Didn't even make into to the CL selection tonight..

Bad move imo. 6 defenders only in the squad.

Correct me if i'm mistaken but Papy is a 'reserve'. As someone else (perhaps in other thread) mentioned our youth are perhaps better off playing week in week out at a level that will give them experience. There's little downside to this transfer imo, £2.7m is sweet f**k all to the club finances, and if he puts in a few decent performances his value is likely to increase (hence the 4 year contract).

Noted  but a fourth centre-half position should have been filled with a promising youngster rather than a purchase. The policy is loaning out any and all youth players for "playing time" is unbalanced and mocks the intention of the academy providing players to fill in the reserves spots and eventually produce one or two players good enoough to challenge for a first team place.  The money involved should not be a concern to Chelsea fans as it is the results that count, not income statements.

Suggest you read my post again I didn't say anything about him being faster that Terry or Cahill.

Will he ever play? That's what the manger is paid for to make such calls but as to wether he was the managers signing or not you have absolutely no idea so rather than trying to wind yourself and others up I would suggest it's far better to work on the basis that JM was fully involved and gave the red light

I personally believ that they were thinking that JT, GC& KZ and then BI were more than adequete cover at CD and on that basis were comfortable with players like Kalas and Christensen going out on loan the aim being to have them tested over a whole season at a reasonably high level but, the alarming drop in form from BI could well have been a major issue if that continues and on that basis they have thrown a reasonably small fee at this player who probably won't be a starter but he is experienced enough to probably hit the ground running.

On top of that I would suggest that in 12 months time he will either be a total revelation, sold on or be a handy add on to a still on going transfer saga.

You believe Mourinho would want Papy in his team?  Dream on.  You accuse me of making assumptions yet you go off on your own tangent regarding how and why Papy was bought.  It's far more lilkely that this Papy (and Hector) chaps were bought because the club put all their eggs into the Stones basket and left it too late with its desperate bid for Marquinhos. 

 

There is cover for Ivanovic at right-back namely Azpi.  Rahman was bought to compete for the left-back slot. 

 

He won't get playing time and it's a waste of squad space better reserved for a youth player.

You believe Mourinho would want Papy in his team? Dream on. You accuse me of making assumptions yet you go off on your own tangent regarding how and why Papy was bought. It's far more lilkely that this Papy (and Hector) chaps were bought because the club put all their eggs into the Stones basket and left it too late with its desperate bid for Marquinhos.

There is cover for Ivanovic at right-back namely Azpi. Rahman was bought to compete for the left-back slot.

He won't get playing time and it's a waste of squad space better reserved for a youth player.

So the answer to developing young players is to keep them around and not offer any game time? Isnt it better to have Papy not get game time and loan our young CBs out where they can play?

Noted  but a fourth centre-half position should have been filled with a promising youngster rather than a purchase. The policy is loaning out any and all youth players for "playing time" is unbalanced and mocks the intention of the academy providing players to fill in the reserves spots and eventually produce one or two players good enoough to challenge for a first team place.  The money involved should not be a concern to Chelsea fans as it is the results that count, not income statements.

The reason we have to loan a lot of our youngsters out, is that the u21s competition is a really poor standard, hence 40 odd goals for Solanke last year, and you want youngsters to play at a similar level to where there current skill level and the u21s is no where near that level.

On another note I think our u21s (inc those on loan) would make a very competitive championship team maybe even a lower league prem team.

U21 squad

                  Blackman

Wallace - Zouma  -  Omeruo - Ake 

                    Chalobah

                Baker  -   RLC

Traore   -    Bamford    -   Kenedy 

 

subs; Kane, Christensen, Aina, Dasilva, Houghton, Pantic, Pasalic, Colkett, Angban, Nathan, Piazon, Boga, Musonda, Brown, Perica, Solanke 

Bad move imo. 6 defenders only in the squad.

 

Given we are in a weak group, we will probably get away with it even if we lose a defender. However, I thought our problem last year was lack of rotation. If we get through the group with a match or 2 to go, we really don't want the first choice defenders to play more than they have to in the group stage.

I'm not even concerned about the CL as if we were to get stones in January this guy wouldn't be needed and stones wouldn't be cup tied.

You believe Mourinho would want Papy in his team?  Dream on.  You accuse me of making assumptions yet you go off on your own tangent regarding how and why Papy was bought.  It's far more lilkely that this Papy (and Hector) chaps were bought because the club put all their eggs into the Stones basket and left it too late with its desperate bid for Marquinhos. 

 

There is cover for Ivanovic at right-back namely Azpi.  Rahman was bought to compete for the left-back slot. 

 

He won't get playing time and it's a waste of squad space better reserved for a youth player.

I have no idea if or when he will be picked nor do I know enough about the player to have an opinion as to his abilities.

Hector going on loan suggests it has nothing at all to do with the failed pursuit of Stones. As for Papy coming in he isin effect is a cheap squad filler. It isn't an issue with him taking a place of one of the youth in the squad for all those still at the squad and under 21 are automatically in the PL squad

IVans drop in form has been alarming. His performance has had an significant effect of those around him. The club are , based on past performance, pretty good at succession planning and whilst they clearly were looking at Stones Iwould suggest that the manager, the board, the scouting staff are far too experienced to not have had plans a, b, c, etc in place and will know all too well that no transfer should be counted on until the ink is dry on the contract.

We are all entitled to an opinion but the trap you fell into is repeating the sort of Daily Mail anti JM rhetoric

Bad move imo. 6 defenders only in the squad.

I suspect that the B list will include an additional number of defenders

We don't have the luxury of counting the likes of Kennedy as under21 players for the purposes of the CL whereas they do for the PL.

Edited September 3, 201510 yr by terraloon

Didn't even make into to the CL selection tonight..

nobodji saw that coming

has anyone else posted this? 

 

Interesting.

Does he offer anything going forward with the ball I wonder?

don't get me wrong those stats obviously don't tell the whole story because the other two play for the two best sides in france and luiz is partnered with silva so both will have less to do, but still positive stats imo. so many conflicting reports, some analysts saying he's average, others saying he's one of the better defenders in ligue 1, so it's more a case of just waiting until he's here to find out. i think he can play in defensive midfield role too, so maybe another idea is having him and matic in midfield in big games with someone like fabregas sitting in front of them. i am positive that being around world class players will help him improve his overall game. 

has anyone else posted this? 

 

 

 

Posted what?

Interesting.

Does he offer anything going forward with the ball I wonder?

 

No.............but he appears to be a good dancer based on the video.  He should have no trouble singing during his initiation ceremony...

Where were they stats taken from?

Just seen a few bogus ones flying about twitter.

Any stats claiming David Luiz only made one error should really be taken with a large pinch of salt

has anyone else posted this? 

 

 

Stats mean very little. Ashley Williams for Swansea has better stats but i don't want us to go out and sign him.

Stats can be meaningful in context.

 

I'd be wary of reading anything into the Djilobodji-Abdennour comparison above considering the latter played roughly half the games of the former.

 

I'd also be wary of reading anything into a 'clearances' stat; wasn't Mike Williamson the clearances king of the Premier League for about three seasons in a row?

don't get me wrong those stats obviously don't tell the whole story because the other two play for the two best sides in france and luiz is partnered with silva so both will have less to do, but still positive stats imo. so many conflicting reports, some analysts saying he's average, others saying he's one of the better defenders in ligue 1, so it's more a case of just waiting until he's here to find out. i think he can play in defensive midfield role too, so maybe another idea is having him and matic in midfield in big games with someone like fabregas sitting in front of them. i am positive that being around world class players will help him improve his overall game. 

Interesting point. He can basically play the anchorman then, sitting in front of the defense, allowing Cesc to venture further forward giving us some stability in the middle at the same time. 

Been handed the number 15 shirt previously worn by Chelsea legends Kevin De Bruyne, Salah and Marion Melchiot.

Marion melchiott? I knew there was something I liked about him/her.

Listening to the Guardian Football Weekly Extra podcast yesterday was enlightening.

Philippe Auclair basically said Pappy was rubbish and worth about £250,000 not the £4m we paid. Apparently he's been turned down by other clubs like Sunderland before now. [emoji15]

Auclair is normally pretty reliable about players in France too. He was scathing about the Martial deal as well.

I always wonder how these journalists know so much more than scouts.

edit: That looked like a dig at you, it wasn't.

It's just that I just remembered reading an article written by Martin Keown for the daily mail site shortly after we'd signed Cuadrado about how he reminds him of Ronaldinho.

2nd edit: and here it is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2943202/Juan-Cuadrado-great-talent-breathe-new-life-Chelsea-way-goes-past-people-reminds-Ronaldinho.html

Edited September 4, 201510 yr by Jonty