I make this the fourth hamstring injury of his career. Numbers 1 and 3 kept him out for almost five months each. Extremely injury prone player as well as generally just not being very good. No idea why we'd keep him for next season.
Mainly as we can't shift him until January With this one, though, two things come to mind i.) He almost literally came back from his previous hamstring injury in the last couple of weeks, which does beg the question if he either came back too soon or if he overdid it in training ii.) IIRC the reason the hamstring injury that ruled him out for half the season in February hit so hard was because he was one of the various players Conte insisted on playing in spite being obviously injured, which worked about as well as expected
Exodus Watch: Lo Celso Special Matteo Moretto claims that Napoli, Real Betis and Aston Villa are all looking at Lo Celso Javi Miguel, meanwhile, claims that Lo Celso is on a list of players Xavi has requested for Barca which also includes Joao Cancelo and Oriel Romeu
Alasdair Gold cast some light on this one: the surgery, which Sess was hoping to avoid, is to fix his persistent hamstring issues instead of a new injury https://www.threads.net/t/CukZJ9gN3RM
Soloman looks a really good buy. Only 23 with decent PL and international experience, a 1 in 5 goal ratio and on a free. When did we last have a potential 10 goal a season winger / AM? (Not including Bale) - Ginola?
Feel for the guy - even more so if the ongoing problem sits with the club mismanagement of his condition. But at some point you have to draw a line in the sand. And particularly with that type of injury likely to massively and permanently impact his key (original) skillset.
Mike McGrath claims we're looking at Conor Gallagher as a Hojbjerg replacement Hopefully not, as while Gallagher is better suited to being the base of a midfield three his passing is incredibly sideways (that's actual sideways, not enforced by tactics sideways) and we'd likely pay at least the same amount we'd receive for selling Hojbjerg to sign him
Probably worth asking if him likely being out until September at the earliest might nudge van de Ven forward, given we're down a left-sided defender
Callagher would be an upgrade on Hojbjerg in my opinion, he has the legs to get around the pitch and to press, unlike Hojbjerg who is just not mobile enough or good enough technically. Either way, we should be looking at upgrading PEH or adding another CM, especially with Bentancur`s fitness issues.
Not really seen anything in Gallagher that makes me want him at Spurs. Had a decent loan at Palace, last season at Chelsea looked alot like Harry Winks
I think it depends where he plays. In more advanced positions he probably has a bit more about him. Presses with a lot of energy. I don’t think of him as someone who excels in deeper positions but I think he had to play there sometimes because Chelsea’s midfield group is weird.
While there is valid concern about whether Hojbjerg's legs have gone, which certainly looked to be the case from March onwards last season, is Gallagher really the player we need to be the hard-pressing CM? If that's what we're after there's surely plenty of other places to find one, be it taking a look at Leeds or Southampton players who could do a job for us, while there's plenty of options that fit that remit in the Bundesliga who are potentially gettable
Knowing Levy as we do, I can only be positive we'll sell the players heading into the final year of their contract (Kane being the obvious exception), as he'll be loath to lose them for free. So in addition to Winks, that's Hugo, Perisic, Sanchez and Dier. The latter looks like he's insisting on staying, so that's a total 4 players definitely out. Everyone else is a big maybe imo as Levy will be tempted to loan them out for 'one more try' in an attempt to raise their market value by £5-10m for January or next summer. So if we clear 5 players that'll be par for course. Anything more is a big plus imo. I think that 5th player will be whoever out of Hojbjerg or GLC gets the best offer.
Of course, with Sessegnon having hamstring surgery, now Dan KP mentions that Fulham, Palace, Everton, Forest, Benfica and Marseille were all looking at him...
