6 hours ago, Sparkz said:

We should just go all out for Jadon Sancho. 

Emerson has impressed at LB so it wouldn't make sense spending big on someone like Chilwell

I feel Tomori and Christensen will continue to grow and progress so I'd want to hold off spending big on another CB and there isn't anyone really worth going for

We're absolutely stacked in midfield and attacking midfield so no need to spend big there

And I've been impressed with Tammy so far, I had reservations but he's looking very good at times and will only get better

With Pedro and Willian both past their best and in their 30s, we're left with Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic as our only true wingers/wide forwards

For me Sancho is one of the next big things in football and plays in a position we could use reinforcements. He would be worth spending over 100 million on IMO

 

Agree. Sancho and CHO on opposite wings? My god they would tear up the league! Pulisic as a backup winger, and maybe signing a couple good backup players and getting rid of our past it players and we'll have one hell of a team

Blue Nike boots, done deal.

On 28/09/2019 at 10:52, Sparkz said:

We should just go all out for Jadon Sancho. 

Emerson has impressed at LB so it wouldn't make sense spending big on someone like Chilwell

I feel Tomori and Christensen will continue to grow and progress so I'd want to hold off spending big on another CB and there isn't anyone really worth going for

We're absolutely stacked in midfield and attacking midfield so no need to spend big there

And I've been impressed with Tammy so far, I had reservations but he's looking very good at times and will only get better

With Pedro and Willian both past their best and in their 30s, we're left with Hudson-Odoi and Pulisic as our only true wingers/wide forwards

For me Sancho is one of the next big things in football and plays in a position we could use reinforcements. He would be worth spending over 100 million on IMO

 

Not that I would be opposed to signing Sancho - I think that would be an excellent signing - but I’d rather we went for someone like Steven Bergwijn or David Neres.  They’ll be quite a bit cheaper, but with just as much potential as Sancho, in my opinion.  Would leave room in the budget for a second world class signing.  It does seem as though Man United have their sights set on Sancho, and I’m sure they would pay more.

And ever since @RIP Mourinho brought him up recently, I’ve been partial to Samuel Chukwueze from Villarreal.  Hadn’t even heard his name before, but he looks like a real player.

One theory I have though, is perhaps we won’t even sign another winger.  The way Frank has been playing Mount on the wing, he might just stick with that.  Would open up more minutes in the midfield with RLC coming back in the fold.

Wingers: CHO, Pulisic, Mount, Pedro (wouldn’t be surprise if we bring him back for one more year)

Midfield: RLC, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Barkley (though I would sell Barkley and play James as our 5th CM)

Before I saw how good Tomori can be I was very convinced that our first buy should be a centre back.

Now I really need to re-think this whole topic...We have top young talents that need time to develop into big stars, crazy enough their positions are from a left back, winger all the way to the striker position.

So really the question is what do we buy as luxury, or which player do we sell in order to buy a higher quality player?

Luxury to me would be;
buying another midfielder.
buying another winger.

Why, well because we are scoring goals, our young guns need playtime and trust so no need to disturb this great development. The only position where the squad has very little depth is that central attacking midfielder, so a luxury would be to sell Barkley and buy an upgrade. But is that really needed? RLC will be back anyway. 

But...what if we sell a decent player and then buy a higher quality player?
E.g. we sell Christensen and get a really good centre back that will play with Rudiger,Tomori,Zouma. Giménez from Atletico Madrid is just a crazy good talent, Milenkovic from Fiorentina also. We have all seen how Christensen is and I believe he can be better but he's not going to be a world class centre back. This would be upgrading our defense which is what we need.

It's just still too obvious that we need better defensive players. The midfield is fine, the wingers are fine, the strikers are fine and all of those can be better. But our right back Azpilicueta is now older and once James takes over he will need a backup, a 31 year old Azpilicueta can do the job as a backup for 1 more season. Emerson is a good left back, Alonso isn't. Zouma looks close to his peak already, Christensen as well, Tomori looks great and so does Rudiger but the depth is just too thin for me when I look at the full picture of our defense. 

You can make an argument that our attacking midfield needs depth so a luxury buy would be who, Reus or Milinkovic-Savic for 100-150m?

15 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Before I saw how good Tomori can be I was very convinced that our first buy should be a centre back.

Now I really need to re-think this whole topic...We have top young talents that need time to develop into big stars, crazy enough their positions are from a left back, winger all the way to the striker position.

So really the question is what do we buy as luxury, or which player do we sell in order to buy a higher quality player?

Luxury to me would be;
buying another midfielder.
buying another winger.

Why, well because we are scoring goals, our young guns need playtime and trust so no need to disturb this great development. The only position where the squad has very little depth is that central attacking midfielder, so a luxury would be to sell Barkley and buy an upgrade. But is that really needed? RLC will be back anyway. 

But...what if we sell a decent player and then buy a higher quality player?
E.g. we sell Christensen and get a really good centre back that will play with Rudiger,Tomori,Zouma. Giménez from Atletico Madrid is just a crazy good talent, Milenkovic from Fiorentina also. We have all seen how Christensen is and I believe he can be better but he's not going to be a world class centre back. This would be upgrading our defense which is what we need.

It's just still too obvious that we need better defensive players. The midfield is fine, the wingers are fine, the strikers are fine and all of those can be better. But our right back Azpilicueta is now older and once James takes over he will need a backup, a 31 year old Azpilicueta can do the job as a backup for 1 more season. Emerson is a good left back, Alonso isn't. Zouma looks close to his peak already, Christensen as well, Tomori looks great and so does Rudiger but the depth is just too thin for me when I look at the full picture of our defense. 

You can make an argument that our attacking midfield needs depth so a luxury buy would be who, Reus or Milinkovic-Savic for 100-150m?

I was thinking the same, but lets not jump on the bandwagon too early. He has definitely shown some good signs so far, but so have a lot of past players only for them to go play terrible later. 

Remember Kalas? 1 good performance against liverpool, and thats all he managed. Christensen too looked really promising when he first broke through, and then he was pretty awful in the middle for a while. But he is coming back into his old form and playing reasonably well.

I think we need to sell Zouma and sign a CB like Koulibaly or Romagnoli. Maybe sell Christensen as well. Then we'll have a trio or Koulibaly/Romagnoli, Rudiger and Tomori which I think is a fantastic trio. Could even promote another youth CB to be 4th choice

On 02/10/2019 at 09:40, PlayDaYouf said:

I was thinking the same, but lets not jump on the bandwagon too early. He has definitely shown some good signs so far, but so have a lot of past players only for them to go play terrible later. 

Remember Kalas? 1 good performance against liverpool, and thats all he managed. Christensen too looked really promising when he first broke through, and then he was pretty awful in the middle for a while. But he is coming back into his old form and playing reasonably well.

I think we need to sell Zouma and sign a CB like Koulibaly or Romagnoli. Maybe sell Christensen as well. Then we'll have a trio or Koulibaly/Romagnoli, Rudiger and Tomori which I think is a fantastic trio. Could even promote another youth CB to be 4th choice

Bit harsh on Zouma, he's stepped up his game in the past few weeks. For me he's ahead of a fit Rudiger.

2 hours ago, the special one said:

Bit harsh on Zouma, he's stepped up his game in the past few weeks. For me he's ahead of a fit Rudiger.

I can't believe you are serious.

1 hour ago, Backbiter said:

I can't believe you are serious.

Why? Zouma has been in fine form over the past few weeks - for me Zouma deserves to play at RCB ahead of Rudiger on merit. At LCB it's a different story, I see Rudiger as competition for Tomori. I think we have a good balance in central defence at the mo, Christensen can play at RCB or in the middle of a back 3, Rudiger RCB or LCB, Zouma RCB, and Tomori at LCB. I guess my point is if Zouma keeps up this form he's done nothing to deserve being dropped or sold.

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by the special one

There is no aspect to Zouma's game that is better than Rudiger's.

1 minute ago, Backbiter said:

There is no aspect to Zouma's game that is better than Rudiger's.

Well that's your opinion and I don't disagree - the numbers may suggest otherwise?

https://football-observatory.com/-profile-65602-60307

5 hours ago, the special one said:

Bit harsh on Zouma, he's stepped up his game in the past few weeks. For me he's ahead of a fit Rudiger.

Zouma over Rudiger....? 

No chance for me. They're probably at a fairly similar level when they're both at their very best (Rudi still edges it for me) but Zouma is rarely at his best and makes a lot of mistakes

rags spreading rumours we'd be in for Chilwell in Jan if the ban clears ... would really cement a very strong English core in the club (with the explosion this year under Lampard) we haven't seen in some time.

4 hours ago, Barry Bridges said:

rags spreading rumours we'd be in for Chilwell in Jan if the ban clears ... would really cement a very strong English core in the club (with the explosion this year under Lampard) we haven't seen in some time.

Thought Emerson has been doing a fine job for us when he's on. Unless he moves to Juve then I can see us going for Chilwell.

And I'm a Chilwell fan 

If we can get someone like De Ligt and Sancho. That'd be our team set for this decade. A group of youngsters breaking through with experienced players littered throughout the squad.

If we can get someone like De Ligt and Sancho. That'd be our team set for this decade. A group of youngsters breaking through with experienced players littered throughout the squad.

De Lift [emoji23]

Rather we kept Emerson than spend 60 odd million on Chilwell.

On 10/10/2019 at 12:39, the special one said:

Bit harsh on Zouma, he's stepped up his game in the past few weeks. For me he's ahead of a fit Rudiger.

Not a chance. Zouma hasn't played a game this season where he hasn't made a serious mistake. I'm anxious every time I watch him.

On 10/10/2019 at 23:19, Barry Bridges said:

rags spreading rumours we'd be in for Chilwell in Jan if the ban clears ... would really cement a very strong English core in the club (with the explosion this year under Lampard) we haven't seen in some time.

Why would Leicester sell him in January?  Rags, indeed.

On 06/09/2019 at 15:24, Soulo said:

Any team trying to win trophies in England and in Europe needs depth, and we are lacking that at the moment. Problem is we´ve been buying poor players, doesn´t mean we shouldn´t buy players at all.

I think you misread my post, I'm not saying don't buy players at all. I'm saying don't buy for the sake of adding depth. We buy players who can challenge for the starting 11 is what I meant. That way we don't need to worry about drops in quality which is what we've suffered from since Mourinho Mk. II. We had a clear starting 11-13, the rest were mediocre. 

On 11/10/2019 at 09:17, Deino said:

If we can get someone like De Ligt and Sancho. That'd be our team set for this decade. A group of youngsters breaking through with experienced players littered throughout the squad.

De Ligt just signed for Juventus, he won't be changing teams up that quickly.

Sancho may be possible, but there's a whole host of clubs going after him so no idea whats happening really and still too early to tell

On 11/10/2019 at 09:12, Deino said:

Thought Emerson has been doing a fine job for us when he's on. Unless he moves to Juve then I can see us going for Chilwell.

And I'm a Chilwell fan 

Emerson has been more than fine. I would rather us sell Alonso (there were rumours of him possibly being Athletico bound?) and not to mention Emerson is being targeted by Juve as well, in which case I would be happy to get Chillwell. Its just the price being said for chilwell, is far too high. 70m is ridiculous. If its under 45m then it'll be decent, but only if we end up selling one of our other 2 LB's.

2 minutes ago, PlayDaYouf said:

De Ligt just signed for Juventus, he won't be changing teams up that quickly.

Sancho may be possible, but there's a whole host of clubs going after him so no idea whats happening really and still too early to tell

Emerson has been more than fine. I would rather us sell Alonso (there were rumours of him possibly being Athletico bound?) and not to mention Emerson is being targeted by Juve as well, in which case I would be happy to get Chillwell. Its just the price being said for chilwell, is far too high. 70m is ridiculous. If its under 45m then it'll be decent, but only if we end up selling one of our other 2 LB's.

I agree. I mentioned De Ligt as a reference to the criteria of CB that we should approach. A world class in the making CB who is young but has the experience of top flight football.

I see Sancho going to us as almost the most natural thing for his next step should he leave Dortmund. He's already a Chelsea fan, English, knows how to play with CHO, Mount and Tammy.

The clubs I can see going for him are Barca, Bayern and Chelsea. I doubt he'd go back to Utd/Spurs because they're a shambles. Liverpool is set for at least 5 years. He left City so doubt he'd go back there. Real and Juve are set for the moment.

Bayern has Coman and Gnabry playing very well so doubt they'd wanna destabilize a good thing going, Barca needs to revamp the whole squad so I doubt they have the cash to go for a huge signing like Sancho.

If we get Chilwell because Alonso leaves then that's us set for at least 5 years with the LB situation.

we need an Essien or Ballack type player in the middle, powerful runner, hard nose tackler.....may be RLC might fit the bill when he returns..

3 hours ago, Deino said:

I agree. I mentioned De Ligt as a reference to the criteria of CB that we should approach. A world class in the making CB who is young but has the experience of top flight football.

I see Sancho going to us as almost the most natural thing for his next step should he leave Dortmund. He's already a Chelsea fan, English, knows how to play with CHO, Mount and Tammy.

The clubs I can see going for him are Barca, Bayern and Chelsea. I doubt he'd go back to Utd/Spurs because they're a shambles. Liverpool is set for at least 5 years. He left City so doubt he'd go back there. Real and Juve are set for the moment.

Bayern has Coman and Gnabry playing very well so doubt they'd wanna destabilize a good thing going, Barca needs to revamp the whole squad so I doubt they have the cash to go for a huge signing like Sancho.

If we get Chilwell because Alonso leaves then that's us set for at least 5 years with the LB situation.

Fair enough!

Sancho would be a dream signing if you ask me. CHO and Sancho on the opposite wings and Pulisic as first choice backup seems ideal! I do doubt he'll go to Utd, but I can still see him going to City. I mean look at Pogba for example, he left Utd just to go back there as he calls it "home"

But then again, Sancho is an actual Chelsea fan so for him to come here would be so good, I really hope it happens.

Imagine the english spine would possibly have as our starting XI within the next year: Tammy, Mount, RJ, RLC, CHO, Tomori and possibly Sancho, Chilwell and maybe Maddison too. and thats our starting XI, let alone the youth players we have coming through that are on the bench.

Edited October 13, 20196 yr by PlayDaYouf

I didn’t realize Sancho was a Chelsea fan, doesn’t hurt our chances that.  Though I think the only way we sign him is if it’s determined that Pulisic is not going to cut it.  Which I’m sure won’t be the case.

One name that that I would like to see us linked with is Kai Havertz from Leverkeusen.  Kid looks like the real deal.

4 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

I didn’t realize Sancho was a Chelsea fan, doesn’t hurt our chances that.  Though I think the only way we sign him is if it’s determined that Pulisic is not going to cut it.  Which I’m sure won’t be the case.

One name that that I would like to see us linked with is Kai Havertz from Leverkeusen.  Kid looks like the real deal.

I like the look of Havertz but we're stacked at AM. I'd put good money on Bayern hoovering him up next transfer window