Reddish-Blue

Pretty sure Robertson came from Hull (relegated), Henderson was at Sunderland, VVD at Southampton, Mane at Southampton, Wijnaldum from a PL relegation side, Jota from Wolves....they turned out to be pretty good for Liverpool. There is value for money signings from mid table clubs, we got Cahill from Bolton all those years ago and he turned out to be solid.

Feel like there are other players (Pulisic, RLC, Ziyech) that we can get rid of at the end of the season before worrying about Colwill, kid has too much talent to sell. Would hate to see another Tomori situation where we sell him for peanuts and he turns into a class defender.

Fairly sure Porro at Sporting (RB/RWB) has a release clause, surprised we haven't been linked at all considering Reece's injury issues.

Interesting point....as apparently Danjuma has been allowed to fly to London to speak to PL clubs about a loan to permanent type of transfer... People on twitter were mentioning Arsenal/Villa (Emery connection)/Spurs (squad depth for Conte) as options

I don't see Thuram moving in January, he'll have many more options at the end of the season. The Madueke interest is just weird considering his injury record...

It's not about infinite resources, it's about having a quality core of first team players that you can build around. If you look at our teams under Mourinho, Conte, there was a quality core there, players that could be relied upon to put in a performance week in week out. As of right now, there are maybe 3-4 players in our squad who would be considered "core" - Reece, Thiago, Kante, Kovacic.....and two of them are out for who knows how long.

Not just Casemiro, the squad signings have been solid as well (Eriksen on a free, Malacia as a backup LB). Even managed to get Cristiano to leave the club which is massive. It's Moyes 2.0 but this time it's our turn to deal with a bang average manager. Feel it's harsh to judge Potter with most of our backline out injured but the lack of fight in the players is a concern...

His celebration means nothing, he's just trying to back track now and still maintain a good relationship with the Benfica fans before he leaves at the end of the season (as Liverpool will be all over him if the Bellingham to Madrid rumors are true). As for the whole release clause saga, it's funny because all the noise about Chelsea paying Enzo's release clause was from Portuguese sources. Ornstein was the only reliable source from an English perspective who said Chelsea were not interested in paying the release clause.

It's not even the injuries, it's the fact that there is no passion or instructions or anything from the sideline. I don't doubt Potter's quality as a manager but this is looking like Moyes at United 2.0 (a decent manager who was well beyond his depth), wonder how many more gutless losses it will take before he's leading the sack race.

That's the point though, he's been put out wide because he doesn't really offer that much in midfield. Even got dropped from the starting lineup in the world cup due to bang average performances, had to settle for cameo appearances off the bench. Will be interesting to see what happens with his contract extension talks as he's a safe, steady player but nowhere near the other English youngsters who have star potential (like Foden, Saka and co).

If we're going to buy a technical midfield, we would have to make room so I guess that means parting ways with Mount.

Wonder if Bettinelli or whoever our 3rd keeper is, gets a shot at this rate. We really went from the legend Petr Cech to Courtois to this....no wonder why we've become a mid table side.

He would be fine as a squad player for mid table PL clubs. Put it this way, he's no worse than Chalobah (who is only here due to Homegrown status).

Gilmour wanted the loan though as from memory he said he spoke with the manager and he said minutes would be limited to cup appearances and that's why he decided to go out on loan. The problem wasn't the loan, the problem was loaning him to Norwich of all clubs that were keen on him. Why not loan him to a side that isn't fighting relegation?

Look back at our 2016/17 squad that won with Conte. The players that we failed to replace with top tier quality: Courtois, Terry, Cahill, Hazard, Willian, Matic, Fabregas, Diego Costa....you could even add Alonso to that list as Cucurella isn't even half the player Alonso was (in the attacking third on the pitch). The only players who would get a shot in that team from our current squad are: James, Silva and probably Felix.

A direction towards building a younger squad is there, you can see it with the investment in Carney, Casadei, Santos for our midfield, Fofana up front, Slonina at GK, Badiashile at CB, Lewis Hall and some of the other promising youngsters getting a look in with the first team. You take away 4-5 starting quality players from any PL team and they would look bang average as well. Might be time to invest into some physios from the top clubs as well.

Willian to put in a masterclass against us and show that we haven't been able to replace his work rate even though he left years ago. I know we don't have key players fit but I hope that every player picked puts in a decent shift for this game and it would be nice to see us score a goal.

It's actually not a coping mechanism, he's not worth 120 million yet. That depends upon whether we keep our existing midfield trio (Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic) or not. I'm more curious as to whether you actually believe splashing 120 million on a single player (who hasn't actually proven anything at club level) will somehow elevate Chelsea back into the top 4 fight? We have significant holes and issues all over the squad. You look at GK, question marks over Mendy & Kepa. You look at RB, Azpi is well and truly cooked and teams will continue to target him on that flank. You look at midfield, we need a new Kante. You look at the attacking roles, we need a clean out. Right now our squad is no better than 8th place and if you honestly believe a combination of Auba, Havertz, Pulisic & Ziyech will somehow get us to 6th place in the league, the best thing to do would be: wake up from your dream.

I would tend to agree, the funny thing is, you could sell off everyone from the Tier 2 list (with the exception of James) and we would be better off as a football club. Hate seeing players like Pulisic, Ziyech, Auba steal a living at Chelsea. Feel like we should cut our losses and let them go, just to clear out the dressing room.

I wouldn't say stupid, Felix at least gives us an option in attack. Pulisic - can't rely on being fit Sterling - has been bang average so far Havertz - not sure what he actually provides Auba - we get what we deserve for signing an Arsenal reject Broja - out with long term injury

Fair point but we also need a midfielder who can do the dirty work in front of the back 4 so that they don't look that exposed. Right now between Jorginho & Kovacic, neither one has that defensive 'steel' in them to make those tactical fouls, get physical with the opposition and be able to break up play effectively. Even JT & co had the likes of Makelele & Essien & Obi Mikel patrolling the midfield all those years ago... It's no surprise that United look like a top 4 side again with the signing of Casemiro. We've missed that since Matic was sold by the club, that presence, that know-how in tactical fouls (which players like Fabinho, Rodri tend to get away with).

That's a bad example, Foden was given time to develop as they had class players in midfield controlling the tempo and dictating play in KdB, Gundogan and Bernardo. Not every youngster will get a chance to walk into a side with that much technical talent. It's a shame about Hudson-Odoi at Chelsea as he was making that break through before that achilles injury and then his development went out the window, we changed managers a few times and we sent him out on loan 2 seasons too late.

Has Fofana even had 5 full games for us yet? Bit harsh to judge a young defender with so little time on the pitch. I'd be more concerned about KK looking like a Championship level defender right now and Chalobah is bang average, I can see why we went for that Monaco CB as we only have 1 CB that we can count on putting in a good performance on a consistent basis (Silva).

The sad part is, we literally don't have a fit player in the squad who can single handedly score or create a goal for us right now. Reece is the closest thing we have to a cheat code in the team. How many years has it been since we sold Hazard? And not a single attacker has been able to contribute 20 goals (through goals and/or assists) since that time... I hope both Pulisic and Ziyech are sold in the summer and we start fresh in attack from next season. As for this game, it's got 2-0 easy win for City written all over it, just depends upon whether Pep gives a breather to De Bruyne and co.

@Vesper what would we have to pay to get Diaby from Leverkusen? Feels like he could really break out and do some proper damage in the Premier League with his pace & dribbling down the flank.