Pizy

I mean in terms of actual completed deals. Like Villa have already signed a few. I thought for sure some of the big teams would be similar. I thought for sure we’d have 1 big deal done in Boehly’s first week. We’ve known about the CB situation for months and I figured Koundé would be in within days of the takeover.

Surprised how quiet the PL sides have been so far. Especially us and Man United who each need a bunch of new players.

This is why so many players flame out at Madrid. Their idiot agents push them to go there long before they’re ready because the Real Madrid name blinds the player. Why on earth would a 17 year old goal keeper sign for a side he has zero chance of playing at for like 5+ years?

He has the Guardiola DNA look to him. If there is ever a chance he moves from Barca I think Pep would force his owner to get him at all costs.

I think a couple of other PL sides may be very interested in Dembélé on a free as well. Liverpool when Mane goes. United are losing Mata, Lingard, Cavani, Martial and Greenwood is gone obviously. They’ll need attacking players and Dembélé is the classic “United wide player.” Even Arse may see him as the sort of marquee player their fans have been desperate for. What’s obviously a huge advantage for us is his familiarity with Tuchel.

I mean, yeah, we couldn’t officially do so. But it would be insane if we weren’t talking to potential signings via back channels and agents. Especially those that are free agents.

Wonder what the hold up is with announcing that Christensen is leaving. Barca can’t even announce a free transfer because their finances are so bad?

Was probably always dumb to expect it, but part of me was definitely thinking we’d have a nice signing wrapped up and announced within 48 hours of the takeover as sort of a statement of intent. Especially after the huge sense of urgency Tuchel was pushing for a couple of weeks ago. Doesn’t sound like any transfer is particularly close yet. Much of the incoming business we hope to do is probably being hugely complicated by us trying to move players out like Lukaku, Azpi, Alonso etc. Will start to get really anxious if nothing happens next week. Especially on the CB front.

The source is RandomTwitterDude69. As reliable as it gets.

Everyone should just assume that it’s probably 95% likely Rom will still be playing for Chelsea next season. Feels like literally the only chance we have of sending him to Inter is if we give them a shit load of cash for Lautaro which they then turn around and use on Lukaku.

Exactly. Which is why if another striker comes in for big money it has to be to play with Kai up there. Moving him wide or deeper in midfield takes away his best attributes.

I see we’re being linked with Lautaro Martinez again. Doesn’t really make sense to me unless Tuchel is thinking of going with a 2 striker system with he and Havertz playing up top together. Then we’d have to depend on the wingbacks for 100% of our width.

One of the other things working against us in getting rid of Rom that hasn’t been talked about much is that there’s an extreme shortage of top quality strikers out there to replace him with. Unless Tuchel is going to go full Pep and have an entire attack consisting entirely of midfielders we will need to replace Lukaku. And we’d need at least w new attackers to do that. Going into a season with Havertz and Broja as our only focal point strikers is no way to bridge the gap to the top 2.

They’re getting Mané, though. I guess they could go for him if Gnabry also leaves. In which case we should be trying to work something out with them to get Gnabry.

Unfortunately, Werner is on enormous wages so it’s still highly unlikely they’ll be many suitors. Much like Lukaku. Not sure where he could go realistically.

Okay, enough talk of our ambition now. Let’s see some substance.

If our board can move Lukaku somewhere (which I am still extremely skeptical about) they deserve an award of some sort.

They don’t care whether or not fullbacks defend in La Liga. Him being Spanish, being great in attack, having family connections with Barca, and being pretty inexpensive make it pretty easy to see why they’d want him. I think he’ll be very effective there.

Just reading the name Richarlison makes me 🤢🤢🤢 Keep that mf away from my club.

I think at least initially Boehly will defer entirely to Tuchel when it comes to who he wants to retain and who he wants to bring in. He’s not going to want to unsettle things more than they already are. If Tuchel insists that he wants Kante to stay or even given a new contract I think Boehly will say yes.

With the experience players we’re already losing at the back I don’t see any scenario now where either of these two leave. Especially not after Tuchel spoke of Kante as though he’s our talisman and best player.

Nobody is talking about Conte building a 5 year dynasty, ffs. We’re talking about him building a side for next season that’s strong enough to make our job all the more difficult. That’s all. Not hard to understand.

Players like Isco and Tolisso are the kinds of players you want to avoid at all costs imo. Dudes who have been perfectly happy to rot away on the benches of big clubs never playing and then not pushing for a move away to get some minutes. Shows a lack of ambition. Feels like it’s been 3 years since Isco has played meaningful minutes. How do you motivate a guy at a new club when he’s been chilling on the beach in Spain for years?

Yep. I said in the Premier League thread on the final day of the season that I would much rather have had Arse finish 4th than Spuds. Arse have a shite manager, a young squad full of bottlers, and are still in need of quite a few key signings. On the other hand, so long as Spuds have the two-headed monster up top who can score 20 each on all comps in addition to a world class manager they’ll be extremely dangerous. In the CL as well. I bet at the end of the summer when the betting odds and pundit predictions start to come out Spuds will be fancied to finish above us just due to the uncertainty surrounding us.

Two or three years too late. And not really suited to our formation or the demands of our playing style.