That is true. The number of stress injuries the kids have collective picked up has been really problematic.
After we went out against PSG it was one game a week so it will have been normal training and he still didnāt pick him. As for the 2 games a week training those not having played take part in more vigorous sessions.
Yes, as a side away from the core of the regulars. That was precisely the point i was making.
Would we really pay a bloke Ā£80-Ā£100k a week with little to no expectations of him contributing in his first 12 months? Heāll be 28 in October so heās not exactly a long term project either.
Personally I think we took a swing and for whatever reason itās not really worked. Maybe Slot doesnāt fancy him, maybe heās struggled with fitness, maybe a combination of a bunch of factors. But if wants to be in the Italy squad for the world cup heās going to need to play more than he has this season. I just donāt see that happening.
If it wasnāt a World Cup next summer, I think he would stay another season and we would see whatās what. But the Italian manager just made it very clear that he will only pick players who are playing more regularly for their club.
I think that factor, more than anything else, will sharpen Chiesaās focus in the direction of an exit.
It will be a shame, as I think he has quality, at least to be a rotation option for us, but I will more than understand if he moves on due to the World Cup.
Napoli have some money. We should get our money back for him. I canāt stand the penny pinching where they try to loan players, and say we might give you a few Lira in a yearās time. Nope! It will be a modest price, but we should recoup our dough.
I donāt think we can underestimate the attraction of hedging against not being able to find a deal with Mo and finding a player who was drastically undervalued who we would have the luxury of taking the first year to rebuild him physically. We signed him for 10m. We only need to sell him for 15m and weāve made all our money back even at a salary of 100k a week.
At 28 ālong termā has to be taken in context. Obviously we were not hoping for a decade of success with him. But more that his value was viewed as over the length of his contract with little need or expectation to get productivity out of it early. In sports that sort of āprepare to replace a star before heās left approachā is common enough, at least in well run sides.
If he does get moved on this summer this most likely explanation is seemingly that the uncertainty over Mo has ended and so rather than having 2 players in the same position both with only a couple of years of value left weād move Chiesa on and look to replace him with a more legitimately longer term option.
@RER you can laugh but you responded to a point that the sort of training Chiesa was mostly involved in was not the sort that really put him in a contest with the guy wearing the shirt by pointing out that he trained a lot with the kids and reserves while the starters were getting ice baths and massages. And that was supposed to argue against my point? And Iām the one who made a laughable point?
Italy havenāt been at the last 2 world cups and currently sit 9pts behind Norway in there group. I donāt think theyāll make this World Cup either.
Because you conveniently failed to address the first point. After going out of the Champions league we played 9 league games all just once a week so regular training. Then 4 of those essentially became dead rubbers yet he appeared in 3 games came on for the last 8 minutes in 2 and did 63 in the other thats 81 minutes only 10% of the available playing time. This seems to suggest he wasnāt doing enough in training to even get even then.
Maybe I should have said he would plug the gap during Salahās absence ā¦
The article says that Elliott to Brighton rumour originates from the tabloid that shall not be named. That said, the links to Brighton have existed for long but I think itās more some social media wishful thinking.
It would be a good move for him to be honest. Itās the kind of environment where he could thrive, especially with Millie in his ear every day in training ![]()
FSG out. Nat is better than Maguire
Free or fee?
He still has a year left somewhat incredibly, so I assume thereāll be a fee of some kind⦠albeit probably not a very big one.
Buy back clause?
Do not ever buy back clause?
Iāve got a real soft spot for Nat Phillips.
Iām really surprised he still has a contract.

