Sorry for the double post, but BBC Sport reporter Ben Smith stating Chalobah and McEachran can go out on loan to Premier League clubs. Would love to see Chalobah go to Everton for the season, in place of Fellaini, would get game time and show his true ability. McEachran perhaps to a lower down club, but looking around them I am not sure who would take him.
Maybe we could loan McEachran to United, seems they badly need a decent midfielder!! Chalobah to Everton is a great shout BTW if Fellaini goes.
BBC Radio 5 live just reported that they have seen Romelu Lukaku at Everton's training ground!!!! If this is true it better be a loan..though I was hoping he would get a run with us, if this turns out to be a permanent deal I wont be happy.
So inevitably we let one of our forwards go. Im sure many will be disappointed it's Lukaku instead of Ba. However I think he'll get more game time at Everton and come back even stronger to us. Overall I think we had a good window but clearly a top striker was a priority and it didn't really work out. I guess it depends on what Eto'o can offer but don't think we can really rely on Torres to fire us to the title. Willian I think will turn out to be a great signing though and De Bruyne back from loan is like another new signing. Best bit of business we did yesterday was keep Mata!!
Not overly impressed with this transfer window to be honest. We got a player I cannot stand (Disgusting Eto'o) Two attacking wide players we didnt really need (Willian and Schurrle), because we have Oscar, Mata, Hazard, De Bruyne, Marin and Moses. I thought we would get one of Falcao, Cavani, Lewandowski or Rooney. And I still think we will come unstuck at CB as the season progresses. If Luiz gets injured and we have to partner Cahill and Terry at the back, any team with pace will destroy us. And we loaned Lukaku again! And there I was in another thread saying not to be cynical Eto'o can play, he is just a cnut
Whilst I agree we didn't 'need' Schurrle and Willian, they look better options than Moses and Marin so we've improved the squad in that respect. We also have Eto'o, Torres and Ba (and Schurrle to an extent) instead of just Torres and Sturridge/Ba as it was last year. If Luiz gets injured we do have Ivan, Chalobah and Ake as options as well at C.B. We've kept Lampard, Luiz and Mata, got a half decent back up goal keeper for once and brought in/back a couple of promising youngsters in De Bruyne and Van Ginkel. Was it a perfect window - no, but we pretty much now have at least 2 quality players in every position and a young and hungry squad. For me, with Jose in charge and this squad, we are much better placed than last year to challenge. However I still think we are a world class forward away (subject to Torres form and Eto'o) from winning the league. Also, in the long run will Josh or Van Ginkel be good enough to replace Lampard next season????
Ivan I can understand, Jose will not give the other two a sniff of an appearance for sure. Ramires can effectively replace Lampard. We need someone to replace Makalele role....Essien kind of did it for a while, Mikel is not cut out for it imo. Whilst Willian and Schurrle are better than Marin and Moses they weren't really the priority imo. Strengthening the first XI should be a priority over the strengthening the bench, which is important, but not AS important.
True but our best 11 last season was as good as Uniteds. Consistency, lack of a '20 goals a season' striker and small squad for the amount of games we played cost us. We've improved the squad and we wont have as many games this season. The only real problem I see is the striker position. Will Nando improve his league form, will Eto'o be the answer? time will tell.
Getting close to silly season again. Seen today we've been linked with Shaw, Falcao and Alonso. Any mileage in any of these? Think Alonso would be a great addition myself if he was a free or close to free given his contract up in the summer. Just the player we need. Shaw again would be a great long term replacement for Cole. Buy and loan back seems the obvious deal or wait at least til the summer. Falcao I can't see at all. If we weren't prepared to spend 50 million on a striker in the summer can't see us doing it now. I think we'll wait till the summer bring back Lukaku and probably ship out 2 if not all 3 of the current strikers.
I hear Romeu has been told he will still be part of Chelseas plans if he has a good loan at Valencia. Hes been told due to our lack of cover for that position he can stake a claim.
I would take Alonso and Shaw. Falcao no, he would cost too much. Eto'o will be gone after this season and hopefully Lukaku will be brought back to stay. We still need a new Centre back imo though. We need 1 striker, one central midfielder and one central defender (I. e the makings of a new spine). We have all the periphery players, the wing backs, the attacking midfielders, but are lacking a strong spine. JT and Lamps cannot make that strong spine any more and Drogs is gone and lets face it, those three (and Cech) have been our spine for the last 8-9 years.
In his press conference today Jose said AGAIN that we would not be buying or selling and would assess things at the end of the season. I'm happy with this as it at least gives us the stability that people are craving for. Changing players every chance is no better for stability than changing managers all the time. It also indicates to me that the club has told Jose that this season is for building not winning and they have probably set the target at CL qualification rather than title winning.
I hope it's a good sign too. Jose has on 3 separate occasions now said no transfer dealings in Jan. He'd look a bit stupid now if things changed. (Not sure if it includes loans though)
I take such things with a pinch of salt though. He's not going to come out and say I want to buy a striker in January for numerous reasons. I'd be happy to wait till the end of the season with the exception being a cheeky Lewandowski bid. He's probably Bayern bound but stick 10-15 million on the table and Dortmund would surely take it then it's whether you can convince the player.
Maybe but he's said it 3 times now and would look a bit of a chump if that changed. He could have said something along the lines of keeping our options open or no plans to change but instead he's said,very clearly,no dealings in or out.
Fair enough. I think it's a risk though. Without a striker banging them in, I simple can not see how we can win either of the big 2 trophies. Not that Jan is always the answer but I'm sure Jose was expecting more from Torres and Eto'o in particular. Makes the season long loan of Lukaku look pretty stupid now. Could have brought him back and sent Ba to West Ham.
