so....i agree that selling Fab if we can get a decent fee may be worth it. and i would agree if someone said he's not a great defensive player, but that's not what you said. fab, to his credit, hustle's his @SS off. more than i've ever seen in the past he's tried to make himself in to a better occupier and closes down aggressively. he had to, or he wouldn't be selected. i think just saying he's not a great defensive player is lazy. if you haven't seen how he's transformed his game is a discredit to the amount of work he's clearly put in with chelsea the past two seasons. is he gonna be able to make any of the spectacular defensive tracks and tackles of kante? no way. but he absolutely knows that in Conte's midfield, if you aren't working hard to track back or apply defensive pressure you simply aren't selected. so while i would still say selling him (and for the love of god replacing him with someone that has real quality) is okay, digging on his workrate i think is incredibly unfair. he's fought tooth and nail to stay relevant in this team.
I don’t think he’s a bad person or anything, but I am definitely missing the effort you’re seeing. The WAGNH article called it “legs” rather than effort, so maybe that’s it, but the effect is the same. All I see is the games, so I don’t have another reference point for how hard he’s fought to stay relevant.
yea games. i watch those. and yea he's slow but he's aware and hustles all the time. watch when we're sitting in the low block on defense. he's shuffling laterally all the time to help coordinate pressure on the ball.
I'd have to agree. Fab is slow coming back but he understands the position and tactics very well which helps make up for speed. I'd keep him around one more year but with one eye looking for a replacement.
Speed has never been part of his game. And now he's old in soccer years. I don't know how that translates into what Sarri wants, but he'll probably stick around. We need more vet presence.
Zenit confirm new manager - not Sarri. https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation...-coach-sergey-semak-who-is-not-maurizio-sarri
Apparently we met Laurent Blanc after seeing our insulting 4M bid rejected for Sarri. Circus continues. Whatever.
We have a fine manager already in place. Won trophies in Italy. Won trophies with us. He's a massive whinger when things are bad. He's fine when things are good. Sounds like the majority of people on the planet - especially the subsection of those who are premier league managers.
So it's known that we are in talks with Sarri and essentially looking for a new manager. What if we don't find one that matches the clubs vision. Why would Conte want to stay another year? Where is the motivation to do well for a club that doesn't believe in you? I just don't see this going well. And on top of it all, if Hazard doesn't like it he'll be out the door too.
i agree, it's hard to see the path towards a good summer and good feeling going in to next season at the moment. with the world cup effectively shortening the window for deals as well. is hazard out if conte stays? or is he out if we don't sign better players? conte is a professional and a die hard competitor so i think he'd still try hard if he was manager next season, but knowing the club just failed to replace you isn't a great confidence booster. this needed to be wrapped up in the first week. but napoli are a nightmare to deal with.
Let's not blame Napoli here. If we really want Sarri, we just need to up our bid by 3M and there will be no negotiations. He has a release clause for a reason. If the board wants to continue penny pinching, go ahead but don't blame Napoli. I hate the toxic nature of our club right now. Nothing will stay long term unless there are changes at the board level.
yea that's fair actually. i had forgotten about that part. napoli are still horrible to deal with, but in this case you're right. though it is rather funny that they have a new manager and their negotiating position is "yea we have no problem paying for two managers this season". which....of course is basically what we'll be doing as well.
We also don't know who or what the board is. And what the ******** has Sarri done with us to deserve this influx of talent that's being rumored? Seri, Fakir, Koulibaly, ********ing Icardi, Bailey. Give that to Conte and I think we'll be pretty good.
I think that we are beginning to realise the importance of bringing in players early. Settling the team in. With that in mind I predict that our new manager David Moyes will bring in Andy Carroll on deadline day. . . . okay, so that was a joke, but then I just had a sense of un-controllable panic.
Not from what I have heard. Post May 31, Laurentiis can ask for whatever fee he wants. As he has a contract with Sari, he can keep paying his paltry 1.5M salary unless someone meets his evaluation.