Mateo Kovačić was just named Chelsea’s ‘Player of the Season’ for 2019-2020. But you know what? That’s not good enough for me.
Kovačić helped Chelsea get to the FA Cup Final and finish top-4 in England last season – to keep their Champions League membership valid- but that shouldn’t be considered a successful season for a club of Chelsea’s caliber or deep pockets. So let’s give 2019/20 a C+ grade.
Kovačić had glimpses of absolute greatness but wasn’t consistent enough for my taste. The former Real Madrid man can definitely dictate tempo in the midfield and control the game, but he needs to create more chances in the final third. Kova only scored one goal in the Premiership last season with Chelsea. That number has to go up.
And it will. Why?
Because the cavalry is coming!
Chelsea were under a transfer ban this time last year and were handcuffed when it came to new signings. But that is 100% not stopping the West London club from splurging in a time that most clubs are saving.
Chelsea have already signed Timo Werner from RB Leipzig, Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen, Ben Chillwell from Leicester, and are getting veteran defender Thiago Silva on a free transfer from PSG, DailyMail reports. Chelsea are going to be stacked with incoming talent for the upcoming season which should bode well for Pulisic, Kante, and Kovačić. If this team stays healthy, they can definitely make a run at a top-2 finish in England. Liverpool’s magic from last season will be gone and Man City looked like a shell of themselves to end the current season; (cough cough) most noticeably in Champions League.
Kovačić has the talent and knowledge of the game to rise out of Luka Modrić’s shadow; both on club level and with the Vatreni. It’s almost fitting that Modrić will not be available for next month’s UEFA Nations League matches against Portugal and France for Kovačić. The changing of the guard is nearly upon us. It pains me to say this, but Luka can’t be around forever. EURO 2021 could be his last tournament in the checkers and someone must take up his mantle.
It’s time for Kovačić to shine – with Chelsea and Croatia. Kovačić is only 26 years old. A handful of Croatians are confident he will be able to fill Modrić’s boots while many have already written him off as a bust. At this time, the jury is still out in my opinion. It will be this upcoming season that writes Kovačić’s future. He will be loaded with weapons around him at Stamford Bridge and the Croatian midfield. Werner, Pulisic, Havertz, Vlašić, Rebić, Perišić, Kramarić. Kovačić will have plenty of firepower to play with. It will finally be Kovačić’s time to shine.
2021 will be the year of Mateo Kovačić.
Sign in is the way to go, but it’s strange that none of you guys would comment here anymore if that was the case, why is that?
Crazy has taken over the forum again with his racist ranting
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rferl.org/amp/serbia-accuses-croatian-cops-of-torture-against-afghan-other-migrants/30148248.html
The Serbs are doing good by telling how racist Croats are.
Dok budemo imali domaćih izdajica, dotle ćemo imati tuđinskih gospodara.
– Ante Starčević
Bog i Hrvati
=U=
@Pro white guy
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/27051-serbian-president-vucic-comments-on-croatian-army
“He said it was ridiculous to compare Serbia with NATO, which is big and powerful. “We are small, but we love our freedom more than anything. We prefer to run our country on our own and be our own masters,” he added.”
It’s a sad day when “the breed” start mocking the Croats for not loving their freedom more than anything.
People with a brain know that the “Homeland war” was a sham because it was not fought for peace but rather as a means to an end. The end being, that Croatia was forced into the EU by the atheistic communists, giving away what the Croats thought they fought for. While “the breed,” as Vucic says, prefer to be their “own masters.”
could’ve been WON inside 6 months
And by the way, that antiWhite religious zealotry killed a lot of Croatians and caused a great deal of suffering among our people. After all, it was the leftist communist yugoslavs who wanted to keep everyone “unified” and the entire western world were initially against croatian independence until they had no choice but to accept it. So Croatia had to go to war for our freedom. Unlike the Slovaks and Checks.
Many U.S. soldiers lost their lives and are still suffering today because of this PC religious zealotry. But you wouldn’t expect the CRIMINAL antiWhite establishment who got us into that war to win the peace. The Iraq war could’ve been inside 6 months had they just allowed the disparate groups that make up the Iraqi population to have their own nations.
Serbs are untermensch.
Bill Maher used to have a show called “Politically Incorrect”, it wasn’t really, but that was the name of the show.
So he offers a solution to the constant strife in the middle east and terrorism in Israel – which was from the Arab/Muslim population living in Israel. His solution was to just separate the groups. So every other liberal there did not refute that would lead to peace/solve the problem, instead they just showed they were religious zealots by saying “I’m against segregation of any form”. Their devout Political Correctness beliefs trumped peace. These are the same people of course who say they are too sophisticated for religion.
It’s hard to believe that any Croat living today, just 29 years after Croatia declared independence, can’t see that the way to peace between the races is segregation.
@”Canuckcro” thinks that because “Oh my God” white people have actually fought against each other, he’s allowed to be a TRAITOR!
Blacks not only have fought wars against each other, they sold blacks slaves to other races! Is THAT an excuse for a black man to be a black TRAITOR??
Did Croatians whine that Serbians should protect Croatians from Serbians and Croatians themselves? Did Croatians blame Serbians for their own problems while demanding the government force integrate them with Serbians?
No, Croatia demanded independence/segregation, self determination, control of our own destiny. Independence means: you take care of your affairs and we’ll take care of ours. And not only are Serbians not another race, they’re one of the most closely related nationalities to us.
“Canuckcro’s” beloved colored companions want access to whites while supporting every policy that destroys whites – that is their entire race’s mindset – which is literally the definition of evil. But every media rat just goes on pretending this isn’t true and really expect us, who are telling the truth to shut up while they lie thru their fucking teeth day after day after day.
@”Canuckcro”, everyone can see you didn’t even attempt to refute anything I said, you just called me names – THAT PROVES YOU’RE A LIAR. In your DOUBLETHINK brain, it’s not okay to tell the truth if it’s “racist”, but it’s A-okay to hate people based on their form of Christianity. And you’re calling me “absolute mentally retarded dumb dumb”?? Hahahahaha LMFAO!
You have no problem with every sports league shoving bullshit antiWhite BLM politics down your throat but God forbid a Croat sticks up for his own race.
If “blacks are the best in your eyes”, why don’t you go live in a black country?
Whoever anonymous is abovse..is beyond an absolute mentally retarded dumb dumb ..to preach black white politics about a soccer story about a fantastic croatian soccer player who went through war and was discriminated against by fellow whites..sick orthodox shit religion caused that..blacks are the best in my eyes..far above evil belgrade cetnik dogma following politicians..Anonymous just jump off a bridge cliff or your a shill for this website
Here’s the IRREFUTABLE TRUTH: blacks are much safer in white countries than in black countries. So it is THEIR fault they aren’t “equal”. The beautiful do not claim “equality” with the ugly, the intelligent do not claim “equality” with the stupid. Pro-whites do not claim “equality” with non-whites. “Equality” is only claimed by those who feel inferior. Never mind the truth though, that’s for us “unsophisticated rednecks” right you lying antiWhite fucking rats?
Do you guys still hate Djokovic because he’s half Serbian? Compare his after match on court interview with that of Raonic’s. Raonic completely followed the antiWhite script by groveling like a bitch: “Oh, I hope every black man, woman and child can be safe blah blah blah” so we must not only sacrifice what’s in the best interest of our children for theirs, we must actually sacrifice the very existence of our children. FUCK YOU LYING CRIMINAL RATS.
How can any white person in his right mind watch the NBA? It’s nothing but a freakin BLM billboard. Every player is forced to be a BLM billboard and that’s all they talk about.
They are blaming us for them not being safe even though half their male population is in prison. They are blaming us for them not being equal to us even though every single one of their countries without exception is 3rd world. Not only do they hate us because of our race, the reasons for their hatred are completely based on bullshit too!
@Crnkovic, why are you still here TRAITOR? How can you be loyal to Croats and a Traitor to the race Croats belong to?
This should be an exciting season for Kova…good luck to him. I agree, he has the opportunity to become world class.
Wtf: how many players do we have in Russia? 6 or 7 now?
Free kick today. First time I’ve seen him score one. I bet he trains hard to improve every aspect of his game. He is hungry yes
Vlasic May become world class one day
The kid is hungry and plays that way
Vlasic and bistrovic both scored today. Vlasic with another cracker
Best Chelsea line up is gk, James, azpi, silva, chilwell;kova, Loftus cheek;ziyech, havertz/mount, pulusic/mount, werner
Great article Ante.
Kovačić will have what Real Modrić was on club level.
In Croatia, Kovačić will have a far better situation than Luka had at age 25.
Plus, Luka has evolved into legend status so there is no need to compare your self to the best nogometaš of all time.
Kovačić does have to step up in being responsible for decisive moments in the final third.
Which he has shown glimpses throughout his career.
Lampard will know that Kovačić is the key to bringing all these new players together.
We only need for Kovačić to be the best Mateo he can be nothing more.
For years we hoped with his explosive speed dribble attack he could be a 10. Lamenting the lack of killer instinct in the final third.
He has improved leaps at bounds as a CDM and we thought his recovery speed and man marking would solve our 6 problem.
He is a #8, and he has Brozovic behind him at #6 and Vlašić in front at #10.
He needed this year to stabilize his core confidence.
Now he can take his game to an elite level.
Dare I say World Class!
I am worried about our boy Sbronzović!
My non-croat friends always tell me Sbronzović looks like a meth head from a trailer park in Florida. I never expected him to start acting like one.
Guy is so good, and puts in the effort, but lately he makes George Best look like a saint off the pitch.
He will always be epic due to his WC 18 emergence, but I fear he is at the beginning of a downward spiral.
What say you Croatiansports? Was it catching lightning in a bottle? Or will he put down the bottle and lay down the thunder next year?
Well done Kova
Hopefully this would give you the platform to reach higher achievements for both club and country
He has been patient and should now cash in from here on in
Congratulations
90 million pounds for Havertz?
Geez. Just pay 20 million pounds for Vlašić and use the rest to shore up the other positions.
no Ziyech? Forgot about him. Didn’t Chelsea sign him ?