hypochondriac

What's this modern bollocks about hardly any prem games on a Saturday? Absolutely mad.

Certainly makes the weekend and Monday more fun. Guaranteed that some of the teams around us will drop points so any set of results will be a positive.

That's such a cringe picture.

Goodness me we made hard work of that.

We've almost been as bad this half as we were great first half.

Because you can't sell players on the level we have indefinitely and assume you'll get enough success with buying new ones to be sustainable.

I'd say that the vast majority of our reduced resources should be going towards top championship players rather than looking towards potential with resale value. If we fail to go up for two or three years I doubt he makes us much at all. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a solid championship signing it's just that the price tag is due to potential not top championship quality which is what we really need for the money spent.

Yep. He's the sort of signing you'd either get on loan in the champ or take a punt on in the prem to use as backup with the hope that he turns into a world beater. He's not the player currently that he should be given his price tag. Again, not his fault and hopefully it won't matter at the end of the season.

Fair comment. I do think if we fail to go up though I will look back and wonder if we should have allocated our funds more wisely. If we go up this is all largely irrelevant.

Yep he was bought as potential. Our most expensive signing of the summer and a large chunk of our budget. That's my point.

He's not a starting player which for 10-15 million he should be. Before the season started if you knew nothing about him other than his cost you'd be saying exactly the same thing. It's not his fault that was his price tag of course and like I said we will probably need him if we don't go up this year. Point still stands though.

Hopefully we can beat them next month then he can take some points from our rivals.

I expect eventually he will turn out to be a decent signing. If we do go up though I can't see him getting much gametime at least initially. Will probably need him if we stay down though and will likely be our Downes replacement.

I think the other positive about him is he's an attacking midfielder according to Martin so even if he does play, it's not like a position where a mistake is likely to lead directly to a goal. The game is kinder on attacking players in that way.

I haven't disputed that he's decent for a 20 year old. We spent 15 million on him in the championship and he's essentially a bit part player. Given the choice, I'd have spent more on a top forward signing rather than the crock we went for to give Leicester a run for their money. It's not a really big deal as we are on an excellent run but if you were being really critical that's where we could improve and where I'd have spent the bulk of our budget. To put it another way, the likes of Downes and Fraser are imo a level above Charles at the moment for all his undoubted potential and are proven championship performers so an equivalent player of that sort was what I'd have liked to have seen in the summer - either loan or transfer - before we spent so much of our budget on a young promising player. I accept others may feel differently but nothing wrong with having high standards.

Not an unreasonable comment. I think Charles is a half decent signing, my problem was with having a restricted budget and buying potential with a lot of it. Seems like an inefficient use of relatively meagre resources to me.

TBF you'd expect Downes and THB to have cost significantly more if we'd actually bought them. The striker was an idiotic signing I said as much at the time.

Don't necessarily disagree, I just think if you're talking about spending 15 million in the championship it really needs to be your best and key player rather than a guy with potential who sits on the bench most weeks. Like I said, good player but for that money in our position I'd be expecting one of the top players in the championship.

Which makes it even weirder that we decided to sign Shea Charles for 15 million. Good player but bit of an odd one if money is tight.

Is anyone else not that fussed if we don't get someone? Some people going mad about it on Twitter but I really think another signing is nice to have rather than a necessity. That changes if we lose Adams or kwp of course

Yes I think I read that Fraser downing tools after covid led to a blazing row because Howe viewed it as going on strike and giving up on the team. Think he questioned his attitude.

He speaks very well and you can't fake sincerity like that. Great news that he will be staying even if we don't go up.

Let's not go overboard. It would be a blow but we'd no doubt replace him with someone who can perform on the championship. Obviously not as good but it's not promotion bid over.

Best in the league for field tilt - you'll never win that.

Can Chelsea even afford that with FFP?