I got a yellow from him for absolutely nothing back in the day. He was on a massive power trip when he was a mod constantly merging threads that didn’t need to be merged and warning people every 5 minutes. Been posting on here for like 10 years and he was the only mod to ever give me a card.

Fraser/OS are wide players and would be competing for Townsend's position. Gallagher would be competing for McCarthy/MacArthur's CM position. So I don't see any problems with overlap there.

If we are gonna be playing 442 in a narrow diamond as we have been in pre season so far like we did the year we had RLC on loan then we have 2 midfield places. We are pretty stacked there at the moment with Macca, Luka, Meyer, Kouyate, Jairo, McCarthy, Schlupp can plays there and Eze too although I expect Eze to play out wide. I think Chelsea will want him to play more to develop and I personally think we can do better than a 20 year old with no PL experience on loan. As a general rule I think we should copy Villa and have a policy of not developing players for other clubs.

On top of that what’s to stop them from doing what they did with Charlton and just pulling him back halfway through the loan if he did do exceptionally well.

Edited by coulsdoneagle (01 Sep 2020 12.29am)

As for our current midfielders that you mentioned:

McCarthy: lots of talk about him going to Celtic. I think our link to Gallagher could have something to do with that. And even though we probably don't particularly want to lose him, if he's one of our few players receiving interest from other clubs then I think we'll take the opportunity to make a profit.

Kouyate: seems pretty certain to be playing as a CB for the time being with all of our injuries. And has been doing well there, so I could maybe see him being transitioned into a CB role more regularly anyway. Additionally, I don't think Luka and Kouyate works well as a CM partnership, and I think the club have maybe come to the same conclusion, thus their interest in CMs like Gallagher.

Schlupp: doesn't play as a CM, so again he's not competing for the same spot as Gallagher. He'll be competing with Eze for the LM position, or occasionally used as a striker, or maybe as a LB if we're desperate. I see his role as more rotational.

Meyer: Roy appears to have no faith in him, and I know some people here really like him and want him to succeed but I tend to agree with Roy. I think the club wants him to move on asap and to get him off the wage bill. Whatever your feelings on him are, I see no indication that he'll be anything more than an occasional substitute this season, regardless of whether we bring Gallagher in or not.

McArthur: a brilliant player and obviously one that Roy favours. But he's also 32 and might struggle to play a full 90 mins week after week. We can't necessarily rely on him to the same degree that we have in previous seasons.

Jairo: yeah, bringing in a young CM would be rough on Jairo. I think he's looked pretty good lately, but I'm still not 100% convinced he's ready to be a starter in our CM against strong Premier League opposition. I do like him though, and I agree it would be tough for him to go back down in the pecking order.

Eze: in a 4-4-2 Roy will be playing him at LM as you mentioned, so again there's no overlap with Gallagher, who'll be in one the the two CM positions.

Luka: very likely to always be picked as one of two CMs if he's available. The question is who's going to be his partner.

So in summary, if McCarthy does leave, I really only see proper competition between McArthur and Jairo for that position based on our current squad. It's not really looking as stacked to me as you described it. And if the club genuinely believes that Gallagher would be an improvement over those two players, then I'm inclined to believe them.

As for having a "no developing other club's players" policy, I just don't agree. Loans can be extremely useful for clubs of our size. We've utilised them to great effect in recent history. At the end of the day, all that really matters is winning games and surviving in the Premier League. If loans can help us do that, then so be it. We should use every tool at our disposal.

I have to say that Schlupp seems like a firm favourite of Roy’s so I can see him playing a fair bit. He has been playing CM for us when we play with a 3 CM formation and I expect we will do that plenty of times throughout the season. I still fancy him to play a fair bit. I could also see him and Eze on the field together with one of them playing more centrally.

Kouyate I don’t agree is being shifted to CB, I think that’s a necessity at the moment but Dann, Kelly, Cahill, Sakho are all ahead of him and when they are fit I think he will move back in to midfield.

If we do play with the narrow 4 it might be the first time a formation is played which could give Meyer license to play. Either way it’s last chance saloon for him but he offers cover.

Agree with your assessment of Luka and Macca. Jairo as well will get minutes as he is versatile.

So I see it as Luka, Macca, Kouyate Schlupp (formation dependant) Meyer and Jairo who will all be able to play for us in midfield so I don’t think a youngster from Chelsea who will want game time is a good use of our loan spot.

Indeed it is, excellent summary, congrats