9 minutes ago, 1905 said:

 Lukaku, Bertrand...

Neighter of those are good enough for us. The more i see of Lukaku this season the more i'm thankful we didn't buy him for 60£ million this summer.

2 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Neighter of those are good enough for us. The more i see of Lukaku this season the more i'm thankful we didn't buy him for 60£ million this summer.

Who's to say they wouldn't have excelled under Conte?

We had written off Costa, Fabs and Hazard last season.

Am beginning to think Conte could even have made a player out of Dildobodgejob

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by 1905

5 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

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.

100% agreed, I would love Sanchez here and if you could guarantee we got him then yeah I'd rather we signed him but we won't get him. I'll be honest though I've only seen very little of James so I have zero idea if he would suit the system or not. But if Conte does want him and from what a lot of people here are saying then I'd be happy for us to get him.

More smoke...

Balague is usually reliable when it comes to spanish football.

In terms of England it's really only Chelsea and United I could see him moving to.

City and Arsenal don't need him and Liverpool I doubt would be able to compete.

The question is.... does he worth 75m?

He's very quality player, Conte won't buy a random player for nothing, he surely has a plan. But a player that barely play in La Liga worth that much? I don't expect us to get him for 25m, but 70-75m is too much in my opinion.

1 hour ago, 1905 said:

I'm kind of swaying on the fence with this one, just can't make my mind up but then again we can't predict the future on whether this would be a good buy or not. Luckily the club and the player will make their minds up for us.

I think certain negative comments are borne from some of our less than successful transfer deals in the past.

His stats in comparison to others...

La Liga stats since 2014/15 season

James Rodriguez

Games: 63
Goals: 21
Assists: 23
Total: 44

Toni Kroos

Games: 80
Goals: 4
Assists: 24
Total: 28

Luka Modric

Games: 56
Goals: 5
Assists: 8
Total: 13

Andres Iniesta

Games: 60
Goals: 1
Assists: 6
Total: 7

Ivan Rakitic

Games: 80
Goals: 14
Assists: 10
Total: 24

I copied that from an online article, they look pretty impressive to be honest.

Why on earth then is he bench warming and why does RM want rid? Are they desperate for cash?

This is how I feel too, I just can't decide whether this is a good idea. I've seen too many Madrid games where had zero input, just sort of meandering around completely off the pace. But other moments of absolute class shows he has it. So yeah, dunno.....

there's no credible journos/paper confirming this story yet, just daily fail and a bunch of spanish media. so don't get too excited (or disappointed) yet

I've seen him playing for Colombia a few times. Always looks the goods there.

needs to be less than 40m. Anything else and it's robbery.

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by Ivanov87

Also 100% agree with this. We badly need a player like Hazard who can score loads and run in behind defenders (and at them). One who can change the game in one moment like Hazard can. Sanchez would be PERFECT for this. A Hazard-Costa-Sanchez front 3 would put us in the class just behind Messi-Suarez-Neymar and Bale-Benzema-Ronaldo. That's a CL winning front 3 if you ask me. Sanchez's work rate will also fit this team like a glove.
I see no use for Rodriguez in this current formation. I don't know why we'd want to splash the Oscar money on him. That said, if we're getting him for around 30m (which is possible), I'd be less annoyed by the move. I guess he does give us an option to revert to other formations though. But still, he's not a consistent or even fairly consistent goal scorer. To me, he's a little more polished version of Oscar. I may be wrong on that as I haven't watched him in a while but I know he hasn't been a starter for Madrid since early in Benitez's spell. There's got to be a reason for that (may well be tactical but hey).

A front three of Hazard-costa-Sanchez is currently more dangerous than Bale-Benzema-Ronaldo

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? 

Regardless, I will take Fabregas over him.

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.

[emoji3] you mean James is a better player than Griezmann?

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

You gotta be kidding me!

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

Is he Messnaldo?

2 hours ago, wallosh said:

you mean James is a better player than Griezmann?

I said that he isn't available, not that he isn't world class. They're players of a similar level imo.

James Rodriguez is a brilliant player, make no mistake about that.

People on here saying they don't want him and he's overrated either haven't watched him play or are holding out for us signing Sanchez in which Arsenal will never sell to us or Griezmann who has already said he won't leave Atletico.

A luxury? Perhaps but a few years back we were begging the board to improve our squad after losing KDB, Lukaku etc and we were signing over the hill Falcao and Michael Hector.

I don't look at stats and think automatically they're a good player because that gets used a lot against Hazard which is unfair. James Rodriguez would fit into our line up perfectly. On the right side of the Costa, he will be able to cut in on that wand of a left foot and either hit a screamer or play a delicate pass between the lines to open up a defence. Conte is thinking ahead and particularly thinking of the CL next season where our squad will need improvement in order to compete and make no mistake, signing James will put us in the top 3 attacks in world football. He realises teams will sit deep against us as well which only gives more substance to the James transfer.

So why doesn't Zidane play him? Zidane opts for a more defensive 433 which leaves James' role in the side in the lurch. Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale occupy the front three and due to Vasquez pace, he comes in for Bale when he's injured. James is NOT and I repeat NOT a central midfielder and never will be. The positions are occupied by Modric, Kroos, Isco and Kovacic with Casemiro holding behind. Can you see why he doesn't get played now? Under Ancelotti, he was world class in the top 3 attacking midfield players in the world. His attitude never came into question then and it shouldn't now simply because he's on the bench.

To say James has had only one good tournament is also a ridiculous statement to make so don't pay attention to that, he was brilliant for Real 14/15 and was good last season as well but not as good as previous due to Benitez fallout and Zidane being hired.

Would I prefer Griezmann? Yes. Would I prefer Sanchez? Yes. However, the chances of signing them are very low. James Rodriguez is a rare commodity in football as all the major talents get swooped by Barca, Real, City, Bayern and United so if Chelsea sign him then I'll be overjoyed.

Thanks for reading. :)

But why bother trying to fit a player like James into our team? Why change our entire system? We really don't need 60mil players to win titles as Conte has shown us getting the best out of decent players like Moses.

11 minutes ago, Theafonis said:

But why bother trying to fit a player like James into our team? Why change our entire system? We really don't need 60mil players to win titles as Conte has shown us getting the best out of decent players like Moses.

I think the point most are making is that there is no need to change the system. He would slide in for Pedro in 3-4-3 and as someone posted on another thread, we are changing shape recently to a 3-5-2 where Pedro or Hazard drop into midfield which seems exactly what you would want James doing. 

I said that he isn't available, not that he isn't world class. They're players of a similar level imo.

Sorry I misread that. I thought you said Griezmann isn't world class.

obviously conte deserves to be trusted so if he wants him we have to assume he's got an idea of how to use him.

for me I don't think "he's not a winger" is a fair reason to be against this. we play two players with freedom to receive the ball anywhere between the lines- the width comes from the wingbacks. 

positionally of course he can fit into a 3421. the bigger problem is would we then become a team with only one player who gets behind the defence in costa? hazard has improved in that area but he still prefers to come short for the ball. would a player like rodriguez create an imbalance in the team?

and then there are also question marks over his workrate, consistency and attitude.

seems a gamble. conte would arguably be the best coach he's ever worked with though.

 

Class player takes a brilliant set piece too.

One thing is for sure, the board is not making mistakes or screwing around, James would be a statement signing and at 25 is far from over the hill.

Its also very encouraging that this transfer is gathering pace now in December and not the last week in Janaury, if we get this done and hes available for the 2nd week of Janaury, I'd be delighted.

Edited December 21, 20169 yr by Delnino

3 minutes ago, Delnino said:

One thing is for sure, the board is not making mistakes or screwing around, James would be a statement signing and at 25 is far from over the hill.

Its also very encouraging that this transfer is gathering pace now in December and not the last week in Janaury, if we get this done and hes available for the 2nd week of Janaury, I'd be delighted.

Or it gets confirmed on Christmas Eve. Would be a nice Christmas gift! 

2 minutes ago, g3.7 said:

obviously conte deserves to be trusted so if he wants him we have to assume he's got an idea of how to use him.

for me I don't think "he's not a winger" is a fair reason to be against this. we play two players with freedom to receive the ball anywhere between the lines- the width comes from the wingbacks. 

positionally of course he can fit into a 3421. the bigger problem is would we then become a team with only one player who gets behind the defence in costa? hazard has improved in that area but he still prefers to come short for the ball. would a player like rodriguez create an imbalance in the team?

and then there are also question marks over his workrate, consistency and attitude.

seems a gamble. conte would arguably be the best coach he's ever worked with though.

 

I think he would make us more balanced, I think what we would see is Alonso making more runs in behind the oppositions right back and into the box when Hazard drops deep as he would have James on his wand of a left foot to pick out his runs, and of course Costa making more runs in behind and not needing to drop deep and link up with Hazard as much as he would have James who can make those defence splitting passes, Also we will see Hazard get the ball in more and more goal scoring positions with James being able to pick him out, something which I noticed in our last game, Hazard making 3 or 4 good runs and no one being able to play that killer pass to him. I think James makes Costa more of a nightmare for defenders, Alonso more of a goal threat, Hazard even harder to mark and takes away a lot of creative responsibility from Kante and Matic which is better for them.