robsblubot

Sure, then stop posting if you don't want to discuss... Did you actually read teh post or just blindly quoted it while watching the match?! I did mention Oscar AND Hazard...

what a finish! he's like the perfect player for counter-attacking...

what are you afraid of? You keep posting about youngsters leaving and reputation... How many 21 year old players do you see starting for the very top clubs?! Especially the goalkeeper? Atletico can afford it Chelsea would never do it. Chelsea are starting Oscar and Hazard these days; both very young. that's pretty good as top clubs go. Chelsea don't play many youngsters at the same time for a reason. These kids won't play for Chelsea regularly, no matter what you believe. If they leave because of that then so be it. You just can't reach the later stages of CL regularly with a team filled with youngsters.

no! Chelsea refuses and don't let him go on loan... very common situation when a club wants to hurt a player. Money from goalkeeper sale isn't that big of a deal spec one with only 2-3 years left of contract. And it's not like Chelsea need money... You are missing the point that things don't happen in a vacuum. What they did with malouda for example sometimes is done to show other players that the club still have some power and can hurt someone's career. It's all part of negotiations, and sometimes the club needs to be tough or be walked over.

You are right that nowadays players have the power, but not so much the younger ones. Because there are too many unknowns about them. Imagine a problem like Fletcher had, which absolutely destroyed his career. Or not so drastic, something like what happened to Essien, the so common knee injuries. These type of things could really lower the ceiling of any young player since they really can't afford to lose years of development time, not to mention the long-term physical and mental consequences of such injuries/problems. Again, not to mention that some of these youngster are pretty much playing at their peak, so what you see is as good as it's going to get. I believe Courtois still has 3 years left (until 2016) on his contract, so Chelsea could really hurt his development if he does not play nice. Malouda is a good example, at the other end of the (age) spectrum: he was unflushable, and Chelsea said fine, we don't care, but we won't waste time with you. The best case scenario is that he returns to the club come next season and play rotation with Cech, learning as much as possible from Cech. Then, in the following season, Chelsea should - amicably - allow Cech to move and make his retirement money (bonuses and all). This is still a very possible outcome. BTW, goalkeeper aren't valued that highly, even the very promising ones. The deals just involve a lot less money.

This deal only makes sense as a part-exchange with Ba, in order to improve upon Ba. Honestly this is the wrong kind of bet. Top clubs don't sell their top strikers, especially not to us. So instead of betting on 27/28 year old players, who have already reached their peak, we need to bet on younger strikers who have the potential to become world class. Yes, it is difficult, but the returns will be better than getting these average stop-gap players who we all know won't be good enough. Sturridge's personality and perhaps demands, may have made it difficult for the club to stick with him. However, betting on players like him is the correct approach IMO. The same works for CMs too. Unfortunately Barcelona won't sell Iniesta, the same way City won't sell Toure.

heh that's the root of our disagreement. I don't like Suarez; I don't know him and don't care about him. As a footballer though, as a striker, I think few are better.

did you just pull a suarez there?!

As bad as these rumors go, this one is messed up. They are either missing a digit there or a part-exchange.

You believe it an accidental touch. I believe it was not. I think Ba is a terrible player; you don't. You think Suarez being a cunt makes him a bad player, or a lesser player; I don't.

Please stop putting words in my mouth! When did I say he should have stopped the play?!? The same way I understand an aggressive player would play aggressively, in his natural way and not stop the play when he or some else thinks he's been too aggressive. That's up to the officials. How about not using your hand to being with?!? Concerning Suarez, that's exactly the attitude that can weaken a team: our players are always better than the opposition. If you think Ba is better than Suarez, then I rest my case.

Do you think that (guilty at the same level)? Because I certainly did not say it. What I asked for is some consistency... don't treat our players like saints they are not. The fact Terry (one of my fav players BTW) is not a good guy is a good thing for Chelsea because you cannot win anything with only good guys in the quad. You need some meanness to win. Completely agree on Ba and Suarez on the human level. So, I reckon Ba should leave football and employ his good heart in some good cause. While Suarez, who is a gifted footballer, should remain in the game since knowing how to play football is really all that matters.

I was just answering your so what? I'm clearly saying his performance on that game was not good. Because the only real contribution he made was by cheating. And he missed clear opportunities to score which could've cost us the game. Yeah Terry never racially abused anyone... did not lose England's captaincy over it... And without the cultural/language barrier that people here tend to forget. PK you mean one the of the many of Ba dives?! Yeah that's what I meant about going to the ground all the time. Sorry for bring up Suarez; I don't think one can put Suarez and Ba in the same sentence; one of them knows how to play football. It was a bad first touch and he used his arm to correct it. If you think otherwise, I can offer you this little bit of land on the moon for a very reasonable price...

my point was that without the cheating there wouldn't have been an assist to begin with. We can't have it both ways: bash the likes of Suarez and then praise when our players get away with it.

well agree to disagree. BTW, blatant handball by Ba before the assist. His first touch looked fantastic at first, but he actually used his arm to control the football. Without the first touch, the assist was not that great.

The game had not become very open, Jose made the game very open with the changes. I stand with my opinion the strategy did not work in the first half. in Yes, if we are playing like Stoke a year from now Jose will be replaced as he should.

Sure, Jose is the manager now. However, Roman as the owner sets the long-term vision for the club and if Jose does not deliver, he will find someone who can. Jose himself said that there will be a transition period a couple of weeks ago; that he cannot deliver the change of style because we've been playing the same way for so long - according to him, since he last left. yeah definitely a valid strategy in certain occasions. The irony of it though is that it did not work! We've managed to still only scored one goal missing a number of chances some with Ba himself. We won the game with Eto and a bunch of mobile players on the pitch applying pressure in every corner and playing short quick passes. As a target man, I see Lukaku (for example) win far more headers and actually scoring with a header than Ba ever did.

Ba is not good enough. Yes, he is a target man, just not a very good one. He's a target man who is not that great in the air (can't remember him heading the ball in the back of the net actually). He also goes to the ground very often and has a history of injuries, if not mistaken, had problems with his knees. I really don't think Roman wants us playing target man - quotes from AVB time - so Ba will be a rotation player at most, prob a backup when all strikers are available.

He's also very slow... (he's prob one of the slowest mids in the league) he's got no pace or acceleration. That's why I think he will never make it for Chelsea esp in the premiere league where pace is so important. Once again, I'd be extremely happy to be proven wrong.

Indeed, but then he might still not be good enough for Chelsea and the characteristics of the premiere league (pace + pace and more pace). Frankly I'm surprised he's been given this much time to show his qualities, which hasn't really happened thus far. We are not talking about a season, or a manager, but several.

No, I understand where you are coming from. It wasn't a critique of your post at all. Just saying I'm not sure he's been able to do the defensive work you say we need against top sides, and I agree we do need extra defensive work in those matches. Just not sure Mikel can really do that Makelele work. At least he hasn't been able to do that so far.

I used to think exactly the same way, but I don't think he's been good enough defensively either. A player as slow as he is must position himself perfectly, and stay very close to the CBs, immediately in front of them actually. Because if he is high up the pitch he has to chase the play when beaten and he does not have the pace to do that. This happens very often I'm afraid. That's the problem with Mikel IMO. He does NOT play like a DM for Nigeria. Many have stated he started off as a CAM, or more of a pure CM. That may explain why his positioning doesn't quite work for him nor Chelsea. I've seen good things of him when playing for Nigeria, but the level of play (spec speed) as well as circumstances are completely different. He will never have the same freedom at Chelsea. He'd need a smaller side to play to his strengths and I reckon he is just not good enough for Chelsea to do that. At this time I believe he may do better - again not really sure ever good enough but better - as a CM partnering a dynamic player like Ramires for example. This way the team won't expect him to be the "protector" of the defense which clearly hasn't worked so far. One thing that I fully agree with Phil is that it's all about the team, so if the team does not work when Mikel is on, if we cannot find a way to use him, then he has no place on the team.

touche though it's the same as citing Franco Baresi to make a point CB's don't have to be tall...

right but the interesting point here is that United have messed up. They've played this 18yo kid who's got great potential, but he does not have one thing: a long term deal. So come end of next season he can sign with anyone. Why United are playing him, considering his contractual situation, is beyond me. The only leverage clubs have is playing time, where players, especially young ones, can showcase their talent.

Sorry I don't really get that excited about professional players' whims - especially of a 21 year-old.