The Conte Thread

[King11Didier 916]

I don't think we can be patioent any more. The board and the whole club made a big mistake with this transfer window. The aim was to stength our defence and the progress so far is 0%. That's more than disappointing. Even the kids on the street knew that our defence is shit and we have to buy players in that area. The pre-season is over and we should've bought a defender even before the start of it, because he has to adapt to his teammates in defence, don't expect some CB to come and to have good chemistry with his partners, that's not a ST where you get balls and make them in goals, it's more complicated and it needs time to build a strong partnership.
The whole point on this transfer window is missed. It's clear that Napoli don't want to sell Koulibaly easy, but that's why you should have plan B and even plan C. We were thinking of even signing 2 new CB's and now the season starts in 7 days and we will start with the same defence which made us finish on 10th position. I'm really pissed off with our board and we should bring some new faces there, I have a feeling that people there are working more against the club than for it. But at the end of the day it will be the manager who will get the stick for the bad situation and it won't be deserved.
The situation is really bad, but I just hope it won't get worse. 3 weeks which will show if people in the board still care for the club or not.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

Given the state of our defenders, think any one would have improved our defence!

It's quite unforgivable really. The transfer window has been opened for months and we still have not signed any defender. Heck never mind this transfer window, if Conte and/or the board has been watching the team carefully, they should know our defence has been on the decline since a year ago and should have been started scouting, searching for defenders, proper defenders. But no. We ended up buying some duds last season and till now, we're still finding the right players. Reinforcements should have been identified long ago and bought early on. It should have been our main priority this summer but we ended up wasting plenty of time on getting players further up the field. We shouldn't be waiting till the very end to sign players for an area we desperately need to improve.

See this is where we will always be at odds. So if we go out and buy Djilobodji are we a better team than we were previously? Not any defender improves us, we need a BOSS and the BOSSES are in shortage in world football. Juventus don't need to sell Bonucci and clearly don't want to. Koulibaly might go if he submits a transfer request otherwise why is Napoli gonna sell? 

How do you know the reinforcements haven't been identified? Its not as easy as going to the grocery store and picking defenders off the shelf.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

See this is where we will always be at odds. So if we go out and buy Djilobodji are we a better team than we were previously? Not any defender improves us, we need a BOSS and the BOSSES are in shortage in world football. Juventus don't need to sell Bonucci and clearly don't want to. Koulibaly might go if he submits a transfer request otherwise why is Napoli gonna sell? 

How do you know the reinforcements haven't been identified? Its not as easy as going to the grocery store and picking defenders off the shelf.

If reinforcements have been identified, we wouldn't be taking a scattered brain approach in the transfer market right now.

[Tautvix 1,321]

1 minute ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

See this is where we will always be at odds. So if we go out and buy Djilobodji are we a better team than we were previously? Not any defender improves us, we need a BOSS and the BOSSES are in shortage in world football. Juventus don't need to sell Bonucci and clearly don't want to. Koulibaly might go if he submits a transfer request otherwise why is Napoli gonna sell? 

How do you know the reinforcements haven't been identified? Its not as easy as going to the grocery store and picking defenders off the shelf.

Jose and Manutd had their targets early and they brought them on before the season even started. This is why they are gonna win EPL. While we will just keep asking that we need defenders.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

7 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Bonucci, Mustafi, Koulibaly, Manolas, Stones, Marquinos...any of these CB's would be an instant upgrade. Are all of them "available?" Maybe not, but we need to at least throw huge offers at their clubs and make them say no.

Pogba wasn't available. Mkhitaryan wasn't available. Sterling wasn't available. No top players are unless you make their clubs an offer they can't refuse. Why have we not done that to bring in a CB which is the most important area that needed reinforcement?

Being patient and "waiting for the right players" is what we were told last summer and look what happened.

Those are the names we've been linked with and of the 6 you've mentioned, in my estimation only Bonucci, Koulibaly and maybe Manolas make us better. Pogba was available, Mkhitarian was available, Sterling was available. Now name me a CB that is available and will make us significantly better? 

[Tautvix 1,321]

Just now, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Those are the names we've been linked with and of the 6 you've mentioned, in my estimation only Bonucci, Koulibaly and maybe Manolas make us better. Pogba was available, Mkhitarian was available, Sterling was available. Now name me a CB that is available and will make us significantly better? 

Every player becomes available when you pay the price other club wants. Pogba wasn't also available for us last season? Obviously he wasn't since we refused to pay the money Juve wanted. But football changed now a lot of you need to pay a lot for great players. We cannot buy Djilobodji for 2m and expect him to be the new John Terry..

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

Adding to that, with the new TV deal money and the inflated transfer market, the chances of getting a good player by paying a small fee are low these days. Gotta pay big money to get the good ones.

Yes and we clearly aren't in a financial position to spend 80m on one defender. We have money but if you believe FFP is real we clearly can't spend crazy money and comply, especially with no champions league football.

2 minutes ago, Tautvix said:

Jose and Manutd had their targets early and they brought them on before the season even started. This is why they are gonna win EPL. While we will just keep asking that we need defenders.

Man Utd have limitless funds at their disposal. 

[Pizy 17,860]

1 minute ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Those are the names we've been linked with and of the 6 you've mentioned, in my estimation only Bonucci, Koulibaly and maybe Manolas make us better. Pogba was available, Mkhitarian was available, Sterling was available. Now name me a CB that is available and will make us significantly better? 

They weren't available. Pogba, Mkhitaryan, and Sterling's clubs all wanted to keep their players. You think Juventus or Dortmund wanted to sell their best players? Hell no! They just received offers that were impossible to turn down.

Every single one of those CB's I named could be had with the possible exception of Bonucci. And every single one of them is miles better than Terry and Cahill. 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

If reinforcements have been identified, we wouldn't be taking a scattered brain approach in the transfer market right now.

Explain what this means. 

What is scatter brained about not getting what you have targeted?

[lucio 5,394]

9 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

See this is where we will always be at odds. So if we go out and buy Djilobodji are we a better team than we were previously? Not any defender improves us, we need a BOSS and the BOSSES are in shortage in world football. Juventus don't need to sell Bonucci and clearly don't want to. Koulibaly might go if he submits a transfer request otherwise why is Napoli gonna sell? 

How do you know the reinforcements haven't been identified? Its not as easy as going to the grocery store and picking defenders off the shelf.

If our current options are hill and ivan ,then even the lesser targets like de vrij and lindelof would comfortably improve us

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

They weren't available. Pogba, Mkhitaryan, and Sterling's clubs all wanted to keep their players. You think Juventus or Dortmund wanted to sell their best players? Hell no! They just received offers that were impossible to turn down.

Every single one of those CB's I named could be had with the possible exception of Bonucci. And every single one of them is miles better than Terry and Cahill. 

Sterling wanted out and forced a move.

Pogba went for a world record fee...

Mkhitarian had one year left on his deal... read between the lines, not every time a club says a player is not for sale does it mean they won't sell. In these instances you have the club window dressing.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

1 minute ago, lucio said:

If our current options are hill and ivan ,then even the lesser targets like de vrij and lindelof would comfortably improve us

No they won't. They would make us slightly better def not a title contender like we should be. 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

And don't forget the club had Rudiger all but signed before the Euros and he ruptured his ACL. Imagine if we'd taken all of the incredible advise given here and signed him asap. 

[Pizy 17,860]

5 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Sterling wanted out and forced a move.

Pogba went for a world record fee...

Mkhitarian had one year left on his deal... read between the lines, not every time a club says a player is not for sale does it mean they won't sell. In these instances you have the club window dressing.

We've been adamant that Costa isn't for sale. But I bet you if Atleti or some other club came in with a super high fee we'd sell him.

Same goes for our CB search. If we throw a truck load of cash at Napoli for Koulibaly (who by all accounts wants to leave) they'll sell.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Explain what this means. 

What is scatter brained about not getting what you have targeted?

Like not knowing who to get? If you have read through what I said, you knows what that means.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Just now, Pizy said:

We've been adamant that Costa isn't for sale. But I bet you if Atleti or some other club came in with a super high fee we'd sell him.

Same goes for our CB search. If we throw a truck load of cash at Napoli for Koulibaly (who by all accounts wants to leave) they'll sell.

you mean like the 79m Juventus threw at them for Higuain? 

Lets be realistic here. We need to be smart about this purchase.

[Jase 43,479]

12 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Yes and we clearly aren't in a financial position to spend 80m on one defender. We have money but if you believe FFP is real we clearly can't spend crazy money and comply, especially with no champions league football.

FFP is like a myth at this point if we look at how much the other clubs are spending and the lack of Champions League football money hardly hurts when there's the new TV deal money.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Just now, Jason said:

Like not knowing who to get? If you have read through what I said, you knows what that means.

 Again you have no idea who has been targeted, all you know is we haven't concluded any deals. You sound like Charlie "the Hurricane" Skillen or Joe Tweeds... 

"Chelsea need to buy a CB but not a rubbish one like Djilobodji, a really good one like Bonucci or Koulibaly..." No fucking shit sherlock! And what will it take to pry these players from their respective clubs?

Signing anyone who is available is precisely what got us into this predicament to begin with.