dreamcfc

Not gonna happen

Think we would all love for him to come good, not got a problem with him staying and you have to praise his attitude, Tibo Courtois could take some lessons here. But unfortunately we can't rely on him to be the main man, he clearly has problems with the pressure so that needs to be taken away with a new number 9 (I know it's fantasy land right now), i'd be more than happy for him to stay and fight for the spot but it doesn't fill me with confidence if he is our first striker next year. What has me clinging on to the idea that we could get someone in is that Higuain said Sarri wanted him apparently and there;s nothing happened in pre-season that would make anyone think we didn't need a striker lol, was this Higuain quote true?

Agree on Courtois but I said this would be what I would like to see if we closed the transfer window now. Interesting opinion on the XI but do you not think if we were to play those 3 midfielders they would be too lightweight? I know Kante is there but still, we need someone who can carry the ball in there for me, Cesc doesn't have the legs, we can't rely on Kante to be mopping up and carrying the ball forward all the time and we've seen Jorginho isn't that player either... that is the idea of Barkley but I think he needs more time. I really think Willian could do a job there, he did it under Mourinho and probably played his best for us. I don't see what Barkley offers that Willian wouldnt. I don't see the need to play Cesc/Jorginho together, Jorginho is doing Cescs job from further back, maybe against teams where we dominate we could do this but in general I think we need more balance, we need another profile of player to complete the jigsaw, I really think Willian could be it. This would also give more time to Hudson Odoi on the wings, obviously you rate him quite highly as you say he should be starting but do you really think he's done enough to take Pedro and Willian off RW? I'd prefer to start Pedro and bring CHO off the bench.

If we were to close the window now i'd like to see this:- Courtois Azpilicueta- Luiz - Rudiger - Alonso Jorginho Kante - Willian Pedro - Morata - Hazard Morata/Alonso for me are the question marks, otherwise I'm happy with this team starting any game next season. Morata flops then maybe try Hazard there and give CHO the LW spot.

Yea I get that, it's just the news that's coming out saying his agent is pushing the move etc, if he was pushing it, there would be a transfer request so take what you read with a pinch of salt as always. Personally I think we should make him see out his contract and the longer it goes on, the more I think this is will be the case, it's so late now that either way, we are having our pants pulled down.. it will either be Tibo doing it or whichever club we approach for their GK by adding 10m to the price. There is still January where something can happen also. I don't want him here but if he were to leave now, we would be spending probably 20m on a stop gap, why not just keep that 20m, keep Tibo for the last year and just let him go for free next year. If Madrid want him that bad, they will have to beat off other clubs offers on his contract.

I'm convinced he will leave but still not buying all these stories about his agent and what not, we can't believe any of this, surely the first thing we would hear is him handing in a transfer request?

I'd like to see this if we don't make any striker signing, maybe swap Giroud for CHO and move Hazard to the LW for a Plan B. Or if we got a miracle transfer, Zaha for example, would take CHOs place and he would get his minutes from the bench, which is how it should be for him at his age. Don't think we would get him though but that just means more minutes for CHO I guess. I also agree with what people say about Alonso being too slow etc but I just don;t see us signing any new LB so hopefully Sarri has some plans to cover him.

Completely agree, I said this in the match thread, he's had an opportunity to show something in every game this pre-season and hasn't really shown anything to deserve a place in the starting 11 for me. Sounds crazy but I would like to see Willian given a go in that position I don't think he'd do anything worse than Barkley has in the last 3 games. Very unlikely I know but if that were to happen it would allow Pedro/CHO to fight for RW between them. Either can move over to LW if needed.

Saw someone else suggest this but what about Willian for that Barkley role, I could see that working really well. Would be happy for him to stay and play that role, allowing Pedro to fight it out with CHO for RW. Would just highlight our need for a top class striker even more.

Few things that worry me after todays game. I thought Alonso would be ok but he does not work in a back 4, way to slow. Maybe when Kante comes back it won't be so bad but he should be able to hold his own and he can't, the amount of times he was just passed out the game was insane. Barkley has now had minutes in all our pre-season games and I haven't seem him do anything to say he deserves his spot in the starting 11. He made a few mistakes today also, much to learn for him. Sarri used RLC and Bakayoko in what I would assume was his take of shutting up shop , neither of these players are up to this job, we will be conceding so many late goals with these 2 as our options to close down games, they are too clumsy for me. Morata needs to go, we can't have another Torres situation, the longer we keep him here, the more we lose on him. I would be more than happy for him to fill a bench role but it doesn't look like we will get anyone else in unless he goes. For me this is the most important, I think this game would have been over at half time if we had a better striker.

Hate to say it but Barkley isn’t looking too impressive. He’s had some chances this preseason and not really done anything. He’s made a few mistakes tonight.

Torres 2.0 situation, we will end up bringing drogba back from retirement in janurary and win champions league next season

What a player we have here guys. Shame he isn’t on the RW

Oh morata .... this is what we can expect all season if we don’t sign a striker

I'm not disputing we made some terrible transfers and maybe labelling us a smart club is over the top, I just compare to other clubs as that's all you can really do as a football fan and we're not as bad as people make out. Every club has these expensive flops at some point. Compare our team to our rivals and we're not far off. Hazard and Willian as LW/RW with a proper 9 is as good as anyone else. We also have Pedro as backup, pretty solid if you ask me. Just getting that goalscorer in is important or we are taking a risk, but it could still come off good. We have Jorginho and Kante in midfield which any team in the league would probably want these players. Some youth possibly coming in to fill the other spot , Utd bought Lingaard into their team we can do the same with Barkley hopefully, for me Barkley is a better player than Lingaard at the same job. We have one of the best RB in the league in Azpilicueta, Rudiger I believe will also be a boss at CB, the other CB position is debatable but Luiz or AC are not bad choices. LB remains to be seen but I think Alonso/Emerson is ok. We can still look forward to this season without having to get rid of half our team or spending tons of money.

Would love this to be true but taking everything in to consideration, can we afford to take a risk with him. Morata is also in the same situation really, we are going in to next season hoping one of these comes good for goals.

Well we don't know anything for sure, I read elsewhere that the club know why he isn't there and it's not an issue. That is just as much fact as the reports he went AWOL.

Agreed. If what you say is fact Vesper, then the facts we know are that Willian did not attend training today because he had passport issues, why is that anything to be concerned with, pretty normal is it not? Doesn't mean he went AWOL and is refusing to come back etc. Ridiculous.

As a football fan, you should worry about what is happening on the pitch rather than what is going on in the newspapers and behind the scenes. Now if you get a job as our DoF or something you can get in to all the bullshit then. Fact is, as of right now, we have a starting 11 on par with our rivals (with the exception of a proven goalscorer in my opinion, but debatable) the issues you are pointing out are what every club faces with contracts etc, if you were that good and knew everything about football and finances you wouldn't be here posting on the forums you'd be working for Roman. I actually agree with some of what you say but you mention player values and it being a pretty predictable bell curve ... here you couldn't be more wrong, in this market, a player has 1 standout season and he goes from being worth 15million to 50+ million. In my opinion and having a positive view on my club, This is why we are a smart and well run club because we are not spending ridiculous amounts of money on inflated players. We try to get value, often we fail but so does every other club at times. The value of any club could potentially plummet overnight if you believe all this nonsense.

If nothing else happens I agree, but let's just wait and see instead of expecting the worst. Be realistic, what are the chances that nothing else happens?

All this drama and realistically all we need to do is sign a good striker (At the cost of Willian or Morata) and suddenly the future is bright again. Too many newspapers being read, there is nothing wrong with Willians attitude, he fucked up with the emoji tweet but other than that he's been nothing but professional imo. If we had 1 of our 3 or 4 attackers that we could rely on for goals i'd be happy going in to the current season, sounds silly but at the moment our most reliable goalscorer is probably Pedro...

Indeed. Not good at all, though all we really need is a goalscorer and i'd be ok with what we have.

We just need a striker for me, if we added a reliable goalscorer i'd be happy going into the season with what we have but I don't think we sign any striker unless Willian or Morata leaves.

I don't understand your point, so your suggesting we are not a team that is competing for CL spots? We have so far, rejected massive bids for our best players, now you can speculate that we did it because we were trying to milk more money and our plan backfired, or you could believe that we want to keep our best players to compete for CL spots. If the club had no ambition, you really think we would be waiting for players like Kante and Hazard to return.

I think your the one being brainwashed into thinking a 17 year old is going to come in and replace one of our best players of the last few years. While I rate CHO and hope he has a future here, currently he is nowhere near the level of Pedro and Willian, a few spins and an assist isn't going to change my mind either. We can't take risks like that if we are pushing for CL places, I get the point it would be good for him to learn from the start but personally I think it would be better for him to go out and play more games somewhere else. Sure, if we were to make a few adjustments to our team, Willian gets sold etc he could have a spot this season but it won't be as a first choice.