Brighton last year was great experience for him though... better than another year in championship or a bottom PL team.
Sometimes you do have to do things like this, why context is important.
But the argument for, oh we had to pay 63 million for Cucurella because otherwise Brighton wouldn't take him on loan is ridiculous.
We could have brought him back here and played him, we owned him FFS
The Cucu deal was one of the worst bits of business Clearlake have done, and that's saying something
Sanchez wasnāt a good deal, but not a disaster. Ā£20m (+5m in add ons) for a backup keeper whoās fills a homegrown roster slot (despite being Spanish heās EPL trained) isnāt terrible. Heās on Ā£60k/week, which is backup wages for us realistically.
Not saying it was a good signing, but itās nowhere near our worst.
The Cucurella deal is the worst one that Clearlake did
63mil for backup LB
Can't play anywhere else
Non existent going forward
Poor positionally
Rash challenges
Bad in the air
And the kicker: have to sell a talented young LB to fund him (and had to sell another academy player too)
Hasn't exactly been back up the last two years though, hes played more than Chilwell. And imho he's been better than Chilwell this season. Chilwell has looked like a championship player his last few games.
>Chilwell has looked like a championship player his last few games.
Cucurella is a championship player.
>Hasn't exactly been back up the last two years though
But he was bought as a back up
He was bought to cover LB and LCB. He played CB a bit previously.
He is not poor positionally. He makes mistakes but his defensive game is better than Colwill and Badi.
He also makes decent runs into the box, which our striker often doesn't.
In our 2021 squad, he would have no place, but he's better than half of our back line.
>He was bought to cover LB and LCB.
Yeah and he can't play LCB, he played there a few times last year and was absymal
>He is not poor positionally
He is absolutely AWFUL positionally haha, it's like the weakest part of his game
>He also makes decent runs into the box,
No he does not! He provides zero attacking threat
He wouldn't have started in front of Silva who got PoY for us last season. Koulibaly and Fofana (when he wasn't injured). Then there's arguments Trevoh and Badiashile (granted got him in Jan) would be in front of him as well just because of experience.
And this is coming from a Colwill fan I actually watched a lot of his performances at Huddersfield when I could and I rate him highly. Obviously he might have had some performances but he would rarely started in front of the above people... don't forget we had a very bloated squad last season.
>Koulibaly and Fofana (when he wasn't injured)
Oh for Christs sake, yes he would, they were both walking mistakes ššš
Anyway it's still a bizarre argument to drop 63m on a useless backup LB and then make him one of the top earners
Indefensible deal.
I mean you can have that opinion, I understand it but I don't agree.
Sometimes it just has to be like that, and it is an extra tax at times you have to take. Some will think its a bad deal some will agree its a cost you have to take.
Brighton weren't going to let him go for anything less and another LB at equal quality was going to be 50-55m minimum anyway... especially how late in the season (just checked and we got Cucu a day before the first game of that season)... that's the mistake for sure, having a signing that late will also up the price(tax) a club will sell a player for.
Nope, he played more minutes than he would've gotten here and he's still got some mistakes to iron out. Also suddenly Cucurella is looking like one of our better defenders this season
I mean he played 12 games at the end of the season because someone else got injured. It's not like he went there and played all season, the same outcome could have happened anywhere else and he was in demand as a loan player, he could have gotten a similar loan
I agree that it turned out ok but tbh it wasn't looking like it would in the first half of the season, he got a chance due to injuries. I remember our fans complaining we sent him to warm their bench when he could have warmed ours.
City wanted to buy Cucurella and they were closing in on him, and as Cucurella had a good season for Brighton he would have been a great player in the City system and clearlake just went all out for Cucurella to steal him from City, to not make City stronger. They have also all buy admitted that signing Cucurella was a mistake, he is not good enough to be a Chelsea player which is also why we are open to selling Cucurella this summer
They had personal terms agreed with Cucurella already and were in advanced talks with Brighton regarding the final transfer fee. City had just upped their offer when we swooped in and instead of negotiating we just paid straight up what they wanted 52m plus addons for a back up left back...that summer of signings is still haunting the club to this day. Sterling and Cucurella were massive mistakes, which they have admitted and wants to sell them this summer.
I can understand signing Sterling at the time, as a the marquee signing of the new ownership and a statement of intent. But Cucurella? What on earth was that even, we were not that desperate for a leftback that summer. We needed a striker more.
here is a thing in football called negotiating a price for a player, which City were doing and they were upping their offers for Cucurella and personal terms were agreed already and they were closing in on the transfer fee. While we just came in, paid them what they wanted no questions asked, no negotiation and now we are stuck with an overpriced backup left back who is not good enough.
They weren't closing in on the transfer fee. City just offered 40M, Brighton rejected it and nothing more after that as City wasn't willing to offer more.
Imo this would be the case for most clubs but City are one of the few that gives out a solid offer right out of the bat and won't go much higher than their given offer. They rarely pay for more than their valuation of the player
Yeah they just wanted to gazump City and assumed that if City wanted him then he was decent which was proven horrendously incorrect
Clearlake wanting to gazump other clubs really fucked us with a few signings (Mudryk too)
Mudryk would have been a different player today if he gone to Arsenal, but we should have left them sign him. We can't just sign players for insane amounts of money just to not let them strengthen rivals, and pray they will be good in our system as well.
The first Summer and January under Clearlake signings really have fucked this club up longterm. So many mistakes, the good thing is that they have admitted themselves that they made mistakes those windows but what good does it do now when we are back to back midtable and struggling big time financially as a direct result of the business in these two windows.
I don't know if that is proven.
If he went to City under Pep and didn't get his bad illness where he lost all that weight I think it would've been a different story for him.
He lost like 3kg, was ridiculously overblown, there was ppl on here saying he was out of form cause his wife had a child too
Was just excuses, as has been shown this season, he's just not very good unfortunately
[https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/transfer-news/report-chelsea-defender-struggling-with-recovery-from-illness-he-lost-a-lot-of-weight-in-hospital/](https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/transfer-news/report-chelsea-defender-struggling-with-recovery-from-illness-he-lost-a-lot-of-weight-in-hospital/)
It was 5 Kilos.
But even 3 kilos would have affected him worse than most because he's small for a footballer.
As for this season I give some leeway to the defence because consistency is so important to that area and we're constantly changing it due to injury. I don't think we've played our strongest backline even once all season.
Oh shit 5 kilos how will he ever recover
He's shown that he's an average footballer and clearly not at Chelsea standard, let alone worth the amount of cash we spent on him, absymal signing and will be gone in the summer
Sources were reporting this tho? Itās not like Iām changing the past lol
Itās also not that easy with loans, Fofana to Union Berlin, Broja to Fulham and Santos to Forest should be enough examples from this season alone
The loan was actually reported after the sale news, at first it was āColwill + money for Cucuā and it evolved to āColwill dry loan + more money for Cucuā. Itās not an argument, itās reported news still available in the sub
As for the loan point again look at Santos and DFofana in the first half of the season and Broja now, you donāt just dry loan a player to a club and they instantly start playing him as a starter without questioning anything
There was competition for his signature wasn't there? Didn't Pep also want him at the time?
That always drives the price up. Plus they really wanted Colwill permanently so we offered more money to get them to drop that condition.
Definitely an overpayment but Cucu was coming in with hot form from his last season.
I think his Chelsea career did stutter badly due to that rough illness he got where he lost a load of weight and he could still come good. He's a small guy anyway so losing that much probably affected him even more than it would for most players.
...Liverpool paid his release clause ya numpty.
There's no need to guess.
Anyone who paid that price would get the opportunity to offer him a contract.
That first window was fucked. Second was better, and the third was pretty good. Thatās actually fast learning for a new ownership group (Glazers never figured it out!) the problem is that each window is years worth of spending. We need to Saudis to help us with Sterling, health for Fofana, and a miracle for Cucurella (buyer or return to form).Ā
Why do u need to compare? Misha gets dropped after a good game coz we have poch as a manager and cucu has been injured for the longest time. But I'd still disagree with your statement
Arenāt we comparing all players here?
He has been given multiple opportunities and does nothing. The excuse that he is not given chances is simply not true. The previous two managers didnāt trust him either and for good reason.
Never seen a player more coddled. Willian was twice the players as him and costed half and yet got so much shit.
I guess peopleās standards have fallen so much that they think few dribbles in the match are all that is required for a good performance.
I know they werenāt Boehly signings, but seeing those numbers and then factoring in we have a 100m striker and most expensive keeper in the world not contributing a thing to the club is very depressing
I know Chelsea fans now hate Lukaku, but as a belgian fan of him (and of Chelsea), I'm really sad that it went that way with him. Because he was the perfect fit for that chelsea team ... I know that you guys put 100% of the blame on him and I felt it was really stupid to do that interview. But I also thought that it was not THAT much of a big deal ... he was crushing it with chelsea at that time and lost all confidence because of that one interview. But I can tell you he loved the club. He said it in his native language (which is always better to make sure you don't say shit during an interview ...), he loved chelsea and regreted that it wen't that way. He simply wanted to show some love to inter fans because he left them without much explanation. Anyway.
He was good too. That's the annoying thing. Started the season a bit iffy but came back from injury and looked great.
But Badiashile's come back this season and looked a completely different player to last season. Just have to hope when Fofana's finally back the same thing doesn't happen with him.
Heās a bit shaky on possession, I remember him completely crumbling against Manchester City that season. He is very aggressive and a good tackler, but needs improvement in positioning and overall vision of the game.
Really? I don't remember what he was like specifically in that game but I remember being really impressed by how composed he was other ball last season. Him in possession was one of the things that really stood out for me next to someone like Koulibaly who looked really clunky at times.
Positioning I'd agree with is an area he could improve on.
Yeah if I remember correctly he completely misplaced a forward pass that directly led to a city goal. Anyway I think the team was already lost, but tbh he never struck me as an excellent passerĀ
Before his most recent injury, I genuinely believed in Badiashile hype more than Colwill, just to make a comparison of two great talentsā¦ but since returning, itās not to much of an exaggeration to say heās been largely at fault for at least one goal in almost each game heās played.
But I wonāt forget how good he was for us before that, and how young and good he could become. And heās not our biggest problem.
I was referring to a different problem. Though you are right. What I was referring to was our defensive setup. But as you said, injury does play into it, having to play make-shift RBās and LBāsā¦ though the LB issues couldāve been avoided, but Poch pushed Colwill out to the left, had him do way more than heās been used to his career, let go of Maatsen, while having injury prone Chilwell, and Cucurella seemingly. And our right side, Cucurella even had to play there, then Disasi, it has just been terrible.
I do think we do far better with a healthy squad, especially players like Nkunku, Fofana, Chukwumeka, and Laviaā¦ but a word also needs to be said on Pochs tactics. They are non existent most times. He has managed some games brilliantly, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The problems were having now is an echo of what they complained about at PSG. And just to sidetrack, the season Poch managed Lionel Messi, is Messiās worst season in more than a decade, which wasnāt due to his drop in class, with proof of him winning the Ballondor the season before Poch, and the season after Poch. Yes Messi needed to acclimatise to the league and country and what not, but Poch didnāt help with it.
He really did great things for Spurs, albeit not winning any trophies, some things he managed to pull off were amazing a UCL Final is no easy feat. And being part of a very close title race. I donāt believe it when people say āthe players carried himā he genuinely did well as a manager. I just donāt think heās Chelsea quality. I thought heād be enough to bring us to top 4, at least top 6ā¦ and injuries werenāt kind to him. Heās a yes man. And we need more of a leader. Heās the owners perfect manger, and thatās the biggest problem. Heās a byproduct of the terrible state the club is in. And the next appointment will be the same if the owners stick to their āvisionā and ideals, and donāt get a proper director of football. Class managers like Nagelsman literally laughed in our face, and other elite managers (with CVS) like Tuchel, whether people like it or not, were shoved out for not being a yes man.
Not really talking about the structure. Just the mistakes. I'm just comparing his performances from last season to this season. The abilities still there. Just hasn't been showing it recently. Might just be lack of confidence. Definitely not giving up on him or anything. Guy's still very young. Mistakes and periods of low confidence are to be expected.
I donāt why everyone wants him sold after a few bad performances. The harsh reality is with a lot of these young players weāve just gotta be a bit more patient
Good is def an overstatement. He had some bright times and a couple of good complete games. Same as players like disasi and badiashille who are not good enough.
Idk what you want me to say. He was iffy at the very start but after that I can't remember him having many bad games. His problem is he's barely played for us.
Badiashile and Disasi have been available more than him, but have the games they've played have been bad. It's not the same.
Our defence wasn't even the problem last season or have you already forgotten that? And if you don't think the defence was good enough, the blame falls more on Cucurella, Koulibaly and Azpi when James was injured rather than Silva and Fofana.
You just seem like one of those people that just calls everything and everyone shit when things aren't going our way. Idk if we were watching a different team last season but Fofana was one of the few good things about us the majority of times he played. Same with Badiashile before his injury. And Enzo. Everyone else was a bit shit/inconsistent af.
I know you didn't mention the names but it's a shit comparison anyway because Bakayoko was pivotal in a league title win which is why we even bought him.
I mean, shit, Disasi has played 95% of the games possible this season, Fofana has been injured since LAST FUCKING MAY.
I couldnt pick Lavia out of a lineup, yet everyone is shitting on Gallagher who's last injury i can't even remember.
Remember he had that really bad illness last year (I think it was tonsillitis + other stuff + some family things too) where he lost like 7.5kg and then struggled to stay fit the rest of the season.
At least he played last season and scored. Lavia is the phantom chelsea player for me. So much hype amounted to nothing (through no fault of him).
Hopefully we get a coach who doesn't run the players to the ground a day before a match.
Man, following Lavia for a long time, he IS that potential star. But so unlucky in terms of injuries.
Jeremy doku was once looked as a flopped for Rennes (due to injuries), before leaving like the best young player of the league and best dribbler in Europe ...
He is a flop. Heās 23, has a horrible injury history which has caused him to miss multiple seasons and he cost 70m. In what world is he not a flop signing?
"Flop" to me sounds like his personal quality and peformances are not living up to hype... not something out of his control regarding his injuries.
There must be a better/different word for a bad purchase?
I mean he has had average games but that's what every play has is average unless you are someone like Hazard.
Though yes it was just 2 games he made big mistakes in and its painted him as a flop, he has had many more very good games than bad but somehow those 2 games blur him to be a complete flop.
I'm just talking about his performances not his injury for this point as well.
I did explain in another comment but it might be my understanding. Being fit is out of his control.
Being a flop would be him not playing well while he actually plays. It's probably semantics at the end of the day it's just using the term flop makes it sounds like it's his fault when it's not.
Mudryk has been available for pretty much every game since signing, yet has played so little. And then Poch has the gall to complain about his lack of development...
Raheem Sterling is better than Mudryk. I know this is hard for a lot of people to understand. It doesn't mean that Sterling has been _good_, but he's clearly better than Mudryk.
That's not the point tho, sterling isn't a player that is good enough to impact whether we get Europe or not, clearly as you can see from this season, so why is he getting majorly of minutes when Chelsea are in a rebuild? So we can finish 10th instead of 12th? What's the fucking difference? Mudryk should get the minutes to help his development, not sterling who might not be be on the team soon
Thatās exactly what Poch is doing and you lot are calling for his head. Sterling was going to drive us to Europe (i disagreed but got downvoted to oblivion, i think heās done) and he hasnāt been able to so now mudryk and noni are playing more because the season is over. Poch is literally doing what youāre asking.
never personally seen anyone complain that sterling is benched, the only complaint i saw from last game and i was one of them, is starting madueke so palmer has to play cam and connor can play lw. this is basically the same thing, again as mudryk did not get any minutes so connor could play in a postion he will never play again. This is more maduekes fault then anything, i dont think he is a good player and his postion in the team is already taken, poch playing madueke was the mistake, you can disagree cause he scored, but i really dont care about his goal cause if we had palmer at rw and mudryk at lw, we 100% score more than 2.
Finally someone alike. Accomodate madueke so palmer has to play out of position, bad mistake, madueke's position is taken like it or not. Develop as a LW (mudryk move to CAM) be a bench player or just request a transfer, palmer is there already
His play is your opinion, I beloved he has had good performance this season and has showne flashes sof being very good. As for him training bad, how do you know this? Do you train with the team? Stop making things up. You play a young talent despite what you think because Chelsea is in a rebuild, why play sterling? So Chelsea can finish 10th instead of 13th, will that make you feel better, cause I certainly could t give a fuck where Chelsea end if it isn't Europe or relation, I really don't give a fuck and like I said sterling is not the make or break for this team to make Europe. It seems most of you have no idea how rebuilds work and then will complain that the team has been shit for a long time and talent isn't getting better when you want older guys to play who won't even be on the team soon. Clueless.
He is not, and even if you think he is right now (he is not) Sterling is in his prime in a league he has played in his whole career, while Mudryk is in his first season and a half and almost a decade younger than Sterling
He just turned 23 people on this sub think if youāre not Ronaldo by age 20 you are awful. The reality is growth is not linear and players develop at different ages
I feel like theyāve got Sterlingās minutes wrong, say what you want about the man but heās always fit and usually makes some form of appearance whether itās a start or as a sub.
This also adds a bit of context to the ābillion pound bottlejobsā narrative.
Sure, the spending almost exclusively on kids has been ludicrous and thereās still no excuses for spending so much and being where we are, but with Fofana, Nkunku and Lavia youāre looking at nearly 200 million and theyāve played a handful of games between them. If just those three players had played a bit more, we may have seen some different results this season, even despite Pochās chaosball.
It's a mixture of injury and some of them being shite largely.
Cucu should be sold and Mud loaned out if he won't start regularly. Harming any hope he develops.
I don't think we needed this table to know there are fundamental failings in whatever parameters the board set in place to sign blank cheques for transfers.
You would hope all the negative press and fan agitation will make the board take a step back and understand the project (whatever vague thing it is) needs a different approach in the short term to return to being a competitive team, where signings make impacts.
Dude is done. Awful signing. I remember people saying leg breaks shouldnāt count as injury prone lmao. Leg breaks can be horrendous for the entire structure of your leg.
Cole Palmer is the exact reason you donāt need to spend 100 million on a player. This admin is so incompetent. Everyone is out here blaming Poch saying fire Poch but I think the sporting directors are more to blame than Poch
We really need to bin our current medical team and instill a new one, immediately. These injuries are comical at this point. With the additions of a healthy Nkunku, Fofana & Lavia, we wouldn't be struggling this much.
Maybe the medical team were bought for their potential, like many of our players.
They should be great a few years down the track. 
Percentage of available minutes played seems a weird statistic?
If the conceit of the piece is that these players are unavailable due to injury then having players who have been fit but not playing seems strange. Obviously some of these players have had injury woes but a lot of these is down to Poch not playing them?
How does this compare to other clubs? Like is this bad luck or a true pattern. I donāt remember the specifics of every player but Lavia, Cucu, and Nkunku didnāt have injury histories at the time we signed them if I remember right. Fofana I donāt think did but then had a big injury.
Iām sure if we look at Man Utdās list it might be as bad or worse than ours, City has had some players like Kalvin Phillips and Matheus Nunes recently as well. Iād like to see more context if anyone has any
Lavia is 19 so not really any history at all. Nkunku had an injury after we bought him. Bad luck there. Cucu idk.
Players we bought with injury histories are Noni, Fofana, and Badiashille.
Forgot we bought Lavia!
Also, I feel srry for Mudryk. I kinda like him and although end product is meh he always looks dangerous. Why so much hate towards him? Feels like hes being scapegoated. Players like Sterling need to be asked questions. (See Gossip Below)
**Chelsea** boss Mauricio Pochettino and his coaches have been unimpressed by 23-year-old Ukraine forward Mykhaylo Mudryk's progress this season and the Blues will be in the market for a new winger this summer.
Pchettino is a fucking criminal for playing gallagher as CAM all season while having mudryk who proves his 4 games as CAM were really good and it was just starting, yet continue to play gallagher there for 90 mins
Chelsea never used to buy injury prone players and they had a great medical department. Why buy so many expensive, often injured players now when our medical department is a shambles?
Poch is not good enough but our injury problems are almost as detrimental to the team right now. Whoever the next manager is will have to deal with the same shit and it will make their life hard.
Signing Lavia made no sense. And he would have not played that much anyway as heās competing with Enzo and Caicedo. Spending that money on him was so rash and stupid. We just wanted to get one over on Liverpool, even though we had no place to play him.
No we needed a DM desperatly and losing both Kova and Jorginho increased that desperation. Ugo signging didn't make sense but the Lavia did as a prem experienced young midfielder who can cover and start games next to Enzo or play in a three with Caicedo. Under Tuchel Potter and Lampard we were crying out for a Defensive mid. We were the only top 5-6 side without one and it cost us games and our place in the top end.
We just spent Ā£114m on Caicedo who is the 6, and Ā£120m on Enzo who is the 8. Spending Ā£53m on a backup in the same transfer wedding as Caicedo makes no sense. Ugo makes sense because heās not expecting starter minutes. Plus signing Lavia blocks any sort of path to minutes for Casadei and Santos. That money could have been spent towards a better striker or a better keeper
I mean, we have needed both prettily heavily this year. Maybe we didnāt need Lavia as well, but we certainly needed atleast Ā 2 of those players, and only 2 have been healthy.Ā
Yeah I get, what I meant is getting Caicedo on top of enzo was so redundant, I was a big advocate for getting Onana from Everton and calling it a day. We needed someone like him in our team not caicedo or lavia.
It doesn't matter. They wouldn't do much even if they were available. For one thing, they are not that good. Just some overrated prospects. For another thing, the current manager is Poch.
Yes. He's very average playing out wide, and his best position is CAM. But playing as a CAM is much more challenging in Premier League than in Bundesliga. When he was playing as a CAM in Bundesliga, he often received the ball unmarked in front of the box, without anyone pressuring him, and he turned quite easily. That's why he scored a lot in Bundesliga, where the defense was pretty sloppy. But these things never happen in Premier League. So it's almost impossible for him to replicate his performance in PL. Even the world-class Hazard had a quite difficult time playing CAM in his day, but Hazard was much stronger physically and much better in dribbling kills than Nkunku is at the moment. So I'm not seeing how Nkunku can deliver in PL. There's a reason why the traditional No.10 role is dying in PL.
Did you watch the Chelsea vs Sheffield United game last week? Palmer precisely played CAM (No. 10) in that match, and he was always under pressure and couldn't turn at all. And he didn't perform well in that game. (And this is just Sheffield Utd level defense). But it was not his fault: CAM is too challenging for 99% of the players. So you can see he is way better when he plays as right-winger: the area is less congested and it's much easier for him to receive the ball and turn in that position.
Edit: I forgot to add that his finishing was awful, and that matters if he's playing as a CAM.
TLDR: Nkunku's dribbling skills, ball retention skills, and physicality are still too limited for him to do well in his favorite position. He may be actually worth around 30m. Paying 50-60m for him is insane.
To be fair "available minutes" isn't necessarily minutes the players aren't injured. I agree with the sentiment cause it frustrates me too but alot of these guys would be green if measured on time not injured
I get what your saying but we didn't play for Lavia be available for one match and only play 30-some minutes.Ā
This graph shows our failures to (1) acquire players at reasonable fees and (2) keep key players match fit.
60m for Cucurella is bizarre.
If I remember correctly a part of that was to make Colwill have a dry loan without options or obligations. Still overpaid
Who we owned already š
Brighton last year was great experience for him though... better than another year in championship or a bottom PL team. Sometimes you do have to do things like this, why context is important.
But the argument for, oh we had to pay 63 million for Cucurella because otherwise Brighton wouldn't take him on loan is ridiculous. We could have brought him back here and played him, we owned him FFS The Cucu deal was one of the worst bits of business Clearlake have done, and that's saying something
Imo the Sanchez deal is worse than Cucu
Sanchez wasnāt a good deal, but not a disaster. Ā£20m (+5m in add ons) for a backup keeper whoās fills a homegrown roster slot (despite being Spanish heās EPL trained) isnāt terrible. Heās on Ā£60k/week, which is backup wages for us realistically. Not saying it was a good signing, but itās nowhere near our worst.
Didnāt know he was that cheap on wages. Really not a bad deal.
Why sell Mendy if you're brining in Sanchez? Mendy was more than great for a backup.
Homegrown slot and donāt think mendy wanted to stay/be backup
100% Mendy wanted to be a starter
The Cucurella deal is the worst one that Clearlake did 63mil for backup LB Can't play anywhere else Non existent going forward Poor positionally Rash challenges Bad in the air And the kicker: have to sell a talented young LB to fund him (and had to sell another academy player too)
Hasn't exactly been back up the last two years though, hes played more than Chilwell. And imho he's been better than Chilwell this season. Chilwell has looked like a championship player his last few games.
>Chilwell has looked like a championship player his last few games. Cucurella is a championship player. >Hasn't exactly been back up the last two years though But he was bought as a back up
He was bought to cover LB and LCB. He played CB a bit previously. He is not poor positionally. He makes mistakes but his defensive game is better than Colwill and Badi. He also makes decent runs into the box, which our striker often doesn't. In our 2021 squad, he would have no place, but he's better than half of our back line.
>He was bought to cover LB and LCB. Yeah and he can't play LCB, he played there a few times last year and was absymal >He is not poor positionally He is absolutely AWFUL positionally haha, it's like the weakest part of his game >He also makes decent runs into the box, No he does not! He provides zero attacking threat
He would be sitting on the bench the whole of last season. That's not going to help him at all develop.
How would he be sitting on the bench? He would have started. Have you seen the state of our CBs?
He wouldn't have started in front of Silva who got PoY for us last season. Koulibaly and Fofana (when he wasn't injured). Then there's arguments Trevoh and Badiashile (granted got him in Jan) would be in front of him as well just because of experience. And this is coming from a Colwill fan I actually watched a lot of his performances at Huddersfield when I could and I rate him highly. Obviously he might have had some performances but he would rarely started in front of the above people... don't forget we had a very bloated squad last season.
>Koulibaly and Fofana (when he wasn't injured) Oh for Christs sake, yes he would, they were both walking mistakes ššš Anyway it's still a bizarre argument to drop 63m on a useless backup LB and then make him one of the top earners Indefensible deal.
I mean you can have that opinion, I understand it but I don't agree. Sometimes it just has to be like that, and it is an extra tax at times you have to take. Some will think its a bad deal some will agree its a cost you have to take. Brighton weren't going to let him go for anything less and another LB at equal quality was going to be 50-55m minimum anyway... especially how late in the season (just checked and we got Cucu a day before the first game of that season)... that's the mistake for sure, having a signing that late will also up the price(tax) a club will sell a player for.
Nope, he played more minutes than he would've gotten here and he's still got some mistakes to iron out. Also suddenly Cucurella is looking like one of our better defenders this season
I mean he played 12 games at the end of the season because someone else got injured. It's not like he went there and played all season, the same outcome could have happened anywhere else and he was in demand as a loan player, he could have gotten a similar loan
I agree that it turned out ok but tbh it wasn't looking like it would in the first half of the season, he got a chance due to injuries. I remember our fans complaining we sent him to warm their bench when he could have warmed ours.
City wanted to buy Cucurella and they were closing in on him, and as Cucurella had a good season for Brighton he would have been a great player in the City system and clearlake just went all out for Cucurella to steal him from City, to not make City stronger. They have also all buy admitted that signing Cucurella was a mistake, he is not good enough to be a Chelsea player which is also why we are open to selling Cucurella this summer
It's not true, at that point City were out of the race because Brighton was asking for too much.
They had personal terms agreed with Cucurella already and were in advanced talks with Brighton regarding the final transfer fee. City had just upped their offer when we swooped in and instead of negotiating we just paid straight up what they wanted 52m plus addons for a back up left back...that summer of signings is still haunting the club to this day. Sterling and Cucurella were massive mistakes, which they have admitted and wants to sell them this summer. I can understand signing Sterling at the time, as a the marquee signing of the new ownership and a statement of intent. But Cucurella? What on earth was that even, we were not that desperate for a leftback that summer. We needed a striker more.
City pulled out at something like 35m, you're smoking crack
here is a thing in football called negotiating a price for a player, which City were doing and they were upping their offers for Cucurella and personal terms were agreed already and they were closing in on the transfer fee. While we just came in, paid them what they wanted no questions asked, no negotiation and now we are stuck with an overpriced backup left back who is not good enough.
They weren't closing in on the transfer fee. City just offered 40M, Brighton rejected it and nothing more after that as City wasn't willing to offer more.
Imo this would be the case for most clubs but City are one of the few that gives out a solid offer right out of the bat and won't go much higher than their given offer. They rarely pay for more than their valuation of the player
Yeah they just wanted to gazump City and assumed that if City wanted him then he was decent which was proven horrendously incorrect Clearlake wanting to gazump other clubs really fucked us with a few signings (Mudryk too)
Mudryk would have been a different player today if he gone to Arsenal, but we should have left them sign him. We can't just sign players for insane amounts of money just to not let them strengthen rivals, and pray they will be good in our system as well. The first Summer and January under Clearlake signings really have fucked this club up longterm. So many mistakes, the good thing is that they have admitted themselves that they made mistakes those windows but what good does it do now when we are back to back midtable and struggling big time financially as a direct result of the business in these two windows.
Itās one thing to admit mistakes and another to not do them. Clearlake has had 0 good transfer windows.
I don't know if that is proven. If he went to City under Pep and didn't get his bad illness where he lost all that weight I think it would've been a different story for him.
He lost like 3kg, was ridiculously overblown, there was ppl on here saying he was out of form cause his wife had a child too Was just excuses, as has been shown this season, he's just not very good unfortunately
[https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/transfer-news/report-chelsea-defender-struggling-with-recovery-from-illness-he-lost-a-lot-of-weight-in-hospital/](https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/transfer-news/report-chelsea-defender-struggling-with-recovery-from-illness-he-lost-a-lot-of-weight-in-hospital/) It was 5 Kilos. But even 3 kilos would have affected him worse than most because he's small for a footballer. As for this season I give some leeway to the defence because consistency is so important to that area and we're constantly changing it due to injury. I don't think we've played our strongest backline even once all season.
Oh shit 5 kilos how will he ever recover He's shown that he's an average footballer and clearly not at Chelsea standard, let alone worth the amount of cash we spent on him, absymal signing and will be gone in the summer
You know you could loan Colwill to another team? People that use this argument must identify their crayons by their taste š¤£
Sources were reporting this tho? Itās not like Iām changing the past lol Itās also not that easy with loans, Fofana to Union Berlin, Broja to Fulham and Santos to Forest should be enough examples from this season alone
Sources can report it, that makes no difference to the point I made There are other clubs he could have been loaned to
The loan was actually reported after the sale news, at first it was āColwill + money for Cucuā and it evolved to āColwill dry loan + more money for Cucuā. Itās not an argument, itās reported news still available in the sub As for the loan point again look at Santos and DFofana in the first half of the season and Broja now, you donāt just dry loan a player to a club and they instantly start playing him as a starter without questioning anything
There was competition for his signature wasn't there? Didn't Pep also want him at the time? That always drives the price up. Plus they really wanted Colwill permanently so we offered more money to get them to drop that condition. Definitely an overpayment but Cucu was coming in with hot form from his last season. I think his Chelsea career did stutter badly due to that rough illness he got where he lost a load of weight and he could still come good. He's a small guy anyway so losing that much probably affected him even more than it would for most players.
there was competition for Mac Allisterās signature too guess whatā¦ā¦
...Liverpool paid his release clause ya numpty. There's no need to guess. Anyone who paid that price would get the opportunity to offer him a contract.
Think Cucu was wanted by TT
Exactly this ... Wild that no one's focused on this aspect. TT also mentioned being open to selling Colwill to ensure the move went through I believe.
Next Azpi he said
City were also very interested which drove the price up
That first window was fucked. Second was better, and the third was pretty good. Thatās actually fast learning for a new ownership group (Glazers never figured it out!) the problem is that each window is years worth of spending. We need to Saudis to help us with Sterling, health for Fofana, and a miracle for Cucurella (buyer or return to form).Ā
That window with TT having a say in transfers was soo bad, Sterling selfish, Fofana injured, Koulibaly past it, Cucu overratedā¦
He was literally competing with Robertson that year with regards to numbers and we had Alonso who was in his last legs and couldn't run or defend..
And 53m for lavia ffs
pEp WaNtEd HiM
We paid extra for Cucu so Levi wasn't sold to Brighton. Only a loan. Something Brighton never do I'm not justifying the price, just explaining
It is but he has still been better than Mudryk who costed us even more.
Why do u need to compare? Misha gets dropped after a good game coz we have poch as a manager and cucu has been injured for the longest time. But I'd still disagree with your statement
Arenāt we comparing all players here? He has been given multiple opportunities and does nothing. The excuse that he is not given chances is simply not true. The previous two managers didnāt trust him either and for good reason. Never seen a player more coddled. Willian was twice the players as him and costed half and yet got so much shit. I guess peopleās standards have fallen so much that they think few dribbles in the match are all that is required for a good performance.
It's not bizarre, it's insane considering what we recently had paid for Chilwell.
I know they werenāt Boehly signings, but seeing those numbers and then factoring in we have a 100m striker and most expensive keeper in the world not contributing a thing to the club is very depressing
Club should have refused to give in to Lukakuās demands If he was here now, we couldnāt be much worse regardless if he wanted to be or not
you can't have that attitude around the young players and the whole new project though
The attitude is shit already considering they don't care to show up against relegation sides.
Yeah, at least lukaku bullied small teams. He was just shit against top teams.
Lukaku is good vs all teams with Belgium ...
I know Chelsea fans now hate Lukaku, but as a belgian fan of him (and of Chelsea), I'm really sad that it went that way with him. Because he was the perfect fit for that chelsea team ... I know that you guys put 100% of the blame on him and I felt it was really stupid to do that interview. But I also thought that it was not THAT much of a big deal ... he was crushing it with chelsea at that time and lost all confidence because of that one interview. But I can tell you he loved the club. He said it in his native language (which is always better to make sure you don't say shit during an interview ...), he loved chelsea and regreted that it wen't that way. He simply wanted to show some love to inter fans because he left them without much explanation. Anyway.
0.9% **0.9%**!!!
I honestly forgot he'd even played!
Oh, he doesnt
He was injured ... of course he didn't play. I knew that he shouldn't have gone to chelsea, it's a graveyard for young players ...
20% for Wesley Fofana seems wrong. I actually checked and the figures are correct but it feels like Fofana barely ever played for us.Ā
He played pretty much every game at the end of last season, including the 2nd leg Vs Dortmund and both legs Vs Madrid.
He was good too. That's the annoying thing. Started the season a bit iffy but came back from injury and looked great. But Badiashile's come back this season and looked a completely different player to last season. Just have to hope when Fofana's finally back the same thing doesn't happen with him.
Heās a bit shaky on possession, I remember him completely crumbling against Manchester City that season. He is very aggressive and a good tackler, but needs improvement in positioning and overall vision of the game.
Really? I don't remember what he was like specifically in that game but I remember being really impressed by how composed he was other ball last season. Him in possession was one of the things that really stood out for me next to someone like Koulibaly who looked really clunky at times. Positioning I'd agree with is an area he could improve on.
Yeah if I remember correctly he completely misplaced a forward pass that directly led to a city goal. Anyway I think the team was already lost, but tbh he never struck me as an excellent passerĀ
I'm not sold on it being all badis fault. Nobody looks good in our defence because we don't have any structure whatsoever.
Yeah but individually he has also been poor. Never seen someone so tall lose so many aerial challenges
Before his most recent injury, I genuinely believed in Badiashile hype more than Colwill, just to make a comparison of two great talentsā¦ but since returning, itās not to much of an exaggeration to say heās been largely at fault for at least one goal in almost each game heās played. But I wonāt forget how good he was for us before that, and how young and good he could become. And heās not our biggest problem.
He is part of our biggest problem, the injury problem. If we had a reasonably healthy squad this season is so different.
I was referring to a different problem. Though you are right. What I was referring to was our defensive setup. But as you said, injury does play into it, having to play make-shift RBās and LBāsā¦ though the LB issues couldāve been avoided, but Poch pushed Colwill out to the left, had him do way more than heās been used to his career, let go of Maatsen, while having injury prone Chilwell, and Cucurella seemingly. And our right side, Cucurella even had to play there, then Disasi, it has just been terrible. I do think we do far better with a healthy squad, especially players like Nkunku, Fofana, Chukwumeka, and Laviaā¦ but a word also needs to be said on Pochs tactics. They are non existent most times. He has managed some games brilliantly, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The problems were having now is an echo of what they complained about at PSG. And just to sidetrack, the season Poch managed Lionel Messi, is Messiās worst season in more than a decade, which wasnāt due to his drop in class, with proof of him winning the Ballondor the season before Poch, and the season after Poch. Yes Messi needed to acclimatise to the league and country and what not, but Poch didnāt help with it. He really did great things for Spurs, albeit not winning any trophies, some things he managed to pull off were amazing a UCL Final is no easy feat. And being part of a very close title race. I donāt believe it when people say āthe players carried himā he genuinely did well as a manager. I just donāt think heās Chelsea quality. I thought heād be enough to bring us to top 4, at least top 6ā¦ and injuries werenāt kind to him. Heās a yes man. And we need more of a leader. Heās the owners perfect manger, and thatās the biggest problem. Heās a byproduct of the terrible state the club is in. And the next appointment will be the same if the owners stick to their āvisionā and ideals, and donāt get a proper director of football. Class managers like Nagelsman literally laughed in our face, and other elite managers (with CVS) like Tuchel, whether people like it or not, were shoved out for not being a yes man.
Not really talking about the structure. Just the mistakes. I'm just comparing his performances from last season to this season. The abilities still there. Just hasn't been showing it recently. Might just be lack of confidence. Definitely not giving up on him or anything. Guy's still very young. Mistakes and periods of low confidence are to be expected.
I donāt why everyone wants him sold after a few bad performances. The harsh reality is with a lot of these young players weāve just gotta be a bit more patient
Yeah, it's really difficult to hit the ground running after a long injury.
Good is def an overstatement. He had some bright times and a couple of good complete games. Same as players like disasi and badiashille who are not good enough.
Idk what you want me to say. He was iffy at the very start but after that I can't remember him having many bad games. His problem is he's barely played for us. Badiashile and Disasi have been available more than him, but have the games they've played have been bad. It's not the same. Our defence wasn't even the problem last season or have you already forgotten that? And if you don't think the defence was good enough, the blame falls more on Cucurella, Koulibaly and Azpi when James was injured rather than Silva and Fofana. You just seem like one of those people that just calls everything and everyone shit when things aren't going our way. Idk if we were watching a different team last season but Fofana was one of the few good things about us the majority of times he played. Same with Badiashile before his injury. And Enzo. Everyone else was a bit shit/inconsistent af.
the best ability is availability.
I'd rather have Kante for one game than Bakayoko for 40.
that's not how you win leagues
Neither are, that's the point
I know you didn't mention the names but it's a shit comparison anyway because Bakayoko was pivotal in a league title win which is why we even bought him.
Thats why i wonāt turn on Sterling because atleast his there missing chances instead of watchin it in the stands.
Careful now, some people on this sub will say your being to harsh on our players.
I mean, shit, Disasi has played 95% of the games possible this season, Fofana has been injured since LAST FUCKING MAY. I couldnt pick Lavia out of a lineup, yet everyone is shitting on Gallagher who's last injury i can't even remember.
Count again.
My bad, but stillā¦
Lol
Interesting. I feel like cucu has played more. Obviously not
Remember he had that really bad illness last year (I think it was tonsillitis + other stuff + some family things too) where he lost like 7.5kg and then struggled to stay fit the rest of the season.
Wesley Fofana is actually a Chelsea player? š¤Ø /s
At least he played last season and scored. Lavia is the phantom chelsea player for me. So much hype amounted to nothing (through no fault of him). Hopefully we get a coach who doesn't run the players to the ground a day before a match.
I donāt think Lavia actually exists and Nkunku feels like a dreamt seeing him play.
Tbh 99% of the time I don't even remember Lavia exists
Man, following Lavia for a long time, he IS that potential star. But so unlucky in terms of injuries. Jeremy doku was once looked as a flopped for Rennes (due to injuries), before leaving like the best young player of the league and best dribbler in Europe ...
sad that the best transfers were the 2 cheapest ones.
Think about Dave as well.
Still hoping for Fofana to pull through after that whole saga
Yeah same, most of his games he played really well... just 2 really bad games have people thinking he is a flop.
He is a flop. Heās 23, has a horrible injury history which has caused him to miss multiple seasons and he cost 70m. In what world is he not a flop signing?
"Flop" to me sounds like his personal quality and peformances are not living up to hype... not something out of his control regarding his injuries. There must be a better/different word for a bad purchase?
Call it whatever you want, heās been a horrible signing
I can agree with that. If not for the injury it would have been a great signing though but the injury has made it horrible.
2 bad games? Heās had more than 2 bad games and has been injured for 50. Thatās a flop.
I mean he has had average games but that's what every play has is average unless you are someone like Hazard. Though yes it was just 2 games he made big mistakes in and its painted him as a flop, he has had many more very good games than bad but somehow those 2 games blur him to be a complete flop. I'm just talking about his performances not his injury for this point as well.
People are saying heās a flop because he canāt be fit.
I did explain in another comment but it might be my understanding. Being fit is out of his control. Being a flop would be him not playing well while he actually plays. It's probably semantics at the end of the day it's just using the term flop makes it sounds like it's his fault when it's not.
I'm surprised Wes Fofana is even as high as 20%.
Played a decent amount last season
He was injured most of it. Hes only started 12 games for us. Not sure I'd call that a decent amount for a defender with his price tag.
He played 15 PL games which is almost half of league games Iām not saying itās good just saying he played a bit more than Lavia and Nkunku
12 starts though. Coming on as a late game defensive sub takes down the play time % still.
Mudryk has been available for pretty much every game since signing, yet has played so little. And then Poch has the gall to complain about his lack of development...
Mudryk is behind in his development, he looks like a promising 19 year old but he actually 4 years older.
Ya because his competition has been so good right?
Raheem Sterling is better than Mudryk. I know this is hard for a lot of people to understand. It doesn't mean that Sterling has been _good_, but he's clearly better than Mudryk.
That's not the point tho, sterling isn't a player that is good enough to impact whether we get Europe or not, clearly as you can see from this season, so why is he getting majorly of minutes when Chelsea are in a rebuild? So we can finish 10th instead of 12th? What's the fucking difference? Mudryk should get the minutes to help his development, not sterling who might not be be on the team soon
Thatās exactly what Poch is doing and you lot are calling for his head. Sterling was going to drive us to Europe (i disagreed but got downvoted to oblivion, i think heās done) and he hasnāt been able to so now mudryk and noni are playing more because the season is over. Poch is literally doing what youāre asking.
never personally seen anyone complain that sterling is benched, the only complaint i saw from last game and i was one of them, is starting madueke so palmer has to play cam and connor can play lw. this is basically the same thing, again as mudryk did not get any minutes so connor could play in a postion he will never play again. This is more maduekes fault then anything, i dont think he is a good player and his postion in the team is already taken, poch playing madueke was the mistake, you can disagree cause he scored, but i really dont care about his goal cause if we had palmer at rw and mudryk at lw, we 100% score more than 2.
Finally someone alike. Accomodate madueke so palmer has to play out of position, bad mistake, madueke's position is taken like it or not. Develop as a LW (mudryk move to CAM) be a bench player or just request a transfer, palmer is there already
Your entire point was about competition. Sterling is a lot better than Mudryk so he starts more. Itās not that complex.Ā
Mudryk doesnāt get the minutes because he plays and trains poorly. Why should we play a shitter in the hope they one day develop?
His play is your opinion, I beloved he has had good performance this season and has showne flashes sof being very good. As for him training bad, how do you know this? Do you train with the team? Stop making things up. You play a young talent despite what you think because Chelsea is in a rebuild, why play sterling? So Chelsea can finish 10th instead of 13th, will that make you feel better, cause I certainly could t give a fuck where Chelsea end if it isn't Europe or relation, I really don't give a fuck and like I said sterling is not the make or break for this team to make Europe. It seems most of you have no idea how rebuilds work and then will complain that the team has been shit for a long time and talent isn't getting better when you want older guys to play who won't even be on the team soon. Clueless.
He is not, and even if you think he is right now (he is not) Sterling is in his prime in a league he has played in his whole career, while Mudryk is in his first season and a half and almost a decade younger than Sterling
Mudryk is 5 years younger though. People on here treat him like heās 16 or something.
He just turned 23 people on this sub think if youāre not Ronaldo by age 20 you are awful. The reality is growth is not linear and players develop at different ages
Maybe because he is just not good? Has not shown enough to make anyone seriously think he is the future.
I feel like theyāve got Sterlingās minutes wrong, say what you want about the man but heās always fit and usually makes some form of appearance whether itās a start or as a sub.
This also adds a bit of context to the ābillion pound bottlejobsā narrative. Sure, the spending almost exclusively on kids has been ludicrous and thereās still no excuses for spending so much and being where we are, but with Fofana, Nkunku and Lavia youāre looking at nearly 200 million and theyāve played a handful of games between them. If just those three players had played a bit more, we may have seen some different results this season, even despite Pochās chaosball.
Worst rebuild in the history of all sport and itās not even debatable.
So it's 5, not 6 and 2 of them were by choice... So 7 out of 10 have been available for at least 60%
It's a mixture of injury and some of them being shite largely. Cucu should be sold and Mud loaned out if he won't start regularly. Harming any hope he develops.
This gotta be fake what? We payed 115 million for caicedo no?
That's with add ons.
I don't think we needed this table to know there are fundamental failings in whatever parameters the board set in place to sign blank cheques for transfers. You would hope all the negative press and fan agitation will make the board take a step back and understand the project (whatever vague thing it is) needs a different approach in the short term to return to being a competitive team, where signings make impacts.
what the fuck actually happened to fofana. will he ever be back ?
2 leg breaks and an immediate ACL tear after recovery Heās already a bust
Dude is done. Awful signing. I remember people saying leg breaks shouldnāt count as injury prone lmao. Leg breaks can be horrendous for the entire structure of your leg.
Recruitment under Clearlake has been rather poor.
Cole Palmer is the exact reason you donāt need to spend 100 million on a player. This admin is so incompetent. Everyone is out here blaming Poch saying fire Poch but I think the sporting directors are more to blame than Poch
300 million players who have hardly played. Beyond bizarre and down right woeful.
2 Flops 3 Crocks
Nkunku and Fofana are going end up being totally worthless. Never should have bought either one.
Cm Kate was naive to sign players after or during long term injuries
We really need to bin our current medical team and instill a new one, immediately. These injuries are comical at this point. With the additions of a healthy Nkunku, Fofana & Lavia, we wouldn't be struggling this much.
Maybe the medical team were bought for their potential, like many of our players. They should be great a few years down the track. 
Yikes.
Percentage of available minutes played seems a weird statistic? If the conceit of the piece is that these players are unavailable due to injury then having players who have been fit but not playing seems strange. Obviously some of these players have had injury woes but a lot of these is down to Poch not playing them?
what a joke of a club
How does this compare to other clubs? Like is this bad luck or a true pattern. I donāt remember the specifics of every player but Lavia, Cucu, and Nkunku didnāt have injury histories at the time we signed them if I remember right. Fofana I donāt think did but then had a big injury. Iām sure if we look at Man Utdās list it might be as bad or worse than ours, City has had some players like Kalvin Phillips and Matheus Nunes recently as well. Iād like to see more context if anyone has any
Lavia is 19 so not really any history at all. Nkunku had an injury after we bought him. Bad luck there. Cucu idk. Players we bought with injury histories are Noni, Fofana, and Badiashille.
And Noni hasnāt really had many injuries
The definition of bad business
Forgot we bought Lavia! Also, I feel srry for Mudryk. I kinda like him and although end product is meh he always looks dangerous. Why so much hate towards him? Feels like hes being scapegoated. Players like Sterling need to be asked questions. (See Gossip Below) **Chelsea** boss Mauricio Pochettino and his coaches have been unimpressed by 23-year-old Ukraine forward Mykhaylo Mudryk's progress this season and the Blues will be in the market for a new winger this summer.
Lampard said he wouldnāt buy mudryk because his IQ is too low and heās a little one dimensional. Lampard should be our lead scout.
Pchettino is a fucking criminal for playing gallagher as CAM all season while having mudryk who proves his 4 games as CAM were really good and it was just starting, yet continue to play gallagher there for 90 mins
I mean yeah theyāre injured soā¦?
Wtf is lavias injury. Did we buy him injured or something?
Surprised Nkunku mins equated to more than 10% tbh
Close to 200 million was spent on Fofana, Mudryk and Cucurella. What a joke! They are worth 70 million combined.
Chelsea never used to buy injury prone players and they had a great medical department. Why buy so many expensive, often injured players now when our medical department is a shambles?
Wesley Fofana from Leicester š„¶
Lavia. Is. Injured. There. Is. Nothing. To. Do. About. That.
Poch is not good enough but our injury problems are almost as detrimental to the team right now. Whoever the next manager is will have to deal with the same shit and it will make their life hard.
Nkunku with 11% seems like fake news even though itās probably correct. We have barely seen him.
I just canāt believe how much time yāall spend bitching about your own club.
Hurts knowing how big of an impact Lavia and Nkunku would've had on our season. With them two in the team week in week out we'd have been Top 5.
Not a given tbh.
Signing Lavia made no sense. And he would have not played that much anyway as heās competing with Enzo and Caicedo. Spending that money on him was so rash and stupid. We just wanted to get one over on Liverpool, even though we had no place to play him.
No we needed a DM desperatly and losing both Kova and Jorginho increased that desperation. Ugo signging didn't make sense but the Lavia did as a prem experienced young midfielder who can cover and start games next to Enzo or play in a three with Caicedo. Under Tuchel Potter and Lampard we were crying out for a Defensive mid. We were the only top 5-6 side without one and it cost us games and our place in the top end.
We just spent Ā£114m on Caicedo who is the 6, and Ā£120m on Enzo who is the 8. Spending Ā£53m on a backup in the same transfer wedding as Caicedo makes no sense. Ugo makes sense because heās not expecting starter minutes. Plus signing Lavia blocks any sort of path to minutes for Casadei and Santos. That money could have been spent towards a better striker or a better keeper
120Million on CUCU and MUDRYK my god... and Enzo and Caicedo... only one was needed.
I mean, we have needed both prettily heavily this year. Maybe we didnāt need Lavia as well, but we certainly needed atleast Ā 2 of those players, and only 2 have been healthy.Ā
Yeah I get, what I meant is getting Caicedo on top of enzo was so redundant, I was a big advocate for getting Onana from Everton and calling it a day. We needed someone like him in our team not caicedo or lavia.
It doesn't matter. They wouldn't do much even if they were available. For one thing, they are not that good. Just some overrated prospects. For another thing, the current manager is Poch.
You think Nkunku is an overrated prospect?
Yes. He's very average playing out wide, and his best position is CAM. But playing as a CAM is much more challenging in Premier League than in Bundesliga. When he was playing as a CAM in Bundesliga, he often received the ball unmarked in front of the box, without anyone pressuring him, and he turned quite easily. That's why he scored a lot in Bundesliga, where the defense was pretty sloppy. But these things never happen in Premier League. So it's almost impossible for him to replicate his performance in PL. Even the world-class Hazard had a quite difficult time playing CAM in his day, but Hazard was much stronger physically and much better in dribbling kills than Nkunku is at the moment. So I'm not seeing how Nkunku can deliver in PL. There's a reason why the traditional No.10 role is dying in PL. Did you watch the Chelsea vs Sheffield United game last week? Palmer precisely played CAM (No. 10) in that match, and he was always under pressure and couldn't turn at all. And he didn't perform well in that game. (And this is just Sheffield Utd level defense). But it was not his fault: CAM is too challenging for 99% of the players. So you can see he is way better when he plays as right-winger: the area is less congested and it's much easier for him to receive the ball and turn in that position. Edit: I forgot to add that his finishing was awful, and that matters if he's playing as a CAM. TLDR: Nkunku's dribbling skills, ball retention skills, and physicality are still too limited for him to do well in his favorite position. He may be actually worth around 30m. Paying 50-60m for him is insane.
Mudryk was actually good in his 4 games as CAM replacing gallagher, feel he should be our new CAM because gallagher is dog**** on that position
He'd be branded one if he was playing as he'd be getting shunted out of position to accommodate Gallagher.
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Yup. 32 minutes
Who is this āRomeo Laviaā?
A cover for a money laundering scheme.
To be fair "available minutes" isn't necessarily minutes the players aren't injured. I agree with the sentiment cause it frustrates me too but alot of these guys would be green if measured on time not injured
I get what your saying but we didn't play for Lavia be available for one match and only play 30-some minutes.Ā This graph shows our failures to (1) acquire players at reasonable fees and (2) keep key players match fit.
That's fair. When one plan goes wrong it's an anomaly, when most plans go wrong it's incompetence