Gundogan reportedly close to a move back to City, as Barcelona can't afford to pay him and Olmo at the same time. That's the sort of move we should be all over imo. World class player oozing with experience and the winning mentality we're desperately short of. Pay him what he wants on a 1-2 year contract and let the youngsters learn from one of the best.
Would love Spurs to sign Gundogan, great talent, leadership and experience. Sadly will never happen, clever by City if they get him back as I don’t think he’s lost much since he left.
Not that he was someone many of us wanted when previously linked but Tosin isn’t in Chelsea’s Europa Conference squad along with Sterling, Chilwell and Fofana. They play this (and presumably win) before announcing their squad for the league/ group phase but it’s looking bleak for him already.
Apparently it was only an admin error and Tosin has in fact been included. The error was probably caused by the fact that Chelsea's admin has to scroll through dozens of pages to see the whole squad. Not even they are stupid or cold enough to cut a player they've literally just signed.
For most players, the honour of being teammates with Timo Werner before they retire is one that is too good to turn down.
Tottenham Hotspur named best-run professional soccer club in England according to an organisation called "FAIR GAME" despite like of pots! Say what?
The number of league games played in the five years since joining the Mousers are...interesting Saltypool: 0 Preston: 61 Schalke: 9 Mainz: 33
I have to say. I am SO glad we didn't sign Mudryk and Chelsea decided to hijack that deal ahead of us. Maybe he's struggling with the relentless changes all the time; maybe it's the lack of playing time; maybe it's the lack of stability - who knows? But each time I watch him, he seems so far off it as a footballer at the elite level. And whilst I know cohesive environments and good coaching make a huge difference to maximising a player's potential, I'm just not sure what Arsenal saw in Mudryk that had us ready to spend over £55m on the Ukrainian. Looks as if we dodged a huge bullet. Especially as our second choice, Trossard, has been superb and was only £26m instead. That deal seems like an absolute bargain in comparison. Mudryk seems to lack the basic fundamentals. Doesn't know when to press, doesn't know when to pass, doesn't know when to combine or take a player on, doesn't know how to retain possession. He's not great at shooting, he can't really operate in tight spaces, he can't cross that well and he's not great at either cutting inside or taking players down the byline to create chances/space for others. All he has is speed and occasionally some skills, but that's it. Not much footballing intelligence there. If a team doesn't give him acres of space to run into or if defenders constantly back off him when he's got possession (Most PL teams don't give you that luxury), what purpose does he serve? You'd think that if he has another poor season, Chelsea will need to cut their losses. Baring in mind this guy was being spoken about as a potential Ballon D'Or winner and someone who could be as good as Eden Hazard... Never mind. Just the 7 years left on his deal to go...
Far be it from me to ever rush to the defence of anyone or anything associated with that scummy little football club, but one thing is a near-certainty when it comes to young players and their development: Stability. And that's the one thing (apart from ethics, honesty, basic respect for humanity etc.) that Chelsea haven't been able to provide for a few years now. Back when they were signing players in their prime, the constant changing of manager didn't matter so much - an experienced player can take it in his stride. But now they've got the traditional managerial instability, added player instability, and then thrown a load of youngsters into the mix. It's a recipe for many, many casualties and a lot of wasted potential. A lot of Spurs fans have said the same thing about Oliver Skipp (who recently left the club). Injuries and constant changing of manager denied him the stability he needed in the formative years of his career in order to flourish into a top player.
Chelsea need to trim appx 10-12 players from their 42-man squad by next week. I sincerely hope clubs aren't stupid enough to actually submit bids for their players before deadline day. Get them over a barrel and they'll practically be giving players away.
Most of the excess are youngsters who will go on loan. They only need to sell Arrizabalaga, Chilwell, Sterling and Lukaku.
