If this happens it might be cash and a player going their way.

Scored a stunner tonight

34 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Scored a stunner tonight

Adding a few more million to his price tag.

It was the only thing he did all night,but it was a good goal. Stronger and tougher than any of our forwards. 

18 hours ago, Bluesince66 said:

If this happens it might be cash and a player going their way.

Roy Hodgson can be a bit choosy and after losing their crown jewel I'm not sure they would to want squad fillers. 

On 15/12/2019 at 15:04, Bluesince66 said:

Here are some premier league stats on Zaha for the past 3 seasons;

2017: 7 goals and 9 assists
2018: 9 goals and 3 assists
2019: 10 goals and 5 assists

He is a player that seems to have been improving every year and whilst playing for Crystal Palace.

As a Chelsea man, I have to say the above statistics should be the minimum of what we need from our attacking wingers. Unfortunately, no matter how good our wingers have been recently they leave a lot to be desired from a goals/ assists perspective which is what matters in the end.

Willian is a very good dribbler of the ball but his end product isn't good enough. Pedro is very inconsistent. Pulisic and CHO are young players and will come good.

If Wilf is attainable in January then maybe we look to sign him just silly money may be downfull

I don’t feel those numbers are that impressive, granted our current core of wingers in recent years bar Hazard have been poor contribution wise. To put things in perspective Mane at 22 posted 10+ goals in consecutive seasons playing for Southampton. Zaha in comparison is at his peak now and playing an unrestricted role for Crystal Palace.

If we are to spend anywhere near £80m on any winger playing outside the top 6 for me it will be Richarlison every time. He is 22 and has posted 10+ goals in consecutive seasons, and on course to match that this season also.

21 hours ago, rtwelch said:

We need a player that will score 1 in every 2 games not 1 in 4. 

From a wide player? good luck finding one. Mane and Salah improved when they went to another club with better players.

I feel for Zaha. He's been kept hostage by Palace for the past couple seasons with their exorbitant demands, when it has been clear he wanted to leave. On top of that he's hamstrung by the rest of the team. If he can get him for less than 80m, I'd say yes. His PL experience would really help him to settle too. 

1 hour ago, enigma said:

I feel for Zaha. He's been kept hostage by Palace for the past couple seasons with their exorbitant demands, when it has been clear he wanted to leave. On top of that he's hamstrung by the rest of the team. If he can get him for less than 80m, I'd say yes. His PL experience would really help him to settle too. 

Has he lowered his wage demands to get away?

1 hour ago, enigma said:

I feel for Zaha. He's been kept hostage by Palace for the past couple seasons with their exorbitant demands, when it has been clear he wanted to leave. On top of that he's hamstrung by the rest of the team. If he can get him for less than 80m, I'd say yes. His PL experience would really help him to settle too. 

Give over, he signed a bloody 5 year contract last year on a record wage for a club like Palace, oh poor Wilfred being held hostage.....

2 hours ago, ducavis said:

I don’t feel those numbers are that impressive, granted our current core of wingers in recent years bar Hazard have been poor contribution wise. To put things in perspective Mane at 22 posted 10+ goals in consecutive seasons playing for Southampton. Zaha in comparison is at his peak now and playing an unrestricted role for Crystal Palace.

If we are to spend anywhere near £80m on any winger playing outside the top 6 for me it will be Richarlison every time. He is 22 and has posted 10+ goals in consecutive seasons, and on course to match that this season also.

When??? 5 goals at Watford then 13 at Everton playing up top a lot of the time.

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

When??? 5 goals at Watford then 13 at Everton playing up top a lot of the time.

My bad you are right but those 5 goals & 4 assists has only been bettered by Zaha in 3 seasons. As for playing up top more; I am not sure he regularly starts/started as a FW for Everton, it’s more a case of when they are chasing a game they take off a FW & stick him on top. Everton have always had 3 forwards on their books, granted they have mostly been useless. Off my head Tosun, Calvert Lewin, Niasse & now Moise Keane. 
I just get a Salah vibe from Richarlison, a player whose technical skills (eg dribbling, passing) might not be the best but if he gains a yard on you he will punish you. Richarlison for me will come on reasonable wages, If he flops you can resell domestically or in Europe at half price (no one is taking a Zaha from us if he flops & he will be on fat wages), and he can play comfortably up top with Tammy or as a sub just like Salah.

Would be a disastrous signing at that fee. Go back and watch Reece put him in his pocket a few weeks ago and tell me that is a player who would improve our team. 

Palace set up their entire system to give him freedom. He is their Hazard. He does little to no work off the ball and is largely a speed merchant which doesn't help a bit when teams are parked inside their box defending. He isn't a guy who can drop deep and hold the ball under pressure like Willian does either. 

Worst of all he would block the minutes of CHO and Pulisic without improving the squad. 

If this is the quality of what we are purchasing for 80m, I'd prefer the transfer ban back.

50 minutes ago, ducavis said:

My bad you are right but those 5 goals & 4 assists has only been bettered by Zaha in 3 seasons. As for playing up top more; I am not sure he regularly starts/started as a FW for Everton, it’s more a case of when they are chasing a game they take off a FW & stick him on top. Everton have always had 3 forwards on their books, granted they have mostly been useless. Off my head Tosun, Calvert Lewin, Niasse & now Moise Keane. 
I just get a Salah vibe from Richarlison, a player whose technical skills (eg dribbling, passing) might not be the best but if he gains a yard on you he will punish you. Richarlison for me will come on reasonable wages, If he flops you can resell domestically or in Europe at half price (no one is taking a Zaha from us if he flops & he will be on fat wages), and he can play comfortably up top with Tammy or as a sub just like Salah.

f**k it. Let's show we mean business and sign Zaha AND Richarlison and then we can say thanks and goodbye to both Willian and Pedro.

Those two + a decent centre back and left back and a another keeper to put pressure on Kepa would see us with a much better squad and we could also let a few more go like Giroud and Alonso.

17 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Would be a disastrous signing at that fee. Go back and watch Reece put him in his pocket a few weeks ago and tell me that is a player who would improve our team. 

Palace set up their entire system to give him freedom. He is their Hazard. He does little to no work off the ball and is largely a speed merchant which doesn't help a bit when teams are parked inside their box defending. He isn't a guy who can drop deep and hold the ball under pressure like Willian does either. 

Worst of all he would block the minutes of CHO and Pulisic without improving the squad. 

If this is the quality of what we are purchasing for 80m, I'd prefer the transfer ban back.

I know what yo're saying Spiller and kinda agree. BUT just go back and watch our games against West Ham and Bornemouth and see how poor we were. No creativity, we ran out of ideas and looked pretty toothless. We've done to death how Pedro and Willian are past it, inconsistent, unlikely to get better..................whatever. I too don't like the idea of blocking CHO and Pulicic but they too are inconsistent and just not up to playing 90 minutes week in, week out YET. They are young and still learning and have time on their side but we need options badly or the season will fizzle out by February.

No thanks. His performance at the Bridge last year was one of the most infuriating I've ever seen. Made me say "YOU STUPID IDIOT!" four or five times when I should have been breathing a sigh of relief or laughing after he continually skinned our whole team... then f**ked it up over and over again.

 

13 hours ago, Nibs said:

No creativity, we ran out of ideas and looked pretty toothless.

We  all  could ( and did) say exactly that about most matches last season as well.

We do need a winger but not Zaha. No point to sign him for huge cash and huge wages, 27 year old in his prime yet still in Palace, he's not going to take our squad to new levels or simply not where we want to go...

If its Zaha or Sancho than I would much rather the club prioritize Sancho however if they are looking to get in both I wouldnt mind Zaha as one of the attacking wing options.

Zaha, Sancho, Pulisic & CHO, not bad in terms of attacking wingers.

Zaha over Sancho for me - the least worst option.

Zaha/CHO/Izzy --- Mount/Grealish/Izzy --- Pulisic/Grealish/CHO

5 wingers, 3 number 10's (edit: 4 if including Anjorin)

Edited December 18, 20196 yr by the special one

On 17/12/2019 at 11:03, enigma said:

I feel for Zaha. He's been kept hostage by Palace for the past couple seasons with their exorbitant demands, when it has been clear he wanted to leave. On top of that he's hamstrung by the rest of the team. If he can get him for less than 80m, I'd say yes. His PL experience would really help him to settle too. 

yes I feel for Zaha to, been kept hostage for a couple of years on 80k a week and living the lifestyle of a premier league player.

20 minutes ago, chi blue said:

yes I feel for Zaha to, been kept hostage for a couple of years on 80k a week and living the lifestyle of a premier league player.

Yeah, but he was definitely coerced into signing that huge 5 ear contract, the poor sod.

23 hours ago, Nibs said:

I know what yo're saying Spiller and kinda agree. BUT just go back and watch our games against West Ham and Bornemouth and see how poor we were. No creativity, we ran out of ideas and looked pretty toothless. We've done to death how Pedro and Willian are past it, inconsistent, unlikely to get better..................whatever. I too don't like the idea of blocking CHO and Pulicic but they too are inconsistent and just not up to playing 90 minutes week in, week out YET. They are young and still learning and have time on their side but we need options badly or the season will fizzle out by February.

Totally see your point. However, for me I'm looking beyond this year. Too often we have made decisions for short term and then been stuck with a player on the books for 5 years having worked out in a few games they aren't up to it. 

If we are after short term options to improve our attack I'd prefer we take someone on loan from a big club who isn't getting minutes. Not 80m on someone who doesn't improve us long term. Someone like a James Rodriguez comes to mind.

One of the key issues I see is actually a lack of creativity and angles in our play because we have a sum total of 1 left footer in our team who isn't a left back. That is Giroud who has barely played.

My preference for the long term is to buy a left footed player who can add some variety and different angles to our passing. Ziyech, Neres, Bailey are three options of which Ziyech would be preferred. Someone totally different to the rest of our wingers who relies on clever passing and accurate crossing rather than beating a man one-on-one. His cost would be similar to Zaha and he would actually improve us and add something different.

23 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Totally see your point. However, for me I'm looking beyond this year. Too often we have made decisions for short term and then been stuck with a player on the books for 5 years having worked out in a few games they aren't up to it. 

If we are after short term options to improve our attack I'd prefer we take someone on loan from a big club who isn't getting minutes. Not 80m on someone who doesn't improve us long term. Someone like a James Rodriguez comes to mind.

 

Again, I kinda agree with. I have been as vocal as any about our clubs "short-term" success and never looking to build for the long-term. I have gone on record countless times saying I would be happy to forgo success for a few seasons if I could see we were looking to try and build something more long-term. I don't want to see any more signings like Shevchenko, Deco, Torres, Eto'o etc.

But right now the signs are already there that we ARE planning long-term as we already have countless younger players involved with the first team squad. The problem is, they will be inconsistent and that would be fine if players like Giroud, Pedro, Willian, Alonso, Azpi etc were stepping up and performing but they aren't and are mostly past their best and need moving on. As much as I think £80m is a criminal amount for Zaha, he is proven in the PL and at 27 is at his peak and should be good for a minimum of three seasons. I still prefer Richarlison but if we signed Zaha and moved on some of the above - I'd be happy with the stronger options that would give us.

On 18/12/2019 at 09:06, yorkleyblue said:

We  all  could ( and did) say exactly that about most matches last season as well.

But at least then we had Hazard to (more often than not) produce something to save the day.

I was hoping Pedro and / or Willian would step up with Eden going and fill the void. Early season I was impressed with Willian but he has reverted to his frustrating self and I think the time has come to say thanks but lets part company which will benefit us as I truly believe Zaha or A N Other will make us a better side and maybe a move is what he needs as this stage of his career.