Vesper

45 million euros, not pounds (£38 million at the time)

I would take Zakaria all day over Edson Álvarez Ibrahim Sangaré Wilfred Ndidi Sander Berge

hear hear!!!!

and I am convinced he can play wingback

I never claimed to be a know it all, all I do is really follow the transfer market and look out for targets, and not just during window time no idea why you are having a go at me over my simply doing a lot of research into something that interests me

he 100% says he doesn't want to leave Barca this player was stricken from the remotely available list long ago

Another player I so wanted, he would have been a massive upgrade on Jorginho.

We are fucked if we don't grab a RB. I am losing my mind atm. The prospect of watching ageing carthorse Azpi or some makeshift Potter (not his fault) desperate ploy bollocksing up our right side attack makes me rage.

Motherfucking shit!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr

Brighton can go FUCK THEMSELVES over that £100m demand for Caicedo. That is only £5.5m more than bloody paradigm changing ENZO would cost, ffs, and I can see Caicedo wanting a higher wage than Enzo.

This comment may shock some, but I will not wet the bed if we bought Anthony Gordon (FOR A FAIR PRICE), especially if we cannot get Bad Taste in at RB until summer. I think Gordon would be a potential terror at wingback/FB. I like his motor and he has superb pace, plus is Homegrown. Now, that said, the bed WILL get wet if we buy some of these slugs being mentioned for DMF, especially Sangare aka Bakadonkeyoko on steroids and beaten even more with the ugly stick.

Really? Look at the first LWer on this alternative option list of mine.

I hope this lad makes the haters eat their words.

With Dias having an off year, and VVD in decline (he never recovered his best on planet form since that bad knee injury) I would say the two best CBs in the EPL have been Thiago and Saliba. Sven Botman and Fabian Schär have been a great pair for NUFC.

I warned against buying him repeatedly our scouts and Marina as the overboss were shit 75-80% of the time

Chelsea defender Bashir Humphreys to join Paderborn on loan https://theathletic.com/4125717/2023/01/25/Chelsea-youngster-bashir-humphreys-paderborn-loan-transfer/ Chelsea academy defender Bashir Humphreys is joining 2. Bundesliga side Paderborn on loan until the end of the season. Humphreys, 19, has been regularly involved in first-team training sessions under Graham Potter and made his senior debut for Chelsea earlier this month at centre-back alongside Kalidou Koulibaly in a 4-0 loss to Manchester City at Etihad Stadium in the FA Cup third round. He will continue his development in Germany’s second tier and his arrival is one of the first deals overseen by Benjamin Weber, Thomas Tuchel’s trusted analyst and assistant at Chelsea, since his appointment as Paderborn’s sporting director at the start of 2023. Clubs in the Championship and League One also expressed interest in loaning Humphreys, who has represented England at U16 and U19 level, but the player and Chelsea’s new technical director Christopher Vivell both regarded Paderborn as a suitable environment for him to gain more first-team experience and refine his game. Paderborn currently lie sixth in 2. Bundesliga and there is a possibility that the loan agreement could be renewed for next season if they gain promotion to Germany’s top flight. Humphreys is contracted to Chelsea until June 2024, with an option to extend for a further year. Chelsea development squad teammate Dion Rankine is expected to sign a new contract this week that will keep him at the club until June 2025. The 20-year-old winger, who has also played at wing-back during his progression through the Cobham academy, was set to become a free agent this summer and was being pursued by several lower league English clubs. It is yet to be decided whether Rankine will stay at Chelsea or depart in January to join one of the clubs in England or continental Europe who have expressed interest in taking him on loan.

Noni Madueke: Quick, skilful and Chelsea’s perfect complement for Mykhailo Mudryk https://theathletic.com/4116397/2023/01/25/noni-madueke-Chelsea-mudryk-analysis/ As far as Noni Madueke is concerned, moving to Chelsea is simply the fulfilment of a grand plan for his career forged while he was still in his teens. Jadon Sancho had hardly begun blazing his trail in Borussia Dortmund’s first team when, in the summer of 2018, the 16-year-old Madueke decided to leave Tottenham Hotspur’s academy and rebuff interest from several of Europe’s elite clubs to join PSV Eindhoven. The trend of talented English youngsters swapping top Premier League academies for continental giants to supercharge their development was not yet established, but Madueke was sufficiently cool-headed and confident to recognise the better pathway. Confidence has never been an issue for Madueke, a rapid left-footed right-winger charmingly convinced of his football destiny and ability to be, in his own words, “a bit of a showman”. “I try to beat players,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports in April 2022. “I am fast. I have an eye for goal. That is how I would describe myself.” PSV have enjoyed plenty of all of those qualities, despite lingering hamstring issues that plagued his 2021-22 season and an ankle injury that limited his involvement in the first half of the current campaign. Questions about his physical durability are perhaps the only reason Madueke has remained in the Netherlands for four and a half years, but his senior record of 20 goals and 14 assists in 80 appearances across all competitions suggests a 20-year-old ready for a step up. Chelsea clearly think so, having paid €33million (£28.5million) to secure him on a contract that runs until June 2031. But what exactly can he bring to Graham Potter’s lavish rebuild? The Athletic took a closer look… Madueke’s arrival at Chelsea should not be viewed in isolation. The deals bringing him and Mykhailo Mudryk to Stamford Bridge during this January transfer window are linked by a bigger conception of the team’s new attacking identity under Potter — one that features two lightning-fast, devilishly skilled inverted wingers with insatiable appetites for goals and one-v-one dribbles. For the best-case outcome, think Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah at Liverpool. Mudryk and Madueke have a long way to go to achieve that pair’s standard of consistent excellence, but both possess all the attributes to play the same way for Chelsea. Between them, Kai Havertz — or Joao Felix, if he sticks around beyond the end of his loan spell — would be particularly well-cast in something akin to Roberto Firmino’s pressing false nine role. Digging into the numbers, the first thing to note is that Mudryk and Madueke are strikingly similar. Using smarterscout, we can create a statistical profile of a footballer using ratings from zero to 99 to show how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position, or how effective they are at it. Here is Madueke’s profile from the 2021-22 Eredivisie season with PSV… … and here is Mudryk’s, based on his league minutes for Shakhtar Donetsk in the first half of this season… As you can see in the graphics above, Mudryk and Madueke are exceptionally high-volume dribblers (carry & dribble volume) and shooters (shot volume) who bring the required intensity to fit into a modern pressing system. Madueke was more involved in build-up play at PSV while Mudryk more frequently received the ball in transition situations at Shakhtar — a distinction that might say more about the styles of their respective former teams than it does about their individual skill sets. Madueke was most often deployed high and wide on the right of attack at PSV, though Roger Schmidt also used him as a second striker in his 4-2-2-2 system. The plan was generally to deliver him the ball in this type of position (below) with space to run at the opposition full-back, often after a quick switch of play from the left to the right flank… In this scenario, Madueke’s speed and skill make him a nightmare to deal with. He is more than capable of racing past the majority of full-backs on the outside and cutting the ball back accurately from the byline with his right foot, but his clear preference is to drive infield at an angle onto his favoured left and create space for a shot. That is exactly what he does here against AC Milan, hammering a high shot inside the near post: Madueke’s clean ball striking makes him a scoring threat in a variety of ways when cutting infield. In the second half of the same match against Milan, he receives the ball in a similar position on the right, and again drives forward intent on creating a shooting chance… This time, when the opportunity presents itself, he instead curls a low shot just inside the far post… Opponents have found these angled bursts difficult to contain even when they load their defences towards the right flank. In the signature performance of his career to date, Madueke scored twice as PSV demolished arch-rivals Ajax 4-0 in the Johan Cruyff Shield to kick off the 2021-22 season. His first goal is the product of a run that sees him burst between two defenders… … and reach the edge of the penalty area, from where he whips a low shot just inside the near post… His second underlined what a problem Madueke is for defenders in transitional situations. Here, he receives the ball with space to attack and two team-mates to his left marked by retreating Ajax defenders… Once he recognises that no one is coming to try to tackle him, Madueke surges into the penalty area himself… … and hammers the ball into the net with his right foot… It was Madueke’s scoring prowess that convinced Schmidt he could be effective in a more central attacking role. “Noni scores a lot in training and feels good as one of the two strikers,” he said “He gets into goalscoring positions because he has good timing, and he is explosive when he gets the ball. “For a striker, it is always nice if you are fast, but it’s not just his speed: he reads the game well and is technically sound.” The below sequence, of Madueke’s first goal this season against NEC Nijmegen, highlights his smart movement away from the right flank. He sends Cody Gakpo running into the right channel with a pass… … and, having continued his own run to the penalty spot, recognises an opportunity to dart in front of his marker… He is found by an excellent ball, takes one touch to control with his left foot and finds the bottom far corner with his right… Madueke’s pedigree as a central attacking midfielder at youth level — he only shifted to the right wing at PSV aged 17 — shows up in his ability to find passes in tight spaces. Here, against NAC Breda, he threads a pass between three defenders to send a team-mate clean through on goal… In a Champions League qualifying play-off against Midtjylland, he slips the return pass for a slick one-two into the narrow gap between two opponents… When given a little more space, Madueke has both the vision to see incisive passes and the technique to execute them. Here, against Heracles, he quickly recognises where his open team-mate is as he drives infield from the right flank with his head up… … and he waits for the angle to open up before playing the pass… Madueke will face a significantly higher standard of defender and opposition game plan in the Premier League, but there is no obvious reason why his speed, skill and intelligence would not translate to make him an effective winger in England’s top flight. Madueke’s recent injury history is by far the biggest risk for Chelsea, particularly on a contract that runs into the next decade. Between the hamstring problems that beset him last season and the ankle injury sustained in training that sidelined him from the end of July to mid-October 2022, he has missed 43 matches for PSV across all competitions over the last two campaigns. Chelsea already have another recent first-team signing on a long contract with an extensive injury record in centre-back Wesley Fofana, while striker Armando Broja ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament only three months into a six-year extension at Stamford Bridge. Then there is Reece James, who in theory could form a highly potent attacking combination with Madueke on the right flank. It will be down to the club’s medical staff to ensure that the partnership gets a chance to be more than theoretical. In every other respect, Madueke profiles as exactly the sort of player Chelsea should be targeting given Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s desire to invest in younger talent. He is a genuinely explosive attacking weapon who has shown the potential to become an elite scorer as well as a high-level creator in a mid-tier European league, and his skill set provides a natural balance to Mudryk’s light-speed runs from the left wing. Madueke is unlikely to be a consistent Premier League difference-maker immediately, though he will undoubtedly back himself to be so. His game remains a little raw around the edges and even the most productive Eredivisie attackers find it difficult to be as frequently decisive against better defences in the strongest league in the world. But one aspect of his record in Dutch football suggests that Madueke could be useful to Potter as early as this season: his 13 goals and 10 assists for PSV across the Eredivisie, Europa League and UEFA Conference League came despite just 31 of his 67 appearances being starts, indicating that he is well adapted to impacting matches from the substitutes’ bench. Madueke’s signing, along with prising Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal last summer, ensures Chelsea have a succession plan for the unsettled Hakim Ziyech. They also have a vision for how the attacking unit of this team should look under Potter — and with Mudryk on one side and Madueke on another, everything about it is dynamic and exciting.

Not €100m €120m (£105.5m) And now some are saying Benfica is demanding we pay the taxes too (I think it's bullshit, I don't see it being enforceable) So an insane €160m (£141m) Enzo is not worth 160m euros, sorry Even Bellingham is not worth that (maybe close, but I say £125/130m MAX. IF that €160m is an enforceable price, forget Enzo. Only 2 players on the planet worth that are Mbappe and Håland. No one else is close to them atm.

Hell NO

I do not think they will accept £75m

Chelsea are open to player sales despite current injury woes https://caughtoffside.substack.com/i/98863393/Chelsea-are-open-to-player-sales-despite-current-injury-woes Chelsea will definitely be thinking about outgoings towards the end of the January transfer window, but there is perhaps less urgency than there would be if everyone was fit right now. Of course Chelsea would like to sell for financial reasons after their spending, and also to reduce their wage bill, but they also have to be conscious in certain positions that they do have an injury crisis. Specifically, if we’re talking about midfielders, they haven’t yet signed a central midfielder, so they have to balance the fact that summer is going to give them more time and ability to get them more value, too. Still, there could be opportunities because of the size of their squad. Hakim Ziyech is one who is available, and Chelsea could try to cash in on the back of his excellent World Cup with Morocco. In many ways it would be a shame if he didn’t get the chance to show what he can do at Chelsea, because he can offer something very different from the other wingers at the club. He showed that with Morocco, where he wasn’t just a goal-scorer and creator, he was also somebody who tracked back and defended resolutely, and showed leadership too. Chelsea definitely appreciate leadership, especially at this stage of the season with a lot of young players being thrust into the starting line up. But Ziyech can still command a relatively healthy transfer fee, and a sale or loan gets him off their wage bill. From Ziyech’s perspective, he’d love a move back to Ajax, but their manager Alfred Schreuder has ruled that out, Milan’s interest has cooled as well, so it’s Roma or Newcastle who are the clubs to watch. Newcastle like the player but there’s a concern about his wages - they’re reluctant at this point in the season to match Champions League-style wages and also don’t want to bring in too many high earners in case it causes squad unrest. Still, they like the player so it can’t be discounted, either on loan or in a permanent deal. Chelsea would ideally like to recoup a lot of what they paid for Ziyech, which was around £33m. Christian Pulisic is technically available on the market, though Graham Potter has said on the record that he won’t leave in January, and the fact that he got injured until February doesn’t help matters. Like Ziyech, he had a strong World Cup and that could change Potter’s thinking. Pulisic didn’t desperately enjoy working under Thomas Tuchel, so a fit Pulisic under a new manager might be able to shine at Chelsea. It could be that this injury will prove a blessing in disguise for Chelsea, because it gives them more time between now and the end of the season to see if they can get the best out of Pulisic. There are admirers of course, Newcastle and Manchester United enquired about him in the summer, with the latter quite keen on a loan, but I’ve always been told that Serie A is the more likely destination for Pulisic. Juventus have considered him in the past and he even spoke to Weston McKennie about the club, and more recently AC Milan have been linked as well. But we’re looking at a summer exit if Potter is true to his word. Chelsea could also be tempted to loan out Conor Gallagher, depending on what happens in central midfield in the coming days. Clubs like Crystal Palace, where he was on loan last season, and, again, Newcastle, would both be interested in Gallagher, so we’ll have to wait and see based on Chelsea’s own movements in the market. The club have indicated they’re against a sale, but that could be tested if they were to receive an offer in the region of £35-40m. It’s one to watch in the final few days of the market, because if Chelsea can get a midfielder in, someone might try a concrete late move for Gallagher, and then Chelsea, unlike last summer, could be tempted to do business there. With N’Golo Kante, from the messages I’m receiving, his preference has always been to stay at Chelsea, and contract talks are suddenly moving in quite a positive direction. It previously looked quite unlikely, and like Chelsea would lose him on a free transfer in the summer, and Kante obviously wouldn’t be short of options as a free agent, but we shouldn’t underestimate that Kante is very settled - he’s a humble player, not a greedy player, not confrontational in the manner that he and his agent negotiate. He thinks a lot about his work-life balance, and he’s very happy at Chelsea, likes life in London, and that’s all going to help Chelsea. He’s also very invested in this new project and being a leader within it, so that all adds up now to the player being willing to accept a new deal on a smaller wage. This is all very helpful to Chelsea, because they want him to re-sign, and it’s a shame in many ways that he’s injured at the moment, because the best way to get the deal he wants is to be fit and playing and integral, but it’s all moving in a positive direction, so it wouldn’t surprise me now if an extension was agreed after the January transfer window closes. With Jorginho it’s a slightly different matter, because although his agent says the priority is to renew with Chelsea, there is a feeling within the club that he may leave and that a return to Napoli is not impossible. Although it might seem sensible to keep both Jorginho and Kante, because they’ve got injuries and haven’t yet signed someone yet in that area, the ownership do what to reduce the wage bill and the average age of the squad. Even if it doesn’t happen in the net few days, the club do expect to add a couple more midfielders, which may mean it becomes in the interest of all parties to lose Jorginho. That is a reflection, I suppose, of the forward planning of the club ahead of the summer, as opposed to judging the situation only now, because of course based on what’s happening now - Jorginho’s playing, he’s got the captain’s armband, and you could make the argument that letting him go in the summer would be unwise, but in the summer Chelsea’s midfield is going to look a whole lot different, so if Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo arrive, then there comes a scenario when Jorginho falls down the pecking order, having renewed on high wages in his 30s, and with the club having already done the same with Kante, then it might be a little counter-productive to the direction the ownership want to move in. So it could help if there was some indication or Jorginho being willing to bend on the wages and length of contract, but at the moment that situation is not looking as positive as with Kante.

fuck them knobs

The list of whingey cunts is simple its the original 7 twats who pushed FFP ages ago so they could remain on top Manure Pool Barca Real Madrid Bayern Juve Arse probably joined now by Spuds, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Inter Millan, Napoli, and likely AC Milan (so utterly ironic as the Juve Agnelli mafia's HATE for Berlusconi's billions was what originally kicked off FFP, and that same Agnelli mafia has now partially destroyed Juve) a baker's dozen of gits all in against: 1 Manchester City England Premier League €1.12bn (United Arab Emirates' hundred of billions) 2 Chelsea FC England Premier League €1.02bn (£70 plus billion in backing) 5 Paris Saint-Germain France Ligue 1 €894.55m (Qatari hundreds of billions) 15 RB Leipzig Germany Bundesliga €493.30m (Red Bull's tens of billions, Bayern and Dortmund HATE RB) 19 Newcastle United England Premier League €442.90m (Saudi trillion plus) and whoever the 2nd richest royals (the Kuwaitis, only trailing the Saudis) chose to buy (ironically that may be Pool or Manure) if they ever get into football ownership (shocked they have not yet done so yet) once the Kuwaitis dive in, that leaves only one absolute monarchy left who has tens of billions: The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah (worth around 50 to 60 billion) (the Omanis are too poor as are the African Eswatinis) finally private billionaires worth over 30 billion usd (down to only 7 over 100 Billion usd, only TWO are now worth over £100 bn, and Musk is dropping like a rock, and only 16 are worth 50 billion plus quid now, there has been a massive contraction over the past year) Bernard Arnault $212.1 B (£171.6 B) Elon Musk $158.8 B (£128.5 B) Gautam Adani $119.1 B (£96.3 B) Jeff Bezos $118.0 B Larry Ellison $111.1 B Warren Buffett $107.2 B Bill Gates $102.6 B Carlos Slim Helu & family $92.4 B Mukesh Ambani $85.0 B Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & family $82.8 B Larry Page $82.5 B Sergey Brin $79.1 B Steve Ballmer $77.9 B Michael Bloomberg $76.8 B Amancio Ortega $75.5 B Zhong Shanshan $67.5 B Jim Walton $60.6 B Charles Koch $60.1 B Julia Koch & family $60.1 B Rob Walton $59.4 B Alice Walton $58.4 B Roman's all time net worth high in inflation adjusted US dollars was $55.5 BILLION David Thomson & family $53.5 B Michael Dell $52.7 B Mark Zuckerberg $51.2 B Zhang Yiming $49.5 B Phil Knight & family $47.9 B Ma Huateng $41.5 B Rodolphe Saadé & family $41.4 B François Pinault & family $38.3 B Robin Zeng $38.2 B Jacqueline Mars $38.2 B John Mars $38.2 B Dieter Schwarz $37.4 B Giovanni Ferrero $35.9 B Len Blavatnik $34.6 B Alain Wertheimer $34.5 B Gerard Wertheimer $34.5 B Miriam Adelson & family $34.5 B Li Ka-shing $34.2 B Colin Zheng Huang $33.7 B Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr. & family $32.3 B Ken Griffin $32.3 B (tried to buy us as part of the RW Chicago bid) Tadashi Yanai & family $30.5 B Lee Shau Kee $30.5 B Gina Rinehart $30.4 B

you do not need a twitter account to read tweets

Franck Kessie won’t leave Barcelona, Xavi confirms (per Romano) YES!🙂