Was so worried when he went down about two minutes after coming on with his knee planted, really thought that was his season done. Then a few minutes later he won a proper old style block tackle and played the through ball to Gray. He's a classy operator at this level, optimistic that this season has got a few demons out of his head and he can step up.
Pearson deserves a lot of credit putting faith in Chalobah and getting him going again since that mini revival we had under him last Season charge. That set him up for this Season's progress. He also seems to be trusting his body and knee again at last which goes hand in hand with extended game time.
Completely transformed since the switch to 433. I'm pretty sure the title would have been wrapped up a while ago if we'd played it all season, it brings out the best in pretty much every player in the squad.
He bottled a challenge at Oxford in the cup, led to me fearing the worst, but to be fair to him, he quickly began throwing himself into challenges again, but it did take him longer to get the more expansive side of his game back, many of us on here were more than willing to take Longstaff or Choudhury in place of him in late Jan/early Feb!
I believe this is the first time he's played more than half of a season (in terms of minutes) since his first spell with us all those years ago. He was alright last season, and I know it's only the Championship, but I do believe he'd be able to do a good job back in the Prem
Why do you think Mr Integrity wanted him in the winter window, he has known Chalobah since he was a youngster at Chelsea and probably realised he was getting his old MoJo back, and saw that he was finally back on track to being the player he was destined to be before his injury. I think he will be a mainstay for us in the PL and possibly become the club captain too.
And it's what Ivic wanted to play but felt he couldn't because of the lack of a left back. If only Masina hadn't got injured in pre season or we'd secured an adequate replacement on loan...
Absolutely and the owners clearly stitched us up by not getting that back up left back in. However I'm sure Ivic could have played someone there out of position and still gone for the 4-3-3. He just refused to out of stubbornness to try to prove a point
Kiko would have been the second best LB in the league behind Rico Henry and Ngakia would have got better and better. Silly Vlad
Had a medical boot on at the end of the game - hopefully nothing serious. Sure it's the end of the season but with our medical record and his the slightest knock could be a long term issue!
Could have had an operation if he was carrying a long term knock? There was mention of this before Millwall I think that he was playing through an injury.
Hopefully he has just had a minor operation to rectify a small problem and has done it early just to make sure he is ready for the start of next season.
https://theathletic.com/2706142/202...-striker-outgoings/?source=emp_shared_article Presumably Chalobah is more likely to stay as he's with the group, but he's still assessing his options. Sounds like he's just waiting for a better deal as well. I thought the part about training was interesting, is Chalobah going to be included if he's a potential departure the closer we get to the season?
This seems to be one of AL's more speculative written pieces, but things just do not really add up. We've offered Hughes a deal which will make him one of the best paid players, yet they (Hughes and his agent) are not happy with some of the detail. That's fine and these things tend to get ironed out. However, unless injured, why is he not training with the first team? It seems like Chalobah is in the same boat, yet he's clearly training with the first team. The only thing I can think of is Hughes has said outright that he wants to go. This is the only thing that makes sense in the scenario, although no stories have been leaked to suggest this, which I would have thought would be the case by now. Maybe injury, but again, why hasn't that been reported? Also, as I mentioned yesterday, surely Watford won't settle for just four senior pros at centre back. No way can you expect a player like Pollock, who by Grimsby fan's own admission, had an indifferent season in a side who finished bottom of League Two, to step up and be cover in the Premier League. That would be too much to ask. Troost-Ekong will be gone for nearly a couple of months at the turn of the year for the AFCON, so we would be really thin on the ground relying on just Kabasele, Sierralta and Cathcart as our only viable option during this period. We are still looking for another midfielder, but is that in addition to Hughes, or to replace Hughes? That is not clear. Just 9 days to our first official pre-season match. Hopefully things will become a little clearer during the course of next week as to what is really happening.
I've always felt going into this season with our current CB options was a huge risk - and that was when we had Wilmot. I fail to believe the club aren't looking at this really.
I always felt that going into the last two Premier League seasons with our then CB options was a huge risk and failed to believe the club weren't looking at it...
I can fully believe the club aren't going to bring another centre back in. Just look at how they treated that department while we were in the Premier League. The sudden suggestion from AL that Masina is a centre back option won't cut it I'm afraid.
If the club don't consider CB a position worth investing in first team players with Mariappa playing fairly regularly, they won't consider it a priority with Sierralta and the occasional Nigeria captain
Some positive noises coming from Nath. Nathaniel Chalobah @chalobah My bro makes his first start in the prem for Chelsea, he then scores in that game, then my team wins first game of the season .. think it’s time to shake this sickness off!! #whataday
Decent enough squad player, not good enough for our first 11. Hopefully we're not offering silly money to get him to stay. We're better than him now.
My concern with Nate is whatever this ‘sickness’ is how long it is likely to impact his performances. I know it was a very serious injury he had with us previously, but I think he set some sort of world record for the slowest ever time to get back up to speed after an injury. Maybe not the end of the world if he resigns with us, but if he doesn’t and he’s just running down his final year then all things considered he could be next to useless.
Well, Nate, we have this this ace Turkish midfielder now, so thanks for the memories, but off to Fulham or something you go
He himself said he was ill, the club say he's ill. He's probably ill If he was refusing a new deal, surely they'd just treat him like Hughes and not mention anyhing about him
Has been incredibly unlucky with injuries and illness since joining but he seems to have a good character. Unlikely he'll reach the heights we thought he would when he first came on loan though
