17 year old Polish playmaker Hubert Adamczyk has signed with Chelsea. The word on the street is that this is the season that Jose is expected to call a number of youngsters into his senior squad for the upcoming Premier League campaign. Jose hasn't really been very good historically at bringing through the youth and giving them chances in the first team. But apparently this is what Roman and the board want and this is his season to start this process. I wonder if this true and also if he can actually do it. In more realistic Atletico London news: Ateltico Madrid are lining up a move for Chelsea duo Filipe Luis and Juan Cuadrado with Ateltico Madrids Arda Turan going the other way.
I think they are valued around the same. Sell or swap. My understanding is that Turan is a player in the Hazard mode. Quick feet - winger or central - dribbling skills, etc. A more useful player than that Cuadrado? Hazard, Willian, oscar and Turan. 4 players covering 3 key positions. Turan is older. 28. Not quite too old. but not young either in footballing terms. Apparently it is between us and Barcelona for his services, although I wonder how Real the Barca interest is. And we still need some more cover in CM for Fabregas. Fab really faded fast towards the end of last season. It would be great to have a younger understudy for him.Perhaps Ross Barkley or Wilshire could fit the bill? That is correct. I always thought Luis was rather pricey at the time. In hindsight I am not sure why we didn't just suck it up and pay the English tax for Chelsea supporter and young English lb Luke Shaw. The Shaw ship has sailed now, but I think we would benefit from more English & homegrown players in the squad. Maybe we return to Arsenal for a left back and sign Kieran Gibbs? Or we stick with the best rb in the league at lb and Ivan at rb and bring in Jay Dasilva from the youth team for a few games? 17 - is that too soon? Loic Remy is off to Arsenal or so the rumour goes. Maybe we need another striker?
Barkley has it all to prove at this point, so I don't really see him as a serious option yet (or ever, potentially). He's got a few interesting tools but a bit like Wilshere, it's unclear whether or not he understands the game well enough to ever fully harness them. He obviously still has room to grow and in theory Martinez is the perfect coach to bring him along, but he hasn't shown enough yet to warrant Chelsea's interest, IMO. He doesn't really strike me as a Jose type, in any case. Part of the reason Jose doesn't have a great record with youth is that he's so risk-averse, and young players can often be a bit reckless/careless. Oscar/Hazard are so mature in the way they play the game (apart from being extraordinarily talented) that it hasn't really been an issue with them, although Hazard has obviously been criticized on occasion. In contrast, Moyes was so cautious with Barkley precisely because his game lacked that same maturity, and I don't think he's ironed it out yet.
I do not think he will ever do so @schafer Having a 40m valuation after a couple of good performances is not the way to develop a young player with serious tactical deficiencies.
I'm a fan of Barkley, but there is the question of what his best position is. He is at the best place possible at the moment. He can work with Martinez and mature. As the two poets above have said though, he may never reach his potential.
That is a potential problem for us in a nutshell. I think that Jose really has to be just a little bit more risky if we want to reach the dizzying heights that we are capable of. Can he do it? Just a little bit more risky? [probably not ] Centre forward better than Harry Kane http://www.cityam.com/212790/i-m-better-centre-forward-insists-barkley
While I think that's a part of it, the bigger issue is the demand that he win "now" at all stops. That doesn't leave room to let any players make mistakes, your or not. He has played younger players he though were good enough - like Santon and Varane, for instance.
Santon was more out of necessity, I think. Anyway, minor updates to the squad, please. I hope MVG can stay healthy.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet - McEachran is set to join Brentford. Never really panned out, hope he does well there
Outside of last season and the knee injury I'm not sure he's been injured much (MVG). Maybe he won't be with us, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was. Jose used him a lot before the ACL tear as a 21 year old unknown.
He played in every match up to the COC match that he ruined his knee in. Plays he was one of our best players in preseason.
Our lack of activity so far is....interesting. By this time last year we had announced Cesc and Costa. Jose was clinical in capturing who he wanted quickly. The fact we let Cech go without having agreed terms with another GK is....interesting.
i agree, seeing targets getting snapped up, or at least links being made for other teams and their targets, without much noise or sense of urgency on our part is......interesting . Turan is off the table by the way, official to barcelona. for a lot of money. i'm not too bothered honestly.
On the flip side Cesc and Costa were both very available, obvious and relatively easy targets, not to mention neither were exorbitantly expensive.