2 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

Technically I might agree yet which is future captain material Rice or Caicedo?

Colwill !

James. 

18 hours ago, Argo said:

I'm not convinced he ever wanted to come back here as much as general opinion suggested. 

Apart from bits of heart-warming guff about his and Mason Mount's bromance, I can't recall him ever indicating an interest in returning to Chelsea.

1 hour ago, BordeauxBlue said:

James. 

Captain has to play more than 30% of games a season imo

1 hour ago, dermott said:

Apart from bits of heart-warming guff about his and Mason Mount's bromance, I can't recall him ever indicating an interest in returning to Chelsea.

He hinted at it a lot on Neville's podcast:

Asked if he was a Chelsea fan growing up by Neville, Rice confirmed: 'Yeah, growing up the whole family was Chelsea.'

Neville conducted the interview strolling around the streets of Kingston-upon-Thames in south-west London, where Rice was born and grew up. In a blow to United's hopes of signing him, the 23-year-old admitted he wants to stay in the area - which is only seven miles from Stamford Bridge.

Rice has previously spoken of his close relationship with former Chelsea captain Terry, and he didn't hold back when asked by Neville who his idol was growing up.  

'John Terry,' he replied without any hesitation. 'I speak to him a lot. I speak to him all the time really. 

'For me growing up being a Chelsea fan, having a season ticket there, going to all the games, being in the academy. Just him, looking at him, everything was JT as a kid. JT 26 on the back. Even when I was younger I said if I make it I want to be No 26, but I feel like as I've got older now I've grown out of that - it would look a bit creepy! 

'He was amazing for me when I got released as well, he picked up the phone - he didn't have to, I was only 14 at the time and I was speaking to my idol - so yeah, we've got a good relationship.'

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

Technically I might agree yet which is future captain material Rice or Caicedo?

Him being a leader is one of the present day great myths.

Not only is he petty some of the excuses he makes on England duty would make even Potter blush.

21 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Captain has to play more than 30% of games a season imo

Worked fine for us in 16/17 and United in the late 00s.

Being a club captain is more than just what you do on the pitch.

29 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

He hinted at it a lot on Neville's podcast:

Asked if he was a Chelsea fan growing up by Neville, Rice confirmed: 'Yeah, growing up the whole family was Chelsea.'

Neville conducted the interview strolling around the streets of Kingston-upon-Thames in south-west London, where Rice was born and grew up. In a blow to United's hopes of signing him, the 23-year-old admitted he wants to stay in the area - which is only seven miles from Stamford Bridge.

Rice has previously spoken of his close relationship with former Chelsea captain Terry, and he didn't hold back when asked by Neville who his idol was growing up.  

'John Terry,' he replied without any hesitation. 'I speak to him a lot. I speak to him all the time really. 

'For me growing up being a Chelsea fan, having a season ticket there, going to all the games, being in the academy. Just him, looking at him, everything was JT as a kid. JT 26 on the back. Even when I was younger I said if I make it I want to be No 26, but I feel like as I've got older now I've grown out of that - it would look a bit creepy! 

'He was amazing for me when I got released as well, he picked up the phone - he didn't have to, I was only 14 at the time and I was speaking to my idol - so yeah, we've got a good relationship.'

Ah well, serves me right for avoiding Neville as much as possible. 😇

Apparently City are after him now in addition to Arsenal who's just had a bid rejected. I can just imagine that whoever loses out in that battle goes and gets Caicedo leaving us without him either.

We should have been in the race for Rice btw. That's another thing we cocked up.

12 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Apparently City are after him now in addition to Arsenal who's just had a bid rejected. I can just imagine that whoever loses out in that battle goes and gets Caicedo leaving us without him either.

We should have been in the race for Rice btw. That's another thing we cocked up.

We could be in the race for Rice tomorrow if we wanted to. 

4 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

We could be in the race for Rice tomorrow if we wanted to. 

Not really. We tried but pissed him off, his best mate is leaving the club and we can't offer Champions League football which was one of his requirements.

He's a joker of he chooses Arsenal over City. 

2 hours ago, OriginalS said:

Not really. We tried but pissed him off, his best mate is leaving the club and we can't offer Champions League football which was one of his requirements.

If Mount is such a factor why isn't he linked with United? 

He's not going to give a damn about CL, if he joins one of the big 5 clubs he will play in the CL. No one gives a damn about the CL, they care about the possibility of playing in it. 

The likliest answer is, we don't think he's worth the price west ham are going to insist on and they are going to be as hard as Levy is on selling for.a price. For that reason alone I'd expect he will be happy to go to any big club that gets an offer accepted.

There's no indication anywhere he's turned us down by the way, this is all you just assuming based on some basic media tropes that are typically just filler gossip nonsense. 

Edited June 15, 20233 yr by bisright1

5 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

He's not going to give a damn about CL, if he joins one of the big 5 clubs he will play in the CL. No one gives a damn about the CL, they care about the possibility of playing in it. 

Personally I believe it's 50-50 at this point wheter we are going to be a "Champions League" club going forward or a Europa League one.

A lot will depend on how this upcoming season goes but if it goes wrong again it could be extremely hard to close the gap.

3 hours ago, OriginalS said:

Apparently City are after him now in addition to Arsenal who's just had a bid rejected. I can just imagine that whoever loses out in that battle goes and gets Caicedo leaving us without him either.

We should have been in the race for Rice btw. That's another thing we cocked up.

In reality we are never in the race for any of these players. Any player that commands 70m plus in this market is a CL player and we are not a CL club. We have nothing to offer that others can't, currently. IMHO

19 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

If Mount is such a factor why isn't he linked with United? 

He's not going to give a damn about CL, if he joins one of the big 5 clubs he will play in the CL. No one gives a damn about the CL, they care about the possibility of playing in it. 

The likliest answer is, we don't think he's worth the price west ham are going to insist on and they are going to be as hard as Levy is on selling for.a price. For that reason alone I'd expect he will be happy to go to any big club that gets an offer accepted.

There's no indication anywhere he's turned us down by the way, this is all you just assuming based on some basic media tropes that are typically just filler gossip nonsense. 

I have not seen anything to suggest he has had anything from us to turn down.

the sun says, moyes would prefer him to come to Chelsea as he can include a swap deal for Gallager ...  perfect !!

27 minutes ago, guddy69 said:

the sun says, moyes would prefer him to come to Chelsea as he can include a swap deal for Gallager ...  perfect !!

They sell Rice to Arsenal or City and use some of the money to buy Conor I reckon.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

In reality we are never in the race for any of these players. Any player that commands 70m plus in this market is a CL player and we are not a CL club. We have nothing to offer that others can't, currently. IMHO

Enzo? Mudryk?

The former could have waited out until summer and gone somewhere else. 

The latter could have turned down a move to us and forced through Arsenal. 

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

I have not seen anything to suggest he has had anything from us to turn down.

That's my point. I don't think we have made him a priority at any point in the last 2/3 years. I think that's a mistake personally, but we're the ones not interested.

4 hours ago, OriginalS said:

Not really. We tried but pissed him off, his best mate is leaving the club and we can't offer Champions League football which was one of his requirements.

If the major deal breaker is something that could turn out to be six games then i want him even less than I did in the first place.

Likewise if Mount leaving has put him off, we ruthlessly binned Thiago Silva's best mate in 2019 but he still joined us a year later.

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

Enzo? Mudryk?

The former could have waited out until summer and gone somewhere else. 

The latter could have turned down a move to us and forced through Arsenal. 

That's my point. I don't think we have made him a priority at any point in the last 2/3 years. I think that's a mistake personally, but we're the ones not interested.

I get the Enzo and Mudryk points but i think you are ignoring the time elapsed. I would be surprised with the season we have had and the current media induced perception of us as a club, if we had been able to sign either of those players in this window. Its why i have been banging on about not seeing anything official about Nkunku. Want him in a blue shirt as soon as possible before he or his agent does a U turn.

On 14/06/2023 at 16:42, strider6004 said:

Technically I might agree yet which is future captain material Rice or Caicedo?

Captain Rice is overrated. He's the captain of Wet Spam, Conference league winner and let's be real, captaincy of Arsenal means zilch, they trade the armbands around on a yearly basis.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

I get the Enzo and Mudryk points but i think you are ignoring the time elapsed. I would be surprised with the season we have had and the current media induced perception of us as a club, if we had been able to sign either of those players in this window. Its why i have been banging on about not seeing anything official about Nkunku. Want him in a blue shirt as soon as possible before he or his agent does a U turn.

The trajectory of this season was pretty clear when Enzo arrived. Maybe he thought he could have had a Casemiro esque immediate impact on results but even if he did it would have just been a sticky plaster solution.

I think the Mudryk case is different as he probably wanted an escape from a warzone, but with Enzo our name (which isn't going to carry significantly less weight after one admittedly attriotious season) certainly helped.

13 hours ago, Deino said:

Captain Rice is overrated. He's the captain of Wet Spam, Conference league winner and let's be real, captaincy of Arsenal means zilch, they trade the armbands around on a yearly basis.

Captain of Chelsea means very little in recent years. I've seen Jorginho and Kovacic both wear that arm band at some point, lost its meaning.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Captain of Chelsea means very little in recent years. I've seen Jorginho and Kovacic both wear that arm band at some point, lost its meaning.

And Kepa too.