Tomo

Don't get the agg with him, he's a perfectly fine squad player.

I would seriously consider cancelling Gallagher's loan and sending Ruben there instead.

Never been so happy to see Barkley!

He's always been better on paper than in practice, he had a few months under Sarri (who doesn't get the credit he deserves for his work with Ruben) where everything seemed to be finally coming together for him. Sadly it looks like back to square one, if Gallagher shines at West Brom he's gone.

This is his former self, his 18/19 form was the exception not the norm.

Could that be a diamond?

I'll be very surprised if he doesn't, James signed for Everton even later and he went straight in. Unless he training suggests he's not ready (which going by reports suggest the opposite) would be silly not to start him.

And they never won away to Arsenal, Chelsea, United or Liverpool under Moyes. So in terms of beating a 'big' side away, it's their 2nd in almost 20 years.

That's kind of my point, there's elite defenders then just like there is now only then there appeared to be more due to the systems, just like today wingers look better due to being able to play close to goal compared to back then and alas produce better numbers. Any defender who can stand out in this era playing for teams that play high split defenders football deserve all the praise they get, VVD's peak may have been a bit later/shorter (depending on whether you think his current form is just a rut or him bottoming out) but for 18 months he was almost flawless. I hate Liverpool as much as the next Chelsea fan but people sound silly by being so dismissive of him.

Yesteryears defenders by inlarge played in deeper lines with one sometimes two defensive midfielders. Most teams these days especially at the top ask fullbacks to push on, CB's to split and have a preference for a more DLP infront of them as opposed to a "traditional DM". The demands of a CB in this day in age are infinity times higher.

Yet another example of why a playmaking player Infront of the bad four is crucial in the modern game.

If his outbursts started after that then fair enough, but I've just checked the dates they appear to have not. The reports of death threats were mid November, after he made his spectacular rant post the Dortmund away game, for example.

You can "not be a yes man" without sabotaging results. Furthermore, what's his excuse for his behaviour at Inter despite the fact he's got pretty much everything he's wanted?

It wasn't title winning quality but no where near as bad as Conte kept making out. And furthermore even if it was, it's not something you say publicly, you do your job earn your money and get the absolute best out of what you've got, in the second half of that season he failed, massively.

Maybe not but the point is it's hard for me to get outraged on behalf of a man who took the piss out of every single Chelsea fan for six months (especially the one's who travelled to City) and practically called our entire squad shit almost every press conference (yet he still to this day has people who will defend him to the hilt even when he's further showing his true colours at Inter).

Given Conte's behavior that season i find it very hard to be outraged at Willian for that, Antonio was doing worse what felt like every week.

He's an excellent super sub, couldn't lose that plus i have so many midfield options it freed up room to give Gallagher and Anjorin more minutes.

On my FM save he got 44 goals in his second season mainly playing CM (striker for a month when Werner was injured).

It's a consideration because he's approaching 30, is starting to get injured a lot, relies on his athletic qualties and this system doesn't really have a position that can bring the very best out of him. Put those all together and he's at huge risk of going the same way as Essien. That said i'm a bit cautious about doing it this summer as i feel it will be one change too many but on a quiter summer i would have been fully behind any decision to cash in and spend the money on a player better suited to that role infront of the back 4.

For anyone worried about Mendy's age and the fact he hasn't been signed by a big club yet, at 27 years old Keylor Navas was playing for Levante.

HG status + buying within the league = inflation.

Well the last bit is obvious, he pretty much issued a come and get me plea in his interview with Rio.

Educated gamble, Covid situation will hopefully even itself then combine that with 15 goals at Palace and all of a sudden he may be in demand.

The funniest thing is it probably actually helps the smaller clubs more. The bottom half teams tend to have by in large a squad full of average players so no huge change if they have a few injures. Take Burnley as an example, switch Lowton for Bardsley or Taylor for Pieters or Barnes for Rodriquez there's not a great deal of difference, out of the top eight only City and to an extent us have a second Xl that isn't a massive drop off from the first.

Ziyech's league didn't continue post lockdown so he needed minutes for match fitness in what was our only pre season game.