‘Sell Alexis and any remote title hopes Arsenal had are over’

Ashley Colbourn

Liverpool and Arsenal fans discuss their title hopes this season, while grass roots football, Ronaldo to Manchester United and Chelsea’s hierarchy are also discussed.

Do you have something to add? Join the debate here

 

Sanchez wants to leave because of the club’s lack of ambition

Again and again and again I keep reading in the news that should Sanchez leave Arsenal are only demanding £50m for him and I’m very well aware that he’s in his last year of his contract.Well,this guy is an unbelievable player and definitely in the top 5 players in the world.

Not only because of his quality on the pitch, but his desire and determination.He’s a pitbull who’s single-handedly won trophies for the teams he’s played for in recent years.

The simply truth is whichever team he joins will most certainly win their title and have a very good chance for the Champions League too. He’s too good a player to lose and honestly for Arsenal he’s indispensable.We got him at a bargain, no denying that.And the only thing that is denying a fee of more than £100m for him is the fact that he has only a year left on his contract.

Even so, according to CIES database which values players based on various elements(including current contract situation), Alexis is still valued at 96m euros.

Now, if we let him go that’s any hope of title gone right there. But if it really comes down to letting him go selling him for anything below 96m euros would be pathetic piece of business something that our club are masters at.

Wenger has come out and said he wouldn’t sell him this summer at any cost even if he doesn’t sign a new contract but his word means nothing.

The really laughable part is I don’t even think Alexis wants to leave because we’re not in the CL, but simply because he’s realised the mentality under Wenger and that there are not enough winners like him and probably will never be. I say pay him what he wants which is the only way he’ll remain at the club. Because he’s too good a player to lose at the club.

thespecialone

 

Spurs shouldn’t sell any of the first team apart from Walker

Eric Dier: Linked with a move from Tottenham

As I currently sit in the lounge in my hotel in Mexico, gathering the 1 hour of free wifi a day, a quick catch-up on the football news is in order. If Spurs sell any of the first team minus Walker I will be fuming. Our first chance to make a dent in our opponents in nigh on 50 years and we are considering the sale of Eric Dier.

This would be disastrous for three reasons. 1. He is a young player with a lot of potential, he has just come in to some bad form recently 2. His bromance with Dele Alli will cause the latter to consider his future, as he would miss his best mate. 3. Dier would strengthening our rivals, especially the cheque book managers.

I wonder why I bother caring if we are just going to destroy the future of our great club.

thekickoff

 

Other clubs can develop young talent – why can’t Chelsea?

It is clearly possible to blood in and use youth players because the top teams across Europe can seem to find a way to do it and still win.

Barcelona
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Dortmund

…all these teams have successfully integrated youth products into winning teams over the last decade. Chelsea need to work out how they do it.

The first step in my opinion is for the club to have combined faith in it’s 1st team players to be able to get the job done even if a younger lesser known player starts amongst them.

Secondly the club have to have the trust to stick with that player. Loaning this talent out until they are 23-25 is not going to work for them and most will leave before then.

bort

Nathaniel Chalobah: Midfielder impressing fans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You cannot (and almost certainly would not) blood all of your youth players at once. It would not be fair on them nor on the club. That said, judicious selection of one or two lads would be reasonable and sensible.

The support culture of the team would aid the player’s development and should not harm team performance; Nathaniel Chalobah springs to mind. In Carabo Cup games you could, perhaps try one or two more; should we not be taking a closer look at Lewis Baker and certainly Tammy Abraham.

Abraham’s a player whom I am sure 999 will confirm I mentioned to him probably two years ago as having (to my mind) plain ability. Any more than ones, twos and threes would, I feel, be inadvisable and, even then, only in carefully selected games;

Anything more and you might just as well play the whole youth team to give the individual players the support of the team culture that will have grown over their years of success.

I just feel that if we want to “grow” our own Mbappe or Rashford we simply have to give them a chance. At the moment we don’t….and I think that is short-sighted and wasteful.

palmeab

 

Liverpool’s front line could win them the league this year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Player values have shot through the roof in the past year. 60~70m is the price for world class players nowadays. Like MrMak said he’s 38 goals from 41 games good, that’s almost a goal PER game in a league that’s quite similar to the Premier League.

If Aubameyang is really interested in moving to Liverpool, granted he has always expressed his wish to go to Madrid, would you not sign him? If he is available and we can get him I wouldn’t mind blowing our budget on him.

If he can consistently score 20~30 goals for the next four years it would represent good value in today’s market. It’s not ridiculous to think we can win the league with a front line of Aubameyang, Mane and Salah with Coutinho behind them.

GellerBing

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the player that we want and need. If we are willing to spend 40m euros or even more on Salah, why not spend double on Aubameyang?

Aubameyang is a player who can help improve the team immensely and immediately. Yes, his price is high, very high but if he helps us to win the title back to Anfield, he’d be worth ever penny. If we can only afford signing one player this summer, let it be Aubameyang.

We only want players who can improve the team immediately in this summer. Please sign Aubameyang.

FootballScouser

Don’t criticise Klopp – Liverpool are over-achieving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure why Klopp’s getting so much stick. Liverpool are over 120 years old, and apart from a 15-20 year purple patch in that period, they’re currently doing as well or better than they always have done.

Their fans need to realise that that purple patch wasn’t the norm at the time, and it isn’t now. Anywhere around 10th to 4th spot is good for them, as it has been for over 100 years of their 124 year history.

theMartialArt

English youngsters don’t get a fair chance

I have never been one to care about “British football” as a whole. As a man who is only sparsely English (considering that I am only 2nd generation through my father and have similarly important roots in South Africa) I see myself in a position where I don’t quite care if the English national team succeeds and only have interests towards my grandfather’s Mancunian intent really.

In my “set aside” I am still confronted with questions that say to me: “What in the hell are we doing” as a national team, and the football around that.

When we look at the end products I am unqualified but I see some good players falling through the cracks with my nephew who, by all accounts, is not a potential world class footballer but he is seeing the gaps in the system at the ripe old age of 16.

A player like him has the quality to be involved in the Championship as a top player but I hear a defeatist mentality coming from him instead of a winners mentality.

Obviously I am emotionally involved and am therefore compromised on his particular case but has anyone else not experienced something to this effect? Getting a feeling from the “grass roots” that there is no real support with the biggest clubs because of the fact that a “Sergio from wherever” arrives and gets better treatment??

hatters

Ronaldo would cost too much – this isn’t Football Manager!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ronaldo, at 32, would come at the cost of Morata (24) and Verratti (24) combined – if we literally could spend as much money as we wanted I’d say go for Ronaldo… and Messi and Sergio Ramos and Mbappe and Hazard… you get the point.

This isn’t Football Manager – we have a finite amount of money we can spend and throwing it all in to one player who is 32 years old, irrespective of his skill level, is insane.

What happens if Ronaldo gets injured? We remain with the same team as last year plus Lindelof but minus Ibrahimovic? Doesn’t make sense does it? Whereas if we sign a right winger, a striker and a central midfielder we’d be doing OK as we would be strengthening different departments which are required.

De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba, Herrera, Mhkitaryan, Mata, Rashford, Ronaldo

(high level reserves: Martial)

De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw, Pogba, Verratti, Douglas Costa, Mhkitaryan, Rashford, Morata

(high level reserves: Martial, Herrera, Mata)

I’d definitely prefer the latter team.

Sympathy for the Devils

 

 

 

Bertrand would be a good fit for Chelsea

According to Sky Sports Chelsea along with Liverpool and Man.City are vying to sign Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal. Are Antonio Conte and the Chelsea board back on speaking terms then? Or is Oxlade-Chamberlain the club’s choice and not Conte’s?

I’m very surprised no one on here has mentioned our ex player Ryan Bertrand as a transfer option for our left side as a wing back or full back, it seems he’s landed on his feet and is even in the England reckoning which is no mean feat.

Anyway, I thought it was the right side that we needed strengthening.  Victor Moses looked a little lightweight to me, I wonder if the club think Ola Aina will step up.

mtal61

 

Conte should have final say on transfers – nobody else

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I expect Conte to provide an initial list of transfer targets, followed by a back-up list and in some cases another back up list. I then expect him to have have the final say over who’s signed.

I also expect him to be kept in the loop with a summarised list of players that the chief scout and his team have sourced. Other than that the director of football, chief financial officer, chief negotiator and whoever else is involved take care of the rest.

But the final decision of who joins and leaves the club should be Conte’s. Nothing worse for a manager than having players forced upon him who he doesn’t rate or like. Start undermining him at your peril.

Stuilse