lionsden

Lennon will kill to have sterling's football brain. He's the most intelligent (football wise ofcourse) footballer I have ever seen of his age group after Cesc. His decision making alone makes your comparison redundant.

JT's replacement will have to be a world class or very very good defender just approaching his prime. unfortunately this new era is the worst it's ever been for defenders. It's like finding needle in haystack. if you remove Silva,Hummels,Benatia, varane and Komapany who are all not available then you struggle to find a worthy defender from there on. Finding his replacement will be much harder than some people think as defenders who are good enough to take on the mantle won't be available. We should have competed much harder with Munich for Benatia's signature.

The invincibles finished on 90 pts, I will rather we emulate our 04/05 achievement which is still an epl record. The league is way more competitive now and it was back then that our squad will have to be much stronger to do that.

Ok You got me there. Now can you keep a secret

As long as that day is in 9 or 10 years time then it's fine by me.

Ofcourse managerial stabilityis very important and I have already conceded that. However the mentality and philosophy of the manager is just as important as the stability itself.Of what use his managerial stability if the brightest youngsters never get any opportunities. In order for it to work and be worth it, the manager has to be someone that takes great joy and pride in watching youth develop and blossom like Van Gaal, pep, Klopp, pre 2012 Wenger (before the pressure to win got to him)et al

Double post

I have got to disagree here. Kalas is a very talented player that has proven himself in the dutch leqgue and even in the epl albeit to a much lesser extent and ivanovic is pretty much our first choice right back which should have meant kalas as the third choice CB behind the ageing JT and cahill. JT at his age shouldnt have to play every epl and ucl games

Managerial stability isnt enough though. These youngsters are not getting first team opportunities and that doesnt seem like changing anytime soon considering the average age of the current squad is one of the youngest in europe. Boga,baker,christensen,rlc et al are basically doomed.

These youth players can never win (metaphorically speaking). Before they are sent out on loan, they are considered not ready for first team challenge. During their loan spell, regardless of how well they perform, their performance is marginalised with the belief that they have only managed to excel in an inferior league and/or inferior team as playing for Chelsea is a different ball game and therefore still largely untested (How will they become tested or proven if not by actually playing them in the first team). You can send them on loan forever but ultimately the only surefire way of knowing if they can hack it is by giving them first team opportunities to showcase what they can do and I don't mean useless 4 minute cameos either. Then they get sent on more loans to get them "more first team ready" and along the way 4 things usually happens that ensures they never make it at the club. A) The club changes manager, B, Established and more favoured stars and new emerging talents are brought in to fill the position that was originally intended for these players and C) they end up on a couple of bad loans where they either aren't getting playing time or become a victim of bad tactics and philosophy and D) They become disillusioned with the constant loans and lose motivation. Now some might say we finally have problem A sorted but even then we are still left with problems B, C and D The same thing that happened to Josh is happening with Chalobah right now, Kalas might experience the same fate and I suspect that it could have worked out differently if we had kept the loan to an absolute minimum and actually blooded them into the team early. (Carlo had the right idea for Josh but unfortunately . . . . . .) I have asked the same question before without anyone giving me satisfactory answer. What are we doing differently to ensure the mistakes we have made in the past in regards to youth development and transition to the first team doesn't happen again. Letting them rot on the bench without growing the courage to play them (see Baker,Christensen and Ake to a lesser extent) won't cut it either. There has to be a middle ground. It's too convenient to simply lay the whole blame at the feet of these youngsters. It's a vicious cycle and we are bound to keep going round and round in circle without making any real progress.

this further confirms my suspicion that Silva is one of the most underrated players in world football. There's no player better than him at what he does in the world. (maybe iniesta before he lost his form). He's one of the very few players I have seen that controls the tempo of the game like prime Xavi.

If he's indeed available next summer then it's a no brainer. He's a world class player who brings genuine value and quality to any team and offers both tactical flexibility and most importantly end product(I'm looking at you Willian,Oscar and Schurrle). He will instantly be an upgrade on whoever he replaces on the right wing even though he likes to operate from the left wing mostly and a front four of him, Hazard,Fabregas and Costa represents everything you had want in an attacking sense. Provided we get another central midfielder that is so we can push fabregas upfront behind the striker.

True however, it's an Euro qualifier and with so much at stake, questions will be asked if, as unlikely as it is, Belgium fail to win as to why one of your best players was not involved. Most managers don't like answering those kind of awkward questions. Actually I take the bolded back. just checked and belgium are playing a team that has players like Dzeko, Pjanic et al away from home. They will do well to win here.

I'm guessing Hazard is not a fan favourite in Belgium. What's the general feeling towards him and his performances over there?

Players like hazard can never be dropped, the pressure from fans and medi will be too overwhelming for wilmots to handle. At worst he will get in based on reputation atleast.

Bright future ahead of him. Im also glad ola aina is finally geting the recognition he deserves by captaining the U19. About time.

I'm a fan of Isco but he's a pure AM and not a midfield controller like Cesc. The closest to cesc in the next generation of Spanish talent is Oliver Torres, he's more Xavi than Cesc in terms of playing style but much more comparable to Cesc than isco. I wouldn't say no to isco mind.

His place in the Spanish team is still pretty safe for now as He's still their best striker and Del Bosque has proven to be very loyal to players he rates highly. But if the pressure and calls to drop him becomes pronounced by the Spanish media and fans who already believes he's a mismatch, I could him getting dropped and Del Bosque switching back to Fabregas as a false 9.

As her should. He's still a top 3 GK in Europe for me and deserves much much better than a bench role. With his ability the only two top clubs he had struggle to get into are Bayern: (Because they already have Neur and also his poor distribution and unsuitability to a high defensive line structure) and Barca for the same reasons. He won't be short of offers I'm sure of that.

Happy 46th birthday Diego.

You can never be too sure. He bought Coentrao for 30m euros as back up to Marcelo. And I hope to God that you are right because Azpi, for all his great defensive output, is truly shocking going forward. Luis offer far better balance between attack and defence.

More potential?. How did you come to that conclusion. How do you measure these things. To me, dribbling aside, he does nothing better than those players I mentioned. Pace and dribbling, qhich are his main/only attribute, are useless without the right application and productivity. Thorgan definitely has more in his lucker, a superior goal scorer and more intelligent player overall. As for your point about them not being good enough to be starters, isnt that the more reason to not waste money on buying a player with similar talent level to the ones you already have.

For me t I disagree. Modric is also better at retaining possession (very few players do this better than him), shooting. decision making is equal. Vision, long range passing and scoring is the only areas where Cesc excel and that's not by much except for scoring.

It's laughable isn't it. It's also worth noting that Modric is significantly better tactically and has the technical ability to fit into any team in the world while fabregas failed to hack it at Barca. He struggled with their posession game as he lacked the ability to retain posession in tight spaces like Xavi,Iniesta and that's one of Modric's key strength. In a nutshell Modric can do everything fabregas can do and then more. Haven't said that, Cesc has better vision and passing range.

He had his best game yet as an attacking midfielder despite a couple of wayward passing. He was actually very creative. just needs to showcase more of this type of performance as when Fabregas inevitably loses form and/or gets the Gerrard treatment, we will need someone to step up.