Happy to have Baba back. I think this side will suit his game better

Happy with Baba. And clearly wants to play for us which is good

With Moore - maybe we just get him fit and into the squad. Dann is obvs good only for the knackers yard and he is an experience champ CB who may actually suit the new ‘style’

Serious question, who would you genuinely drop out of the squad for six months for Moore?

Holmes? No chance.
Sarr? No chance.
Hutchinson? No.
McIntyre? No.
Abrefa? No thanks
Clarke? Maybe?
Dann? He'll barely ever be fit to make it in anyway

We'd need at least 1 injury for Moore to get on the bench. His career is done here.

Re the Moore pay off stuff. He’s on about and we can’t be 100% sure, but somewhere between 30 and 35k pw. I think we can all roughly agree on that.

20k pw is 1 mill a year. So to buy him out of his 30k pw contract would be somewhere in the region of 1.5 mill, give or take. Say we said to him look we will pay you half your salary - circa 750k and you can get 15k per week at a new club, you will be financially the same for the remainder of the season.

If I were Moore, and that were put to me I would think ok I’ll take that. Agent please go find me a club willing to pay me 15k pw. Which I think is probably doable.

We have saved 15k/17.5k per week In wages. Which would be enough for three 5 to 6k pw additional players.

Something like this must be agreeable you’d think.

Serious question, who would you genuinely drop out of the squad for six months for Moore?

Holmes? No chance.
Sarr? No chance.
Hutchinson? No.
McIntyre? No.
Abrefa? No thanks
Clarke? Maybe?
Dann? He'll barely ever be fit to make it in anyway

We'd need at least 1 injury for Moore to get on the bench. His career is done here.

Agree completely about his career here being done, but he's still a capable defender at this level so if we had to keep him for another season, he would be a good option to have on the bench at least. Wouldn't say he gets into our starting XI or anything but, out of our 6 first team CB's, it would be Holmes, Hutchinson, Sarr, McIntyre, Moore, Dann for me, which is competent enough for the season.

I think Clarke has done well, Abrefa as well, but they could use some proper game time with the U23's. Would rather them be playing minutes for our U23's and Moore just being in our matchday squad getting none/little minutes rather than Clarke/Abrefa sitting on our bench and not playing that much for the U23's.

Obvs I’d much rather get rid but strongly suspect that’ll be very difficult

We’ll have injuries no doubts. TMc, Dann, Hutch - all injury prone

Better just to get Moore motivated and at least may provide some use rather than just rotting away in the background

Think Baba should end up being a great signing for our current position, I think the likes of NGW, TMac and Hoilett have done well to cover the absence in that position but teams have pinpointed it as a weakness and we've found ourselves vulnerable defending attacks down that side.

Hopefully having a senior LB will leave the team more balanced.

Got to see what happens come January, shipping out on loan with someone paying half of his wages for the remainder of the season would help us financially and maybe allow us to bring in a couple of new faces, but obviously they'd have to be free agents, which would be tough for us to bring in as most will have been snapped up by that time, but there may be someone who can get their contract terminated at their current club or just weren't signed up before.

Confimred

Tbh we could probably put a hit out on him and still make a saving and come out ahead.

Actually baba is a great signing considering the circumstances thinking about it

Worth the wait, delighted he is back. Should suit the new set up as well

Agreed. Baba with NGW as back up is a pretty decent LB option now, both suited to the LWB role.

We are shipping nearly two goals per match this season. So, we go and loan in a defender who played a part in us shipping nearly two goals per match last season. We need someone who will shore up the defences, whilst Baba is a good player, will he stop the rot in defence? I really do hope so.

We’ve just kept 3 clean sheets in a row for goodness sake and got about 10 more points than anyone expected…

Way to skew the stats there. We've let in 8 goals in 2 games, 1 of which was down mainly to a GK forgetting how to play for 45 mins. Across the other 5 games we've let in 2 goals and kept 3 clean sheets. Defense is much stronger this year. Generally we have looked pretty solid and in most game look unlikely to concede despite ceding possession a lot. Baba should help that hopefully give us more quality on the ball to relieve pressure.

(Ha,Ha) That got you choking on your lunches, didn't it? Got you there didn't I? Joking apart, Baba is a really good player and I am pleased to see him back. Will we be able to afford to sign him on a deal next year, as I believe his contract is up at the end of this season,isn't it?

It would be a hell of a drop in wages to go from Chelsea to us, that's even if we end up going silly with our wages again after this year and of course it depends what division we are playing in. If his contract is up at the end of the season, I imagine he may end up playing abroad, potentially for a lower side in the country's top division.

Happy to have a generally good player for another season and agree that our LB area is looking strong now with Rahman, NGW and McIntyre capable there. Hopefully Luongo we can get signed on before the weekend and then we see what other options are available, if any.

He's on £89k a week currently. How much of that are we paying?

How do I know he's on that much? A faint memory of someone possibly posting it somewhere here or someone random discussing it elsewhere so while there is no actual evidence for it, it is nevertheless fact.

Well based on what we know we won't be paying him more than 10k and probably a fair bit less.

The problem is though that a player like NGW is only going to 'get gud' if he is playing week in and week out. The more experience he gets playing at Championship level, the more chance he has to catch up. Having him as a back up seems like the worst of all options - bringing in an inexperienced defender to occasionally cover for the first choice - it's not exactly going to do his confidence any good.

I don't believe NGW is really seen as a long term solution esp. given as he only has a 1 year deal.

I actually think competition for places tends to do players more good than being “Zak Crawley”ed and being picked no matter what. NGW will have to work on his game to try and displace Baba or keep his place.

Do feel a little sorry for him, my expectations were low but he’s done better than I expected. Complete opposite with Baba last season, who was fine without being inspiring or rock solid.

Perhaps having NGW will push Baba as well so that he's > fine

Why are people so excited about this signing? Absolutely bang average player who was part of below par squad last season. We should be looking to improve.

Source?

Hi John smith, I don’t think people are ‘excited’ so to speak. I think people are just pleased we have filled the troublesome left back position. Id be interested to know which left back you would have preferred we signed, considering our situation?

WTF is wrong with Chelsea? It looks like Baba is on £4.4m a year

I agree.

I must re-evaluate my opinion

Hi John smith, I don’t think people are ‘excited’ so to speak. I think people are just pleased we have filled the troublesome left back position. Id be interested to know which left back you would have preferred we signed, considering our situation?

Smithy would probably suggest signing Harry Arter and sticking him at LB.

Hi John smith, I don’t think people are ‘excited’ so to speak. I think people are just pleased we have filled the troublesome left back position. Id be interested to know which left back you would have preferred we signed, considering our situation?

Smithy would probably suggest signing Harry Arter and sticking him at LB.
Danny Rose.

Does anyone else have any other questions they want to ask?