2 hours ago, bluelightening said:

I doubt he'll make the grade tbh. Portugese league is equivalent to EFL 1. its also where the Enzo the deadweight midfielder, came from and he's an absolutely shocking footballer. i've never laughed so hard as to some mug on here describing him as the Argentinian Dennis Wise. Wisey could play the game and turn it into a brawl in 30 seconds, Enzo cant even kick a ball five yards.

lol..c’mon not even Championship. It’s actually a quality league for young talent, and there have been many quality players that have played in PL straight up from the Portuguese league. I actually trust the league more than Serie A & Bundesliga when it comes to talent.

Think our lot were just silly with Enzo. He had been signed by Benfica 6mths earlier for €40m, and had barely played 17 league games. There is absolutely no reason why he was worth 3x that amount 6mths later. Quenda in contrast has actually racked up 48 league games at 18yrs which is not to be sniffed at, and stands out among his age group.

12 minutes ago, markpitts said:

lol..c’mon not even Championship. It’s actually a quality league for young talent...

The championship is where our youngsters usually get loand to, or should be loaned into that league.

Think our lot were just silly with Enzo. Totally agree - like a child spending their birthday money on 1p sweets.. They havent stopped the kid in a candy shop spending since either.

Quenda in contrast has actually racked up 48 league games at 18yrs which is not to be sniffed at, and stands out among his age group. - Just another young kid, I like Estevao, but my word he is a long way from being a finished product. A long way... if Quenda is as good, great, but we are a team that replaces older players with untested ones.

We've now been building for three/ four seasons for the future, selling our better youth teamers and buying inferior youngsters as replacements, what are we actually building for because its not a league title this year either. I look at Palmer and Estevao and think great players who wont do well under our anti-football manager who hates any joy or skill or creativity being shown on the pitch... Who are we selling out of the more senior players to make way for him. I'd love to get fully behind Palmer but reckon he'll be gone in the summer without CL football...

My biggest concern is when will they ship out Caicedo for profit? Club will literally fall apart when we sell him.

I would never want us to become like Real Madrid with the ridiculous player power that goes on there BUT after Palmers comments after the ECL Final and the way Estevao is being suffocated maybe it’s time someone did say something or were at risk of losing anyone who is even slightly entertaining.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

23 minutes ago, SevilleBlues said:

Does anyone know what’s going on?

I predicted he had an injury.

https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/chelsea/injury-news/news/maresca-reveals-estevao-injury-blow-after-chelsea-reach-efl-cup-semi-finals_587930.html

Not surprised all that sitting around on the bench

Pulled a glute.

He's hardly played in the last few weeks.Apart from over 80 mins v Barca...... this.vvv

Came on 80th minute v Everton

Unused sub v Atalanta

Came on 77th min v Bournemouth

Taken off HT v Leeds

Taken off HT v Arsenal

Unused sub v Burnley

"The minor muscle injury" reason might just be a convenient cover explanation. ??

On 12/12/2025 at 18:04, The Boehly Babes said:

I would never want us to become like Real Madrid with the ridiculous player power that goes on there BUT after Palmers comments after the ECL Final and the way Estevao is being suffocated maybe it’s time someone did say something or were at risk of losing anyone who is even slightly entertaining.

We've probably already seen the best of him !

Put on a real show yesterday, should be starting every week for us. Palmer in the 10 and Estevao on the wing are non negotiable.

Estevao left, Palmer right and...someone who is not Garnacho, Gittens, Neto or Enzo in the 10? Someone... ya know... at least competent.

So refreshing to see this kid take on defenders and not do what Garnacho and Neto do - frustrate the f**k out of everyone.

He has it in abundance. Might not come off every time but he is making the opposition defenders work and giving them some nightmares. I'm all for managing youngsters but this kid HAS to start games more often than not rather than the dross that is starting ahead of him. Clear MOTM last night.

Edited December 31, 2025Dec 31 by Nibs

47 minutes ago, Nibs said:

So refreshing to see this kid take on defenders and not do what Garnacho and Neto do - frustrate the f**k out of everyone.

He has it in abundance. Might not come off every time but he is making the opposition defenders work and giving them some nightmares. I'm all for managing youngsters but this kid HAS to start games more often than not rather than the dross that is starting ahead of him. Clear MOTM last night.

And running on fumes at the end.

Poor guy, only player with any appetite to be creative and direct yesterday. Of course, this will result in him being dropped next game as punishment.

15 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Estevao left, Palmer right and...someone who is not Garnacho, Gittens, Neto or Enzo in the 10? Someone... ya know... at least competent.

The problem there, is under this manager/system Palmer will be hugging the line and Gusto drifting into midfield...

He was good on the left, but in all honesty, I don't want that to become the norm. He was showing promising signs with his link up play with Palmer on the right.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He was good on the left, but in all honesty, I don't want that to become the norm. He was showing promising signs with his link up play with Palmer on the right.

Just insane to throw him left after hes been brilliant all game, and when neto can play there....more evidence on just how dumb Maresca is.

6 hours ago, dkw said:

Just insane to throw him left after hes been brilliant all game, and when neto can play there....more evidence on just how dumb Maresca is.

I was gobsmacked by that actually. So was Estevao as well i think as he then drifted over to the right to show Neto what he should have been doing. The move of Neto to the left with Estevao on the right and Palmer in the 10, with Palmer and Estevao having licence to interchange as their relationship developed was a no brainer, but then Maresca is literally a no brainer.

Was it tactical that he was subbed at HT today or did he have a knock?

I know we looked a lot better in the second half, but frustrating to see Neto on the pitch doing very little rather than Estevao.

1 minute ago, Nibs said:

Was it tactical that he was subbed at HT today or did he have a knock?

I know we looked a lot better in the second half, but frustrating to see Neto on the pitch doing very little rather than Estevao.

Definitely seemed tactical, he and Josh were struggling and Cherki kept drifting there for overloads. That's why they switched him and Neto before half-time.

39 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Was it tactical that he was subbed at HT today or did he have a knock?

I know we looked a lot better in the second half, but frustrating to see Neto on the pitch doing very little rather than Estevao.

They both had howlers today. Couldn't argue with either or both being hooked at half time. Think maybe Estevao was chosen over Neto because he offers nothing defensively but that's just guesswork.

What exactly do they aim to achieve by subbing him off every time? We keep hearing these players are young and need time, but the minute things are tough, they are hooked at half time. If it's not Estevao, it's Acheampong. What are they learning if they aren't allowed to complete a game of football when things are tough? That just destroys confidence and ruins chances of helping them grow. I didn't see United take off Ronaldo or Rooney at half time when they had games they struggled in in their first season.

It's always such a cowardly move to make. The blame constantly falls on the young players at this club when the established players are having a stinker. It's always been this way, long before Clear Lake arrived and it's main reason why we have struggled to create another Terry.

We could have had prime Hazard today and even he would have struggled in that first half with how sh*t we were at keeping hold of the ball.

Edited January 4Jan 4 by Scott Harris

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

What exactly do they aim to achieve by subbing him off every time? We keep hearing these players are young and need time, but the minute things are tough, they are hooked at half time. If it's not Estevao, it's Acheampong. What are they learning if they aren't allowed to complete a game of football when things are tough? That just destroys confidence and ruins chances of helping them grow. I didn't see United take off Ronaldo or Rooney at half time when they had games they struggled in in their first season.

It's always such a cowardly move to make. The blame constantly falls on the young players at this club when the established players are having a stinker. It's always been this way, long before Clear Lake arrived and it's main reason why we have struggled to create another Terry.

We could have had prime Hazard today and even he would have struggled in that first half with how sh*t we were at keeping hold of the ball.

There are a lot of circumstances where this would be valid but this was not one of them. We were struggling. Having Josh and Estevao on the same flank was a gamble. And then we started losing the midfield battle. Santos on was the right move, gave us a boost in midfield, and strengthened our flanks when Palmer switched.

Ronaldo and Rooney were playing for the best team in the league and surrounded by senior pros.

4 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

There are a lot of circumstances where this would be valid but this was not one of them. We were struggling. Having Josh and Estevao on the same flank was a gamble. And then we started losing the midfield battle. Santos on was the right move, gave us a boost in midfield, and strengthened our flanks when Palmer switched.

Ronaldo and Rooney were playing for the best team in the league and surrounded by senior pros.

Ronaldo and Rooney weren't playing for the best team at the time. They were behind both us and Arsenal.

Also, what is that circumstance when it would be valid to complain about Estevao being subbed off? Because I see this excuse every time. It's always we're suffering because he is doing something wrong, when the reality is that we would have been just as sh*t in that first half no matter who we had there. The whole team had a Lukaku touch and kept passing it to City players. Even if Estevao wasn't on the pitch in the second half, our performance would have been just as sh*t. This is the problem, when we're sh*t collectively, it's always Estevao that is subbed off.

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Ronaldo and Rooney weren't playing for the best team at the time. They were behind both us and Arsenal.

Also, what is that circumstance when it would be valid to complain about Estevao being subbed off? Because I see this excuse every time. It's always we're suffering because he is doing something wrong, when the reality is that we would have been just as sh*t in that first half no matter who we had there. The whole team had a Lukaku touch and kept passing it to City players. Even if Estevao wasn't on the pitch in the second half, our performance would have been just as sh*t. This is the problem, when we're sh*t collectively, it's always Estevao that is subbed off.

He did nothing wrong. He's just not great in defensive transitions and he naturally gambles in dangerous areas because he's still getting to grips with the league's physicality. We struggled to have any control for a large part of the first half.

It would be valid to complain when there aren't such glaring structural problems for a manager to address. It's not like say, if he made a few mistakes on the ball and we were struggling to create vs Wolves - in those cases the player can still recover and taking him off would be cowardly.