Hopefully he stays. I think he has what it takes to make it at Chelsea. Especially with Conte in charge.

There's an obsession for some reason with playing dave at wingback and I can't get my head around it. He's the best defender we have, i've never seen someone so effective and dispossessing attackers in one on one situations, but he doesn't have the attacking prowess to play as a wingback. We've seen this for a while now. Moses is great at wingback because he has the engine and the attacking play to go with it.

I'm not a fan of the Ake height-bashing either, he's 5'11", he's not a midget, Cannavaro was 5'9" and was one of the best centre backs of all time. Ake has a great jump and technique, his height won't be a problem. I'm also not convinced his attacking play is good enough to warrant a wingback position either, it's one of the most important positions in our formation, but you need to be equally good attacking and defending. If we want to upgrade in the wingback areas then we need to be looking at the likes of Florenzi, Lichsteiner and Alex Sandro etc, players who are natural in those positions, not trying to fit players into a wingback role who aren't suited to it. 

^^^^ This

Can see him taking Cahill's spot either next year or the year after, and could play an important squad role until then, since he can be played at LB, CB or DM

If PVA is worth £14m, how comes Nate is only £18m? No way, keep him, will improve further.

Edited January 31, 20179 yr by 1905

Quote

Nathan Aké will not be rejoining Bournemouth tonight, although Max Gradel is set to join Hull City for a fee of around £4m and Lewis Grabban will move on loan to Reading for the rest of the season.

 

Thank truck for that.

Ake hanging out w/ his Dad - I know, I kid

Looked very good against Wolves, want to see him more and more!

He looked decent, but let's be honest we can afford better ready made players so why not bring them in. Ake will do well somewhere else but our success has come from singing ready made content, not taking risks with youth. He's not even one of our own so no incentive to keep him long term for me, let's see how he does though

12 hours ago, marouane chamakh said:

He looked decent, but let's be honest we can afford better ready made players so why not bring them in. Ake will do well somewhere else but our success has come from singing ready made content, not taking risks with youth. He's not even one of our own so no incentive to keep him long term for me, let's see how he does though

The troll has returned.

On 19/02/2017 at 21:26, marouane chamakh said:

He looked decent, but let's be honest we can afford better ready made players so why not bring them in. Ake will do well somewhere else but our success has come from singing ready made content, not taking risks with youth. He's not even one of our own so no incentive to keep him long term for me, let's see how he does though

I agree. Now there must be 2 trolls in here. 

Ake is fine. He is ok. He is a footballer. But is he transcending the art of defending? No. And if we aspire to be the best, we must acquire those or mould those who show that they're aiming to be the best. Ake is aiming to be a solid footballer and that's fine, great, well done, but we need a bit more than a jack of all trades who doesn't necessarily exceed in any area of his game particularlly. 

I do consider him one of 'ours' though, because we got him when he was 15/16. A better player than RLC, Chalobah, Solanke, Abraham too I think. But he isn't near the leagues in which Musonda, Dasilva, Christensen could be playing in. 

I'm happy to keep using him as a squad player, but to say he's shown anything in his career yet that screams starting material for a top side would be a blue-tinted lie.

3 hours ago, Katyusha said:

I agree. Now there must be 2 trolls in here. 

Ake is fine. He is ok. He is a footballer. But is he transcending the art of defending? No. And if we aspire to be the best, we must acquire those or mould those who show that they're aiming to be the best. Ake is aiming to be a solid footballer and that's fine, great, well done, but we need a bit more than a jack of all trades who doesn't necessarily exceed in any area of his game particularlly. 

I do consider him one of 'ours' though, because we got him when he was 15/16. A better player than RLC, Chalobah, Solanke, Abraham too I think. But he isn't near the leagues in which Musonda, Dasilva, Christensen could be playing in. 

I'm happy to keep using him as a squad player, but to say he's shown anything in his career yet that screams starting material for a top side would be a blue-tinted lie.

Well the games he came with in for Bournemouth he was on the whole excellent. He has been a huge miss and you can't undermine the importance he had on them. Look how bad they have been since he has gone. He just turned 22 few days ago and has shown a lot of promise on his respective loans.

And please don't tell me Dasilva is in a higher league than Ake. That is rubbish. I like Dasilva a lot but he still has a lot of improvement to do and Ake was a lot more impressive in our reserves than Dasilva was. He just was on another level and was too good for that level. Dasilva is a few years younger and while he has impressed for the U23/U21 when he has played, it has not been on the same level as Ake has. And just to paint a picture, Dasilva is currently on loan at a struggling Charlton team in League 1 and has been a sub for every single game, only coming on once because of an injury and being left as an unused sub for around 5-6 games. His size does not help but for example, Ake at 18/19 years of age would walk into any League 1 team and prob would of got into a lot of Championship teams as well and let's not forget when he played for us under Benitez he never actually looked out of place.

Edited February 21, 20179 yr by STATS

21 hours ago, Katyusha said:

I'm happy to keep using him as a squad player, but to say he's shown anything in his career yet that screams starting material for a top side would be a blue-tinted lie.

And how many 21/22 year old defenders do that? 

On 21/02/2017 at 13:16, Katyusha said:

I agree. Now there must be 2 trolls in here. 

Ake is fine. He is ok. He is a footballer. But is he transcending the art of defending? No. And if we aspire to be the best, we must acquire those or mould those who show that they're aiming to be the best. Ake is aiming to be a solid footballer and that's fine, great, well done, but we need a bit more than a jack of all trades who doesn't necessarily exceed in any area of his game particularlly. 

I do consider him one of 'ours' though, because we got him when he was 15/16. A better player than RLC, Chalobah, Solanke, Abraham too I think. But he isn't near the leagues in which Musonda, Dasilva, Christensen could be playing in. 

I'm happy to keep using him as a squad player, but to say he's shown anything in his career yet that screams starting material for a top side would be a blue-tinted lie.

No you missed the point. That Chamakh account is literally a troll. He pipes up every few months and just spews complete sh*t. 

From what I have seen of Ake he looks good. It's always nice to have a natural left footer on the left side of a back 3. I can't really say his going to be a superstar or he isn't up to the standard of others because he simply hasn't been given the chance to play a regular amount of games.

Cahill now is a much better defender than when he joined. Cahill had a difficult last season and the start of this season but has come back and been very good IMO. Just shows what the right coaching and playing with players like Terry can do.

With Conte as manager and playing with experience pros like Courtois, Dave and Luiz I reckon he could come on really well. Wouldn't be surprised if he was one of these players if Chelsea did let go they would be buying back a couple of seasons later.

I see a mirror image of Azpi when i see Ake play. Both really good in defending, similar heights, similar attributed, can play in a number of positions in defense yet i think Ake is slightly more comfortable on the ball.

 

The left footed Dave.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

The left footed Dave.

Better play him at RB then

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Better play him at RB then

Can't fault Conte for barely anything. If there was something that I wanted to express my disappointment in, it is him bringing back Ake. He was playing regular football for a team who suited his style of play and was playing very well and he was scoring a few as well. He has played FA Cup games and so on but it is getting to a point in matches where he is not even making the bench. I know it is for cover but I think we have well suitable cover. Terry and Zouma are back up CB as it and are preferred to the squad than Ake as Ake only seems to make the bench if Terry is injured. Then LWB, we have already seen Pedro been very effective there as an alternative and last resort we have Kenedy.

He is training with world class players every day but nothing beats experience, especially when you are playing regular in the Premier League. I don't see him starting our next cup game as we play United so his chances from now till end of season is limited. I wonder in hindsight whether Conte would of kept Ake at Bournemouth because he was happy there and it was refreshing to see him getting rave reviews down there.

I feel he's brought him back so he can see him train, if he can fit into Conte's system, see his attitude etc with a view to him being in the first team squad next season or sell him.

54 minutes ago, dkw said:

I feel he's brought him back so he can see him train, if he can fit into Conte's system, see his attitude etc with a view to him being in the first team squad next season or sell him.

He could have analysed his performances at Bournemouth and in any case he could watch him in pre-season and judge.

Edited February 26, 20179 yr by STATS

11 minutes ago, STATS said:

He could have analysed his performances at Bournemouth and in any case he could watch him in pre-season and judge.

They play a totally different system, and he may have a specific role in mind for Ake. Pre season is very different to the training mid season. It may not be fair to Bournemouth, and possibly not to Ake but Conte is looking towards next season for Chelsea, that's his priority.

Ake was bought back so that we could let Ivanovic leave.

He was only ever going to be viewed as cover and so Conte gets to see him up close in training for a few months and in the summer I think he'll either be kept on as our reserve left sided defender or sold. 

Bournemouth this season.....

Ake starting:

8 Played

4 Wins

1 Draw

3 Lost

13 Points

50% win ratio

38% loss ratio

1.63 Points per game

 

Ake NOT starting:

18 Played

3 Won

4 Draw

11 Lost

13 Points

17% win ratio

61% loss ratio

0.72 points per game

In hindsight, a very very poor decision. Hope Ake gets his chance in the next season or towards the end when we wrap up the title soon. 

Disagree it being a poor decision. We've strengthened our team in the final run of the season. Should Alonso or a CB get injured we'd be struggling for someone to play there that is as defensively sound.