1 minute ago, Barrettinator said:

Aina's age has absolutely nothing to do with his talent level. Wasn't Rashford 18 when he broke out at United? Or Shaw at Southampton? Or even Mbappe at Monaco? That's even going too far. But anyway, you get the point. Talent is talent, age means absolutely nothing if you actually rate the player enough to give him a chance.

Michy played because Morata's fitness level is behind the rest of the squad. Don't kid yourself. Michy will be riding the bench every time Morata is fit and rested this season. We played in the league cup and the FA Cup too, you know. And even got to the FA Cup final. 

The point isn't about how available Moses was. As I pointed out earlier, Moses was burnt out towards the end of the season. It was clear to everyone that his form had dropped compared to the first half of the season and understandably so as he was playing in a very tasking position for the first time and playing it week in week out. Aina could have gotten a shout here and there. Aina had ZERO minutes in the PL last season. Personally, I don't really rate him that highly either tbh. I think Tomori is a better talent and looks more confident. Just pointing out to you that Conte doesn't rate him. And apparently, most PL teams don't rate him either. We sent 5 players on loan to PL teams and sold 2 more, no one came knocking for Aina. I don't think he has a future at Chelsea.

So now you are comparing us to Soton and Monaco. 2 clubs who trust their youth/young players compared to a club notoriously known for doing the exact opposite? Give him a chance WHEN? Like I pointed out, moses was absent for 2 whole games in the season and we were playing once a week/fighting for the title. Playing a player who has barely had any professional experience towards the tail end of the season with the title on the line is hardly the ideal scenario.

We played 1/2 games in the league cup? And if you care enough to actually READ through what someone writes, you would have found a phrase akin to "early league cup exit". So we played 5 extra games in FA cups which means 5 mid week games.

Moses getting burnt out/out of form was not the point. The point is putting a 19 year old youngster with no experience at all, with the title on the line. Moses might not have been as impressive towards the tail end, but his ineffectiveness is widely exagerrated due to the FA cup final fiasco.

Aina had 3 appareances in PL, and I vaguely remember that he did not start the dead rubbers as the youth had some important games to play in. 

Tammy had a championship experience and then a PL loan. Did not mean that Conte did not rate him last season. Most important thing for Aina right now is game time and Hull was a relegated PL team, so thats hardly a reason to say that he is not rated. In fact sorry, but none of the reasons that you are giving is PROOF that conte does not rate him. 

3 minutes ago, didierforever said:

So now you are comparing us to Soton and Monaco. 2 clubs who trust their youth/young players compared to a club notoriously known for doing the exact opposite? Give him a chance WHEN? Like I pointed out, moses was absent for 2 whole games in the season and we were playing once a week/fighting for the title. Playing a player who has barely had any professional experience towards the tail end of the season with the title on the line is hardly the ideal scenario.

We played 1/2 games in the league cup? And if you care enough to actually READ through what someone writes, you would have found a phrase akin to "early league cup exit". So we played 5 extra games in FA cups which means 5 mid week games.

Moses getting burnt out/out of form was not the point. The point is putting a 19 year old youngster with no experience at all, with the title on the line. Moses might not have been as impressive towards the tail end, but his ineffectiveness is widely exagerrated due to the FA cup final fiasco.

Aina had 3 appareances in PL, and I vaguely remember that he did not start the dead rubbers as the youth had some important games to play in. 

Tammy had a championship experience and then a PL loan. Did not mean that Conte did not rate him last season. Most important thing for Aina right now is game time and Hull was a relegated PL team, so thats hardly a reason to say that he is not rated. In fact sorry, but none of the reasons that you are giving is PROOF that conte does not rate him. 

Firstly, we're both CFC fans and I believe it's possible for us to have a civil debate about CFC without the tone you're portraying. It's not a fight.

On to the point, at least you do agree that we're notorious for not giving players a chance....which only strengthens the point I was making.

If a player is out of form/underperforming, you play the next guy who can do the job. I know there are coaches like Jose who are notorious for sticking to his favourite players but after the 3-0 loss to Arsenal and Conte's shake up (along with his history in Italy of shaking up that squad as well), I assumed Conte was of this mindset. Unless of course he didn't rate the player who was on the bench or to put it more politely, "wanted more from them". It's the reason he kept playing Costa despite Costa's disgustingly poor form at one point. Imo, Michy was even worse in training and was completely clueless. Granted Michy has improved since then but he's still nowhere near Chelsea starter material. Same reason I think he kept playing Matic despite Matic's poor form too at some point. There was nothing Matic was offering between February to May of last season that Chalobah couldn't offer yet he didn't play Nate and we ended up losing him to Watford. I don't care about the "oh Conte tried to make him stay" story that's been spun since. Can't blame the lad for leaving. If Conte truly rated him, he would have given him more minutes on the pitch last year, especially when Matic was poor. 1 game a week or not.

That's the case I'm making for Aina there too. Moses was actually quite poor in a few matches. If he kept playing despite all of that, it was likely because Conte didn't like the next replacement. Conte would have played Azpi and then Pedro ten times over at RWB before playing Aina. 

My mistake on the PL minutes for Aina btw. He was a teenager at the start of the season but his birthday is in October so he doesn't quite fall into the "teenager minutes" bracket (of which we had zero) for us last season. I do remember him coming on in one of the early matches in that 13 game win streak at the tail end of the match. Bread crumbs. 

Not sure why you've mentioned Tammy. Conte had zero input into Tammy's Championship loan last season. Tammy was off before Conte even resumed if I'm not mistaken. And his PL loan (along with Brown & Palmer) is probably down to Emenalo, not Conte.

19 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Firstly, we're both CFC fans and I believe it's possible for us to have a civil debate about CFC without the tone you're portraying. It's not a fight.

On to the point, at least you do agree that we're notorious for not giving players a chance....which only strengthens the point I was making.

If a player is out of form/underperforming, you play the next guy who can do the job. I know there are coaches like Jose who are notorious for sticking to his favourite players but after the 3-0 loss to Arsenal and Conte's shake up (along with his history in Italy of shaking up that squad as well), I assumed Conte was of this mindset. Unless of course he didn't rate the player who was on the bench or to put it more politely, "wanted more from them". It's the reason he kept playing Costa despite Costa's disgustingly poor form at one point. Imo, Michy was even worse in training and was completely clueless. Granted Michy has improved since then but he's still nowhere near Chelsea starter material. Same reason I think he kept playing Matic despite Matic's poor form too at some point. There was nothing Matic was offering between February to May of last season that Chalobah couldn't offer yet he didn't play Nate and we ended up losing him to Watford. I don't care about the "oh Conte tried to make him stay" story that's been spun since. Can't blame the lad for leaving. If Conte truly rated him, he would have given him more minutes on the pitch last year, especially when Matic was poor. 1 game a week or not.

That's the case I'm making for Aina there too. Moses was actually quite poor in a few matches. If he kept playing despite all of that, it was likely because Conte didn't like the next replacement. Conte would have played Azpi and then Pedro ten times over at RWB before playing Aina. 

My mistake on the PL minutes for Aina btw. He was a teenager at the start of the season but his birthday is in October so he doesn't quite fall into the "teenager minutes" bracket (of which we had zero) for us last season. I do remember him coming on in one of the early matches in that 13 game win streak at the tail end of the match. Bread crumbs. 

Not sure why you've mentioned Tammy. Conte had zero input into Tammy's Championship loan last season. Tammy was off before Conte even resumed if I'm not mistaken. And his PL loan (along with Brown & Palmer) is probably down to Emenalo, not Conte.

I bought tammy into the argument because you were using Aina's championship loan as a reason for Conte not rating him. I was just saying that it might be a well thought out plan to give Aina an experience of championship first and then bridge him into PL. Lets not forget that this will be his first actual pro season (game time wise). 

Azpi will be a better back up to most first team RWBs in the world. Also "rating" a youngster's talent and potential and actually playing him ahead of one of the world's best 1v1 dedfenders is a completely different discussion, which is what I have been alluding to. With 5/6 games left in the season and the title on the line, even a youth promoting manager like Poch would not think of putting a youngster with no experience at the highest level into the time. Maybe you think/would do differently, but Aina's playing time last season is hardly a measure of how well Conte does/does not rate him. I have never once said that I believe Conte rates him, I just dont have any proof either way if he does or does not.

I bought tammy into the argument because you were using Aina's championship loan as a reason for Conte not rating him. I was just saying that it might be a well thought out plan to give Aina an experience of championship first and then bridge him into PL. Lets not forget that this will be his first actual pro season (game time wise). 
Azpi will be a better back up to most first team RWBs in the world. Also "rating" a youngster's talent and potential and actually playing him ahead of one of the world's best 1v1 dedfenders is a completely different discussion, which is what I have been alluding to. With 5/6 games left in the season and the title on the line, even a youth promoting manager like Poch would not think of putting a youngster with no experience at the highest level into the time. Maybe you think/would do differently, but Aina's playing time last season is hardly a measure of how well Conte does/does not rate him. I have never once said that I believe Conte rates him, I just dont have any proof either way if he does or does not.

Fair enough. I think Conte didn't like how much Zouma lacked ball playing skills and how slow Terry was so Azpi was a dead cert for RCB, which is why I feel Aina was Moses' sub. Made the bench a few times too.

But oh well, that's that.

Happy days...

Antonio Candreva's agent has confirmed Chelsea have been interested in his client since January, but expects him to stay at Inter Milan this summer.

The Italian's representative Federico Pastorello told Rai: "Candreva believes that he will stay.

"His desire is to continue at Inter and the club and Spalletti have said the same.

"So I believe this season he will remain at Inter, but in January Chelsea wanted him."

 

Good player but doubt we was ever really interested in a 30yr old whose main asset is pace and work rate.