3 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

I reckon it will be difficult to integrate a starting player into our winning team in January, this type of marquee signing is really for Summer window with a full pre-season camp. Unless Madrid agrees to a short term loan deal, we probably should't risk breaking up a winning team just to integrate James in. The guy has quality, but likely have an attitude problem too if Real is so keen to get rid of him. 

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. Jose was keen to get rid of Mata but nobody can ever say Mata has an attitude problem. It's not 1+1=2. Zidane's system seems to depend on pace seeing as even Lucas Vasquez gets more playing time than Rodriguez. It's probably more of a "we don't need him and we could certainly use the money next summer" thing to me. Same way we're getting rid of Oscar. We don't need Oscar and we could certainly use the money. No one can say Oscar has an attitude problem.

There's no doubt that he has qualities but I'm not so sure if he'd add a lot to the present team. I'd rather we spend 70m on Sanchez than 40M on Rodriguez.

btw the above YouTube clip above is not that impressive if that is his highlights over a two year period at Madrid.

I can't believe this could happen.

A lot of people are saying what a waste of money, are you guys being serious? There's no doubt about his quality and if he comes good, then he will be as good as Hazard. Imagine James and Hazard on top form with Costa?! We'd be devastating.

Conte is a master and he will find a way to get James playing well in our team. Please let this happen! I'm drooling at the idea of James and Hazard tearing defenses apart!

I don't get how people can sit and matter of a fact say he is a luxury player not what we need etc, what a load of bollox, if conte is going after him or ok's him then he must be exactly what we need, does conte strike you as a luxury signing sort of manager? And from what I can see he plays central midfield and as a forward, he has a blistering shot and he is very intelligent, he is a more flexible, more goal scoring fabregas...I do think there are better players out there like virati for CM and Sanches for RWF, but if he can rotate between those 2 positions and is available I'll take him all day long, we lack quality depth in both those positions and being that he is applying for a British work visa someone get the it's happening GIF out.... 

3 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

I don't get how people can sit and matter of a fact say he is a luxury player not what we need etc, what a load of bollox, if conte is going after him or ok's him then he must be exactly what we need, does conte strike you as a luxury signing sort of manager? And from what I can see he plays central midfield and as a forward, he has a blistering shot and he is very intelligent, he is a more flexible, more goal scoring fabregas...I do think there are better players out there like virati for CM and Sanches for RWF, but if he can rotate between those 2 positions and is available I'll take him all day long, we lack quality depth in both those positions and being that he is applying for a British work visa someone get the it's happening GIF out.... 

No, no, no, no. James is NOT a CM. In fact, the main reason he's leaving Madrid is because he's NOT a CM. He's an AM and Zidane plays a 4-3-3 which has no spot for an AM so he's had to either play as a CM or a RW and he's not good enough at CM (Kovacic is ahead of him in that order) while he's not as fast as Vasquez at RW. And when you say "more goal scoring than Fabregas", yeah sure. I guess 8-10 goals is better than 4 goals. But it's nothing mind blowing. I do agree with you that if we're signing him, Conte probably has a good reason for wanting him.

5 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

No, no, no, no. James is NOT a CM. In fact, the main reason he's leaving Madrid is because he's NOT a CM. He's an AM and Zidane plays a 4-3-3 which has no spot for an AM so he's had to either play as a CM or a RW and he's not good enough at CM (Kovacic is ahead of him in that order) while he's not as fast as Vasquez at RW. And when you say "more goal scoring than Fabregas", yeah sure. I guess 8-10 goals is better than 4 goals. But it's nothing mind blowing. I do agree with you that if we're signing him, Conte probably has a good reason for wanting him.

Mate when he plays he scores he scored 17 goals in his first year at RM, did you forget he was the golden boot winner at the last worldcup, top scorer in the competition in a team eliminated at the quarter final stage? That's fairly significant, can you see fabregas doing that...or william or pedro? 

1 minute ago, DonAntonio said:

Mate when he plays he scores he scored 17 goals in his first year at RM, did you forget he was the golden boot winner at the last worldcup, top scorer in the competition in a team eliminated at the quarter final stage? That's fairly significant, can you see fabregas doing that...or william or pedro? 

Fair enough, good point about his first season at Madrid. But a 5 game tournament is hardly an indicator of goal scoring prowess in my book. I don't think Ronaldo managed more than 2 goals in Brazil (could be wrong). It's way too short a sample to be using.

He is world class, period. And i don't about you guys, buy would love 3 world class players as my front 3. Chelsea's trio would be on par with BBC, not as good as MSN of course.

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by brenobnfm

13 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Fair enough, good point about his first season at Madrid. But a 5 game tournament is hardly an indicator of goal scoring prowess in my book. I don't think Ronaldo managed more than 2 goals in Brazil (could be wrong). It's way too short a sample to be using.

It's the world cup mate, biggest competition in football, takes a big player to step up to that challenge, saying the world cup golden boot winner not being a big deal is a bit naive, muller won it in 2010, klose in 2006 and Ronaldo in 2002, not a bad list to be amongst that...Real splashed on him for a reason, he a top player but doesn't work in their system

Just now, DonAntonio said:

It's the world cup mate, biggest competition in football, takes a big player to step up to that challenge, saying the world cup golden boot winner not being a big deal is a bit naive, muller won it in 2010, klose in 2006 and Ronaldo in 2002, not a bad list to be amongst that...Real splashed on him for a reason, he a top player but doesn't work in their system

I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong by him. I've already been proven wrong by Pedro, Matic, Luiz, Cahill and even Costa and I'm loving every bit of it. But as it stands, I'd rather go after another player. A Griezmann in the summer would have been absolutely perfect for me. But in the end, I'm not Conte so we'll see. It's definitely a better discussion than talking about signing Hector, Miazga and the likes anyway.

If his best position is as an attacking midfielder then are we changing our system? As it stands if we sign him he would be on the right of Costa in the 3 no? 

38 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong by him. I've already been proven wrong by Pedro, Matic, Luiz, Cahill and even Costa and I'm loving every bit of it. But as it stands, I'd rather go after another player. A Griezmann in the summer would have been absolutely perfect for me. But in the end, I'm not Conte so we'll see. It's definitely a better discussion than talking about signing Hector, Miazga and the likes anyway.

Man, the question is, world class players are not available very often, Griezmann certainly isn't, James aparently is, we can't miss this chance, we don't even have a lot of competitors for him.

30 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

If his best position is as an attacking midfielder then are we changing our system? As it stands if we sign him he would be on the right of Costa in the 3 no? 

The system is already perfect for him.

30 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

If his best position is as an attacking midfielder then are we changing our system? As it stands if we sign him he would be on the right of Costa in the 3 no? 

because we play wingbacks our forwards either side of costa are very narrow they are definitely not playing as wingers, hazard is scoring more becuase he can run through teh middle instead of stuck to the touch line shouldn't be hard at all for a number 10  to play in that role

1 hour ago, brenobnfm said:

He is world class, period. And i don't about you guys, buy would love 3 world class players as my front 3. Chelsea's trio would be on par with BBC, not as good as MSN of course.

He's not world class, he struggles to get off the bench. 

1 hour ago, kiwi1691 said:

He's not world class, he struggles to get off the bench. 

One fact doesn't contradict the other, Hazard wouldn't start for Real Madrid too.

Nah, he's not what we need right now. He's too slow to play on the wing, we're not going to switch back to 4-2-3-1 just to accommodate him, nor are we gonna play to his strength. I'd rather we recalled Traore or Kenedy instead of shelling out 60mil for James.

Praying for either Sanchez or Griezmann who both have the capabilities of playing as a wide forward for us. 

I don't understand the people saying we should forget about Rodriguez and go all out for Sanchez in the summer. There is no guarantee we would even get Sanchez. I would love to have him here too but come on, it's Arsenal, they aren't going to sell their best player to us for any money, they hate us. Sanchez would have plenty of offers elsewhere and Arsenal would rather sell to one of them than to us.

When a player as good as Rodriguez becomes available, you gotta take it. I'm sure Conte will find a way to fit him in. He's played out wide before in his career so it's not like he isn't used to it. Our wide players don't stay wide anyway, they always cut inside.

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

If his best position is as an attacking midfielder then are we changing our system? As it stands if we sign him he would be on the right of Costa in the 3 no? 

Yes but Moses provides the width, James would be coming inside linking with Hazard and opening up defences, he would also drop into midfield with Matic and Kante when we are out of possession, he suits our system very well 

1 hour ago, Theafonis said:

Nah, he's not what we need right now. He's too slow to play on the wing, we're not going to switch back to 4-2-3-1 just to accommodate him, nor are we gonna play to his strength. I'd rather we recalled Traore or Kenedy instead of shelling out 60mil for James.

Praying for either Sanchez or Griezmann who both have the capabilities of playing as a wide forward for us. 

He won't play on the wing for us, and if James is slow then so is Griezmann

I think its Marca that are reporting Madrid don't want to sell him before June. Unless someone want to match his 500m buyout. Lol. You read that right, he has a 500m buyout lololol

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by TheChelseaBlues

9 hours ago, The Brit said:

Cant see how he will fit in our team and what's he done since coming out of nowhere at the last World Cup? I fear we will just be replacing one fraud in Oscar with another

Youre right, hes done absolutely f**k all

 

This reminds me of when we were rumoured to sign Douglas Costa and everyone was an expert, saying how poor a signing he would be

James is perfect for the Pedro position. First off Pedro and Hazar position isn`t exactly a static typically winger role. Hazard and Willian/Pedro positions are more of a free position, to build our game. So James is perfect for that position and he is a lot better then Sanchez, and is a lot younger then him. And he is a great build up to Pedro/Willian. The only thing i`m consider with is a active play in our defence. Cause with our system he has to be very active in defence as well.

Otherwise he is perfect. He possess tremendous cross, good dribble, can hold the ball when its need, good passing, through ball, great shots from distance, great at set pieces and free kicks, and he can build our game as well. And he is in perfect age - 25 years old.

Conte so far shows he know what is needed for his formation, so if he want James, then all of us should be allright with that.

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by brakeit

10 minutes ago, brakeit said:

So James is perfect for that position and he is a lot better then Sanchez, and is a lot younger then him.

 

 

I wouldn't go there yet as Sanchez is PL-proven and on fire this season.

But he didn't shine for Barcelona eighter and now he is smashing teams here which we could take as an encouraging sign for James who's actually been really good overall for Real Madrid when he's actually got chances.

10 minutes ago, brakeit said:

James is perfect for the Pedro position. First off Pedro and Hazar position isn`t exactly a static typically winger role. Hazard and Willian/Pedro positions are more of a free position, to build our game. So James is perfect for that position and he is a lot better then Sanchez, and is a lot younger then him. And he is a great build up to Pedro/Willian. The only thing i`m consider with is a active play in our defence. Cause with our system he has to be very active in defence as well.

Otherwise he is perfect. He possess tremendous cross, good dribble, can hold the ball when its need, good passing, through ball, great shots from distance, great at set pieces and free kicks, and he can build our game as well. And he is in perfect age - 25 years old.

Conte so far shows he know what is needed for his formation, so if he want James, then all of us should be allright with that.

 

 

 

This!!

I'd be stoked if we managed to pick up James in January! I don't think his "attitude" or ability have anything to do with the fact that he's not starting week in week out at Madrid. The system they play just doesn't suit him and Zidane has been overlooking him for this reason. I feel Pedro has played quite well this season but tends to go missing and Willian hasn't been consistent enough. As others have mentioned, players like James are few and far between (especially in the current market) and there is no way we're signing Griezmann or Sanchez anytime soon... Griezmann has already said he's happy at Atletico and the latter is pushing for a new contract. We should be doing everything we can to make this happen!!! A front 3 of Hazard, Costa and James would be unreal!!