Vesper

Chelsea interested in signing Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus By David Ornstein https://theathletic.com/4712439/2023/07/22/mohammed-kudus-Chelsea-ajax-transfer/ Chelsea have made contact with Ajax to express an interest in signing attacking midfielder Mohammed Kudus. The Premier League club are yet to submit an offer to their Dutch counterparts, but initial dialogue has taken place. Kudus is among a number of options Chelsea are considering and an agreement with the Ghana international on personal terms is close. Kudus, under contract to Ajax until 2025, rejected a one-year extension in April and is keen to leave the Johan Cruyff Arena. The 22-year-old scored 18 goals and provided seven assists in 42 appearances in all competitions for Ajax last season. He also scored twice for Ghana in a 3-2 win against South Korea in the group stages of the World Cup in Qatar in November. GO DEEPER Mohammed Kudus: A star on the rise with Europe's big clubs circling What makes Kudus so appealing? Analysis by Thom Harris A mid-sized (5ft 9in; 177cm), stocky player with boundless energy both on and off the ball, Kudus is a midfield bulldog, speed dribbler and powerful ball-striker rolled into one. His ability to dominate various roles with his blend of physicality and speed has been hugely effective for Ajax, who have utilised his unique profile all over the pitch to gain momentum in individual battles or to burst through weak spots in the opposition set-up. Kudus has played as many as seven positions since his debut in Dutch football, operating all the way from a deep-lying No 6 to out-and-out centre-forward, with the majority of his time spent out on the right-wing running at the full-back.

he is eventually going to be a star

Reece and Thiago are the 2 clear captain candidates give Enzo some time

we have a 20% sell on clause on Guehi so a £45m bid only would cost us £36m

and a GREAT GKer!!!! Kepa is going to fuck us up 😓

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have faith

woot, fuck those bloodsuckers

whatever you do, make sure you go to my favourite bar (proper bar, not talking about giant crazy techno clubs like I also love) on the planet The Connaught Bar in Mayfair 16 Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL, United Kingdom best bartenders in the world the martini trolley is 💙 they sent some of their bar team up here to the Grand Hotel Stockholm in February for a one off special event

two reccos for South Kensington area hotels (close to everything, smaller boutique gorgeous hotels) these are very calm, posh settings, not mob scenes NUMBER SIXTEEN 16 Sumner Pl, South Kensington, London SW7 3EG https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186338-d188478-Reviews-Number_Sixteen-London_England.html https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/number-sixteen/ The Franklin London 24 Egerton Gardens, Chelsea, London SW3 2DB (1. 2 minutes walk from the Knightsbridge border across Brompton Road, also a few minutes walk from South Kensington) https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186338-d10382433-Reviews-The_Franklin_London_Starhotels_Collezione-London_England.html https://collezione.starhotels.com/en/our-hotels/the-franklin-london/

Trevor Francis, Britain’s first £1m footballer, dies aged 69 Francis scored winner for Forest in European Cup final He played 52 times for England and was also a manager https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/trevor-francis-dies-aged-69-nottingham-forest-england-1m-footballer

Kylian Mbappé: Al-Hilal submit world-record €300m bid for PSG forward Saudi Arabian club open to having Mbappé for only one season PSG want to sell France international unless he extends contract https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/kylian-mbappe-al-hilal-world-record-300m-bid-psg-saudi-arabia The Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal have submitted a world-record bid for Kylian Mbappé, understood to be worth €300m (£259m), and are willing to have the forward for only one season if that is what is takes to get the deal done. The move comes after Paris Saint-Germain left Mbappé out of their squad for their pre-season tour of Japan, determined to sell him unless he signs a new contract. PSG will accept Al-Hilal’s offer but there have been no talks between Al-Hilal and Mbappé, and PSG remain convinced the 24-year-old has agreed terms to join Real Madrid on a free transfer next summer. Al-Hilal will try to tempt Mbappé with a world-record salary and, mindful that it may suit him to come for only one season, are open to a deal that – even by recent Saudi Pro League standards – would destroy football’s financial norms. Al-Hilal offered Lionel Messi more than £350m a year to join from PSG but the Argentina forward opted to move to Inter Miami. It emerged in June that Mbappé had presented a formal letter to PSG, informing them he would not to take up the option of a one-year contract extension next summer. The club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said this month: “If Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract. We don’t want to lose the best player in the world for free; we can’t do that.” Mbappé joined PSG from Monaco in 2018 for £166m. Saudi Pro League clubs have been spending huge sums this summer to sign players from Europe. Al-Hilal are one of four teams in the country owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has majority ownership of Newcastle United, and have signed Rúben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Kalidou Koulibaly. They are are also closing on deals to buy the forwards Malcom and Aleksandar Mitrovic from Zenit St Petersburg and Fulham respectively. Mbappé had appeared close to joining Real Madrid last summer before renewing his deal in Paris. The world-record fee is the €222m Barcelona received from PSG for Neymar in 2017. The Brazil forward’s contract is due to expire in June 2025. Manchester United are not negotiating for Mbappé, with their focus remaining on Rasmus Højlund of Atalanta.

the largest offer I saw for CHO from Bayern that was fully legit in terms of sourcing was £40m but even 'only' £40m is still a shit tonne more than £8m I really thought we could now get £15-20m for him from another English side

one or two years that blows out our FFP ledger is not worth it plus we have no CL to offer and zero guarantees we get it this season (even with Mbappe as bringing him in means we well fucked in terms of adding other players of high quality at vital positions) sorry, I am never going to advocate a 'short term potential glory/fanboi/fangurl fappening' at the expense of burning it down in terms of a longer term event horizon predicated upon a linear upward build curve

Chels/Brighton negotiations over Caicedo atm

All X'ed up 🤡

I obviously rate Mbappe I think he the best or co-best player on the planet (along with Håland) by miles atm BUT he would only be here for a few years max and would likely fuck up our books with FFP IF we also add other players (players we so so so need atm) I would much prefer to lever away Tchou (and hopefully even Valverde) from Real in exchange for funding their transfer fee for Mbappe

your maths are off 40 days to go (counting today) https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12893159/summer-transfer-window-2023-when-does-it-open-and-close-dates-deadline-day-how-to-follow-with-sky-sports The summer transfer window opens on Wednesday June 14 and will close at 11pm on Friday September 1

Deffo prefer Kudus over Michael Olise. As Zakharyan is likely blocked, Kudus is now my number one (who is actually available) AMF want. Positive for both is that Kudus and Olise are both left footers who can also play RW, but Olise is so far not much of a scorer.

depends who the MFer is

not a chance that happens zero bookmark this for historical reasons as I am 100% standing by this prediction the Saudis have a long term plan and at least 1.5 trillion in sovereign wealth (just the royal family's share and that is based off a 2 year old number, they likely are pushing 2 trillion now due to explosive oil revenues the past 2 years) backstopping it all

The whole point of my first post on the subject was that Ajax (The Netherlands are also in NATO and are also involved in sanctions v Russia) IS buying a player directly from a Russian club. As for the season before the Ukraine invasion occured he was a 17 year old teen (turned 18yo 3 days before the season ended, as they played in the Russian Cup final v Spartak on May 29th, losing 1 - 2, despite his scoring Dynamo's only goal) who had just been promoted to the senior team in mideason, he had played 13 Sr team games with 3 goals and 5 assists in 888 minutes people in Russia during that following summer transfer window (summer 2021) really had no clue what was going to happen in early 2022, let alone some 17/18yo kid who had just been called up 6 months earlier. The season before that he was mostly playing in an U17 league. I was the first person on the board to post anything about Zakharyan my first post that included him was a year and a half ago, 22 days before Russia invaded Ukraine that was halfway through his first full season at topflight level, a season in which, as an 18yo, he produced a total of 18 goals (9 and 9) in only 2869 minutes

well, there is now this, lol FC Barcelona Star Ousmane Dembele Receives ‘Enormous’ $220 Million Offer To Join Ronaldo At Al-Nassr https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomsanderson/2023/07/22/fc-barcelona-star-ousmane-dembele-receives-enormous-220-million-offer-to-join-ronaldo-at-al-nassr-reports/?sh=5b46bb6f472c FC Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele has received an 'enormous offer' of €200 million ($222.5 million) to join Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr according to transfer market experts Foot Mercato. Ronaldo switched to the Saudi Pro League giants in January when his Manchester United contract was terminated by mutual consent. Believed to pay him $200 million a season, the move allowed the legendary forward to finish top of Forbes' list of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes in May. Though Al-Hilal failed to deliver his generational rival and new Inter Miami signing Lionel Messi, big stars such as Ballon d'Or holder Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante have made the switch from elite European football to the Kingdom where the Public Investment Fund has taken control of four of the biggest clubs to boost its domestic championship. Yet while all the players mentioned thus far are well past their 30th birthday, or not far off 40 in the case of Ronaldo while Benzema and Messi are on their way, the Saudi Pro League still hasn't pulled off the coup of landing a top, young player at the height of his powers. Ruben Neves, 26 and now at Al-Hilal, partly fits the bill. But the Portuguese midfielder didn't exactly feature for the biggest club on the Old Continent, with all due respect to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Al-Nassr luring 30-year-old Marcelo Brozovic in recent weeks, in turn snatching the Russia 2018 and 2022/2023 Champions League finalist away from FC Barcelona, was a bigger achievement. When all is said and done, however, convincing one of the victors on the other side of the ball in said World Cup final would be an indicator of great progress being made in the fight to have the local league recognized as more than a lucrative retirement camp. Unfortunately for Al-Nassr, they haven't been able to turn France international Dembele's head despite tabling a five-year, €40 million ($44.5 million) a season offer according to Foot Mercato which would have totaled €200 million and made 'The Mosquito' a much richer man by his 31st birthday. The Saudis are obviously willing to trigger his release clause in Catalonia, which has halved to a paltry €50 million ($55.6 million) this summer as part of a contract extension agreed last year which expires in 2024. Even though Dembele and his agent can pocket half of that fee, turning down the eye-watering package from the Saudis is another sign of how dedicated the Frenchman is to the cause under his head coach Xavi Hernandez. Keen to agree fresh terms at Camp Nou, or the Montjuic Stadium while Barca's usual home is being renovated, the winger has gone from being a booed outcast in early 2022 for not putting pen to paper to a fan favorite and regular starter. Barca are currently occupied trying to register their new players and the renewed contracts of existing stars while navigating Financial Fair Play limits, but Dembele is expected to commit to the Blaugrana for another three years when his own deal is oven-ready. "Barca want to renew me until 2027 and I'm happy here," he revealed to La Vanguardia last month.