Rumoured Mehdi Benatia

[termninja 5,290]

Has anyone ever seen a more biased forum than Bluemoon with Man City fans? Wow

I tend not to visit other team's forums because I always realize just how wonderful life is, how best this forum is and how much idiots live on this planet

[The Skipper 20,593]

Earlier I read a post on there that said man-for-man our (new) starting 11 is only better than theirs in the GK department (Courtois vs. Joe Hart)

Lol. Incredibly arrogant these City fans.

[sherry33 234]

Has anyone ever seen a more biased forum than Bluemoon with Man City fans? Wow

Just to see how dumb they are

"Mangala or Benatia for the same price?

We could possibly get 10 years out of Mangala, whereas we could conceivably get 5 years out of Benatia."

I gotta admit City fans are probably the most dumb and clueless fans in the world!

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Chelsea in frame to move for Manchester United target Mehdi Benatia

http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/09/chelsea-in-frame-to-move-for-manchester-united-target-mehdi-benatia-4826686/

[Fernando 6,378]

We have been kinda bad in the defensive department this pre-season.

So maybe there is something true to that rumor...

[iseah100 5,612]

Varane>Benatia

[Iainrfc04 39]

Would be a welcomed addition to the defensive line. Have only seen him play a handful of times but did look very good.

Would also add some more competition for places and also a back-up in case of injuries since we'll be competing in multiple competitions

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

30M would be a ludicrous price as it would make Benatia the 6th or 7th most expensive defender in history for a 27 YO with almost no experience at the top stage ( Italy used to be a fantastic league but is now a massive step down from the Premier League and has Benatia ever played in the CL?) People look at the insane signings of the top spending teams like PSG and Real Madrid and if you look at it that way, everything is reasonable, Sure, if Luiz is 50M pounds, then Benatia at 30M is fine, Those are outlying transfers and you can't judge how reasonable a price based on those few ludicrous moves.. Benatia was 11M pounds last season. He had, by all accounts an excellent season, but that doesn't triple his price.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Would be a very unnecessary signing. At £30m too? Please.

[Behemoth 266]

Love the guy - please Mou makes this happen.

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

There is an article in today's Gazzetta Dello Sport printed edition in which they say Jose has convinced Roman to pay €38m for Benatia. He wants to have a complete team before the game against Burnley and Benatia is his favourite centre back at this moment and the #1 target.

Talks between the two clubs have already begun yesterday and Gazzetta Dello Sport believe that Chelsea have made an offer too good not to be accepted.

[sherry33 234]

There is an article in today's Gazzetta Dello Sport printed edition in which they say Jose has convinced Roman to pay €38m for Benatia. He wants to have a complete team before the game against Burnley and Benatia is his favourite centre back at this moment and the #1 target.

Talks between the two clubs have already begun yesterday and Gazzetta Dello Sport believe that Chelsea have made an offer too good not to be accepted.

38!?

Hope its not true, would be really upset with this.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

He's 27. His age is just right for a CB: not too old but not too inexperienced. He was the top defender in Italy last season and was excellent at Udinese too. He's fast--which is something we lack. Our defence lacks depth. Zouma doesn't inspire much confidence and JT will probably retire soon.
He's one of the top defenders out there. He has a rating of 7.55 on whoscored for a reason(in our team only Matic and Hazard had a bit higher). Pace, tackling, interceptions, positioning--he has no significant weakness.

Just to compare him to JT and Cahill:

Tackles per game: JT - 0.9; Cahill - 1.1; Benatia - 2.1
Interceptions per game: JT -1; Cahill - 1; Benatia - 2.8
Dribbled by other players: JT - 0.2; Cahill - 0.3; Benatia - 0.3

IF the price is right, I'll be delighted if we get him. He'll strengthen any defence.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

He's 27. His age is just right for a CB: not too old but not too inexperienced. He was the top defender in Italy last season and was excellent at Udinese too. He's fast--which is something we lack. Our defence lacks depth. Zouma doesn't inspire much confidence and JT will probably retire soon.

He's one of the top defenders out there. He has a rating of 7.55 on whoscored for a reason(in our team only Matic and Hazard had a bit higher). Pace, tackling, interceptions, positioning--he has no significant weakness.

Just to compare him to JT and Cahill:

Tackles per game: JT - 0.9; Cahill - 1.1; Benatia - 2.1

Interceptions per game: JT -1; Cahill - 1; Benatia - 2.8

Dribbled by other players: JT - 0.2; Cahill - 0.3; Benatia - 0.3

IF the price is right, I'll be delighted if we get him. He'll strengthen any defence.

If he's forced into making that many tackles he could be mistake prone. You usually tackle as a CB as a last resort.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

If he's forced into making that many tackles he could be mistake prone. You usually tackle as a CB as a last resort.

Granted, he's a more aggressive defender than our CBs and he makes more fouls, but he also does far more interceptions(Cahill - 29; JT - 35; Benatia - 92), which shows that he's excellent at reading the game. Thiago Silva is another top defender who makes many tackles too(at least he used to in his best years at Milan) and he isn't exactly mistake prone.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Really see him signing for us next year if Terry leaves, Zouma proves he isn't up to it yet and Roma don't win the Serie A. If they do I don't think he will want to leave/they let him go especially with Strootman likely heading toward MU once he recovers from his injury.

[cadenza666 221]

would be extremely happy if we sign him, best defender in the Serie A last year . and that will be CB future sorted for a good 4-5 years atleast, Kalas and Zouma to take over after !

[Diego 433]

I have never seen him play personally but every reporter from Italy seem to rate him as one of the best all round CB in the world. Do we need him? Depends on which way you look at it, IF Cahill and Terry both stay fit and consistent as last year then probably not but terry isn't getting any younger wont be able to play as many games as last year. If one gets injured then we have Ivanovic who is good but not the world class standard we need for Half/ full season. If JM believes we need one then I trust him 100% and we shouldn't worry to much about the money situation either we have been doing some pretty good business recently to say the least and we are well within the FFP rules