Danny Drinkwater

[Chelsea? 892]

This may be an Abumayung rumor. 

[lucashm 340]

  On 01/08/2017 at 00:34, Chelsea? said:

This may be an Abumayung rumor. 

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Thats what im thinking

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Also, what the hell is this mentality that Chelsea can't have people fight for their place? 

Has anybody seen the amounts of talent that weren't making the field at other top clubs? Players like James Rodriguez and Morata last season at Madrid. Next season at City Sterling/Yaya/Aguero will be fighting hard to get on the pitch, and over at Bayern Muller/Renato/Robben. 

Why is it that only at Chelsea the Starting XI players must not have adequate competition for their spots? It's the reason many Chelsea fans are worried about the behinning of the season without Hazard. Because our only other creative spark in the team is Fabregas. And that's it. Come on now. 

 

 

[LAM09 6,879]

  On 01/08/2017 at 01:11, Blue-in-me-Veins said:

Also, what the hell is this mentality that Chelsea can't have people fight for their place? 
Has anybody seen the amounts of talent that weren't making the field at other top clubs? Players like James Rodriguez and Morata last season at Madrid. Next season at City Sterling/Yaya/Aguero will be fighting hard to get on the pitch, and over at Bayern Muller/Renato/Robben. 
Why is it that only at Chelsea the Starting XI players must not have adequate competition for their spots? It's the reason many Chelsea fans are worried about the behinning of the season without Hazard. Because our only other creative spark in the team is Fabregas. And that's it. Come on now. 
 
 

We can't seem to beat any club that goes for a player we want, so we're mainly after the next "best" thing at this point. In for Stones, Mendy, Danilo & Lukaku to name a few and walk away with nothing.

Not saying we haven't dodged a bullet or three thanks to this, but the days of us going and getting targets are seemingly a distant memory. Highly doubt Kante would have come here, if it wasn't for the buyout clause.

[yipo 56]

Les than 10mil ok . More than that better top up for better player

[the wes 7,212]

Drinkwater is wasted off money cause I know what's going to happen he's going play for one season and end up getting loan out the rest of his chelsea career we should be signing a midfielder  who's going to challenge Bakayoko Kante fabregas for their place in the team 

[DDA 9,770]

  On 31/07/2017 at 23:38, Jype said:

So you think having Kante, Bakayoko, Cesc is just as good as having Kante, Bakayoko, Cesc, Drinkwater?

He may not improve the first choice Starting XI one bit but he'd definitely improve the squad. Right now the squad is thinner than it has ever been and reinforcements are sorely needed. Aside from maybe wing-backs there's no real weaknesses in the first choice starting lineup but getting more squad depth will make the difference between a success and a 'Mourinho season' so if Drinkwater's available for a decent price it'd be a decent signing.

Just look at how hard United had to look to sign a player of Matic's quality to play a starting role for them so do people really expect us to replace him with an even better player who also doesn't mind being 4th choice CM? A reality check is in order for some lads here.

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Yes, we need squad depth for sure. Our numbers are dangerously short. I can't help having higher expectations on who I deem good enough to warm the bench. That's not to knock Drinkwaters ability because I think he is decent but I want more than decent here at this club. If Kante, Cesc or Bakayoko get injured during the coming season... I'm not confident in bringing Drinkwater in to replace one of them, especially if we are facing top sides in Europe.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,916]

  On 31/07/2017 at 23:17, Tomo said:

Im not convinced, i haven't seen anything in Nate that scream's top flight player, he's  had 3 top flight team's and barely got a look in anytime.

in my opinion he found his level back at Watford the first time (upper Championship player, maybe lower prem at a push). Guess we will find out.

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 Sadly, but plainly, this is the case.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,916]

  On 01/08/2017 at 02:03, LAM09 said:

We can't seem to beat any club that goes for a player we want, so we're mainly after the next "best" thing at this point. In for Stones, Mendy, Danilo & Lukaku to name a few and walk away with nothing.

Not saying we haven't dodged a bullet or three thanks to this, but the days of us going and getting targets are seemingly a distant memory. Highly doubt Kante would have come here, if it wasn't for the buyout clause.

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It's a myth that we could ever sign whichever players we wanted. We were always able to pay inflated fees for players other clubs didn't value particularly highly, but there Have always been targets we missed out on. Many, many of them.

[LAM09 6,879]

  On 01/08/2017 at 02:45, OhForAGreavsie said:

It's a myth that we could ever sign whichever players we wanted. We were always able to pay inflated fees for players other clubs didn't value particularly highly, but there Have always been targets we missed out on. Many, many of them.

I never said we could sign anyone we wanted in the past, but we could get deals over the line for targets. There just seems to be a lot of deals slipping through our hands for multiple reasons as of that late. All comes down to the people doing the negotiations really.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,916]

  On 01/08/2017 at 02:53, LAM09 said:

  On 01/08/2017 at 02:45, OhForAGreavsie said:

It's a myth that we could ever sign whichever players we wanted. We were always able to pay inflated fees for players other clubs didn't value particularly highly, but there Have always been targets we missed out on. Many, many of them.

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I never said we could sign anyone we wanted in the past, but we could get deals over the line for targets. There just seems to be a lot of deals slipping through our hands for multiple reasons as of that late. All comes down to the people doing the negotiations really.

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Understood. My point is that there were always deals which slipped through our fingers, and others which we completed. We don't know how many deals have fallen through this summer, but a number have been confirmed for sure. Meanwhile, we have still managed to sign four senior players.

Right at the beginning of the Roman era we bought Crespo for what was then a heavily inflated fee but Inter would not budge on Vieri, even though we bid more than twice as much for him. We also missed out on Ronaldinho despite offering a higher transfer fee and bigger wages than Barcelona. There are other similar examples down the years, including this year  

In short, the negotiators may have changed, but the situation has not. We can still get some deals over the line, but not some others. Business as usual over the last 15 summers.

[Chelsea_firstlove 178]

No, thanks, Im not thirsty.

[El P. 1,354]

  On 31/07/2017 at 23:01, Jype said:

What people don't seem to understand is that neither Matic nor Chalobah were willing to stick around playing 4th choice and that's why they were sold.

Nate was already on his contract's last year and Matic too had only two years left and wasn't going to renew it so let's say the club kept him somewhat against his will for another season, next summer he'd have been aged 30 with contract running out in a years time so literally no value anymore and there's really no guarantees what kind of performances we'd have gotten from an unmotivated Matic who had asked for a move in the summer but got told to stay put. I understand perfectly why both of those were sold and why the club are now looking elsewhere.

Ideally I'd have kept Chalobah too and I think with CL football coming back this season there would've been enough games for him to be happy and develop but if the lad didn't want to sign the extension and wished to go, there's hardly much the club could do to prevent him.

 

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Yes, in all other clubs they can have 1-2 quality back ups, but not in Chelsea. All other clubs can convince their players to stay and sometimes, from time to time be squad players, but not in Chelsea (except Fabregas, for obvious reasons).

Not need to mention that Drinkwater would make our midfield something like Stoke had 3-4 seasons ago.

We earned A LOT, if you look at the net spend and consider about 40 mils for Costa, we didn't spend shit. We should frickin invest it.

Alonso - Drinkwater - Kante - Moses is a midfield for a mid-bottom of a table. We got away with something like this last season, but it will get exposed, and it will be bloody. With Bakayoko's fitness level question and team integration question (still young, somewhat unproved etc) still in the air, who are we to say that this wouldn't be our first choice for a midfield?

[Jype 6,398]

  On 01/08/2017 at 08:24, El P. said:

Yes, in all other clubs they can have 1-2 quality back ups, but not in Chelsea. All other clubs can convince their players to stay and sometimes, from time to time be squad players, but not in Chelsea (except Fabregas, for obvious reasons).

Not need to mention that Drinkwater would make our midfield something like Stoke had 3-4 seasons ago.

We earned A LOT, if you look at the net spend and consider about 40 mils for Costa, we didn't spend shit. We should frickin invest it.

Alonso - Drinkwater - Kante - Moses is a midfield for a mid-bottom of a table. We got away with something like this last season, but it will get exposed, and it will be bloody. With Bakayoko's fitness level question and team integration question (still young, somewhat unproved etc) still in the air, who are we to say that this wouldn't be our first choice for a midfield?

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Oh come on, stop being so fucking dramatic. Let's have a look who the rivals have as backup CMs:

City: Fernando and Fabian Delph the obvious backups. Ilkay Gündogan could be considered a backup too because he's not exactly fit enough to be considered first choice even tho he's pretty good. Don't know about Yaya Toure, maybe he'll be reduced to a backup role this season being 34yo. Also Pep likes his rotation a lot more than Conte, sometimes leading to messy performances all around with needless tinkering.

United: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Liverpool: Marko Grujic is the only clear backup. Other midfielders (Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lallana) all pretty much equal in the pecking order with each of them starting around 25-30 league games a season in a three man midfield. Klopp, much like Guardiola, is known to use a lot of rotation due to the demanding nature of football his team plays.

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere. Maybe one of Coquelin/Ramsey too, not sure which Wenger fancies more. 

Spurs: Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks

 

Now tell me, which of those do you consider to be a significantly better set of backups than Fabregas, Baker and say Drinkwater? I'll grant you City are pretty good all across the field having improved this summer but all the others just scream 'mediocre' to me and not really anything to be worried about.

Fact is, without the extensive use of rotation week-in week-out having established stars as squad players is just impossible and Conte is a manager who mostly sticks to a winning team and only mixes things up in case of injuries or occasionally playing a weakened side at an easier game ahead of a more important fixture. Matic knew his chances would be more limited with the arrival of Bakayoko so he chose to leave and Chalobah at his age couldn't risk another season playing just a few minutes here and there so he left too.

Now new squad players are needed and with the homegrown quota some of the upcoming new signings will have to be HG players, of which there aren't too many available. AOC, Barkley and Drinkwater the obvious candidates and I'm pretty sure we'll end up with at least one of those three and other new arrivals will be foreign players. I have no doubt we'll see another few players coming in before the end of the window and most of those signings will be squad players mostly for the bench so they might seem kinda underwhelming compared to when our rivals are signing better players to be their starters but what you're forgetting is that Chelsea's team core is pretty much already fixed and improved from last season so squad signings are what's needed right now. Still hoping for a big signing to improve the wing-back areas but for central midfield I really can't see another star player joining, and rightly so.

[El P. 1,354]

  On 01/08/2017 at 09:07, Jype said:

Oh come on, stop being so fucking dramatic. Let's have a look who the rivals have as backup CMs:

City: Fernando and Fabian Delph the obvious backups. Ilkay Gündogan could be considered a backup too because he's not exactly fit enough to be considered first choice even tho he's pretty good. Don't know about Yaya Toure, maybe he'll be reduced to a backup role this season being 34yo. Also Pep likes his rotation a lot more than Conte, sometimes leading to messy performances all around with needless tinkering.

United: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Liverpool: Marko Grujic is the only clear backup. Other midfielders (Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lallana) all pretty much equal in the pecking order with each of them starting around 25-30 league games a season in a three man midfield. Klopp, much like Guardiola, is known to use a lot of rotation due to the demanding nature of football his team plays.

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere

Spurs: Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks

 

Now tell me, which of those do you consider to be a significantly better set of backups than Fabregas, Baker and say Drinkwater? I'll grant you City are pretty good all across the field having improved this summer but all the others just scream 'mediocre' to me and not really anything to be worried about.

Fact is, without the extensive use of rotation week-in week-out having established stars as squad players is just impossible and Conte is a manager who mostly sticks to a winning team and only mixes things up in case of injuries or occasionally playing a weakened side at an easier game ahead of a more important fixture. Matic knew his chances would be more limited with the arrival of Bakayoko so he chose to leave and Chalobah at his age couldn't risk another season playing just a few minutes here and there so he left too.

Now new squad players are needed and with the homegrown quota some of the upcoming new signings will have to be HG players, of which there aren't too many available. AOC, Barkley and Drinkwater the obvious candidates and I'm pretty sure we'll end up with at least one of those three and other new arrivals will be foreign players. I have no doubt we'll see another few players coming in before the end of the window and most of those signings will be squad players mostly for the bench so they might seem kinda underwhelming compared to when our rivals are signing better players to be their starters but what you're forgetting is that Chelsea's team core is pretty much already fixed and improved from last season so squad signings are what's needed right now. Still hoping for a big signing to improve the wing-back areas but for central midfield I really can't see another star player joining, and rightly so.

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Backups are not so relevant if United have fit and "integrated" Pogba and Herrera, City KDB/Silva/Fernandinho, Spurs have Dembele and Wanyama (they are very thin on the bench, yes, but they are not spending, neither winning trophies). They can afford backups like that. And I don't want us to be like Arsenal and Liverpool, they are shit so let's not compare ourselves with them. Arsenal with Ramsey/Xaka/Coquelin/Ox/Eleny/Wilshere/Cazorla are not bad actually. Not so good, but not bad either, I rate that midfield same as ours currently, or even more than ours. 

What do we have? Kante, who is great, but without someone better with the ball alongside him isn't that much. It isn't defensive part of the midfield game that is mostly our problem, it's offensive/midfield controlling. I think having good backup NOW, in Chelsea, is way more important than in other teams. We sold our long time servant, and bought some unfit player which is still unproven. It could be months before he becomes good for us.

Having Pogba, and Carrick for his replacement is awesome, Fellaini for Matić. Hell they can even easily switch to 4-2-3-1 and place Mata as number 10. Having KDB/Silva and Gundo for a replacemant is also awesome. City could also play their fullbacks as CMs, you know Pep.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

  On 01/08/2017 at 09:07, Jype said:

Oh come on, stop being so fucking dramatic. Let's have a look who the rivals have as backup CMs:

City: Fernando and Fabian Delph the obvious backups. Ilkay Gündogan could be considered a backup too because he's not exactly fit enough to be considered first choice even tho he's pretty good. Don't know about Yaya Toure, maybe he'll be reduced to a backup role this season being 34yo. Also Pep likes his rotation a lot more than Conte, sometimes leading to messy performances all around with needless tinkering.

United: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Liverpool: Marko Grujic is the only clear backup. Other midfielders (Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lallana) all pretty much equal in the pecking order with each of them starting around 25-30 league games a season in a three man midfield. Klopp, much like Guardiola, is known to use a lot of rotation due to the demanding nature of football his team plays.

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere. Maybe one of Coquelin/Ramsey too, not sure which Wenger fancies more. 

Spurs: Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks

 

Now tell me, which of those do you consider to be a significantly better set of backups than Fabregas, Baker and say Drinkwater? I'll grant you City are pretty good all across the field having improved this summer but all the others just scream 'mediocre' to me and not really anything to be worried about.

Fact is, without the extensive use of rotation week-in week-out having established stars as squad players is just impossible and Conte is a manager who mostly sticks to a winning team and only mixes things up in case of injuries or occasionally playing a weakened side at an easier game ahead of a more important fixture. Matic knew his chances would be more limited with the arrival of Bakayoko so he chose to leave and Chalobah at his age couldn't risk another season playing just a few minutes here and there so he left too.

Now new squad players are needed and with the homegrown quota some of the upcoming new signings will have to be HG players, of which there aren't too many available. AOC, Barkley and Drinkwater the obvious candidates and I'm pretty sure we'll end up with at least one of those three and other new arrivals will be foreign players. I have no doubt we'll see another few players coming in before the end of the window and most of those signings will be squad players mostly for the bench so they might seem kinda underwhelming compared to when our rivals are signing better players to be their starters but what you're forgetting is that Chelsea's team core is pretty much already fixed and improved from last season so squad signings are what's needed right now. Still hoping for a big signing to improve the wing-back areas but for central midfield I really can't see another star player joining, and rightly so.

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The only problem I see with us buying Drinkwater is his reported fee and the fact Matic was still better player.

We got 40m in bank from Matic and 70m from Oscar, Im sure we can get proper replacement that will be happy enough to understand he will compete for starting spot. 

Straight out of my head, Sanson would be allright alternative. And there are plenty more players that we can try to get with that money. 

Drinkwater is not better option to have than Matic. In that case we should simply keep Matic. If he wanted to leave? So? Martial lost his place too and he wasnt sold to Chelsea straight after.

We will play 2 man midfield and only Kante seems to be nailed on starter. Cesc is better as alternative, never a starter and Bakayoko needs to recover first, gain fitness and then prove his spot. 

That said, I just hope we get two proper wingbacks, those two are crucial improvements right now.

[It's too big 625]

  On 01/08/2017 at 09:07, Jype said:

Oh come on, stop being so fucking dramatic. Let's have a look who the rivals have as backup CMs:

City: Fernando and Fabian Delph the obvious backups. Ilkay Gündogan could be considered a backup too because he's not exactly fit enough to be considered first choice even tho he's pretty good. Don't know about Yaya Toure, maybe he'll be reduced to a backup role this season being 34yo. Also Pep likes his rotation a lot more than Conte, sometimes leading to messy performances all around with needless tinkering.

United: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Liverpool: Marko Grujic is the only clear backup. Other midfielders (Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Lallana) all pretty much equal in the pecking order with each of them starting around 25-30 league games a season in a three man midfield. Klopp, much like Guardiola, is known to use a lot of rotation due to the demanding nature of football his team plays.

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere. Maybe one of Coquelin/Ramsey too, not sure which Wenger fancies more. 

Spurs: Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks

 

Now tell me, which of those do you consider to be a significantly better set of backups than Fabregas, Baker and say Drinkwater? I'll grant you City are pretty good all across the field having improved this summer but all the others just scream 'mediocre' to me and not really anything to be worried about.

Fact is, without the extensive use of rotation week-in week-out having established stars as squad players is just impossible and Conte is a manager who mostly sticks to a winning team and only mixes things up in case of injuries or occasionally playing a weakened side at an easier game ahead of a more important fixture. Matic knew his chances would be more limited with the arrival of Bakayoko so he chose to leave and Chalobah at his age couldn't risk another season playing just a few minutes here and there so he left too.

Now new squad players are needed and with the homegrown quota some of the upcoming new signings will have to be HG players, of which there aren't too many available. AOC, Barkley and Drinkwater the obvious candidates and I'm pretty sure we'll end up with at least one of those three and other new arrivals will be foreign players. I have no doubt we'll see another few players coming in before the end of the window and most of those signings will be squad players mostly for the bench so they might seem kinda underwhelming compared to when our rivals are signing better players to be their starters but what you're forgetting is that Chelsea's team core is pretty much already fixed and improved from last season so squad signings are what's needed right now. Still hoping for a big signing to improve the wing-back areas but for central midfield I really can't see another star player joining, and rightly so.

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fellaini is gone

[Chelsea4 1,521]

Not sure about this.