Rumour - Nathaniel Chalobah

[NewCorkSeth]

CM is the position were looking most comfortable in but I don't think we can just turn away quality if its available. He's probably better than most our CMs to be fair to him..

[melonhead]

thought he was decent. good technique etc. but definitely better than Williams Quinn etc?
I don't think its any where near clear cut

[Nameless]

He also had nowhere near the passing ability of Norwood.

No doubt he's a very good player, but obviously you can't just keeping buying more players simply because they are available, unless you are Chelsea, Liverpool or Man Utd and money is no object if it buys success and you are happy for a player to rot in the reserves just so no I else an have them.

If you fall into the trap of just keeping on buying one more player you become like Warnock and Redknapp who may have had some success but would probably have had more if they had managed a bit more and spent a bit less.

If Chalobah comes then I hope he succeeds but I think we have enough in central midfield and one obvious major gap elsewhere. Put the couple of million a year of Chalobah would cost us into stretching ourselves for a real goal scorer.

[NewCorkSeth]

Yes possibly but the etc includes Norwood, thsibola and kuhl who he probably I better than hence majority. I understand the argument that we should develop our own young talent who both seem very talented! But I assume Clarke is going to be under scrutiny this season and while you and I might prefer to see kuhl and thsibola get a run in the first team he probably would rather bring in a player who could slot right in at the same quality as Quinn and williams(who has only managed 30 games a season so far)

[royalfan0210]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

[RoyalX]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Hi Nathaniel, welcome to the board.

[Pepe the Horseman]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Taylor wasn't a CM. Ake was here for what, four games? And played LB for most, if not all of them. And Jem managed nine games. Neither Guthrie or Akpan were first team regulars. And we've now got Tshibola, as well as Quinn.

[WoodleyRoyal]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Taylor wasn't a CM. Ake was here for what, four games? And played LB for most, if not all of them. And Jem managed nine games. Neither Guthrie or Akpan were first team regulars. And we've now got Tshibola, as well as Quinn.

but apart from that he was spot on

[royalfan0210]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Taylor wasn't a CM. Ake was here for what, four games? And played LB for most, if not all of them. And Jem managed nine games. Neither Guthrie or Akpan were first team regulars. And we've now got Tshibola, as well as Quinn.

quite OBVIOUSLY they wasn't all regular starters unless we were playing a field or cm's???? but the point being if we had injury or needed to use one of them we could... where as in our position now we wont have that luxury. if your stating that a players is pointless if not a regular starter shall we say goodbye to all players not in sundays starting 11??

[Nameless]

We've got 5 players to cover 2 positions in midfield. How much cover do you want ? Even if that isn't enough we've got other players capable of playing in midfield in emergencies.
Losing players who didn't play is kind of irrelevant
If we had brought in a striker and we're adding a luxury midfielder it may be different, but adding an expensive and essentially superfluous midfielder when we haven't sorted the goal scoring seems wrong. It's not as if Chalobah adds anything going forward.
The conclusion to draw if we sign him is Clarke is being heavily backed, because the striker is still a major requirement and will need a significant investment

[Pepe the Horseman]

Looks like the Spanish bloke is a done deal. So with Chalobah we'd have seven CMs. Seems a tad unnecessary.

[Nameless]

Looks like the Spanish bloke is a done deal. So with Chalobah we'd have seven CMs. Seems a tad unnecessary.

What if they all got in the same people carrier on the way back from training and it crashed ?
We'd be left with no midfielders, we need at least 3 more just in case....

[Hoop Blah]

Looks like the Spanish bloke is a done deal. So with Chalobah we'd have seven CMs. Seems a tad unnecessary.

It looks a bit like Clarke is building a squad capable of playing a system with 3 central midfielders so it might not be that unnecessary, especially as Kuhl may still be allowed out on loan and Norwood wasn't a trusted option for most of Clarkes spell last season.

[paultheroyal]

Give it 4 weeks and Charles will be writing a story on the "hard done by" player Norwood.

Might have a point but Mr Watts is very predictable!

[TBM]

Looks like the Spanish bloke is a done deal. So with Chalobah we'd have seven CMs. Seems a tad unnecessary.

It looks a bit like Clarke is building a squad capable of playing a system with 3 central midfielders so it might not be that unnecessary, especially as Kuhl may still be allowed out on loan and Norwood wasn't a trusted option for most of Clarkes spell last season.

Plus Chalobah can play at the back or at full back if need be

[Royalwaster]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Dave?

[3points]

How anyone can think this is not a good idea I cant understand! since the back end of last season when we had chalobah in our team we have since lost/released Guthrie, karacan, ake, taylor, apkan and obviously chalobah himself who was one of the first names on the team sheet when he was with us and the only replacement in this position we have brought in has been Quinn 5 out and 1 in coming in this position surely makes no sense as in moving forward to be competitive for all the games played in the championship season ahead. If for instance Williams was to pick up an long term injury as karacan often did this would leave us rather short with out chalobah coming back in, as I really don't see khul as being ready just yet. also if this does come off I would guess this could be the reason we have not finalised the Fernandez deal as chalobah has become an option that Clarke knows Is proven and works with our squad!!

Dave?

Far too coherent and logical for Dave

[3points]

Looks like the Spanish bloke is a done deal. So with Chalobah we'd have seven CMs. Seems a tad unnecessary.

It looks a bit like Clarke is building a squad capable of playing a system with 3 central midfielders so it might not be that unnecessary, especially as Kuhl may still be allowed out on loan and Norwood wasn't a trusted option for most of Clarkes spell last season.

agree on the 3 central midfielders. Think this was his preferred formation at WBA. Expect to see GMac and Paulo playing as a 2 behind a lone striker, then dropping in when defending 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree formation

[Ian Royal]

Chalobah is just another Quinn / Williams / Tshibola. If we do get a midfielder we want something different. Not a hard working box to box or defensive player. But someone with a creative passing range or the ability to score goals.

There's no point in getting a loanee like Chalobah whose about as good as Williams or Quinn because he either replaces them for one year - short-termism. Or sits on the bench covering them - waste of time for Chelsea, waste of money for us and blocks long term progress for Tish.

Even if we play 3 in midfield a succesful combination isn't going to be him, Williams and Quinn it's just too stodgy.

[Lacoste]

Clarke looked like he had a strategy early in the summer, now he looks gung ho.

The poor man is clueless. New boss by October.