Leif

As much as I want motivated players here, players who love London despite the shitty weather and love Chelsea despite the allure of the Spanish top 2, even as much as i want 70m or even 50m added to our war chest (though less-so since seeing what we do with it lately), he's actually the only GK i've seen since Cech, who comes close to Cech's level. Like millimetres close. A lot is made of the current young-guns between the posts for other top & aspiring teams, but you never, ever, expect Courtois to concede. He doesn't light the world up with his distribution, but sometimes he has those moments with the agility and flexibility of a cat, in a way I can only imagine Bonetti did. And he's never seemed like a young, growing goalkeeper who needs time, where-as other highly-touted GK's around his age are still 'getting better' and taking a while to hit their prime. While I've always wanted him gone due to his less-than-dedicated attitude towards us, I don't at all believe we can bring in anyone better or even equal.

I think i'd rather take Sanchez. Fekir, although better than, strikes me more as being Mahrez' level. Sanchez, though not as good as, strikes me more as being Hazard's level. I'd rather 2 exceptional seasons from a player, than a handful of 7-out-of-10 seasons, which I imagine Fekir would provide. It's not myth that the Premier League is a different beast, and Sanchez has proven himself well. I may be missing a trick with Fekir, but Sanchez has almost as many moments as Hazard which make my mouth foam. Never has he had a patch in his career either where he was ineffective, even during his most outcast days with Barcelona. He's been the talk of our transfer windows for a while now, and he still should be. Like Robben & Ribery, I imagine he'll be among the best until 33 or so. That's just enough time to get us back on top of English football. For me, Fekir is a dream bench option. It's blasphemy to suggest such a productive player take the bench, but Madrid/Bayern/Barcelona would do it, to good effect. Willian isn't good enough, Pedro is barely good enough IMO, so who's the next level up without being undisputed-starter-level for the very most top teams? Fekir. (I was on his wikipedia earlier today, and he has a decent and possibly problematic rags-to-riches type story, for football's standards. He played for Lyon's youth team; he was deemed not good enough; ended up at like 5 other youth teams; eventually St Etienne wanted to sign him and presumably fast-track him into their senior squad; he declined (they're bitter rivals with Lyon), and awaited Lyon's return for him with confidence, eventually re-signing with the hope to prove them wrong, which he's now doing.)

That's a cute celebration.

Not to harp on about him, just a general observation - our passing play seems so much more fluid without Bakayoko. I imagine our pass accuracy this game will be one of our highest so far this season.

I'd say put in his highchair.

I get such a hard on when managers do what I'd do.Ego swells up like a sponge in water.

Only stats to be sure, but I don't like the following - The top 5 Premier League teams in terms of possession, in order - Man City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Southampton in terms of yellow&red cards - West Ham, Huddersfield, West Brom, Man City, Chelsea (we have the most red cards) in terms of aerial duels won, most won first - Man City, Stoke, Man United, Burnley, Arsenal in terms of shots per game - Liverpool, Tottenham, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool in terms of pass accuracy - Man City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool imo, without Hazard we're no longer a top 4 team. All the other usual faces are in & amongst the stats you want to be top of. We aren't. At all. We play nothing like a great team should; the stats then show that. We're far off from being great again. And it's down to our midfield more than anything. Full of athletes, with only 1 out-and-out footballer.

Highly recommend this recipe to everyone. Made it & tinkered with it every day this week. Go get the ingredients and wow yourselves. It's bomb. It's amazing. It'll make you sweat, and it's not even the chilli. https://www.ruled.me/vegetarian-red-coconut-curry/

Jesus christ. Instrumental in the development of our young players - the face I associate with the youth team more than any. Deserves a lot of love that i fear he won't get.

but, but i wrote a long positive post

Honestly, it's not like Man City, Bayern, Real Madrid, PSG, essentially the teams who should be our peers, do any better with their youth player integration. And, regardless of other teams or our youth integration, what needs to be commended is the fact that we assemble the strongest youth teams in Europe. Year in year out. Barcelona are loaded with talent, they're known for it, but who wins the competitions every year? Chelsea Chelsea Chelsea. We bring the heat. We bring the fya. We understand something about youth which other teams don't. We're not as bad at this as we seem. And, looking at our most successful youth team of all time (the one with RLC, Musonda, Abraham, Christensen, Chalobah, Ake etc.), a few of them have a chance of making it here (Christensen, RLC, Abraham if the board are happy to settle for a less-than-elite back-up), and the others are genuinely good additions to the teams they've now joined - mainly Premier League clubs so far. The only players we've fucked up with in my opinion are Jay Dasilva, Charlie Colkett so far, and somewhat Izzy Brown. Barely any truly great talents have slipped through the cracks so far. McEachran wasn't up to it, Boga has been too streaky even in the youth teams (but how can't you want such a flairy player to succeed? hence he's given the benefit of the doubt), Solanke had nothing to his game which made him qualified to play for a top team, and that's that. Everyone else isn't good enough for our senior squad, and yet they'll still end up at decent teams, no doubt being one of the best players on those teams. (Can't comment on Musonda so far. He was going to get chances this season, but missed out due to injury.) Where are everyone else's youth players? Nowhere. Arsenal's bring no success to any team they play for, and hold Arsenal themselves back from investing in their positions when required; Tottenham have brought through the cream of the crop, Harry Kane, but nobody else writing headlines (I imagine a lot of people think Alli and others are youth products. Nope.) To reiterate, Arsenal have nobody from the youth team helping them progress; Man City too; and United aren't managing their youth prospects very well. What if, the narrative is actually completely skewed, and instead of being the worst with youth, we're actually the very best in the Premier League with the young ones?

Watch them within just 2 seasons drop from 2nd-best team in the league to behind Lyon, trying to match Marseille's level. It's going to be depressing, but it won't all be Michael - it's down to the club's selling (players) & recruitment policy (personnel, not player) as a whole.

Gattuso actually appointed AC Milan manager! In real life! Really!

Montella sacked! Actually sacked! In real life! Really!

Shame those who actually feel when watching their team, lunatics!

Valencia remain unbeaten having faced Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid. This is almost a miracle when you consider half of their players haven't been great for longer than 1 season before.

Good wine gets better with time. Sub-par wine does not.

I've little doubt our Drinkwater+Bakayoko fee would've secured us Kovacic. If not, the addition of the Rudiger fee absolutely would have. We'd have enough centre-back options, slightly more space in that position + midfield to bleed in a youngster, and we'd be fucking brilliant.

Random points:- Theorising that Bakayoko will come good, while disregarding who he is now, is no different from me saying 'Hazard will come bad! Just wait!', and completely ignoring, not even once stating, that he's been absolutely great for us consistently. It'd be madness. Delusion. If Bakayoko was signed on a free and put in these performances there wouldn't be half the people defending him. There'd be shouts of 'Why didn't we spend some fucking money? Stingy board' (where-as if he was actually good, there'd be celebration he was signed on a free. There's nothing to celebrate here either way.) If he came through the youth system, it'd be agreed he should be loaned out next season while we bring in a player who can actually contribute now. But because he cost money, there's none of that 'get rid of him right away!' instinct - the lack of instinct which kept Bosingwa, Mikel, Oscar, and others here far too long. No player with genuine potential splits a fanbase in half regarding him. No player with genuine potential gets laughed at by opposing fans. No player with genuine potential is this dire at the basics. Someone said it best a handful of posts ago - he's Ramires, without speed, without the stamina, without the fitness. I'd add with worse positioning, worse finishing, worse defensive contribution. This is about to become laughable, because there can't be any proper debate about this anymore. Hardly any logic is being used. Too many people looking into crystal balls predicting the future, as if every player under the sun improves with age. Go ask actual Monaco fans what they think of Bakayoko. Their joint worst player of their season last year, is what they say. But because we saw him in 3 Champions League games and watched 2-3 of his Monaco games in half, we know for sure he's going to come good! Drogba did!

Fans want us to develop our own youth products. Nobody on here is saying 'Let's go out and buy unpolished 22 year olds for 40m and develop them!'. How are so many fallacies coming up post-Liverpool?