lionsden

If he's fully motivated then he must have a weird and ineffective way of showing it. generally speaking youth players have to work twice as hard as the already established players and RLC has looked lazy and uninvolved.

Its a shame we are giving this rare opportunity to a player who's not motivated enough to grab it with both hand.ake should and does deserve to take his spot imo

He was his typical self IMO i.e poor/average general play despite providing two assist. But it's pre season, no player should be judge or scrutinised this early.

He was everyone's Muppet signing before joining zenith but he's stagnated considerably over the past couple of seasons. I'm not so sure he's what we need

Somehow I have a hard time believing he's superior to Bertrand and that selling him was a good idea in the first place.

I agree with the general point and intention of his post but Christensen (who alongside rlc are our two most overrated youngsters) was a bad example to use. He could have used players like ake, musonda,bamford et al to make his point.

Knowing how competitive Jose is. . . I will piss myself laughing if we park the bus in a pre season friendly. He just might take this very seriously and even play most of the starters for the full 90 mins in order to avoid 2 defeats in a row.

Until we sign another washed up veteran striker and send him back on loan again next season.

This has always been the flaw of our loan system. And when he doesn't get regular playing time, they blame the player and not the club who didn't think the decision through properly and sent him to a club with plenty of competition. pardew has no incentive to play him ahead of Gayle (fan favourite), the experienced Ameobi and Chamahk, Campbell and Zaha. It's just stupid. The whole point of the loan is for players to get as much playing time as possible which will hopefully enable their development and therefore our aim should be to maximize the player's chances of getting those crucial games by sending them to clubs who are desperate for a player that plays in their position.

No. That only applies if you are taking the word potential quite literally. in that sense every player with scope to develop regardless of age, maturity and experience is a potential. To me there is an hierachy to this. at the very top you have your veterans: hugely experienced players who have been there and done it all and past their prime. Ranging from the great ones like Xavi, Casillas, JT et al to the not so great ones like kevin Nolan, john o'shea et al and even to the crap ones like Heskey, ameobi et al. Then a level below that are your established professionals: who are also highly experienced and very much at the pinnacle of their careers or close to it. This is pretty much every footballer with 5 plus years as a pro. Ranging from the greats : Messi,Ronaldo, Fabregas et al to the average ones like Mikel, Nasri (virtually every competent pro footballers with many years experience at the top flight really) and to the crap/limited ones like Jozy altidore and pretty much ever established pro stealing a living. Then a level below that are your professionals: Players who have atleast one year plus of excellent experience at the top flight and have managed to secure a starting or very regular position at their respective clubs and proven to have the capability of handling the top flight level. basically the "Mama I made it" this is the category where someone like Stones and Zouma (he was a pro at St Etienne before joining us) belong. A level down are your potentials and prospects: These are basically the youth and reserve team players who haven't made the big transition yet or may never do so. Limited appearances in the first team like in the COC,fa cup and league doesn't count here so your James Wilson (man utd), RLC et al are still prospects. To me it's wrong and unfair to class the pro in the same category as the potentials/prospects/wonderkids.

I hear the word potential thrown around too much nowadays that's it's lost its true meaning. Every U23 player that isn't already playing at a world class level ala messi,CR7,Ronaldo lima were at that age are seen as potential by some which is ridiculous and then you also get those that only use it to strengthen their agenda which is why stones is seen as "potential" and Sterling isn't for example, rather the later is a "good enough and ready to start/contribute right away pro" and the former is just a glorified Christensen. Where does one draw the line between a potential talent and a very good proven young professional player with scope to develop even further. To me potential is what you use to describe the likes of RLC, Musonda, Patrick Roberts of this world. Once you are playing regularly at the pro level and have proven yourself at the topflight (which stones already has) you are no longer a "potential". And why is Stones not good enough right now to be a starter for us and we have to wait 2 years for him. He's not some youth football level player ffs, he's a premier league player and one of the very best in his age group and position in europe and it's not like his main competition (cahill) is a world beater either. The stones that i saw last season is definitely superior to cahill. Honestly people are underrating Stones too much on here. His performance level in the EPL and in europe proves he's very capable for the job indeed and if he wasn't Jose and the board wouldn't be willing to spend so much money on him.

If Gotze performs at 70% or more of his ability/top form, there will be no fighting. it will be a straight knock out punch. Top form Gotze is arguably the best creative midfielder in his age bracket alongside Hazard and Isco.

Maybe we should just focus on throwing large sums of money at the 22+ year old established players who are "viewed" as good enough and ready to contribute (notice I said "viewed" as perception is everything in football) instead of wasting money, time and effort on recruiting the best youth talents in Europe with absolutely zero plan and willingness to play them in the first team either immediately on in the future. It will be a massive shame to see the club waste massive talents like Musonda, Boga et al.

I'm amazed at how many people do not rate Stones. It's perplexing actually how anyone can watch him play regularly and still consider him average and nothing special. I am curious to know which young defenders you all rate' higher than him in Europe. Varane is the only defender that's arguably better and that's it. I think some people are taking the "English talent are overrated" generalization/stereotypical view too far. A Defender that combines the ball playing ability of a Hummels/Luiz with the defending ability of a top class defender are very rare and Stones is one of them.

And this is the point some people don't understand, Players like Musonda don't need us. he will always be coveted by the top clubs and given opportunity at a big club that's willing to offer him that opportunity. His case is quite similar to Pogba. As long as he maintains his performance level, continues to develop and his reputation as arguably the best youth talent in his age group remains intact, he has little to worry about, career wise. So if we lose him (which will be stupid considering the compromise we made in order to lure him here in the first place) it's our loss not his.

An 18 year old who is constantly overlooked in favour of clearly less talented and less deserving teammate (RLC and Brown in particular) is disappointed. Whats the issue?. Its just basic human nature. Virtually every single player in his position, regardless of age and maturity, will feel exactly the same way. They may not express it publicly like musonda did and might even sport fake smiles and demonstrate fake sportsmanship but deep down inside, they will all feel exactly the same because they are humans with feelings and emotions. So his only crime is for being real instead of being fake. This would have been a problem if he wasnt /isn't arguably our best youth player withbgreat work ethic on and off the pitch. Then his actions would be classed as delusional and self entitled then but it's not. He deserves his spot on the team just as much as any other youth player, if not more, period

So you think Thibo,Hazard and Costa are proper Chelsea now ala JT and Drogba? hilarious. If a big club like Barca,Real or bayern make an offer than the club cannot refuse best believe the transfer will happen. As for Terry, He might be one of the rare exceptions simply due to his status at the club but let's not forget he nearly joined City a couple of years ago. Not that it will ever happen now because he's too old but I doubt the club would reject a ridiculous offer for JT from another club. Now JT turning down the offer is what I have no doubt about whatsoever and the reason he's one of the rare exception.

The most overrated youngster in recent years. Never got the hype about him.

He's not going to say "Falcao is a shadow of his former self and he spends more time on his arse than putting the ball in the back of the net these days" is he. Ofcourse he will say those things for the sake of respect and professionalism.

Why do people always respond with phrases like " like who" " he's not available" in virtually every transfer thread. Every single player bar messi and Ronaldo are available for a price. The question is whether A)we have the funds and B ) if we are willing to spend the amount it would require to buy world class players. Players like Isco,Pogba, Reus, Varane et al are far from unattainable.

Inflation or not that's a ridiculous price that's hard to justify. for that price, you had expect to get near world class productivity/output and consistency which I doubt sterling is capable of.

let's not get carried away here. pedro is far away from being world class (He was impressive under pep mind) He's a hard working but limited player with very good finishing ability, nothing more. he's not exactly a marquee signing or the type of winger we have been waiting for. However his finishing ability will add value to the team and for that it's hard to say no.

Their defence been weak/shyt is a myth anyway as they had one of the best defensive record in the second half of the season last campaign and actually looked hard to penetrate for the most part once LVG settled in and found the right balance. If they manage to keep De gea and bring in just one CB, they have nothing to worry about.

It's been a thoroughly exciting transfer period for untied fans over the past 2 summers that's for sure. They have been the biggest beneficiary of the FFP.

The only cycle i see here is the "Oscar boom burst cycle" i.e he starts the season well, creating a false dawn and leads to people claiming he's finally achieving his potential and overhyping him to no ends only for his form to drop significantly as the season wears on which is then accompanied by series of excuse from his devoted fans as to why he tailed off at the second half of the season.