[SOLD] Nathaniel Chalobah

I think he wanted to leave. He's probably seen the players coming in and realised he's not going to see much game time. Also it's pretty clear that him, Quina and Gray were best buds and that little crew was being broken up. Seeing the video of Quina and Chalobah embracing at the Fulham unveiling seems to prove as much.

For Hughes, I'd suggest it's similar. Not likely to see as much game time this season, still holds out hope of playing for England. I think they both genuinely didn't see their future here.

We can act like a spurned lover all we want about them leaving, question their ability and retcon their performances but sometimes players just want to move on to try something else even if it means less of a 'secure' contract.

 

Define ugly.

 

Bad eggs in the dressing room? Gray, Chalobah & Quina all out on transfer deadline day. It’s no secret these 3 muppets broke COVID restrictions last year. Good riddance to all 3 in all honesty. If we are creating a better culture overall then these deals needed to happen. Hughes is the odd one as he didn’t strike me as someone who would rock the boat. I think that was an isolated incident of someone that we wanted to keep and miscalculated his options (Hughes & Vernazza) and ended up at Crippled Alice for less money on a smaller deal.

I reckon Deeney, Chalobah, Gray & Quina were all told they won’t feature much this year and were more or less told they were going.

Could be wrong.

 

How do you know?

Fulham spent £100m when they got promoted.

Shahid Khan is worth $8bn, they've got money.

 

There's decent discussion going on about him literally right now? Why close the thread?

 

In their eyes not getting what they thought they were promised in money, security, love, freedom, pastoral care!
etc etc.

 

I think it's highly unlikely, but if you believe he's now on a better deal, that's fine. I think it's reasonable to expect he is actually worse off now from a financial and job security POV.

I did the sums and I'm assuming Chalobah's contract would be around £30k per week at Watford. For Fulham to even match that over 2 seasons they would have to pay him £75k per week. For a Championship club, I think that's not really likely to happen.....but as you say....we don't know.

 

But that's ego. The club can't put their recruitment policy on hold just to cater to 2 players. We needed to strengthen.

I'm in agreement with @GoingDown, they probably saw limited game time, thought there would be a number of clubs interested then had to take the only opportunities that were on offer.

Chalobah will play regularly if he's fit, Hughes has taken a gamble as Palace have Eze and Olise to come back.

Will Hughes start? I don't know.

 

I think Chalobah or Hughes’ ability means they would be first XI players where they have gone. I think the bigger issue is their fitness problems means they may not nail down places. Both have been injured far too regularly with us. Hence another reason I don’t think we will be crying into our pillows about them leaving.

 

The fact is I don't know if he's on a better deal - unlike US sports where player contracts are made public, all I'm saying is Fulham have got money and they could probably match what Chabs was on if not increase it as it's only a 2 year contract.

 

This thread is over. Please report to the exit. Thank you for your custom.

 

Are you sure he was offered 5 years and if so was that at half pay if relegated? I wouldn’t be surprised if Fulham have increased his pay, to maybe 45-50k per week. Worst case with WFC he could have got 35k (same terms offered) plus 4 years of half pay. Getting Fulham’s wages for two years plus signing on and then being free seems quite attractive.

You have to apply some common sense and assume he and his agent are not daft.

 

W

We have been told about cliques in the dressing room, this would have made it harder to integrate some players, as a result of getting rid of Deeney, Gray, Chalobah and Sema that removes a lot of influence and should say to the remainders “ you are the team “ we are going to do this together!

 

I agree about Chalobah, but Hughes, if it's £5m or so then that's what you would spend on a squad/cover player for a team in its 9th year (?) in the PL. Plus he's not match fit, so I don't see him starting yet.

 

Has Sema gone?

 

I do reckon it was the relegation clause which Hughes found wasn't to his liking (even if he had a £2m release clause if we got relegated, there's no guarantee he'd have stayed fit as he has been a bit of a sick note at times!), but Chalobah is a bit different as I don't think he had a move lined up all summer, he might have looked at our signings and didn't fancy his chances of getting regular football...then again, maybe it is just a money thing and Fulham are offering him more

 

I think there is more chance of man landing on the moon than Hughes playing for England.

 

I think Fulham would at least offer over £30k per week, remember they have the parachute payments. Looking at their players salaries last season, some of whom are still around and probably didn't have relegation clauses, Chalobah is unlikely to earn so much less. Plus they are probably all on substantial bonuses for promotion which should be a formality for them.

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/fulham-fc/payroll/

 

You might be right about Chalobah, but Hughes would surely have fancied his chances of getting into this midfield even with the new signings, Etebo, Kucka and Sissoko certainly have their good qualities, but Hughes offers something different which, unless Tufan hits the ground running, or Louza quickly gets up to speed with English football, we are currently lacking. It's not like he's guaranteed to get into that Palace team right now

 

I agree. I think Fulham would have matched the money Watford were offering. But it's only for 2 years, whereas Watford was a much longer 5 year contract. He's taken a big gamble with his career. He's got to establish himself at Fulham and stay injury free. Sure, Fulham could get promoted and Watford relegated, then it would look like a smart move at that point, however, these are not certainties, only possibilities. As I say, he's taken a big gamble with his career. One injury and the assurance of a 5 year contract is not there.

 

One thing is for sure, I don’t care that it’s Silva that has bought Chalobah and Quina. The guy is like Chesney Hawkes, a one hit wonder who can’t see past players he’s already managed, who he had nothing to do with scouting in the first place. He gave an interview when he joined Fulham saying he wanted to repeat what he Did with Richarlison, what, play a good player bought and scouted for you by someone else? Well done mate.

 

The interesting thing about Chalobah and that contract length is that he (in a shocking Lingard-esque way) turns 27 in a couple of months. So at the end of that contract, he will basically be 30, and he's definitely spending at least one further year of it in the Championship.

Ascending to any of the heights he clearly believes he is still capable of just got even harder, in a career sense as much as an immediate one, and that will likely have a knock-on effect for any further move/contract he will be getting at the end of this one.

It seems like an extension with a 'successful' Fulham is likely to be the best outcome he can now hope for, and given whatever that next move is will really be his one big final contract, he frankly appears to have accepted a limit on his ambitions, whatever his whining after promotion suggests.

All this does hint to me that he essentially wasn't bothered about staying, didn't feel incredibly confident about playing his way into our midfield at Prem level (again, despite whatever his whining after promotion suggested) and decided to play the game over the summer to see what he could get. As it is, as others have theorised, it turned out that the game didn't work out so well for him, and so on the final day he had to accept what he was offered.

On the balance it seems like it has the potential to be a financial mis-step down the line - there's no guarantee Fulham will see him as an integral starter even if he does earn a starting place and get them promoted, and given the way they spend money on promotion even less so. We could just as easily see him making the same backwards move in a year's time, and there aren't going to be many clubs popping up with 'one last giant contract' offers to pluck an incredibly injury-prone 30 year-old out of the Championship. But then, there's no guarantee he'd be in the Prem with us either - what he would have is the security of a 5-year deal.

Perhaps he saw what we all have in the endless renewal of crocked old players' contracts and didn't want to get stuck at the club, non-playing but priced out of a move. Though that might be giving him just a tad too much credit, to be honest...

 

Think this little spell has been collectively viewed through rose tinted spectacles. It was only five games - home draws with Liverpool and Brighton, good away victories over Bournemouth and Southampton and our customary humping from Man City where no-one played well as we didn't have the ball all game.

He was good in the two away games, but so were the whole team. As a comparison, Allan Nyom performed well for far longer in the Premier League before his form fell off a cliff.

 

Might be more than best buds ? Maybe a couple ?

 

Maybe, but I remember being particularly impressed with him at the time.

 

I agree. He's had a bad time at all the clubs he played after his first brilliant spell at Watford, and it was at Watford again where he got up to speed after his terrible injury. Will it work out for him at Fulham? Maybe, maybe not. I feel a bit spurned.

 

He never really cemented a place for us, when he was good he was very good, but when he was poor he was just a luxury which when you are scrapping for points you cant afford!

I think Gino/Dux will see how we do until January then re-access we have a couple of places to fill, I would be surprised if we don't fill them then, a little bit different to wondering who to leave out the squad, ala Navarro, Janmat, Success (could be wrong on the last one).

 

I think what HB1 is getting at is why did they make those, on the face of it, surprising choices. Why was going their preferred option in the context of apparently better terms being offered by us?

 

Before or after 2AM?

 

Maybe they wanted to get away from our 'medical' team.

 

Yeah, I thought the same to be honest. Even when he was yelling "You Orns" on Occupation Road, he still looked thoroughly pissed off and resentful.

 

We joke but it’s possible. Many different factors will inform a players decision and if they feel there’s been diagnosis, treatment or recovery issues at their club, I dare say they would factor that in.

 

It's surprisingly easy to overlook how old he is.

At his age, he's entering his prime years as a midfielder. The fact he's doing that with a Championship side (and was with a Championship side last season, albeit under somewhat unique circumstances) doesn't provide much confidence that he's ever going to fulfil the promise he showed at 17. At this point he's almost as good as he's ever going to get.

 

I thought it looked like he was almost mocking our fans a bit. Or he might just have been drunk off that one bottle of peroni.