I’d have had him at Liverpool this season, easily. Maybe not now with Iraola, but definitely with Slot.
Guy was generally quite poor in the PL in his prime. It’s not particularly surprising that Arsenal looked better when they moved him on.
Yes his move to Bundesliga did he the world of good and he was fine for Sunderland last season but if this is a pointer to Alonso’s control I’m glad we didn’t consider him.
He was absolutely excellent in his final year at Arsenal even before he went to Leverkusen to the point that Rice was not an automatic improvement for them. His success there once Arsenal had stabilized under Arteta and then subsequent success in Germany and at Sunderland suggests he is the top quality player people thought he was before he joined arsenal, but maybe struggles more than most when there is a lot of noise and drama around a club.
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All I remember (perhaps wrongly?) is his picking up quite a few red cards?
I would imagine his role at Chelsea would be a bit like Pellegrino’s when Rafa brought him in to help the defence understand better the zonal defence system he was trying to bring in.
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Yeah he was a basket cases for most of his time there. Walking off in tears after getting mercilessly booed by his own fans. Getting “fuck this, I don’t want to be here anymore” style quitter red cards. But that final season he finally clicked.i think it was his first without any reds
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Hmm.
Agree to disagree.
I’m with redfan he seemed to be a walking card. Though to be fair I did and continue to rate Declan Rice more than most on here.
Chelsea say that Enzo Maresca will pay them compensation now he has been confirmed as Manchester City’s new head coach.
They say they “felt let down” after Maresca “unexpectedly and abruptly resigned” last season, intending to succeed Pep Guardiola.
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He’d have been sacked by them by now.
So what does this mean for all those wingers and number 10 types they already have?
Big big money again from Chelsea, especially with no CL this season.
Probably means Arsenal will go for Barcola now.
Or do what they usually do and buy a Chelsea player that has lost their starting place to the latest shiny new signing
Ha, first thing that popped up in my mind as well. Not sure if Chelsea view him the same - perhaps Alonso is planning to use him as a no. 10, a bit like his PL version of Wirtz?
In any case, it looks like another summer where Chelsea are going to buy big and sell big (Fernandez?). I’m not going to try and comprehend how, especially without CL football.
Bah, ffp is gone since long. Nobody cares anymore about that.
I don’t think Chelsea have any FFP worries. They sell a lot of players.
Legitimate transactions or at inflated prices to connected clubs?
Legitimate transactions mostly. They churn a lot of players.
Good for them though I’m surprised.
Having said that, I wouldn’t rule out naughtiness. They did sell themselves their own hotel, so they are not adverse to finding a ‘loophole’
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I believe the new rule is that you can spend no more than 85% of your revenue on football operations. Essentially a few clubs have unlimited money.
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