Would rather have Bakayoko back on his current form as a squad player (RLC obviously starts over him) than to spend £50m on Kovacic. He did have his moments where he looked spectacular (like the game against Arsenal in the EL final) but a few moments dont make up for a whole season of mediocrity. 

Sarri had a complete blindspot with Kovacic, so i'm pleased those at the top noticed how little he brough to the team and want to pass on him.  He was given plenty of time to prove his worth but failed time after time.  He's failed at Madrid and now Chelsea Whereveer he goes next, he needs to step up  and start acting like a man and a pro footballer and start taking some responsibilty and actually doing something in matches and earning his wages, instead of skiving & shirkiing and expecting others to cover his ass.

1 hour ago, Dixons said:

Sarri had a complete blindspot with Kovacic, so i'm pleased those at the top noticed how little he brough to the team and want to pass on him.  He was given plenty of time to prove his worth but failed time after time.  He's failed at Madrid and now Chelsea Whereveer he goes next, he needs to step up  and start acting like a man and a pro footballer and start taking some responsibilty and actually doing something in matches and earning his wages, instead of skiving & shirkiing and expecting others to cover his ass.

Your posts get worse with each one you make.  He wasn’t the biggest contributor, no.  But where have you come up with the bolded part?  Rambling nonsense.

Sobering thought that Bakayoko's "end product" of goals and assists in 2017/18 exceeded that of Jorginho and Kovacic combined in 2018/19 ...

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sobering thought that Bakayoko's "end product" of goals and assists in 2017/18 exceeded that of Jorginho and Kovacic combined in 2018/19 ...

Will be interesting to see what happens to Jorginho if the next manager moves Kante deeper. 

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sobering thought that Bakayoko's "end product" of goals and assists in 2017/18 exceeded that of Jorginho and Kovacic combined in 2018/19 ...

It shows that if you only put stock in basic statistic then you're doing footballers a disservice. 

I do think Kovacic should have scored and assisted a lot more during the season. I think he needed to shoulder more attacking responsibility playing in that advanced LCM role. 

That's why I preferred both Barkley and RLC in that role because they offered a lot more in the final third. 

I think Kovacic is a tidy player, neat in a possession but I don't he offers us anything we don't already have that others players do better than him. Certainly don't think he's worth the €50m that Real want for him. 

5 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

Your posts get worse with each one you make.  He wasn’t the biggest contributor, no.  But where have you come up with the bolded part?  Rambling nonsense.

In many, many games he was so uninovled i forgot he was even on the pitch and as we know he ended up being taken off almost every game. That = not pulling your weight = skiving            The hard part for players in his position is to take players on in areas where it matters in the final third.  Make the difficult passes, score some goals. Loftus did it time and again and in less time on the pitch. Where was Kovacic when it came to doing that? He would stay on the fringes and let the others try and do tthe hardest job in football of creating and scoring. Hell, even Barkley had a go and was better. So yes, that part = the shirking.  

No way worth paying 50m for him. 

Our starting MF trio would be Jorg/Kante/RLC anyway so paying that much for a sub is not worth it. I actually wouldnt even mind giving Bakayoko another shot based off last seasons performances, but we'll see about that.

7 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

Your posts get worse with each one you make.  He wasn’t the biggest contributor, no.  But where have you come up with the bolded part?  Rambling nonsense.

Forgot to add. Just use the ignore function.

2 hours ago, ducavis said:

Will be interesting to see what happens to Jorginho if the next manager moves Kante deeper. 

Any manager who plays Kante "deeper" should be sacked for incompetence. 

40 minutes ago, kiwi1691 said:

Any manager who plays Kante "deeper" should be sacked for incompetence. 

Where does he play for France? Doesn’t he sit behind Matuidi & Pogba?

10 hours ago, ducavis said:

Where does he play for France? Doesn’t he sit behind Matuidi & Pogba?

Yup. I think he can honestly play in either role. I'd not keep Jorginho if Sarri leaves though. 

17 hours ago, kiwi1691 said:

Any manager who plays Kante "deeper" should be sacked for incompetence. 

In Sarri's system the idea is to keep hold of the ball. This is his way of defending. If you can't keep hold of the ball you are very exposed to leaking in goals no matter who your defenders are. In the world of football at the very prime not many managers are brave enough to play like that. Sarri is one of them. 

Now if Frank comes in who is a product of Jose's football which is reactive and not proactive I'm pretty sure Kante would sit deeper. Didn't see any of Derby's games and I could be horribly wrong but I don't think he played Derby with a proactive system. 

3 hours ago, evissy said:

In Sarri's system the idea is to keep hold of the ball. This is his way of defending. If you can't keep hold of the ball you are very exposed to leaking in goals no matter who your defenders are. In the world of football at the very prime not many managers are brave enough to play like that. Sarri is one of them. 

Now if Frank comes in who is a product of Jose's football which is reactive and not proactive I'm pretty sure Kante would sit deeper. Didn't see any of Derby's games and I could be horribly wrong but I don't think he played Derby with a proactive system. 

Reactive doesn’t mean he will revert to defensive football though right? He could set us up with Kante deeper, with RLC and Barkley ahead of him like Pep does with Silva and De Bruyne. 

I am not certain whoever comes in will retain Jorginho deeper, which is why I am not fussed about signing Kovacic who really should be deputising for Jorginho. Issue now is where do you play Jorginho? Unless you are playing him alongside Kante, I don’t think you will want to move him ahead of Kante as he can’t tackle and doesn’t fancy getting stuck in.

22 hours ago, ducavis said:

Where does he play for France? Doesn’t he sit behind Matuidi & Pogba?

He has played in several positions with France, but lately he's been played on the right in a 433 but also has played in a 4231 alongside Pogba.

Just read that we have until 1 July to make a decision on Kovacic: whether to extend the loan or sign him permanently.

33 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Just read that we have until 1 July to make a decision on Kovacic: whether to extend the loan or sign him permanently.

Seeing as we seem to take forever to get a deal done, I think this one is definitely not going to happen.

Might well be this decision comes from the club and Frank is not even consulted. The man costs 50m. Euros or pounds it is very much. 

£50m for Kovacic - you won't have seen money wasted like that since the Thatcher family bought a top of the range coffin then opted for cremation.

Transfer ban or not, I just can’t see a justification for making Kovacic’s loan permanent.

Would feel short sighted to sign him. His being there isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference so we might as well wait out the ban until we can sign better.

I still would love to see Kovacic at outside back... he defends well, work hard, is technical, and pacey, he's great til the final third.

Our only option is to purchase him right?  We could not extend the loan?

If we could extend the loan, I'd be all for that.  Gives us cover for the transfer ban season and doesn't lock us into a bad deal.

3 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Our only option is to purchase him right?  We could not extend the loan?

If we could extend the loan, I'd be all for that.  Gives us cover for the transfer ban season and doesn't lock us into a bad deal.

Nope, have to take the buy option. As sensible as Utd leaving Luke Shaw and Lukaku alone in Mrs Miggin's pie shop.

10 minutes ago, Wearyourblue said:

I still would love to see Kovacic at outside back... he defends well, work hard, is technical, and pacey, he's great til the final third.

Isn't outside back a position in rugby? Have we been playing a rugby player all season? It would explain a lot.

10 minutes ago, loz said:

Isn't outside back a position in rugby? Have we been playing a rugby player all season? It would explain a lot.

Thought those were the directions to the outhouse......