Essien one of France's best paid players

RVN10 · 28-07-2005 10:09am #1

Jean-Michel Aulas is trying to hold on to this player the best they can by making him one of the best players in France maybe mourinho wont behappy but they cant get everyone..If they have money for gerrard aulas said they have money for essien..

pickarooney · 28-07-2005 10:20am

As a matter of interest, where is essien expected to play if Chelsea sign him? Direct replacement for Makalele or are they going to change formation and play 6 in midfield and no strikers?

Jimboo_Jones · 28-07-2005 10:23am

What Aulas said is a two edged sword though, as Essien will probably be asking for the same wage as Gerrard now if he stays.

Chong · 28-07-2005 10:23am

It dosent make sense at all does it because the already have a superb midfield.

PHB · 28-07-2005 10:25am

Makes perfect sense.
Man Utd interested in a replacement for Keane.
Buy him, thus United sstay weak in midfield.
Doesn't matter if it doesn't help their team directly, it helps them indirectly

RVN10 · 28-07-2005 10:33am

pickarooney wrote:

As a matter of interest, where is essien expected to play if Chelsea sign him? Direct replacement for Makalele or are they going to change formation and play 6 in midfield and no strikers?

Ya thats what i was thinkin wher will they play him

pickarooney · 28-07-2005 10:36am

PHB wrote:

Makes perfect sense.
Man Utd interested in a replacement for Keane.
Buy him, thus United sstay weak in midfield.
Doesn't matter if it doesn't help their team directly, it helps them indirectly

Ahh... it makes some (extremely cynical) sense in that light. They don't even need to buy him now though, as his value has been set at a fairly ridiculous 30 million and his wages boosted.

~Rebel~ · 28-07-2005 10:36am

just thought i'd depress myself with looking at the chelsea squadlist..he really is taking this whole 2 top class players for each position thing very very seriously!

Petr Cech
Carlo Cudicini

Asier Del Horno
Glen Johnson
Ricardo Carvalho
William Gallas
Wayne Bridge
Paulo Ferreira
John Terry
Robert Huth

Lassana Diarra
Claude Makelele
Frank Lampard
Joe Cole
Damien Duff
Geremi
Arjen Robben
Jiri Jarosik
Tiago
Shaun Wright-Phillips
(Essien?)

Didier Drogba
Eidur Gudjohnsen
Hernan Crespo

Must be a bit shiit to play there at the moment given his lack of rotation..

RVN10 · 28-07-2005 10:48am

I feel bad for those plaers who wont barely play this season its not fair

~Rebel~ · 28-07-2005 11:01am

Chubb76 wrote:

I feel bad for those plaers who wont barely play this season its not fair

agreed. if some of the players that will go majoratively unused this season were spread around other clubs it would make for a much better premiership, theres going to be a lot of magic on their benches that we just wont get to see. Just really sucks that they're buying up all the talent when its completely unrequired.

In Essien they're trying to buy a player who has yet to develop fully. Now correct me if im wrong but isn't the point of buying players like this that they're cheaper and you can mould them into players worth the 25 or whatever million they're now offering. By just buying them at the price the player would be worth if he developes fully and fulfills his potential it just defeats the purpose. wouldn't it make more sense to wait till they actually need him and when he has actually matured and get him for the same price? Odds are that by not playing as much at chelsea he's not going to become what he could if he went to another club and played regularly..

qwertyup · 28-07-2005 11:17am

Chubb76 wrote:

I feel bad for those plaers who wont barely play this season its not fair

I'm sure they will manage to cope as they cry into a pillow stuffed with $100 bills, gorgeous blonde by their side...

RVN10 · 28-07-2005 11:20am

qwertyup wrote:

I'm sure they will manage to cope as they cry into a pillow stuffed with $100 bills, gorgeous blonde by their side...

Ya but money isnt all that gr8 when you want to play week in week out

Necronomicon · 28-07-2005 12:10pm

Chubb76 wrote:

Ya thats what i was thinkin wher will they play him

Well, if you look at last season with the 4-5-1, they always had 3 centre midfielders, usually Tiago and Lampard with Makalele behind. I would assume Essien would line up alongside Lampard instead of Tiago.

Slash/ED · 28-07-2005 12:13pm

Yeah straight swap with Tiago, seems straight forward enough.

s8n · 28-07-2005 12:15pm

qwertyup wrote:

I'm sure they will manage to cope as they cry into a pillow stuffed with $100 bills, gorgeous blonde by their side...

What...Like Mutu did ??

BolBill · 28-07-2005 12:17pm

I'd hardly include Drogba and Huth as "top class players" mate. Drogba was a big let down, especially in the 2 games against Liverpool in the Champions League, and Huth is average at best.

RVN10 · 28-07-2005 12:53pm

BolBill wrote:

I'd hardly include Drogba and Huth as "top class players" mate. Drogba was a big let down, especially in the 2 games against Liverpool in the Champions League, and Huth is average at best.

Couldnt have been said better

evilhomer · 28-07-2005 1:05pm

BolBill wrote:

I'd hardly include Drogba and Huth as "top class players" mate. Drogba was a big let down, especially in the 2 games against Liverpool in the Champions League, and Huth is average at best.

I think Drogba is a top class striker, but He said himself last month that He never really wanted to sign for Chelsea, but the money was too good to turn down.

I think He has been unsettled since the day he arrived. If you look at the way he played for Marsaille He was unbelievable.

Unless Morunhio can get Him to settle better this season we will not see his full potential.

Slash/ED · 28-07-2005 1:10pm

Unbeliveable for one season. That does not make him a top class striker.

Gileadi · 28-07-2005 1:17pm

drogba who had 2 injury spells in the season,who played a stunner against munich in germany?

against liverpool he had v.little support with the absence of duff and robben for the first time

also if you want to look at the statistics he compares quite well to rooney who most united supporters i know seem to adore

Drogba: Games played-41 (11 as sub)
Goals - 16
Minutes on Pitch: 2709

Rooney: Games played-43 (6)
Goals- 17
Minutes on Pitch: 3362

all things considered rooney and drogba are fairly well matched and i think drogba will come out cheaper in a goals/price ratio, but ill agree that drogba must do better to justify his price

evilhomer · 28-07-2005 1:21pm

True, But i'm sure If he had stayed in France last season He would Have performed as well as He did the season before.

Despite not scoring 20+ goals last season He still showed touches of his brilliance.
Morunhio's one up front with 2 wingers/attackers doesn't suit his style of play really.
Drogba said himself that He ran his heart out for the club last season to "start defence from the front" and it affected his ability to get into attacking positions.

Only this season will tell If he can be the striker He showed promise to be.

astrofool · 28-07-2005 1:28pm

Rooney and Drogba play different roles really though (although both are strikers), Rooney tends to play from deep, whereas Drogba is a definite target man.

jimbling · 28-07-2005 1:40pm

hmmmm.... drogba... he really gets up my nose. did any of ye actually watch him play last season. He is a powerhouse... can score some goals... but please... his skill level is nowhere near rooney.

did anyone see those comments from him a few weeks ago... blaming his lack of goals on tactics, not getting the ball to feet... but my reply to that would be, you might get it to feet if you could control it!!!

I watched almost every chelsea game last year.. and every time the ball fell to drogbas feet, I was thinking he has about a 30/40% chance of keeping the ball here... and about a 5/10% of doing anything constructive with it.
This is just not good enough for a striker in drogba's price range. I hope he can prove me wrong and come out and do the business this year. But my own feeling is that he is not good enough.

Essien will be a direct swap for Tiago... end of story. It would be an expensive swap and I doubt very much he is worth 20M never mind 31M, and I hope chelsea don't just fork it out to get what the want again.

Cianan2 · 28-07-2005 1:47pm

Tbh, i havent seen Essien play much, and i am not looking forward to seeing him in a Chelsea jersey(if he goes, of course). I get a feeling he has been far over-hyped by now, and that he wont be anywhere near as good as this price-range makes him out to be! Obviously, he is a good player but would he really be worth the risk of paying that much?

Gileadi · 28-07-2005 2:18pm

astrofool wrote:

Rooney and Drogba play different roles really though (although both are strikers), Rooney tends to play from deep, whereas Drogba is a definite target man.

the only true way to register a strikers worth is with goals scored imo,thats their main role on the pitch and you can argue about whos more skillful but more skill wont turn into more points on the league table if the goal count is the same, anyway you dont really need somebody too skillful when you look at the wingers and lampard

you cant say that drogba had a bad season without also saying it about rooney when you look at the goals and that cant be argued

PHB · 28-07-2005 3:59pm

Drogba was a bad player in a good team.
Rooney was a good player in an average team.

The alone striker in a team that chelsea had this year would have to be retarded not to score 16 goals with the service he got, but he missed countless countless chances.

That said, I saw him playu in France, he was outstanding, hope he doesn't regain his form here.

Essien one of France's best paid players

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