January Window 17/18

[Bulshizza]

Does Moses/Zappa have sth special?

[Ernie_blue]

6 hours ago, Alakshendra said:

May be i am wrong but i think we are still not upgrading our squad , first we saw City making a real strong team and now Liverpool working to get Riyad Mahrez , Lemar also having inclination there , naby keita 

Hazard ,Courtois having rumors of moving to RM (atleast that what rumors are running around) and Morata is still not able to be at his best , i am now really confused what the club is thinking to do? i am also a blues fan and want chelsea to win but with this squad i dont have the confidence , Alonso did good but i think Alonso and Moses both are not that good, we need some signings specially a LWB and forward 

You are not wrong, this first team is not good enough to win the league and without improving the first team will always finish a fair distance away from City, Utd will always spend and Liverpool are making good strides.

[Ernie_blue]

7 hours ago, Jackbuchanan said:

I agree. But personally i'm quite happy with DDW and Zappa. Barkley could also be OK, especially for what we paid. Baka, sh*te, Bats, pretty neutral on that one.

Personally i feel midfield is packed, defence is packed. All we need is a solid LWB and another good striker. Lets hope!!

Doesn't matter if its packed if the quality is staying the same.

[TomCFC85]

Really don't think we're going to sign anyone else this window...

[Theafonis]

50 minutes ago, TomCFC85 said:

Really don't think we're going to sign anyone else this window...

Yeah not much news. I thought we’d atleast see rumours for Sanchez considering we badly need goal scorers and he’s one of the few top players not cup tied that can play in the champions league — exactly what we need right now. 

[Alakshendra]

Everyone talks about leftback , moses himself is not showing the skills that we can feel the confidence , we sure need sandro why to go for Alex tells , Sandro is 26 get him in and make him sign a 5 year contract , we sure need to free Febregas so he can play freely and move up the field . now seems another name in rumor of another midfielder Radja Nainggolan but i dont see the need nor the space 

we need a big name who can give chills to opposition Sanchez or bale (thought i dont trust him , he gets injured like every 2nd week) but we need someone who can ease pressure from morata and hazard , why not Ivan Perisic

[Famous CFC]

Jake Clarke-Salter out on loan to Sunderland till the end of the season. Great move for the kid, and he gets to work with Chris Coleman who is a gem. Great man-manager. 

[Valerie]

Speaking of loans: I thought Kenedy was supposed to go on loan to Newcastle in January, after that deal apparently fell through in the summer window? And yet there he was starting last Saturday.

[Spiller86]

I reckon he'll go after we source cover for Alonso and we work out what to do with Baba.

[Adamrb]

So nostrong rumours of any genuine top talents coming to the bridge this January. I’m not shocked or even that disappointed. But... if we are trying to be self sufficient, Roman and the board need to understand that we will be unable to challenge for major honours consistently. You buy too many players from the second tier, guess what, you become a second tier team.

It’s not like we’re even being cost effective. Why spend 75m on ddw and Baka. Just use rlc and buy a genuine top player.

We’ve been spoilt as chels fans over the past 10+ years so I don’t want to come across as a dick, but I just hope the board know where we are heading and have realistic expectations. But I can imagine conte walks/gets pushed because he finished 3rd and lost to Barca - which would actually be a decent return from the squad at his disposal.

[Munkunku]

2 hours ago, Valerie said:

Speaking of loans: I thought Kenedy was supposed to go on loan to Newcastle in January, after that deal apparently fell through in the summer window? And yet there he was starting last Saturday.

I think I saw somewhere Baba could be going back to Schalke on loan. 

[Ballack & Blu]

We need a top back up Striker desperately, cos Bats is pants!, why not go head on with Citeh for Sanchez?

[goodeggs]

10 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

why not go head on with Citeh for Sanchez?

No chance would Sanchez, or Arsenal for that matter, opt for us over city.

He gets to reunite with a former manager and join a team competing for silverware on all fronts and Arsenal gets to sell to a team who isn't a direct derby rival.

We may have let them have Cech, but he wasn't our 1st choice at the time. They're not going to offload their current best player to us.

Scary thing is I can only see him making city better than they already are, be a perfect fit for them.

[goodeggs]

"ArsenalFanTV? @ArsenalFanTV 1h1 hour ago

Alexis Sánchez has agreed a contract with Man City worth £13m-a-year. He has two options: Sign in January, Arsenal get £20m and he gets a £15m signing bonus. Or sign for free in July and get a £30m signing bonus. [Di Marzio]"

[Zeta]

How the hell is anyonr going to challenge city when they sign so many good players and spend so much. I can forsee a similar unchallenged season next year as well. 

[CFCholland]

City are doing what we shouldve done last summer. We won the league fairly easy last year, but instead strengthening our position by attracting some top players, we weakened our squad. City, despite absolutely walking the league this year, are already looking to strengthen. It looks like they are going to make a big step and become one of Europe's biggest teams along with Barca, Madrid and Bayern.

We've had a couple opportunities to do the same, but every year we look like we're not too far off, we sit back and let the squad deteriorate.

[Pendergast]

And what's even the more scandalous about this "policy", this is not the first time we act like this. We bought no one in 2011, then in 2015 the same, 2017 - we just changed few names. 

It looks like our board prefers to spend his money over new classy managers, to bring their ideas with themselves, to surprise the competetion and then to sack them. It's probably cheaper this way nowadays than spending whole amount of money for players. 

[CFCCAN]

1 hour ago, CFCholland said:

City are doing what we shouldve done last summer. We won the league fairly easy last year, but instead strengthening our position by attracting some top players, we weakened our squad. City, despite absolutely walking the league this year, are already looking to strengthen. It looks like they are going to make a big step and become one of Europe's biggest teams along with Barca, Madrid and Bayern.

We've had a couple opportunities to do the same, but every year we look like we're not too far off, we sit back and let the squad deteriorate.

We are not a 'big' team anymore.  We can all see what is happening; the EPL will end up just like the other European Leagues, one or two dominate teams with the rest being also ran's fighting for the scraps, unfortunately we are one of the 'also ran's'

[Chelsbear]

35 minutes ago, CFCCAN said:

We are not a 'big' team anymore.  We can all see what is happening; the EPL will end up just like the other European Leagues, one or two dominate teams with the rest being also ran's fighting for the scraps, unfortunately we are one of the 'also ran's'

I see this happening tbh.

The gap in spending is rising every year while we look like only spending big if we sell players for good profit.
 

I think Roman has thought he's spent enough solely on his own and is trying to make us self efficient which of course is no bad thing but it will end in us playing catch up to 2 or 3 teams in this league because the City's and United's will continue to splash silly money on players every window to improve while we will take low cost (relatively) on promising players.

We had our chance last season to build on our winning side with Sandro, Vidal, Lukaku, VVD and so on being linked but we replaced Costa with Morata and Matic with Bakayoko who IMO weakened us as I see the players who left as better fit's for our side.

The few plus points in the window has been Rudiger and brining back Christensen who look like they will go on to become very good players for us.

Both wingbacks have done well in Moses and Alonso in particular but it really does need better players to come in for those areas especially RWB. Zappacosta has shown glimpses in attack but in defence he's very shaky IMO.

 

[Famous CFC]

Good luck to Manchester City. If Sanchez wants go there, then Sane, Sterling or Aguero will have to leave. Someone is going to get the hump so it's maybe one good player in, one out. 

And Chelsea are a big club, they just haven't had a good a season as last year, and City have had a great season so far. 

Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Spurs, Liverpool and City are all fighting it out. There can only be one, hey, this could be City 5 years in the sun. We dominated for back to back years. United threepeated. That's football. All those of you sulking because Chelsea are not getting the deals you want and then saying we are a small club need relax and understand the way football works. Some fans on here sound like spoilt brats. You don't hear Manchester United fans calling themselves a small club because they ain't clocking titles at the minute or signing the best players. City are flying and everything is going right for them. There bubble will burst and it will be onto the next team for their time in the sun. 

So to all you brothers and sisters who seem to be overreacting and going way over the top..

 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Famous CFC

[goodeggs]

3 hours ago, CFCholland said:

City are doing what we shouldve done last summer. We won the league fairly easy last year, but instead strengthening our position by attracting some top players, we weakened our squad. City, despite absolutely walking the league this year, are already looking to strengthen. It looks like they are going to make a big step and become one of Europe's biggest teams along with Barca, Madrid and Bayern.

We've had a couple opportunities to do the same, but every year we look like we're not too far off, we sit back and let the squad deteriorate.

Exactly this. It's so frustrating that everyone except the board seems to be able to see this. We had great momentum last year after winning the league. Antonio Conte was being heralded as one of the best managers in world football after having bested Mourinho and Pep. It seemed only natural that we would sign some good quality players, strengthen the squad around Hazard and mount a strong European challenge this season.

I don't know if the issue was money, players preferring other clubs, bad negotiating or boardroom politics and egos that are getting in the way of the club's growth. We're clearly not top dogs in terms of spending anymore but I've always felt that Roman was prepared to back his ambitions for the club when needed. 

Maybe the impending cost of the new stadium is meaning purse strings are being tightened. Yet what's the point of having a world class stadium if your no longer ambitious to compete with the world's best?

If the issue is money, then it seems like the club hasn't had the foresight to realise that if we can no longer buy ready made top level players, then we need to stop shipping out younger players only for them to come good at other clubs and not wish to return. We've had the best youth team for years now but don't seem to be able to capitalise on it because we only sign 'big names', or at least used too. 

[ChelseaFanBoy]

Icardi from Inter Milan would've been a great addition to Chelsea as Seville look to snatch Batshuwayi in the January window. Unfortunately it appears that Icardi has just passed a Real Madrid medical ?

Not sure if the news is authentic or not. We will find out soon enough.

[dansubrosa]

I have no idea why we arent even in for Sanchez. He’s available for 35m ffs! 

[CFCCAN]

2 hours ago, Famous CFC said:

Good luck to Manchester City. If Sanchez wants go there, then Sane, Sterling or Aguero will have to leave. Someone is going to get the hump so it's maybe one good player in, one out. 

And Chelsea are a big club, they just haven't had a good a season as last year, and City have had a great season so far. 

Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Spurs, Liverpool and City are all fighting it out. There can only be one, hey, this could be City 5 years in the sun. We dominated for back to back years. United threepeated. That's football. All those of you sulking because Chelsea are not getting the deals you want and then saying we are a small club need relax and understand the way football works. Some fans on here sound like spoilt brats. You don't hear Manchester United fans calling themselves a small club because they ain't clocking titles at the minute or signing the best players. City are flying and everything is going right for them. There bubble will burst and it will be onto the next team for their time in the sun. 

So to all you brothers and sisters who seem to be overreacting and going way over the top..

 

IMO Non one is over reacting....and I for one am not a trophy hunter (remembering the good old days of relegation) and do not expect us to win everything all the time.  Its just continually frustrating that we continually fail to refresh our winning squads when we have the opportunity to do so, and when we do add 'squad' players they are generally no better than the players we move on.  Isn't the idea of the club to continually improve; defend the title, take one more step forward in cup competitions?   We have tended to stagnant and remain status quo. RM are paying the price this season for not refreshing their squad.

Fighting on as many fronts as we are privileged to do requires WC or near to WC players, especially if the expectation going into them is to win these competitions; if the expectation is to simply 'do well' then I guess we'll stick with mediocre or just above average players that we seemingly are attracting these days.  CFC don't come into my top 5 in terms of 'big clubs' currently.     

[dansubrosa]

It’s been a long time since we used to reach at least the semi’s in most champions league tournaments, now a quarter final would seem like a great achievement.

I miss being one of the best in Europe. Everyone used to really fear us, with Lamps and Drogba.