5 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Hmm I think we all would have Matic over Drinkwater. As poor as Matic was flr large periods of time its obvious hes a far superior footballer to Danny Drinkwater 

Give over, matic was hammered last season and the majority claimed they didn't want him to ever play for us again, just get rid etc. If he had gone to juve no one would give a sh*t about him.

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

Give over, matic was hammered last season and the majority claimed they didn't want him to ever play for us again, just get rid etc. If he had gone to juve no one would give a sh*t about him.

Give over? By saying matic is a superior footballer than Drinkwater....it's pretty obvious to all he is for goodness sake. 

He was sold to our rivals to strengthen them and weaken us that's the issue. We have a bad habit of selling our first team players to direct rivals while it rarely happens the other way round. We are a soft touch.

Matic wasn't great for us for long periods but he was still an important squad player and one we are crying out for now given the sheer stupidity of our board. They knew fine well Bakayoko was injured and wouldn't be match fit for a long time given he missed pre season. Still they sold him without a replacement and loaned out the remaining midfield options of cover again without having anyone here to replace them. And guess what? We go into Spurs away with 1 available midfielder, it's sheer incompetence from the board. 

You can be blind to the above if you wish but it's clear loads of us on here and in the pubs are not. 

I think the most unsettling thing is, we don't seem to be making much activity right now.
Sure, I could eat my words if we sign a player by the end of the week but it doesn't FEEL like right now the board are busy with a transfer.
 

9 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

I think the most unsettling thing is, we don't seem to be making much activity right now.
Sure, I could eat my words if we sign a player by the end of the week but it doesn't FEEL like right now the board are busy with a transfer.
 

Personally believe our transfer business is done this window. That is your lot conte , good luck. 

All gone very quiet on the transfer rumours front which is a little worrying.

26 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Give over? By saying matic is a superior footballer than Drinkwater....it's pretty obvious to all he is for goodness sake. 

He was sold to our rivals to strengthen them and weaken us that's the issue. We have a bad habit of selling our first team players to direct rivals while it rarely happens the other way round. We are a soft touch.

Matic wasn't great for us for long periods but he was still an important squad player and one we are crying out for now given the sheer stupidity of our board. They knew fine well Bakayoko was injured and wouldn't be match fit for a long time given he missed pre season. Still they sold him without a replacement and loaned out the remaining midfield options of cover again without having anyone here to replace them. And guess what? We go into Spurs away with 1 available midfielder, it's sheer incompetence from the board. 

You can be blind to the above if you wish but it's clear loads of us on here and in the pubs are not. 

No, give over that all would have matic over Drinkwater if both were in our squad. The stick he took last season here was massively over the top, I know for a fact if both were available the majority on here would say play Drinkwater.

As for matic being better, I've never claimed anything else so I don't know why you went of on one. I often defended him as I saw what he brought to our team.

Edited August 13, 20178 yr by dkw

36 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

Who in the current market can we obtain who will be happy with a lesser role within the side?

Ok, I don't spend enough time glued to the foreign league coverage or websites to give a few names. But there have been enough players bought and sold this summer that we could have been signed by us. Or are we that unattractive? My point really is that settling for lesser players to simply say we have squad depth isn't right in my eyes. I would really expect the club to sign players that they truly believe could make themselves one of the first 11 on the team sheet during the season. Someone that Bakayoko, Moses or Luiz has to win their place back from, not simply end a suspension or recover from injury. That's what strength in depth is, not just a long list of players like Arsenal had in the Charity Shield. We used to have that, in fact nearly two 11's that could both challenge for the title. Now I'm not really convinced our first 11 is good enough. Moses might have been a one season wonder, and as good as William and Pedro are, I'd love to see a player who makes them fear periods on the bench.

Anyway, it's safe to say that we are not going to be in that position this season now and we just need to hope we can stop collecting red cards and getting any more injuries.

Drinkwater wouldn't do us any harm as such, especially in the circumstances, but he's not the kind of signing that I feel puts Kante or Bakayoko under any pressure at all.

11 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Personally believe our transfer business is done this window. That is your lot conte , good luck. 

Forget CL then we should just focus on making sure we get top 4.

17 minutes ago, dkw said:

No, give over that all would have matic over Drinkwater if both were in our squad. The stick he took last season here was massively over the top, I know for a fact if both were available the majority on here would say play Drinkwater.

As for matic being better, I've never claimed anything else so I don't know why you went of on one. I often defended him as I saw what he brought to our team.

Most of the time the man was praised for doing very well beside Kante i seem to remember. I am sure some people did go over the top after the first six games or when we had that slightly dodgy run towards the end but i'd say the majority was very happy with him last season.

To sell him to United without even being close to a replacement is incredible of us. And it's going to cost us dearly.

 

Matic, I used to blog on CFC net and he was hammered over there, the main issue I see is letting Chalobah go early.

I think part of the problem is penny pinching , we have maximised revenue by getting rid of all surplus players to Conte's requirements, while trying to browbeat oppositions teams into giving us a discount.

They are not willing to give us a discount so we are in haggling mode and risk a making a bad start worse.

 

Edited August 13, 20178 yr by strider6004

1 hour ago, jack_super_class said:

Forget CL then we should just focus on making sure we get top 4.

Cl? As in winning it? Yeah that is a tough ask .

14 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Cl? As in winning it? Yeah that is a tough ask .

I mean don't even bother getting out of the group, we don't have the squad for it.

1 hour ago, TomCFC85 said:

I think the most unsettling thing is, we don't seem to be making much activity right now.
Sure, I could eat my words if we sign a player by the end of the week but it doesn't FEEL like right now the board are busy with a transfer.
 

I don't know. Emenalo was at the game and even he should acknowledge privately that we need someone to cover the CM position. 

 

For what it's worth, I thought Matic wasn't really utilized properly. He played in a predominantly midfield 2 and needed to cover Fabregas while not having the pace to cover the ground quickly enough. He seems the type to sit and anticipate passing lanes and have the occasional run instead of being a B2B CM which he had to be for most of his time here. Overall he was a good servant for the club when he was here. 

8 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

I mean don't even bother getting out of the group, we don't have the squad for it.

I agree, we should just give the under 18s a run at it unless the board does something sharpish. We need the extra time to recuperate and plan whilst bedding the new signings anyway

3 hours ago, Snedger said:

Ok, I don't spend enough time glued to the foreign league coverage or websites to give a few names. But there have been enough players bought and sold this summer that we could have been signed by us. Or are we that unattractive? My point really is that settling for lesser players to simply say we have squad depth isn't right in my eyes. I would really expect the club to sign players that they truly believe could make themselves one of the first 11 on the team sheet during the season. Someone that Bakayoko, Moses or Luiz has to win their place back from, not simply end a suspension or recover from injury. That's what strength in depth is, not just a long list of players like Arsenal had in the Charity Shield. We used to have that, in fact nearly two 11's that could both challenge for the title. Now I'm not really convinced our first 11 is good enough. Moses might have been a one season wonder, and as good as William and Pedro are, I'd love to see a player who makes them fear periods on the bench.

Anyway, it's safe to say that we are not going to be in that position this season now and we just need to hope we can stop collecting red cards and getting any more injuries.

Drinkwater wouldn't do us any harm as such, especially in the circumstances, but he's not the kind of signing that I feel puts Kante or Bakayoko under any pressure at all.

Trust me, I don't either.

And I agree that we can do better however the market has changed. PSG, Madrid, United and City dominate this market and can offer the wages that we simply can't. Sign of the times.

Moses, Alonso and Cahill need to be upgraded and when they are, we will have a brilliant side.

I'd take Drinkwater at this point, I'm sorry. 

23 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

I'd take Drinkwater at this point, I'm sorry. 

It sucks to settle for him, but I am leaning towards agreeing with you.

5 hours ago, dkw said:

So Bakayoko, rudiger and morata aren't proper buys now? Bullsh*t.

Drinkwater's a good squad buy, I'm certain if matic was still here most would want Drinkwater to replace him in the squad.

 Not from the postings I am seeing here.  

I think the important thing is if Conte wants him or not. If he does we should buy him, if he does not we should not. Let Conte succeed or Fail based on us getting the players he wants that we can sign. He turned Moses in to a decent player so who knows, maybe this could work out a good signing. I still do not see it happening though.

6 hours ago, dkw said:

No, give over that all would have matic over Drinkwater if both were in our squad. The stick he took last season here was massively over the top, I know for a fact if both were available the majority on here would say play Drinkwater.

As for matic being better, I've never claimed anything else so I don't know why you went of on one. I often defended him as I saw what he brought to our team.

I think we weren't happy with him as our main man because he turns into a zombie quite frequently but as a squad player at least until Jan when bakayoko is fit who wouldn't want him especially to a rival that badly needs a player in his mould, complete bollox from the board.  

We won the league twice with matic as central midfield main man. His energy and even forward drive consistently under rated on this board.

We need Drinkwater or better. Personally I'd relegate Fab to no 3 midfielder Hard to understand how we can do better this year if Fab is mostly going to be in the starting 11.

58 minutes ago, ozboy said:

We won the league twice with matic as central midfield main man. His energy and even forward drive consistently under rated on this board.

We need Drinkwater or better. Personally I'd relegate Fab to no 3 midfielder Hard to understand how we can do better this year if Fab is mostly going to be in the starting 11.

He is our third choice midfielder. Once boko gets fit, he will start

does anybody know why we can't call back van ginkel for cm? shouldn't have let him go, he did pretty well by all accounts last season. 

2 hours ago, ozboy said:

We won the league twice with matic as central midfield main man. His energy and even forward drive consistently under rated on this board.

We need Drinkwater or better. Personally I'd relegate Fab to no 3 midfielder Hard to understand how we can do better this year if Fab is mostly going to be in the starting 11.

i would say last season kante was our most important player behind costa and hazard. matic never offered enough going forward and defensively he wasn't that strong. i remember many people saying we should play fabregas instead for this very reason. maybe he just needed to be given a different role like at man utd, but i'm not sure. i still think he flatters to deceive over the course of a season. even in his best season here under mourinho second time around he played well for half a season and tapered off, then his form dipped considerably and it continued for more than another season. he will have great games, but he will have plenty stinkers. 

21 hours ago, JMaher94 said:

Drinkwater is replacing Chalobah.

Are people expecting us to sign the likes of Nainggolan (I know he's signed a contract before someone says) for him to be sitting on the bench?

Whilst I think our dealings have been poor, lets not pretend that Drinkwater is being bought to be in our starting XI.

 

I get your point but I remember the times when the likes of Nainggollan would have been lucky to get a place on our bench. I think it's more of a question of our ambition and willingness to spend. City has some top quality players on their bench nowadays, for example and I doubt it's due to their great negotiating skills.

Edited August 14, 20178 yr by abramovich