I couldn't remember if he played two consecutive seasons for us.

So looking back Crespo was maybe the only player Jose sent on loan and then recalled him to play at Chelsea?

He was initially sent out on loan, albeit because he was apparently struggling to settle into life in England and wanted to return to Italy, came back the following season as 2nd striker with Drogba but was still homesick from Italy and then returned there again.

Was gutting he never fully settled here because he was undoubtedly a brilliantly striker.

Does make you wonder what could have happened if he had settled and Mutu didn't decide to Class A drugs were good idea.

Would Drogba have ended up at Chelsea?

I think drogba would have came anyway, Mourinho had his eye on him for a while.

Probably wouldn't have signed kezman though, and maybe we wouldn't have signed Shevchenko.

I loved Crespo, wish we had gotten to see more of him, I was a massive serie a fan as a kid, and used to love him in that parma team with veron, thuram, buffon, sensini, bennarivo, and chiesa!

He is starting to play like he did against us for Basel. 

 

It shows that he possibly had the talent to do well here but maybe not the mentality to cope with heavy competition on his position. At Fiorentina, he has to compete with the likes of Ilicic and a past-prime Joaquin. At Chelsea, he had to compete with Schurrle and Willian. There is a fair difference. 

Just scored again. The lads on fire.

Good.

Price goes up if we choose not to keep him.

Either way this loan is going to benefit us

Maybe we can swap him back for Cuadrado, who doesn't look very good so far. 

http://youtu.be/BXM68qSLEh0

Highlights vs. Inter

 

http://www.filgoal.com/arabic/VideoView.aspx?AudioVideoID=14324

Don't know if the price goes up because of his good performances of late, didn't Fiorentina have an option to buy him for a certain amount of money? 

Don't know if the price goes up because of his good performances of late, didn't Fiorentina have an option to buy him for a certain amount of money? 

 

We may not choose to sell him at this rate.

Who got the better deal so far? Fiorentina were moaning about losing their best player and now it seems salah is their most important player. Does show what happens when a player is given good amounts of playing time though

he already has 4 goals right? so he is two short of Cuadrados total this season?

 

regardless, in my view, there was never any doubt that Salah  was a very decent player, but he was never going to be a good impact sub,  he clearly is someone that wants to know his place in a team is safe and I guess Jose doens't have room for that many of them in his teams. When I think about untouchables in the current team.

 

Terry

Ivan

Matic

Fabregas

Hazard

Costa

 

 

Which is a pretty decent amount of players to be nailed on. The rest including Dave who is the next closest thing are playing for their place game in game out. Some players respond well to this knd of pressure and others dont

Don't know if the price goes up because of his good performances of late, didn't Fiorentina have an option to buy him for a certain amount of money? 

Loan is for 6 months with a 1 million option to extend for another year. Price is fixed at 18 million in June 2016. 

 

That's all in euros though so it's not really that much more than what we paid for him, works out to around £15m if all that happens. If he keeps on scoring we'll probably negotiate a better deal though. 

 

Who got the better deal so far? Fiorentina were moaning about losing their best player and now it seems salah is their most important player. Does show what happens when a player is given good amounts of playing time though

If it takes playing Salah as some sort of striker to get the best out of him then we got the better deal as we have better players for that. 

6 Games

4 Goals

1 Assist 

 

untill now

So if Salah, a p[layer deemed not good enough for us can be getting those sort of numbers in the Italian league, is Cuadrado even any good? Or have we massively over-paid for him?

 

He's only had a handful of appearances as of yet, but so far I'm not impressed.

So if Salah, a p[layer deemed not good enough for us can be getting those sort of numbers in the Italian league, is Cuadrado even any good? Or have we massively over-paid for him?

He's only had a handful of appearances as of yet, but so far I'm not impressed.

No idea as it's far too early to judge.

Sometimes it's just the case of a player suiting a certain style of team or league they are playing in. Another can be playing for a team expected to win every single week otherwise you are dropped can mess up a players form or mindset.

It's not been great so far for Cuardrado but we just have to keep patient because he clearly is a really good footballer as the World Cup showed.

Was he worth £26 million though? I have my doubts.

No idea as it's far too early to judge.

Sometimes it's just the case of a player suiting a certain style of team or league they are playing in. Another can be playing for a team expected to win every single week otherwise you are dropped can mess up a players form or mindset.

It's not been great so far for Cuardrado but we just have to keep patient because he clearly is a really good footballer as the World Cup showed.

Was he worth £26 million though? I have my doubts.

 

Caudrado was awful again yesterday. It's fine to suggest it is early days but the one asset it's claimed he has , pace, has not been demonstrated at all yet. He lost the ball each time he got it yesterday and was chased down once in a straight leg race against a player who had been on the pitch for 75 minutes and played on Thursday.

 

I'm afraid we've bought a dud. I hope to be proven wrong...

So he's a dud after 1-2 starts and 3 sub appearances?

Sound reasoning...

Edited March 2, 201511 yr by Chelsbear

So he's a dud after 1-2 starts and 3 sub appearances?

Sound reasoning...

 

Not a dud no but I think one or two of us are a little apprehensive about the signing. 

 

Normally after 5 or 6 appearances you would like think you'd have seen something to get excited about the signing.

 

So far with Cuadrado we haven't seen any suggestion that he is any good at beating his man, that he has particularly good pace or that he has a good first touch. 

 

Considering we paid £27m for him you want to be thinking he is going to improve in some way but at the moment he looks inferior to all our other attacking options and looks no better than Schurrle was, so the question is why did we sign him and if he needs time to settle in why didn't we keep hold of Schurrle and complete this deal in the summer. 

 

For some of us we're just a bit apprehensive about the signing because we are at such a crucial stage in our season. 

It's normal to be apprehensive and for the price that's more so the case.

To label the guy a dud when he's never had a run of two games together is crazy though.

I'd hate to see what folk posted when Drogba just came in.

Quick! find that sniper.

It's normal to be apprehensive and for the price that's more so the case.

To label the guy a dud when he's never had a run of two games together is crazy though.

I'd hate to see what folk posted when Drogba just came in.

 

Oh those were fun times, I would say 60% of the forum had written him of, a poster I actually like posted somthing along the following lines

 

"He's not fast, He's just big"

"He has not first touch, he's just big"

"he's not great at sheilding the ball, he's just big"

 

Now we are talking about 11 years ago so the words are a little out but it's more or less that (wasn't it g4.4.4.4.4.4 ) ;)

 

In genreal it was a fustrating time beecause Drogba could look brilliant one moment and terrible the next while he adapted.

 

The thing is though. I'm not judging Juan at the moment. I still don't know how good or bad he will be. I'm questioning the decision to make the moves we did at this time of the season.I generally feel that January signings should offer some kind of instant impact unless you have ilong term injuries in the team that need cover for

Oh those were fun times, I would say 60% of the forum had written him of, a poster I actually like posted somthing along the following lines

"He's not fast, He's just big"

"He has not first touch, he's just big"

"he's not great at sheilding the ball, he's just big"

Now we are talking about 11 years ago so the words are a little out but it's more or less that (wasn't it g4.4.4.4.4.4 ) ;)

In genreal it was a fustrating time beecause Drogba could look brilliant one moment and terrible the next while he adapted.

The thing is though. I'm not judging Juan at the moment. I still don't know how good or bad he will be. I'm questioning the decision to make the moves we did at this time of the season.I generally feel that January signings should offer some kind of instant impact unless you have ilong term injuries in the team that need cover for

Yeah totally.

The timing is strange especially when we have so much to play for, the price was also pretty high but I can only think other teams must have been sniffing about him and we wanted it done sharpish.

The thing is though. I'm not judging Juan at the moment. I still don't know how good or bad he will be. I'm questioning the decision to make the moves we did at this time of the season.I generally feel that January signings should offer some kind of instant impact unless you have ilong term injuries in the team that need cover for

 

This is my big issue with the signing. 

 

We allowed two attacking midfielders to leave the club to enable us to sign Cuadrado. 

 

To me, that means we can't afford for him to have a 6 month bedding in period, we need a quick adaptation to the team or else we're leaving ourselves short on options. 

So he's a dud after 1-2 starts and 3 sub appearances?

Sound reasoning...

 

I meant I'm afraid we may have bought a dud. My mistake.

 

I've stated elsewhere that it is too early to be sure.

Oh those were fun times, I would say 60% of the forum had written him of, a poster I actually like posted somthing along the following lines

 

"He's not fast, He's just big"

"He has not first touch, he's just big"

"he's not great at sheilding the ball, he's just big"

 

Now we are talking about 11 years ago so the words are a little out but it's more or less that (wasn't it g4.4.4.4.4.4 ) ;)

 

In genreal it was a fustrating time beecause Drogba could look brilliant one moment and terrible the next while he adapted.

 

The thing is though. I'm not judging Juan at the moment. I still don't know how good or bad he will be. I'm questioning the decision to make the moves we did at this time of the season.I generally feel that January signings should offer some kind of instant impact unless you have ilong term injuries in the team that need cover for

 

I remember another early description of Drogba along the lines of:

 

Crespo (footballer), Drogba (farmer)