Don't worry with the likes of the " mr dependables" Wes Brown and John O'shea we will cope very well----- oh just wait a minute !!!! Great chance for the Likes of Smalling, Jones and Evans to stake their claims although we have some very tough games coming up against our main rivals so hope captain Vidic is back soon
Dissapointed Rio is going to miss the Arsenal game. Hoping he was gonna give a #Stay on your feet shirt to Gervinho. Oh well
I think that is wildly optomistic unfortunately. I remember saying a couple of seasons ago that we should have sold him and being slaughtered for it. But a player is only of use when he's on the pitch. As soon as it was revealed that his injury problems were back related, it was clear that he was going to miss a lot of football. We could probably have still got a fairly sizable fee for him a couple of years ago and re-invested that in a centre back who would have been fit most of the time. Thankfully, we do have decent cover there now and if Jones gets his chance, I believe that he'll take it.
I don't get all the hype about Jones to be honest. He looks very raw to me and at the moment Evans is the more accomplished defender. But the way that SAF rates him must mean he has something about him.
Vidic looked like a Turkey for his first half a season with us, give the lad time.I think he will be class for us.
As a Chelsea fan in peace I must say that I have been impressed with Smalling immensely the last few months, whether it be right back or centre back, Jones may even play more games in midfield than defence such is his versatility, but for a big price tag he cant afford to be sitting on the bench too long, something that stalled the once promising careers of Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Pennant and unless he moves on Adam Johnson
fergie said vidic will be out for a couple of weeks,rio and rafa out for at least 6 and evra to be back for the spurs game,as long as we get no more injuries we will be ok,hopefully fletch and AV will be back soon too
Agreed. But Evans has come up through our youth team and has had plenty of time in the first team. So I would be kind of disappointed if he wasn't more accomplished than Jones. Nothing against Jones, think he's quality. As for Smalling biggest surprise of the season last year, I remember after we signed him I watched him the next game he got at Fulham. Thought it was going to be the worst transfer ever. Glad I was wrong though
That is true. I do appreciate why there is hype, but I'm not sure he is as fantastic or the potential to be as amazing as some people make out. Personally I think Smalling is the better out of the two young English defenders and I thought Chris vastly outshone Phil at the u21 Euros this summer. I did say this on 606 back in the day that I wasn't surprised by the Smalling transfer. I watched many of Fulham's games in the Europa league, I think he made his debut against CSKA Sofia away and looked ridiculously composed.
Evans is also more than four years older than Jones, which is a big difference for young centre backs. Jonny seems to have learnt from his mistakes in 09/10 and come through stronger, whilst Jones still hasn't really faced that sort of character test yet. When he does, he should come out of it stronger and more accomplished, much like Evans, Vidic, Ferdinand, Terry, Carragher and pretty much all other decent centre backs.
