Pizy

I mean, he could for sure. But reports are that PSG will try to fuck with him by leaving him out of their UCL squad and leave him out of the preseason tour. Whether he himself cares about that, I don’t know. Seems like they’d be hurting themselves in that scenario way more than they’re hurting him. Plus, if PSG treat him poorly it’ll make them look terrible to future top players. They REALLY fucked up letting him get into this situation contractually. They were silly to think he’d just abandon his Real Madrid dream.

I meant specifically in midfield. -Liverpool moved for Mac Allister super quickly having already laid the groundwork for him before the window opened just like what we did with Caicedo. They also went from linked with Szoboslai to having him holding up a Liverpool shirt within days. -City identified Kova as the Gündogan replacement and signed him super early. -Arse had Rice identified months ago as their top target (like we did with Caicedo) and have got him in on time to play a full preseason to gel with his new teammates. Signed Havertz early as well. -United got their top midfield target Mount in early to play a full preseason. Perhaps with the exception of Liverpool, we needed a midfield overhaul more than any of those clubs and we haven’t done anything.

There’s a reason the likes of Caicedo, Rice, and Lavia have had every big club super keen to sign them whilst nobody is seriously after Onana. He’s not a top player. I’d be extremely let down if we had to settle for him. He’s physically impressive and a nice player but he doesn’t take our team up a level, imo. Caicedo would make our midfield world class. As would Barella. We need someone awesome not someone merely okay.

Ourselves and Liverpool both entered the window needing complete midfield rebuilds. They’re on the verge of signing their THIRD one whilst we haven’t signed any. Brilliant…

We’re going to end up panic buying some bang average DM at the end of the window at this point, ffs. Every other rival manager getting their top targets in and getting them in early whilst we have a brand new manager and are coming off a disastrous season and we still haven’t provided him with the most important signing that the squad desperately needs.

Not accepting £40-45m for Gallagher feels risky to me. He plays nothing like a player worth that sort of money.

If someone offers that same £45m in a single payment that Everton did in January then we should sell. With Gallagher sold we could sign Cherki/Kudus AND Olise. And either of the the former two are massive upgrades on CG.

He’s not world class or anything but very solid. Upgrade on Fred and McTimonay for sure.

Amrabat will definitely be going to United now apparently. So that’s one less fall back option if Caicedo doesn’t come. That’s an annoyingly solid signing for them. Amrabat + Casemiro in a big game will be hell to play through.

While £100m is obviously insane and we should go nowhere near it, walking away from Caicedo means getting an alternative that has many more question marks. Unless that alternative is Barella. Lavia is a fantastic talent but is still just 19 and probably isn’t ready to be an every match starter at a huge club yet. Gabri Veiga is nowhere near Caicedo’s level and would be a total gamble whether he can immediately settle in this league. Amrabat could be a great emergency/fall back option but he’s wanted by several clubs and we’d risk losing a bidding war near the end of the window and being left with nobody. So basically, there’s Caicedo and then a fairly big drop off in quality to every alternative.

If I was Caicedo I’d be refusing to show up to training and extremely angry at Brighton for refusing to let him leave TWICE now when huge bids have gone in for him. It’s especially annoying because he was a good lad after they blocked him going to Arse in January. He came back into the team, got his head down, performed professionally at a top level, and never kicked up a fuss that his big moved never happened. And that’s probably because the rumors of an agreement with the club that they’d allow him to go in the summer are true. We’ve got 3 weeks until Liverpool and we’ve only got ONE midfielder that is Chelsea first XI quality in our whole squad. Casadei and Santos are future stars but they’re nowhere near good enough yet to play against world class opponents. And if we had to start the season with a Enzo + Gallagher midfield 2 it would be a disgrace.

As little as I’d care if we sold Gallagher, I would still not sell to Spuds. Sell to Palace, WH, or Everton but never Spuds.

Gallagher is not Chelsea quality so I’d be good seeing him go for a nice hefty fee. He’s not good enough from a technical standpoint and he’s got that Ross Barkley sort of football brain where his decision making is slow. He’s someone who will always do well for traditionally midtable level sides but isn’t good enough for a massive club.

I’ve now watched 3-4 Chelsea fan channels’ reactions to the potential Olise signing and you would swear we are about to sign Mbappe or a Vini Jr. They’re all acting like Olise is world class. I just simply don’t see it. He’s a very nice player for a small club but I’m not convinced he’s a top player. I’d be very underwhelmed if we get him rather than Cherki or Kudus. Especially if Kudus ends up at Arse or Liverpool instead.

A title with Bayern is worth less than an FA Cup these days. They were shit for much of last season and STILL won the title in the end. It’s not even special anymore. Being the all-time leading scorer for both the national team and the PL makes you an immortal legend. I’d have thought that would be more enticing to Kane than hopping to Bayern for their millionth league title. I figured for sure that the England golden boy would want to play for the English media’s most beloved club Man United once he left Spuds. He’d have the genuine chance to win those trophies he desires, he stays in the PL and gets the record playing for “the biggest club in England,” and he gets no real hate from Spud supporters because he at least didn’t join a London rival like Chelsea.

Idk, there’s just something about England’s poster boy leaving the best league in the world to go to a club that’s won 12 titles in a row that feels kind of strange. I’d have thought the “face of English football” would be adamant about staying in the PL and winning titles here.

Wonder what Levy would do if Kane is 100% adamant that he wants to remain in the PL and ourselves or United offered substantially more than Bayern did. Like, if we or United offered £120m for instance and Kane somehow told Levy he agreed to it then what? Would he really let him walk for free to a rival next summer anyways instead of banking £100m+ and completely rebuilding the team for the post-Kane era? I still find it hard to believe all the Bayern talk. Kane seems as attached to the PL and to English football as anyone ever. He’s on pace to shatter the all time PL scoring record. I feel like him giving that up and moving countries is a smokescreen and that he’d rather stay in England. Although I guess his plan may be to go and win 3-4 easy league titles, try for the UCL, and then return to Spuds when he’s 34-35 and break the record?

Yeah, Olise seems like the sort of signing we’d have made in the mad dash last summer when were headless chickens signings players regardless of need or fit. Hope it isn’t true. Kudus and Cherki are sensible. Buying Olise who we don’t need AND who is currently injured with one of the worst injuries a footballer can have for tens of millions is silly. Hamstring injuries are constantly reoccurring ones as we’ve experienced firsthand with Reece.

Just watched Olise’s season highlights. Idk, I just wasn’t that impressed. Seems like a solid player but nothing that screams “special” to my eyes. Got a wand of a left foot on corners and set pieces but his general play looks like it would be totally redundant for our team since it’s so similar to Madueke’s. But whereas Madueke’s first instinct seems to be to cut inside and shoot, Olise’s is to cross it Ziyech style. Even aside from his long term injury I don’t get it.

Also, Palace losing their two best players in Zaha & Olise would be devastating. Can’t see it. Buying a player who had a catastrophic injury is also silly. Especially if it’s a hamstring injury as a wide attacker who is all about pace and explosive movement.

Yeah, this feels like it would be a pure club signing rather than one pushed by the manager. A young talent whose value can explode in the future. Him drawing interest from City I can see. He’d be perfect to replace Mahrez.

Why on earth would we be after another pure right sided attacker when we have Madueke, Sterling (who I guess will be deployed there since we have Mudryk on the left) and now Angelo who looks extremely promising? Signing another young right winger makes ZERO sense. Kudus or Cherki make perfect sense because they can play centrally which is what we need.

I agree. It would be absurd for us to have not signed a DM by the 3rd preseason match. This team is going to be thrown into the fire on match day 1 against Liverpool. We need Enzo and his new partner to have as much time leading up to that game as possible.

Remember how massive the difference was for Liverpool when they stopped fucking around with average keepers and went out and got Alisson? He was a transformational player for their whole team. Thats what needs to happen with us. We need a serious keeper who inspires confidence in the entire side. Kepa is bang average and will cost us points. If we had a rock solid and experienced side in front of him he could be masked and “hidden.” But a young and basically all new team needs a dependable rock behind them and Kepa isn’t that. There’s gotta be something we can do. Something that doesn’t require us spending mega money.

For me the overall most promising players there were Jackson and Malo Gusto. Two players that look like they can be plugged in right away and perform at a high level. We’re just 2-3 top signings away from having a great PL side. We have to push them through starting coming this week! Two midfielders most importantly!