Rumors surfacing that we're chasing Genoa and Uruguayan left back Diego Laxalt... reports suggesting that Conte is a huge admirer (according to his agent)

 

Personally I've never heard of him but he has cornrows so he must be good... but in all seriousness I'm not overly confident with Alonso. He's been solid enough and looks good going forward but not fond of his lack of pace.

 

Surely there are better players out there? Unless anyone on here knows a bit more about Laxalt of course :)

 

23 mil pounds for Alonso, 21 for Baba, got Kenedy and Ake in the squad. Sorry, but LWB is hardly a player we should be looking at.

 

3 hours ago, didierforever said:

23 mil pounds for Alonso, 21 for Baba, got Kenedy and Ake in the squad. Sorry, but LWB is hardly a player we should be looking at.

 

LWB is exactly the position we should be looking at. I don't care how much we paid for Alonso or Baba. The one is a solid player, but I don't feel he's anything special, and the only natural left back/left wing back in our squad right now, whereas the other is clearly not rated very highly by Conte and currently warming the bench at Schalke.

Kenedy as well doesn't seem to be a favourite of Conte's. He rarely even touched the pitch in Pre Season, and had a catastrophic injury ridden loan. Also he is still a very raw player and a bit of a mixed bag. Ake is a good player imo, but not my first choice for the wingback position. In the system we play, he would fit in at LCB or at CM. He could do a job at LWB but ideally we'd have a more attacking player there.

1 minute ago, True Blue23 said:

LWB is exactly the position we should be looking at. I don't care how much we paid for Alonso or Baba. The one is a solid player, but I don't feel he's anything special, and the only natural left back/left wing back in our squad right now, whereas the other is clearly not rated very highly by Conte and currently warming the bench at Schalke.

Kenedy as well doesn't seem to be a favourite of Conte's. He rarely even touched the pitch in Pre Season, and had a catastrophic injury ridden loan. Also he is still a very raw player and a bit of a mixed bag. Ake is a good player imo, but not my first choice for the wingback position. In the system we play, he would fit in at LCB or at CM. He could do a job at LWB but ideally we'd have a more attacking player there.

Fair enough, but I honestly feel there are areas of pitch where we need players more urgently than LWB.

1. Wingers - While pedro and willian are good options, one can go missing for large chunks of games while the other has a poor return in the last 3rd. Need an upgrade on those 2 so that some pressue can be off Hazard and Diego.

2. CM - Matic and Kante have been great as has cesc but again I feel we need an upgrade in the CM position. Someone like a verrati.

3. ST - after costa, we are down to Batshuayi (who in all fairness has not had much of oppurtunity), but if at this moment, costa gets injured for a month, I would be hyperventilating due to a massive difference in quality.

I dont know how much part pre-season plays in all this. Did we play 3-4-3 during pre-season? Not sure, because i simply cant see kenedy as either a starting LW or a starting LB. But a starting LWB is a completely different story.

As for Baba, I feel he would be more than decent as a LWB.

The options available to us as well as the money we have already spent on that ONE position, makes it almost redundant to go out there and buy a 3rd recognised LB 3 seasons in a row.

never heard of him but if it's coming from his agent probably just some bs his agent made up to get a new contract from genoa

Never heard of him as well, but we got Kenedy and Baba Rahman, I'd rather give them a chance. In my opinion, they both can do a good job on this position.

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

Fair enough, but I honestly feel there are areas of pitch where we need players more urgently than LWB.

1. Wingers - While pedro and willian are good options, one can go missing for large chunks of games while the other has a poor return in the last 3rd. Need an upgrade on those 2 so that some pressue can be off Hazard and Diego.

2. CM - Matic and Kante have been great as has cesc but again I feel we need an upgrade in the CM position. Someone like a verrati.

3. ST - after costa, we are down to Batshuayi (who in all fairness has not had much of oppurtunity), but if at this moment, costa gets injured for a month, I would be hyperventilating due to a massive difference in quality.

I dont know how much part pre-season plays in all this. Did we play 3-4-3 during pre-season? Not sure, because i simply cant see kenedy as either a starting LW or a starting LB. But a starting LWB is a completely different story.

As for Baba, I feel he would be more than decent as a LWB.

The options available to us as well as the money we have already spent on that ONE position, makes it almost redundant to go out there and buy a 3rd recognised LB 3 seasons in a row.

1. I agree that an upgrade on the wing is needed, but we have decent options there, and I feel it can wait until summer. It would be extremely hard to get someone better than Willian or Pedro in the January window.

2. Verratti would be a dream come true but again, not possible in January.

3. That's a bit of a tricky situation. Right now no BU striker would play any more than Batshuayi does. Costa is on fire, Conte likes to keep him on until the end, and we don't have too many games, so fatigue isn't that much of an issue. I feel that apart from the game against West Ham and the short appearance against Everton, Michy has done well, whenever he's got a chance. Early in the season, when we needed late goals, he used to come on more regularly and scored the important equaliser against Watford and provided a good Assist for Costa against West Ham. In the League Cup game (first start) he also got 2.

Of course there are better strikers out there, but none of them would be content warming the bench. I think Michy is a very good number 2 (best we've had in years) with potential to be even more.

This is the guy we need to sign in January, can defend and is very good going forward and isn’t slow like Alonso he would be perfect in our system. 

Haven't heard much about him, but if he's an upgrade on Alonso, then by all means we should go for it! 

Baba looks like he's going to get sold, so we don't have any backup for Alonso at all