Simon1991

Dude what, chill out.. And for those who are asking the club/Marina to just cough up the 10/15M we supposedly are off in terms of player valuation, i am glad you are not running the club. We are in the midst of a crisis and are going to be hit financially, those millions might be the difference in getting an extra player or not, we don't know. Bayer's best outcome is to sell this window, where we are the only club willing to come close to their valuation, so Chelsea has a strong hand in those negotiations. I am glad they are not rushing it if there is a good chance we'll get a better price by playing our cards right, which is to wait. If unsuccessful, there is still a good chance we will budge and just pay the 10/15M difference eventually. Most reports say we are in advanced negotiations and that it's a matter of when rather then if. I am confident we'll land him, be patient guys... Also about all the criticism i'm reading about the board and Marina, i can't get my head around it TBH. She has pulled some master coups, and how many times have we read on how great she is at negotiating, from different people having dealt with her. No club gets it right 100%, there will always be bad transfers and bad choices, in all clubs, and Chelsea is no exception. It's really easy to point out at bad decisions in hindsight, which fans love to do. That's not fair IMO, the board has done a great job for the most part recently, and we have all reasons to believe it will continue this way. Trust our Russian lady.

@Jason to add to your question. I have read his thread on a Sevilla forum, and basically they all valued the bloke to some extent. The main takeaways were that he had great potential, great energy down the flank, but not a world beater neither offensively nor defensively at this point in time. Very interestingly, most of them did not want the club to spend 20M on him. I also think we need to bring a bit of context when looking at this. Their top transfer was 25M with Rony Lopes, so they are obviously looking at 20M in a different light than we would. But in purely footballing terms, most of them agreed he is a good footballer.

I was not targetting you with my post, it was more of a general statement about fans.

I can easily see why this sell Kante narrative is enticing, but i think it would be a mistake to sell him if we really are competing to get back to the top, which it seems is what the club intends to do. OK he's been injured most of the season, has probably peaked and carries a much higher price tag now than he would in 2-3 years BUT. - He's been injured this season, but this could be a one off, and he could be fit the next 2/3 seasons at peak level, who knows. - When fit he's still one of the best midfielders in the world and improves our squad. - Lampard has shown he wants to be tactically flexible and resort to a 3-4-3 formation, where Kante fits in nicely. - Chelsea is renowned for not selling their best players. While it makes sense from a financial standpoint, it does not if the club really wants to challenge the likes of pool/city. - Let's be real for a sec, we all love our wee man, of course we don't want to sell him

Welcome to the internet where everybody is suddenly a scout expert .

Let's imagine we sign him to play CB and for some reason it does not work out, we still end up with a top quality DM. He's captain material, a Chelsea boy 100%, i really hope the club signs him.

What's with the fanbase seriously? His body language is ALWAYS like that, and all of you talking about his attitude are completely out on a limb. The fuck you know whether he is disinterested or not? The picture where he is standing a feet away from the team? Yes so? He could have been focusing on the game for all we know. He scored a goal and made countless runs into the box, how about that? Really annoyed me to read all those baseless posts.

That's his normal body language, get ready for more of that.

We get it, you don't like Mount. I think i had a similar discussion with you about this a few weeks back. I can't understand people not rating Mount and what he has achieved this season, which has been impressive given his age and relative lack of experience at the highest level.

We have not even signed the Dutch player and he is 18... No point in talking of future lines-up with him.

Yes if he was utter shit for several games at some point he would have to, but we have seen Willian playing bad or average at best for a string of matches and still not being dropped and that's my point, Willian is always given more leeway. Frank has been quicker on the trigger with some other players when not performing at the required level. Again i really don't mind Willian as a squad player, but i can see him being one of Frank first options if he stays, and i don't think he's good enough. I am sorry, I did not understand your second sentence, what do you mean by that?

Has anyone followed Ramsdale closely this year? Every time i saw him play this season he impressed me, but i honestly don't know him that good to know whether he's Chelsea material. With Bournemouth going down, he should be available at a reasonable price too.

I would not mind Willian staying as a squad player (third or fourth option on the wing), but we all know FL is a big fan of Willian and would probably see it differently. I am not sure how to describe this, but i have this big hunch Willian's strong personality makes it hard for the manager to drop him from the team. From the outside he's not this big leader figure, but i have this feeling/idea he's HIGHLY respected by the rest of team and manager due to his senior status and personality. This is something we fans can't really know for sure and is purely speculative, but for some reason i have the idea this is playing a big part in why Willian always ends-up in the starting 11. A situation i feel was similar with David Luiz. Even when he was utter shit, he had this aura about him that nearly "automatically" warranted him a spot in the starting eleven. Same with free-kicks, he scored a few, but we had far better FK takers in the team and he still ended up taking them. Still happening at Arsenal by the way. The media and Arsenal fans saying he is shit, but he is starting and Arteta willing to extend his contract. I personally want Willian to go. If he stays i'm pretty sure he'll be picked before Ziyech or CHO even if his level does not warrant it, for the aforementioned reasons.

@Vesper just want to remind you that your initial postulate was: "I really do not know why people keep talking about Oblak without explaining how the hell we are going to take on his over £600K PW gross salary. (£358K PW net). So you realized the net number you threw is actually his gross, that makes more sense. Now i was actually never trying to prove he earns X (as you seem to have misread from my posts) or Y, and me quoting AS was really just showing you can fin all kind of information on the internet, not saying at all this was accurate info.. My point of view from the start was that i was really dubious of him netting 358k/week. Anyway let's put this to bed, cheers.

Just to share an anecdote on this. I "know" this poster from a french forum where he used to post a lot before he moved on (maybe 8-10 years ago). He's always had very insightful analysis and you could tell he had a very analytical view of football, but he's always had a huge bias towards certain players. He would either have scapegoats he would always try to demolish, or on the contrary he would try to convince you some ok players were god-tier. He was both respected for his analytical skills, and slightly made fun of because everybody knew he was extremely biased. More specifically on Jorginho, it clear for everyone to see from the get-go that he completely dislikes Jorgi and would do anything to try and prove his point that Jorginho sucks. He just highlighted specific plays from only one game where Jorginho had a really poor game and tried to make it look like this is the case for all games and that's the player Jorgi is. On the top of my head, he said that Jorginho is bad under pressure and put two clips where he lost the ball to try and prove his point. I think most of us will agree he's not bad under pressure, quite the contrary.

Thank you for taking the time to dig into it. You know as well as me how erroneous information can be shared all over the net by all kind of different sources, some more reliable than others. What those sites usually do is just quoting themselves. Just because i read it on "sillyseason", "soccerladuma!" or "prezi" will not make me buy into it more. The most legit of the lot would be capology (maybe?), never heard of them and i have no idea of how reliable they are. I tried to find more about them, and by the looks of it, they have been reporting some weird stuff if true (have a look at the below). In the end and as far as i know, there isn't really any reliable website reporting on wages, its often just based on leaks and speculation. Where i'm getting at with this is that neither you or I really know how much Oblak is earning, and that's a fact. All i know is that it strikes me as highly surprising that he would actually earn those wages, which is why i just don't believe it's accurate. With that being said, if those numbers are true, we should stay the hell away from him, giving him such high wages would completely disrupt the club's wage structure.

Just because you found something on the internet does not mean it's true. And I am not saying he definitely is not earning that, just seems highly unlikely. To prove my point, i just put "oblak wages" on google, first result was the following. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2821923-jan-oblak-atletico-madrid-agree-on-new-contract-until-2023 "AS' Manolete reported in February that Oblak was set for a deal that will earn him an annual salary of around €10 million (£8.7 million)." Don't you think it seems more likely he's earning those wages, versus the ones you listed previously?

As other members pointed out, those numbers thrown around are probably incorrect. Around 200K/250K seems more likely given AM wage structure.

I am not saying he's the most creative player aka KDB or lionel Messi, but stating Mount has no creativy is just not right, i am sorry. Mount's intangibles are part of his creativity. The spaces he creates for his teammates, the urgency with which he plays, the breaking pass before the assist, all of those are intangibles but it must be accounted for when we discuss creativity. Just to give a comparison point, when Hazard was pulling 3 players down the left, hence creating space and then picking up a teammate, that was creativity. Not showing in numbers but clear for everyone to see if you watched him play. That's the creativity Mount offers. I wonder why Frank plays him week in week out if he's not physical, not creative, is it just for the pressing? come on..

Delivering a good set-piece/corner is a form a creativity. We go on and on about how we cannot deliver good corners (hello Willian) and indirect free-kicks, so why wouldn't it count in terms of creativity? I won't argue that KDB or David Silva are not highly creative players, but just because they're better than Mount does not mean he is not a creative player. Also worth considering the free-flowing attacking football city plays. Mount would certainly look better in that system as well. Why do you think he is not creative then? What i see from him is he can pick a pass, plays with high tempo all the time, can beat a man with a dribble or a good first touch. Those are intangible, you can't measure that, but i would never say he's not creative when i look him play. Why do you consider he is not creative?

Read that a lot lately, about Mount offering no creativity whatsoever (from you and others). Just curious, where's that coming from? 6 goals 5 assists in the league this season and he has shown that's the kind of numbers he'll get you each season. Did it consistently in the dutch league and the championship, and has transitioned nicely in the PL at Chelsea. Leaving the end product aside, i find he has more than decent vision and passing range. Just on the top of my head that pass to Barkley against Watford was decisive, and there's been many more like that.

If it was the carling cup, i'd get it, but we're talking FA cup here, that's a big trophee. Frank will definitely see it this way as well and align a strong squad.

Kova when fit should be one of the first names on the starting sheet. I really hope his absence of late was strictly due to fitness reasons and nothing else.He might not provide lots of assists and goals, but he'll create space for his teammates with his change of pace and ball retention.

I've been here all along, just not a big poster :D.

Agreed. His non-verbal communication is SOOOO annoying. Reminds me of Drogba's, but Drog was a legend and could pull it off.