Vesper

and potentially Sane (who came in for Foden) plus even David Silva and also Ilkay Gündogan

wow, Barca, smdh insane move you would think they would have learned from the way Busquets has cratered once he hit 31 (Pjanic turn 31 in the coming season) I smell an ageing Messi who only cares about the next 2 seasons or so

Good move all around. With the COVID market (and especially a team in the dead middle of the killing fields in Italy) I cannot complain about the price at all Atalanta simply could not afford to stump up 30m or so euros for him I rate this an overall positive for Marina and the board

Chelsea give up on Birmingham City youngster Jude Bellingham? https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/man-utd/transfer-talk/news/chelsea-give-up-on-jude-bellingham_403467.html Chelsea have reportedly withdrawn their interest in signing Birmingham City youngster Jude Bellingham. Having already established himself as a key player at St Andrew's at the age of 16, the midfielder is naturally being linked with a move to a bigger club. The Blues have been monitoring the development of the prospect ahead of potentially launching an approach during the next transfer window. However, the Manchester Evening News claims that only Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund are now present in the race for the player. Earlier on Monday, it was suggested that Dortmund had emerged as the favourites to sign Bellingham, who may cost in the region of £30m. The academy graduate has just one year left on his existing terms at the Championship side.

PSG make shock 4-year extension offer to Layvin Kurzawa https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2020/psg-make-shock-4-year-extension-offer-to-layvin-kurzawa/ IF that goes down, then Telles is a clear shot in terms of availability with no hard competition after watching Willian's corner kicks for ages, Telles would be like going from League One to the EPL

the very fact that a washed up CB who turns 34 in the coming season (Jan Vertonghen and who is a SPUDS player) is being tossed out there shows the dire level of our CB situ

Lampard the manager handles pressure of the run-in like Lampard the player https://theathletic.com/1884407/2020/06/22/lampard-the-manager-handles-pressure-of-the-run-in-like-lampard-the-player/ Talk to anyone about how well Frank Lampard handled the pressure of a season’s climax as a player and most people will know the answer. The 11 winners’ medals back in his home provide a bit of a clue. However, given a lack of experience, nobody is yet entirely sure how Lampard copes with it as a manager. This is significant because there will be a lot of questions asked of him over the next six weeks as Chelsea try to qualify for the Champions League via the Premier League and attempt to win the FA Cup, too. It was fitting that Lampard provided a bit of an answer at Villa Park. He made two key substitutions in the second half — Christian Pulisic and Ross Barkley came on for the ineffective Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek — to help turn a 1-0 deficit into a crucial 2-1 victory against Aston Villa. This was the ground where he suffered one of his lowest moments as Derby County coach. His team were humbled 4-0, with all four goals coming before half-time, 15 months ago. Why is that relevant to what is happening now? Derby dropped out of the Championship play-off positions and the result put Lampard, who was enjoying his first year as a head coach, under scrutiny. The strain will undoubtedly be a lot worse should Chelsea’s Champions League qualification come into question. The feeling around Pride Park back then wasn’t great following the drubbing. One source told The Athletic: “It was Derby’s third straight league defeat without scoring a goal. Some people round the club thought Lampard was starting to get found out as a rookie manager.” How Lampard coped with the situation is significant. A run of just one loss in 12 tells part of the story. It ensured Derby finished one point above Middlesbrough in sixth position and achieved their goal. But Chelsea fans will be reassured to know it was Lampard who made the difference. “It didn’t look like they’d win again, but he got them believing once more,” says Steve Nicholson, chief football writer for the Derby Telegraph. “After that loss against Aston Villa, he gelled everyone together. He unified the players, he told them how this was the crucial moment. “Lampard had this magnetism about him. He has the belief, no matter what the setback, and he relays it to the players. I never detected the pressure was getting to him. I thought he got stronger as a manager as the season went on.” It is a view shared by other people associated with the club who watched Lampard rebound from the scandal of “Spygate” in January 2019, when a Leeds employee was caught illicitly watching a Derby training session. “Lampard was rattled by that,” a Derby insider reveals. “But on the whole, there was a general calmness about him from within the camp during the campaign. As the season reached its end, he made the players think, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all under control’. As a player, he’d been in this kind of situation before. He was relaxed because of it. That is how he carried himself and it rubbed off on everyone else.” Crucially training sessions were kept fun. Anyone visiting the training ground (legitimately) wouldn’t have known the reality of the situation Derby were in, that they were facing a tight race to finish in the top six. This theme continued into the play-offs themselves, even after suffering a disheartening 1-0 loss to their now bitter rival Leeds in the first leg at home. Once again, we get an insight into how Lampard will handle any adversity at Chelsea now. Someone who was privy to the dressing room conversation following the final whistle of that encounter reveals: “After the 1-0 defeat, Frank told his players: ‘They think they’ve won it, they think it’s over. We will go up to Elland Road and they will be under pressure in front of their crowd. They have failed there under various hurdles.’ He took all the pressure off them with that one speech.” And Lampard was rewarded. Despite conceding in the first half to go 2-0 down on aggregate, Derby came back to win 4-2 on the night (4-3 over two legs). The dressing room insider adds: “At half-time, Frank was like, ‘We’ve got this — there are two or three more goals for us in the second half.’ He made them feel like they were good enough to win every game. I’m sure he will be the same at Chelsea.” Not that Lampard got everything right. Indeed, sources talk about the side he picked for the play-off final against Aston Villa, which they lost 2-1, as a mistake. With doubts over the fitness of strikers Martin Waghorn and Jack Marriott, who had scored a brace against Leeds, Derby ended up using a false nine in the 4-3-3 formation. “As soon as they saw that line-up, it deflated the Derby fans,” one source said. Another added: “Derby punched well above their weight and I don’t think Lampard got the recognition he deserved for the job he did. Perhaps if he’d won the final, he would have got it. He got the team wrong that day.” For 55 minutes against the same opponents in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, it looked like he’d got the team selection wrong against Dean Smith’s side once more. The visitors dominated for long periods but without creating too many chances, while poor defending had allowed Kortney Hause to put the hosts in front before the break. The camera cut to Lampard on several occasions but, apart from looking a little disappointed, he exuded the calm people at Derby referred to, especially during the drinks breaks when there was time to give some advice to the team. Another insight into how he is becoming a bit savvier came in the build-up to this fixture over the last few weeks. The 42-year-old was very anxious not to give any indication of what Chelsea’s team might be, especially with former captain John Terry now working as assistant manager at Aston Villa. That is why there was a concerted attempt by the club not to provide too much detail or footage of their three warm-up matches — which included friendlies against Reading and QPR — on their website or app. Their next opponents Manchester City will have had a good look at how Chelsea lined up against Aston Villa, but with so many options to choose from and Jorginho coming back from suspension, it won’t be easy for Pep Guardiola to figure out what Lampard has planned. The Chelsea manager is giving nothing away. “I did tentatively have a team in my mind for Man City before this game,” Lampard told The Athletic. “I did try and look at things but it is hard not to get ahead of yourself because what happens in a game can always affect your thinking for the next one. “I have got an idea. We will look at how players recover first and foremost. It’s a big ask for some who played 90 minutes when I didn’t expect them to. Some have been out for a while. But I will look at that. “It will be a different type of game against a team that will play possession. Pressing is a big part of our game and we couldn’t do it against Aston Villa, it was more about getting second balls. Against Manchester City, we will want to be more aggressive in terms of winning it back.” The Aston Villa triumph was his 100th game as a coach. He is looking more and more at home in the dug-out.

Robertson turns 27 this coming season, so zero chance he is still world class in 5 or 6 years. Almost all fullbacks collapse soon after they are over 30yo. Gomez is not a given to get there (he should but isnt there yet at all). Liverpool cannot afford Mbappe. With his wage demands plus t-fee he will cost around £500m for 5 years. Sancho will end up at Manure.

Sell this donkey to the pikeys or Palace or NUFC if tbe headchoppers buy them. So sick of seeing these same names floating about for years. We will fuck about, do nothing, and they all will walk on frees or be panic sold for pennies. The list of dregs we are carrying is staggering.

Perhaps, and AC Milan are fucked financially. We are mad to not be in there after Romagnoli. Our CB's and Kepa (I assume we do SOMETHING at LB) are a disaster waiting to happen. Lampard is deluded if he thinks we can win the league and/or CL with them. Even Rudiger worries me now. Our set piece defending is close to the worst in the EPL. Madness.

Varane has only been mentioned by me (cannot speak for others) in regards to a swap involving Kante, and I always preface that with the caveat that it is extremely unlikely. It looks like Kante has no chance of being sold, so bye bye to any remote shot at Varane. There are other WC centre backs out there whom we could make runs at, especially if we put the ludicrous Chillwell and Koulibaly valuations (so £80m to £90m) as a budget. Romagnoli (left footer and the least expensive), Skriniar, José Giménez, de Ligt (swap for Jorginho + Emerson), and Marquinhos are the WC ones who have even a remote possibility of perhaps being pulled. Stefan de Vrij (last year I will recco him due to age, we should have bought him years ago) is a slight step down from those but still a MASSIVE improvement over anything we have. Many other younger ones too.

Not a chance. His buy window has passed.

John Terry savages his Spurs mate on his birthday

Abramovich ready to axe underperforming Chelsea ace to continue summer spree https://astamfordbridgetoofar.com/2020/06/22/abramovich-ready-to-axe-underperforming-chelsea-ace-to-continue-summer-spree/ Chelsea ready to sell Kurt Zouma According to the Daily Star, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is ready to sell defender Kurt Zouma. The 25-year-old has been at the club for six years now. Despite the early promise, he has failed to transform into a dominant defender. The Blues are ready to cut their losses and sell the player to help fund other transfers. Chelsea have enjoyed an excellent start to the summer, having already signed Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner. We are still on the lookout for more players. The likes of Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell and Leverkusen star Kai Havertz continue to be linked with a move to Stamford Bridge. They will not come cheap though. This means the club will have to sell some of the players in order to balance the books. snip

lol, watching Gary Neville and Gerrard on Sky and Gerrard says the slip game versus us haunts him almost every day still and was the worst moment of his life and he knows he will carry it to his grave damn

this is true his legs go because of the INSANE minutes he puts in year after year

all that in my last reply is why I so desperately want to buy Havertz and keep him the hell away from the scum he is the one player they could buy next summer who starts to pull them out of that cliff edge issue

they have a really unique problem all 3 of their front 3 superstars are all basically the same age (all within 7 and half months of each other) and this coming season is the last were they all are under 30 for at least part of it so by summer 2022, their collective value starts to plummet (in fact even summer 2021 it will be less than it is now) and yet they are terrified to tinker with that front 3 lets say they keep them for 3 more seasons meaning until 2022-23 well then you have Firmino soon 31 towards the beginning of the 2022-23 season, and the other two 31 in the next spring (spring of 2023) after that their peak is over, especially Mane and Salah who rely completely on pace they can roll fine 2020-21 but then they either sell one or two or accept that they start to really lose value they can say fuck it, and keep them for the next 3 seasons and just go for max trophies but at the end, they are fucked in terms of raising cash from sales to remotely come close to replacing them with like for like quality the drop-off, if they choose the keep them together for the next 3 seasons route will be huge and they wont have the cash to rebuild back t that level unless they sell off younger stars Klopp could really fuck them, ram that next 3 years keep the set together through, and then bail when they hit the cliff edge

Bayern are going to roll with Hansi he is a class manager they would be crazy to dump him now

Barnes is an arrogant cunt said Liverpool need nothing, literally zero transfers in that they can win every trophy with the exact squad they have next year

the vermin dippers are on a bad run, no way around it 3 wins 4 losses and a draw that should have been a loss draw today (should have lost) knocked out of CL by Atleti via 2nd loss (at Anfield) barely beat a shit Bournemouth team at Anfield beaten by us in the FA Cup beaten by Watford barely beat a shite WH side at Anfield lost to Atleti first leg in the CL barely beat the worst team in the league

Everton was REALLY unlucky to not win that

Chelsea ‘to attempt to grab Xavier Mbuyamba on free transfer this summer’ with 18-year-old defender set to leave Barcelona when deal ends http://www.insidefutbol.com/2020/06/21/barcelona-make-decision-on-chelsea-target/460284/ earlier story Wonderkid reveals he wanted Chelsea transfer before sealing Barcelona move Chelsea served a ban during last summer's transfer window and that cost them the chance to register any new players ahead of the 2019/2020 season https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/transfer-news/chelsea-transfer-news-barcelona-wonderkid-17905394 Xavier Mbuyamba in action for Holland U19's Chelsea's two-window transfer ban cost them the chance to sign Netherlands wonderkid Xavier Mbuyamba. The Blues were unable to register any new players during the 2019 summer transfer ban as a result of serving a punishment in regards to breaching FIFA rules in their dealings with overseas players under the age of 18. That decision was later overturned in December, but the west London outfit opted not to sign a single player in the January transfer window despite links to Jadon Sancho, Moussa Dembele and Ben Chilwell among others. And by the time the winter window was open, Mbuyamba had already been snapped up by La Liga giants Barcelona. Only time will tell if the Blues end up ruing this particular transfer decision. But the wonderkid has revealed that he was keen to join the west London outfit after training with the youth teams last summer. snip MASSIVE potential, huge (1.95m at 17yo), super athletic CB

In 2016/17 and 2017/18, Kante made an average of 3.6 and 3.3 tackles per league game Kante also averaged 2.4 and 2.5 interceptions per league game this was the game today