Your Says of the Day: Chelsea need to give youth a chance
Ruben Loftus-Cheek: Midfielder on fringe of Blues' first-team
Also, could La Liga stars survive a cold night at Stoke, who should get an England chance, and an attempt to understand Paul Merson’s logic.
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Chelsea’s reluctance to use youngsters
How is it in the pursuit of trophies to play Mikel ahead of RLC? How is it in the interest of trophies to sell Bertrand and spend 16m on Felipe Luis? How is it in the pursuit of trophies to isolate KDB and flat out refuse to include him. And dont say he wouldnt wait for his chance, KDB played 3 league games in half a season for Chelsea – he was simply not included.
I personally think Chelsea have a genuine bias against players without a big reputation. I also wonder, why they bother with a youth team. Rumours are RLC will go out on loan in January. If RLC has any sense, he should make it permanent an get out now while he is still young. Or before he knows it, his time has passed him by and he needs to drop down many levels and sign for a club like Bournemouth to resurrect his career. Why shouldnt RLC leave Chelsea permanently right now? If he were your son, would you want him to stay at Chelsea??
Cold Tuesday nights at Stoke
The old cliché always does my head in. Most EPL followers hold the view that it is the toughest league in the world and the other leagues are simply a walkover for a select few clubs.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG?? Couldn’t be bothered, they play in easy leagues. Messi, Neymar, Lewandowski?? Would they really look that good on a cold, wet, windy night at Stoke on Trent?? No ways, they’re all prancing weaklings anyways.
I have always held the view that these elite club and their players would easily adapt to the EPL through sheer class and skill level but here is what Gerard Pique has to say about it:
“I think that if Barcelona or Real Madrid goes to the Premier League then the first year of playing there, there is no chance of winning it. I think this is because if you go to Stoke, or other types of teams, then it will be really tough.”
He goes on to make a vice versa comparison about Chelsea or Manchester United doing the same in Spain but this statement got me thinking anyways.
Suarez, Di Maria, Schweinsteiger, Ronaldo – all these players have also mentioned that the difficulty level is higher in the EPL. This is also illustrated by the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona have always been happy to spend top dollar on the best EPL players (Bale, Modric, Suarez, Ronaldo) and the results have been more than spectacular while buying players from Spain seems to hold an element of risk. Di Maria was a disaster, Pedro has a lot of work to do to adapt, Ozil took a while to truly adjust while Sanchez is the outlier with his brilliant performances from the go.
Many have used this same cliché as an argument against Messi in the ol “Messi vs Ronaldo” debate as well.
Can they do it on a cold rainy night at Stoke??
Alli England’s future?
He does have some similarities with good old Jenas but he seems to have alot more ambition and grit.
I have no doubt he will become an England regular, I think Alli and Barkley could be really good together actually.
Time for Butland to get a chance
Let’s be optimistic and say that Roy Hodgson is going to give Jack at least some game time this coming week. I think he should give Jack a start in one game and Joe Hart a start in the other game. I’d much prefer this than what I think Roy will do, which is to start Joe Hart in both games and (at best) bring Jack on as a sub in one of them. Your thoughts?
Mystic Merson
Aah yes. Merson on top form once again. According to his crystal ball Manchester United are more likely to drop out of the top 4 and be replaced by wait for it……Chelsea.
And why does Merson think so? Because United were “lucky” to win against West Brom and because Chelsea played so well at Stoke. So that’s it then, United will squander a 13 point gap on Chelsea.
United could easily drop out of the top 4 at this stage of the season but for Chelsea?? Come on Merson, why not for Spurs? Oh no wait, he doesn’t like the Spuds either.
Peak Merson.
City’s centre-backs
For me Vinnie is an automatic choice, I realise he has had a few hiccups and injuries in recent times but I feel we are much more assured with him playing. Last season Mangala was a bit up and down to say the least and prone to erratic challenges etc but it was his first season on the PL and imo he started to look good at the end of last season and the beginning of this one. He was beginning to form a partnership with Vinnie. Then we brought in Otamendi, first couple of games a bit irratic partnering Mangala but the last few he has been very impressive along side Vinnie. So where does that leave Mangala, and want about Dimichaeless? Ok the latter has what a year left? What about that lad Denayer, will he get a run out next season? Do we stick with Otamendi and VK?
Leeds United, where to start?
Well the goings on at Leeds United has once more given the media plenty of scope to get into overdrive so far as speculation is concerned. It seems that Steve Parkin has already made moves to buy LUFC, well at least Massimo’s share and get into bed with GFH or alternatively he is seeking a threesome with MC and GFH. It is practically a done deal. Also Mr Parkin has already lined David Moyes to come in as manager who is prepared to wait as long as it takes for the buy out to be completed. If it takes the next six months or whatever it will be no problem for him to be sitting around twiddling his thumbs. All this after a clear statement from Steve Parkin that he does not do his business in public so cannot come out and confirm or deny any of it.
Incidentally, when Steve Parkin was last thinking of buying the club, before MC waded in, he apparently had lined up Ian Dowie to be the new manager…………..
We are also after getting in Kyle Lafferty from Norwich who would fit in well in our 1st team as he has a proven track record of not being able to hit a barn door with a banjo in this country and has had all of two appearances in the Norwich 1st Eleven this year.
All good fun is it not?