1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Hope it happens. We get our money back and he gets to play. Win win.

Maybe they would like to pay the same for baka and make it their midfield two?

I dont get why DD is so under-rated by people. He is not a world class player, but he is solid PL CM. Would be a great cover/squad player.

He's been great disgracefully by conte, I don't blame him for wanting to leave. 

3 hours ago, didierforever said:

I dont get why DD is so under-rated by people. He is not a world class player, but he is solid PL CM. Would be a great cover/squad player.

Got to admit to being completely underwhelmed when we signed him. I think Leicester was his level and fair enough he helped them win the PL but we're looking to compete with teams like City, Utd and Spurs and he wouldn't be getting into those sides.

 

On 13/04/2018 at 13:44, Nibs said:

What a waste of time transfer this was. Never thought we needed Drinkwater - extremely underwhelming signing so no surprise how it has turned out and we'd have been better of keeping Chalobah or Ake (won't say RLC as I know he needed more game time).

 

 

Chalobah wanted to leave regardless of DD coming in, Ake is a defender. Not sure what you mean by Ake. 

We needed DD because we needed to have a more stable midfield as otherwise we'd have to keep playing Bakayoko despite his mistakes. Thankfully we signed DD, rotated the midfield and had him play alongside Kante and we are now comfortably in 3rd place. 

5 minutes ago, benjsross said:

Chalobah wanted to leave regardless of DD coming in, Ake is a defender. Not sure what you mean by Ake. 

We needed DD because we needed to have a more stable midfield as otherwise we'd have to keep playing Bakayoko despite his mistakes. Thankfully we signed DD, rotated the midfield and had him play alongside Kante and we are now comfortably in 3rd place. 

Another flaw of Conte's. If he knew how to rotate, Chalobah would have stayed. Despite impressing last year he got a handful of minutes on the pitch. Ake was given the same treatment, pulled back from a good loan to just sit on the bench or in the stands. 

19 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Got to admit to being completely underwhelmed when we signed him. I think Leicester was his level and fair enough he helped them win the PL but we're looking to compete with teams like City, Utd and Spurs and he wouldn't be getting into those sides.

 

Spurs have dier starting for them.

United have herrera and fellaini as their CM options.

Pool have OX who himself does not know what his best position is, and irrespective of the position, is just bang average. Lallana, Can, Wjinaldum are there CM options. 

Arsenal have elneny. 

I would say I would take DD over any and all the names i mentioned above. city is probably the only team that DD would get into.

Moreover, you cant have a squad of 25 world class players. DD is a solid player. Can easily slot in and do the job, probably more. Our performance against united was probably the best midfield performance sans ATM this season. 

If we had kept Chalobah then it was a different condition and circumstance. But currently, given the options of all the midfield in our roster (cesc, baka, RLC, empadu, MVG, mount), DD is easily the best option for us in a 2-man mid besides Kante. Selling him would be crazy in my opinion.  

Edited May 2, 20188 yr by didierforever

Still think he is average and to be fair, he has been injured a fair bit.

1 hour ago, didierforever said:

Spurs have dier starting for them.

United have herrera and fellaini as their CM options.

Pool have OX who himself does not know what his best position is, and irrespective of the position, is just bang average. Lallana, Can, Wjinaldum are there CM options. 

Arsenal have elneny. 

I would say I would take DD over any and all the names i mentioned above. city is probably the only team that DD would get into.

Moreover, you cant have a squad of 25 world class players. DD is a solid player. Can easily slot in and do the job, probably more. Our performance against united was probably the best midfield performance sans ATM this season. 

If we had kept Chalobah then it was a different condition and circumstance. But currently, given the options of all the midfield in our roster (cesc, baka, RLC, empadu, MVG, mount), DD is easily the best option for us in a 2-man mid besides Kante. Selling him would be crazy in my opinion.  

My view is that we are unlikely to continue with a two man midfield next season. Even if we did continue, we need a significant box to box upgrade in that area anyway. Selling Danny would then likely have little impact. 

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Still think he is average and to be fair, he has been injured a fair bit.

You're right, he has been injured and to be honest rarely starred when he has played. I think we signed him as a solid homegrown option, but with Barkley now coming in and RLC and Ampadu progressing nicely we have less need for homegrown numbers and more need for genuine box to box quality in midfield.

How much did we pay for him? £25m? It was a gross misuse of money for someone who was never going to be anything other than a decent backup. 

45 minutes ago, Remodez said:

How much did we pay for him? £25m? It was a gross misuse of money for someone who was never going to be anything other than a decent backup. 

try £35m.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

Still think he is average and to be fair, he has been injured a fair bit.

He is a good player. Cesc and Baka are looking UP at "average" currently. As for injury, I feel its the same one that luiz probably has.

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

My view is that we are unlikely to continue with a two man midfield next season. Even if we did continue, we need a significant box to box upgrade in that area anyway. Selling Danny would then likely have little impact. 

Even if we do move away from a 2 man mid, except for kante do we real have to good CMs? If we are in europa (seems most likely), then I would keep RLC, Empadu for sure and give them the EL games as well as cup games. But we still need 3 CMs (considering one is Kante). Cesc? Baka? Mvg? Unless we go out and buy the likes of Jorginho who definitely improve our starting 11, I dont see the point of selling DD. We will still need numbers and will probably buy some one worse like baka. 

awww bless.  Drnkwater and Luiz not getting picked because they don't laugh at Conte's witticisms, or they touched Conte's wife's arse or something.  Football management is really easy in FIFA land, ain't it?  Probably Drinkwater's youtube highlights reel makes him look like prime Zidane.  Sadly, he never does that on the pitch, where it matters.

32 minutes ago, didierforever said:

He is a good player. Cesc and Baka are looking UP at "average" currently. As for injury, I feel its the same one that luiz probably has.

Even if we do move away from a 2 man mid, except for kante do we real have to good CMs? If we are in europa (seems most likely), then I would keep RLC, Empadu for sure and give them the EL games as well as cup games. But we still need 3 CMs (considering one is Kante). Cesc? Baka? Mvg? Unless we go out and buy the likes of Jorginho who definitely improve our starting 11, I dont see the point of selling DD. We will still need numbers and will probably buy some one worse like baka. 

This is just my point. Currently we don't have good box to box central midfielders (beyond Kante) I think we need to buy one, possibly two in the summer. We missed massive tricks last season not being in for genuine box to box players like Matuidi, Keita or Tolisso and instead buying Bakayoko and Danny.

I would keep Drinkwater if we can do no better but of our current midfield he would be first to go, that includes Bakayoko who I think offers some power that we lack otherwise. 

4 hours ago, didierforever said:

Spurs have dier starting for them.

United have herrera and fellaini as their CM options.

Pool have OX who himself does not know what his best position is, and irrespective of the position, is just bang average. Lallana, Can, Wjinaldum are there CM options. 

Arsenal have elneny. 

I would say I would take DD over any and all the names i mentioned above. city is probably the only team that DD would get into.

Moreover, you cant have a squad of 25 world class players. DD is a solid player. Can easily slot in and do the job, probably more. Our performance against united was probably the best midfield performance sans ATM this season. 

If we had kept Chalobah then it was a different condition and circumstance. But currently, given the options of all the midfield in our roster (cesc, baka, RLC, empadu, MVG, mount), DD is easily the best option for us in a 2-man mid besides Kante. Selling him would be crazy in my opinion.  

Dr bruyne silva fernandinho

matic pogba Herrera 

can Henderson Milner ox

dembele wanyama Dier

Personally i wouldn't take dd over any of those players. He maybe could've had more game time since the turn of the year, as we've been playing pretty poor. I don't think he has played particularly when given a chance, certainly not well enough to force conte's hand. 

Shouldn't have signed him in the summer, hopefully we recoup most of the fee when he moves on. 

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

try £35m.

Jesus, that's even worse. Almost as much as we paid for Bakayoko.

we wouldn't have had to sign drinkwater if loftus-cheek wasn't trying to be pushed into a forward role. madness that conte even tried that with loftus-cheek.

don't think drinkwater is a poor player, just hasn't had a chance this season as been injured majority of it which is frustrating. barkley hasn't been given a go either, despite bakayoko's poor form recently. 

Edited May 2, 20188 yr by enigma

20 minutes ago, big blue said:

Dr bruyne silva fernandinho

matic pogba Herrera 

can Henderson Milner ox

dembele wanyama Dier

Personally i wouldn't take dd over any of those players. He maybe could've had more game time since the turn of the year, as we've been playing pretty poor. I don't think he has played particularly when given a chance, certainly not well enough to force conte's hand. 

Shouldn't have signed him in the summer, hopefully we recoup most of the fee when he moves on. 

Depends on the formation, Pogba could never play in a midfield 2 and people love to laugh at Utd's expense with the money they spent on him. I think those Liverpool midfielders are good but not great, I would say DD is on the same level. I would even say Spurs midfield is around the same level if only a little better, none of those players have the passing ability of DD. The problem is on what evidence do we have to compare him with? Been injured a lot and when he is around he barely makes the bench, his confidence must be sh*t compared to players who consistently play and have the managers backing, this season has been a disaster all round. If Conte could manage a squad I reckon we would see a much better DD.

1 minute ago, enigma said:

don't think drinkwater is a poor player, just hasn't had a chance this season as been injured majority of it which is frustrating. barkley hasn't been given a go either, despite bakayoko's poor form recently. 

Barkley has just warmed the bench for the last month, f**k knows what is going on there. 4 games and 0mins, only Conte 

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

How much did we pay for him? £25m? It was a gross misuse of money for someone who was never going to be anything other than a decent backup. 

Might be in the new manager's plans so there is still hope.

3 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Barkley has just warmed the bench for the last month, f**k knows what is going on there. 4 games and 0mins, only Conte 

The lack of match fitness might have something to do with it. He's played about 2 matches in nearly 12 months. 

considering we got kante for an absolute steal, i don't think what we bought dd for is a big issue. it was the same price liverpool bought fecking chamberlain for. the same for barkley, we saved about 20m on that deal too, only getting him for 15m. 

3 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

The lack of match fitness might have something to do with it. He's played about 2 matches in nearly 12 months. 

That makes no sense, if he couldn't play you don't put him on the bench surely. 0mins in 4 games, might aswell have stayed at home. If his not match fit how can he build his match fitness up with 0mins 

Edited May 2, 20188 yr by Ernie_blue

3 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

The lack of match fitness might have something to do with it. He's played about 2 matches in nearly 12 months. 

but emerson hadn't played a competitive match and came in and has played 3 full games on the bounce. i don't believe the fitness issue, i think conte just prefers to use two defensive midfielders for some reason. barkley is supposed to be more of a box to box (not sure though) so it would make sense to have him in the first team instead of bakayoko. if not for a full game, at least start him or bring him on for 30 mins. it's been evident for a while bakayoko doesn't actually pose a threat offensively. when you're trying to win games, it surely makes sense to have barkley on the field over bakayoko. 

Edited May 2, 20188 yr by enigma

I find it a little amusing that we have people  pushing the case for Drinkwater or Barkley as "they haven't been given a chance", despite the both of them being injured throughout most of their time at the club.

The bottom line about both of these is that the majority of us were severely underwhelmed at the rumours of us buying these two, amongst others, and, if they weren't already here, none of us would be clamouring for us to go  out and buy these two as a solution to our midfield problems.  No-one.  Not even those with an anti-Conte agenda would be putting these two at the top of their shopping list for the summer.

 

The Youtube generation of fans might well witter on about Drinkwater, the number of chances he's had and how, when they play Football manager, he's really, really better than most of the other top 6 midfields, but someone, @Nibs I think, said that he found his level at Leicester, and that is still his level.  The whole Leicester team played out of their skins for one season, we bought their best player, their second best player has been whored around the last two transfer windows,  but not actually bought by anyone, and then we bought one of their journeyman midfielders.  

Would anyone be jumping up  and down with excitement if we were being linked with Danny Drinkwater or Barkely this summer?  Of course they wouldn't.  But no, to some twats, it's all the manager's fault.