Cech (£7m), Zouma (£12m), Ramires (£17m), Mikel (£16m), Salah (£11m), Remy (£10.5m), Drogba (free). Total: £71.5m. Chelsea's bench cost more than our team. To be fair though, our bench normally does, too! I think it did yesterday.
Last night was without a doubt the best game I've been too at the Lane for a good couple of years. It's fair to say that we've not been too great at home in recent seasons so yesterday's performance and result was something to really cherish, especially when you take into account the opposition. Atmosphere was also great, WHL was near back to it's best and it makes the result even better knowing there was a great vibe around the place. Thought we played really well, both teams had good spells but we were by far the more dominant and 5-3 made it look somewhat of a closer game than what it should have been. Arguably, Chelsea's goals could all have been prevented but it's not something I'll focus on considering we played blinding on the front foot. Kane rightfully grabbed the attention again but I thought Chadli had his best game in a Spurs shirt. He's been impressive this season and last night's performance has capped off a good season for him so far. Ivanovic and the CB's just couldn't handle his tricky wing play and coupled with Kane tearing Cahill a new one, it was great to see what is considered one of, if not the best defence in Europe absolutely destroyed. Vertonghen is also getting back to the form we saw from him in his debut season, which is great for us, especially considering Fazio and the other CB's haven't overly impressed. Something that made the result even more sweeter is that we had 4 academy products (plus Rose and Walker who we signed at a young age for small fees) against a team that with Terry aside, cost an absolute combined fortune managed by an arrogant **** in Mourinho. It was a true win for football. Great way to start 2015,
Match Income say he was on £10,500 a week when we loaned him to Norwich a couple of seasons ago (although that site does come across as a tad shonky...) although he signed a new contract since then.
I have no idea but it just went up considerably! As a side note, I am frankly dreading the day he gets an England call up... just imagine the overly exuberant "he's our saviour" hype followed by mass media derision when he doesn't score a hat-trick every game. I just hope he manages to stay immune to that nonsense now the World Cup is not for another 4 years!
In terms of the current market, probably about £20m - £25m right now when you consider age, form and the fact he's English. Give it another 6 months and if he's still playing like he is now, stick another £10m on top, probably more if you factor Levy into the equation
I thought that both he and Townsend had a lot of joy because they did something that they both tend to shy away from, which is mixing things up. They were happy to come inside, as usual, but they also went down the line a lot and were also happy to bring their fullbacks into play on the overlap. It gave Chelsea's defenders a lot to think about and forced their fullbacks onto the back foot, while creating space in the middle for Kane and Eriksen.
I thought we scored 5 very good goals but the three we conceded must be a bit worrying for the manager!
Yeah, Chadli was brilliant. I wrote him off after last season and it's great to be proven wrong. His finishing was what worried me most, but the shots he took yesterday were class, he hit the post twice(one was offside) with what were really smart shots. His finishing in general has been excellent this season and he works very well to link up with Kane. Speaking of finishing, I saw the Rose goal again earlier, it wasn't as easy as I thought at the time and he really hammered it into the corner. A real striker's finish from a full back.
Arsene Wenger has faced Jose Mourinho in the league on 9 occasions. He's won none and Arsenal have scored four goals in total.
After Eriksen, Chadli was one of the players out of the 7 from last summer that I was really excited to see at the Lane, mainly because I watch a lot of the Eredivisie and while it was Ajax that generally had my main attentions, Chadli was someone making a name for himself at Twente and was one of the league's best players in his final season, so even after what's fair to say a disappointing debut season with us, I still held hope for him to come good, I think Cove actually mentioned that Chadli is a slow starter and it seems he's right on that as I think he looks completely different to last season. His finishing is getting like his Twente days, neat and precise, and like you mentioned his link up play with Kane is impressive. Yeah Rose's finish was really good, not just for the finish itself but the fact that he was brave enough to hit it due to Cahill lunging in recklessly. Cahill was lucky to have stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes, the lunge on Rose was dirty and deserved a yellow and you could argue that he should have been carded for the penalty too - not to mention the kick and stamp on Kane which should have been a straight red! Hopefully the FA picks up on that.
Not everyone has the advantage of working within the club. Soldado has not lived up to his price tag, lamela has got a huge amount to do before I think he's worth his price tag. So from an outsider looking in..I still question what Baldini has actually done apart from help his former employers out by being willing to pay 30 million for lamela. That is what I see unless and until the above mentioned players come good...prolifically good...on the pitch.
Baldini wanted Benteke, AVB overruled him in favour of Soldado. In regards to Lamela, there is one part of the deal that does stick out: Roma failed to qualify for European football for the 2013-14 season, and told Rudi Garcia that one of Lamela or Miralem Pjanic would have to be sold - and Garcia opted to keep Pjanic.
Chadli 8.5/10 Eriksen 8.5/10 Soldado 6/10 Lamela 6/10 Capoue 5/10 Chiriches 4.5/10 Paulinho 1/10 Vorm 7/10 Davies 6.5/10 Stambouli 6/10 Fazio 5/10 Average 5.5-6/10. Would we not have done just as well or better without a DoF ?
Btw, i reckon poch has got to take some credit for the imrovements in chadli and eriksen this season.
None at all, unfortunately! And Mourinho gets away with basically calling Dowd a fat twat. O.k. So it's true, but I am led to believe it allegedly brings the game into disrepute. But, apparently it doesn't. Nor does letting Cahill get away with a blatant assault on another player! . But, of course, there's no favouritism!....
