2018/19 Kurt Zouma

[Eggs]

He set out his stall out early to say he wants to be at Chelsea so we are deluding ourselves if we think he will sign permanently in Jan or as soon as the summer window opens. The only way I can see it happening is if he goes back and they sign a top level CB and then give him the cold shoulder, much like how we got Lukaku.

...at least we know the ‘type’ of central defender we need. The scouting network should be on the lookout for a Zouma clone. Fantastic coup getting him on loan.

 

[KaiserEFC]

He signed a 6 year deal before he went to Stoke and has stated he would like to stay there, but I would definitely test their resolve with a £30m bid lol

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Can't blame him, he is taking these loan deals to impress the club he is owned by. We are benefiting from this so it's win-win if everyone is professional about it. Things do change though and if he looks too far away from the Chelsea first team we will have a chance, but he has got to be playing his way into contention you would have thought for next season.

Long-term though I wonder about the wisdom of this strategy. At the moment he's (rightly) keeping Mina out of the side as he's playing well, but hopefully Mina will be with us for a while, whereas Zouma may be gone next summer. Short-term loans can work for lesser sides as they get hold of players they wouldn't ordinarily be able to get but I don't think a side with our aspirations should be looking at loans unless they're with an option to buy. We could end up with a situation whereby Zouma and Keane play the majority of the season, then in the summer Zouma leaves and Mina is peed off that we haven't played him.

If we're playing Zouma then we have to be working our backsides off to get a deal to sign him permanently.

 

[Nymzee]

I think he’ll want to stay here next season personally.

 

[Bagpuss]

Zouma has to continue to play and although Keane has played very well this season it has to be Keane that Mina replaces if when there is a drop in form. Mina and Keane at the back would mean that we have to drop the back four 10 yards further back because neither has the pace to recover if a striker goes past on the half turn. Someone earlier said that Zouma reminded them of Yobo and I can see the comparison as both had bags of pace and comfortable with playing the ball out and stepping up with it. Hopefully Zouma has less brain farts in his locker than Yobo though (who I still think was an underrated signing for us).

 

[The binman chronicles]

Long-term though I wonder about the wisdom of this strategy. At the moment he's (rightly) keeping Mina out of the side as he's playing well, but hopefully Mina will be with us for a while, whereas Zouma may be gone next summer. Short-term loans can work for lesser sides as they get hold of players they wouldn't ordinarily be able to get but I don't think a side with our aspirations should be looking at loans unless they're with an option to buy. We could end up with a situation whereby Zouma and Keane play the majority of the season, then in the summer Zouma leaves and Mina is peed off that we haven't played him.

If we're playing Zouma then we have to be working our backsides off to get a deal to sign him permanently.

You'd imagine there would be a phasing out time if in reality we have nothing to play for towards the end of season. That will at least give us an idea of if we can cope with a Mina/Keane partnership. If it doesn't then like @Eggs said least we have an idea what qualities we need when we go shopping for one.

For those reasons it isn't the worst thing in the world, we probably loaned Zouma for cover while Mina was getting fit, knowing that we would only throw Jags in as a last resort. We are still in that transition period where we'll struggle to get the targets we really want, so loans do make sense in the way if we can use them to get the club closer to the top 6, we start to become attractive to the ones we would want to sign permanently.

The club I suppose would also hold out hope that if we have a decent season then players like Gomes and Zouma, getting regular games may just think that it isn't too bad here, where they may not have joined if the only option was a full transfer which would likely be seen as a massive step down.

 

[MartSlinger]

Would anyone drop him on the weekend for Mina?

Hear me out like - not because of form or anything, but because its Chelsea away next week.

Do we want Mina's first game being Chelsea away? Id rather give him 90mins on Saturday to "settle" into the side ahead of the game next weekend that Zouma cant play in.

 

[GwladysPhil]

If he shares my view that this season has been one for our new signings to gel and that we will really kick on next season, I think he will want to stay.

 

[Parker]

Would anyone drop him on the weekend for Mina?

Hear me out like - not because of form or anything, but because its Chelsea away next week.

Do we want Mina's first game being Chelsea away? Id rather give him 90mins on Saturday to "settle" into the side ahead of the game next weekend that Zouma cant play in.

I was thinking this but then I also thought which game are we more likely to win. I don't think we'd beat Chelsea at their gaff with Zouma but I'm confident we can beat Brighton at home. Would it be worth risking a "home banker" for a game we more than likely wouldn't win. I can see your point but I'm not sure which I prefer.

 

[toffeejack]

Long-term though I wonder about the wisdom of this strategy. At the moment he's (rightly) keeping Mina out of the side as he's playing well, but hopefully Mina will be with us for a while, whereas Zouma may be gone next summer. Short-term loans can work for lesser sides as they get hold of players they wouldn't ordinarily be able to get but I don't think a side with our aspirations should be looking at loans unless they're with an option to buy. We could end up with a situation whereby Zouma and Keane play the majority of the season, then in the summer Zouma leaves and Mina is peed off that we haven't played him.

If we're playing Zouma then we have to be working our backsides off to get a deal to sign him permanently.

If we didn't loan him jagielka or Williams may have been playing a fair bit this season, it was definitely worth getting him.

 

[degsy]

Would anyone drop him on the weekend for Mina?

Hear me out like - not because of form or anything, but because its Chelsea away next week.

Do we want Mina's first game being Chelsea away? Id rather give him 90mins on Saturday to "settle" into the side ahead of the game next weekend that Zouma cant play in.

This

 

[Eggs]

You'd imagine there would be a phasing out time if in reality we have nothing to play for towards the end of season. That will at least give us an idea of if we can cope with a Mina/Keane partnership. If it doesn't then like @Eggs said least we have an idea what qualities we need when we go shopping for one.

For those reasons it isn't the worst thing in the world, we probably loaned Zouma for cover while Mina was getting fit, knowing that we would only throw Jags in as a last resort. We are still in that transition period where we'll struggle to get the targets we really want, so loans do make sense in the way if we can use them to get the club closer to the top 6, we start to become attractive to the ones we would want to sign permanently.

The club I suppose would also hold out hope that if we have a decent season then players like Gomes and Zouma, getting regular games may just think that it isn't too bad here, where they may not have joined if the only option was a full transfer which would likely be seen as a massive step down.

..I suspect Zouma was loaned to play. CBs are all about partnership and Mina plays very well with Sanchez at international level. Zouma and Sanchez are similar types.

Zouma will play because he’s a better option, the fact he’s on loan won’t matter when Silva is selecting his best starting X1.

 

[yakublue]

Would anyone drop him on the weekend for Mina?

Hear me out like - not because of form or anything, but because its Chelsea away next week.

Do we want Mina's first game being Chelsea away? Id rather give him 90mins on Saturday to "settle" into the side ahead of the game next weekend that Zouma cant play in.

Need to win this weekend, should be focusing on that

 

[Bruce Wayne]

If we didn't loan him jagielka or Williams may have been playing a fair bit this season, it was definitely worth getting him.

For sure, I'm not complaining about us getting him at all, more whether he should be used as back up when long-term options aren't available, or whether he should play even when those long-term options are available. Up until now he's been utilised as the former, but with Mina now available he might also be used in the latter way, which is not so healthy imo.

 

[Toffeelover]

Long-term though I wonder about the wisdom of this strategy. At the moment he's (rightly) keeping Mina out of the side as he's playing well, but hopefully Mina will be with us for a while, whereas Zouma may be gone next summer. Short-term loans can work for lesser sides as they get hold of players they wouldn't ordinarily be able to get but I don't think a side with our aspirations should be looking at loans unless they're with an option to buy. We could end up with a situation whereby Zouma and Keane play the majority of the season, then in the summer Zouma leaves and Mina is peed off that we haven't played him.

If we're playing Zouma then we have to be working our backsides off to get a deal to sign him permanently.

This and also Gomes.