Tomo

Well one of two things will happen. 1. He will return to form here, and everyone making a hobby of criticising him will sheepishly avoid this thread, already seen it with Cesc and Costa. 2. He will do it at a new club, which will lead to meltdowns on his thread by the same ones that slated him, especially when the penny drops that (while decent) Begovic isn't fit to lace his boots, just like the reality dawned re Remy vs Costa as up to a few months ago some thought the Frenchman wasn't too far behind Diego, if not on par.

Courtois vs Begovic now is like Costa vs Remy pre Christmas all over again. The world class option is having a sticky patch and all off a sudden the squad option is supposedly better, we have too many squad standard players playing too often at is it. If Courtois leaves and Begovic is made number one I'll give it a month, two max until everyone is begging for Courtois back. Never quite got the fetish for squad players to turn into starters, be that Begovic, Remy, Bertrand, Moses or whichever flavour of the month is sitting on the bench.

Some players you can just tell are likely to be that way inclined, Jack Wilshire being another.

I can't see him ever going unless he is a grade A mercenary or Milan get into deep financial shit that his sale can ease them out off. Furthermore it's only a matter of time before AC are back dining at the top, they are too big a club for it not too happen, and when they are what motivation will he have to leave? A childhood Milan fan with his spot in the team under lock and key for two decades (if he develops as expected), he will have a chance to be up with Maldini in legend status. If Courtois goes we will have to look elsewhere for a keeper cause this one is a complete non starter and always will be.

Can't see him even accepting that, he is a mad childhood Milan fan, I'll be amazed if he ever leaves.

I can't see Lukaku or Mou going United now. The LVG sacking rumours have gone a bit quiet, I think the promotion of Rashford has brought him more time.

Put yourself in his position, he's 17 years old and has just broken into the team he supports who also happens to be one of the biggest clubs in the world, would you give that up too sign for a club you got no affiliation for then get loaned out to wherever? We got no chance with this one even if w make him immediate #1

One goal vs Barca is a bigger achievement than six against York, doesn't mean one goal is better than six in general.

If he stayed as a squad player which he was what he was signed for initially I doubt many would critisise him, but do some bewildering reason along the way he became an untouchable so he will get judged on those standards, an quite frankly he isn't good enough to start at Chelsea. Good squad option, but hopefully Conte signs Bonnuci and recalls Andreas and well and truly makes Cahill being an automatic selection a thing of the past.

I really do find it hilarious how sone of you are writing him off and want him sold, have you learned nothing from Cesc and Costas reemergence, smh. I really should stop mocking Arsenal fans for judging players on current form because by the looks off this thread were even worse.

I still can't get over the predictions for lineups in 2016 (now) bck in 2010. Delac,Mancienne, Clifford etc

If Begovic was at Stoke he would have lost his place to Butland by now. As good a back up as you can get but not a first choice at a club looking to win things (which we still are despite this season), I don't get the fetish for turning squad players into starters, this season Begovic, last season Remy, couple of seasons before that Moses.............. If we are going to lose Courtois for whatever reason I would rather we looked at replacing him with Handanovic, Oblak or if he goes Real get Navas as part of the deal.

Yeah but they are isolated games, like Courtois now despite his iffy run he turned defeat into draw vs United twice. Im not sure where they got that from but I remember myself and a lot of others being frustrated that Cech let in most shots he faced, his error vs Liverpool when he thought it would be a good idea to pass to a man marked Mikel from a goal kick summing up that period. One of his two major bad spells for us, 2009 being the other, we concedes a ridiculous number of set piece goals in the first six months of Ancelottis reign due to Cech and Carvalho being so indecisive. You could even include winter 2005 as a minor wobble too, as I alluded too a few post's back he made a few awful errors in that period. Point is however he recovered from any wobble he had and I have no doubt Courtois will do so the same.

Hummels, Bonnuci whoever, if we are recalling Christensen the centre back we sign must be an experienced defender, even more so if JT goes. As much as I like Stones and we need more English players, three of our four centre backs being 22 or under will handicap us too much, Bonnuci/Hummels, Christensen, Zouma and Cahill will strike a decent balance.

I feel really sorry for whichever centre half we sign next season, the calls for Cech every time Courtois makes a error will be nothing compared to the calls for Terry if/when our new defender fucks up, even if its Bonnuci.

What are you on about? Cech was awful through the whole time AVB was here, upto about November/December he conceded more goals than saves he made (he let in every shot on target in that 5-3 vs Arsenal), you can say what you like about Courtois right now but he hasn't been that bad.

I don't see why not, Christensen is more at the Courtois/Sturridge stage of development as opposed to randomenly promoting a youngster with no experience. What I mean by that is recalling Andreas would be like signing a new defender from The Bundesliga by all intents and purposes and with Zouma out till September and probably needing some time to get up to speed when he is back, I wouldn't be that shocked to see Christensen and the new centre half (hopefully Bonnuci) line up together. Also like I said to Chelsea fan26 I meant literally home grown, no football club can go too long without a core of players from their own country, hopefully we fix it soon.

I meant literally homegrown, its good to have Cesc and Begovic as HG officially but every club needs a core from their own country and there could well be no English regulars next season in our side. With Remy, Pato and Falcao almost certainly leaving I'd love it if we bring in Troy Deeney, English and has leadership qualities, Costa/Deeney/Traore would quality wise be our best set of forwards for years.

As painful as it is sentiment wise it makes sense on a footballing level to let JT go if we recall Andreas and sign a top class centre back. On the other hand it means our first choice Xl will have no homegrown players in for the foreseeable future which isn't ideal but on the flip side to thst it will put pressure on us to get some players through sharpish, so every cloud I guess.

I'm a bit torn with Europa, on one side I think exactly what you have just posted but on the flip side it could be a good competition to give our best young players extended minutes and a season without Chelsea playing in midweek will be boring as hell.

I gave the 05/06 season review a watch earlier and I noticed Cech had a bit of a wobble winter time. Made two bad mistakes against Blackburn and an absolute horror error vs Fulham. Cech had a great defence which helped him ride his wobble out, Tibo doesn't have that, not that Courtois shouldn't be without critiscm for these two goals but Cavani and Shane Long, would our 05/06 defense have let them through on goal the way these lot did? Bottom line is Courtois is still a world class keeper and to dismiss him is just silly, leave the judgements on current form to Arsenal fans, we are better than that.

They will lift it at The Bridge if it takes till the last day to win it. If they secure it before hand they will lift it at The King Power after Everton game.

For some reason I've only just seen this post. Yes with the current bunch it's a non starter, but if Conte came in signed Bonnuci, recalled Christensen, Cuadrado and Ake and got two solid CMs, all off a sudden we look better equipped. I would personally like it if Conte switched formations depending on opposition, the wing back formation can be pretty effective against teams that use no width but against say Spurs it will be problem.

It is certainly enough time to alter the complex of the fixture, yes pre 2009 I saw Villa Park as a bogey stadium but four wins since has altered my views on that regard. Look at Spurs vs Arsenal for example,ten years Tottenham went without beating Arsenal in the league, they finally do it and now Spurs go into it thinking they can beat them and often do. In fact look at our own record against Arsenal in prem era, a lucky richochet off Drogbas knee is all It took to almost swap who had the inferiority complex in that particular head to head.

But not us? Traore and Kenedy have been getting ample game time since February, Ruben maybe could have got more, but he came one in last two games. All in all over the course of this season, three youngsters have had some pretty handy game time and made some decent progress, if City have those three the same time their would be raves about Pellegrino youth development in the English Football thread.