It's almost unbelievable, as if there was no such offer and was merely paper talk.

There was a lot of gossip and it does seem too good to be true. I recall noise about Barca and Utd for £50m.

Was the money really offered and by whom?

19 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

There was a lot of gossip and it does seem too good to be true. I recall noise about Barca and Utd for £50m.

Was the money really offered and by whom?

Willian confirmed an offer by Barca....utd I dint know, but we could and should have taken the offer, even at lower estimated Money on the table. Just a bad bad decision. He shows up once in a while and just vanishes without a trace......he is 30 and we still said no thanks........you Watch our board give him a new improved contract come soon.

2 minutes ago, atomis said:

Willian confirmed an offer by Barca....utd I dint know, but we could and should have taken the offer, even at lower estimated Money on the table. Just a bad bad decision. He shows up once in a while and just vanishes without a trace......he is 30 and we still said no thanks........you Watch our board give him a new improved contract come soon.

Interesting that the club didn't say they turned an offer down.

I know at the time this was in that period post Conte and Pre-Sarri and us fans were fearing an exodus of players as the board appeared to fiddle while Rome burnt, to quote an expression.

Perhaps there was an offer yet the board turned it down yet kept it quiet so as not to encourage an exodus.

 

9 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Interesting that the club didn't say they turned an offer down.

I know at the time this was in that period post Conte and Pre-Sarri and us fans were fearing an exodus of players as the board appeared to fiddle while Rome burnt, to quote an expression.

Perhaps there was an offer yet the board turned it down yet kept it quiet so as not to encourage an exodus.

 

There was an offer.....all over Spain and then Willy himself confirmed it but choose to stay, his words not mine. It does not matter if the Club didnt want to encourage a mass exit ( are we really that afraid of losing an older Luiz and a supremely inconsistent Willian) ......they made a baffling decision and we are worse for it. Its a business and we truned Down a very good offer and days later Barca got Malcolm instead, not by chance barca immediately got their next target. We f**ked up, simple as that for me. We aint helping ourselves imo. We try our hardest to get by instead of showing balls.

Edited October 21, 20187 yr by atomis

1 minute ago, atomis said:

There was an offer.....all over Spain and then Willy himself confirmed it but choose to stay, his words not mine. It does not matter if the Club didnt want to encourage a mass exit......they made a baffling decision and we are worse for it. Its a business and we truned Down a very good offer and days later Barca got Malcolm instead, not by chance barca immediately got their next target. We f**ked up, simple as that for me. We aint helping ourselves imo. We try our hardest to get by instead of showing balls.

With hindsight that appears to be the case, yet the timing was important during that time where we were waiting on a new manager, IMO.

What does seem a surprise was how much we paid for a new keeper.

Double post sorry.

Edited October 21, 20187 yr by atomis

8 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

With hindsight that appears to be the case, yet the timing was important during that time where we were waiting on a new manager, IMO.

What does seem a surprise was how much we paid for a new keeper.

Well if we had f**ked the keeper issue up, it would make us look very silly and with zero ambitions.....the Club had to do it. I get what you say regarding timing of it all.........but whose fault was it we acted super slow and late? Its all on us and has been for some years.

36 minutes ago, atomis said:

Well if we had f**ked the keeper issue up, it would make us look very silly and with zero ambitions.....the Club had to do it. I get what you say regarding timing of it all.........but whose fault was it we acted super slow and late? Its all on us and has been for some years.

Just think they caught out with Conte and had settled on Sarri yet then had a tug of war with Napoli at the same time as a lot  of our players were aging with no obvious reasonably priced replacements and in that scenario were reluctant to let go of players we might not be able to replace adequately.

Part of this is due to aiming to comply with those rules about the fair play awards even though it is obvious the rules do not apply to the new rich kids on the block like City.

10 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Just think they caught out with Conte and had settled on Sarri yet then had a tug of war with Napoli at the same time as a lot  of our players were aging with no obvious reasonably priced replacements and in that scenario were reluctant to let go of players we might not be able to replace adequately.

Part of this is due to aiming to comply with those rules about the fair play awards even though it is obvious the rules do not apply to the new rich kids on the block like City.

Please nobody gives a flying f**k about ffp....its a gimick and nothing more. No one is playing fair so why should we........but I dont know my man, we just seem out of balance looking from the outside.

For sure our squad is not quite balanced yet coming from the times supporting in the 80's and 90's it makes a pleasant change to be challenging. Sure we could be better yet at a time when RA is 'exiled' to Israel not sure what to think.

Back on Willian got a feeling Thorgan Hazard would be a step in the right direction.

28 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

For sure our squad is not quite balanced yet coming from the times supporting in the 80's and 90's it makes a pleasant change to be challenging. Sure we could be better yet at a time when RA is 'exiled' to Israel not sure what to think.

Back on Willian got a feeling Thorgan Hazard would be a step in the right direction.

Most def......I was in war in 80s following the Club when I could, my grandfather was the sole reason im Chels now, and its of course night and day compared to then. Yup much rather Thorgan.

That free-kick yesterday was awful, in those positions you have to hit the target

1 hour ago, Ernie_blue said:

That free-kick yesterday was awful, in those positions you have to hit the target

Disagree there, most free kicks do not hit the target and hitting the target isn't necessarily a good thing. Any player is quite capable of hitting the target but with minimal power and curve on the ball. 

But other than that I agree it was a piss poor free kick Alonso and Luiz are much better free kick takers, a lot of Willians free kicks that he has scored here have been keeper mistakes.  

Frustrating.

12 hours ago, Slojo said:

Disagree there, most free kicks do not hit the target and hitting the target isn't necessarily a good thing. Any player is quite capable of hitting the target but with minimal power and curve on the ball. 

But other than that I agree it was a piss poor free kick Alonso and Luiz are much better free kick takers, a lot of Willians free kicks that he has scored here have been keeper mistakes.  

A top player hits the target in those positions, Willian still lives on the freekick/cross season when a few went in. I believe Alonso would hit the target from that close but it is hard to score due to the lack of power. A Luiz piledriver is the best in those situations.

A thought on Willian.

Down the left we have Alonso, Kovacic and Hazard.

Down the right we have Azpi, Kante and Wilian.

Azpi is not in his bet form just now, Kante is not used to being a creative MF so Willian is not getting the best supply. Also I remember him cutting in with 1:2's off another player giving him better opportunities. That man now would likely be Kante though it will take some time for the chemistry to click, IMO.

Been very quiet last few games so you can probably expect a purple patch soon where he'll be brilliant for the next few games, usually what happens with him.

43 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Willian is not getting the best supply. 

If he is ever been a goal scorer for Chelsea I might give him the benefit of the doubt. But his best season at Chelsea is 8. Alonso has one less goal than him over the last 2+ seasons. 

And that season came mostly as a substitute under a manager he publicly mocked.

It’s not like he’s a 23 year old showing promise. He’s a 30 year old role player who is a depreciating asset on and off the field. 

Maybe... Maybe... someone will be stupid enough to offer silly money for him again. At this point though, I’d consider anything over €10M to be silly money. 

So it hasn’t just been Chelsea

 

Stand by what I said. Vastly overrated player, only ever useful a couple of times a season if that. Used to make up for his inferior play with good work ethic but not any more.

If we turned down even half what Barca were said to offer we are idiots.

23 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

A top player hits the target in those positions, Willian still lives on the freekick/cross season when a few went in. I believe Alonso would hit the target from that close but it is hard to score due to the lack of power. A Luiz piledriver is the best in those situations.

I just don't agree with your statement about free kicks, not Willian taking them. 

More often than not free kicks do not hit the target, it's pretty damn common and hitting the target doesn't guarantee a goal. A keeper can deal with a placed shot in the corner any day of the week if it has minimal power and no curve, there's a good reason why so many free kicks are way off target. 

12 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Stand by what I said. Vastly overrated player, only ever useful a couple of times a season if that. Used to make up for his inferior play with good work ethic but not any more.

If we turned down even half what Barca were said to offer we are idiots.

We are idiots, sorry but we are. Other than us only Jose would have said no to Willy being sold. Anything close to 30 and we should have acted, nevermind the reported 50-60M Pound figures.

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

I just don't agree with your statement about free kicks, not Willian taking them. 

More often than not free kicks do not hit the target, it's pretty damn common and hitting the target doesn't guarantee a goal. A keeper can deal with a placed shot in the corner any day of the week if it has minimal power and no curve, there's a good reason why so many free kicks are way off target. 

It was a great free kick then. Willian done so well to get that close 

 

Edited October 23, 20187 yr by Ernie_blue

2 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

It was a great free kick then. Willian done so well to get that close 

 

He nearly took my head off if that’s any consolation?