Why the fuck are we allowing him to leave in the middle of the season?
Semi Final coming up and we are left with absolutely no creative central midfielder. Can someone come up with a sensible reason why they would sell him now?
Hudson-Odoi, Zola says he is wanted by us, potential to be one of Europe’s finest and a contract offer is on the table. He then says that Willian and Pedro are in front of him so he should be patient and wait.
The solution is simple...GET RID OF BOTH WILLIAN AND PEDRO!
Makes absolutely no sense to sell Fabregas unless someone is coming in that's better. Same as when we sold Ramires in a January transfer window with a CL knock-out impending, versus PSG, I think. No-one came in though, we were light in midfield, and got knocked out.
Another blunder by the board imo
With Willian and Pedro both currently injured (Pedro has had a few niggles this season) I'd expect CHO to play a lot more this month.
Barella, a lad from cagliari who's 20 I think and playing next to jorginho and veratti for Italy already is rumoured to be coming in for about 45m.
Fabregas has been a great bit of business for 27m, fcuking hated him before he got here, but he's won me over with his magic hat. As he wants to leave to play football due to sarri constantly sticking with jorginho, I think selling him now for the rumoured 10m and getting one of our biggest earners off the wage bill who won't play under sarri, isn't bad business, considering we'd lose him on a free in 4 months.
CHO very good today, we must give him some game time now.
Shame about Ruben coming off, he looked gutted, he's going to need some time out by all accounts with a back problem.
Re Willian, he's one of my favourites, but if we were to receive another big bid, I'd like the club to seriously consider it. Surprised they turned down 65-70m from Barca in the summer.
If you follow Jonathan Kydd and Alexandra Church on twitter, they often give interesting insights to stuff that happens / or has happened behind the scenes. For example, when Luiz and Conte fell out after Roma.
According to JK, the Barca bid for Willian never happened.
Fuck business, the team comes first, and selling Fabregas, now, is ridiculous!
"Fuck business'"
Agreed, fuck the business side of football. Do what's best for the team and not what goes into a few pockets off the pitch.
It could be we have someone lined up - doubtful but possible.
Should mean more game time for Ampadu and CHO.
Ampadu as direct cover for the holding midfielder position and CHO on the wing if RLC is needed more in midfield (if he's fit).
I can’t give you a good footballing reason to get rid of Fabregas because I can’t see one, however as we all know too well, clubs regularly make business decisions which don’t make sense if you look at it for purely football reasons. If he goes, I think that’s a bad decision from the club.
As for CHO and these Bayern rumours, I think it’s naïve if he or anyone thinks he’d go and play regularly for a Bayern team that still consistently plays proper old timers like Ribéry and Robben over other younger options. I think he’s being handled exactly right so far and getting rid of two experienced internationals in order to make sure a kid who’s just turned 18 plays every single match for a club with CL aspirations, would be lunacy. No top club would ever do such a thing unless the kid in question was Messi and Hudson-Odoi is not Messi.
![[^]](../images/smilies/approve.gif)
Got cramp vs Forest
Needs to play more 1st team games.
I'm more Sarri and Famous on this. I see bundles of potential but not ahead of seasoned pros just yet. If I have complaint it's that he doesn't get used nearly enough off the bench. Perhaps then he challenges his place rivals but he needs cameos - and not just in games that are done and dusted.
If Willian and Pedro ever become a threat to opposing defences, please let me know. Both are now well past their sell by date, and offer us very little of a goal threat. Both very rarely play two good games in a row.
Hudson-Odoi is a goal threat, as he laid on two great crosses. Anyone who gets Morata scoring goals is definitely worth a place, regardless of his age.
If I’m a full-back, who would I least want to be marking?
There’s only one answer, isn’t there.
Stick the boy in, or lose him, so that Bayern can sell him to Madrid for £150m in five years time.
The Willian / Pedro issue sits firmly with the board. They have to be played, when fit, because there are no other options (other than breaking CHO in) because the board didn't sign anyone else that's better in their positions.
To put that pressure on to an 18 year old would be madness at this stage of his development
Rubbish. An 18yr old doesn’t feel pressure, especially one with that ability.
We'll find out tomorrow night.
Jadon Sancho changed the game. That era of player who grew up in the fantastic England under 17’s squad are not just good enough to be playing now they know they are and they have smarter agents who know that a move to Germany for 3-4 years means they will play more, much much more meaningful top flight games than in England. They can use (Solanke) the best youth team facilities available, move and then pick their own club after getting 150 proper games under their belt. Solanke despite his failed moved was the warning sign that we missed. We have completely mismanaged CHO this season. There is no viable reason not to have played him for proper minutes in meaningful games when you know the quality he has, what his peers are doing and what the rest of European football is doing. The Germans don’t like it especially given how poor their national team are doing but until rules change the influx of talented 17/18/19 year olds into their game on permanent or loan deals will increase.
For me if you look in isolation at game x and say Willian was playing better to be the sub or Pedro has more experience to play again team y then you are not looking at the bigger picture, which Chelsea haven’t ever done when it comes to maximising the potential of their extremely talented players. We are now panicking, Zola and Sarri have suddenly changed tune, they probably have a couple of months to change the way they use CHO otherwise a business decision will be made in the summer.
No excuses anymore. Pedro, Willian, Kovacic, Barkley, Jorginho are not untouchable world class superstars to not allow Ampadu, CHO and RLC to get proper meaningful minutes.
I don't think anyone's suggesting those ahead of our youngsters in the pecking order are untouchable - the question is, would you sell both Pedro and Willian and play CHO every single match instead? That's what OWG was advocating in its post, and that's what I think would be crazy.
There is a middle ground here, which you've alluded to, and which is what I've advocated in my posts elsewhere in this thread. Chelsea have probably been guilty of not going into that middle ground with young players enough in the past, I don't think anyone would deny that.
In terms of the bigger picture of German sides taking young English players and giving them game time, I think it'd be naive of German clubs to assume every single young player is going to do what Sancho has done this season, and it'd be naive of the youngsters to assume they'll be able to do what he's done either. Yes they may get more chances over there but if we're looking at CHO specifically, Borussia are a very different club to Bayern for starters and there's nothing to suggest he'd play regularly there.
There is EVERYTHING to suggest he wont play here though. Thats the starting position, the mindset. Sancho and the others have been given the opportunity, they see that. The 2 biggest German clubs luring 2 of the absolute top young English players from 2 of the richest and most successful English sides of those players lives is obscene management by City and us respectively.
Clearly there is a middle ground and no one needs to be sold but if my option was to sell Pedro and Willian and keep CHO or visa versa it would be an easy decision. I would keep CHO.
Somebody somewhere in the club is accountable for all the Zappacosta's, Emersons, Drinkwater, Bakayoko's etc etc etc. It makes a mockery of investing or even having a youth setup. Recouping £30m for CHO is not a success.