If its French players then Bouhafsi is one of the most reliable journos around. Most of the time he's right about them

This one has been in the bag for some time, hopefully hes better then I fear.

Double post

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by Xfaxtor

Highly disappointed if true.

Hope he comes good. The least I rate of all the talented youths of Monaco.

I would have liked someone along the lines of Tolisso, Tousart, Mili-Savic 

Usually when fans are split over a potential signing it's for good reason (say for example Schurrle). But Baka is an exception in my opinion, if he develops well and is coached correctly he will be every bit as good, if not better, than Essien.

The main thing is he will offer something different to Matic and Fabregas, which isn't a bad thing.

Bakayoko may be a 'better player' than Matic but I think it's underestimated how some players just seem to perform well in certain leagues. I hope to be proven wrong but I still think it will be an epic fail if we let Matic go for Bakayoko. Won't get my hopes up but would be happy if we signed Baka in addition to Kante/Cesc/Matic.

He's 1 year older than Chalobah isn't he? Has played 45 minutes for France. If we really gave Chalobah a shot, he could be just as good, if not better by this time next year, and have cost us nothing, whilst bringing through a young, English player into the first team.

I just don't get this signing at all.

Money buys Success, Chalobah isnt as good defensively as Bakayoko.

You see us winning the league with Kante next to Chalobah?

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by Blue_candy

13 minutes ago, Zeta said:

He's 1 year older than Chalobah isn't he? Has played 45 minutes for France. If we really gave Chalobah a shot, he could be just as good, if not better by this time next year, and have cost us nothing, whilst bringing through a young, English player into the first team.

I just don't get this signing at all.

Chalobah never really stood out in the championship and was never given more than a squad role for his 3 top flight teams and that's for a reason. Bakayoko is a title winner, saying we should abandon this signing for Chalobahs sake is like when people said we should give Kakuta a chance instead of signing Hazard or Todd Kane a chance instead of signing Azpilicueta.

17 minutes ago, the special one said:

Bakayoko may be a 'better player' than Matic but I think it's underestimated how some players just seem to perform well in certain leagues.

Have we ever failed with a signing from the French league?

1 minute ago, Blue_candy said:

Money buys Success, Chalobah isnt as good defensively as Bakayoko.

You see us winning the league with Kante next to Chalobah?

A few years ago would you have seen Spurs fighting for the title 2 years running, with Harry Kane and Deli Ali?

You never know unless you try. We just won the league, against a lot of odds, I;m sure we could handle not winning it next season if it meant blooding a few youngsters.

Using Harry Kane and Dele Alli as an argument to use random youngsters is akin to saying you should give manager's time because of Fergie. For one Kane or Alli there's 100,000 Kakuta's and Januzaj's.

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by Argo

6 minutes ago, Argo said:

Have we ever failed with a signing from the French league?

No, but that doesn't mean we can't fail in future. Just can't see Baka fitting in here but we'll see. Personally I'd keep Matic and throw £100m+ at Soton for van Dijk/Ward-Prowse.

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by the special one

Just now, the special one said:

No, but that doesn't mean we can't fail in future. Just can't see Baka fitting in here but we'll see. Personally I'd keep Matic and throw £100m+ at Soton for van Dijk/Ward-Prowse.

Why not? He's perfect physically for this league. He also helps sort out a major problem which was getting dominated in the middle in big games, especially Spurs, who he shat on both times.

45 minutes ago, Argo said:

Usually when fans are split over a potential signing it's for good reason (say for example Schurrle). But Baka is an exception in my opinion, if he develops well and is coached correctly he will be every bit as good, if not better, than Essien.

How many times have you seen him play last season? Genuinely curious as bar a couple Youtube videos, I know next to nothing about Bakayoko.

Is his first touch as terrible as some make out? What makes you rate him, or his potential rather, so highly?

16 minutes ago, Argo said:

Why not? He's perfect physically for this league. He also helps sort out a major problem which was getting dominated in the middle in big games, especially Spurs, who he shat on both times.

Perfect physically yes, technically however imho I don't think he has the ability or the football IQ to excel in the Premier League (for the same reasons I don't think Loftus-Cheek is well suited for central midfield). As I said I'd be happy for us to sign him, but only in addition to Matic (or, in other words as a like for like replacement for Mikel).

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by the special one

1 minute ago, Amputechture said:

How many times have you seen him play last season? Genuinely curious as bar a couple Youtube videos, I know next to nothing about Bakayoko.

Is his first touch as terrible as some make out? What makes you rate him, or his potential rather, so highly?

A lot in the CL, few times in the French league, downloaded a couple of games when the links became serious and watched numerous all touches videos. He isn't the most technically defined player you are ever likely to see (but neither was Essien). He reminds me a lot of Dembele in his forward burst's, to run 30 plus yards wiping oppo players out in the process is a hugely under-rated asset and is a key reason as to why Monaco have scored so many times.

He won't perform to his maximum every week, but overall i think we are getting a very good player.

Bakayoko may be a 'better player' than Matic but I think it's underestimated how some players just seem to perform well in certain leagues. I hope to be proven wrong but I still think it will be an epic fail if we let Matic go for Bakayoko. Won't get my hopes up but would be happy if we signed Baka in addition to Kante/Cesc/Matic.

Bakayoko couldn't possibly perform worse for us than Matic did for 85% of last season. And in that sense, he's an immediate upgrade who has loads of room to improve being 22 years old.

2 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Bakayoko couldn't possibly perform worse for us than Matic did for 85% of last season. And in that sense, he's an immediate upgrade who has loads of room to improve being 22 years old.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

I'd say Matic performed 85% of the time, and the remaining 15% his performance dipped because we were outnumbered in midfield.

Edited June 23, 20179 yr by the special one

He's 1 year older than Chalobah isn't he? Has played 45 minutes for France. If we really gave Chalobah a shot, he could be just as good, if not better by this time next year, and have cost us nothing, whilst bringing through a young, English player into the first team.
I just don't get this signing at all.

Actually, Chalobah is about 5 months older than him. I have a lot more faith in Baker than Chalobah.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

A few years ago would you have seen Spurs fighting for the title 2 years running, with Harry Kane and Deli Ali?

You never know unless you try. We just won the league, against a lot of odds, I;m sure we could handle not winning it next season if it meant blooding a few youngsters.

Harry kane and Deli Ali are on a different level than Chalobah, we aint going for top four, Conte wants to win the league again.

 

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

He's 1 year older than Chalobah isn't he? Has played 45 minutes for France. If we really gave Chalobah a shot, he could be just as good, if not better by this time next year, and have cost us nothing, whilst bringing through a young, English player into the first team.

I just don't get this signing at all.

I agree, it would have been nice to see Nate dawg get more time to develop on the pitch. I wonder just how good he would be if he had played just as much football at the level Bakayoko has been. Chalobah has always shown a lot of love for the club too, I read somewhere that he has only ever had playing in first XI for Chelsea in his mind. 

We'll have to agree to disagree.
I'd say Matic performed 85% of the time, and the remaining 15% his performance dipped because we were outnumbered in midfield.

Not sure we watched the same Chelsea but yeah we'll definitely have to agree to disagree there. Because Matic had maybe 7 good games during that 13 game win streak and that was it. Reverted back to 15/16 Matic. Incredibly frustrating player.