lionsden

Why waste £19m on him when Ramires could have done the same thing. This team doesn't need a defensive AM rather a creative one as creativity is our biggest issue apart from lack of quality finishers (hopefully Costa fixes that) and he adds no value to the team in that regard. And how many top teams deploy an AM primarily for their defensive skills bar a couple of big matches in the UCL. Attacking midfielders are suppose to be creative by trade and role.

Mathias Pogba maybe

Do tell when these players played as poorly as oscar for 6 months of regular playing time because I cannot recall. isco and Gotze are not even starters and there's no way Countinho,Lucas and pedro played consistently badly for 6 months so try again. I follow European football very well so try again and find better examples.

Spot on.terrific post. It's ridiculous the extent people will go to defend their favourite players. When is it appropriate to conclude that he's just not good enough or consistent enough and we could do much better?. The excuses are wearing thin for sure. Players like De Bryune and marin were dismissed (rightly or wrongly) and they never had even a quarter of the chances Oscar got in his first 6 months here alone. How's it fair that player A can continue to play poorly without consequence while player B get's dismissed after just a few appearances here and there.

What is this. are these the list of players that stunk out the place for 6 months playing regularly and managed to bounce back? I'm not following.

As long as people keep defending the indefensible. . . . There's no reason to believe in a player who cannot shake off 6 months of terrible form at club level. How many players worth preserving with as ever been as inconsistent as oscar at his age? If people continue to overrate him and find excuses for him then I will continue to maintain my stance. Those on the other side of the fence i.e "it's everyone's fault but Oscar's" are just as repetitive as me.

How anyone can still defend him is shocking to me. Usually players of Oscars age who are destined for greatness show a respectable level of performance and consistency and the ones who do not are classed as flops and 9x10 it's usually the case. What makes Oscar different from other promising youngsters who failed to progress/develop? Is he anymore talented than the likes of Robinho,Ganso,Pastore,Saviola,Recoba,Joaquin,Gourcuff, Bojan et al. These were players that showed huge promise as youngsters and were destined to fulfill their potential. if those players could fail then so can Oscar and atm the signs aren't looking too good. He hasn't shown anything over the course of a season at club level to suggest his rotten form at the moment is just a blip. Some of the names I listed achieved showed far far more promise and consistency at Oscar's age.

I saw that last night as well. I thought players are mandated to undergo media training and are required to comply with football's code of conduct. The age argument can only be relevant for so long. he doesn't conduct himself like a pro at all and I suspect he will be too much of an hassle and not worth the headaches he would bring with him. I would seriously consider selling him right now.

There's no chance Brazil is ever winning the world cup or dominating football with those 3 as its future core

I'm assuming he rejected the PSG contract because of lack of playing time, if he joins us then he will confirm my position that footballers are not the sharpest tools in the box. unless he's only joining for the money but the report stated Psg's offer was lucrative so money can't be the reason. you don't join a club like Chelsea for the prospect of playing regularly unless you are either highly established or B, very expensive or both. And if he somehow jumps ahead of the gazillion players out on loan to break into the first team in the near future something fairly established players like Lukaku are struggling to achieve then he must be an amazing talent

This might be a controversial opinion but pound for pound he's the best finisher in our squad imo. Play him regularly and with his intelligent movement which makes him get in good goal scoring positions and through balls from Fabregas, I'm confident he can reach 18 plus goals next season.

50 million pounds £50 million for this guy is still surreal. Can someone confirm that it's non refundable as we might be in danger of PSG returning a product not fit for purpose under the sales of goods act.

Some of the greatest managers hae shown confidence in players that were never anything more than average and sometimes even awful. Jose and Ancelotti rated Mikel, Capello rated heskey (Not the younger liverpool version but the really really shit version), Ferguson rated Cleverly, Scolari rates Hulk and I could go on and on. moral of the story is, manager's do get it wrong too and their endorsement means fuck all sometimes.

That's correct. The same way David Luiz poor performances are usually sugarcoated and blamed on everything under the sun while Cahill's consistently fine form and performances are downplayed and dismissed as nothing more than "an average defender benefiting and flourishing under a favorable system" Fan favorites/overrated players play by a different set of rules.

It also reminds me of Oscar's performances and the way his apologists flock to defend him in droves.

Something in the waffle perhaps

Perhaps in the real world freedom of speech is allowed and practiced. However in corporate setting/workplace, there's something called moral code of conduct which employees are required to abide by. It's not so much to ask for a young player who hasn't achieved much relatively speaking, to be professional and humble. Superstars and world class players can get away with such attitude and even then most of them usually do their talking on the pitch.

Fabregas could be the solution to that problem if we bought a DLP to partner Matic however, his form over the last 3 years has been far from consistent. strictly speaking there are only very few AM that are capable of consistent performance throughout a season apart from the 2 obvious names. Robben,Ribery,Silva and Iniesta. Ozil and mata both had sub par season but it's too early to exclude them from that elite group of consistent AM's

Did you realise you quoted yourself lol

So he offered feck all offensively yet again and people make excuses for his ineptitude. same shit, different day.

Top post. he's one of the most passive players around.If he had even a quarter of Robben's killer instinct and aggressiveness/directness he would be talked about as one of the best players in the world legitimately. given his natural ability, he just couldn't be bothered to maximize his talent and content with letting games pass him by. Until he develops the "losing is not an option" mentality and really doing everything necessary to win, I doubt he will ever reach the height people have predicted for him.

It's not illegal to change a player's squad number against his will. It's not like Torres will prosecute us if we gave Costa his number and if he doesn't like it he can go suck on the bench and in one corner of the dressing room for all I care. But then again there's nothing wrong with being diplomatic about it.

How much is a 25yo Croatian int'l and one of the best defenders in the league last season worth then? There's absolutely nothing outrageous about that. £50m for Luiz, £35 m for Andy carroll are what I call outrageous and not this one.

He was one of the best defenders in the league lasts season. The only reason the valuation might be questioned is because he hasn't proven he's not just a one season wonder otherwise if he carries his form into the new season then that £20m will be a mighty bargain.

lol