Our two signings in the last week of the window last year shows this is not true. Until he's holding up a Chelsea shirt, it's smoke.
If you want to put words in my mouth, feel free to post whatever you like, sure. Yes, that was annoying, but is not indicative of this being an endemic problem.
It makes sense if you consider we cant find a RWB and Conte wants to move Dave out there. I am for it but I know there are people on this forum who think otherwise.
I can see your point there. If Dave is shifted to RWB, then I guess having Luiz, VVD, Rudiger, Cahill, and Christensen to choose from at CB isn't a bad problem to have. I guess my line of thinking is that, despite his consistency and versatility as a defender, Dave can leave quite a bit to be desired going forward. That, personally, is why I think signing two wingbacks is our biggest need right now. Baker can manage as a fourth-choice CM, and with Kenedy confirmed to be going out on loan, we have no real options at wingback.
I'd prefer not to see Dave out on the wing, but then that's partially because we had the second best defense in England last year, and he wasn't the weakest link. He also wasn't that great out wide when he did play there. Rather than getting VvD, I'd much rather get a dedicated wingback on the right. I'd prefer not to have Baker as our 4th choice CM, as I don't think he's going to be good enough for us long term, and he's really more of am AM. We need someone who's a two way player. As for Kenedy, I've never been very impressed - he's always reminded me of Ramires playing wide; lots of physical tools, but not nearly enough skill. I'm very happy to be proven wrong, but I'm also quite happy he's gone on loan.
Baker is an 8. he's played all over midfield, but he's definitely capable as an 8. now, whether he's at the level we need, i'm not sure. but one of the reasons i've WANTED him to be at that level is because he's the right type of player we've needed for a while. he played in the pivot at vitesse. i really wanted to see him on a loan in the premier league. maybe we still will. but i'd rather have him than anyone i've seen us seriously linked to recently.
In the Koulibaly case, Napoli were commenting on our pursuit. That was obvious. Here, we've gotten "sources", including from goal.com. While I agree, it's entirely possible we're after Drinkwater, nothing is certain. Luiz and Alonso weren't on the radar right until their purchases, while Lukaku was supposed to be a sure thing and yet never happened. As someone once said, sometimes there's smoke because there's a smoke machine. When the Bakayoko transfer took time, there were "rumors" that United were supposedly in for him, which proved nonsense, but they got a lot of play over the course of a few days. The point isn't that it's impossible, the point is that until there's actual substantiation (Conte mentions him, Leicester saying they refused a bid, etc.) it's just a rumor.
I agree with everything here. I don't particularly want Baker as 4th CM, but if we're on some weird sort of budget, I'd prioritize wingbacks over CM. However, I would love for us to get a good box-to-box CM. Our back three is solid, and we have a pretty decent attack on paper (meaning we haven't really had a big sample size for a combo of Morata/Michy/Hazard/Pedro/Willian). It was nice to hear Conte stress the need for more signings because I definitely think that we could use three good ones before the window is up. QUESTION: Did anyone watch Baba last season? If so, how was he? Is there a timetable for his return? I know he played behind Kolasinac last season at Schalke, so I'm sure he was pretty limited.
That may be, but nothing in my posts ignored any part of yours. I know where Baker played at Vitesse, but my opinion is that I don't believe he's an 8 in the Premier League.
Baker has all kinds of qualities to be a B2B in this league. Maybe not at Chelsea level, but he can in this league.
lol, okay bro. "may have been an 8 at youth, can't play that in EPL" completely ignores his entire club level years, all of which he's also played as an 8 regularly, though admittedly not ALL the time. as for your opinion, we can agree to disagree. you can continue to think he's not an 8. and all his coaches can continue to play him as an 8. all that being said, who know what the hell will happen with him. he's showed tons of promise and has been one of my favorite youth players for a long time, but really he should have broken through by now. wherever that position is. this year needs to be a good one for him to have a future at chelsea. it would have been incredible to see someone as completely ambidextrous as him run a midfield and be such a shot threat on either side. his shortcomings at vitesse seemed to be just as much due to not being surrounded by quality players as anything else. i'm going to hold on to a slim thread of hope. at the end of the day, having a youth as 4th choice CM for a 2 man system is what many of us have wanted for a while. just feels a little light considering the number of games and one of those players being a luxury player of sorts in fabregas. we need wingbacks.
His stats from Holland show a good but not great player there, which is dangerous (as the league has been notoriously bad recently at players moving to England), and projects him best as more of an attacking player than as an 8. It's also a bit worrying that he has scored a lot of goals from distance - EPL keepers are better, and those are low value shots. He profiles a bit like Sigurdsson, actually, which in central midfield is....not great? (I'm more down on Sigurdsson than others because so much of his value is off set pieces, but that's moot.) My opinions are that, opinions. They could very well be wrong. But it's not as if they're coming from some random place.
No way Danny Drinkwater comes to Chelsea. No way Antonio Conte will allow it. Just another shit rumors the rags made up. I wouldn't want Bale. Even if he was sold for ~ £65M I think it wouldn't be a wise move. His speed is key to his game and it will only decline over the next few years. Not to mention he is constantly injured and would be even more so due to the physical demands in England. I would love another wide player who is competitive with Hazard / Pedro / Willian but I think we should focus on 2 wing backs and a 4th CM prior to looking at another wide player. Boga really impressed me in the preseason and I wouldn't mind him being our 4th wide player. Dave is a phenomenal player but I wouldn't want to rely on him being our wingback. He wouldn't offer much at all going forward and if we play with Kante / Baka at CM, going forward we really need to have wingbacks that can contribute on the attack. VdV is a great defender but spending £50m+ on him when we have much more important needs would be foolish.
I swear you all are making me want Drinkwater. Besides the fact that I have no earthly idea why he would want to come play the bench, the dude is not the soccer antichrist. I'm rooting for him.