didierforever

34million. why not? infact lets set the transfer record with a 50mil bid. whats worse is that its not even needed. we have glaring deficiencies in the CM department and the goal scoring department but apparently we want to buy a 20mil (max) worth defender as the answer to the defence which conceded the least goals. whats even worse is that GC will still get the nod ahead of stones.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlh45egml/no-18-philipp-lahm-bayern-munich/ lahm earns 15mil dollars (9.5mil pounds an year) (and since its forbes i am inclined to believe it). so shaw saying that he does not earn more than lahm might be true but in no way does it say anything about 100kpw wages.

would be our board's biggest achievement ever, even considering luiz's 40mil

is that true? funny how things work out.

sky sports says - 15mil pounds, which makes us break even. and i have a hard time believing di marzio cos "the option to buy" runs out after the 2 years on loan. so unless our board have forgotten how long the players' contracts run, i feel di marzio is wrong (for once). and even if we sell him for 16mil euros. we would have made a 4mil euros "loss". or rather got a player's services for 4mil euros for an year. fair enough. i dont mind that "loss"

cant argue with that. infact bertrand's loss was the only thing that makes me angry in this whole luis one-year fiasco. not some overwieght, over-hyped 30mil defender.

we are getting 15mil pounds for him.. which is 21 mil euros. i would like to think that its actually 20mil euros rounded off while converted into pounds. so basically we got a player for FREE for a year. how did you come up with "loss"

its pretty hard to crucify a manager for having a defense which conceded the least goals and won a double with that defence.

baba too.. since luis is off.

maybe. lets hope its not true. i was just pointing out that if indeed its a 2 year loan then the "option to buy" thing becomes useless cos he would no longer be a chelsea player. so hopefully, marzio is wrong for once.

makes far more sense.

luis signed a 3 year deal. so if he goes on loan for 2 years, his contract will be up. i think the twitter talk maybe BS.

fair enough. the 35mil i was quoting is to someone who said 26mil +moses - which makes it as a ball park figure of that. the only point i dont agree on is both stones and zouma developing. defenders need to make mistakes to learn. every defender has. where does zouma get his game time? will even stones really get his gametime despite the fee. i mean zouma was brilliant against city and then dropped like a sack of potatoes for GC (who to be fair himself was very good after the spurs shambles). like i said "fair enough" on the scenario that you have given me. but something like this is as likely to happen, zouma gets very less playing time and still is as "raw". and then he gets sucked into our "loan system" next year in search of gametime. stones is relegated to the bench for the "experienced" players. and which affects his own development. currently, i would like this money to be spent on a CM rather than stones (IF there are any restrictions, which i feel may really be there after listening to jose's comments).

lukaku was as highly regarded as CR was at 18. (infact lukaku was 17). yet he was sold for 12mil. you might be adjusting the market for inflation but that does not mean every transfer that happened should be adjusted. some of them were at their max and would have been for the same value even in today's market. that was my whole point. i have given you examples. tell me which of those players were supposed to be fighting for a first team spot. it was not just that "it dint work out". i am sorry but which of smalling, bebe, chicha or linsgaard was supposed to set united's season on fire? we are not buying cos we already are pretty set in our starting 11 and even in depth. you wont find a better combo of a 1st striker in costa and 2nd striker in remy. i would personally love oscar to be sold when he is still considered as a prospect, but jose has made his stance very clear on that. he expects oscar to have a season like hazard had last year. hence keeping the same trio since willian and hazard both had brilliant season. cuadrado had a poor second half, but people forget that his whole "second half" of the season was 343 minutes. i am glad jose is not judging juan on that. also, we have better cover in moses who was very good for stoke whenever not injured. just see mancity vs stoke to see how good. we had one of the best back 5. plus looking to add stones. more than adeqaute cover in zouma and luis/newLB. matic-cesc pick themselves up. again, i would love for cesc to be shifted to no.10 or us to go 4-3-3 while buying vidal/witsel, but that would again mean oscar being dropped. the only missing player for me would be a better back-up to cesc and matic, i totally agree with you on that. but there are 40 days left, lets hope we do get that player. if not, i still would not feel bad, cos mikel and rambo are decent back ups who can do a job when required to. also,lastly,who said that SAF just sat around doing nothing. did you read the post that i quoted of essien19's .http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/11895-general-transfer-talk/?p=1119223 "Mourinho is doing a Ferguson, other Clubs spend more, Chelsea wins more, simple as that. Begovic and Falcao are already here, maybe Stones and Witsel will come, that isn't too bad." he says that stones and witsel will come. and thus i agreed, that this is exactly what even SAF would do. no big names but adequate cover.

currently we have JT-GC-zouma. if JT retires after this season, stones is 100% NOT the answer. we will be buying an experienced CB. GC-stones at this moment looks bad. i would not want to play norwich at home with them. considering we buy mr. X, next year. do you think jose would be willing to simply turnover our whole defensive partnership in a single season? i honestly doubt that knowing how jose likes to set up his teams. as far as i see it, we will be buying a 20mil (max) worth player for almost double his value who would be our 3rd CB for the next 2-3 years atleast while in short term losing a perfectly fine squad player. and this is despite the fact that we have a 20 year old zouma who has already shown to be BRILLIANT in the chances he has got. whats worse is, if we are actually going to pay 35mil for stones, we might as well put in 15mil more and buy not just someone who has potential or ceiling but someone who already is almost WC - varane.

in 04-05, united needed those signings and a new back line and hence bought those players. there next big defender signing was 6 seasons later in smalling. how did you even compare to what i was saying in my first post. in 26 years, of course he will have to sign players and recontruct the whole team. but once, they had their defence, he did not go about "improving it" until rio's age started catching up to him. in 09-10, united bought : obertan, owen, valencia, pogba, diouf. which one of these was "improving" them drastically? 10-11 - smalling, chicha, bebe, linsgaard - which one of them could win a starting spot? these were all back up signings. ps - how are you comparing varane and CR here? varane currently is one of the best CBs in the world. who was CR then? and i dont think that its fair to linearly extrapolate CR's transfer fee. how many highly rated 18 year old have gone for a fee of 20mil? walcott and ox were as hyped up. i think when talking about teenage players, the market has not inflated as much. even lukaku who was considered to be one of the best prospects in the world went for 12mil. its once these kids break thru and put in 5 good performances that all hell break loose these days, and they are all suddenly the second coming of jesus.

26mil plus moses? so about 35 pounds for a 3rd CB?

so they will go into the next season with sturridge, benteke, ings, origi and balotelli? while having attacking mids like coutinho, firmino, lallana, markovic. what formation is he going to play? 4-0-2-4?

lets take a look at united after jose came and PL became more than a 2 horse race. 04-05 - rooney 05-06 - united had bought vidic, evra, VDS and park for a combined fee 17.5mil. NONE OF THEM were close to a marquee signing. if zouma goes on to become the best defender in the world, it wont be cos he was a "marquee" signing. 06-07 - one signing in all - carrick. fair enough. can be regarded as a marquee signing. 07-08 - tevez - replacement for rudd van nisterolooy. (we have done our share of replacements). anderson, fabio, rafael, owen. which one of these was a "marquee signing"? 08-09 - berbatov - fair enough. marquee signing. 09-10 - valencia, owen, obertan? after losing the league in 09-10, united bought - smalling, hernandez and bebe and won the league. tell me which of them is a major signing. in 12-13 - united bought RVP which was their sole MARQUEE signing in 5 years. so in SAF's last 8 years, united had made 4 "marquee" signings. and 3 of them being strikers. also, ronaldo. cristiano ronaldo? seriously? did you even know who he was when united bought him. an 18 year old kid. i am sorry but atleast 3-4 names on your list are bogus as "big name signings". if that is a marquee signing then so is nathan and kenedy and mvg and the 500 kids we buy each transfer window. i did not say united did not buy anyone. in 26 years, if these 10 players are the "big signings that you can come up with this just proves my point. you probably forgot the likes of ji-sun-park, oshea, brown, cleverly, anderson etc etc.. bang average players with whom he walked the league - multiple times. whats more and more vital is the point i was trying to make though it might have been very vague. SAF never went overboard with his signings. every squad needs a vital signing every now and then just to not let it stagnate, but i am pretty sure that if SAF had this squad, a couple of signings here and there (like we have done) and he would have been done with it.

so his first match in going to be against barca? damn, the poor guy is going to be castrated on here.

they are more creative than essien-mikel-lamps. and that trio won us the double with 100+ goals.

exactly. jose is relying more on the current squad and players and the team spirit and maybe even himself than the money. SAF did it for 2 decades.

back to the topic, please!!! :ph34r:

when does falcao join the team?

cos of FFP. we have already done our quota of selling with players like cech, kakuta, josh and most probably even salah. also, who would take moses' spot? make another 15mil salah-ish buy? mikel had 13 starts last season, 1320 minutes. if moses can reciprocate those numbers in the cup games and sub apperances, it would be some substantial work load off our 4 main AMs.