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ANOTHER New Footie Thread

Chelsea in general had a very busy summer. 5 new members of the first team, 4 players permanently sold, a few youth team buys and a lot of loans. 56 total players moved in or out including a whopping (and Chelsea record) 38 players sent out on loan.
 
Chelsea in general had a very busy summer. 5 new members of the first team, 4 players permanently sold, a few youth team buys and a lot of loans. 56 total players moved in or out including a whopping (and Chelsea record) 38 players sent out on loan.
...And despite all of it, the starting 11 is virtually the same one that won the league two years ago.
 
What is the point of this? Sell some of these guys. It's not like many, if any, have a future at Chelsea. Do they not have a youth system at all? I don't get it.
I believe the last player who worked his way up from the academy to a prominent role was John Terry. That is how much of a mess the academy / youth system is with Chelsea. Dominic Solanke and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the next two up and coming guys who will wallow at Chelsea because the desire is to have experience.
 
What is the point of this? Sell some of these guys. It's not like many, if any, have a future at Chelsea. Do they not have a youth system at all? I don't get it.

Chelsea makes money off the loan system. It essentially funds our academy. If you think that is a lot of players out on loan, just be glad you're not a supporter of teams in Serie A as several have > 50 out on loan incl. Juventus. One team has 90+ out on loan.

Chelsea will sell several of them in the coming years, but a few should be kept. RLC, Aina, Chalobah, Musonda, Isiah Brown, Christiansen and Tammy Abraham are the ones I'd keep and try to slowly work into the team. These are academy only youth players (not counting guys like Bertrand Traore who is young, but not an academy player). Players like Fikayo Tomori and Jake Clarke-Salter and wait and see if they develop players. Then make a decision. I'm 50/50 on Kasey Palmer.

Others are loaned to get experience and then sold. I'd probably try to sell some guys in the summer such as Boga (plays similar position to Musonda and I personally like Musonda more) and others who've been on the loan trail for a few years such as Piazon and Atsu (who I thought had a real shot to make an impact when we signed him from Porto a few years ago).

I'd probably loan out Solanke again and then try to sell him. I'm higher on Abraham even though the club has been higher on Solanke -> they were born on the same day and Solanke has consistently been at the higher level. eg. Solanke plays at U21 while Abraham plays at U18/19.
 
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I believe the last player who worked his way up from the academy to a prominent role was John Terry. That is how much of a mess the academy / youth system is with Chelsea. Dominic Solanke and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the next two up and coming guys who will wallow at Chelsea because the desire is to have experience.

Sounds easier than reality makes it out to be. Top teams don't just pluck guys out of the academy and put them into their 11. This isn't early-mid 90s when you can put 5 guys from United's youth team into their 11 and dominate. Money's too big now. Need to either slowly get experience with a few games, but 1st team practice everyday or go out on loan.

Teams like Spurs had success doing it, but they also have been in the Champions League what 3 times in the last decade plus?
 
Rishi - I am not saying they need to field a team of academy players. However, the inability to produce a Chelsea grown player into a place on the squad since JT is troubling. How bad are the youth scouts? Yes, some of the blame can go on Michael Emenalo, who produces a disaster about as often as he makes a good move.
 
2-0 city so far and a few things are obvious.

Pep is improving the City tech skill and spacing much faster than I thought he could, they're looking more like a Liga team already.

And on the other end of technical skill Mourinho is starting a dreadful combo of guys. None of the following are guys paid for their skill on the ball: rooney, pogba, fellaini, zlatan. He can't play that crew together vs top sides.
Also, Rooney is just bad, he looks 45.
 
City are all over United in the 1st half. Wow. DeBruyne is a player!

Pep is putting on a clinic.

City w/ALL the possession.

And just as I typed that, Ibra w/a great goal to pull one back.
 
Crazy end to half, Zlatan scored the hard one haha.

Anyone watching Celtic/Rangers? So glad their back in top flight, crowd is epic, tremendous energy
 
Everton life! They need keep it up vs minnows now as they have hardest schedule in December. Mirallas and new mids providing some excitement
 
I think Arsene Wenger has officially lost it. Last year he helped dig the Gunners into a Champions League hole by essentially starting a League Cup lineup for the first game. Now this year he comes out with this lineup at PSG...

Ospina
Bellerin - Mustafi - Koscielny - Monreal
Cazorla - Coquelin
Iwobi - Ozil - Oxlade-Chambedrlain
Alexis

Bench: Cech, Holding, Gibbs, Xhaka, Elneny, Lucas, Giroud

Alexis has done nothing at striker and he sits 2 healthy strikers?
Ox has done nothing since pre-season and he gets a start?
Xhaka (the big signing of the summer) still cannot get into the lineup ahead of "Yellow Card" Coquelin?

I don't know why I, or any other Arsenal fan, continue to follow Arsenal in CL. All Wenger wants to do is get out of the Group stage and then aim for Top 4. How about actually going out to try and win the thing once every decade or so.
 
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The other crime is that Man City/Monchengladbach is on TV over Arsenal/PSG.

Really...there are that many 'gladbach fans around the world that that game should get billing over 2 of the world's biggest teams?!
 
Well, that sucked. Chelsea looked like they forgot how to play in the 1st half against Liverpool. Organization improved a lot in the 2nd half, but the damage was already done. Hazard was MIA and as a result Cheslea had no offensive impetus. I personally felt that the subs were made too late (should have put Cesc on at the 1/2, and then another or both remaining subs at about 65-70 mins). I also would've put on Michy Batsman (too lazy to look up how to spell his last name) instead of Pedro.
 
FYI - if any of you Gooners are in Tallahassee, we have a new Arsenal bar/craft brewery in town. I'm watching the Hull match here w/some other Goons right now. Good times.

7th Hill Taproom, right underneath Corner Pocket, on Apalachee Parkway.
 
Speaking of Gooners, considering the slow start The Arsenal got off to, I was surprised to note that as of today's games they are sitting in 4th place in the table, only 5 back of leaders Citeh. Citeh may be hard to catch this year the way they're playing, but many thought the same thing last year.
 
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No sponsor for the EFL Cup, that's really strange considering how popular worldwide English footie is.
 
League Cup 4th round draw: Jose v Pep, round 2!

(home team listed first)
West Ham v Chelsea
Manchester United v Manchester City
Arsenal v Reading
Liverpool v Tottenham
Bristol City v Hull
Leeds v Norwich
Newcastle v Preston
Southampton v Sunderland
 
League Cup 4th round draw: Jose v Pep, round 2!

(home team listed first)
West Ham v Chelsea
Manchester United v Manchester City
Arsenal v Reading
Liverpool v Tottenham
Bristol City v Hull
Leeds v Norwich
Newcastle v Preston
Southampton v Sunderland

Going to be an interesting week for Jose. On Sun. Oct. 23rd he returns to the Bridge to play Chelsea and then (I'm assuming) the 2nd Manchester Derby on Wed. Oct. 26th.

EDIT: I meant the assuming the game will be on Wed. and not Tues. Both Liverpool and Spurs play on Sat. so (again I'm assuming that those will be the 2 TV games for the round) they should play on Tues.
 
Not me, they just won a Championship and had one hell of a transfer period. With midweek games with the UCL and FA Cup, they lack depth and teams are gunning after the kings. They looked tired playing in their 3rd game this week.

Looks like United called off the dogs at half.
 
Seriously. A 9 game non-winning streak against Cheatski is over. A quality first half was all they needed.
Chelsea looks seriously poor.
 
Nice to beat Chelsea. Very nice.

Arsenal likely would've won anyways, but would've been nice to not give them any confidence and a free goal like we did.

At this point I'm seriously worried about top 4. Lots of time, but with the performance by Cesc yesterday essentially being the worst non-Gary Cahill out there I don't think he gets another league start which is a bad thing b/c he should be out there when we play the minnows. Now I don't want to see him see the pitch against the teams currently in the top 6 spots as he hurts the team defensively far more than he helps offensively (as evidenced by Saturday's match) unless we're chasing the game.
 
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