Vegetable

I can see 33 yo Kante killing it in Barcelona or Italy still, also the injuries may be less frequent in less demanding league. Let him go for like 2 mill and they will work the salary out. I can also see him just finishing the career when he will be actually unable to deliver, instead of taking a trip around the world. I am far more concerned with where is TB going to eventually offload his transfer duds - maybe that's what buying satellite club is for as we didn't yet get rid of all the deadwood and already getting stuck in another Drinkwater situation x 5. Or we are going with hardcore Catenaccio with 10 defenders, who knows.

Yeah, my point is, the right moment to part with Kante existed and is now gone. Now it's bit of pickle, but selling him for 30 milion or letting go on free, given how eager to throw cash on whatever TB is, is hardly help and even half-assed Kante may be useful from time to time, as there is no idea how to replace him in immediate future. We can always sell him on cheap if there is a better option ACTUALLY IN PLACE. I know the table turned from love to hate quickly here, but I see at least trying to make KK work is one of main Potter's jobs for now as his positioning vs speed is suicidal in PL for now, but I wouldn't ever say he is a bad defender per se

Better to have some contract in place than letting him go for free. Given we slept on Tchouaniemi, Rice is neverending story and not quite the level and also no suitable replacement coming for foreseeable future, I think not repeating the overoptimistic offloading of older players like we did with Giroud is not a bad move. I will be more concerned if we will keep Azpi beyond this season.

Meh, for me he is just a much smarter version of Kondue move. He is also dynamic and can handle the ball but also is big and reasonably priced. There is Silva and, in theory, KK to be a tank of clinical defender to cover for second CB mistakes. I feel like we were always trying to set up a pair this way. He may be molded into more conservative CB when paired with Fofana I guess, but I doubt he is an instant Silva replacement. Also, those guys claim we don't need CM but rather pull a striker out of thin air, so there is that.

Yeah, he needs time, he needs time, I would really like to know what for, actually. Like, seriously, what is this guy actually trying to impose here? Make one, bold personal or tactical move so it's clear what the vision is. We are having worse numbers and worse results compared to a moment when half of this board was #Tuchelout, not much changed except no crosses anymore as we shipped one striker away, another is injured and Auba is suffering. If his idea is to be a transparent figure and quietly provide us with "better football" in two years, this may be super difficult for him and for fans.

I get You, however I stand by the idea we have zero knowledge of what actually happened and wouldn't be so fast to hold TB for his words. I would believe we wanted to trigger the clause, but after 2nd day of twitter drama I stopped believing a single word that was reported. And actually, what if mid talks Bohely came up with like "hey, we've got new analytics, our numbers show he may be like 30% more Saul than we thought, best we can do is 80 mil"? What should we do? They have right to take it and right to walk away, it's not unusual new stuff is coming up during talks, just look at the old Fofana ordeal. All we know it's another time board lets to make clown of club in media, because they have zero pr team.

I would really like to see fans of any other club crying for owner to break league transfer record every purchase without second thought and calling him names for having a minimum of reasonability. And it's coming from people I would consider absolutely level-headed posters here! I don't know what kind of mentality it is to think Benfica is having a pure gold mix of Pele and Zidane on their hands (yet somehow no other club seems to care for this bargain price of 120 million) and we are some small-time club, that has to kiss their feet to even talk with them, when we are not even competing with anyone. We are not some Arab or USA club, that has to sweeten every deal with extra 100 million for anyone to even talk with us. And most important question to those overexcited: What if this guy comes for ridiculous, record fee of 130 million and turns out another Saul (what is highly probable)? You gonna apologize, or just go radio silence or even bash the club for stupid transfers and cry for another 150 milion kid, because it's not your 130 milion that went to the shitter? Fact we Paid 90 mil for Lukaku and 60 for Cucu only means this idiocy has to stop, not that we have to pay twice more for anyone better. Clubs saw TB is overpaying and are rightly milking it, so being assertive is a right thing to do, not "turning us into untrustworthy club". And us "turning player's head?" Lol. What about Bayern or Real snooping around our players and targets 24/7? Or maybe better, wanna talk about ethical background of pulling favela kids from South America for penauts to play in your stars-breeding team? Just chill, we've sold Hazard, freaking prime Hazard for 100 million, so maybe start your thinking from there before firing up FM23 for a next new great wonderkid. We wanted smarter business and now people are upset, because TB is looking to stop pulling even more headless version of early Roman, just chill. Especially since we have zero knowledge of what *actually* happened and if it's Benfica leaking this drama, then they should be slapped and left to play to rot with their golden boy.

If we will finish below 6, TB will be questioned by fans hard. If we go below 10, there's a riot and no amount of PR bs about Potter's "vision and ambition" helps this.

So, who's got Diego Costa's number? Apparently he is the last, bar Hazard, Chelsea fella who knew how to find a way to back of the net, so maybe we could ask him to reveal this ancient dwarf secret to younger generations.

I think we should focus on quickly finding viable method of freezing Thiago and only unfreezing him for the games, otherwise we may be toasted on many levels.

Given how much slack our manager and horrid 1st team players get, I wouldn't be harsh on those guys - thumbs up for not pissing their pants there, as one can be second Messi in U23 until he stands on the sideline vs City. Contrary to Potter and some of our stars, they actually DO have time, especially that they are not playing too often in the first team.

Sort of, but didn't see anything worth of noting since his arrival - we've basically got 60 million squad player. He doesn't provide the offensive pull of Alonso, yet isn't really rock solid defensively. And I would be completely okay with him being substitute LB, but this pricetag hurts.

So… Masterclass from Pep, Zakaria good again, Cucurella is worse than Emerson since he came, I still see zero influence of Potter on this team and only upside is the youth, that I'm not sure was Potter intent to be let in. We had no idea for this game except for getting lucky and somehow managing through, and we didn't.

I wonder what was our actual plan for this game except for maybe somehow slide over it and get lucky and whether it fell apart with Sterling's injury or not. We are dull.

Finished my goalkeeping career on like 7th league, but even I would know allowing ball to be behind your back, especially in 5 yard box, is not ideal and would do everything to avoid it, while Kepa seem to not drive for the ball after it passes him, which is very strange, especially given his smaller frame, so it's easier for him

Pretty much the same play we concieded from, Kepa sitting on pitch again

Cucu and Auba way too long on the pitch

Ok, I would word it more boldly now. Masterclass by Pep, if the situation wouldn't force Potter to let Carney in, we'd be down much earlier.

Done and dusted

Tierney with typical EPL stuff today

Pep turned things over 180 degrees in halftime. If Potter won't react to this with something else, than keeping his fingers crossed we will suffer. This pressure is not possible to withstand for 40 minutes.

We did nothing with City being vulnerable for 45 mins, now they had switched on and on the way to bite us

MOTM so far, at least in terms of willingness to do something

If we won't capitalize on how sleepy and clueless City is today, we may not be able to do so for a long time, c'mon!

Don't want to be a naysayer, but I really wonder weather Cucu's input is actually 60 million Euro better, than Alonso's…