18 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Going to agree with this, needs proven ability in the back line, rather than trying out every kid we have at disposal. The other thing with throwing a local lad in is once he gets 10 games and attract some interest, all the sudden he's another candidate for the pure FFP cash. That Lewis Hall looked a good player, not saying we could buy or he's willing to return.

He would have been the perfect player for what Gusto struggles to do when he tucks in in the final third. We sold him for pure profit in the summer, and he is probably worth near double the fee now after half a season.

Lewis Hall was quality every time he played and should have been starting far more games than he was. Sadly, he wanted to leave for Newcastle but we didn't do nearly enough to convince him to stay. 

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Lewis Hall was quality every time he played and should have been starting far more games than he was. Sadly, he wanted to leave for Newcastle but we didn't do nearly enough to convince him to stay. 

I mean the club did give him a 6 year deal with an option to extend that Hall signed. 

I think Hall and his agent really pushed to leave. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I mean the club did give him a 6 year deal with an option to extend that Hall signed. 

I think Hall and his agent really pushed to leave. 

Definitely, i just think the club should have given him more minutes to convince him to stay. He played a handful of Prem games after his debut then wasn't even in the squad for the next 12. Just strange given how poor Cucurella was that season. 

16 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Lewis Hall was quality every time he played and should have been starting far more games than he was. Sadly, he wanted to leave for Newcastle but we didn't do nearly enough to convince him to stay. 

Hall was quality but the reality was he was part of the 'sandwich' generation that immediately followed the Cobham '21 CL winners but came before the current crop of talents. Hall, Livramento, Guehi are great talents but it's also no big surprise that the club chose to stick with Mount, Gallagher, James & Hudson-Odoi over them at the time, with the likes of Chalobah, Colwill, Acheampong and Gilchrist etc also coming through.

It has to take something pretty exceptional for both generations to co-exist in the same team eg. Iniesta and Xavi at Barcelona.

Edited January 10, 20251 yr by SydneyChelsea

14 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Definitely, i just think the club should have given him more minutes to convince him to stay. He played a handful of Prem games after his debut then wasn't even in the squad for the next 12. Just strange given how poor Cucurella was that season. 

The temptation of pure profits always out weighted everything. Considering Cucureall was awful on many occasions last season, and we picked below average players  in the squad, Hall could have easily stayed and played some parts of the season, if not exceeding.

5 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Hall was quality but the reality was he was part of the 'sandwich' generation that immediately followed the Cobham '21 CL winners but came before the current crop of talents. Hall, Livramento, Guehi are great talents but it's also no big surprise that the club chose to stick with Mount, Gallagher, James & Hudson-Odoi over them at the time, with the likes of Chalobah, Colwill, Acheampong and Gilchrist etc also coming through.

It has to take something pretty exceptional for both generations to co-exist in the same team eg. Iniesta and Xavi at Barcelona.

None of the listed players were challenging Hall for game time though. I can understand Livramento leaving as he had Reece James and i believe Lamptey was getting games at the time? Guehi was never going to get a look in when we had Rudiger/Silva/Tomori(?)/Cristensen etc. At LB we had a chronically injured Chilwell and a seriously awful Cucurella and he wasn't even making the match day squads. 

Seriously mismanaged imo. 

23 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

None of the listed players were challenging Hall for game time though.

Yeah, Hall was a midfielder though and came through competing with Mount and Gallagher. We stuck him out at LB which I suppose in its own way is exactly what you are saying.

23 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Yeah, Hall was a midfielder though and came through competing with Mount and Gallagher. We stuck him out at LB which I suppose in its own way is exactly what you are saying.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but imagine how perfect he would have been in that inverted role this season. He's one signing i wouldn't mind us throwing some serious money at to get back one day. 

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but imagine how perfect he would have been in that inverted role this season. He's one signing i wouldn't mind us throwing some serious money at to get back one day. 

I think he'd reject a move back to us. He left because he wanted Newcastle above Chelsea, being a boyhood fan, family all fans, etc etc.

He played 658 PL minutes under Potter/Lampard, which is pretty good for a raw 18 year old.

Howe gave him 775 PL minutes last season. Hardly much difference, but he didn't agitate to leave ... so he's where he wants to be in my opinion.

 

13 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think he'd reject a move back to us. He left because he wanted Newcastle above Chelsea, being a boyhood fan, family all fans, etc etc.

He played 658 PL minutes under Potter/Lampard, which is pretty good for a raw 18 year old.

Howe gave him 775 PL minutes last season. Hardly much difference, but he didn't agitate to leave ... so he's where he wants to be in my opinion.

 

I felt then that the key to keeping was sort out the Chilwell/Cucurella mess. There was no way you were going to keep him with 2 big money signings ahead of him. If hypothetically Chilwell had been blacklisted then and sent to the reserves with just Cucurella ahead of him, he would have fancied his chances.

On 09/01/2025 at 12:58, Sconnie Blue said:

I mean the club did give him a 6 year deal with an option to extend that Hall signed. 

I think Hall and his agent really pushed to leave. 

Wasn’t the new contract just to juice up the returns the next summer? We did the same with Chalobah; gave him a contract extension and encouraged offers the next window.

With how bad the likes of Sanchez, Jackson and other players have been at times, I guess it's easy to forget how sh*t Gusto has been this season.

What a massive backwards step this season has been for him. I would go as far as to say he has been the worst player of the season so far. He hasn't had one good game!

He's fallen off a cliff since Enzo came in, today was the worst I'd ever seen him play though because even the effort wasn't there 

I don’t really blame him tbh. He’s playing a role that doesn’t suit his game and it’s hindering him massively.

We’ll see the old Gusto again when we get a new manager that likes to play full backs as they should be playing.

He's always been rubbish going forward now he's not that good at defending either.

These are our standards at this football club in 2025.

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I don’t really blame him tbh. He’s playing a role that doesn’t suit his game and it’s hindering him massively.

We’ll see the old Gusto again when we get a new manager that likes to play full backs as they should be playing.

I always saw Gusto as a high intensity full back last season, now he's playing so slow. It's not working for him.

20 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

With how bad the likes of Sanchez, Jackson and other players have been at times, I guess it's easy to forget how sh*t Gusto has been this season.

What a massive backwards step this season has been for him. I would go as far as to say he has been the worst player of the season so far. He hasn't had one good game!

Was coming to this thread to post exactly that.

The whole team were rubbish last night but Gusto was probably the worst. Dreadful. Not sure how much to blame him or blame Maresca as every player seems to have regressed under the bald one.

20 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I don’t really blame him tbh. He’s playing a role that doesn’t suit his game and it’s hindering him massively.

We’ll see the old Gusto again when we get a new manager that likes to play full backs as they should be playing.

Hasn't got the strength to muscle his way out of a wet paper bag. The irony wasn't lost on me yesterday that he was owned by a smaller Lamptey, playing out of position.

20 hours ago, 2211 said:

He's always been rubbish going forward now he's not that good at defending either.

These are our standards at this football club in 2025.

Has he?

He looked f**king brilliant going forward last season. 

2 hours ago, Victor90 said:

Has he?

He looked f**king brilliant going forward last season. 

Brilliant??

Not for me, he looked good last season right up until the final pass or shot.

He's no Reece James IMO.

Edited February 9, 20251 yr by 2211

1 hour ago, 2211 said:

Brilliant??

Not for me, he looked good last season right up until the final pass or shot.

He's no Reece James IMO.

Gusto had 9 assists last season, joint 2nd in assists for a RB. I have to massively disagree with that. 

He had excellent dribbling, passing, could whip in a good ball, we've barely seen that this season. He's far better on the overlap and pushing up. 

Edited February 9, 20251 yr by Victor90

1 hour ago, Victor90 said:

Gusto had 9 assists last season, joint 2nd in assists for a RB. I have to massively disagree with that. 

He had excellent dribbling, passing, could whip in a good ball, we've barely seen that this season. He's far better on the overlap and pushing up. 

Which was more assists than Fernandez, Madueke and Mudryk combined !

35 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Which was more assists than Fernandez, Madueke and Mudryk combined !

Short memories people have on here, the kids got serious talent, another massive blunder on Marescas part. 

1 hour ago, Victor90 said:

Short memories people have on here, the kids got serious talent, another massive blunder on Marescas part. 

Another player he has taken backwards.