Duppy Conqueror

Frank and Ernie (Wise) never shared a locker room,Frank made his debut a couple of months after Wise left..JT used to clean his boots as a youth player and shared the locker room as a team mate for 3 years. We still got JT..and others can step up..there's enough veterans in our team.

Frank as a coaching assistant.cool. As a squad member..it's the right time to move on.we can't be held back by sentiment. His good games are too few now and our midfield gets run over too often with him in it.

He turned 33 a few weeks ago btw..not much difference between the stated 34 but when you looking for a player to come in just for a year or two it is. It's premature to be looking at what we go into next season with tho..there's 3 months until the window that hasn't even opened yet closes.

With Frank seemingly on the way out he'll be a good player to help ease the young midfielders into the line up.e.g Van Ginkel,Chalobah etc....would be a good signing to help our youth,whilst still giving us better than what Frank can do now for the next year or two.

Ryan Giggs used to have issues with his hamstrings,two decades before he retired.. knee injuries and heart problems are the only ones that really concern me.

well i wouldn`t want to win your butt so i`ll pass on that bet. but never said Lukaku should lead the strikers (presuming that means be first choice) but certainly at worst he`s good enough to be 3rd choice if not 2nd. and we have 3 Veteran CB`s ..Kalas showed me he was good enough to get a shot as the 4th. again i`ll say it..i`m not talking about these two being thrown in to be regular starters but to stay with us and worked into the starting lineup as and when Jose sees fit. in the case of Kalas..league cup,fa cup..against lower premiership teams. in Lukaku`s case more frequently,when others aren`t firing.. it`s football..not ice hockey,where kids could be physically destroyed..Kalas and Lukaku are certainly not lacking physically anyway.

sounds really harsh. really doubt Salah will have to face it tho..without knowing much about the Egyptian national side i presume he is their best player. i was in the Army in the 90`s but was fully my choice. i do think they should bring back national service in the u.k. but not just to enter the military,just make sure that everybody is doing something good for their country

surely the fact that he lives in England (or if he lived in any other country) takes him out of the Egyptian army`s reach. could understand it if he still played in Egypt but don`t see how he can be forced to leave England by the Egyptian army.

Kalas and Lukaku aren't unproven tho and we have 3 veteran CB's to go with Kalas. so at minimum there`s those 2 who should be in our 1st team squad..we`ll buy atleast 3 i think,but there`s still room as more than 4 from our 1st team squad last season will be gone in Luiz,Eto`o,Cole, hopefully Torres..plus more in Lampard among others who as much as i love him is winding down his career now and no longer good enough for a place in a trophy chasing squad like ours. teams including ourselves (among many others) only "park the bus" when we are mismatched in talent to engage in a shoot out..Jose does not strive to build a team who wants to park it but he`s aware like all great managers you have to play to your strengths. he does obviously understand you need a strong defense but don`t have to park the bus to get it.

exactly. the knock i think on Lukaku was his first touch but if BA has a good first touch you can be sure his second won`t be..and he`s the only one of the 3 i`d even consider bringing back next season. if it was thinking his confidence was shot after the bad penalty against Bayern then i`d say Torres confidence has been shot for the majority of the last 3 seasons. Lukaku has proven he belongs in the premiership twice,he`s going to the World cup..he simply must be back with us next year or sell him. we are gonna have bad games from youngsters but when our veterans are having bad game after bad game..i'd rather ride out the bumps with the youngsters..atleast they should grow from it. i'm not saying any of these youngsters should be thrown into a regular starting spot but over 60plus games that we play each season,there`s more for them to gain by playing sparingly and training with top class players and coaches than being loaned out to play and train with inferior coaches and players.

Kalas is good enough for our 1st team squad now. we need to give kids a chance when they show us enough,we can't keep sending them on loan after loan because all they are doing even if they succeed on loan is showing that they can fit into the team we loan them out to..and the more times we send them out to different clubs the more chance they end up at a team that doesn`t suit them.then the bad loan blows their confidence. at maximum i would loan a kid out twice.ideally just once and then decide what to do with them..we have a group of young defenders,especially at CB who could very well serve us for the next 10-13 years..let them be coached by our coaches and shaped into what we want from players. we need to give atleast one of those young defenders a place in our 1st team squad next year or the ones behind them are gonna likely wonder how they will ever get a chance and then end up wanting to leave. also as much as i love Chelsea..if i had a son talented enough to play for some youth team as things stand i would rather him go to a club that brings youngsters into their 1st team squad. we need to change that for future recruitment of youth players. in the past there`s been times when the youth team hasn`t had the kind of talent that would make it with us but we have plenty that could now.time to give them a chance. as much as Varane is clearly a talented defender,signing someone like him would be a bad move because we have 5 talented youngsters at CB and most if not all would then see no future for them at the club. i personally hope we just sign a LB if any defenders.

In 4 years on here i've never seen everyone agree on anything,so that would be a first..

With the way Simeone behaved at the end of the final..i wonder just what their version of Very Aggressive entails..

King Carlo.has 5 European cup winners medals now..as the class act he is.can't begrudge the great man all those medals.

The guy wears varnish on his toenails..nothing shocks me with him anymore

He'll have the world cup to snap him out of any depression. This cup final was huge for Athletico but for us it's what we aim for every year so he should get more bites of the cherry in the future.

Simeone was an headcase as a player..nothing changed there..

Paul Clement who was part of our first team coaching staff is Carlo's assistant there too. Two ex Spurs in the Real team tho,so even if i didn't dislike Real i would want Athletico to win..

It did seem abit rash at the time..he was growing into the solid player he has become..we did have an epic midfield during his time here and in the few years that followed tho so just one of those good players that great clubs look for better than.

F.A cup is a major trophy players around the world and at home all want to win.i'm not gonna devalue our times we have won it,because Arsenal are current winners of it.

For years Real have thought they have some devine rite to win their 10th (even tho alot of them were won during a weaker competition) i'd love Athletico to win it. Football is not all about pretty passing patterns..

So much for Horse placenta..

I don't use the term transistion for us.we are just a top side doing what top sides do,always trying to find ways of getting better.no top side just keeps the exact same squad. There will be changes to our squad but i only see a maximum of 4 new players + loan players returning.i see atleast 6 or 7 leaving but ones where replacements are already here in most cases..e.g Moses,Marin,Eto'o..

He'll be behind Terry John and Cahill Gary for sure and maybe Kalas Tomas... I think one of our young CB's will end up groomed to play the Branislav role.

Torres was the last bad buy really.(out of players anyway) Turned it around well since then,atleast in the buying and selling transfer windows. Not been a fan of some of their loan out decisions.