‘James Milner is one of the best left-backs in the league’

Ashley Colbourn

Our readers reckon Chelsea’s summer deals have been done, while the riches given to young players, Leeds’ hopes for next season, and the commercial side of the Ronaldo rumours are also discussed. 

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Youngsters are hyped up way too early – they need to graft

You just have to look at The Class of 92’documentary. Teenagers are treated like superstars and paid superstar wages these days and so their feet are firmly off the ground from a young age.

Many kids of today have a sense of entitlement, even outside of football. Back in the day in the YTS system kids worked and grafted before they were anything. Now they are hyped up and swallowed by the money system.

The kids of today are probably better skilled technically because the coaching has improved but the treatment of those players has gone backwards in my opinion. I remember that Liverpool documentary a few years back that followed the everyday running of the club under Brendan Rodgers.

One thing that really stood out to me was an incident involving Raheem Sterling who was p*****g about in training and disrespecting Rodgers. Rodgers dealt with it but I couldn’t believe that a player of that age (who had not yet broken into the first team) had the b***s to try it on with the gaffer.

foxyfoxes

 

I believe that more than a few British youngsters are good enough to make it to the very top, the problem as everyone knows is we don’t give them enough opportunities – a game or two in lesser competitions or a few minutes here and there in Premier League games is not good enough.

Yet other countries do give their youngsters plenty of opportunities and that’s the reason we than have to pay these ridiculous sums of money for them when they mature and when we should be doing all the harnessing here instead.

No-one can say that all the best young players come from the continent or from South America. It is simply not possible if you look at the infrastructure and money.

Yes talent is available in this country and it is not relatively possible that younger players from overseas are better and can make it and ours cannot.

notnice

 

Markovic needs to work harder – he’s a luxury player

Lazar Markovic: Winger was expected to leave Liverpool

I feel Lazar Markovic needs to move on, but if he doesn’t we have plenty of attacking options next season. However, it is more than likely he will be moved on. Could he turn into a Mohamed Salah in the next 2/3 seasons? Maybe.

He is very frustrating, he has the pace and nice skill but he needs a little more aggression and bite in his overall play to be successful. He plays like a luxury player sometimes and he’s not good enough yet to act like that.

Even Arsenal’s Ozil who has titles and World cups and Euro Champs to his name can’t get away with the ‘luxury player’ title, so Markovic really does need to consider some gym work maybe and learn to deal with the physicality of Premier League.

With all that said if we do sell him I think we should insert a buy back clause because there is untapped talent in there somewhere.

mwake

 

Deals have been agreed – they just haven’t been announced yet!

 

 

I was told the other day that Lukaku has been to the Chelsea training ground. I’m not sure how true or what to make of it…?

Today we are also linked with Robert Lewandowski and while there’s no doubt he’s a prolific striker, he’s another who is a bit older and has never played in the Premier League so how would he adapt…?

Personally, I see only 2 viable alternatives – either Lukaku as he knows the Premier League and wants to join or Alvaro Morata as Conte knows him and he wants to play for Conte.

Only time will tell but I am still of the opinion that a couple of deals are already done and dusted and just waiting to be announced (we have heard nothing from Lukaku since he came out with the fact that he already knows his destination.)

My guess is that we are being quiet so Everton can get a striker without being held to ransom over the Lukaku fee and I hope we negotiated that into the price we have paid? On the other hand I could be completely wrong but I hope not.

CFC1905

 

It looks like Chelsea are looking for alternatives to Romelu Lukaku or another striker so we get two into the squad. So we’ve been linked with Robert Lewandowski and I’d also start sniffing around Mario Mandzukic at Juventus.

But again, no one has signed anyone so perhaps clubs are all thinking about not paying the mega bucks.

Romansdirtypants

 

Milner is one of the best left-backs in the Premier League

I still think James Milner is one of the best left-backs in the league. I’ll be happy enough to see him as our main player there next season but we need to get rid of Moreno and bring in a genuine article to under-study and take some of the fixtures off his hands and keep him both fresh and in competition.

AFCON isn’t for a while now. . We have plenty of time to work out a solution and a whole season ahead to worry about without even considering it. The question of “will Salah be the next Mane here” is much more daunting a question. Who knows, maybe neither of them will be here by the time the next AFCON comes, it’s a funny old game.

So, nobody thinks much about the RB Leipzig developments? I thought that would resonate with all of the lads on here who want Keita, or the ones who want a very good goal scorer.

The news breaking about them not being in Europe in any shape or form coming as everyone is on holiday, talking the developments over with their friends and families – players who were thinking of leaving for pastures new but who were convinced to give it another season. as they no longer have the reasoning behind most of those conversations.

Anyway, we’ll see I guess.

MrMakaveli

 

Last season’s excitement at Leeds has evaporated quickly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it feels like the excitement and optimism we all felt last season has just evaporated and we are back to square one! New owner and new positions created and filled by more new people. New head coach and coaching staff.

We fans have absolutely no idea how this season will pan out. We don’t even know if we will still have our “star” players (Wood, Jansson) by the end of August when the window shuts.

All we can do is “keep the faith” which we have now been doing for 13/14 years! I agree, Mr Orta (director of football) does like the sound of his own voice, but I didn’t think Thomas Christiansen (manager) seemed nervous. I think he came across quite well.

Let’s hope we make some decent signings and have a team that is even better than last season when we kick-off in August.

judy

 

Lukaku tends to go missing in the big games

Romelu Lukaku: Wanted by Milan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea as to the truth of this next stat but this a story I was told that apparently was in the press.

If you took all of Lukaku’s goals away from Everton last season they still would have finished seventh. Apparently although he scored a good number of goals these were not spread evenly over the course of the season but when he scored in a game he tended to get a few.

I have always felt that Lukaku tends to go missing in the bigger games and agree with comments above about his hold up play so have always questioned the enormous fee that Everton want for him

That being said he is very young and should only improve with better coaching and playing with better players. In the end from a purely Chelsea perspective I guess as long as we have a goal scorer who will tuck away 25+ goals per season we know we have the other players who will contribute. So in that respect I am not so concerned about the “so called” above story.

He has to improve his hold up play, his general work rate in games (Conte will demand that) and his ability to bring others into play but the benefits are his Premier League experience, the fact that he wants to play for the club so money does not appear to be his only motive and he does score goals.

Still think 60m+ is high but at the end of the day you have to pay the going market rate?

CFC1905

 

Why is it taking so long for Palace to appoint a new manager?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spilt coffee on my laptop, obtained another through insurance, set it up and could not get Talksport to accept me (what’s Jabbs been saying), now OK. What do I see, NOTHING!

Sunderland being taken over and should be completed at the end of the week and yet we still cannot appoint a manager after five weeks, Sam Allardyce took days.

It may well be that suddenly we have a manager and a wrath of incomers because Palace always keep their cards close to their chest. There is a lot to do with backroom staff etc but I do feel that papers are making us look like a second rate outfit. Why should I care?

This morning it’s Christian Benteke to West Ham, with Andy Carroll as part exchange (not even a sick note). They have not even got their own ground! Just want some stability and people looking up to us.

Punch Metz

 

Signing Ronaldo would be a commercial decision

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes there are exceptions and undoubtedly Ronaldo is an exceptional player. But I fear what makes him more exceptional is his commercial value. We agree its not going to happen, but if for the sake of discussion we ignore that, I fear the decision to sign him would be more down to commercial reasons than footballing ones.

Nothing wrong with this becoming a super-thread, there’s not much more to talk about other than Jose Mourinho going to jail for tax fraud!

And it touches on an important topic. the age of signings. I fear there is a policy change where Ed Woodward is looking to big name players for shirt selling reasons and because a big name in his prime would be astronomical

The club is happy to sign big names past their prime who have a couple of years left in them. eg Bastian Schweinsteiger and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

MacGuffin

 

We can’t compete with Manchester City financially

Virgil van Dijk: Challenges Saints to improve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My point isn’t made or broken on us completing the Virgil Van Dijk deal. The fact is, he chose us over City and it’s the draw power that I’m talking about, as we still cannot and never will (as things are) be able to compete with City financially.

I’m not seeing us regularly competing with the big boys for a number of reasons. This was going ahead because VVD was our number 1 target.

I too would love to have seen the deal go through but it’s only failed for reasons that are external to this specific discussion. So much talk has been made of the mistakes made etc but I think a large amount of it is just down to Southampton being sick to death of us turning their players heads. We can joke about this but if it was the other way around. . .

As for the Salah deal, it’s really strange to hear people talking about 39-40m and to be honest, I’m not believing it. We had a really strong negotiating position and we didn’t use it? No way. It’s got to be £35m all in, surely. . . but it’s good to have it done.

I’ll have to get every single video I can of this guy now to see if I spot anything that excites me a lot more than what i saw before. . but Klopp really wanted to sign him , so he must be good.

2 top wingers will be lethal. I’m not thinking about AFCON, I’m sure we’ll have both players get injured and be out before then. . We’ve bigger things to think about than bloody AFCON.

MrMakaveli

 

Arsenal have quality youngsters – but I’m not sure they’ll get a chance

Alex Iwobi: Loving his time at boyhood club Arsenal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it’s the silly season and as usual every club gets mentioned with every player under the sun except Arsenal (which in many ways may be a good thing but who knows).

What do we make of those lads that should be pushing for first team experience this season. We seem on paper and from reports from other clubs have a few that are worth a look but will no doubt not get much of a chance due to our squad being filled with what it’s filled with.

I know we need quality ready investment in the first team with players we all dream about but what about those young lads who are dreaming of being the next big shot.

On reflection we have at least 3 midfielders, 1 winger and possibly 1-2 strikers that show signs of being capable but will never get the chance with us which for me is a shame….

Solution…sell the dross, promote and buy one player for each section of the team and make changes each window.

Gunjam74