Pizy

Yep. He and Michy chatting on Twitter. Bakayoko himself just followed several of our players and the club's Twitter as well. This'll probably be announced early tomorrow morning.

Sad to see but totally understandable from his perspective. Hopefully we don't come to regret it.

I love Nat and think he had a better chance to break through here than RLC. I'll be sad to see him sold and especially for the peanuts fee being reported. Surely more than one midfield signing will happen now if both Nat and Matic are sold.

Remember that Spuds had a sluggish start to their season last year and it may have cost them dearly in the end. A strong start can only be a good thing. Without Hazard and possibly without a Costa replacement sorted we need all the quality we can get for that first month. We can't count on another 13 match winning run. The league will be far more competitive this season I think.

Would be awesome if it turns out all these reports about him not being fit are false and he'll be ready straight away. Will be quite an anticlimax if we don't even get to see him on the pitch in a Chelsea shirt for the first month or whatever of the season. Then even when he's over the injury he'll need weeks to catch up to the rest of the group. Meanwhile we'll have some very touch matches that we need him in.

Think Griezmann will certainly end up there either in January or this time next summer.

I think it's entirely possible that we go through preseason with a weaker squad than we had last season. No Hazard, no Costa, Bakayoko will apparently not be ready for a while. We don't even appear close to signing Costa's replacement and preseason starts in days. Not even linked with any attacking players other than strikers. The slim chance we had of getting Alex Sandro seem to have faded completely. I would say every side around us with the exception of Spuds have improved their first XI and will have players in nice and early to have full pre seasons. Not sure we have yet. We all saw last summer that late deals aren't the end of the world and can work well, but Conte will certainly be much happier with the bulk of our signings done early. I mean, we should've triggered Belotti's release clause within 24 hours of losing out on Lukaku. The money was obviously there since we matched their bid. It's arguably the most important position we need to address and nothing looks imminent.

If we can get both Danilo and Sandro our pace and technique in wide areas will be insane. Just sucks that the Sandro rumors have completely died. And I can't imagine they'd allow both Bonucci and Sandro to leave in the same summer. Barzagli and Chiellini are old as well so they'll need to replace them soon.

Gonna have to assume that Bonucci only wanted Milan and to remain in Italy. Maybe that's why the Rüdiger move was so quick and came out of nowhere. We wanted Bonucci, made an enquiry and heard 'no' and instead moved for someone else. Edit: I CAN FINALLY POST AGAIN!!!

Whether it's Morata or Belotti or whoever, I just hope we get Costa out ASAP and bed in the new striker as quickly as possible. It's probably the position more than any other where the player has to build chemistry with his new teammates. Waiting until at or near the deadline and not allowing our next striker a lengthy preseason would be unbelievably stupid. If we indeed matched United's bid for Lukaku then we know they club has the money ready for a forward. No excuses.

Please, God, I beg of you. Let this happen!

You have to assume that all of our new signings will have their own little corny intro video. I actually don't mind it, really. Definitely think this one was intentially cheesy.

Speaks fantastic English so should have no trouble at all settling in.

I think he's much more likely to knock Moses out of the starting XI than Cahill, with Azpi moving to RWB and Rüdiger playing at CB. Whether we like it or not Cahill will almost certainly be made permanent captain and be one of the first names on the team sheet this season.

Welcome, Toni! Hoping for him to develope nicely under Conte and surrounded by a higher quality of player. We were similarly weary of Marcos Alonso last summer and he turned out great. Maybe we'll get the same here.

I think the same. Not a word from any of the sources that said we were "in discussions" with him or made an actual offer to Juve in about 2 weeks now. This ain't happening.

Exactly. Of course he is going to say all that shite. He wants all his new fans who are skeptical about his ability to fall in love with him so he's saying all the right things. Next is the inevitable "I wanted Man United all along and was never thinking about or in contact with Chelsea. I've always dreamed only of Man United."

I mean...can you blame people? Our board seems excellent at one side of transfer dealings (selling unwanted players for nice fees) and terrible at the other and more important side which is buying players. Two summers ago was an absolute shambles and we know what that caused and last summer was nearly a shambles but for a couple of extremely late deals. Already this summer our supposed #1, sure fire target has a deal wrapped up with a direct rival within a couple of days when we've apparently been working on him for months. I think people are right to be weary at this point. A couple of these deals were supposedly close to come off in the next few days and we'll be fine.

Good point. It doesn't make much sense for us to be after a striker who's basically the polar opposite of Lukaku or Diego Costa. Aubameyang would suit Liverpool or Arsenal like a glove which is why it made sense when Liverpool were linked with him. We need (and Conte usually favors) strikers with a bit more power, tenacity and physicality. Auba doesn't fit the bill.

Wonder what we'd do if he does go elsewhere. We haven't been linked to any other midfielders, have we? I don't even know who's out there that would be a top class addition to slot straight in our team.

Wouldn't shock me at all. With Alex Sandro next. We'd deserve it too. We've been linked with him for weeks, if not months and still haven't signed him.

From the outside looking in it doesn't seem like their fans like Bale much at all.

Don't really think he's the sort of player that Conte will target. I think he'll want forwards rather than a #10.

City have signed 2 new starters, United have signed 2 new starters, Arsenal have signed 2 new starters, and even Liverpool quickly went out and spent £40m on Salah. We've so far signed a 35 year old backup keeper who will be lucky to make 10 appearences all season. Still technically "early," but getting very frustrating already.

£50m is seemingly the standard fee for City these days. Remember the fuss we caused when we spent that on Torres? City will probably have about 4-5 players in their side next season who cost £50m or more. Insane.