Danny Drinkwater

[Reddish-Blue 2,489]

12 minutes ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

Adds much needed depth in CM.

Anyone saying that we didn't strengthen the squad is crazy:

Bakayoko + Drinkwater >>>>>  Matic + Chalobah

However, selling Matic for 40M then buying Drinkwater for 35M doesn't make a ton of sense.  Not much money earned through sales, not sure what the difference in wages is.  Seems like a lot of work for basically the same.

I'm guessing not many other players were keen on playing the 'squad' role for Chelsea in midfield.  

Everyone keeps comparing Matic to Drinkwater...when Baka is supposed to be Matic's replacement.  Drinkwater is like an upgrade on Chalobah as he should be able to come in and hit the ground running. 

He meets the criteria:

Homegrown?  Yes
Winning mentality?  Yes
Happy to fight for place?  I would assume so
Already has an understanding of Kante's game. 

[Special Juan 28,101]

Hope he does well, we know what we are getting....Hard worker, very good passer of the ball and will give 100%, so with that he gets my support as does anyone who pulls on a blue shirt.

Good luck Drinky.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Just now, Reddish-Blue said:

I'm guessing not many other players were keen on playing the 'squad' role for Chelsea in midfield.  

Everyone keeps comparing Matic to Drinkwater...when Baka is supposed to be Matic's replacement.  Drinkwater is like an upgrade on Chalobah as he should be able to come in and hit the ground running. 

He meets the criteria:

Homegrown?  Yes
Winning mentality?  Yes
Happy to fight for place?  I would assume so
Already has an understanding of Kante's game. 

I understand that in terms of minutes, Bakayoko will be taking Matic's, or at least most of them.

I understand that Drinkwater has HG status which Matic did not and he is definitely an upgrade over Chalobah.

What I'm saying is that we already had Matic and Bakayoko at the same time.  If it was a situation where we had to sell Matic to get Bakayoko, sure, I'd understand.  But we obviously didn't as we spent the Matic fees on Drinkwater.

Personally, I don't see much difference between Bakayoko + Matic vs Bakayoko + Drinkwater.  It seemed like a lot of work to make that happen and it's more or less the same.

Now, I haven't play Football Manager in a while so I don't remember the HG rules and what our squad looks like in regards to meeting that criteria.

[lucio 5,418]

he works as hard as anyone, and can hit a pass, so there will be few complaints, just can't see him playing much

[CHOULO19 24,332]

How is it that I easily understood what Zappacosta was saying in his message to the fans in English, but had to play back what Danny said a couple of times before I could make it out?!

WTH is that accent of his??! 

[Jase 43,479]

So his first game for us could be away at Leicester. Kante and Drinkwater in midfield. That will make things fun.

[xPetrCechx 13,570]

7 hours ago, Chelsea? said:

Gonna play a lot I feel. 

Really?

[Alabama 1,992]

will wear No 6

[Beigl 1,387]

Good signing. Home grown, knows the league, can play alongside Kante, wants to win trophies and most importantly he is certainly an upgrade on Chalobah, so we certainly have a stronger midfield than last year. He didn´t look out of place in the CL either, so we got a really good squad option on our hands. 

[Special Juan 28,101]

I think he will be fine, but lets have a look at put the whole thing in perspective and I think this puts into perspective what is up and coming for this football club.....

We sold Matic to a rival 40M and used up nigh all of that to bring a player no better or worse in Drinkwater. Like I said earlier, we have to prepare ourselves for more of this selling to rivals and pocketing cash rather than spending, the club is getting a new stadium and pennies are being pinched and for every Morata will be followed by a Drinkwater and Zappacosta.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

7 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

I think he will be fine, but lets have a look at put the whole thing in perspective and I think this puts into perspective what is up and coming for this football club.....

We sold Matic to a rival 40M and used up nigh all of that to bring a player no better or worse in Drinkwater. Like I said earlier, we have to prepare ourselves for more of this selling to rivals and pocketing cash rather than spending, the club is getting a new stadium and pennies are being pinched and for every Morata will be followed by a Drinkwater and Zappacosta.

We didn't even really pocket any cash.  I'm sure there's a difference in wages, but I don't know how much.

We also did spend 40M odd net in our midfield.

People seem to be forgetting about the new stadium.  Spending has dried up since we started working on that.  It's going to be Arsenal-esque for the next few years.  I'm okay with it, really, as long as we bounce back.  Unlike Arsenal who haven't changed.  Their fans understood it at the time, now they're pissed because they've moved and nothing has changed.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

Just watched his first official interview, like him already. Humble and honest, sincerely hope he will do well here.

[Reddish-Blue 2,489]

1 hour ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I understand that in terms of minutes, Bakayoko will be taking Matic's, or at least most of them.

I understand that Drinkwater has HG status which Matic did not and he is definitely an upgrade over Chalobah.

What I'm saying is that we already had Matic and Bakayoko at the same time.  If it was a situation where we had to sell Matic to get Bakayoko, sure, I'd understand.  But we obviously didn't as we spent the Matic fees on Drinkwater.

Personally, I don't see much difference between Bakayoko + Matic vs Bakayoko + Drinkwater.  It seemed like a lot of work to make that happen and it's more or less the same.

Now, I haven't play Football Manager in a while so I don't remember the HG rules and what our squad looks like in regards to meeting that criteria.

If I remember correctly, didn't Matic leave because of Bakayoko?    He didn't want to 'share' a midfield role, he wanted to be a starter and jumped at the chance to reunite with Jose. 

It's a shame we had to sell him to a direct rival...but at the end of the day, we got younger as a team and added two fresh faces to the midfield. 

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

2 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

However, selling Matic for 40M then buying Drinkwater for 35M doesn't make a ton of sense.  Not much money earned through sales, not sure what the difference in wages is.  Seems like a lot of work for basically the same.

Tired of all this talk mate and it seems that the media and the opposition fans have once again turned your head upside down and made you see whatever they want you to see.

Exactly like Mourinho did last season when he underachieved with the most expensive squad ever assembled. "If it wasn't for all the missed chances..." - this is what I kept hearing during all last season from Mourinho and United fans. Somehow Mourinho turned their minds and mislead them into thinking he did a great job, but players let the club down by missing chance after chance.

Wow, what a great logic this is!!! Let me tell you something - if every club would put away every goalscoring chance they have, even WBA would finish the season with 100+ goals scored. 

Every team misses tons of chances during the season. We've scored 85 goals during last season. But did we have only 85 chances of scoring? Or 90? Hell no, we've probably had 250+ scoring opportunities. What if we had capitalised on at least 80% of our chances like Mourinho kept talking about? We'd have won the league title by February... But this "If it wasn't for all the missed chances..." was only a United thing last season because Mourinho and the United fans were the only ones that kept talking about it. 

Like they were the only ones missing chances and others were scoring with every shot on goal...

It is exactly what is happening now with Matic. We've all wanted him out of our starting line-up for two years now. How many of us have asked for his head, especially after EVERY SINGLE match against a big team in which he was completely useless and got exposed everytime when Chelsea faced a decent set of midfielder? Matic is a decent option to have against lesser teams, but he is of no use against big teams.

But this has no relevance now that he is at United and United fans keep spouting absolute shite, with some Chelsea fans biting the bait every single time. It's like they've signed Iniesta's heir and we're left with a poor man's Charlie Adam.

"Wow, they let Matic go and replaced him with Danny fucking Drinkwater! Haha" - it's something coming from the United fans, that you hear and read everyday now. When the truth is we've replaced Matic with Bakayoko and Chalobah with Drinkwater.

We've replaced Matic with a younger and better version, French league title winner and UCL semi-finalist at only 22, playing in a two-man midfield. Exactly the tactics we use. 

Drinkwater for Chalobah - An England international, former EPL winner and Kante's former partner in a two-man midfield, to sit on the bench and act as a back-up only.

Chelsea have not signed world beaters, but at least they are players to fit Conte's philosophy - Rudiger and Christensen (basically feels like a new signing) have played in a three at the back formation at Roma and Gladbach, Bakayoko and Drinkwater have played in a two-man midfield, Zappacosta is a wing back, Morata is versatile and not only a target man.

But when some listen too much to the oppositions fans taking the piss out of hate and envy, reality gets disrupted. Afterall Chelsea have won two out of the last three league titles in England - time in which United were always deemed as favourites to win it after assembling the most expensive squad in football history. 

[yipo 56]

I think that 35mil is ok since we get kante so cheap.