Pizy

Right, so the easy bit is done which was agreeing on KK’s side. Now for the hard bit where everything can fall apart: dealing with that asshole De Laurentiis who could wake up one morning and decide to add €20m to the asking price. 🤣

Drop the Aké interest, play KK at LCB, and then go and get Koundé to p,any on the right side. Back 3 comprised of KK, Thiago Silva, and Koundé has it all. But you could also switch to a back 4 if necessary.

Also helps to have Jorginho in front of him who he’s played with and Mendy behind him who is his good mate for Senegal.

€40m for a player in 2022 is sofa cushion money. For someone who is a world class calibre player it’s a piss take, 31 years old or not. Don’t see any downside to this. He’s massive, he’s quick, he’s comfortable on the ball with great passing range, and seemingly most importantly to Tuchel he’s a big time leader for club and country. He is ideally suited to English football. Don’t have to worry about him in the way you might have to with Koundé for instance.

After seemingly being linked with him every transfer window for the past 5 years it could finally happen. With how things have gone for us this summer so far (go after a top player and then get hijacked) I’m not going to get too excited until he’s holding a Chelsea shirt. But damn, what a good signing he’d be.

Wonder what the plan would be for Koulibaly’s position if we buy him. He’s still a beast of a CB but from all the footage I’ve been studying of him he appears to play almost always either more centrally or on the left side. But we’re buying Aké as a left footer to play on that side and we obviously have Silva as the master of the central position. Ideally, Koulibaly rather than Aké would be the direct Rüdiger replacement for the left side and then we’d buy Koundé or De Ligt for the right side. I don’t know how easy it is for CB’s to switch sides of the pitch. Maybe it’s super simple? Idk.

It’s very concerning that we don’t even appear to be linked at all with any fullbacks anymore. Going another whole season praying for the health of RJ and Chilly is so risky. Being straight back to seeing Azpi or Alonso/Emerson playing significant minutes is inexcusable. Tuchel wasn’t shy at all last season in mentioning how much we lost as a team without RJ/Chilly fit. Surely we won’t risk that again? Getting at least 1 new wingback for the squad is just as important as the CB’s. We can probably squeeze 1 more season out of Alonso becasue he’s at least useful in attack. But Azpi HAS to go this summer. He’s totally shot, sadly.

Think Leão will be impossible to pry from Milan. He has Real Madrid or PSG for mega money in a season or two written all over him if his development continues. He’d probably cost over 100m this summer.

Or their Raphinha money?

Throw £100m at Bayern for both Gnabry & Lewa and see what they say.

IF we can get Gnabry that would be better than getting Raphinha for me and for half the price. Pacey, direct, great dribbler, and has excellent end product for a wide player just like Sterling. And unlike Raphinha he’s got loads of experience in a massive team with winning pedigree. Sterling + Gnabry in with Lukaku & Ziyech out would be a mega upgrade.

That Bayern journalist Plattenberg or whatever his name is that was the first to call De Ligt to Beyern is saying that Gnabry wouldn’t come here due to his Arse allegiance. 😡 Arse probably would go after him if he’s available. They’d love to stick one over on us after we fucked with them on Raphinha.

Is he taking the worlds longest medical or something? Feels like this has been done for a week but still no announcement.

If another attacker that we fancy isn’t available, why not go big right now and get a head start on the midfield rebuild this summer rather than next? Throw £100m right now at Dortmund for Bellingham and see what they say. Dortmund have already signed like 8 players this summer so it’s not like they couldn’t scout and sign a replacement. They’re experts at it. Same thing with Rice. Throw a big pot of cash + a player like RLC or Broja and see what they say. There’s going to be a bidding war of at least 6 clubs for Bellingham next summer (City, Liverpool, United, Real Madrid, Bayern, and ourselves) but none are in a position to do so now. So while we have this huge war chest to spend, why not try now before the competition can move?

All these dominoes falling in a way that everyone gets what they want except for Chelsea. Raphinha and Dembele at Barca, which probably means De Jong to United. De Ligt to Bayern which probably means Koulibaly to Juve. Entering this window I felt so calm about our CB search because there were SO many high quality options out there that surely grabbing 2 would be easy for a club as big as Chelsea. Especially knowing our reputation of turning CB’s into top class players. But somehow we’re finding it impossible to get even 1 world class one through the door. Very difficult to understand.

The idea behind us being linked with Kimpembe (besides the obvious Tuchel connection) was that he’s left footed and suited to our back 3. But if Aké is arriving then there’s no point in that.

We’re going to have to get creative now then. Because I doubt our club expected that Barca would be able to stump up the cash when we initially bid for Raphinha. They probably figured that after we outbid Arse we had him in the bag. So what do we now that someone we wanted bad enough that we were willing to pay £60m for him is off the table? Being German, it would be lovely if Tuchel could have a chat with Gnabry or even Sané.

I thought I read that he wants some monster wage from Bayern in order to stay there?

The dangerous thing about some of these winger targets like Gnabry and Neymar is that their wages would be astronomical. Even Sterling getting over 300k a week puts us in a tough spot when we sit down for talks with Reece and Mount. If they then see Gnabry or Neymar or CR7 coming in and earning even more than Sterling we’d get into worrying territory. Why wouldn’t they then ask for 300k a week?

So is Neymar 100% staying in Paris now? If we’re missing out on Dembele and Raphinha as is looking cortina now, I’d rather we try for him before making a play at CR7.

It’s should be US that is signing the top CB’s, ffs. Not these other clubs signing them and us taking their castaways. 😩😩😩 Or worse yet, us giving City money that they immediately flip and use on a superior defender.

Someone explain to me what the deal with Upamecano is. I remember him being hugely sought after at Leipzig and we all really wanted him. But I haven’t heard a single thing about him since his move to Bayern. Has he been a giant bust?

You would think we’d start seeing links to other attacking players now as alternatives in case Dembele stays and Raphinha signs there. But we haven’t. It’s like we’re just waiting and waiting on Raphinha’s future to be resolved and are kinda screwed if he chooses Barca. Bit like United being 100% fixated on De Jong and then being fucked if he doesn’t move there. Wish we would just move on and target someone else. Who that would be, I have no clue. All I know is that if we go into the season with only Sterling added to the exact same bunch of ultra inconsistent attackers we aren’t closing the gap to the top 2 at all.

Great question. Nothing really good available for a winger unless he wants to take a weird number. Doesn’t appear as though Pulisic’s #10 or Timo’s #11 are getting freed up this summer. I think he’d ideally want that #10 shirt.

No, but he’s perfect for the way Tuchel wants to play. An aggressive, direct, hard working winger who can score and create at a very high level. If we strike out on both he and Dembele, where do we even turn? Who are these high quality and better attacking players you referenced that we can get instead?