I remember a younger Bradley completely pantsing Gusto at Anfield.
with gusto!
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How much of that is a Chelsea dysfunction issue? I think they have bought numerous unimpressive players, but also created a context where even good players will struggle. For me the fact he is still getting picked for France suggests he is viewed by people who know him as a better player than he seemed from his typical performance at that circus of a club.
He is now one of their longest serving players for whom they could get decent money. For me its seems most likely that a focus on replacing him is more of a books balancing exercise (having already amortized a big chunk of his fee off the books) rather than about footballing matters.
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In a word, No.
I doubt heās going to look any more energetic until heās had a rest and done a pre-season.
However, we should have been able to address that mid-season given we had the likes of Jones largely twiddling thumbs at times.
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The counter to that would be that Reece James plays well when he can keep his body healthy and on the other flank Marc Cucurella just got himself a move to Real Madrid and has been widely thought of as one of the best full backs in the league for several years.
Iām not particularly invested in this but Iād argue that Chelsea fans have had plenty of chances to watch him, under several different coaches, and they donāt rate him at all.
Iām not sure how much stock Iād put into international call ups. Itās better than not having them of course but for example Djed Spence is somehow starting games at the World Cup and for France Adrien Rabiot is apparently irreplaceable. International football is just weird.
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Well, he did put the tackle in that started the move for Messiās first goal.
Ok, can you think of anything else, apart from waving the imaginary yellow card that is?
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Hope Diomande will be our last expensive (over Ā£65m) signing for a few years and the new coach will be able to improve and develop ācheaperā signings and academy players.
Out of our 8 most expensive signings Iād say Virgil and Ali were totally worth it.
Keita and Nunez never were.
Juryās out on Szoboszlai.
Same goes for Wirtz and Isak but Iāll doubt theyāll ever have one (let alone two) season(s) where they show why we spent over Ā£100m for them.
Hugo on the other hand - I hope he can fully recover from that injury because at the start of the season he looked like a real steal for that money.
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Swings and roundabouts I guess. We made out like bandits on fees for Mane and especially for Salah. More than worth it for VVD and Ali. I guess making that killing on Salah and Mane can make up for the punts on Keita and Nunez. Although Keita did help out here and there with cups and Nunez did somewhat minorly contribute to no 20, especially that Brentford away win. I know it was just three points but at that critical juncture we needed that win to keep our forward momentum so it was quite important.
Szobo, Grav, Macca have been the main midfield of a title winning side so Iād say totally worth it, even if we end up selling one or all of them.
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But 100% yesā¦in fact I would go back to what Jurgen used to say about developing a team by keeping the squad and not rushing to buy a solution every window unless absolutely necessary.
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I think we canāt forget though that in some of these cases we will have been in the ear of the player & or agent for the last year or two hoping to land them - and the expected fees would have been much lower than what it ends up at once the deal gets done.
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I wouldnāt be surprised if we have another Ā£65m+ signing this summer if we do accept an offer for Gakpo. Might end up with another in midfield too depending on who ends up leaving.
Its not about hope. Look at the market thats unfolding before youā¦
Ultimately it comes down to our needs and whether it requires us to dip into the market, in which case, the dynamics of the prevailing situation determines what we payā¦
As for the academy, even when you look at possibly the best case study- La Masia, it does sometimes come in cycles. And this is b4 you consider the negative impact of Brexit, which Barca does not have..
But it also does depend on timing, as we just saw with Munoz.
The benchmark for what is a cheap transfer has gone up significantly. Brighton just signed the young Nigerian winger Zadok for 28m, to put him on their glidepath to the first team, in a few years.
We donāt necessarily have that luxury.
If you are Liverpool, the expectation of having several academy players make the jump in a season is a mirage.
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We did not replace Diaz and didnāt start looking for a Salah replacement until it was confirmed heās leaving.
Leipzig signed Diomande a year ago for ā¬20m and now weāre looking to spend ā¬150m on him and MuƱoz combined. Our success next season depends on those kids being able to deliver rightaway while they arrive late to preseason.
So weāre two years too late which looks lazy and embarrassing but what do I know.
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And when they signed Diomande they projected he would get to his current level in 2-3yrs! We cannot realistically have signed him 2yrs ago to understudy Salah, because he would stagnate.
We are not two years late as that assumes we have been sitting still until Salah left. And in the case of Lucho, we believed we had enough cover, as well as room for Rio to developā¦
Most of what you say is hindsight visionā¦Nobody for instance expected Salah to drop off one year removed from a record season..
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I donāt think you can call it lazy. Salah signed a two year deal but it was cut short to one. We also saw his reaction to being benched for 3 successive games so this summer would have been the time to be lining up a replacement for last year.
And yes, not replacing Diaz was a mistake. But itās not like we sat on our arses last summer or didnāt do more business than any summer in recent memory.
We canāt expect every person to be infallible. We canāt see any mistake as an embarrassment. We canāt just assume the club canāt be arsed because they havenāt done what we want. We brought in what looked to be an amazing group of new players and got two legends to sign new deals. The fact it hasnāt worked out (yet) is just part and parcel of running a football club.
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Nobody expected him to drop off but they should have expected it at some point.
WeĀ“ve seen it time and time again with top wide players. They drop off and then they donĀ“t have it anymore, especially when that speed goes.
We should have been well prepared for the possibility of at least a sizeable drop off and that he would need replacing in 1 or 2 years.
And you think they did not, and have not been planning for this?
They obviously have been scouting hiis potential replacements for a while.
And even if he didnāt drop off, this was always the summer that they would be looking actively for a replacement.
These people are not mugs you knowā¦
No I think they havent.
otherwise they would never ever ever have started this summer with Rio and Gakpo as our complete set of wingers options.
TheyĀ“re not mugs but they behaved like it.
I refuse to believe that we donāt have the pulling power to sign a talented young player like Diomande as a backup to Salah or Gakpo for less than ā¬25m last year.
Another example.
Iāve predicted that Robbo would leave on a free 9 months ago. Expecting the same for Tsimikas next summer. Doesnāt seem that we have an academy player talented enough to be backup (let alone competition) for Kerkez.
So isnāt now the time to identify a ācheapā young player. Bring him in now or loan him out for a year.
Looking how weāve operated recently weāll probably wait until we can confirm Kostas is leaving in April and then weāll sign a leftback Frimpong - ideally with a Ā£40m release clause.
Lazy.
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