lionsden

Some people still follow that hack of a journalist I see

Pogba is not tactically astute, tactically disciplined and mobile enough imo. Since we let Vidal slip away. someone like Koke, or the underrated and forgotten moutinho would be ideal.

Spend all that money on a defender and still end up getting dominated in midfield (where games are usually won and lost), especially in big games. priority chelsea, priority.

Firstly the term youth/youngsters in this context is not exclusive to "cobham graduates" It simply refers to any young player either fully homegrown or bought with the longterm vision in mind. Why is it so important to me and others. I can't speak for others but for me personally there are a few reasons 1 This is by far the most talented crop of youngsters the club has had in the past couple of decades atleast (youngsters with broad meaning i,e players like Bamford, Traore, Pasalic et al are included) and the fears is that with the path we are headed, we are going to waste this huge opportunity and not take advantage of it by not fully integrating any of them into the first team. Players like Musonda and Boga do not grow on trees and most clubs will be extremely lucky to have them. which brings me to point number 2 ensuring the development and promotion of these youngsters into the first team is very beneficial both financially and on the pitch. It's more resourceful and efficient to play players who are not only talented but have proven themselves at a decent level instead of wasting money on squad players who end up contributing very little to the first team. Players like Ake, Pasalic,Traore,Bamford have passed all the test thrown at them so far, must they jump through ring of fire before they are given the opportunity to prove themselves? opportunity that we have no problem giving to Cuadradro for example despite showing absolutely nothing to justify it. So There is also the sentimental factor and a greater sense of accomplishment of producing homegrown players that go on to make a name for themselves (preferably at the club in this case) But how are they going to achieve this< is it not by actually giving them opportunity in the first team to show that "they are good enough" Or do you expect them to show it on the bench? And those that have shown their qualities on loan don't get the opportunities either. Jose has no problem dishing out opportunities to players who have been in awful form for months like Ivanovic Cuadradro,falcao et al however. Depends on your definition of Cobham product but Ryan bertrand by modern standard was a chelsea youth product (yeah he was bought from gillingham as a 16 yo) and he was regarded as the best left back in the league last season. ofcourse you could use the stricter criteria which would only include players that received all their youth training and education at the club to suite your argument.

What's the difference between Chelsea and the Bermuda triangle? The latter has three points.

It's his third season now. the excuse for his lack of trust in youth was that we needed to break the 5 year league drought which he has already achieved and lack of stability. what will be the excuse this time if he once again ignore the youth?

Jose must have been that impressed with the 10 minutes he saw of him if we are willing to spend that much on a youngster

Yokohama tyres as sponsors at a time when we are widely known for our bus parking tactics . I don't think this is all just a pure coincidence. those cheeky japanese

Totally forgot about eden. For some reason I was thinking we bought him from the belgian league

It's baffling isn't it. To borrow Zlatan's quote (paraphrasing) "You can't drive a ferrari like a fiat "

So jose's tactics (if that's what you are implying) is the reason why he's so un-athletic and a total defensive liability who players constantly blow past with ease?. Does the tactical setup also explain why his first touch and passing are so sloppy against good teams?

We currently have Brazil, Belgian and spanish cliques. we now need to focus on adding some french players or players from ligue 1. that league has been so good to us. Drogba, Azpilicueta,gallas & technically Remy (Marseille) Essien & malouda (Lyon), Petr cech (Rennes). Given our success rate, we should be doing more business in France for sure.

Isn't it ironic that Jose, a manager who built his career on athletic and hardworking players signed one of the most unathletic midfielders in europe to be his main man in midfield. A crucial position of the pitch where lack of pace/athleticism is easily exposed and exploited unless ofcourse the player has the tactical intelligence and awareness of a Makelele or a Busquet. the irony of life.

In a perfect world. Moses and Traore would be playing ahead of this waste of space.

Absolutely fantastic post. For example I genuinely believe Nathan Ake would have done a much better job than fabregas in majority of the big games he has played and done so poorly in. for one the youngster is more athletic and both physically and tactically stronger. He's also significantly more tenacious. Players aren't running or in some instances even jogging past Ake like they do fabregas with ease and He's not the type to go into hiding either but Jose is the very antithesis of a risk taker.

Short term-ism at its finest.

Kovacic's signing doesn't affect Isco or make him available on the market in anyway as they 1: have different skillset, 2: Don't neccesarily play in the same position and most importantly Isco remains one of madrid's key players and unlike Di maria, He's spanish. they value their spanish core much more.

I don't neccesarily agree with the opinion that it's a strange signing. It actually makes sense in a way. Mateo is a central midfielder who will be coming in to replace or provide cover for Modric, will be 30 in september and injury prone these days, Kroos who hasn't exactly set the world alight at Real and his slow as feck, Illaremendi, the flop and Lucas silva who is unknown quantity at this point. he will add injection of pace and penetration to their central midfield, similar to the role Di maria played in his last season there. The question is whether He will be trusted enough to be given decent playing time or if he can fulfill his potential. But as a signing, you can see what Madrid are trying to do here which is also highlighted in their focus towards signings much younger players like they have been doing for the past couple of seasons.

i knew Mourinho would put him ahead of remy in the pecking order. Didn't he do the same thing with Drogba in the first half of last season.Jose is very predictable nowadays.

This reminds me of the modric saga, we kept lowballing spurs and the cunt levy right till the end and it was just a waste of everyone's time. Hopefully this time we don't settle for another "miereles" in the end again this time. We should either meet Everton's demand or seek other quality alternatives before its too late. This is pathetic effort AFAIC.

They all say that until shit gets real.

It's a sobatage if Jose continues to pick players who are directly responsible for our horrendous form (result wise). As a manager, part of your job is to identify the factors responsible for poor performance/output and make effort to fix it and at the moment, Ivanovic is one of those factors and if jose can't see or won't do anything about it then he is willing to sacrifice the team's success all in the name of favoritism. And that's a sabotage as harsh as that sounds.

JT has been a great servant (perhaps the greatest servant in the club's history) but we need to move on by phasing him out gradually.Due to his limitations (lack of pace/athleticism) he requires too much protection and makes it difficult to play high pressing game against good and pacy teams.

He makes me realize how lucky we were to have witnessed essien and lampard play for us in their prime. Our midfield crushed most teams's back then. I hope our focus in future is towards athletic and technically capable players in the Vidal/koke mould. You expect the regular starters at big clubs to have qualities that doesnt render them totally useless in high intensity games. I never worried or panicked that our midfield might be overrun going into any game when we had bison and ballack. My biggest worry now is, knowing mourinho, he will never upgrade the midfield position as he sees fabregas as a world class player and will continue to play him in big games for years to come. Same goes for costa who I strongly feel could and should easily be replaced and upgraded over if we are to compete legitimately (without parking the bus and relying on luck) with Europe's elite in the future. essentially we are stuck with him.