OhForAGreavsie

Fortunately the people who noticed Ruben's talent, but failed to notice that he hardly ever produced productive displays, weren't making the decisions. I do not believe that Ruben is earning £5m - £6m per year.

I refuse to believe these numbers and no source other than Ruben, his agent, or Chelsea Football club will convince me otherwise. I just don't see how anyone could ever have felt it was warranted or necessary to pay Ruben £6 million a year.

It's still fun to think about the defensive corps that would give us. Pep, Jürgen, Oli, Brendon and the rest would not be happy bunnies. 🙂

Blatter is a truly disgusting individual.

Yes, I realised this. As you might recall I often post to show my frustration with comments that assume the poster knows more about making transfer deals than the professionals do. I've said it before but I'll take the opportunity to say it again; Marina knows absolutely everything we think we know about how to put a transfer together, and a great deal more. Your suggestion was still fun to read though.

I agree but my comment was only about whether we simply had to sit and wait for Real to make a matching counter offer. We don't.

Brilliant! Knew there had to be a good reason for having you around here. Somebody find this woman Marina's email address.

Think you've missed my point. The purpose of our negotiation with Real would be to compensate them so that they do not make a bid. Obviously if the clause is binding, and Real are determined to take the player back, then the situation is entirely out of our hands.

Agreed. Interesting idea. This would probably also appeal to Thiago because it holds out the possibility of a further extension for him at the end of the coming season. A new contract which would then assume him playing back up to Andreas.

I didn't know that. Assuming he is effective on the left then that would make getting him a lot more attractive. Not attractive enough to justify losing Andreas but more attractive all the same.

No. Assuming that the clause makes the purchase mandatory, i.e. that the player has no right to turn down the transfer, we could negotiate directly with Real over a settlement for them to waive the buy-back. They of course would ask us to write off the remainder of Eden's transfer fee, we would offer a green Smartie, and the negotiation would proceed from there.

'Succession' might be a better word. 🙂 Agreed that he would be behind Thiago & Rudi but given the need to manage Thiago's minutes, and Thiago's injury record last season, Andreas can reasonably expect a satisfying level of involvement. Someone pointed out above we could play 65 games next season. Potentially plenty of minutes to spread around. (Actually I think the theoretical maximum is more than 65 even if the League Cup semi-finals do not return to the two-legged format which is assumed in the 65 number.)

Understood. I just think that, based on what he has done for us lately, there is no possibility of the club concluding that Andreas is a disposable asset. For that assessment to change he would have to fail to perform, in whatever system, over a stretch of games and that's not going to happen this side of the transfer window closing. My bet remains on there being zero possibility that Chelsea are prepared to include Andreas as a make wait in a transfer a package.

Makes no sense even with a four I'd say. Andreas has simply become too good. I think we would all agree that the minimum likelihood of Chelsea being prepared to release Andreas is 0%. Well, my guess is that the maximum likelihood is roughly 100 times that. 🙂

And yet, I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes feels able to discern genuine conviction from bravado. That's not to say my feeling must be right here but I definitely picked up no hint that JAF was claiming more than he knew. Or perhaps how erratic opinions can be. Anyone who has a better view of Chelsea now than they did six months ago is not alone. I agree. If I'm correct that JAF knows something and is speaking with the permission of the Haaland family then the implications are either that there is interest in what Chelsea have to say, or that they are happy to encourage others to believe they are interested in what Chelsea have to say.

I watched Fjortoft's ESPN interview on the subject. He genuinely seemed to know something. Given his reported relationship with Alf-Inge he is a) in a position to know and b) likely to respect the family's wishes if they did not want him to go as far as giving the hints he gave. Personally, the player I'd most like to get from BVB is Bellingham but I definitely don't see him feeling ready to leave yet.

I think if Arsenal had valued the player highly enough, and convinced him of that, then they'd have got him. If they did want him at all that is. The only way Villa beat Arsenal to a player if Arsenal weren't competing or the player does not believe he would get minutes with the Gunners.

Good info. Thank you.

Words too much to ask?

If this story is true, I'd have said that putting a price on the player can only be intended to encourage interest.

Seems I'm not the only one who is still enjoying last Saturday's result.

Interesting.

TT's new deal, and the feel good factor gives CFC a big opportunity to get the club back on track. The club has made it clear that it plans to recruit but it's more important than ever that we get it right. However many moves we make this summer they must all hit the target. Wasting the budget would be bad enough but we've done that before. Get this right and we can re-establish ourselves at the top table of European football. What is more do it with more good will flowing towards CFC than at any time in the last fifty years. In addition to getting the recruitment right, I hope TT will have the chance to work with Mando before any new loan is considered. In an ideal world he would also get a look at Lewis Bate and Tino Livramento before they go on loan though, if their loan clubs want the lads to spend preseason with them however that would be understandable. There also needs to be an important meeting involving Neil Bath, Joe Edwards and others concerning Tino Anjorin. Next season will be the last chance to set Tino back on an upward trajectory. At the moment he is following the RLC path; bags of talent, but too little impact. To be fair to Tino A he is producing more than Ruben did at this stage of his career but it isn't enough. I'm a little less worried about Tino than I was about RLC but I find myself facing the same concern. Namely that Tino will not make it here unless he finds a way to produce a more consistent impact on football matches. It tends to be the ridiculously brilliant or nothing with him. With far too much of the nothing.

I think a rounded view of Traore would require consideration of the implications of what you say here. There is a reason why he doesn't play play for a top side despite having the fantastic physical attributes you describe. Attributes which must be enormously attractive to any coach yet still there is virtually no interest from the better clubs when Traore becomes available. Any club which decides to spend money in order to discover that reason for themselves better not try to look surprised when they find out what everyone else knows already. Lastly, he has been on the books of a big club. They let him go.

Definitely did. Also, when Lineaker asked him what is was like hearing Chelsea fans chant his name again it was obvious that he absolutely loved it.