venom2011

It's weak area in light of injuries, sure. But the defense and attack were far more pressing concerns. I'm not sure who would look at a midfield of Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho, RLC, Gallagher and think it's a glaring weakness. At any point you would think he'd have at least 3 to pick from. Against Southampton only 1 could play the 90...

There are probably quite a few longer term targets that were simply not available this window. The likes of Gvardiol, Nkunku, Bellingham etc. I mean, if they would have been available, we could have easily seen Raphinha, Lewandowski, and De Jong added which would have been truly insane.

Carvalho has been making 20 min cameos. And they have injuries in midfield. Milner also can't play every game. If he had experienced options on the bench they'd play.

It's almost as if most top managers want to rely on experience during hard spells, instead of chucking in kids and hoping it goes well. Shocking. Lampard did the opposite, guess where that got him?

There are arguments to be made for all of them being sacked - Lampard and Jose specifically had a terrible run of results and performances. But those same arguments could have been made at a time for Klopp during his first two seasons, Arteta recently, hell even Ferguson before he actually achieved success with Utd. But again we see the same pattern of a tenure being largely good, even titles being won, with a rough couple of months near the end. Lampard had the remit of growing (his managerial career) with the team. He made mistakes, sure, and the football was at times atrocious, but it was around 2 bad months out of 18. Frank should have been here for 3 years at minimum, unless there was a serious threat of relegation at some point. Another similarity most of them share is that they had disagreements with board over transfer policy near the end. The board weren't willing to ship out players in favour of the manager, or provide them with the necessary resources timeously. In contrast look at the how Pep, Klopp and most recently Arteta are backed over their players (outgoings). Tuchel would have been sacked during preseason for wanting Sterling, wanting Koulibaly ahead of Kounde, and trying to move Lukaku, Werner etc out the door. They were never going to ship out Alonso, Jorginho, Kepa, Rudiger, Azpilicueta to appease Lampard. And how valuable are these players to the club now? Going back just over 10 years and you get the most egregious one - Carlo. Saw the club through a difficult second season with key injuries. Had some aging players and a team needing a refresh. Disagreements with board of transfer policy. Ciao.

It would be a shorter list if we asked who wasn't sacked too soon. Under Abramovich, the only sackings I wholeheartedly agreed with in terms of timing were probably AVB, Scholari, and the waiter (I'm excluding interims of course). I felt Sarri left too soon but that was probably as mutually consented as it gets.

I mean.... at least you won't be alone. 😄 But in all seriousness, we know what the definition of insanity is... Even the poll in the original post has a caveat - (at least until the world cup)...ridiculous. If we are going to back the manager, we should do it properly - which seems to be happening. The list of Chelsea managers sacked too soon is almost as long as my...leg.

2 wing backs for a while? How about both wing backs. Kante for 60% of the season. Kovacic for 30%. James. Mount. Havertz. Lukaku. Ziyech. Christensen, plus a bunch of others suffered multiple injuries. This is pulled from a post of mine on another forum: Games missed: James - 17 Chilwell - most of the season Christensen - 9 Kante - 12 Kovacic - 11 Pulisic - 14 Lukaku - 9 Werner - 10 and more And these are just the games missed, not counting the times we were forced to rush them back to warm the bench because we were short of options. We had more significant injuries and club turmoil than Liverpool had with a stronger squad and settled team the previous year. And we finished in a higher league position with more points. No one called for Klopp's head. Now we are are few games in with a rushed window and squad upheaval, and some are spouting dross about time running out. I have faith (and hope) that the new board are not as moronic as the old and some of our fanbase.

Let's be honest, options A and B were just illusions for most of the game.

There's a very specific role and formation required for him to be good. Being one of a midfield 2 is not that. Also being surrounded by RLC and Mount is not that. But let's put that into context - our 3 first choice options to pair with him are out. That being said, no Chelsea midfielder should be completely out of the game when having an opposition player run at them.

12 months you say? Not like we were pumping teams with great performances and top of the league in December last year? Which preceded an unprecedented collection of injuries to starting players, sanctions, and contractual issues. Fast-forward to a chaotic window, with no DOF, having additional responsibilities and having to navigate a bunch of incomings and attempted outgoings. "It's been like this for 12 months" - perspective, 2022.

40m is generous considering we're being asked to pay 60m for players who achieved less.

As I said in another thread, scoring a single goal against top half opposition last season was not a great achievement for him - especially playing as a forward. The oft-used rebuttal is that he plays like more of a midfielder in that position. But the evidence suggests he doesn't get on the ball near enough for that to be true. Iniesta played quite a few games as left forward under Guardiola and barely scored. But what he did at the highest level was press, drop deep, demanded the ball, created key chances, occupied defenders, and all the other little things that made him an absolute great. Mase has some way to go to reach a high level consistently (same for Kai), and I really hope he does. Though, even if he doesn't, he'll still be a decent contributor to our success and that's okay too. But we do need more. We can't compete in that area with Diaz+Salah, Kane+Son, Haaland+Silva.

Cucurella is a starter and Brighton's player of the season - whether that's at LCB or LB. Even if you think Fofana and K2 are equal replacements for Rudiger and Christensen, the defense sees an overall improvement. Rudiger had a good two seasons and was a cult figure. K2 is one of the best defenders in the modern era and is a class above. What Sterling has looked like in a short space of time is irrelevant. The only other left winger that has matched his ability and performance levels is Son. For onfield leadership we have Silva, Jorginho, and Azpi. K2 is also great in this area but he needs time to settle. And then we have a team filled with model professionals like Mount, Kante, Sterling, Kova etc so we're fine in this area. We don't have a ton of players who would just roll over like the Man Utd bunch. We've spent 150m on a team that was top of the league last December and had their season derailed by injuries and ownership issues. Not having proper backup for James and Chilwell was a huge, huge issue - which has now mostly been addressed.

Strange one. Our defence has improved - K2 + Cucurella (+ Fofana) > Rudiger + Christensen. Our midfield has improved with the addition of Gallagher - Gallagher > Saul. So far, Werner for Sterling is a massive improvement. Ziyech can leave as well, with no replacement and it would still be a big improvement as we have one of the top two left wingers in the league. And I don't know how anyone can say Aubameyang is a sideways step when he's way more suited to our system, and is as prolific as Lukaku.

Not enough. He's got too many deficiencies really to play as a centre forward right now. Not too many good goalscorers around really, and then we still have to weed-out the ones who can't play with their back to goal or put a real shift.

I bet he wishes he had a KDB to slip him in a few times.

I actually think we'll end up with all of the current targets. I believe what's happening now is the club trying to gain negotiating leverage by stalling. It doesn't help us in the slightest to conclude high value targets quickly. Barcelona are pressured to register Kounde and sign Alonso. Leicester have an unhappy player on their books - they'll be weaker for their visit to the bridge. Gordon is Everton's best attacker at the moment and could go the same way as Fofana which they know would be damaging. We have already reached fair value for these targets so best to test their patience.

I can see the Broja one being favourable though - especially since we're about to sign Aubameyang. We would then have Kai as a rotation option which is where he should be. And it could do Broja wonders to be coached/mentored by Lamps. I guess it all depends on whether he's open to another loan.

I rate him better than De Ligt so not as mad as it looks on paper. Let's not forget that Van Dijk looked great but not 75m great. Many questioned that fee as well. Unfortunately we don't have the squad base to make astute, frugal signings. We need to get our first XV to a level immediately if we want to compete. Then once we have that base, we can do what City and Liverpool are doing - and confidently walk away if a valuation is ridiculous.

Rocky conditions according to who? We have key injuries, players to bed-in and a team capable of beating anyone. We have better squad depth than just about every team aside from City. Whether the style remains is moot, it is the way we play and most importantly - the way we play successfully.

No where did I compare Gordon to Mount. Read what I said, consider the social media narrative behind Mount's performances, and move along.

I won't give you an answer in the context of the fee because that's somewhat irrelevant - as the correlation between fee and ability/output isn't great. But along with what Axman has said above, I'll offer you this: I tried to include players for comparison who fit roughly the same profile or position. If you look at his defensive contribution it's not just good as some here have insinuated, it's exceptional. He presses a ton, is very difficult to get past, and puts his foot in regularly. This is important for us because our chance creation comes from our intensity and pressure. We don't have incredible passers or visionaries to unlock defences - no Trent, Kane, Thiago, KDB, Bernardo Silva, Eriksen in our team. He actually matches up better with Kante and Gallagher which is saying something. On top of that he's strong on the ball, dribbles very well with good control, he's quick, and his intensity is great here too. Obviously his output and on the ball stats are hamstrung by playing for Everton. The club want him because this combination is rare in a player and it's a profile that suits our team perfectly for the aforementioned reasons. Provided we're not intent on relying on him for goals, I think it could be a sleeper hit. Though he's certainly not going to solve the rather pressing issue of goal contributions.

Most welcome. It's always worthwhile to offer a balanced take and look at what the player actually offers in the context of their current team. Otherwise you'll just end up with a thread full of haters with bad takes - like with the Gabriel Jesus thread. Fofana-James combo could be great, his pace will allow James a bit more freedom down the right.