Pizy

City are going to be back to being a serious threat for everything next season. Like Liverpool, it appears they’re going to continue being surgical in identifying and going to get their targets just like they were in January. All the more reason to hope we get our recruitment spot on. City won’t have a season as calamitous by their standards again. Getting anywhere near them and Liverpool is going to require a perfect window from us.

The numbers he’s putting up and the actual tape when watching him convinced me personally that he’s not simply a big fish in a small pond type who’s dominating a weak league. It’s true that there’s definitely a risk stepping up to the PL but I don’t see anything about him that doesn’t look like it won’t translate well here.

Sounds like a player more suited to going to a club a step down in profile and expectation wise than Chelsea and then moving to a big club in a few years. Not someone who comes in as the final piece of the puzzle to make us a title challenger.

Yep. We go out and buy Gyokeres or Osimhen and it’ll tell us that these owners want a title challenge next season. Go out and buy Delap or Ekitike and they’re sticking to the “Chelsea will be the best team in a few years” crap we’ve been fed. Going into yet another season where Chelsea Football Club doesn’t even have one of the 5 best strikers in the league would be insanity.

If his wage demands are that high then I can’t blame the club for being weary but this is what you have to do if you want top players. They have to decide this summer whether they want to battle for 4th again or they actually want to achieve things. It’ll make these guys look like absolute fools if Gyokeres joins our hated London rival who also desperately need a striker and he is Haaland 2.0 whilst we just sat back and watched him go there.

We saw this coming when our name was linked with him a week or two ago. May as well lock him up now and see how he does with another season of development at Strasbourg.

I feel like for £60m even if Gyokeres doesn’t live up to the insane numbers he’s putting up now and “only” scored 20 in the PL that’s a great deal. That’s the kind of price that doesn’t hurt you at all long term like someone £85-100m flopping might. And at 25 he’d still have tons of resale value if he ever needed to be moved on which I know our board cares about. This is a player we should be moving for with the speed that Liverpool have moved with their targets thus far. The fact that we aren’t really seeing our name linked by anyone worth a damn tells me that he has probably already been convinced by another club. Annoyingly, that’s probably Arse. 🤦‍♂️

Saw some comparisons of Ekitike to Havertz and I do actually see it. He looks more polished from a technical POV though and actually has some power in his shooting unlike Kai. I’m just trying to imagine Ekitike in a Chelsea shirt and wondering how big, physical CB’s across the PL would feel about playing against him. Can’t help but feel they’d fancy seeing a stick skinny kid up front for us. For example, going up against teams like Everton or Brentford who have CB’s who just want to bully you and beat the hell out of you for 90 minutes. Is he up for that? Whereas with Osimhen and Gyokeres, they’re the ones who do the bullying.

I could maybe understand it from our club’s perspective if Osimhen and Gyokeres were like 29 years old and they were concerned about them falling off after 3 years or something. But these guys are both just 25/26! They may not have even peaked yet and are each available for LESS than the £80m+ that Frankfurt are seeking for Ekitike! Buying Osimhen or Gyokeres would be like when we bought Kante/Fabregas/Caicedo/Diego Costa. Players you just knew with certainty before they even touched the pitch that they’d work out perfectly. Why would we instead go for a striker that is such a risk? It’s just nonsensical to me.

If he can pass a medical, maybe. Even then any prospective club will probably only want a loan to protect themselves with us covering his wages.

I don’t think anyone is taking Mudryk or Fofana after they’ve gone months without playing. We’re almost certainly stuck with both.

People here keep mentioning Murillo. But we've just watch Colwill finally start to display some serious growth and leadership as the season has gone on. Murillo is a left footed, left sided CB so wouldn’t make any sense with Levi there. What we need is a right footed/right sided CB.

Saw a stat somewhere showing Ekitike has very similar chance conversion to Jackson. And that’s in a weaker league. Apparently he misses a lot of chances and underperformed his xG for whatever that’s worth. Again, for me he’s not the striker to come in and be our main man. Not even close yet. He’s someone you have in addition to someone top tier. I see he is linked with Liverpool as well. Think he’s more suited to them where he wouldn’t have the bulk of the goal scoring burden on him.

Feels like a risk for sure. He looks like a striker who thrives in space and running onto through balls. Coming into our team where he’d be playing against parked buses and packed defenses could really hamper his effectiveness. Not to mention he’s pretty lightweight. The same can be said about Delap when it comes to playing style but at least Delap is a big guy who loves a physical tussle.

I feel like they’re pretty similar level. Neither are coming in and scoring 20 goals which is the level we need.

Cunha is a pretty strange signing for United imo unless they cash in on Fernandes. Those two operate best in the exact same role/area of the pitch in that #10 area behind a striker. He’s not a natural wide player and he’s not a forward. Playing those two together would have any top team licking their lips at how easily you’d be able to carve through them defensively.

Will say, in a summer where Osimhen and Gyokeres will both be on the move, us still being linked with Delap and Ekitike and ending up with one of them instead would be really underwhelming/disappointing. These are not the sort of striker that comes in and takes us to Liverpool’s level or scares any of the elite teams in Europe.

These days, sure. The United of past years would’ve gone out this summer and sounded huge money on some superstars and offered monster wages. Now they’re skint and have to shop at smaller clubs for players who would jump at the chance to move to a big club.

This business of him playing miles away from the box needs to hopefully never happen again from the start of next season. Seeing him dropping all the way into basically the Caicedo area of the pitch to pick up the ball is ridiculous.

Cunha + Delap is not scary at all for United if that’s what they end up with. Both good players but not ones to take them back to challenging for anything important.

Less competition for Osimhen and Gyokeres then.

Yeah, I like the look of him. Not saying I’d have him as our main forward signing but I wouldn’t be upset if we got him as an option in addition to an Osimhen/Gyokeres.

What do you guys think about Mbeumo from Brentford? Had an amazing season and is always an absolute pain in the ass for the big teams, oursleves included.

Ah, thought you meant the Barca Araujo. Yep. Sanchez has shown just enough for Maresca and the club to keep him as our #1 unfortunately. He wasn’t a complete disaster down the stretch so he’s staying for sure.

Isn’t Araujo injured all the time?