Rapkun

https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Transferts-chelsea-pret-a-accelerer-sur-edouard-mendy/1169297 According to L'équipe, the offer is 18M euros + 2 in bonuses. Rennes did not anticipate his sale this summer but the player doesn't want to miss the chance to join a big club.

The fee could reach up to 28M euros after bonuses according to The Guardian. That's a bit much IMO. If that's true, I fail to understand how Mendy is seen as a cheap alternative while Onana is rumoured to be available for around 30.

I can't believe Marina managed to convince them to pay 160m with only 1 year remaining on his contract. She should go to prison for this.

Rennes clearly don't want to sell unless they get an offer they couldn't refuse, which seem to be at 40m euros. For this kind of fee we should be looking elsewhere. I'm thinking Amsterdam.

Different players obviously but I would rather have van de Beek in my team than Bruno Fernandes. Quality player.

I'm not particularly keen on him either. Onana is available for 30m and is practically begging to join, yet we don't seem to be very interested. The only explanation would be that the club have doubts him. Considering we've already seen him at the biggest stage(UCL) and he's statistically the best GK in the past 2 seasons in the competition. I just can't comprehend the decision.

I think Mendy would cost between 20M and 25M euros. I have no evidence but I'm guessing that's the price Rennes would be looking for. It's France not England and he's 28 yo. If the info by Téléfoot is anything to go by, the 16m euros rejected should be close to their valuation of the player.

The club already announced he will be going on loan.

Welcome to the loan army.

The main reason is that PL teams have a lot of money. They don't need to sell. It would be the same if you asked for one of Leicester's foreign players. They sold Mahrez for a big fee. Soyuncu would cost just as much as Maguire did if he were to leave etc.. Rice is West Ham's best player. He's the last player they would wanna sell. Unless they receive a ridiculous offer, they will not even entertain the idea.

Lollichon is 100% the one behind this. He's a huge fan. Back in 2019 when Mendy was still at Reims, he was asked to rank the GKs in Ligue 1 and he picked him at number 1 ahead of Lopes(Lyon) and Maignan(Lille). He also said PL teams must be tracking him because they like big goalies. Back then, he thought it would be difficult for a french team to sign him as there were many teams interested. Tells you how highly he rates him. He always talks on french TV about how he likes GKs who are really big and explosive so they can get to the ground very quickly despite their height.

Those posts are old. I only shared them for the infos on GKs. That was before we bid 80+20.

Since the WHU ITK on Twitter was spot on with every Chelsea news recentely and called the Mendy interest before anyone else along with Chilwell, Havertz etc.. I thought I would share this.

Onana is also 4 years younger with UCL experience. Mendy would cost at least 20.

We could have just gone for Onana who's begging to join, but I'm guessing Lollichon prefers a giant. He previously said he liked Mendy.

We've yet to make arguably our most important signing of the summer. I really hope we saved the best for last.

Leeds apparently in for Rodrigo from Valencia. This could be bad news for a potential Michy sale.

Glorified international friendlies.

It could be that the 190k/week figure includes bonuses related to performances. Although it makes more sense to have bonuses for attacking players. It's really odd. His current contract isn't a big one.

Was very promising when he first started playing for Nice. Then he stagnated for a while, mostly due to him playing out of position(LB). He's definitely not Chelsea material at the moment. Likely to go on loan if he signs. Clubs see a bargain in him being a free agent. I read somewhere on twitter that he's a Nice reject. that's not true at all. He wanted to leave so he did not renew his contract.

100m is so much money. We were in a good position to negotiate a lower transfer fee too. This was certainly our only shot at signing Havertz but this is far from a bargain. Big pressure now on the player and manager for him to deliver instantly. He's going to be a very easy target.

They didn't have the money for Werner so I'm not surprised. Switched from the more expensive Jamal Lewis to that greek fella as well. I mean it's understandable. He only has a year left on his contract and he's 29 yo. Only wants to join Liverpool so it's not like Bayern have much leverage.

Thiago is not leaving Bayern to come here. Need to be realistic here. It's either Liverpool or Bayern.

Contrary to some on here. I'm really fine with Chilwell at 50m. I always felt he was the safer option. If money is not an issue, I would definitely pick Chilwell over Reguilon. I feel there are still question marks with Reguilon whereas we sort of already know how Chilwell will look here. He's not Alphonso Davies or Robertson but he's still really good. Probably the second best LB in the league. Great athlete, comfortably carries the ball when pressed, strong in the air, decent passer etc.. I know people have doubts about his defense but he's alright especially considering he gets no help from his winger, so on that front I suppose it's a good thing he's already used to being exposed all the time. My biggest worry about him is that at the moment he's a jack of all trades rather than a specialist. I don't think he excels at a particular aspect of the game. Maybe his ability to carry the ball almost effortlessly at times kinda like a midfielder but that's about it. Still time to develop though..

My choice: Thiago, Zouma, Rudiger, Tomori. What's most likely to happen: Thiago, Zouma, Rudiger, Christensen Ampadu we don't even know where he will be playing in the long term. I suspect he will end up playing DM. Plus, he hasn't played much football in these last couple of years. Even if he's willing to stay and fight for his place, he needs to play regularly to develop. The club will certainly convince him to go on loan. Tomori for some unexplicable reason is at the bottom of the pecking order. He has proved this season that he has the level required to play as a starter for a PL club. Plenty of potential and probably the one with the highest ceiling. He's the one who stands to learn the most from Thiago if he's coming but I suspect the Club/Lamps have different plans. Zouma our most reliable CB this season. Decent defender all around, big in the air and quick to recover. Has shown willingness to be more ambitious with the ball. I suppose he is also the one with the biggest sale value but unless we bring in someone better, no chance of him leaving. Rudiger was phenomenal under Sarri but it's no secret he was very erratic this season. It's difficult to justify why he wasn't dropped for Tomori for a good part of the season. I haven't given up on him yet because he proved to be a good player in the past so there's still a chance of him bouncing back next season although I wouldn't expect much. But even if we wanted to, I think he would prove difficult to sell. Christensen is the one I think needs to leave. I don't think he's a good fit for the PL. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned the tide and turned into one of the best CBs in either Bundesliga or La Liga. But here he's being bullied by every striker in the league. I'm not even sure he's a ball playing CB. Even Zouma is more audacious with his passing.