Rapkun

He never had the chance to play for big clubs like those other defenders. Take a world class player like Mane for instance who was a bit underrated because he played at Southampton, when he moved to Liverpool everyone realized how good he actually was. Same goes for many other players like our own Ngolo Kante. I watch a lot of Southampton and he adjusted to england fairly quick, he's showing his class as the time passes. it's a shame he had that injury. Koscielny mght be the best CB in england but as I said earlier he's too prone to cause a penalty. David Luiz is a great athlete with a superb ability on the ball but he's bomb waiting to explode. His lack of concentration doesn't make him a reliable defender. Him playing in a back three has a lot to do with his success this season. Bailly is a great athlete but he's too aggressive. It's a miracle he gets away with all the fouls he commits. I think he has a good ability on the ball that is a bit wasted. Makes many mistakes as well. All things he could improve with work and experience though. Now Van Dijk imo has it all: ability to read play, anticipate, cover, good timing in the air, proactivity. He's very comfortable with the ball, often drives with it and distributes well, very cool under pressure. Maybe his only weakness is that he isn't particularly fast but I think his ability to read the game makes up for it. Under Koeman it was mostly a low block so it was impossible to tell. but under Puel they were playing a high line at times and he had no problem playing in transition. He's more than just a defender who sits and watch and when necessary he can play higher and help in attack like every modern defender. From what I saw from him he's one of best defenders in the country and he's still very young. It's true he hasn't played in europe as of yet, be he possess all the qualities to make it at a top club. He can only get better imo.

He's better than all of those except arguably Azpilicueta and Koscielny. and I don't consider Azpi to be a real CB because of his height. Koscielny is getting older and unlike Van Dijk he makes too many fouls in the box. If we sign him, I can bet you will change your opinion of him. He might be overpriced but thats what's you get with the lack of quality CBs around the world, and he is quality.

I didn't mean money bonuses. I meant other agreements like priority on possible signings, view on academy, loaning players etc.. Some clubs do that. Besides, they have the best academy in france. and right now and probably for more years coming some of the best talents in the world are coming from there. So it makes sense to build a solid relationship with them. Anyway I'm just speculating and trying to understand how a player like him is worth less than our back-up goalie. Maybe the club is just betting on the combination of sell-on clause, first refusal and possibly player's preference.

For those asking about buy-back clauses, they can't be included in contracts in france. Same thing happened with Jese and Depay when they were sold. But the low fee is very suspicious. Media was talking about 20m euros for quite sometime and suddenly they only pay half of it. There must be some kind of bonus we're getting outside of the 15% sale clause. Otherwise, sell us Lacazette at 30m tbh.

Sponsors certainly have an impact on the transfers but I think in this case it's just the club giving in to the demands of a title winning manager who wasn't backed up as much as he should have been, one that is forcing them to sign players in order to sign a new contract. It was probably in their plans to reward the manager with signings in his second season if he made top 4. There is also the accumulation of failures to sign targets in the past few years. The club probably doesn't want to see a repeat of the 2015/16 season.

I don't think Di Marzio has become unreliable but him and the journalists/columnists that work with him are speeding up things and misleading people. For instance, they reported that we bid for Van Dijk and use "Van Dijk is closer to Chelsea" as a title for the article. Yet there was no mention of an agreement and nothing to suggest a deal was close. Obviously they're trying to attract more readers as do all journalists and people jump too quick to conclusions.

The striker situation is very tricky as we have to get rid of Diego first. The biggest issue about this is that alternatives to Lukaku are being snapped up by other clubs. Soon he will be the only option available and we're gonna have to submit to Everton and pay a ridiculous fee to get him.

If I had to compare him to a premier league player, I think he's closer to Wanyama with a slightly better touch. Yaya has an amazing technique for someone with his body.

1 or 2 years ago I would have agreed with you, but Lacazette has proven to be able to play as a lone striker very well. His back to goal game has improved immensely and he makes himself useful and available when his team is struggling. He's a quality player and that's coming from someone who didn't rate him very highly at first.

I know. but that guy is generally reliable when it comes to Chelsea. Di Marzio only reported that we bid for him anyway not that it was done. Southampton being interested in Ake is not new either.

http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3875/transfer-zone/2017/06/24/36579992/ake-could-make-way-for-van-dijk-at-chelsea Article is from Nizaar Kinsella who's a Chelsea correspondent for Goal. He gives very little updates but is generally well informed about Chelsea. He says that the deal is far from being done. I'm inclined to believe him because I don't think negotitations with Southampton are going to be easy following their statement about Liverpool.

They're quoting The Telegraph.

I'd rather have him than Lukaku tbh especially at the quoted price. It's between them and Atletico according to l'equipe who leaked the story earlier.

We've been after a ball playing CB for a while now, and it looks like he's going to be our guy. Christensen will be back from loan as well. I think that means Zouma and Ake are leaving. There will be plenty of space for everybody in a 3 man defense. I'm guessing Luiz, Christensen, Van Dijk, Cahill will be sharing the CB position with Azpilicueta as a potential 5th defender. RWB will be Moses/Azpi and LWB Sandro/Alonso. The only player that might get frustrated for lack of playing time is probably Alonso if we sign Sandro.

Van Dijk and Sandro are absolute quality players. If we pull those 2 off regardless of the price it will be a very good summer. I'd rather we pay a crazy amount for real quality than a reasonable amount for average players.

Bakayoko is done according to RMC (Mohamed Bouhafsi). Fee around 40m euros.

Pre-injuries Ox, I would take in a heartbeat. Current Ox, I'm not really sure. He used to be so explosive and direct. Deadly 1 on 1. Now he lost that bit of pace that made the difference. He's still very fast but not crazy fast. He improved in other aspects of his game though. I don't know where he would play but he is not better than Hazard/Pedro/Willian and as a wingback, I think Moses who is homegrown is not far behind him.

Best left back in the world after Marcelo. Juventus would be mad to sell him. As for handing a transfer request, I can't see it unless he's unsettled or money driven because right now they're a lot more attractive as a club. Missed on him when he was at Porto and we signed Baba instead.

At least Morata has a lengthy contract, Lukaku only has a couple of years left in his. I think he's still totally worth it IMO. Future world class striker. I wish we would hijack the deal.

There is one certain thing at this club, is that managers don't get backed up no matter what they do. The reason we haven't been able to build a strong squad since the first core of Abramovic's era is lack of planification and signings at key moments. After Ancelotti won the league in 2010 and some serious signs of decline among the squad were visible. Rather than invest in fresh blood to slowly replace the old core, the board probably judged that the team was good enough. The following season the team is struggling and we're obliged to make huge signings in January (Torres, Luiz) to try and catch our rivals. Panic buys, not planified. Mourinho wins the league in 2015 with a decent squad and a very old backline, already at the time we could see the limits of that team both domestically and in europe. In the summer, the board probably judges the team is good enough to compete again and we face the inevitable as we finish 10th in the league next season. Pedro was signed very late in the window after poor results. Top 4 was gone by January and so was the manager thus no further acquisition was made. Now Conte wins the league and history is repeating itself as he is facing the same fate as those before him.

Pretty sure I remember United presenting new signings with a Nike kit before the Adidas deal kicked off. Schweinsteiger, Darmian etc..

The board is a joke. We were lucky enough to move from one top coach to another. Stop playing with fire and give the man what he wants.

Bayern with basically two Vidals, Kimmich and Thiago Alcantara. What a midfield.

Fabregas said he was not certain to stay and I don't think he wants to spend another season on the bench. Him and Matic want to be starters. If Bakayoko is coming and Kante is guaranteed starter I think one of them might leave if they don't get word that they're in the coach's plan. Honestly, I have no idea what we're up to but it's looking like we're aiming towards something different than last season. I think we will have a clearer picture at the end of the transfer window.

You can't win the league playing exclusively on the counter. Truth is, in the course of the season we're going to play more games trying to open up teams rather than the opposite. The idea that this team is creative enough because of how successfull we've been is a very lazy thought. Last season, the team benefited from the change in system to take the other teams by surprise and they took time to adapt which resulted in 13 wins in a row. After that spell, it was really difficult to close out games and the introduction of Fabregas helped ease the issue. We saved many games scoring from set-pieces and/or very late in the game, The key of the success of Conte's system was that he could afford to play many defensive minded players and still be a big threat offensively because the individual talent of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard made the difference. 1 of those 2 is more likely leaving and the second needs to perform at an even higher level now to make up for it knowing we have more games to play with Champions Leaugue. Also stats proved that the team overperformed in terms of expected goals which is likely to drop next season. The role of Fabregas is still unknown and he's not guaranteed to stay either. I don't know if Bakayoko is his replacement or Matic's but he doesn't possess the creativity of any of them.