Willian

[Vesper 28,853]

On 12/05/2020 at 3:17 PM, MoroccanBlue said:

If we get Mertens just ship him off 

OFFICIAL: Dries Mertens renews his contract with Napoli until 2022

https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/Transfers/OFFICIAL-Dries-Mertens-renews-his-contract-with-Napoli-until-2022/2370792

[Magic Lamps 11,655]

5 hours ago, Vesper said:

OFFICIAL: Dries Mertens renews his contract with Napoli until 2022

https://m.allfootballapp.com/news/Transfers/OFFICIAL-Dries-Mertens-renews-his-contract-with-Napoli-until-2022/2370792

Bullet dodged. How tiny is Adl btw

[1chelsea 864]

Waiting on you to find a club like Pedro


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Fernando 6,465]

I know @Vesper is mad that we never sold him but I often said that it was because we had no stability. 

every new manager that came in wanted to keep Willian. Conte, Sarri and Lampard. 

The problem is that once they knew he was not good, there was turmoil in the club. 

The fact we are doing good now in the transfer window is exactly because of that, Lampard is here and there is no turmoil. 

If we had stability we could have long gotten rid of duds. 

[Tomo 21,733]

38 minutes ago, Fernando said:

I know @Vesper is mad that we never sold him but I often said that it was because we had no stability. 

every new manager that came in wanted to keep Willian. Conte, Sarri and Lampard. 

The problem is that once they knew he was not good, there was turmoil in the club. 

The fact we are doing good now in the transfer window is exactly because of that, Lampard is here and there is no turmoil. 

If we had stability we could have long gotten rid of duds. 

Not to mention it was not long after Willian had that ridiclous purple patch in and around the Barca games where he genuinely looked as good as Hazard.

No surprise Sarri wanted to keep him all things considered.

[Vesper 28,853]

19 hours ago, Fernando said:

I know @Vesper is mad that we never sold him but I often said that it was because we had no stability. 

every new manager that came in wanted to keep Willian. Conte, Sarri and Lampard. 

The problem is that once they knew he was not good, there was turmoil in the club. 

The fact we are doing good now in the transfer window is exactly because of that, Lampard is here and there is no turmoil. 

If we had stability we could have long gotten rid of duds. 

just to settle it once and for all (and ironically I want him to take the 2 year now, as that takes off mad pressure to buy another winger, although I can so live with the two he have (soon 3 with Ziyech) IF we buys Haverts who can cover at winger)

I am going to brutally fair here and list some that would have been large mistakes apparently

I obviously cannot add in players who were too young then (like Ferran Torres or Nicolò Zaniolo, although we were linked with Zaniolo even then, but totally as a an AMF, not a winger, which he is mostly now, or at least half the time)

I will lay out every single target (and other than the biggest cockup (granted hindsight) Sancho they are ALL left footers except for one other)

some would have been a bust

most not

and one tricky one

these were the RWers out there in summer 2018

and I am placing the £65m in the kitty for this exercise

Zaha (the tricky one I mentioned above, as he is better IMHO on the LW than the RW (he si right footed mostly but is sorta ambipedal) as he would have cost MORE than £65m, around £80m or so) would  he have been worth it? Impossible to tell now, it depends how much you rate him, the big upside back then was we wold have gotten 5 or 6 prime years out of him, downside now is he turns 28 in November, so thsi is really the last big go round on the transfer market for him, as next summer he will be 29 in a few months and no one is going to pay 70m or more for a player who turns 30yo after only one full season and then 3 months of having him. I think we missed out as he is over 4 years younger than Willian, and does offer a crazy amount of activity and dribbling, etc

Sancho (the big cockup in hindsight) he was already, after one year, showing major signs of being special ( 5 goals, 7 assist in only a third of season minutes as a mostly 17yo) and we could have brute force bought him (even overpaying at the time, as we had that £65m to burn,and I wager we could have waved 40m euros or so in Dortmund's face and they would have snapped it up) THAT type of deal is what a WC scouting department would have pulled off

Bernardo Silva a huge miss, I raged when Shitty got him, BUT that was 2017, the year before, so not germane to this (although it really is, as IF he had bought him in 2017, ALL this shit would be null and void, Willian would have surely been sold then in 2018, the next year, for the 65m or so) but still, GRRRRRRRRRRRR, my father was insanely pissed (he is a Monaco season ticket holder as he is there so much) Massive cockup, and to pour salt in the would, we ended u buying Bakayoko off them (although to be fair, that was my worst ever scouting job, so I cannot blame the board at all, it is why I never rip into them like I do about Drinkwater, who had FAIL written all over him)

Bernadeschi  has been shit since he moved to Juve,. we dodged a bullet it looks like, point to Marina and the board, so hat tip to them , and a bad Vesper to me (see, I am being fair)

Nabil Fekir super player, huge season in 2017-18 (23 goals, 8 assists, BUT is not a winger)

Leon Bailey  this one is tough, he was big target for me (we almost bout him way back in 2015, most have long forgotten), in 2018-19 he regressed, had issues, but know is rebounding. For £35m to £40m, I would take it now, as we would have a young player with huge upside who can play either wing, and we would have still had £30m or so left over (£75m if we had sold Alonso to RM as well) Point to me (I am sure many will sod off bish, lololol, but I am standing firm on this close run thing)

Filip Kostic (left footer who plays LMF BUT can play RW) he has been superb (accounted for 30 goals overall (18 assists!) this year (and counting), 23 the season before on a shit Eintracht team) and would have been a steal  I am putting this down as too obscure to rate, as other than wild toss out (not even sure if I did it on here or not) even I was not single minded bringing him up. One of the most underrated players in the EU.

Raphaël Guerreiro  too obscure (as a RW) to rate as a legit target for that position, as he hardly played there, despite being a left-footer, only mentioned for thoroughness

Federico Chiesa  another board cockup I think. Yes he would have cost £50m or so, but he is so young, so talented (he is basically ambipedal, but listed as a right-footer) point to me

Mikel Oyarzabal another board cockup, probably worse than Chiesa even, as he would have cost only around £35m or so, I really rate him, then and now, very under the radar overall

Malcom, deffo point to board, we dodged a bullet here it looks so far, and I had cooled off on him already by then too after really doing a deep dive

Nicolas Pepe wash plus too early to really tell how he plays, but in 2018 he would have been around half what Arse paid, as he was really pretty good, but had yet to have that massive year, I neve rpushed him then really, so, like a said, a wash, he was not a prime target then

Hakim Ziyech we finally got him, but another cockup, as he is 27 now, and he would have been only 25 (and was already playing like he does now)

David Neres see Ziyech (who plays in same lineup often) potentially a cockup, not as bad as Ziyech and especially not as bad as the next one..........

Pablo Sarabia  another huge cockup, he has been superb for years, he is PSG' leading goal scorer in calendar year 2020, vastly better than Willian, not even remotely close

Thomas Lemar he had already collapsed by summer 2018, one year wnder (2016/7 Mbappe team) it seems, thank fuck we never bought him

Suso, semi-wash to point, but leaning cockup as he would have only cost half or so of the Willian cash, and is hardly a poor player

bottom line

the board truly fucked up, especially if Willian walks on a free this summer and leaves us hanging with only 3 wingers (one of them, Ziyech who may be needed at AMF in some games as well) if we also miss out on Havertz

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Vytis33 1,144]

Unpopular opinion post...

 

Yes he should score more goals.  For sure.  But are we gonna pretend like there's another player who will cover the pitch like Willian?  And every single manager (Jose, Conte, Sarri, Lampard) keep picking him?  Is that an accident? 

 

 

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Vytis33 said:

Unpopular opinion post...

 

Yes he should score more goals.  For sure.  But are we gonna pretend like there's another player who will cover the pitch like Willian?  And every single manager (Jose, Conte, Sarri, Lampard) keep picking him?  Is that an accident? 

 

 

Conte and Sarri both preferred Pedro.

That said i'm not as harsh on him as most, he has had a very successful career here all told.

[Pizy 18,368]

He'll be a very solid player for one of our rivals for a couple more years if that's indeed what he decides to do. It sucks, but unless he's willing to be a squad player and sign a 1-2 year deal it's what has to happen for us to rebuild.

He would instantly improve Spuds or Arse. Mou would kill to have him again I would think because he still has the work rate. 

[NikkiCFC 7,953]

7 minutes ago, Pizy said:

He'll be a very solid player for one of our rivals for a couple more years if that's indeed what he decides to do. It sucks, but unless he's willing to be a squad player and sign a 1-2 year deal it's what has to happen for us to rebuild.

He would instantly improve Spuds or Arse. Mou would kill to have him again I would think because he still has the work rate. 

Bro with Pulisic, Werner and Ziyech here you wont even think about Willian. And with Son, Moura and Bergwijn not sure how much game time he would get.

[Pizy 18,368]

19 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Bro with Pulisic, Werner and Ziyech here you wont even think about Willian. And with Son, Moura and Bergwijn not sure how much game time he would get.

Oh, I don't think I'll ever think "I miss Willian and wish we still had him," but it would be kind of annoying seeing him at a hated London rival. And I think he'd play quite a bit on Spuds' right wing rotating with Bergwijn. 

Im actually not sure if he'd lower himself to joining Arse now that I think about it. They're a sinking ship.

[Special Juan 27,429]

Thought he was terrible yesterday.

[DDA 9,690]

When isn't he terrible? 

[Tomo 21,733]

11 hours ago, Pizy said:

Oh, I don't think I'll ever think "I miss Willian and wish we still had him," but it would be kind of annoying seeing him at a hated London rival. And I think he'd play quite a bit on Spuds' right wing rotating with Bergwijn. 

Im actually not sure if he'd lower himself to joining Arse now that I think about it. They're a sinking ship.

I feel the opposite, I find it hilarious (and a huge compliment) that players (and in Jose's case manager) who's peak's were spent here go to rivals once they're a shadow of their best selves.

It's a huge nod of approval to our standing in the modern day.

[communicate 2,703]

15 hours ago, Tomo said:

Conte and Sarri both preferred Pedro.

That said i'm not as harsh on him as most, he has had a very successful career here all told.

I don't think they prefer pedro, their start and game number are quite similar. But in conte 343 and Sarri 433 imo Pedro fit better

[communicate 2,703]

I really hope Ziyech is as good as advertised. The more I watched Chelsea, the more concern I have with losing both pedro and Willian. People slated Willian performance against Villa but him and Mount were our two best attacker. Plus they were also our best presser. 

[Tomo 21,733]

17 minutes ago, communicate said:

I don't think they prefer pedro, their start and game number are quite similar. But in conte 343 and Sarri 433 imo Pedro fit better

The title season Pedro was preferred, he started pretty much all the big games over Willian including the FA Cup final. The second season Pedro dipping plus Willian hitting form led to him being selected more.

Willian was selected a lot under Sarri due to false 9 and Pedro picking up niggling injures but when it was one or the other it was Pedro given the nod more often than not, including in the Europa final.