Anyone noticed Danny boy?

[jayfox26]

59 minutes ago, Stevosevic said:

Why are people hating on DD?

Cos of the way he spat his dummy out and forced a move at the last minute. Even Shakey slated him. Showed no respect to the club, fans, staff and his teammates. Grateful for what he helped us achieve but very disappointed with the way he left the club. 

[Chico1958]

Don't care really, it hurt me more when The Little French Guy left.

 

in all honesty, we did well for him and he did the same for us.

 

Move on

 

 

[PaulW]

He's going to be unavailable for much of the season......splinters in his ar$e.

 

[Guest Col city fan]

11 hours ago, weller54 said:

Now they've both got a lump in their wallets! 

I imagine the only thing Drinkwater is suffering from is severe inflammation of the bank balance.

[bluesbrothers]

On 11/5/2017 at 16:42, Reg Vardy said:

And your point is? He wanted to go, he's gone, get over it

That he's going to see his career stall at Chelsea. He may win the odd bit of silverware, but I'm fairly sure it'll be in more of a Gokhan Inler capacity than a Wes Morgan one appearance-wise. It's his prerogative, to be honest. I'm not so bothered, since our midfield was just as bad for most of last year with him in it as it was this year until Iborra really got going recently, and most of those lamenting his passing would still have not seen him kick a ball in anger until last month had he stayed, given his injury. We're moving on, he has done too, but I'll follow his progress there with interest because I'm convinced that he's made a mistake and will regress, and that he's a follower rather than a leader in a good midfield at this level - whether that was Cambiasso or Kanté. He was a hero in 15-16, but it was a team effort and the year following that has given us all a real chance to properly assess the true character and abilities of our players.

 

Which I suppose is a weird point to make, I accept. I'm simultaneously saying that he wasn't all he was made out to be during his time here, but also saying that in going to Chelsea he's over-rating his own abilities, or more likely Chelsea were when signing him (I won't go into the possibility that they signed him cynically to meet their "home nations quota" - that's another argument entirely). I'm not sure there's a single midfield in the top six - maybe eight - right now that he'd be able to walk into the first XI of - and yes, in current form I include Burnley and Brighton in that. That considered, I admire his will to challenge himself to get into that midfield, but the fact remains that even now, when it's about the sh1ttiest it's been for the past decade, he's nowhere near being a first choice. His injury might have already cost him his chance, unless the planets align and both Kanté and Fabrégas end up out for a number of games. Even then, I don't believe that Bakayoko is the sort of reassuring influence he has shown he needs at this level to flourish, despite being ahead of him in the pecking order - I stand by that the last time Drinkwater genuinely looked like the primary controlling influence on midfield in games on a consistent basis was in the Championship.

 

I'll make my judgement once Silva starts playing for us and gets a run of games, but when you consider that Danny's fee paid for both him and Iborra, I'm pretty sure we'll be laughing all the way to the bank come May. Farcical transfers aside, you'd have to have the most blue-tinted spectacles on earth to believe that he's currently worth the collective impact on the team that those two could potentially have, league-winning heroics or not.

Edit - clarifying some more crappily-made points

[Bryn]

Listen, let's nip this horseshit in the bud.

 

In our two league winning years Danny Drinkwater was magnificent. Some poor form in between but at his best the second finest centre-mid this club has had after Kante.

 

Think he made a poor choice in leaving.

 

Scandalous and outrageous that he refused an England call-up.

These are the only correct opinions.

[bluesbrothers]

On the whole England thing, I think that reflects far worse on the England set-up than on Danny himself. He plays the football of his life in our title year, and only finally gets his deserved international recognition in a tiny cameo when the title was already pretty much sewn-up. He then gets left behind for the Euros so that a barely-fit Jack Wilshere can join the fold instead. Because Arsenal. His performances have regressed ever since.

 

Then, once he joins Chelsea, Southgate is straight on the phone to him to offer him the call despite barely kicking a ball in anger since April, still being injured and not having played well for a string of more than two games for the best part of two years and having rightly been ignored for the entirety of last season with us.

The big club cartel is real. If I was a fan of Bournemouth, Brighton or Burnley right now, I'd be livid that my own perfectly competent midfielders aren't being given the nod first before Drinkwater got that call. He shouldn't have been rung in the first place.

[Kitchandro]

1 minute ago, bluesbrothers said:

On the whole England thing, I think that reflect far worse on the England set-up than on Danny himself. He plays the football of his life in our title year, and only finally gets his deserved international recognition in a tiny cameo when the title was already pretty much sewn-up. He then gets left behind for the Euros so that a barely-fit Jack Wilshere can join the fold instead. Because Arsenal. His performances have regressed ever since.

 

Then, once he joins Chelsea, Southgate is straight on the phone to him to offer him the call despite barely kicking a ball in anger since April, still being injured and not having played well for a string of more than two games for the best part of two years.

The big club cartel is real. If I was a fan of Bournemouth, Burnley or Newcastle right now, I'd be livid that my own perfectly competent midfielders aren't being given the nod first before Drinkwater got that call. He shouldn't have been rung in the first place.

Good point well made. Couldn't agree more.

 

In my fantasy world Drinkwater made this exact point to Southgate, called him and everyone at the FA a bunch of fickle, two-faced c*nts and hung up.

 

But that obviously didn't happen.

[bluesbrothers]

It's a weird point to be making in honesty on a night when Southgate is playing the fringe, including two of our own, and they're looking far and away more coherent and exciting than the "first XI" have done since... well, when we beat Germany 3-2.

It's maddening to know this performance, which has been good so far, is inevitably going to be thrown in the bin and the same old faces will be playing when we line up in Russia next year. Probably with Drinkwater in midfield based on current trends.

[Russell sprout]

On 05/11/2017 at 19:15, Stevosevic said:

Why are people hating on DD?

My Mrs is DD,

im not complaining 

[brucey]

1 hour ago, bluesbrothers said:

Then, once he joins Chelsea, Southgate is straight on the phone to him to offer him the call despite barely kicking a ball in anger since April, still being injured and not having played well for a string of more than two games for the best part of two years and having rightly been ignored for the entirety of last season with us.

England tried to call Drinky up three times last season while he was carrying an injury with us, and three times he told them the exact same thing he has just told Southgate.

[bluesbrothers]

28 minutes ago, brucey said:

England tried to call Drinky up three times last season while he was carrying an injury with us, and three times he told them the exact same thing he has just told Southgate.

I wasn't savvy to that. You think they'd have got the hint by now, though, especially since they could have spent that time looking for alternatives?

If tonight's good performance from the "fringe" should have taught the FA setup anything, it's that they shouldn't be afraid to cast their net wider in searching for England players. Admittedly, Cork has finally made an appearence for the Three Lions tonight, but I could also rattle off Dunk, Stephens, Cook or (at a push) Surman who have played regularly to a higher standard in the past 18 months and meet the (in my eyes stupid) belief that you have to play in the top flight to get into the England set-up.

 

Still, I'm derailing the thread a bit, I'll admit. Nobody gets a call-up after 5 months out unless they're a "big club" man, hence why Wilshere was at Euro 2016 and Drinkwater wasn't. I'll admit that the approach has changed to an extent under Southgate - tonight has shown that - but there's clear progress to be made if we're actually going to start picking players on merit, and midfield is the worst position for it.

 

EDIT - Right on cue, everybody on ITV is rimming Drinkwater! Ian Wright has spoken, I stand corrected. 
 

PS: Given everyone jerks off about Burnley being an unsung hero of English "talent", most of their team's "Home Nations" heart is actually Irish (Hendrick, Brady, Ward). 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Bryn said:

Listen, let's nip this horseshit in the bud.

 

In our two league winning years Danny Drinkwater was magnificent. Some poor form in between but at his best the second finest centre-mid this club has had after Kante.

 

Think he made a poor choice in leaving.

 

Scandalous and outrageous that he refused an England call-up.

These are the only correct opinions.

2 good points but I don't agree on the third. He's just back from injury and told Southgate he isn't fit enough. That's reasonable. He needs to play next time. For what it's worth if he gets some England time before the world cup he should be a starter as England's best proper midfielder.

[mozartfox]

9 hours ago, toddybad said:

2 good points but I don't agree on the third. He's just back from injury and told Southgate he isn't fit enough. That's reasonable. He needs to play next time. For what it's worth if he gets some England time before the world cup he should be a starter as England's best proper midfielder.

Hello - how can you disagree with a ‘Correct opinion’?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

Hello - how can you disagree with a ‘Correct opinion’?

If you've ever been in the politics thread you'll know I'm quite capable of disagreeing with just about anything 

[I am an Ostrich]

Drinkwater should go and be part of the squad and maybe he could have an hour v Brazil, Chelsea have turned him into a powderpuff not fit enough my a**

[stretch1965]

11 hours ago, Russell sprout said:

My Mrs is DD,

im not complaining 

Not sure we believe you, can you post the evidence