You'd be amazed how many people who use this forum sleep well knowing they understand things which you clearly don't...
Saha? You're wrong there I'm afraid. Saha was very much a regular but was plagued by injuries. In the first 4 months of the 2007/8 season, him, Tevez and Rooney were played in different combinations and he was brilliant. I'm convinced he would've gone on to have an incredible season for us that year, but as with previous seasons his knee played up and he was out for almost the rest of the season. He was most certainly not bought to sit on the bench or to prevent him playing for any rivals.
I don't know about that, but quoting Saha is completely wrong. I'm trying to think of a player we bought to stop a rival and I honestly can't think of any. However, I agree that there was a period when Chelsea were buying up players to sit on the bench and virtually wrecking careers. Shaun Wright Phillips was another. But they weren't doing it to stop rivals buying them. They did it because they could. They had so much money and compared with today, the cost of £15m was fck all to the likes of Abramovich. It was more a case of the boy in the sweetshop.
Saha was very much a bit part player before the knee injuries racked up For example, in his first full season at Man Utd in 2004-5 he'd get starts in low priority games such as the Season Killer Cup or matches against the Birminghams (Birminghamses?) of the league, and maybe feature in blocks of games where Ryan Giggs was being rested for the final push Admittedly he did get more starts the following season, although ow much of that was down to van Nistelrooy getting tapped-up by Los Ladrones on the eve of the season as opposed to anything else is one for pub arguments, although it does have to be said that towards the end of 2006-7 he was once again back to cameos against decent teams and starts against the Charltons (Charltonses?) of the league as Rooney and Ronaldo were firmly established as the preferred starting lineup and Henrik Larsson was certainly getting picked over him
Sarr and Gil have been impressive(to me anyway) in recent appearances. They are not out on permanent loan unlike various Chav and Manure players
He was injury prone from the off tbh. He played more than enough games when fit to dispel any notion of him being bought to prevent any rivals buying him. That's just untrue.
Exactly. They look impressive yet cant get game time. Likewise Gil has been out on loan how many times?
In the case of Chelsea it certainly was to stop teams buying them Parker was the first blatant example, as he was being linked with a few decent teams - and the fact Charlton were sitting in 4th when Chelsea made their move, with Alan Curbishley suggesting his head was turned when they came knocking, does make it more obvious what was going on there Ross Barkley and Danny Drinkwater are more recent examples of Chelsea doing this, as we were definitely in for Barkley that summer, while Drinkwater was a target for (IIRC) Arsenal, and in both cases Chelsea flashed the cash and kept them out of reach, with Barkley being a bit part player while Drinkwater has been on loan for years at this point as if he was one of the army of U21 players they loaned out every year
Sarr was loaned back to his selling club and Gil went on loan to Valencia for one year, He joined us as part of the deal which took Lamela to Sevilla,. Both have had starts in the last few weeks
What makes that somewhat aggravating in Sarr's case is that he's looked impressive when he's been given chances, while Hojbjerg has looked jaded ever since the WC...and yet who is the preferred starter of the two without question if both are fit to play? It's similar to the ouroboros we have with Skipp at the moment: he doesn't get regular minutes because he's rusty after injury, but that rust won't fall away until he gets some regular minutes in his legs, but he won't get those regular minutes because he's rusty, and so on, and so on, and so on... Oh no, I haven't just reignited the 352 debate by mistake have I...?
Agreed, problem is we won’t likely see much of them any longer now that others are back fit as our manager hates anyone that’s labelled young and promising. Richarlison’s immediately jumped ahead of Gil as we’ve seen the last two games whilst Sarr didn’t get on the pitch vs City and likely won’t again tomorrow night, nor any other game.
Spurs give 6 points to Arsenal. I think this is our season of giving to the unwashed! Please stop!!!!
The annoying thing with that Narrative is that, technically, it's not true based on Romero and Kulusevski being regulars, plus Skipp was a regular until he got injured last season The problem is that Conte wants to make it true by utilising the same eleven players every week unless somebody is injured, which is where Sarr and Gil currently find themselves while Spence is probably hitchhiking up the M1 looking to secure himself a loan
