Tomo

I'm talking about identifying and scouting targets, I am 99.9999999% sure she doesn't do that.

Rejecting bids for Willian isn't identifying targets to bring in, and if i had to guess the situation with Christian, he was scouted and Sarri was content, he said he was unaware it was happening when it did, not that it was happening atall. That was mainly a narrative a rival fans trying to make out Roman is a lunatic who makes life impossible, here's a link to the Ray quotes via Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/chelseafc/comments/1bwuqu/fernando_torres_purchase_ancelottis_idea_not/

I'm flip flopping between Tammy and Giroud and leaning towards Oli after Leicester. Firstly because in that half hour when we tore Leicester a new one and created all those chances he set up all bar one of them and as he proved in the world cup can be a decent foil for vibrant wingers and AM. Secondly because we need some experience to balance out the youth, most of us want Pulisic and Odoi wings and Mount CAM/LCM, adding another early 20 player to it will be too much, not even Wenger went that young. For now i think we should go for Giroud, especially if all those 3 are starting aswell.

We haven't really signed any duds since he's left. All our signing's since the 2017 disaster (which Drinkwater aside had more to do with Conte than people like to admit) have all been good all in all. That's not picking the targets though and rumour has it she's pulled the plug because of the mess Monaco are in (fearing his transfer value would plummet) and the financial part is her fortee. Carlo wanted Torres something Wilkins (RIP) since confirmed.

Picking transfers and getting players in fall into the same bracket. So Marina identify's targets over the managers, scouting team and even Roman? I find that very hard to believe. She clearly does the negotiating but it will take very strong evidence for me to believe that she actually picks the targets

Supposedly someone behind the scenes none of the public know about. He said she doesn't pick the targets, which is pretty obvious.

Not sure how much Bakayoko's loan fee was at AC but I imagine if some club pay £30m this summer or £25 next on top of a loan fee for this season that would put our loss minimul at worst. Drinkwater will be the one we do take a hit on, however a strong season at Burnley will likely see some midtable team take a punt at around £15m which that plus a loan fee maybe about £18m. All added up we will probably make about a £20-25m loss on all those players which isn't too bad a recovery considering.

Around this time last month the Arsenal fans started a #wecaredoyou hastag craze aimed at the club, the fanbase from AFTV were sounding out on their own platforms about how worried they were and it was genuinely looking like they may not be even be signing anyone, it was only after that rumours of signings were really hoting up for them let alone actual signings. They didn't "act fast" atall, infact their window wasn't to dissimilar to ours from last year, ie a Madrid man signed on loan and the transfer record broke almost spontaneously close to deadline day. Critisising some of our decisions is one thing but I'm sorry using Arsenal of all clubs as an example of how it should be done is grass is greener syndrome at its finest.

Yeah, Arsenal acted so fast the fans were still protesting against the owners at the tail end of July.

We get loan fees for them which ultimately will add to the overall fee once sold. We will likely almost make our money back on the 2017 signings thanks to that which is pretty good going all things considered.

He's been piping about last season again in recent days. He wasn't really my style of player anyway but i did respect his commitment, however he's going right down in my estimations now.

I could see it working with Mount more than RLC tbh, Mount will have a better understanding of that role tactically (when to press, when to drop back, drift wide etc), he could potentially be Firminho lite if given a run there. Furthermore playing Ruben there will neglect his biggest strength's of darting attacking runs turning a midfield situation into dangerous attack. That said i'd rather we not tried it atall, but if we did the role should either go to Mason or Callum in my opinion.

In part, but his performances these days are similar to Falcao's in the PL.

I actually think @Vesper is onto something when she suggests we should try for Mbappe if he doesn't renew at Paris. Logic suggests it won't happen but he does have previous connections with us even if just a trial and dined with Hazard, Willian, Luiz, Kante and Drogba at one point last season (i know two have since left but still) so he is clearly friends with a fair number of people here. Would be unlikely but it gives us enough scope to atleast test the water, what a statement it would be, even if we are a pitstop en route to Real. Now back in the real world i hope Cech/Lamps/scouts can think outside the box a bit, even if there's no stand out striker about there will surely be a very good one somewhere that's compatible to our style, like Firminho is for Liverpool (no one mentioned him as a potential solution when we had our previous striker crisis pre Costa).

Costa's decline has been as bad as Alexis Sanchez since 2017, if not worse. There's a reason Simeone turned to Morata.

I disagree, while it may be a ok ish short term option these sticky plaster solutions is a big part of why we're in this shit in the first place. With Pep about the league is out of reach for the next 2/3 years so we need to turn that negative into a positive and build something to compete in the long run (pragmatic quick fixes just won't cut it now). If this is the vision Lampard has for us i'd rather go full steam ahead and take the teething process.

He's far from the worst player we've ever had and the rare times he brought his A game (Qarabag, Bate, Arsenal in the 2-2 at The Emirates, Frankfurt) he looked a player. All in all we were a level above his skillset but he was a solid 6/10 player, can't recall any real disasterclass performances. A watered down version of Paulo Ferriera is probably the best way to describe him.

Hes been firmly on my radar for atleast 18 months, upto about 6 months ago I firmly felt he was better than Ruben.

We battered Leicester for the first 25 ish minutes and while we lost total control after that we were still quite comfortable until half time.

You call half an hour "seven minutes"?

If he's going to be a locker room problem he may end up going before the EU window shuts. I thought it would be insanity a month or so ago but if he's going to have a negative effect on team morale i would let him go and make Mason an option on the sides.

I think the second half demonstrated exactly why Sarri went down the cautious possession route last season after Arsenal at home, it wasn't pretty but we don't have the individual talent defensively to cope with counters after committing the runs in behind. However i would still want us to play that way vs non top six sides, risky but most teams don't have the quality and decision making to pick us off, even yesterday Leicester counters were constantly being broken down by bad decision making by Maddison and Vardy and those two are as good as it gets outside the top 6. Big games though has to be the same blueprint we faced Liverpool.

Apparently Alexis is going to Inter. Conte is going to the most popular man in Manchester at this rate, and to think some actually wanted to give him a blank cheque.

I think he's likely to end up as our top scorer this season, he gets himself in scoring positions time after time.

2nd for me, nothing will top Cuadrado vs Southampton in my eyes.