1 minute ago, abramovich said:

1. Once again, how do you know that? What do you base that on? On half a season at Palace where he wasn't playing box-to-box? And why is he suddenly going to be deadly playing in the middle when he couldn't hit a cow's arse playing further up for months, scoring once in 17 matches? You simply projecting your fantasies and have nothing factual to back them up with.

2. Chalobah didn't want to be a filler, that's why he left. He only had a year left on a contract and refused to extend because he wanted to play regularly, and this season was especially important because of the World Cup.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/08/29/nathaniel-chalobah-had-leave-chelsea-watford/

3. What you imagine, doesn't concern me. I deal with reality and at the moment Ake's right where he's supposed to be based on how good he is now.

4. I don't compare Michy to Tammy. Neither is good enough to play for CFC as of now, but that doesn't mean it cannot change in the future.

1) dominated youth football as a CM. Has the attributed of a ball carrying CM. 1 goal in 17 matches? Its almost like he shouldn't be played on the wing. 

2. Chalobah didn't want to sit on the bench and make only appearances at the end of games and cup matches. I don't know the exact stats but i'd guess Drinkwater has probably made more starts this season than Chalobah did in his last season with us. If he had Drinkwaters opportunities this season he'd be much happier. 

3) In a team that is good enough to beat us. Yup yup. Perhaps it isn't too late to swap Cahill and Ake. 

4) Tammy is a Championship level player so i'm not too concerned discussing him.

4 minutes ago, Slojo said:

And when Ake played at the end of last season after we won the league he was poor, made plenty of mistakes and couldn't cope with the opposition, I believe it was Watford actually.  

Ake has always had talent, but he's never proven himself to be a top top player. A team like Arsenal & Barcelona would have given him more chances to develop, but that's at a greater cost. He's no doubt a talented player but is he top 6 material at the moment? I don't think so. He certainly might have potential but that'll take time and years of experience. Christensen has been given his chance at 21 and he's proven to be fantastic, that's the difference between players like Ake & Christensen, Christensen is already a top 6 level player, could get into every side bar Cities in the Premier League. Ake on the other hand still has quite a way to go and he might never get there. 

Ake is still very suspect defensively imho, if you look at some of the goals Bournemouth have conceded the common denominator seems to be his lack of physicality, something Rudiger/Cahill have in abundance.

Re Bakayoko, for me it has nothing to do with RLC - they both play in different positions. The mistake imho is that we didn't give Chalobah the chance to replace Matic.

Just my tuppence.

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Definitely A) 

However, youngsters are not reliable, you preferably need the experience to be reliable so you need someone to come in and still do a decent job. It's a lot of pressure on a youngster to cover an injured player, DD might still be a good signing for a cover player. However, I still think we overpaid for him. RLC still needs to prove himself, the issue was is that we didn't send him out on loan a lot earlier. 

We'd still have Fabregas there to cover for long term injuries. These youngsters need minutes. Ampadu has impressed more than Baka and DD and CHO has offered more in a few cameos than Pedro all season but this isn't good enough for Conte. 

2 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

We'd still have Fabregas there to cover for long term injuries. These youngsters need minutes. Ampadu has impressed more than Baka and DD and CHO has offered more in a few cameos than Pedro all season but this isn't good enough for Conte. 

Fabregas isn't reliable in a two-man pivot, look at the points we dropped when we only had him and Kante to play earlier in the season. He's literally one of the slowest players in the league. 

That's because you're giving Ampadu the benefit of the doubt more, youngsters get a lot less criticism as they're expected for less. If Ampadu put in the performances Danny Drinkwater has against Stoke at home and Liverpool away we would be hyping Ampadu up to be a world beater. 

DD won the league with Leceister playing majority of the games in central midfield, he's definitely a better player currently than Ampadu is, more experienced and well rounded. 

15 minutes ago, Slojo said:

And when Ake played at the end of last season after we won the league he was poor, made plenty of mistakes and couldn't cope with the opposition, I believe it was Watford actually.  

Ake has always had talent, but he's never proven himself to be a top top player. A team like Arsenal & Barcelona would have given him more chances to develop, but that's at a greater cost. He's no doubt a talented player but is he top 6 material at the moment? I don't think so. He certainly might have potential but that'll take time and years of experience. Christensen has been given his chance at 21 and he's proven to be fantastic, that's the difference between players like Ake & Christensen, Christensen is already a top 6 level player, could get into every side bar Cities in the Premier League. Ake on the other hand still has quite a way to go and he might never get there. 

Played really well against Spurs then only played against Watford with a defence of Terry and Zouma when the season was over, a bit harsh judging on one game when Baka' s had over 25.

11 minutes ago, the special one said:

Ake is still very suspect defensively imho, if you look at some of the goals Bournemouth have conceded the common denominator seems to be his lack of physicality, something Rudiger/Cahill have in abundance.

Re Bakayoko, for me it has nothing to do with RLC - they both play in different positions. The mistake imho is that we didn't give Chalobah the chance to replace Matic.

Just my tuppence.

Just Cahill is useless on the ball and that comes even more apparent when you put him under pressure.

4 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

1) dominated youth football as a CM. Has the attributed of a ball carrying CM. 1 goal in 17 matches? Its almost like he shouldn't be played on the wing. 

2. Chalobah didn't want to sit on the bench and make only appearances at the end of games and cup matches. I don't know the exact stats but i'd guess Drinkwater has probably made more starts this season than Chalobah did in his last season with us. If he had Drinkwaters opportunities this season he'd be much happier. 

3) In a team that is good enough to beat us. Yup yup. Perhaps it isn't too late to swap Cahill and Ake. 

4) Tammy is a Championship level player so i'm not too concerned discussing him.

1. If looking great at a youth level meant anything at a senior level, we'd have saved an absolute fortune in transfer expences and our first team would be full of Chelsea youth graduates, in fact, we'd have enough to sell to other top sides, home and abroad, since we've been dominating youth tournaments for a number of years now. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work like that and RLC is a good example of that. I'm sure he was a tough challenge for his peers due to his size and strength but that advantage disappeared once he had to compete against senior players.

2. Haven't you said Chalobah could have been used as a filler in one of your earlier posts? Well, that's what it means, mostly bench and occasonal appearances.  He didn't want that role, so he left. 

3. Are you seriously suggesting Bournemouth is a better side because they beat us in a one off match?

4. Then why are you discussing him, then?

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

1. Ruben is perfect for the box to box role we have when using the 352. Drinkwater has offered next to nothing this season. RLC on the other hand is getting MOTM performances on the international stage. 

2. If Baka is starting then Chalobah is certainly good enough for that role. If we ain't willing to buy truly world class players, why buy sh*te that aren't better than what we already have. 

3. Past achievements mean absolutely nothing when you're not playing well. Terry won everything but we still moved him on when he wasn't good enough anymore. Ake can offer more than Cahill can.

4. He's a poacher. If Bats gets written off for that reason, Tammy has little chance. 

No one is expecting these youth players to be staring every week. We want them to be the squad filler instead of Drinkwater, Barkley etc. and spend £80m on one truly fantastic player instead of two sh*te players for £40m each. 

1. Don't agree re Reuben best we can say is shows potential and does not move enough for me, a bit too static.

2.  Baka v Chalobah - no discussion Chalobah wanted the move and Baka had just arrived.

3. It's not a question if Ake is better than Cahill, it is more a question is he better than Rudiger, Azpi, Christenen, Luiz or Ampadu?

4. Tammy may have a future role at SB let him have a season with Swansea first. He has not set the league alight yet might in the future, how much chance would he have got up until a month ago if he had stayed.

 

 

 

Does anyone know if the club appealed to get his ban extended?

54 minutes ago, joshCFC17 said:

Does anyone know if the club appealed to get his ban extended?

That joke has been made so many times already, it's starting to wear a bit thin.

4 minutes ago, Valerie said:

That joke has been made so many times already, it's starting to wear a bit thin.

Like Antonio's hair. 

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

That joke has been made so many times already, it's starting to wear a bit thin.

Well I commend everyone for their great sense of humour, and apologies for my lack of seeing the joke.

6 hours ago, Valerie said:

That joke has been made so many times already, it's starting to wear a bit thin.

I thought it was a serious question...

Big decision to be made at seasons end. Sell him or loan him out hopeing somehow he dramatically improves. Only problem is, who the hell would want him? Obviously someone would take him, but I highly doubt it would be s decent team. Could see him back at Monaco. 

so between him, and Morata, we've signed 2 first team players that may only see one season with the club?  And spent close to 100 million on them, collectively.

What's happening with our scouting? Spending loads of money on players that are mediocre, and either injured or coming back for injury. Club starting to look clueless.  Come back Emenalo!

5 minutes ago, mad_mac said:

Come back Emenalo!

Between you and me... he was here when we signed both of them

9 minutes ago, Stim said:

Between you and me... he was here when we signed both of them

lol. yep! I think that he was lining his own pockets and a move to Monaco when he took Baka off their hands

Set to miss the United game through injury. 

So what do we reckon, is he actually injured? Or is Conte taking him out of the firing line after a run of bad performances culminating in the shambles that was the Watford game? 

Looked all right in the latest training video, unless that was someone else, but it looked like him.

38 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Set to miss the United game through injury. 

So what do we reckon, is he actually injured? Or is Conte taking him out of the firing line after a run of bad performances culminating in the shambles that was the Watford game? 

I don’t think anyone really cares why he’s not playing at this point. Unless we’re ravished by injuries in the middle I think his season is over, it’s crunch time and we can’t afford to keep carrying him in hope he’ll come good. 

I wonder if we'll give him another chance next season, or just cut our losses and sell him in the summer (or more likely - loan him, since I can't see many teams wanting to buy him).

50 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I wonder if we'll give him another chance next season, or just cut our losses and sell him in the summer (or more likely - loan him, since I can't see many teams wanting to buy him).

I would cut our losses, and try and use him as a makeweight for a better player. 

 

2 minutes ago, big blue said:

I would cut our losses, and try and use him as a makeweight for a better player. 

May not be easy because Lyon apparently have a buy option, but the best case scenario for me would be we sign Ndombele from Amiens with Bakayoko leaving for Lyon.

We spent £40M on him though, i reckon Chelsea will give him another season.

2 hours ago, big blue said:

I would cut our losses, and try and use him as a makeweight for a better player. 

 

I agree. I am all for giving a player time, but i seen nothing special in Bakayoko before we signed him and i'm not seeing it now either. Do players usually recover from being this poor? Players go through tough times, lose a bit of form and take a bit of time to get used to a new league, but they at least show something that gives you a bit of hope, i'm not seeing this from Bakayoko.