King Kante

You know Willian is going to pull this shit too.

I think we do need to be careful with Jorgi. Firstly, I think he is an important player for us as he is pretty calm and he can sort things out on the pitch by talking to the other players and just ensuring possession is kept. As you say Kova can play the No.4 role too and I think with the way SFL wants to play he would actually be best there. However, in order to play Kova (or Billy) in the No.4 role we are going to require two top CB's as otherwise we could get exposed. Personally, I am still a massive De Ligt fan so I would part with Jorgi to get him (or Demiral who I also rate - although his knee could be blown). If either of those players are not up for a swap I would not let Juve have him unless they go completely bonkers and offer £75m+ or something.

I think De Ligt is great, that is why I want him. Personally, I think he would be better off in England or Germany but I also wouldn't be surprised if he does bounce back next year in Italy as for me he is will be the best CB in the world in the next 2-4 years time.

Thing with De Ligt is that I do not think Italy is a good country for him to be playing. For me, he is more of a dominating CB who is better in leagues such as PL/Bundesliga etc as in Italy (or Spain if he went there) he gets fouls given against him that wouldn't here. Further, whilst good on the ball he isn't the most technical which again means Italy/Spain aren't the best places for him. For those reasons, I am not really worried about his form at Juve as not only is he young but Italian football is not the best for his skill set. It is kind of like how AC would probably be considered a very good defender in Spain but is considered a weakling here.

Agree. If Ake is the answer I am not sure what the question is. Ake is a good PL CB but that is about it. As for Zouma, I would sell him as soon as we get a chance as I do not rate him. In my opinion, if he wasn't such a freak athlete he would be playing Championship football. I mean, the amount of times he gets caught out of position is a massive worry. For instance, in the last game against Everton he some how found himself caught out on the half way line and allowed the a 2on1 attack which DCL should really have scored which I think would've made it 1-1 or 2-1. A better example of his poor positioning was the Valencia away game. If you watch these highlights, you will see he is out of position for virtually every attack (AC gets rightly criticised for his lack of strength but at least he is where he is meant to be): This is also not a isolated incidents as he does it all the time, game after game. On top of this his distribution under any sort of pressure is also poor, while he also has a habit of mis-kicking balls that come into the area. An example is the Everton away game, where for their 2nd he skies the ball and allows it to bump off of him after AC doesn't get the header (while on the third he is out of position then stands and watches DCL continue towards goal) For those reasons, when people talk about CB's that need to be sold I always say Zouma as not only is he our worst CB on all aspects apart from physicality/athleticism he is also one that would probably bring in the most coin from any sale of AC/Tomori/Zouma.

Haha, but lets be real. This was their level between 1992-2012 so really, they are just going back to their natural place i.e. 5th-12th place.

They can have Jorgi and Emerson for De Ligt.

My money is on Cavani on a free.

If Granny gets anything over £20m for Batsh*t in this market with only one year on his contract then she will be doing wonders.

I see where you are coming from but a better comparison for Kepa is Bravo. For me they are both about the same level. Ederson does have flaws but he is still much better than Kepa/Bravo as at least he can control his six yard box on set pieces where the other two look like 15 year old boys against men.

Well, yes. Like Werner they could/can also play CF. However, my point was Anelka primarily played from a WF role for us and Mertens has mostly played as a WF throughout his career. Hence, I see Werner doing the same. Will we ever see him play the CF role here? Probably. Will he come in and play that role from the start? I very much doubt it.

As for the money, it is exactly as you describe. Pay stupid money on him and then you are lumbered with him with the team seriously stuffering for years as you cannot recoup the money. For me a better example than Torres is Kepa, who we are now stuck with for god knows how long because some bright spark thought a funsized, t-rex armed GK would be a good idea at £72m + £9-10m a year for seven years. As for Chilwell's ability, I would actually rate Alonso above him as they are both above the same level defensively but Alonso scores and assists a lot more. Personally, I wouldn't even mind the Chilwell links so much if there were not other players about we could get, but with players such as Telles (£20-25m) and Tagliafico (£25m) knocking about a £40-70m transfer for Chilwell is lunacy.

From when I started watching (20 mins onwards), I would only say he missed one good chance today (when he had beat the GK to the ball). The other one where he got played in the channel and hit it over was a tough chance. That said, he isn't perfect yet and does need work. However, as anyone that has been tracking him for a while will say, he has been improving consistently year on year so he should still improve, while his statistical output is very good. He will play from the left. People need to think of him as a Anelka/Mertens type player. I really cannot see him playing CF unless SFL switches to a 352 formation and he plays off Giroud. I really cannot see us playing 433 with him as CF in the PL or moving to a 442 and giving up midfield.

When I look at those sides all I can think is we really need another CB, GK and if we actually go out and blow £30m+ on Chilwell I'll be fuming.

So, where does everyone stand on what else we need for next season if Werner does get over the line? I would say we still need (in no order); GK1 CB1 LB1 No.6

Yeah, I saw this. If we pull Harvetz off this week to go alongside Werner, the internet is going to break. That said, if we do get it done, I hope we have some buyers for the likes of Barkley, Baka, Batsh*t etc lined up otherwise we are going to have a squad size of 35+ next year.

Yeah, Romagnoli is probably the one that is best fit. Let's hope Granny can pull some magic. However, like you I am also a bit of a Granny sceptic in that I think she is fine at buying players with buy outs (or gentleman agreements), not so great at when she has to negotiate and I really cannot see her willing to deal with Ranola.

RE: Gabriel, when I have seen him I would say he was better on the ball than Cahill (kind of implied in the Brazilian Cahill part), however he, for me at least displays quite a few of the same traits: 1) Strong in the air (we really need this tbf) 2) Slow for a modern day CB 3) Back peddles when confronted by the fast/tricky player (this was the thing that annoyed me most with Cahill) 4) Will go long unless there is an easy short pass. Tbh, with Gabriel, I think he is a good player, he just isn't one where I go 'wow, he is going to come in and be our new undisputed CB1'. Like you, I am a big fan of Romagnoli and reckon he would be a massive boon for us. However, like you say his agent is a c**t and the bigger problem in my opinion is that he seems to me to be one of those Italian's that wants to stay in Italy. As for the younger ones you list, I'll take your word for them as I haven't seen them or only seen very little. However, the worry is how much time they would need to adapt and are they experienced enough to push us forward. For me the only CB under 22 I would be willing to go for is De Ligt as he has played a lot of football, has experience of being a Captain and whilst not setting Italy alight, I think that is partly due to him not being as suited to that league as he would the PL (only issue I would have with him is his speed which is average.)

I have probably seen him about 4-5 times. For me, he is a bit like a Brazillian Gary Cahill, which isn't really a bad thing as Cahill was a great servant but he wasn't someone that took us to the next level. Next, I am not so sure SFL is completely set in a left footed CB. Sure, it is probably preferred but with the way our CB's are at the moment I am not sure he wouldn't take one just because they were right footed. As for the players you list, this is pretty much the problem with CB. Half of the players play for top teams so aren't going anywhere. Then the others are young ones with massive question marks and we need experience/guaranteed players atm not taking a risk on another 21/22 year old to go with AC and Tomori. Sure if the 21 year old is De Ligt or something, go for it but 21 year old CB's usually require another 2-3 years experience as it is the most physically demanding position on the pitch and requires a super strong mentality as any mistake can cost a goal.

Gabriel isn't that good on the ball so whilst he may be an upgrade on what we have (I think he is probably a minor upgrade) I wouldn't say he is a massive upgrade. Salisu I do not know. Romagnoli I do agree is a very good CB but I just do not see him leaving Italy. I agree we seriously need a CB but the problem is who is actually achievable. For me, the only real chance we have of getting a decent one is to do some sort of swap deal with Juve but I cannot see that happening either. As for AC v Zouma, I would sell Zouma of the two just because I think AC has still got a bit more room to grow (but not much) and I prefer his reading of the game and passing ability. That said, we should definitely sell one if we can get another CB in.

I do not see Alaba wanting to come here, he is soon to be 28 and he has played at BM all his career. I really do not see him wanting to see the next two years (the last of his peak) in a squad that is transitioning/re-building.

He is such a bang average player. I really do not want him unless he is £20m or something and even then I would probably play Alonso in front of him. The fortunate thing in this however is that it is pretty much proven the press do not have a clue what we are actually up too, so this is just them guessing and if it does not work out they can say someone 'hijacked' us if he goes elsewhere.

Yeah, they took a £175m Corona loan from the Govt. From what I understand, they cannot use any of that loan for transfers which suggests they will have to do swaps or frees unless someone buys Kane for £100m or something.

TBH, I do not really understand why everyone thinks the Chilwell rumours are true. Seriously, how many Chelsea transfers in the past two-three years have actually been called by the press before it is pretty much done? For me I just do not see Chilwell happening as, even at £40m, is he way overpriced and there are two players who are much cheaper than him (Telles and Tag) who aren't even that much older than him.

The inflation seems pretty low. I mean £17m in 2003 was serious money and definitely more than £23m or whatever T-Markt are saying (unless they are going by real inflation rather than football inflation).