Pizy

Much like his compatriot and former club teammate Frenkie De Jong, I think De Ligt is hugely overrated. Both were hyped up as the next superstars when they left Ajax and neither have been anything more than decent at Barca and Juve. De Ligt to me looks kind of slow and pretty clumsy. I guess perhaps you can disguise those weaknesses by putting him in a back 3 but I’d much rather just get someone like Gvardiol who is a natural in that system.

Again I’ll say that any striker coming in leaves us with a Havertz problem. The entire reason Jesus wants to leave City is because he wants to be the main man who starts every game. Which is why the Arse move makes sense for him. If he comes here what happens with Kai? Or do we play a new formation with 2 strikers? Havertz is wasted out wide.

This is why it’s imperative we sign not just him but another attacker who is more of a goal scorer as well.

I think Frenkie De Jong is massively overrated but I do think he’d replace Jorginho’s role quite well. But if he leaves Barca (which looks increasingly likely) I can only see it being to reconnect with ten Hag at United where they’re also desperate for CM’s. We can probably offer him similar a salary and obviously CL football which United can’t but I can’t see us doing anything in midfield until we see what happens with Jorginho and Kante. And De Jong will be off the table by then. He may move within a week or two.

Tbh, if I were a betting man I’d say we don’t sign a DM. Tuchel seems to genuinely love both Kante and Jorginho. With Gallagher coming back he gives us another midfielder who covers lots of the pitch. With all the other areas of the team that need rebuilding I think we’ll run Kante and J5’s contracts down and rebuild the midfield next summer. Maybe one of the two gets an extension. But when we need 2 new CB’s, 2 new wingbacks for cover, and multiple new attackers it may not be feasible to also buy an expensive DM this summer as well. Maybe we just bide our time for Rice next summer.

None, really. Other than the ongoing links to Rice which will never stop as long as he’s at WH.

Don’t think anyone would be as keen if we had to pay a huge transfer fee. Him being free changes everything. The possibility of signing a mega talented player who would cost a fortune if he had years left on his contract for nothing when you’re in the midst of a rebuild could be a godsend. It allows you to spend extra money elsewhere. Just don’t see any risk at all in getting him. If he continues his great form we have a new superstar player for free. If he’s mediocre any fee we get when we move him on is good profit. Just hope we can get him before one of our rivals. The thought of him putting in those fantastic crosses to CR7 or Liverpool’s strikers would suck.

Dembele is an outrageous talent and if fit he’s the best out of those. But I’d take any of those, really.

Salah is down to the last year of his contract, right? And there were reports last week saying if he goes for a free next year he’d prefer to stay in the PL. Offer them Pulisic + £50m for Salah. 🤣🤣🤣

No English source is going to know shit about Dembele. May as well just ignore all of it.

A 17 year old keeper who won’t see the pitch at Real Madrid and wouldn’t have seen the pitch here. Not really a “blow”

As I’ve said before, there’s no chance in the world a massive club like ours would let sanctions stop us 100% from talking to players via back channels, agents, and players’ entourages. There may not have been communication in official capacities but it would be insane if we were basically cut off from the football world while those sanctions were in place. Plus, with Koundé specifically we had already spent months negotiating for him and by all reliable sources have long since agreed personal terms with him. He’s super keen on us, we’re super keen on him. That should be a simple deal to do unless we’re pulling an Arse or Spuds and penny pinching. Villa just swooped in and signed Sevilla’s other star CB within like 48 hours of us hearing about the link in the media. So why is it taking us so long?

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.