Pizy

Conflicting info now. Done according to several, not done according to Athletic’s Brighton reporter.

On the surface it’s crazy money but then I just remembered that United paid £50m for AWB who can barely dribble a football and City paid £50m for Mendy who didn’t amount to much when he was there.

Nice. Hopefully he’s had a nice preseason with Brighton and won’t need long to get up to speed.

So no Richarlison, no DCL, they’ve made no real noteworthy signings and the mood around their club is probably pretty miserable. But this is Chelsea at Goodison so….

Seems like all 3 of the main deals we’re reportedly pursuing (De Jong, Fofana, and Cucurella) will be very, very tough to negotiate. All 3 could drag on for a while.

In that case surely Mount will be 1 of the 3. So that leaves two others still.

If, and that’s big IF we signed De Jong I wonder what the preferred pairing in midfield would be. He and Kova would be the most exciting. He and Kante would be the most secure. He and Jorgi would give us total dominance of possession against just about anyone. Gallagher I assume would then be thought of as a more advanced midfielder who competes and rotates with Mount where he’s more effective anyways. Idk. Just seems a bit too good to be true. Midfield is the most crowded area of our squad and the last place the club would be looking to spunk down €80m.

I think he’s been genuinely desperate to stay at Barca. But I’ve thought all along that Barca will essentially force him out and United would eventually get him because they were the only suitor. If we’re genuinely interested I have no clue who he’d prefer.

True. I think the wages bit is key, though. It’s at the point of desperation for them and the humiliation of missing out on a guy they’ve been chasing for 3 months would turn that place toxic from day one.

On De Jong, it would kind of be insanely impressive if we pulled that off. The main reasons I’m extremely skeptical about it are that United not only have his former manager who seems hell bent on turning them into Ajax by targeting all his former players, but they can also offer silly, ridiculous wages that I doubt we’d go near. I’m seeing stuff about £400k a week which is absurd. Plus, he’d be treated like a savior and hero there. Would he turn that down?

I think at this point in the window with the season mere days away from starting we have to accept that we’re going to overpay for any PL player. No English club is going to want to lose their best player. But I’d much rather us overpay and get Fofana done. I love Cucurella but anything north of £50m is nuts.

So over the last 48 hours everything suggested that Cucurella was essentially a formality and that they’d happily accept £50m. That basically only a few minor details remained. Now we hear it’s not even particularly close and that £50m isn’t enough? 😒

Count me as one who doesn’t see room for De Jong right now. Unless there’s a massive midfield fire sale in these last weeks of the window where like 4 players are sold. That being said, what a ridiculous midfield we’d have if we did sign him. And seeing RedCafe become a smoldering crater after the meltdown would be glorious.

I’ve seen quite a few people around different places worrying about Tuchel getting sacked and leaving us with a bunch of players only suited to 3 at the back. If that happens I’m sure we’d just target the best obtainable manager who knows that system. Pochettino is currently out of work. If the unthinkable happens this year and we have a meltdown Mourinho season I think we’d get him.

I think Walker-Peters is the superior footballer to Dumfries. Tidier and more skillful on the ball. Don’t know which I’d prefer. Both are massively overpriced.

While the club is in an announcing mood hopefully Cucu happens tomorrow and he can get some training in before the weekend.

I can’t see it unless Ruben, Billy, and Barkley all go. Think it would surely be best for a super talent like him to go to a bottom half PL team and play every week. Or better yet, maybe to somewhere like Leicester as part of a Fofana deal if they also sell Tielemans? Rodgers could work wonders on him. Or perhaps Everton’s dead midfield under Lamps?

No thanks. Not a top level striker for a top level team. He’s merely okay.

Watching footage, this Carney kid looks ridiculous for his age. A good PL loan where he plays every week would be amazing and could save us tens of millions when he returns next summer.

No Cucurella updates today it seems. Hopefully City haven’t had a change of heart.

Most silent transfer ever? Literally not a peep beforehand from anyone.

Sounds like we basically just did a check-in on Walker-Peters to get an idea of price. We’re not likely to actually go hard for him at this time.

Feels like we’re going the City route of having starting quality players on our bench at every position which would be nice if we can pull all these moves off. Except City have the ability to rotate their whole attack without a substantial drop in quality whereas we can’t.

Just feels like we can find a quality backup RWB for a hell of a lot less than £30-35m.

Jeez, we really going to spend our entire summer budget on the defense?