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[coco]

10 minutes ago, IndianaBlue85 said:

For those saying we’re going to wait until summer, why on earth would top players want to come here without champions league football? This team isn’t finishing top 4 as it currently stands I mean we’ve got one striker who’s injured, no backups on the wings with pulisic out other than Pedro who’s been awful. I just don’t see how this team beats out utd especially after their recent signing and others like Rashford coming back. 

We don't have to finish in the top four to make next seasons champions league.

[Spiller86]

10 minutes ago, IndianaBlue85 said:

For those saying we’re going to wait until summer, why on earth would top players want to come here without champions league football? This team isn’t finishing top 4 as it currently stands I mean we’ve got one striker who’s injured, no backups on the wings with pulisic out other than Pedro who’s been awful. I just don’t see how this team beats out utd especially after their recent signing and others like Rashford coming back. 

I think this is the key concern. No good for us to say we will sign Werner, Sancho and Chillwell in the summer if their clubs are playing CL football and we aren't.

I really hope Frank can get us into the top 4 and it will be an incredible achievement if he can. But he was right to say after Hull that we are behind the 8ball after missing a window. The problem actually goes deeper than that. Kante is the last signing at the club who was better than the player he replaced. We have a chasm in our squad where 300m worth of transfers should be. 

Short of any players the best thing we could do is totally overhaul our scouting and recruitment system. It is a disaster at the moment and if we miss out on a top 4 spot, the blame will lie mainly there.

[Guest Sindre]

20 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Fair enough our main targets weren't available this window. Hopefully we can secure them in the summer.

Concern as always is with Spurs and United strengthening we have to make the top four to ensure we get those targets. Lets hope Frank and co can pull through. Next three games will let us know. 

Unfortunately i could see things quickly turn sour between Lampard and the board if we fail to add and then Tammy and/or other key players gets injured and we have no one to step up. That could very well be what cost us top 4.
Currently we are one even minor injury on Tammy Abraham from being in deep sh*t. It's already unlikely he'll be back for Leicester so we'll be forced to play the useless belgian and i'd be surprised if we get a result there if that ends up being the case.

Lampard definitly understands the importance of securing top 4. Not only for financial reasons (we had a huge loss last year) but for attracting the top-class talent we need to bring in.

[strider6004]

If we don't make top 4 and Frank gave Marina a list of realistic players he wanted in good time  then it might be Marina going come season's end.

Somehow I still think we will make fourth.

[forbzy]

12 minutes ago, coco said:

We don't have to finish in the top four to make next seasons champions league.

I love the optimism mate. Although it looks like a slightly trickier path to win the Champs League than it was to win the Europa. Unfortunately we cannot face Arsenal for one thing ;).

I would say it will ultimately be a bit of a gamble to leave the squad unchanged for the remainder of the season. But then it could equally be seen as a gamble to introduce new players half way through the season as they may unbalance things too. Hopefully Ruben will be able to contribute a bit as we reach the finale of the season, and we avoid injuries to key players that could. Top 4 will probably require that we have a decent spell or 2 and reach at least 70 points. Although most on here seem to be focused on Spurs and United as rivals, I still think the biggest danger of being pipped to 4th is from Wolves.

[Sexyfootball]

8 minutes ago, coco said:

We don't have to finish in the top four to make next seasons champions league.

Must say I admire your optimism ... roll on Istanbul 30th May ... ?

 

[Munkunku]

42 minutes ago, coco said:

We don't have to finish in the top four to make next seasons champions league.

We’ve got Super Frankie Lampard...

[Ukraine Bolt]

6 hours ago, dkw said:

And when they didnt get him they waited, rather than bring in the wrong player. Its exactly the same as the situation we are in now surely. Everyone is sick of the sticky plaster players we keep bringing in, the ones to fill in for now as a squad player. We need starters of the highest quality, and they rarely move during this window simply because of the importance to their club.

Who are we waiting for though?

We had summer to line them up and wait until January with a pre-agreement in place.

[Argo]

1 hour ago, IndianaBlue85 said:

For those saying we’re going to wait until summer, why on earth would top players want to come here without champions league football? 

I dunno, if you want to know why players to to teams without CL best ask these average players Pepe, Kante, Suarez, Luiz, Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Jorginho, Kova, Aubameyang.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Argo

[big blue]

Feel a bit for lamps, no summer window after losing our best player, asks for a back up striker in january, not even a marquee signing, and he doesnt even look like getting that. 

I understand the need to save money for our main targets in the summer, but with how the last 3 or 4 years have gone in the transfer market, i dont really have much faith the club will secure these targets anyway. 

Same story as previous windows, plenty of things going on behind the scenes, but ultimately left it very late to make a good impactful signing. 

Probably wouldve been better for squad morale if the ban wasnt lifted at this point, Lampard has been calling out the lack of potency in attack, giroud looks set to be denied a transfer, all of that negative energy wouldve been avoided if the ban wasnt lifted.

Here's to hoping we male top 4 regardless, and in the summer, the board restore some faith that they can get some quality in the side, and actually start to build a team capable of mounting a challenge on all fronts. 

We used to be all about world domination, that level of ambition seems a world away these days.

[JM7]

Yeah we’ve definitely dropped a couple of levels. We’re in and out of the CL, not really buying top class players - we’re buying youngsters or taking risks that they might turn out good. 

[dansubrosa]

Depressing isn’t it. All that money wasted, we really could have been up there with Liverpool if we brought the right players with same amount of money. Thank goodness for the academy. 

[IndianaBlue85]

3 hours ago, Argo said:

I dunno, if you want to know why players to to teams without CL best ask these average players Pepe, Kante, Suarez, Luiz, Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Jorginho, Kova, Aubameyang.

Ok so you hand picked a couple players in the past ten years and couple of those were due to money like Pogba and Aubameyang getting massive wages. Suarez moved to the EPL from the Dutch league so it was a step up. I can’t tell if you’re serious either because Kovacic and Luiz are far from great players. 

Edited January 31, 2020 by IndianaBlue85

[Kev56]

We need some sort of cover for Tammy, if god forbid he gets a long term injury we're in trouble, Giroud might not be here and batman is not up to it. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7950035/Olivier-Giroud-refuse-Chelsea-training-Friday-struggles-away.html

Edited January 31, 2020 by Kev56

[Argo]

1 hour ago, IndianaBlue85 said:

Ok so you hand picked a couple players in the past ten years and couple of those were due to money like Pogba and Aubameyang getting massive wages. Suarez moved to the EPL from the Dutch league so it was a step up. I can’t tell if you’re serious either because Kovacic and Luiz are far from great players. 

No I "hand picked" a bunch of players with big reputations (including Mr ego himself Zlatan) who gave up CL football to join clubs in Europa or in some cases not in Europe full stop.

This idea we will fail were Arsenal out of CL for years or Liverpool under yesterday's man Kenny succeeded is hilarious.

[IndianaBlue85]

27 minutes ago, Argo said:

No I "hand picked" a bunch of players with big reputations (including Mr ego himself Zlatan) who gave up CL football to join clubs in Europa or in some cases not in Europe full stop.

This idea we will fail were Arsenal out of CL for years or Liverpool under yesterday's man Kenny succeeded is hilarious.

No the idea top players will come here without cl football is ludicrous and laughable. Tell me all these top players arsenal have got recently? And Liverpool have been transformed under a manger who’s been backed with major signings and patience. Big reputations? Suarez was unknown before Liverpool and luiz, Kovacic aren’t top players. Plus Pepe was past his prime like zlatan so your examples don’t prove anything. 
 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by IndianaBlue85

[Ernie_blue]

Fair enough we haven't made any big signings but its pretty obvious we need another striker just to help to make top 4. Who cares what age they are, we just need abit of quality.

[Gol15]

Jorginho joined us over Man City since Sarri became our manager so it was a special circumstance.

We are playing CL this season but we couldn't find any top player to sign in January so far, obviously it's not the same as the transfer window in the summer but it does show that it's not easy, last time we could sign Pulisic somehow and now we can't find anyone not even in the way we signed Pulisic.

So it's not really set in stone that for example Sancho would want to join us if we finish 5th or below, it will affect us and make things harder for us to sign the players we want there is no doubt about it. 

One good boost will be the wages we will be able to hand out since we will lose Willian,Giroud,Pedro and others but we will need players for sure, the ideal thing would have been to sign at least 1 player in January so that we can sign 2-3 really big signings in the summer, there is a big chance that the squad will still have some holes even after the summer since we might need 1-2 full backs, 1-2 wingers, 1-2 strikers, 1 keeper that can end up in having to invest in 6-7 players which is pretty much for just 1 transfer window.

[abramovich]

11 hours ago, Argo said:

Spurs have lost their best and only world class player for the season and added two young unprovens neither directly replacing the player they lost, had that been us everyone would be losing their sh*t and certainly won't be claiming we've strengthened.

We lost our best player before the season even started without even a chance of replacing him. 

[abramovich]

8 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Who are we waiting for though?

We had summer to line them up and wait until January with a pre-agreement in place.

Well, that's the thing, if the club is so confident about securing their targets in the summer, or at least that's the PR line they're going with, why not do a Pulisic type of a deal and sign at least one and register him for the next season? Truth is, I doubt any of those highly sought players are ready to commit to us now, if at all, and if we're out of the CL for the next season, which looks like a distinct possibility, our chances in the market will get significantly slimmer. I have this horrible feeling that our board is like a bunch of crooks who are skint after wasting a fortune on a bad investment and now are trying to bluff their way out of it while reassuring the stock holders of how great things are and how rosy the company's future is. 

[bisright1]

2 hours ago, abramovich said:

We lost our best player before the season even started without even a chance of replacing him. 

We replaced him with Pulisic. 

Why does no one remember this. 

[Kev56]

12 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

We replaced him with Pulisic. 

Why does no one remember this. 

I know but where is he.

[Andy2461]

The problem is no one expected us to be in the top 4. Now we are it’s imperative we stay there. I honestly don’t think the club would of appealed the van if we had no chance of top 4. But now we do have a chance and can sign we should spend or get Loan players in just to get us over the line so in the summer we can offer our main targets ( chillwell sancho etc) CL football. Short term pain long term gain

[abramovich]

34 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

We replaced him with Pulisic. 

Why does no one remember this. 

Well, you first sentence kind of answers the second.

[bisright1]

32 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Well, you first sentence kind of answers the second.

We still replaced him though. We knew he was going and chose to replace him with hazard. You literally can’t say we never had a chance to replace him when we signed an up and coming left side wide player from a top team for 60m!
 

this point we never had a chance to replace hazard is bull. We did. We chose pulisic. Everyone knew hazard was going a year ago. Who else would we have got? 

Edited January 31, 2020 by bisright1