24. Reece James

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

On 14/08/2019 at 1:55 PM, RJBOfficial said:

That’s ridiculous Odoi is easily first team quality, especially since he was more than good enough for Bayern 

We all like Callum, but it would be going too far to think that he has fully proved himself.

As for Bayern's interest, we should recognise that as nothing more than them being willing to invest in potential. Look for example at the ridiculous fee they paid for Renato Sanches. When I said that he wasn't very good, and that his award as young player of the tournament at Euro 2016 was based on nothing more than name recognition due to that fee, someone told me (elsewhere) to shut up because I was just making myself sound foolish. Let's hope the lad makes a go of it at Lille, but his story only proves that Bayern's approval can't be seen as a guarantee. Callum is super talented, but so is Sanches. Now it's about Callum showing that he can do more with his attributes than the young Portugal international has so far managed to do with his.

[the wes 7,212]

Reece James is set to earn a new and improved Chelsea contract ‘over the coming months’, according to The Telegraph.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

40 minutes ago, the wes said:

Reece James is set to earn a new and improved Chelsea contract ‘over the coming months’, according to The Telegraph.

Like Abraham.

At this rate, looks like our old guard will be replaced by super rich kids.

[Superblue 6,370]

47 minutes ago, the wes said:

Reece James is set to earn a new and improved Chelsea contract ‘over the coming months’, according to The Telegraph.

Can't say that Chelsea have learnt their lesson over Hudson-Odoi because we couldn't start trying to tie him down any sooner to a pro contract than we did.

However it looks like the club are ensuring that the top youngsters are tied down for the long term and it is extremely smart long term planning. Even if some of them don't quite make the grade as first choice they can hopefully develop into reliable and useful squad players and with the premium on homegrown talent now, these kids are already very valuable players that are only likely to increase in value. (Abraham and in particular Mount's starts this season will already comfortably have them in a £30-40m bracket, whilst Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek will be even higher. If reports are true we turned down £25m for Reece from Palace already too so that shows his value also to us and he hasn't played yet).

The signs so far are promising that the club are ready to really back these young players to make an impression within the squad. It'll be more clearer the longer the season goes how much faith they are willing to have in Lampard and the academy players but, for me personally, so far it's been refreshing to see. Our Premier League goals so far have come entirely from our academy and it seems to have re-energised a squad that was starting to look a little stale before the ban. There is a lot of work for Lampard to do still, the defensive make up of the side in particular but we already attack with so much more intent then we did last season.

[Tomo 21,733]

8 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Can't say that Chelsea have learnt their lesson over Hudson-Odoi because we couldn't start trying to tie him down any sooner to a pro contract than we did.

However it looks like the club are ensuring that the top youngsters are tied down for the long term and it is extremely smart long term planning. Even if some of them don't quite make the grade as first choice they can hopefully develop into reliable and useful squad players and with the premium on homegrown talent now, these kids are already very valuable players that are only likely to increase in value. (Abraham and in particular Mount's starts this season will already comfortably have them in a £30-40m bracket, whilst Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek will be even higher. If reports are true we turned down £25m for Reece from Palace already too so that shows his value also to us and he hasn't played yet).

The signs so far are promising that the club are ready to really back these young players to make an impression within the squad. It'll be more clearer the longer the season goes how much faith they are willing to have in Lampard and the academy players but, for me personally, so far it's been refreshing to see. Our Premier League goals so far have come entirely from our academy and it seems to have re-energised a squad that was starting to look a little stale before the ban. There is a lot of work for Lampard to do still, the defensive make up of the side in particular but we already attack with so much more intent then we did last season.

Its seems the club and the fanbase have all universally learned their lesson from the De Bruyne and Salah situations and are firmly pulling in the same direction with producing the best pathway for these set of youngsters.

I think the early contract renewals are in part to the fact if they have screamers of a season they could demand ridiculous amounts early on (like what Rashford did at United) whereas this way by the time it gets to that point they will be that little bit older and already be firmly established in the first team.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,892]

On 27/08/2019 at 8:59 AM, the wes said:

Reece James is set to earn a new and improved Chelsea contract ‘over the coming months’, according to The Telegraph.

Let's hope so but let us not forget that he signed a contract extension last summer.

[the wes 7,212]

 

[the wes 7,212]

 

[!Hazard! 3,394]

Any chance we could start seeing him in the starting XI after the international break?

[MoroccanBlue 5,306]

Think his 1st game will be the league cup fixture the 25th

[Atomiswave 6,072]

We just need him asap.....he is ready imo. Will slot right in, will make a big impact on either end to no end. Man we could have easily had more pts if not for these stinking injuries we suddenly suffer in mass.

[killer1257 3,282]

1 hour ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Think his 1st game will be the league cup fixture the 25th

 

1 hour ago, !Hazard! said:

Any chance we could start seeing him in the starting XI after the international break?

He will play U23 on 13 September and then probably one or two more U23 matches til Lamps plays him, so Azpi will cost us more points

[Vesper 28,844]

3 hours ago, Atomiswave said:

We just need him asap.....he is ready imo. Will slot right in, will make a big impact on either end to no end. Man we could have easily had more pts if not for these stinking injuries we suddenly suffer in mass.

if he doesnt come good quick we are fucked

I am not playing the patience game after this season

IF James does look like a top 3 or 4 RB in the EPL, then we simply MUST sell Azpi and go grab a beast

Emerson is good, but I think we need to upgrade there as well, and certainty improve depth, and FFS SELL ALONSO

if we do not sell Azpi and Alonso next summer I am going on the fucking warpath

as it is plain we are tanking the team

there is a damn good chance we will lose CHO (maybe on a free if he refuses to renew) lose Willian on a free

have a burnt Azpi, a pure shit Alonso, a pure shit Zouma

still have Bats floating in the aether

and in desperate need of at least one WC CB, maybe two

plus 2 WC wingers at least

and another striker (even if Tammy comes good, we gotta boot Bats and Giroud)

we also need a WC DMF/B to B MFer type

Barkley needs to go probably unless he really comes good, which so far is a NO

so much work to do, especially if things break badly

and IF we do fuckall,  with literally £400m plus in potential war chest and jack shite done

then anyone who refuses to admit at that point,

that the team is being wilfully sunk by Roman, then they are either blind, a liar, a fool, or all three

IF CHO leaves and Reece doesnt pan out, we are in deep shit just from that

and it only gets worse from there

key tells are Azpi and Zouma

if they are both here and still starting next year

we are FUCKED

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

13 hours ago, Vesper said:

if he doesnt come good quick we are fucked

I am not playing the patience game after this season

IF James does look like a top 3 or 4 RB in the EPL, then we simply MUST sell Azpi and go grab a beast

Emerson is good, but I think we need to upgrade there as well, and certainty improve depth, and FFS SELL ALONSO

if we do not sell Azpi and Alonso next summer I am going on the fucking warpath

as it is plain we are tanking the team

there is a damn good chance we will lose CHO (maybe on a free if he refuses to renew) lose Willian on a free

have a burnt Azpi, a pure shit Alonso, a pure shit Zouma

still have Bats floating in the aether

and in desperate need of at least one WC CB, maybe two

plus 2 WC wingers at least

and another striker (even if Tammy comes good, we gotta boot Bats and Giroud)

we also need a WC DMF/B to B MFer type

Barkley needs to go probably unless he really comes good, which so far is a NO

so much work to do, especially if things break badly

and IF we do fuckall,  with literally £400m plus in potential war chest and jack shite done

then anyone who refuses to admit at that point,

that the team is being wilfully sunk by Roman, then they are either blind, a liar, a fool, or all three

IF CHO leaves and Reece doesnt pan out, we are in deep shit just from that

and it only gets worse from there

key tells are Azpi and Zouma

if they are both here and still starting next year

we are FUCKED

 

 

 

 

 

 

I fucking agree Vesper.....they really have allowed the team to go stale, we simply have too many issues and I for one do not see Marina or whomever to rectify it well enough. We need to spend 300M come summer. We can afford it.

[Superblue 6,370]

1 hour ago, Atomiswave said:

I fucking agree Vesper.....they really have allowed the team to go stale, we simply have too many issues and I for one do not see Marina or whomever to rectify it well enough. We need to spend 300M come summer. We can afford it.

I would argue the squad now is the least stale it's been in years. Seeing the younger element coming in and performing well so far is very refreshing and bodes well for the future.

There has to be more patience here. Yes we definitely need to make improvements to the squad next summer, and I'm sure that will happen but I would much rather we got the right players and it took us a couple of summer windows to do so rather than trying to rebuild the squad in the transfer market like we did in 2017 and end up with some really piss poor buys.

At the moment our squad looks very thin but we have about half a dozen players out currently, some of which are amongst our best players and the rest have genuine arguments for being starters too. I think the season as a whole will settle down over the next month or two and whilst top 4 will be difficult, I still think top 6 is more than realistic over the course of a season.

We seem to have made the decision to change the style of play to a more progressive and attack minded one and over the two transfer windows we had in this period I feel we brought players that suit that style and we've been prepared to pay big money for those players (Kepa, Kovacic, Jorginho, Pulisic) so again have to disagree with this idea that the club is just prepared to go through the motions. The last two windows would suggest that lessons have been learned. I think there is a plan in place but it's still in its infancy and the groundwork is still being laid. 

RLC is the example that hopefully some of these young players can look to this season. As he grew more confident and was trusted more by the manager he continued to improve until by the time he got injured he was one of the first names on the team-sheet. This time last season very few expected that rise from him. With the support of the manager, and continued regular exposure to game time there's nothing to say that we haven't got another 4 or 5 like that who will continue to improve and flourish as the season goes by. It may not help a huge amount this season but we will be in a far stronger position come next summer.

At that point I'm sure the club and Lampard will identify the biggest gaps in the squad and strengthen accordingly in that window. 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

1 hour ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I would argue the squad now is the least stale it's been in years. Seeing the younger element coming in and performing well so far is very refreshing and bodes well for the future.

There has to be more patience here. Yes we definitely need to make improvements to the squad next summer, and I'm sure that will happen but I would much rather we got the right players and it took us a couple of summer windows to do so rather than trying to rebuild the squad in the transfer market like we did in 2017 and end up with some really piss poor buys.

At the moment our squad looks very thin but we have about half a dozen players out currently, some of which are amongst our best players and the rest have genuine arguments for being starters too. I think the season as a whole will settle down over the next month or two and whilst top 4 will be difficult, I still think top 6 is more than realistic over the course of a season.

We seem to have made the decision to change the style of play to a more progressive and attack minded one and over the two transfer windows we had in this period I feel we brought players that suit that style and we've been prepared to pay big money for those players (Kepa, Kovacic, Jorginho, Pulisic) so again have to disagree with this idea that the club is just prepared to go through the motions. The last two windows would suggest that lessons have been learned. I think there is a plan in place but it's still in its infancy and the groundwork is still being laid. 

RLC is the example that hopefully some of these young players can look to this season. As he grew more confident and was trusted more by the manager he continued to improve until by the time he got injured he was one of the first names on the team-sheet. This time last season very few expected that rise from him. With the support of the manager, and continued regular exposure to game time there's nothing to say that we haven't got another 4 or 5 like that who will continue to improve and flourish as the season goes by. It may not help a huge amount this season but we will be in a far stronger position come next summer.

At that point I'm sure the club and Lampard will identify the biggest gaps in the squad and strengthen accordingly in that window. 

If lessons have been learned then we would have a striker beside Tammy, we would have got rid of Willy and the likes. We have had big holes for some time now mate. Yes youth coming in is a big plus, but theres no guarantee they will make it, but signs are good thats for sure. But still if you wanna compete and actually fight for trophies then those gaps need a power boost. This squad will not be anywhere near complete if we dont get rid of some players and bring in quality to complement. This season we are once again handicapped, but we def should not be next season or heads must roll imo. In this day and age its very easy to get left behind, you have to spend but spend smartly.

[Jase 43,479]

 

[killer1257 3,282]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Lost some upper body muscles it seems