Zouma just signed a 6 year deal in the summer, can't see him being offloaded anytime soon, I agree he is not well suited to a back 3, but it's highly unlikely conte will be here past 2019 anyway. The next manager might want to go back to a 4, as might conte.

I wouldnt sell zouma, I rate him highly, hopefully we learn from Lukaku, De bruyne, and Salah, and we don't move players on too quickly, especially young players with high ceilings, and with the manager merry go round at chelsea. 

Christiensen at 21 has managed to play himself into our starting 11 which is an unbelievable achievement, Zouma managed to do the same thing at the same age, which I think people are too quick to forget. 

21 hours ago, Slojo said:

How is Zouma doing at Stoke? 

Well, it's one best player at Stoke at moment

On ?28?/?11?/?2017 at 23:40, ivorycoast said:

Conte's terrible man management disrupting the squad again.

Instead of fixing the bust up with Luis, he decides he'd rather make the squad weaker and let one of our best players go. All this over a substitution where luis wanted to be kept on.

Someone at the club needs to rein Conte in before he starts screwing up the squad again.

Been a busy few years for you hasn't it.  City, Chelsea, Leicester, Chelsea, and probably Man City again next. At least you can re-use the City and Chelsea shirts on a fairly regular basis, but those Leicester shirts and souvenirs you'd best keep for a collectors sale in about 2065.

Ake would have been the perfect replacement for Luiz. Comfortable playing in the middle should Christensen be out and more than capable playing LCB when Andreas is in the squad. Shame we let him leave.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Ake would have been the perfect replacement for Luiz. Comfortable playing in the middle should Christensen be out and more than capable playing LCB when Andreas is in the squad. Shame we let him leave.

Ake is overrated, if Conte rated him he would have got more game time last season. 

Edited December 5, 20178 yr by kiwi1691

1 minute ago, kiwi1691 said:

Ake is overrated, if Conte rated him he would have got more game time last season. 

Conte rated him enough to bring him back from his loan early. Just wasn't ready to replace the three that won us the league. Patience with young players is needed. 

The annoying thing about the whole situation with Luiz is that we shelled out £30m and we’ve only had 1 season out of him. 

Wouldnt say a waste of money but certainly expensive for one season. 

What a season tho eh.

2 hours ago, kiwi1691 said:

Ake is overrated, if Conte rated him he would have got more game time last season. 

Ake is a decent ball player, but he's been a pretty average defender so far. It's not like he is putting in brilliant defensive performances for Bournemouth or anything.

To be honest, i was ok with him going. Christensen is a lot better and we made a decent amount of money on Ake.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Ake is a decent ball player, but he's been a pretty average defender so far. It's not like he is putting in brilliant defensive performances for Bournemouth or anything.

To be honest, i was ok with him going. Christensen is a lot better and we made a decent amount of money on Ake.

Can't argue with that.

I did like Ake and he always looked composed but I saw his as cover / utility player rather than a week in, week out starter. Christensen is on a totally different level and I can't help but think a lot of us just liked Ake because he reminded us looks-wise of Gullit so much.

 

 

So what do we reckon, is he actually injured or has he had a falling out with Conte and they're avoiding washing their dirty laundry in public about it and we're possibly looking to move him along as early as the New Year? 

Sneaky feeling he may go back to Brazil though have read nothing to suggest that.

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

So what do we reckon, is he actually injured or has he had a falling out with Conte and they're avoiding washing their dirty laundry in public about it and we're possibly looking to move him along as early as the New Year? 

Saw a picture of JT back at Cobham due to injury and Luiz was next to him in the treatment room so might be injured after all, but he could just be getting non-injury related treatment for all we know.

5 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

Saw a picture of JT back at Cobham due to injury and Luiz was next to him in the treatment room so might be injured after all, but he could just be getting non-injury related treatment for all we know.

Italian level secrecy attention to detail

6 minutes ago, Stim said:

Italian level secrecy attention to detail

Actually saw it on the rag Daily Mail lol

He's definitely on the way out of Chelsea......

I heard a rumour (from a guy on the Chelsea Football FanCast) saying he had a big falling out with Conte where he accused the Italian of being racist against Brazilians. I suspected given how certain he was that he was right but figured depending on whether he played or not, would confirm or disprove the rumour. Looks like it's confirmed. 

Seems very unlikely. Luiz was pretty much first choice last season and the start of this one.

34 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Seems very unlikely. Luiz was pretty much first choice last season and the start of this one.

If i'm wrong i'll be the first to put my hand up and admit it. But I'm maybe 80% confident he'll be sold by the end of January

Do we think the Welsh kid is good enough to replace Luiz or do we need purchase a replacement?

5 minutes ago, DWise77 said:

Do we think the Welsh kid is good enough to replace Luiz or do we need purchase a replacement?

Could be, hard to say at this point in his career though. It's very rare for a 17 year old to break through, especially at the very top level.

18 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Could be, hard to say at this point in his career though. It's very rare for a 17 year old to break through, especially at the very top level.

Rooney springs to mind though rare like you say. 

I miss him in the big games, feel he brings a passionate edge that we've been missing recently.

Even if his performances falter sometimes you do need those big characters to push a team forward from time to time.

Just seems like big characters and Conte don't mix too well.

2 hours ago, goodeggs said:

I miss him in the big games, feel he brings a passionate edge that we've been missing recently.

Even if his performances falter sometimes you do need those big characters to push a team forward from time to time.

Just seems like big characters and Conte don't mix too well.

To be fair, these two big characters maybe have a bit of difficulty with maintaining professionalism.

But yes. Luiz brings something extra to the team in those big games and in general to the club.

Edited January 5, 20188 yr by Sun zhi

16 minutes ago, Sun zhi said:

To be fair, these two big characters maybe have a bit of difficulty with maintaining professionalism.

But yes. Luiz brings something extra to the team in those big games and in general to the club.

Problem with Luiz you dont know if its going to be a good or bad influence, with Terry or Lampard is was generally always positive.

On 30/12/2017 at 19:05, Strider6003 said:

Rooney springs to mind though rare like you say. 

To be fair though Rooney didn’t break through at the very top level, United bought him from Everton where his breakthrough really took place, but still he was young as you say & they are definitely few and far between.

 

The only really young player I can remember getting a solid amount of game time recently at a big club where they broke through was Rashford, even then I wouldn’t say he nailed a starting place.