5 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Nobody wants Felix. The fans don't want him and he doesn't fit Maresca's system.

Felix is the cherry on a massive cake made of sh*t.

I do.

More use to us than Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke, Enzo and Jackson. 

Unfortunately we will struggle to punt that five, well 4, I'd keep Madueke

3 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Nobody wants Felix. The fans don't want him and he doesn't fit Maresca's system.

Felix is the cherry on a massive cake made of sh*t.

I like him. I want to watch players that can control a ball in one touch, for that touch to be active and progressive, for the passing to be incisive, and to be comfortable and fluid in possession.  I look at Mudryk and much as i like the lad i cannot see a single one of these attributes.. If Felix can fit in to the Maresca system and if we look attractive and flowing rather than this negative sideways, sideways, backwards bollox, I'm all in.

I think that we have no option now but to trust in and get behind Maresca. Clearly our on pitch success will come about despite our ownership, not because of it. I just want to block out the noise now and concentrate on the footie and the players that we have.

If this guy is the progressive, technical coach that the game needs and can develop us as a side, having forty odd players to choose from should be easy for him to get 11 blokes together to illustrate this. Just please, please, for the love of God, don't bore the sh*t out of us playing possession football inside our own half with no other bugger there.

Technical player with no end product. And a 7 year deal to a player that never sticks around at a club. 

 

Skeptical, to say the least.

9 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Agreed, but the constant financial narrative and bantering from the press and collective punditry is getting wearying now. We need the footie to start properly cos this barrage of negativity is becoming ridiculous. I have no faith whatsoever in the people running our club and i have an intense dislike of their motivation and model, but its again selective reporting intent upon constantly undermining all that the club does.

Instead of Boehly's billions, billion pound bottle jobs etc, there is no chance of something like this being reported is there. No chance of this being part of the narrative.

"Chelsea's opening game of the season had a predictable air to it as defending league champions Man City ran out 2-0 winners over last season's 6th place London side. At  the outset of a season whereby significant alleged financial irregularities may pull the champions asunder, there was still an air of inevitability in the overall outcome when in the 18th minute the £300k pw Bernardo Silva re-routed a pass from £50k pf Jeremy Doku so the £100k pw Chelsea defender Levis Colwill failed to prevent the £375k pw towering centre forward, Haaland, from opening the scoring. With £150k pw Mateo Kovacic putting his old club to the sword and the £400k pw Kevin de Bruyne looking imperious as either, the £1.275m City attack proved to be too much for the £52k Chelsea defence and the hapless £60k pw Sanchez in goal. Proof again that whilst the sharks circle around the alleged boardroom shenanigans, who pays the most gets the most. Oh and Peps' a genius, yada yada yada"

No fking chance. 

When the window closes, if we have a 25-28 man squad then we will be ready to go. If that squad is full of quality players, even if somewhat unbalanced, its what we wanted. We need strength in depth

Fck em ell, fck em all

Borson, Carragher, and Neville

We are the Chelsea and we are the best............

And if the uninformed and gullible fans believe the drivel spouted by the media and take their frustrations out at the stadium who's going to take the blame?  Already got the Chelsea booing/unrest headlines ready.  Maresca would have been called a yes man if he'd have sat there yesterday and gone through the classic no comment spiel, but he was "aggressive" and "brutal" he cant win, the headlines have been written, just need a few out of context sound bites.

Remember when Arteta was praised for shutting out Aubameyang and Ozil?  Or where was the out cry about Peps treatment of Yaya Toure?  Chelsea on the other hand.....

 

16 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

And if the uninformed and gullible fans believe the drivel spouted by the media and take their frustrations out at the stadium who's going to take the blame?  Already got the Chelsea booing/unrest headlines ready.  Maresca would have been called a yes man if he'd have sat there yesterday and gone through the classic no comment spiel, but he was "aggressive" and "brutal" he cant win, the headlines have been written, just need a few out of context sound bites.

Remember when Arteta was praised for shutting out Aubameyang and Ozil?  Or where was the out cry about Peps treatment of Yaya Toure?  Chelsea on the other hand.....

 

And that feral halfwit Carragher is always on hand to spit out some bile in that horrendous drawl of his.

16 hours ago, BS66 said:

No apology needed, your English is way better than our Spanish.

Our whole team is a defensive weak spot so Felix will probably feel right at home 😄

I read that Felix has a goal involvement (score or assist) of 0.5 per game and that Gallagher was 0.3. I’d argue that Portuguese and Spanish defences are weaker than in England (Ronaldo averaged a goal every 2 games in England and 1 every game at Madrid) so the players we have “swapped” would seem to be comparable in attack. What do you think? 

The Portuguese league isn't even in the same league. Comparing it to La Liga is like comparing the Premier League to the Irish league. Cristiano used to score fewer goals in the Premier League because he was just a kid and wasn't fully developed physically yet, but later he scored in any league and against any team, whether it was English, German, Italian, Spanish...

The Premier League has a big advantage: the TV money is distributed equally among all the clubs, which makes it fairer and more competitive. A few teams actually have a shot at winning the title. Here in Spain, we’ve copied the English model for the last two seasons, but before 2022, the TV deals were negotiated individually by each team based on their screen time, and Madrid and Barcelona took around 65% of it, leaving just 35% for the rest of the teams. That made our league really unappealing and not very competitive. Only Atlético Madrid, with a budget almost four times smaller than Real Madrid and Barcelona, has managed to compete with those two.

I'm telling you all this so you get the bigger picture of what La Liga is like. Here, we're very strong tactically, but over there in the Premier League, you’re much more physical. The games are end-to-end, where players like Conor are crucial. Here, Madrid is copying your style of play, with technical but very physical players. And they're paying big money for them: Camavinga, Tchouameni, Bellingham, Mbappe, Vinicius, Rudiger, Militao, Mendy... Lots of physicality but also quality.

But traditionally, Spanish league play is more tactical, more strategic; players who are smart tactically and technically skilled tend to succeed. Modric, Kroos, Griezmann, Pedri, Yamal, Rodri (when he was here). The styles are just different.

As for Joao, he's going to score the same amount of goals there as he did here. Not many. Because he's the kind of player who only makes a difference in one out of every four games. He doesn’t like to work and thinks he's the star, but without proving it. He's more about style than substance.

Between Maresca and Xavi, there’s not much of a difference. He'll play well at first, you'll like him, but as the season goes on, he'll start thinking he's the star and stop working hard.

How is Gallagher as a player? What flaws does he have? In which position is he best?  Which player is he comparable to?

Thanks.

3 minutes ago, ATM said:

How is Gallagher as a player? What flaws does he have? In which position is he best?  Which player is he comparable to?

Thanks.

In short, he makes up for a lack of top class technical quality with absolutely limitless energy and commitment. He will chase down any cause lost or otherwise. And put in a tackle which, probably too often, earns him a YC. The further forward he plays the more his lack of high class technical quality is revealed. But he makes up for it very many other ways. You guys will love him. 

My thoughts on a Gallagher description, a poor fit for Barca a great fit for Atleti

52 millions, total madness! 

On 22/08/2024 at 13:59, ross91690 said:

Technical player with no end product. And a 7 year deal to a player that never sticks around at a club. 

 

Skeptical, to say the least.

He has end product. The issue is keeping him motivated.

I always thought some fans were harsh on Felix when we had him on loan. January signings are more often than not very mixed, and very mixed is what we got from Felix. You're signing a player new to a country with no time to settle, thrown into the mix with little knowledge of his teammates, the club or anything really. 

Even players like Anelka struggled when we signed him. 11 goals in 22 games for Bolton, then we sign him in January and he scores 2. The following season he grabs 25 goals for us and a golden boot.

48 minutes ago, JPH said:

52 millions, total madness! 

Not when you pay 70 million for a keeper that can't jump, catch or kick.

I like him

I like him, his last spell here wasn't as bad as the media would make you believe.

Like I said before things happen in and around him when he's on the pitch.

A couple of sloppy passes here and there but what a finish for the goal.

A talented player whatever you think of him, it could be his time to shine.

 

Yeah I liked him a lot during his loan spell and I wanted us to sign him. Didn't really set the world on fire at Barca though, but I couldn't care less if he does the job here. 

What a nice way to kake a second debut, a lot better than the first one lol.

Hope he proves a lot of us doubters wrong. Talent is clearly there.

Loved the way he took his goal. Can see him playing no.10 or rotating up top quite a bit. Clever player. 

Great finish... great goal but could have and should have laid it off to Madueke more than once!

4 hours ago, Bebe1980 said:

Great finish... great goal but could have and should have laid it off to Madueke more than once!

Yup. Made some poor choices and wayward passes. But still.

On 26/08/2024 at 04:38, Bebe1980 said:

Great finish... great goal but could have and should have laid it off to Madueke more than once!

Yup, seemed to prefer to only pass to his Portuguese mate.

He'll be a useful player off the bench against tired legs through out the season. 

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Yup, seemed to prefer to only pass to his Portuguese mate.

He'll be a useful player off the bench against tired legs through out the season. 

The chance late on where had 3 players to pick from, or even run, but chose to pass to Neto who was easily the worst positioned option was ridiculous.

Joao is this. He comes out when everything is won and scores a goal or does a wonderful action.

 

Joao always starts with rhythm and enthusiasm and when he is required to be the one who scores the first goal, who fights for the ball, who runs to recover the ball, who presses, then Joao will not appear and the coach will replace him, and Joao will get angry and He will go a few games without appearing and then he will do something magical again and disappear again... It has always been like that. Very irregular player with an excessive ego.

1 hour ago, ATM said:

Joao is this. He comes out when everything is won and scores a goal or does a wonderful action.

 

Joao always starts with rhythm and enthusiasm and when he is required to be the one who scores the first goal, who fights for the ball, who runs to recover the ball, who presses, then Joao will not appear and the coach will replace him, and Joao will get angry and He will go a few games without appearing and then he will do something magical again and disappear again... It has always been like that. Very irregular player with an excessive ego.

You got by far the best half of the deal, my friend.

"Joao is this. He comes out when everything is won and scores a goal or does a wonderful action.



Joao always starts with rhythm and enthusiasm and when he is required to be the one who scores the first goal, who fights for the ball, who runs to recover the ball, who presses, then Joao will not appear and the coach will replace him, and Joao will get angry and He will go a few games without appearing and then he will do something magical again and disappear again... It has always been like that. Very irregular player with an excessive ego."

He appeared on March 17, last year for the first goal.

Look he's 24, he's hardly played for Atletico the last 18 months, and hasn't gotten along with his coach for a bit. We will see maybe he's inconsistent due to himself, his situations or both. He now has a chance to earn stability and prove himself. He's top class enough that he can.

All fart no poo