Err, you missed my point. I didn't say anything about Mikel's influence on the side. I said that the article pete used without thinking about it was a bad article. Personally I think Mikel will struggle as we move to a more possession based 4-2-3-1, but we'll see. Against weaker sides I'd love to see a Ramires/Lampard midfield, the way Real used Xabi and Khedira.
I rate Mikel very highly, great player and he has a good understanding with Lamps. Against stronger teams Lamps / Mikel is a must but against weaker sides I agree Ramires / Lamps would be better. However, Mikel had one of the worse games in a CFC shirt I've ever seen against city but a lot of the players were simply rusty / not in shape. On another note, Yaya Toure... what a player we missed out on!!!
While hindsight is always helpful, the club were put off by his 200k per week wage demands (I believe he is on 225 per week now) and also wanted to play with his brother. Would have been a great pick up for us, but I think a little out of reach.
I can't wait to see what kind of relationship Reus and Goetze will be able to develop on the pitch in Dortmund.
the Moses update today is that a fee has been agreed and the club is now discussing personal terms. The alleged price tag is 9 mil http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7988728/ Marsielle confirm that Cesar can leave, it is just a question of money atm. Allegedly we offered 5 mil and they want 6-7. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/7988676 Kakuta could be moving the other way. I must say I am a little suprised as I really thought the club would give him a look this season but per his comments he appears not to have done enough to catch the eye- funny enough I thought that was his problem in the pre-season when he was doing too much and overcomplicating things trying to impress. Either way probably better to part ways than keep an unhappy player and I suspect he will packaged as part of the Cesar deal.
he has been requesting regular games for a while now and it is pretty clear he is not going to get them with us no hard feelings but it was a shame that we invested so much into him (including the transfer ban and fines) to get so little out of him. But those are the breaks when it comes to finding elite talent. It seems like RDM and Co. prefer Piazon to him.
Yeah the likely case, & I have a hunch club would like to get rid of Arnesen leftovers asap, & bring in Emenalo's players soon.
Huh? Why? Is it the player's fault that Arnesen brought them in? And what if one of them is the next Messi.
really want the Moses and Cesar transfers wrapped up. two great additions in my opinion. gives us great depth everywhere with only the striker position being the exception to that. with two big egos though, that's going to be a hard one to fill. ideally, i'd want a reliable, cheap backup, that doesn't need to be the star of the show, and who fits that bill?
Bertrand got it rather late.. and even then, he was very sparingly used last season until the very end. To be honest, I'm very surprised at how well Bertrand HAS done while given the chance, but it was pretty disappointing to see Cole blatantly off form and tiring, playing games even against smaller clubs, while Bertrand sat on the bench. I'd argue Kakuta looked good enough in cameos a couple years back (especially vs Wolves) to get a few more chances and who knows, that could've been crucial in his development.
True. Bertrand got it rather late but I feel that is more on the manager than the player. RDM does seem a bit more eager to hand more responsibility to the youngsters. Again, you have to remember our ultra-modern academy is fairly new and there will be busts before we get some good players. I see high talent in the young players that we have got recently. Kakuta, to be honest never impressed me in his limited role although he was regarded as extremely talented. Don't know if it would have been worth it. My main point was releasing players just because Arnesen signed them.
Kakuta hasn't really impressed me in a while either but when he first started getting chances he looked very bright and skillful, a different sort of player that we desperately needed and had not gotten until this season with Hazard/Marin/Oscar. I certainly think it's been a managerial thing but not only for Bertrand, for a lot of these younger players who deserved a go - Stoch, Di Santo, Borini, Tore etc(we know Di Santo didn't pan out here, but under Scolari the very rare chance him and Stoch got, he looked bright.. I also think we could've given many more chances to Borini) I know in hindsight we can say that some of these players never became good enough for us.. but at the time, if they were given more chances when they DID look lively.. who knows. Could've been better than some of the poor loans we've done as well, Kakuta imo a big one for this. I agree with you on the Arnesen point, I don't think we'll try to get rid of a player just because he was an Arnesen player.
He told L'Equipe: "My decision is final. This is an important time in my career. It's better for me to leave the club and find one where I could play more matches. I need to play. Marseille is a club that I like. In France, Marseille, Lyon and Lille are the three clubs I like the most. Nothing is certain yet. First Marseille must first sell and then negotiate a reasonable salary." link I can't say I blame him. He has been at like 3 different clubs on loan while being a Chelsea player.
Original argument, so my reply is that this practice is not new. When a managerial/Director level change comes in, such things occur very often. Different people comes in with different ideas & the one at place are changed/revolve acc to new practice. Basically the early signs point to that, since when we've had signed 2 other brothers in order to sign the actual target? Or we've had trialists playing with u18/u21s? or we've sent a young player, fresh from winning youth cup, on loan to another club with view to permanent transfer? General club policy was keeping them at Cobham for another year & then decide on loan moves. Last year they had a 12 yr old taken straight out of Nigeria & Emenalo signed him after usual 6 week trial. Things are changing, wait a little more & you'll see more signs.
Kaspars Gorkss is the single most powerful force in football as we know it. He stops Messi cold, he humiliates Ronaldo with a single challenge, he has Iniesta, Pirlo, Xavi, Rooney, Ibra and Mourinho kissing his golden statue that stands next to Wembley. Gorkss is a god.
Agreed. And may i reiterate that he looked like he didnt know how to pass during the summer tour. Bye bye Kakuta - you wont be missed.
He's the second coming of Joe Cole - very impressive technical skills, but an inability to adapt them to an actual football match.
That's pretty silly. Of the youth players we've not ultimately promoted through, who has proven to be a big miss for us? No one, really. Borini may turn out to be, but then again, he was behind at least 3 world class strikers; not much we could do about that. I could kind of see the argument for Scott Sinclair, but he's still not Chelsea quality and likely would have played more if not for a really unfortunate injury. The truth is that our youngsters haven't been all that great - it happens. It's not as if other clubs produce them by the bucketfuls either.