King Kante

Not ever really been sold on Chilwell for £70m+. Some of his performances in Nov-Dec made me think twice but I cannot help thinking he is like Cresswell who played well for about six months when he went to Wet Spam and then suddenly got linked with top dollar transfers. For me, Telles at £30m or Chilwell for £70m+ is not really a hard decision as whilst Telles isn't the greatest LB he is not £40m worse than Chilwell. As for signings this window we really need another CF. As great as Tammy has been he is still not the finished article and needs some competition. Werner is the dream but if not him then I am ok with Dembele as long as things do not get crazy fee wise. One player I am surprised we are not looking at is Immobile. That bloke is a goal machine in a top 4 league, not on high wages and at a middling club. I know he underperformed last time he went out of Italy but surely he must be worth a look.

Yeah, he is the best fit player we could possibly ask for. However, you know Granny is going to drop £60-80m on Zaha instead.

Pretty sure he is going to Utd. He will be first choice CF there as Rashford and Martial can play wide and they will give him insane wages. Plus he grew up in that neck of the woods.

We can probably get £20-30m for Bats in a cash transfer to CP. They cannot score goals and he is popular their with the fans (my Dad's side of family are all season ticket holders.) Selling him for cash in Jan makes sense as his contract is running down. Giving him to Palace plus another £40m is eqivilent to giving Palace £60-70m for a second rate player.

If you cannot get players like Werner, Sancho etc in Jan then just try and get a Bale or James on loan. Signing Zaha even for £40m plus Batsh*t on £150k plus a week is madness. Zaha is an archetypal mid table club player. If we sign him he will be a dud.

Obviously, for this window we probably are not going to get Sancho as Dortmund have a fight on their hands for fourth. Only way it may be possible is if he has some sort of clause in his contract that can be activated. That said, I am fairly confident he will come here, unless both CHO and Pulisic do some sort of magic trick that CR7 pulled off in the 06-07 season where he went from very good to insane. As for transfers in this window I think there are only four viable candidates and that is: Ake, Werner, Haaland and Telles. The reason for this is due to the first three have well documented reasonable/low buy outs, which means no p*ssing about with the clubs and just getting a deal with the player, whilst Telles is in his final 18 months and Porto are a selling club. Obviously, Werner and Haaland are going to be tough as everyone wants them, my money is on Werner to Munich and Haaland to Utd, but we should try at least. That would leave us with Ake and Telles which would be ok if not amazing as both of those players would improve their respective positions; although I must admit I am not entirely sold on Ake.

All I want from transfer going forward are upgrades/players that are world class or close to being so. I simply do not understand the logic of buying players like Zaha or Ake. I mean, who is sitting there thing 'you know what, I cannot wait to see Zaha in the team ahead of Willian/Puli/CHO, he is a massive upgrade on them'. Equally, who is saying that about Ake over Zouma/Tomori/AC? One thing the ban has shown us, is that we have a lot of young boys who are capable of being squad players and even moving to the next level. We do not need good players to fill the squad any more but a select number of great players. Of course we do not have unlimited funds but there is zero point spunking £60m on a AM that has question marks about whether he can get in ahead of Willian, Puli and CHO. Further, with Hazard, Morata and the other players we sold in the Summer we must have at least £150m burning in our sky rocket and that is before you add CL money and and all the wages we have saved from selling/realeasing the likes of Cahill, Hazard, Luiz and Morata who were all in the upper range of our earners. Only position were we may need to consider someone under WC level is LB as Alonso cannot play in a 4 and Emerson is pretty average. Arguements can be made about GK but Kepa is protected by his outragous fee and wages. In that area we probably should make a play for someone like Foster when Watford are relegated in the Summer to put some fire up his ar*e.

Really do not want Zaha. By all means sell Palace Bats if we can get a decent fee and sign another striker, but please do not sign Zaha. I just know he is going to go the same way as Cuadrado, wrong player, wrong club.

Tonali for me is the one to watch. That boy has the potential to go top, top level. As for Harvetz, he is actually the heir to Ballack in that he can play anywhere in the midfield. I like him a lot but he has BM/RM/PSG written all over him. Not seen Camavinga enough so cannot comment.

I also like Telles and think he makes a lot of sense. We can get him in now, switch out one of Emerson or Alonso and it probably does not cost us boat loads. Further, Chilwell is still a possibility for later on, unless Telles goes through the roof, as we can later on shift the remaining current LB and have him come in alongside Telles. For me, Telles should be seen as realistic. Ake, I am not sold on. I have been saying since the start of the season we have 3x CB2's and only 1 x CB1 who can organise the defense. Ake for me falls into the category of CB2 (covering CB.) We do not need him as we need to shift one of Zouma or AC as it is to make way for another CB1. His links are primarily due to his buy back. Werner is a absolute no brainer as he would replace both Giroud and Pedro by himself. Jan may be a difficult time to take him and he will be in demand. However, the club should make him priority target No.1. Zaha. I seriously hope this is not true. He is like a taller, stronger, less skillful Willian. Avoid. Harvetz is not going to happen. Too wanted and costly. Sancho. See it happening. Questions abound about the risk he represents. For me, he strikes me as the type of player the board would want to sign. Berge. More realistic than Harvetz, but very hard to get as multiple clubs sniffing around him. Questions over his ability to adapt to a top 4 league. For me a succesful January would be; Telles, Werner +1 CM. The rest of the squad can be sorted later on in Summer. The right quality CB's and Chilwell are not going to happen in Jan.

As long as the smoke screen isn't a Zaha, Grealish or Isco type player then I agree. Again, I would go for Dybala. My point however, has been I see the club pulling off this sort of transfer. I mean they paid £72m with £170-190k/pw wages to a 6'1" goalkeeper with only 54 league games of experience under his belt. That for me is a much crazier idea than buying Sancho for £100m, which is why I see it happening.

I am not sold on Ake. I think he is only being mentioned because he has a buy back, rather than due to him being someone that could improve us massively.

As I have said, I'd rather Dybala as he was going for £65m this Summer and Werner but at the same time I see the club buying Sancho. Further, there is the risk with Sancho in that if he improves further he will start being talked about at £150m and he is likely to move soon. No doubt he is a risk but I would argue that Kepa was a much bigger risk as the money we spent on him should have got us a top 5 GK at least, not a kid with 54 league games under his belt.

No, but £70m on a FB is kind of eqivilent to a £100m AM when you consider the positions and market. Further, I woud argue a £72m keeper is a bigger than £100m for a AM. £72m on a GK should really be getting you the Mbappe of GK's.

No, maybe not breaking point but I think he is trying to work his way out. Yeah, I agree £100m is slightly crazy. However, people talk about £70m on Chilwell, which is also crazy, as a good deal. Personally, I would rather both Werner and Dybala over Sancho but I just get a feeling that he is going to end up here.

Rumours on twitter that the ban has been lifted.

That is insane if true.

Personally I am not sold on Isco one bit. He reminds me of that type of player who is happy just to be at a big club and does not mind being on the bench because he is at said club. Personally, I agree that Pedro, Barkley, Giroud need replacing and that RLC's injuries are an issue. However, I want to see us target one AM and one CM rather than two AM's as any CF we buy should be in the Werner/Dembele mould and thus be able to play out wide if need also.

Situation with Werner is a little different to Sancho in that Werner is not agitating for a move and he hasn't fallen out with his manager/club. That is why I think Sancho is a possibility and Werner is not. I agree, but at the same time, we need to be careful about going for players that are not of the right quality. For me, the young boys coming in have proven we do not need to buy £30-£40m players like Drinky or Baka as they have been able to step in and perform. What we need instead is 4-5 players of top quality to replace they likes of Pedro, Barkley, Giroud, Bats, one of the LB's and one of the CB's etc. This does not mean £100m+ players in every position, Werner for instance can be had for less and so can Dybala (if Juve still want him gone like in the Summer - he is a much better player than Zaha.) However, players like Sancho come along rarely and sometimes you need to bite the bullet and pony up like Liverpool did with VvD.

Steady. To challenge for the league we would also need to see a big improvement in Kepa and I would argue a physical CM who can break up play as at the moment we let the ball go from front to back way too quickly. Anyway, on to Sancho. I said a couple of weeks ago that I thought this was a possibility and got laughed at but I do think this is could happen. Firstly, I say this because I think Sancho has decided to engineer a move away for himself. I think this because before two or so months ago, we heard nothing about his behaviour or attitude then all of a sudden it starts becoming a big issue which I find odd especially since Dortmund did not have to go through the hassle of signing him to a new contract and could have just sold him last Summer for mega bucks. The second reason, follows on from the first, in that this turn in behaviour seems to have coincided directly with his ramping up of social media love in with the young Chelsea players. Third reason is that he is both a declared Chelsea fan and has stated that at some point in his career he would like to play in London as it is his home and he has been away for a long time (although in the same interview he does say that he feels comfortable playing in Germany as his Manchester move got him used to being away from home.) The question however, is, is this a good idea? Personally, I think their are other areas that need work before AM, namely CF2, LB and CB. However, at the same time Sancho at £100m and £200k a week is estentially replacing Hazard's costs. Further, I think Jan (if we can sign players) is going to be difficult getting the right quality. I mean anyone thinking that Chilwell is a possibility in Jan must be smoking crack as Leicester are never selling then as they have a great chance of CL qualification and are sort of in the title race. So, no way they sell then as it is not as if his price will go down dramatically between Jan and Summer. At CF I do not see anyone who is good enough that would be avaiable in Jan. Werner for instance will not move until Summer as Leipzig could win the Bundesliga. At CB Dias is a possibility due to his buy out but some questions would need to be asked over activating that. Players like Romagoli will not leave midseason. For me, the only two players of the right level quality wise that we have been linked with that could be avaiable in Jan are Sancho and SMS. Questions can be asked about the need for them over other positions but it may be the case of getting what you can now and fixing the other problems later. That way, you get the right level players rather than substandard ones that end up a waste of money or only short term fixes. Personally, the only position I can see outside of CM, AM (and possibly CB), in Jan is LB. However, I am thinking more of Emerson being sold to Juve and then buying a Telles type player, see how that goes, as even if that does not work out, overall it would not cost us much and we could still target Chilwell in the Summer.

Personally, I am surprised we have not tried AC there. He plays that position for Denmark. That said, I have been going on for ages that we need a more physical CM. Imo, I reckon we are seriously looking at SMS. He is actually a possibility in Jan if we can get the ban liftrd.

Not that we are going to get him but I honestly do not see Mbappe leaving PSG for a while. The reason I say this is because the figures for him are just insane. £300m plus what £600k a week minimum? That is like £450m on a five year contract and even then, you have to think he will ask for more as people like Bale are on £600k. That kind of money buys you half a stadium in London, not going to happen imo. Instead I reckon he will see out his contract at PSG then go on a free to Real or Barca. If he does that, he can pretty much ask for £1.2m a week and everyone is a winner, bar PSG. As for our signings going forward, I think we have a lot of room to buy big but we need to be smart as really we're looking at 5 or 6 players to fill the first team and squad out properly. This however, I think can be done. For instance, Werner is a £80m+ player going for £27m. That is a player that we should be moving heaven and earth for as he would solve two issues alone (CF2 and a additional AM). LB, I am starting to come around to the idea of Chilwell as if you ship out Emerson and Alonso his fee would not be that much higher that their fees combined and his wages are unlikely to be much more that theirs combined. That would then leave us with Dave, James, Chilwell but it should be remembered that that both Tomori and Rudiger have experience of playing RB so could act as a CB/RB hybrid like Bane used to. CM I still have high hopes for Ampadu but both Barkley and Baka (who is playing well at Monaco) would likely bring in a good £50m. Drinky is a complete write off at this point. That sort of money could get you most of a SMS. At CB personally I would sacrifice Zouma to bring in £35m+ and then go out for a better CB. CB is really the area where I think we may struggle to find someone that isn't insanely expensive or could be had. AM in a world where Werner signs would not really have to be dealt with until 2021 if Willian extends and as much as I would like a top new GK, I think if we brought in a Foster type character to sit behind Kepa it would help a lot. That sort of transfer approach to me isn't out of the realms of possibility. If we end up buy a Sancho however (which I do think is the kind of thing the club would do), then the rest is much tougher as he would eat up a lot of cap space.

I think the club would go there for certain players if SFL really wanted them. Whether that is Sancho or not is another matter. However, if it is £60-70m for Zaha or £100m for Sancho, I would hope the club would go for Sancho. The only AM out there that really falls into the 23-27 year old bracket thar I really want is Dybala but he would have questions over his ability to adapt to the PL.

Well we did drop £72m on Kepa, so I am not so certain a £100m transfer is out of the question.

For sure. Sancho will command a £95-130m price. I mean Puli cost us close to £60m and he was almost in his final year.