Kalidou Koulibaly

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 minute ago, King Kante said:

The club was desperate for CB's last Summer owing to AC and Rudi leaving and we had people who didn't have extensive knowledge of football doing the transfers. £33m for a CB that was deemed as a top CB in Italy that was readily available did make some sense in fairness. 

I doubt he was seen as a like for like. 

Fair enough. On the other hand, it's hard not to criticize the club on that tho. It had ben known Rudiger was going to leave for a long time... same with snake, so the inability to find somewhat quality replacements was surprising.

[OneMoSalah 8,883]

Yep few years too late.

Still expected more from someone of his calibre though, but sometimes these moves don’t work out. 

Under either Mourinho, Sarri or Conte 6 or 7 years ago he would of been a different animal. 

[King Kante 1,643]

7 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Fair enough. On the other hand, it's hard not to criticize the club on that tho. It had ben known Rudiger was going to leave for a long time... same with snake, so the inability to find somewhat quality replacements was surprising.

Tbf, their initial target was De Ligt but he chose Bayern. We also has an incredibly weak negotiating hand. AC and Rudi went on Granny's/Roman's watch and the new owners couldn't negotiate any transfers until the deal went through which left us short of time. 

Personally, I was never sold on KK at any point - even in his peak - as I thought he was a 'hipsters' type player where flashes made him look amazing but everything I saw when actually watching him in games, made me believe he was 'good to very good' and by that I mean not world class/elite.

For me, he always reminded me of a slightly better at positioning Zouma - a player I was also happy to get rid of and said so when he was here; unless he was happy at a CB4. 

All this said,for me the board deserve a lot of criterism but I am not so sure the KK deal was that illogical given the circumstances. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by King Kante

[didi007 69]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Yep few years too late.

Still expected more from someone of his calibre though, but sometimes these moves don’t work out. 

Under either Mourinho, Sarri or Conte 6 or 7 years ago he would of been a different animal. 

Give the guy a break. It was his first season in a new country with 3 different managers. As if settling into the country wasnt hard enough for him how much more having to work with so many different systems and managers??? Criticism of KK by some Chelsea fans has been so unfair!!!

[OneMoSalah 8,883]

2 hours ago, didi007 said:

Give the guy a break. It was his first season in a new country with 3 different managers. As if settling into the country wasnt hard enough for him how much more having to work with so many different systems and managers??? Criticism of KK by some Chelsea fans has been so unfair!!!

I don’t think its unfair to have expected more from him. He’s been one of Europe's best/highly thought of CBs over the past 7 or 8 seasons, a very proven and experienced player. Not a kid, a 30/31 year old who yeah sure he might of been a lot better next season but I think the clubs willingness to sell after one season maybe says it all.

The criticism is always going to be it didn’t work out for him here and many, myself included, expected more. Whats unfair about that? He did have a few decent games actually playing against Dortmund in particular he looked good in that back in the middle role of that back 3 but he also had some games where he was pretty poor. Just think he was maybe a yard or two off the pace of the PL.

[Gundalf 805]

Not looking good bruv. 

[Vesper 30,091]

On 30/07/2023 at 22:56, Gundalf said:

Not looking good bruv. 

He is the archetypal 'used to have pace, now have lunge' spent force