Rumoured Luke Shaw

[The only place to be 11,313]

The same could be said for Luke Shaw.

Shaw's a good young player who will hopefully have a good future. Luis is better at the moment though.

You must be kidding yourself if you think I was referring to that point about Felipe Luis.

You might want to try saying what you mean then because otherwise it just seems like you're one of those people who moans about 'the board' for the sake of it.

You talk as if our board has a bad recent record which they really don't.

We really need to stop with the 'prospect/future' talk, Shaw was the best left back in PL last season. He's the 'present'.. it just so happens he also has a 12+ year lifespan, £40m would be a bargain. As stated though, it's the wages which may cause problems.

Azpi was better than him. Baines also had a fabulous season.

[Jase 43,479]

You might want to try saying what you mean then because otherwise it just seems like you're one of those people who moans about 'the board' for the sake of it.

You talk as if our board has a bad recent record which they really don't.

Moaning for the sake of it? Did you even read Madmax's post that I replied to?

It's your view I guess but people must be kidding if they think the board hasn't had a bad record in recent years. They have done some good things but also some bad ones and yet many seem to think they have been great when the overall record is a more balanced. 50-50 kinda thing.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Moaning for the sake of it? Did you even read Madmax's post that I replied to?

It's your view I guess but people must be kidding if they think the board hasn't had a bad record in recent years. They have done some good things but also some bad ones and yet many seem to think they have been great when the overall record is a more balanced. 50-50 kinda thing.

Tbf since 2012 to now the boards have done more right than wrong with signings. The worst one is probably Marin for 8m but then for every Marin there is a Mata, Kevin, Courtois, Hazard, Oscar, Dave...etc. But if you refer to the boards's record for the past 5 years then definitely it is 50-50. Terrible ones like Matic, Torres along with good ones like Luiz, Ramires.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Moaning for the sake of it? Did you even read Madmax's post that I replied to?

It's your view I guess but people must be kidding if they think the board hasn't had a bad record in recent years. They have done some good things but also some bad ones and yet many seem to think they have been great when the overall record is a more balanced. 50-50 kinda thing.

In recent years? How recent? Since the summer of 2011 they've not done too bad, learning their lessons from the Torres transfer.

I'd love for you to explain how buying one of the best left-backs around will 'fuck up their good work'. We conceivably go into next season with a top class striker and a top class left-back, immediately upgrading two of the trouble positions in a team that only finished four points off the top spot.

When you talk about 'good work' you also have to look at the club in it's entirety and the work they do in the academy. We have the Dutch-u21 left-back who has played in more European competitions than Luke Shaw, captained our youth and reserve teams and was actually promoted to the first-team squad when we let Ryan Bertrand leave. Part of our new philosophy seems to be to promote young players so maybe we don't need to gamble £30 million plus wages on Shaw. Maybe we can get by with a top-class left-back and give the youngsters a chance.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Having this guy on the left and Azpi on the right is the NFL equivalent of having 2 shut-down corners. Both are very good defensively, it's ridiculous.

It's really a shame he's about to be 29, but he's so good i think he has to be bought if he is available. If not, then you look at inferior players like Shaw and Rodriguez.

[Styles 9,790]

Having this guy on the left and Azpi on the right is the NFL equivalent of having 2 shut-down corners. Both are very good defensively, it's ridiculous.

It's really a shame he's about to be 29, but he's so good i think he has to be bought if he is available. If not, then you look at inferior players like Shaw and Rodriguez.

I'm just grateful that we're signing a LB and Azpi will hopefully be playing at RB. It could be Luis, Shaw, Rodriguez, Moreno or whoever and it makes very little difference.

[Jase 43,479]

In recent years? How recent? Since the summer of 2011 they've not done too bad, learning their lessons from the Torres transfer.

Will just throw this here (again).

The points mentioned in the first post are not necessarily wrong but whether the board has done a really good job depends in a certain way. As it is, yeah, one can say the board has done well in getting 100m from selling 3 non-first team players in De Bruyne, Mata and Luiz and in the process, getting us a hefty profit when the price we bought team at are taken into account. On the other hand, one could also say the board is paying its price for the constant sacking of managers in the past few years. They had a clear thought of what they want the team to be like and/or playing and bought certain kind of players (including the sillyness of flocking the team with like 100 AMs!) and even wanted/hired specific managers to implement that. In the end, that failed and we got a manager that doesn't necessarily complement with that and having to sell those players and get in new ones to build the team again (even if it brought profit). This is without mentioning the fact that board was only interested in getting AMs, mostly, and failed to fix the apparent problems that have been evident for years (till now!) even if we got 1-2 gems along the way.

I'd love for you to explain how buying one of the best left-backs around will 'fuck up their good work'.

Maybe I didn't make it clear or you are taking the words too literally. We have seen the board making good decisions, which is good, but then when you see them make the opposite. The mind boggles. It's like how can they go from one end to other in their decision making. Not saying they are completely useless but they certainly not as great as people seem to make them out to be.

We conceivably go into next season with a top class striker and a top class left-back, immediately upgrading two of the trouble positions in a team that only finished four points off the top spot.

It will be a HUGE relief when that happens but on the other hand, isn't what we have complained about our squad problems - the STs, CMs etc - a bad decision making by the board in the past years? They want to take control of transfers? Fine but then they went to completely mess that up buying youngsters, AMs mainly only and neglected the more apparent areas that needed to be fixed. It has taken them years, managers and finally having a manager in charge that is ruthless, single minded that knows what he wants and the board follow it. All this supposed good work they are doing now with the transfers is just them fixing their mistakes in the past. Should we really be giving them credit for that? I'm not sure. If they were as great as people talk of them, maybe we wouldn't have been in the position that we did and complaining about issues within the squad for years.

When you talk about 'good work' you also have to look at the club in it's entirety and the work they do in the academy. We have the Dutch-u21 left-back who has played in more European competitions than Luke Shaw, captained our youth and reserve teams and was actually promoted to the first-team squad when we let Ryan Bertrand leave. Part of our new philosophy seems to be to promote young players so maybe we don't need to gamble £30 million plus wages on Shaw. Maybe we can get by with a top-class left-back and give the youngsters a chance.

Till we actually see that happens and happens consistently in the upcoming years, there is no certainty that is going to happen at all. Right now, people are almost clutching at straws thinking that is just going to happen.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

I'm just grateful that we're signing a LB and Azpi will hopefully be playing at RB. It could be Luis, Shaw, Rodriguez, Moreno or whoever and it makes very little difference.

Actually it is if we are signing Paul Konchesky

[Styles 9,790]

Actually it is if we are signing Paul Konchesky

Well how many of those players could do this

He'd be a decent option if the others aren't available

[The only place to be 11,313]

Will just throw this here (again).

There are more appropriate places you could throw that.

Maybe I didn't make it clear or you are taking the words too literally. We have seen the board making good decisions, which is good, but then when you see them make the opposite. The mind boggles. It's like how can they go from one end to other in their decision making. Not saying they are completely useless but they certainly not as great as people seem to make them out to be.

I'd say they've done brilliant work over the last few windows, maximising the amount of money we make from transferring unwanted players whilst identifying targets quickly and getting players for good prices on the whole. Compared to how we used to do business it's a marked improvement, but I think you're setting your standards way too high and quite frankly unrealistically.

All this supposed good work they are doing now with the transfers is just them fixing their mistakes in the past. Should we really be giving them credit for that? I'm not sure. If they were as great as people talk of them, maybe we wouldn't have been in the position that we did and complaining about issues within the squad for years.

In the real world, people make mistakes. It happens, it's how you recover from them that matters.

Till we actually see that happens and happens consistently in the upcoming years, there is no certainty that is going to happen at all. Right now, people are almost clutching at straws thinking that is just going to happen.

It's interesting that you think optimism is clutching at straws. Why not wait until something happens until you start moaning about it.

[Jase 43,479]

I'd say they've done brilliant work over the last few windows, maximising the amount of money we make from transferring unwanted players whilst identifying targets quickly and getting players for good prices on the whole. Compared to how we used to do business it's a marked improvement, but I think you're setting your standards way too high and quite frankly unrealistically.

Setting standards high and unrealistically? Am just stating what has happened as it is; both the good and bad side of it. Hardly any exaggeration of the situation. Maybe some people just want or choose to see things differently. I don't know..

It's interesting that you think optimism is clutching at straws. Why not wait until something happens until you start moaning about it.

I call it realism (or skepticism). Have no problem with people wanting to be optimistic. It's not even wrong at all(!) but in this case, am just basing it on the track record of us bringing youngsters through the ranks.

[Term-X 7,891]

I don't want us to be in a position where we have to fill our bench with home-grown youngsters just to fill the quota, it's a waste. Not only in terms of 'their' potential (lack of game time) but a waste of options for Mourinho to utilise. Splashing £20-25 on a 29 year old left back, when we have only one (Cahill) 'long term' englishman, and very few homegrown players who are good enough to make it here, doesn't exactly look great.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Wrong thread...i meant Filipe Luis.

Smartass

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

I am still thinking Azpi is better than Shaw. Yes Shaw is proven in England, but not in Europe against world class winger. I have my doubt if we have to face Real for example, could he do his job against Ronaldo? I want to see Shaw doing in World Cup first before making any decision.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

What's a concern to me is that I've not seen any solid articles linking us to Shaw, SkySports have only reported Manchester United being really interested in him. We've only been fully linked with Luis.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

We've definitely lost the plot if we sign Filipe Luis ahead of Shaw. Luis is great but he's 29 fucking years old and isn't even the best in his position. Typical short term thinking that will forever plague this club.

Shaw, Costa, Tiago and a new CM to pair with Matic and call it a day. Really isn't that difficult.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Signing a 28 year old LB for 20 million doesn't make sense...when you can get Shaw for another 8-10 million.

I get where you are coming from but I disagree with one part of it. The goal of a club like Chelsea is to win every year and Luis would likely be a better player than Shaw for the next few years. .However, 20M pounds is an insane price for a 29 YO fullback. Of course, 30M is an insane price for almost any defender especially an inexperienced one like Shaw. I'd rather we go a different route like we've been doing recently and get a good young player elsewhere. Layvin Kurzawa from Monaco Ricardo Rodriguez from Wolfsburg, etc...I'm not a scout so I don't know I just know that teams can get too hung up on names and end up overspending. We got Azpilicueta for what, 7M pounds? He was a solid player in a pretty good league with lots of room to develop. There are players like that out there!. Alternatively, if we are going to spend big, why not on someone like Coentrao who is only 26 and a top player. Madrid has Marcelo already and wants to spend big bringing in players (Aguero is the latest rumour.) I think we have options.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Wrong thread...i meant Filipe Luis.

Smartass

I know you meant Filipe. But he is no Sunday league player, he is a pro athlete mate, trained and developed to run like a dog.

You run 2-3 minutes at full speed and your heart will go to 200 beats a minute. His will be 110-120. Also, your normal resting heart rate is somewhere between 65-80. His is 40.

Clubs outside UK do have fitness coaches and physios too, you know. It's not like players from Atletico, Valencia, Leverkusen, Fiorentina, Lille will be injury prone after a 40+ games season.