If say the lads we sold were available to us now, would they get in the 18 man squad over their replacements? I'll exclude Bale because he was technically irreplaceable like-for-like when we sold him. Lloris, Naughton (yes, I'd seriously have Naughts over the current form of Walker), Dier, Vertonghen, Rose Mason, Bentaleb, Lennon, Eriksen, Chadli/ Sigurdsson Kane Subs: Vorm, Dawson, Huddlestone, Sigurdsson/ Chadli, Townsend, Dempsey, Defoe The bench as you can see would have a huge overhaul in my opinion but there's not much difference to the first XI. We're lacking those standout/ superstar players as YV has mentioned (like a Rafa, Modric, Bale, Berbatov, Ledley etc), or at least players who can perform consistently in the Premier League that allows you to be a solid side that's always competitive (as in the likes of a Gareth Barry, James Milner, Ryan Shawcross, Michael Carrick etc).
I don't think people are thinking this through properly. If we are going to qualify for the CL regularly which ought to be our long-term goal then four things have to be in place We need to improve the club's income We need to have a better squad We need to have a good manager who can get the best out of the squad We need high quality training facilities and support staff to keep the squad in good nick 1 is the reason we're going for a new stadium and 4 is why we've spent so much on the new training ground. Hopefully Pochettino is the answer to 3 but only time will tell. I thought each of Jol, Ramos, Redknapp and AVB might be at one time but they were all found wanting in some respect. 2 is a very difficult one. Every football club in the world is trying to sign better players without breaking the bank. It would be quite surprising if we were much better than average at this but I think there is a logic in what we do. To get our squad up to the standard of Chelsea/Man Utd/Man City we need either to sign 4 or 5 star players or get the current lot to improve. But exactly how good our squad is doesn't matter much. We are likely to come 5th to 7th even if we sign players slightly worse than the ones we have. So we can take lots of risk. We need to identify those players who are never going to be good enough to play for Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd and instead sign players of similar cost who have the potential to improve. Now look at the players we've deliberately got rid of recently - there isn't a single one who would have a chance of a place at one of the current top 4. Almost all our signings at least had the potential to do that. Dempsey, Siggy and Lennon are very good examples - there is no way they will ever now be good enough to play for the likes of Chelsea. Townsend, Chadli and Lamela are not good enough either currently but they might be in the future. So given the choice between the first three and the last three it is obviously better to have the last three because if they turn out for the worse we will still be in the top 7 but if all three of them turn out for the best we will have a reasonable chance of top 4. The same thing applied to Defoe v Soldado. And to Dawson v Chriches and Fazio and Naughton v Yedlin. and Huddlestone and Livermore v Capoue and Paulinho. Some of our signings have not turned out for the best but there are very few examples of us selling players who've got real potential to improve (Boateng might be the best historical example) although any of Sandro, Caulker and Holtby might still prove me wrong
For me, this is not so much about us finishing where we ought to be in the Prem, etc. firstly, IF we finish sixth or seventh it will be down to a combination of luck, and the two outstanding players we currently have I.e. Kane & Eriksen. This is more about a string of listless, poor performances. It's about a defence that has conceded more goals than just about anybody outside the relegation zone. We look no better than an average mid table side.
While I am firmly in the give Poch time camp, my biggest worry is how disorganised our defence is. They are decent players, but something is amiss when they play together, be it coaching, leadership etc
But isn't the difference between a Europa Cup side and an average mid-table side about two star performers? I agree about our defence - when you compare it to say Arsenal's who don't seem to have much better individuals it looks pretty poor. But they have a very established pattern of playing that has been coached into them by Wenger over many years and we don't.
Powerspurs - you are an optimistic sort. What makes you think that Lamela, Chadli and Townsend might become good enough for Chelsea?! Of those three I think Townsend has provided the most evidence for that assertion but still... Can I take it that any player under a certain age who has played for their national team, done alright in something like the Dutch league but never played in the EPL could be considered as potentially being good enough for a team like Chelsea?
If you read my post carefully you will see that I said Dempsey/Lennon/Siggy certainly wouldn't and the new three had a chance. All I'm saying is that a slim chance is better than no chance. In the case of Lamela most people agreed he was class at the time we signed him and I'd bet he will be better than Willian in a couple of years
Well depending on how slim you serve your slices I'd say there's a slim chance Siggy could be signed by a CL team in the future. Hell even Lennon could have a really good season, Chelsea have an injury crisis and he goes there some January.
The figures don't lie, even if yiu don't believe the evidence of your own eyes by watching us. Our defence is bordering on comically inept.
(Sorry Power, don't mean to be nit-picking everything you say but...) You mean most people on here? Most people in the media? Most Roma fans? Cos basically I'd imagine that very few people in this country knew anything about him bar his price tag and his nationality. And that's the trouble with people getting all excited about signings of players they really know nothing about. I assumed that he must be pretty good but the first time I saw him play was in a Spurs shirt and my reaction was "Er, okaaay, I guess he must be nervous" followed the next game by "Okay so this game I'll see little bits of control, little bits of vision or skill or...no - just more terrible touches and poor passing". And it's been like that pretty much ever since. The ONLY cause for optimism in my mind when I have watched him has been solely due to his price tag. And the biggest area of improvement? He seems to have bulked up or learned to use his body better and is more difficult to knock off the ball. Yippee. If he'd been a kid from the reserves who we'd played due to an injury crisis I'm sure that almost all on here would be saying "Championship at best". Instead people (me included to a very tiny degree) still think that he must somehow be loads better than almost all the evidence that we've seen with our own eyes, purely due to the price tag, one season of stats from La Liga and that he's had a couple of games for Argentina. Like Fazio.
When he was being rumoured as a signing the consensus was that he would cost around £30m so he was thought to be an excellent player. In flashes you can see evidence of high skills but no consistency. No one would dream of paying anywhere near that for Lennon or Defoe. That doesn't mean that Lamela will be a success but we signed him for a reason and unless we've discovered things in the last 18 months that proves that reasoning wrong then selling him now could be a big mistake. The same logic applies to Soldado but we've got to find a way to get his confidence back. I'd start him in every game for the rest of the season. There is nothing to lose really in doing that.
I think Lamela is a lost cause. I'd agree with Lenny that we've been lumped with an overpriced, overrated show pony. He's never shown me anything to make me believe otherwise. Soldado, there's a good striker hiding in there somewhere. You see it in ocassional flashes, but can he ever get his confidence back?
With their respective ages i would say that Soldado is more a lost cause than Lamela. The only way i can think of getting something out of Soldado is to play him as one of a 3 behind the striker. His confidence is too shot to be our main goal threat
Sadly, the only way Soldado is going to regain his confidence is is he has a fresh start somewhere else.
I wouldn't be surprised if he was part of a cash + player deal, as that technically limits the loss we'll take on him.
Quite probably true. And unfortunate at that because of the Malignant 7 I think he was actually one of the better players, second only to Eriksen in looking to be a decent player. You can see his class is there in a way that you simply cannot with Lamela - good vision, good touch, nice weight of pass, good technique. Unfortunately his finishing has been woeful from day 1 which is mystifying. I'd still support some intensive confidence work somehow because we know for a fact that he is not a bad finisher. Plus with his age we won't get much for him whereas the very fact that we spent 30m on Lamela means that the football world will probably come to the bizarre conclusion that, two terrible seasons later, he's still worth about 15-20m. Of course if we'd bought him for 15m then he'd be worth about 4-5m about now. Such is the logic of football transfer valuations. I suppose my last word on the phenomenon which is 30-million pound man Lamela is: I may be wrong - there's 30m reasons I may be wrong and surely not everyone defending him is simply blinded by his fee and hype - so I'd say we should sell him if an offer of around 20m comes in but otherwise we can give him another year to show us if he can pass a ball 10 yards or ever go past a defender. My heart genuinely still thinks he might turn out well. But my head is 95% sure that this feeling is totally baseless optimism.
I am one of those that believes there is a genuine star player in there with Lamela, however I'm also concerned at his lack of progress. He started the season quite promisingly, getting in with assists/ build up to goals, the great strike against Burnley and the rabona goal in the Europa but then it just petered out about half way through the season. Before he joined us I remember him being labelled by many sporting outlets as the best U-21 player in Europe and you don't get that sort of title for just being promising, he clearly has/ had shown enough for people to get genuinely excited about and although it was steep, the £30m we spent was not only spent on a good (soon to be great) player but it was also an investment on someone who if we were to sell down the line, would likely make a profit. Players do take time to adapt to new surroundings, I fully appreciate that but I'd just like to have seen in a bit more from him this season, there's glimpses but glimpses won't help you keep your place in the side, something he's found it in recent weeks. It's worth noting though that he's only just turned 23, in my opinion most midfielders enjoy their best years between 24-29 so I think there's a **** load more to come from him (there has to be!). I'd definitely stick by him next season with the understanding that he needs to really kick on now and prove he was worth that £30m fee. If by next Summer he's still being kept out of the side or someone who's seen as a squad player at best, then it may be time to move him on, for his own benefit and ours.
