I never gave a toss when we sold him but it's proving to be a massive mistake by the club and those that should know better.
Next season is his real test but for now he's doing far better than I ever thought he was capable of. Can't even dislike the guy. ![[sad]](../images/smilies/sad.gif)
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We didn't think much of De Bruyne either.
Of course, there's no guarantees they would be what they are today if they stayed at Chelsea. Sometimes you have to play under a manager that suits your game and buy into his beliefs.
They could play football so obviously not Jose's cup of tea.
As you say, at the time I dont remember anyone going mad about it. Ditto De Bruyne.
Easy to be wise after the event but the reality is, it was the right decision at the time. At that time, neither of them would have got ahead of Hazard and Willian, who have actually since gone on to help us win two League titles and been club players of the year.
Many of the people who slag off Jose for “not giving them a chance” are the same people screaming whenever Conte plays Bakayoko or Morata, and writing them off.
Ultimately, this club rarely signs bad players but you can’t play all of them all of the time, and you can’t keep all of them in the hope they’ll all end up having great seasons a few years down the line.
Spot on famous.
De bruyne wouldn't have turned in to the player he has today if he didn't leave us for regular football. He looked absolutely sh1t for us, no complaints from me when we got 20m for him.
As you say with salah, he wasn't as good as hazard/Willian back then, we won 2 out of 3 premier league titles with them and salah was sold for a profit as he wanted to play regularly.
See also lukaku, we sold him for a hefty 30m at the time, considering the market back then and what he'd achieved, that was a very good fee from Everton, which paid for Diego Costa, who again helped us win 2 premier league trophies and was then sold for over 50m.
The player i think could be very useful in our team now is cuadrado at RWB! But he was wrongly used in a front 3 with us.
As I say mate, I had no issues with us selling KDB, Lukaku or Salah. I hated selling Mata but it could be argued he's not been better since his move and we had his best years. It could also be said players like JT, Frank, Drogba, Cech flourished under Jose.
My point is not to slate managers. They have a way of playing and not all players fit that. I do worry someone between the manager and the boardroom has made a boo boo...if there is such a person/position now/then. Not sure I even put that in the file under 'Michael Emenalo' tbh. I saw him more as recruitment than sales but I don't know for sure.