Maresca wanted him and fluked two wins to start the season to make City's bigwigs believe in him !
Great that he'll be their problem now and not ours.
Cherki and Foden must be spitting bricks LOL

Based on a tweet by that Indy kalia f**kwit who works in kfc in Slough, for f**ks sake.

When it comes to posting in the Fofana thread you need to use your other account @nonotnowscott
He could score a hatrick and make 6 goal line clearances and you still wouldn't give him any credit.

I think "England" covers it quite nicely LOL

I will repeat, I think he is extremely underrated. If a big offer comes in then I guess yes I would understand why but other than that he is no way near as bad as people make him out on here. He will put in a shift and actually makes decent returns and as we can see can play in different positions. He needs to cut out the selfish acts though. He skipped past their fullback with ease second half and could have passed it but he shot it and went out wide. Really pissed me off but other than for that for a player who we are possibly looking to move on, he played very well.

Bring them back!



I didn't mean that.