OneMoSalah

Hopefully not. But it does look more likely he goes there than anywhere else, they lack a player of that ilk despite having Naby Keita. Although same was said about Werner going to Pool then look what happened... who knows

I dont think Kepa would be an issue there (or here with a better DF and organisation...). They are going to concede half as many chances as we do on average at least. Plus they have a settled back 4 and midfield that doesn't change every 2nd game. I dont think Real Madrid were keen on Kepa for no reason, just like I dont think we dropped 71m on him for no reason. There is something there. Not as good as Oblak is or Courtois is or Cech was but reasonably talented and can be a very good GK. Got a good laugh at the bit in bold 🤣 Reek 1

If we were going to lose Jorginho, we should jump all over Thiago Alcantara. 29 years old but could easily play at this level to he is 33 or 34 as he is purely a technical footballer. 32m apparently is what they want for him. Has won virtually everything at club level Too.

If Atalanta can beat PSG they can beat anyone. Really struggle to keep the ball out of their own net but have a real tendency to get a lot of goals. Who knows if they could go all the way, they’ve done remarkable to get this far and do so well in Serie A and when you see teams like these do well you always root for them a bit because it would mean so so much and throw a spanner in the works.

Chance for getting to a final for silverware, don't rotate too heavily, put a good enough side out to do the job with 3 or 4 changes then depending how it is going make some changes to freshen guys up for the next games. I would imagine United will probably only change a few as well. The chance to get to a final and win a trophy is key for this group and Frank as a manager. The first trophy is always the hardest. Plus it will make the season look better. But we all know still plenty to do.

Seen something about this today. Out August 5th, certainly will be an interesting watch. Wenger and Drogba both involved with it. Few others too, Pogba, Pires and Evra IIRC. Should be good, bound to be a few stories about the 2010 WC which will be interesting

Exactly. Plus it gives Gilmour less pressure to develop into his position as well in the longer run as we will still have a more reliable experienced head who can fill in and start certain games without putting too much pressure on him if he doesnt do as well as he did in his first 2 starts, which will always be a point mentioned if he doesnt do overly well or even still plays good but not to that level.

Real shame to see. Just shows that having won a world cup or PL or German Cup etc or whatever doesn't always mean people are willing to push through these injuries to maintain their career or push through the mental struggle and scrutiny many people in football deal with. There is much more to life than football and being content and happy with your own life is definitely better than pushing through those barriers which I could only imagine would be incredibly difficult and underwhelming at times. Andre has had a successful career and done things many will not as well as having experienced different countries, life styles etc as well as securing his family financially for life I would imagine, so hopefully he can get what he wants out the rest of his life. Hope he finds it. Pity it didnt work out for him here or at Dortmund but thats football.

Weird one. I think he’d still be able to find a club but with covid maybe he has reservations about that and his wages..?

In the season Kane played regularly at Spurs they renewed his contract in February, on improved terms. They have had a wage structure in place which suited them better because they didnt have consist revenue and bonuses from the CL which they have done for a while now. Lets not forget that regardless of what you, me or anyone thinks of Tammy he is in a position where he can ask for these wages. Firstly because he will probably point to his goals this season and go well without them where would we be? Which for me they have been absolutely vital in some games and I would hate to think if we would even be in the top 6 or 8 without them because conversion has been a problem as much as anything this season and as badly as Tammy is playing and as good as Giroud is doing, Giroud has always been a streaky player throughout his career. You cannot count on him to score every week but then he will go on a run for 5 or 6 games before going back to the same inconsistent streaky form. Secondly what he has done this season, particularly up to December warrants a similar deal to what Callum got based on the fact we gave in and gave somebody who really was in a position to negotiate favourably for himself in the long run despite having done nothing of real note. If you cannot see that is why Tammy is asking for a pay packet more in line with these figures and maybe other senior players around the club, then I do not know. Lets not forget the club went to him after the start of the season where he had been scoring for fun to discuss new terms, what did they expect? I dont get your point about you'd be willing to grudgingly accept giving him 100k a week but not 30k more? Its just incredibly stupid in my opinion because in terms of the club and the money they have another 30k a week is hardly a huge hit when you consider the wages Luiz and Gaz freed up leaving, what Willian and Pedro will free up leaving, what some of the loan players who are sold will free up.... its not a huge difference in the eyes of a club of Chelsea’s stature and even then this scenario is what we have created giving Hudson Odoi, Drinkwater, Barkley near 100k+ a week or Baba Rahman who’s played maybe 10 games in 5 years and is apparently on over 80k a week. You cannot say that Tammy hasnt done more than those guys in half a season than what they have done throughout their entire careers here? Thirdly this wouldnt be Abrahams first contract extension here. It would be his 2nd. Since signing the first one he has scored 50 goals. It may be at different levels but the progressions clearly there and despite his struggles since 2020 started, lets be honest who hasnt struggled bar Pulisic, its not uncommon for younger CFs to struggle with consistency yet alone championship players who make the jump to a top 10 team, never mind a team competing for third or forth. He was never going to be a top top player in my eyes or he might never reach the levels of a Drogba or Aguero or Torres at Liverpool but he has surprised me this season at the beginning and will probably surprise us again next season at some point. I mean I get the whole pay quality for quality but you also have to reward people who have been key to the cause when you review this season. Its like a business, do you think they dont give bonuses or pay rises to people who have done well over a period of time? I get the clamouring for Kai Havertz but if you think that saving 30k a week over the duration of a 4 or 5 year contract is going to make a huge difference in the longrun when we have just given Werner a 200k a week deal, Ziyech a 100k a week deal, allegedly we will offer Havertz 200k a week as well... again, they may be quality players but whats to stop us saying 6 months down the line it was far too much either the fee or wages? Like with Kepa? Or Tammy wanting these wages? Or Callums wages that have added more expectation to what he should be capable of for me as it is a huge pay compared to Tomori, Mount, Abrahams current contract and a collection of first team players. Football fans are as fickle as anything else these days and it is true for all of us who support whatever team, it is the truth. Kepa could have had a blinder this season but someone would say he still isn’t worth 71mn. Someone could say CHO isnt worth that wages even if he scored 20 goals this season. As much as youd want to see more consistency from Mount, Tomori, James and Tammy lets not forget they were all Championship players last year. Its not their performances that have cost us as deeply this season as much as anything. The senior heads have been equally as inconsistent and the coaching hasnt been fantastic either in the defensive side of things.

De Ligt is on an extraordinary wage, his salary is like 14-15m a year basic with a shit tonne of bonuses that can take it up to 20m or beyond apparently. Plus hes just started to find his feet in Italy after a tough start. Would be nice though but like Oblak near financially impossible to pull off imo. Those level of players dont take a huge pay cut. Plus name one player who has ever come here and taken a pay cut in the last 10 years? It would be a rarity to find a name.

More like if we finished chances in games we would already be in the CL. Or defended set pieces better as a group. Not as if Kepa has dropped every second goal we have conceded into the net.... A nice moment for Eden winning La Liga with Real but he has very much been ordinary there due to the stop start nature of his season. Id imagine they will want much more next season but I wonder where Real would of been without Benzema’s goals this season. Barca also surely gone to change their manager, Setien looks out of his depth and their transfers have been very poor since Neymar left. Real mess there.

Yeah I think Palace would take him. But they will struggle to buy him unless they sell Zaha to raise funds to buy more expensive (fee and wages) players imo as opposed to maybe going down the path of the loan market and free signings. I think most PL teams excluding City, Liverpool, ourselves and maybe Spurs will struggle in the market when it opens although bar City and maybe ourselves if we buy smart, I doubt they will all spend a lot anyway on multi players. The financial hit Covid will have had on these clubs with smaller revenue such as Palace, West Ham, Southampton etc will make things difficult for them to recruit imo.

Valenica links seem odd as rumours have it basically anyone in their squad is up for sale. Due to the whole situation with Covid and income. I dont think theyd ever be tempted into a loan to buy option for Kepa. Loaning him seems pointless too he has shown he is good enough and with a better defence and organisation I think we will be alright, as we have seen at times this season already.

Getting Oblak, Alaba, Rice, Havertz on top of Werner and Ziyech would be great but it is extremely unrealistic imo.

Its all well and good saying that but in these tope squads even if player X or Y is the captain and vice captain you need more than just 2 leadership figures. You look at any successful business or sports team or whatever and they are littered with leaders. From Amazon to Google to Facebook to Liverpool to Man City to Bayern Munich.... Obviously we had Cech, Brana, Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Drogba, Terry, Carvalho back in the day who were leaders and big personalities regardless of the manager. Football has changed in a lot of ways but even with Conte being here or Jose again, he had Courtois, Cahill, Luiz, Costa, Cesc and Hazard to a lesser extent we still had those sort of players but we also had Jose and Conte too. Liverpool have got a great squad but if you look in it there are a lot of people who have been captains/vice captains at club or NT level or worn the armbands there or at former clubs in spells. Van Dijk, Henderson, Milner, Robertson, Wjinaldum, Lallana, Matip IIRC, Lovren. There is a mixture of leaders there, with different qualities and ways of being leaders. Some can lead through example and some can lead by being vocal, there are various different leadership types and qualities that make leaders up. Not just in football, in business, in engineering, in science, in whatever. We need a few more leaders in and around the squad, we had an influx of talented but less experienced youngsters and lost Eden, Gaz and David, 3 senior players at the club. The coaching side has to try and compensate for this lack of leadership more imo and drive these guys on a bit more until we can add a few guys or some of these players develop into leaders. Its not just a matter of you are born a leader or you cannot ever be one. Leadership is a quality that is developed. The staff can push players on this also. There are many different things in sports psychology that can be utilised to improve mentality and help players push through the barrier and become leaders in whatever way they can. Be it being more vocal like Jorginho (I have also seen this with Kepa since he arrived, as a GK he is extremely vocal anyway but more so compared to Tibo and Cech imo) or leading by example like Azpi does imo of lead by making the difference when it matters most (Drogba and Cech back in the day).

On top of the other reasons I doubt we will sign Oblak, I really do not think 2 seasons after spending 71m on a GK we will go and spend 90m on one. Particularly when there is the possibility of Onana being available at nearly a third of the price and the possibility that even with a better defence Kepa could still be good enough. Last season showed that he is a good GK and say 9 games this season wont change my mind that he is solely the issue. Plus if we did spend 90m on Oblak, what happens to moves for a LB, Havertz and a CB? We will not probably not be able to move everyone on that is surplus to requirements because of Covid, which is going to affect/influence a lot of clubs into not spending unnecessarily or on players that aren’t particularly good value for money. I mean I do feel we will struggle to offload the likes of Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Batshuayi. As well as them it will be tough to move on potentially 2 LBs if the reports are true, a 71m GK as well as a handful of other players likes of Moses, Miazga, Baba and Zappacosta. Realistically I think Zouma and Jorginho may be the only two players we can realistically sell with ease in the summer as Spurs are really keen on Kurt and Juventus are always going to be linked to Jorgi although they just signed Arthur and have a plethora of MF options. But even then they are two guys who have been regulars this season and I think the club would rather not sell them as opposed to many of the others who arent involved with the squad. Yeah we have the deal for Morata coming in and Pasalic too as well as bonuses from Eden’s deal but we have already spent 40m on Kovacic last summer, 33m on Ziyech and 52m on Werner this summer already. Even with Romans belief that the club can find value for money in the market in this situation I doubt we will be spending another 250m+ on Chilwell, Oblak and Havertz. Without even thinking about a CB also. Its just unrealistic to expect this. Hence the likes to Onana and Telles/Tagliafico who would all be considerably cheaper and more attainable have also been constantly linked.

With all the restrictions he has in terms of being very very limited player, I can't help but wonder if he would of fluffed some of the chances Giroud did last night and ones Abraham has as well. I think his finishing is maybe his only saving grace. Definitely needs to be moved on though.

Even if Alaba wants Spain move I dont see why we dont just push him because for 36mn that is a bargain. Although I have always thought hed prefer a move to Barcelona if he were to leave Bayern

Playing in a more counterattacking orientated Dortmund team probably helped that where as Hazard was afforded more of a luxury role at Lille with that regards and they were more a possession based team particularly his final season. Theres nothing wrong with that but weve also seen games (ie under Jose when Atletico put us out the CL) where Eden let his man go and it didnt help. Pulisic will get a bit mire of that freedom eventually I do feel but we have try and be a more proactive team like City or Liverpool where they do the pressure in packs very quickly after losing the ball and not sit off chasing fullbacks for instance.

Exactly. Also he isn’t just limited to going sideways and backwards but the difference in terms of the options we had when players had the ball in terms of passing options from earlier in the season to now is a big difference. You cannot always pass forward if the options have been shut off or there aren’t as many as there could be but people seem to think that Jorginho is usually always the reason as to why.... Rodri at City very much does a similar job but they’ve got the players who will move off the ball into clever pockets or run in behind and create problems for others as well as creating space where you see the likes of De Bruyne or Silva pick it up and have real time in these sort of half spaces. Jorginho is never going to get 10 assists a season for instance that isnt why he plays there. He controls the game and if our other midfielders/attackers were more productive this wouldn’t be an issue. Same with Rodri at City although his role is slightly different but their fans wouldn’t dare focus on ‘he isnt creative’ enough because there are others there to do that. Also tonight I was impressed by little things I seen from Todd Cantwell, most times he received the ball he was aware of if he was marked tightly and always was shaping or opening his body so he could go forward with it into space or an opening. It may only seem like a little thing but that is what I used to like about Barkley when he broke through at Everton. Kovacic is capable of it too. There is more problems than just Jorginho in this team. The lack of urgency and movement when we get up the pitch is alarming at times, as well as the finishing. Whats he meant to do if he gets it standing around the middle of his own half? Punt it 50 or 60 metres in behind a defence to Giroud who very rarely runs in behind teams as his strength is playing to his feet and getting guys closer to him to play off that? Or Willian who again prefers to come short? I wouldnt say he plays it safe but when he has to he does yes but just look at the difference from the start of the season to now. We had more willing runners and more unpredictability in attack, now we really dont for whatever reason (same as what Sarri did perhaps, try and keep more men in better positions so we are more stable if we lose it?). I mean If Pulisic doesnt do anything or end up on the end of a low centre/cross in the box from Azpi or Alonso or Giroud doesn’t score from a ball across the 6 yard box, where else is the goals going to come from? The bulk of our chances were centres from our fullbacks, some which were into promising areas, or from corners.

True maybe his working back helped him out but in attack at times he looked like he was more than contempt to slow it down as well as the fact maybe the movement wasnt there also. totally agree with the point about Ruben, think next season he will be better but he also has to try do a bit more at times. Hes another guy who can ghost past players but he didnt do it very often today.

Maybe he wasnt great or hasnt been in games since the restart but I think it is a similar situation to that period under Sarri during the winter. Everything was so slow today infront of him and there wasnt any real clever movement from the attacking players or Ruben/Ross when he came on (although he did grt a bit higher up more frequently than Ruben) to get in behind Norwich or between the lines. There didnt seem to be any real idea of how to break them down bar keep moving the ball from side to side and rely on the fullbacks crossing, which they did provide some half decent crosses that weren't taken advantage of but again its predictable and pointless if your not going to finish those chances or at least flood the box a bit more. Kovacic was steady enough in the middle tonight too but think he could have done more to take some of their MF players out of the game by asking for the ball off the CBs or Jorginho and spinning anyone tryna put him under pressure, he has done it in phases and his ability to retain the ball in tight areas indicates he should be looking to do it more frequently. Think we also missed Mason as well if I am perfectly honest but he has played a lot this season so can see why Frank maybe didnt take him on. I really get the impression Frank doesnt fancy Jorginho though. He would much prefer Ngolo or Billy there.

Says it all when our best chances really came from crosses from fullbacks. Ruben, Ross, Willian did nothing of note. Too slow in attack but the options weren't there either at times, lack of movement in and around Giroud meaning the likes of Willian would slow the game down to go backwards. Positives: -3 points -managed the game ok -clean sheet (Kepa more or less a spectator) -decent defensive showing -didnt concede many big chances -Reece, Azpi and Alonso put some decent crosses into decent areas where you would ideally want a CF/winger/3rd man runner to come into. Negatives: -boring and pedestrian through the middle -too many safe passes in final third -no real willingness from any MF players to get into the box regularly -poor finishing I would be interested in seeing who had the most touches today, I would imagine Azpi/Alonso will be right up there ahead of all of our attackers.

Honestly would say its worse than with Sarri at times. At least you knew we wouldn’t be too bad at playing out and getting to the final third with a bit more urgency and clearer patterns by the players but with the likes of Barkley and Willian (who has been one of our better players since the restart too) it is far too much for them to create something out of nothing. Plus bar Pulisic, really we dont have many guys willing to run in behind or play quickly which is a problem in itself and that includes Giroud as well who isnt mobile enough to be a big threat in behind teams in these scenarios. Werner and Ziyech should help us in this case but again, Franks persistence with someone like Ross is very frustrating he looks as if hes had the instinctiveness and creative side coached out of his game a bit and seems more of a safe player now a days. Subbing a fullback for a fullback is a poor decision in my opinion. Benitez-esque. Although tonight our fullbacks have really done alright and created the bulk of our half decent opportunities that youd feel if we had someone else like the likes of a Raheem Sterling or a proper top CF we would have more goals.