BlueLyon

They also signed De Sciglio who can play both sides and atm, he is Alves replacement. If they get Spinazzola too, I imagine they will play Spinazzola on left and De Sciglio on right side. I dont know much about Spinazzola, but he plays LB for Atalanta and italy (and he realy impressed there), so I guess that would mean they got Sandro replacement. I just find it hard to believe they would push so hard for Spinazzola to be only their backup, if they were looking for Sandro backup, there are plenty of easier alternatives to get. Or maybe Cancelo on right and De Sciglio on left. Either way, as much I want Sandro here, if that happens, Juve defence would look significantly weaker. Alves-Bonucci-Chiellini-Sandro to Sciglio-?-Chiellini-Spinazzola...

IMO Drinkwater being decent midfielder and english player, 37 fucking million pounds for him is the most retarded thing I heard this summer. I hope the board and fans are not as desperate to actualy accept this fee and make excuses.

Just because there are no rumours, doesnt mean its not happening

Just looking at players who came, we did good job yes. Morata, Bakayoko, Rudiger and Caballero are all good players. But looking at the situation from afar, this summer has been piss poor once again. We had two things, improving squad in quality and quantity. Month later, we are even thinner in depth and its hard to say Morata is better striker than Costa or Bakayoko better than Matic. We made player for player replacements, but we still lack depth and a big question if we brought clear quality that will elevate us to next level. Finaly looking at fact we have zero proper backup for midfield and wingbacks, it says enough how much work we still need to do. Our team lacks competition and thats why it seems sometimes the players dont even give a shit. Because there is no one to replace them. And even if there are, we sell them (Matic). Our squad at start of last season featured nearly world class Eden and Costa in attack, super Kante and last minute buys in defence which turned out quite good (Alonso and Luiz). This season we have (apart from injuries) replaced Matic with Bakayoko who I believe is at least as good, but still atm leaves us with no competition and backup after Matic sale, Morata who is promising but not nearly as deadly as Costa, Rudiger who is IMO good option. But apart from that, we only made player for player replacements. Absolutely zero actual improvement in squad depth, competition and top class quality in areas we needed to improve (wingbacks and maybe midfield). There are 3 more weeks and we simply must get Sandro, proper rwb and midfield backup. Not to mention our current squad looks fatigued as fuck, lacks desire and not nearly fitness ready like last season. As for money balance, yeah it looks good, but I couldnt care less. Not a single top club gives a shit about it anymore.

I did generalize, but I wasnt too off. About 90% of members wanted to get rid of him, just check Costa thread for proofs. That said it was similar situation with Eden last summer. But then suddenly everyone changed their mind...

Guys stop with this fucking bullshit. Everyone here wanted to get rid of Costa because he had rotten mentality, regardless of goals or contribution. Everyone prefered "nice" striker, but no one thought that such striker might score less or have less presence. You got that nice striker. Not single one has right to talk shit about Morata because thats the striker type everyone preffered over Costa. On Morata note, I think he will come good and we need to give him more regular playtime in our best 11 along Baka and Eden. But yeah like I said million times, losing Costa is something everyone will be regretting because when inform, the guy was easily top 3 strikers in the world, rotten mentality or not.

Im just curious whats the point of having bigger squad and Conte complaining if even in a fecking friendly where you can make 6 subs, Conte makes his 1st in 70th minute?!? Yes our bench isnt world class, but ffs we could easily play Morata, Musonda, Boga and Rudiger earlier in game like this. About the result itself, not sure what we have learned tho, the squad didnt improve since first friendly, our new signings are not getting regular playtime, our young players dont get proper chance to impress. We went with literaly our best 11 available today and their attitude was still like they are on holidays. Much much space for improvement.

What was the name of song just before the second half kick off?

Then we should play Bats Morata in 3:5:2. No point playing Willian when he is in such shit form

Hopefuly Musonda and Morata get introduced for second half, althrough that most probably wont happen.

Well obviously we are not as good without Eden as we are with him. Same for Barca without Messi... Once Baka will be fit, Cesc wont be in first 11 and that will improve our movement in middle too. But we do need two new fullbacks and backup midfielder. No idea why is Morata not playing. Putting him on bench might kill his confidence from the start.

Indeed why did board sell Matic if we dont have replacement already lined up. I know Baka is Matic replacement, but he is not fully fit and that should be enough to keep Matic until then. Now we only have Kante and Cesc for midfield, one not being good enough.

So true lol. I still like both. Atittude or not, we were winning trophies and whenever on pitch, Costa showed passion for Cfc. Im sure Aurier would too. And in the end thats what matters.

Going by how we are selling certain players to rivals just to get more money, I wouldnt be surprised it was chelsea who wanted to sell costa to china for 80m... Obviously conte and costa might had personal bust up which led to chelsea wanting to sell costa, but to say costa wanted to leave chelsea for china is unfair to diego aswell. Diego said he would never join china because he wants to stay competitive for wc.

With Baka-Kante midfield, we will need two attacking FBs. Rudiger is ok as backup there, but I wouldnt put him as starter. I cheer for Sandro and Aurier, but it will be tough.

Would be amazing signing, for that price even more.

He and Cyprien are both brilliant. Shame Cyprien got injured back then, I would actualy love him here as backup option. Or Naby Keita, but seems Leipzig doesnt want to sell...

2 years? He is italian, he is not even in his prime yet

It depends on what you get for money you pay. No one here can buy Sandro or whoever because no one has that amount of money, so the thread is pointless. But if I give lets say 100e would that mean Sandro is definately coming here? And if I dont, he wont come here? Its desire, just as someone wants shoes for 100, some would love to have Sandro here. And much like I pay 100e for shoes and get them, I would pay 100e if that meant Sandro comes here.

Yes but at same time our bench looks poor as feck, because we cant get proper replacement in mould of Matic that would "care" for club and accept bench role. Sure now we have 40m in our pocket, but that wont help us with our title defense if we dont spend it properly. If we invest that money in young talent, they will be loaded to vitesse, if we get lets say Drinkwater or someone similar for 40m, hell thats money poorly spent and Matic shouldnt be sold. THE ONLY positive I see in Matic sale is if we spend money on someone quality ala Verratti, Matuidi, Vidal, Tolisso,... (if they were available; but since they are not whats the point in selling Matic if we cant get better player than him then)

We have too much respect for players in that case. We could have easily kept Matic who has been here for quite some time, won stuff and is proven player. But instead, as soon he wasnt exactly first option and hoped to leave, we sell him wherever he wants to go, even to our rival like United. We did same with Mata. We couldnt keep them even for single season. Then you see Utd holding on Martial, Bayern on Muller,...even though their role decreased in last season. Now it will be very hard to get player like Matic who will be experienced, proven and happy to sit on bench. Now Im not sure if thats just our policy with players or they simply dont want to stay here unless they have good role. But at least on paper they should, we have been more successful than United or City, yet good players always prefer to sit on their bench than ours... With two new fullbacks hopefuly, imagine we could have Cech, Rudiger, Alonso, Moses, Matic, Cesc, Mata, Willian and Bats on bench. Instead we have very thin bench with few game changers...

The only problem I see with us buying Drinkwater is his reported fee and the fact Matic was still better player. We got 40m in bank from Matic and 70m from Oscar, Im sure we can get proper replacement that will be happy enough to understand he will compete for starting spot. Straight out of my head, Sanson would be allright alternative. And there are plenty more players that we can try to get with that money. Drinkwater is not better option to have than Matic. In that case we should simply keep Matic. If he wanted to leave? So? Martial lost his place too and he wasnt sold to Chelsea straight after. We will play 2 man midfield and only Kante seems to be nailed on starter. Cesc is better as alternative, never a starter and Bakayoko needs to recover first, gain fitness and then prove his spot. That said, I just hope we get two proper wingbacks, those two are crucial improvements right now.

IMO far more valuable player than at first sight. But for that money at this age and he is clearly declining...probably good business. However we need to spend that money now on quality experienced midfielder, because we realy need one.

Aurier is available for 25m. He is bit of loose cannon, but I think he would be amazing signing, for that price even more.

Perfect example of neighbour grass is greener... Shit season, plays position we dont have formation for, overpriced and overrated. The only reason we do that is to get english player in squad/bench, but for 40m thats ridiculous.