King Kante

Think your comments on Mikel are slightly harsh. When we needed to sit very deep he was always great for us. As for Drinky, I do agree that when signed I could see the logic to an extent as he looked like he was coming in to play that squad rotation role and also to hook up with Kante again. Unfortunately, he has a number of problems that manifested themselves whilst here (Leicester probably knew about these and took us to the cleaners.) As for Baka, I agree I was calling him dog sh*t whilst at Monaco and no one would listen.

One of Alonso or Emerson will stay imo. Most likely Alonso.

https://youtu.be/QvbOOee-oBM

Actually that is not the case unbelievably. I thought this was, but someone told me is wasn't true so I checked it out on UEFA site. Essentially, teams keep their TV percentage regardless. If a team wins it outside of the top 4, then the do not get anything. However, the TV money isn't worth as much as I thought it would be. First, it only accounts for roughly 10% of total participation money (although this differs by country, in England it is probably a couple of percent more.) However, of that 10% it is split into two halfs, first half is based on lrague positions (although as teams drop out, their spread is then applied to the other teams left) and the other half based on performance. I did some real 'back of a fag packet maths' and calculated the difference was something like £8-10m for City and £2-3m for Chelsea; the Dippers and Utd fall inbetween those figures. However, one thing that we have benefited from is a notch up the 10 year coefficient/historical performance standings. A CL win gives an extra 12 points which I believe now edges us above Atleti. That extra position is worth roughly £1m.

Yeah, then add €3.5m-€5m for the Super Cup and up to $10m for the Club World Cup.

Got to say AC was pretty immense after he came on for Silva.

My worry is that this game will be a bit like the Real away game. Open brightly, should be 2 or 3 up by 25 mins, conceded a goal out of nothing. However, unlike Real, I see City dominating once they get their goal.

Well considering the owners of Inter folded their Chinese side, just after they won the league, I reckon it may be both are required absolutely. Be amazed if they only sell the one big player.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave, has a bit of a Meireles vibe to him.

I don't think the €80m was the issue, it is the reduction of the wage bill by 20-25% that is. Because, lets be real, no one is buying deadwood these days. Hakimi at a guess probably represents about 5% max of their wage bill, so there will be more I suspect. That said, €60m is about £50m which sounds reasonable when you consider Chilwell and Cancelo etc.

Yeah, his size was always a concern for me, although more for the being out muscled rather than fitness/knocks. £105m is crazy though, if he drops off the cliff like Hazard and Bale have done after a year or two that is some serious $$$ to eat yet again.

Yeah, Hazard would never make it in this team way too lazy. I mean even at his peak he had people complain about him due to his lack of off the ball work. Now that isn't as high, he would stand no chance.

Maybe Real's board are like some posters on here in that they think Alaba is cheap because they're not paying a fee. I also suspect, they have some back of a fag packet transactions, where they can sell Hazard, Bale and Jovic for decent money; similar to those around here who think we are picking up fees for the like of, Baka, Batsh*t, Barkley, RLC etc.

Hazard isn't coming back. If he leaves I'd imagine he'll go PSG.

Personally, I see a 3-0 or a 3-1 City win, with us fluffing a number of chances before City get their 3rd.

A lot of Chelsea fans don't like going to Barca owing to the way you get treated there. I went to the one in 2005 with Frisk and this is what happened: 1) Forced into the ground around 1.5 hours before kick off 2) Forced to stay in the ground for 2 hours after full time. 3) Given the most rigorous pat down before going into the ground 4) Saw people getting whacked with batons for having a hip flask (which was promptly thrown into the bin, even though the bloke was saying it was a present or for standing somewhere that the police did not want you to, but hadn't bothered to put up signs for. 5) Stuck up in the heavens so watching the game is pretty crap. I have been to around 15 away destinations in Europe and Barca is the one place I have refused to ever go again owing to dire treatment.

The thing that is sad was that if anyone bothered to watch he was being carried by Fabinho in that Monaco team. I was fuming when we were linked with him as I knew he would be dire. Personally, what I want to know, is what happened to our scouting system between 2016-2018. Some people blame Conte but I do not buy it, as whilst I accept players like Drinkwater, Zappa and Alonso may have been his picks (although 2nd/3rd at times), I am pretty sure he wasn't picking what I call 'the prototypical Chelsea signings' i.e. players between the ages of 19-26 who 'have potential' or are reasonably cheap for their profile. I mean, who signed off on this list: Batsh*t, Baka, Kepa, Barkley, Emerson, Morata (maybe a 2nd/3rd choice option for Conte, although not sure as I think Conte realised he was a wimp) I really do not see Conte wanting any of those players. At best, maybe he went I want a new LB, gave a name, then got given Emerson etc.

I see a loan to a Palace/Brighton/Newcastle/Leeds type team. Not sure he would play here unless both Gilmour (loan) and Jorgi (sold) leave.

You can have all the talent in the world but if you do not have the application you will not realise it.

Be interesting to see how the back 3 and wb's line up. Personally, I hope to see Dave back at RCB as our defensive record since he switched to RWB hasn't been as good. Personally, I think the reason for it is that Zouma isn't trusted at all and James isn't giving the output expected at RWB.

We need a LCB though. Personally, I can see us doing something like this for the CB group next season: RCB: Dave/James CCB: Silva/AC LCB: Rudi/Guehi Do that, then we could use the €30m for Tomori and the £30-£35m for Zouma on a player like Hakimi. As that would give us: RWB: Hakimi, James LWB: Chilwell, Alonso I know a lot of people complain about Alonso, but I do not see the issue of him playing another season as LWB here as in the LWB2 role he is handy enough.

He will be loaned again. Probably to France, Holland or Germany this time I would expect.

We won't sell both of them. We will be lucky to sell one. Personally, I am ok with Chilwell and Alonso if we're playing a wb system. Alonso only causes real problems when he has to play LB.

I am more talking about fans in the ground. When I go I find AC never gets mentioned as a HG player, whereas Ethan does.

Agreed. Moses has actually been ok, it was more in reference to the bloated squad list.