Pizy

I don't think we were ever in for him either. Just annoying to see a super talented player go to a direct rival. Always going to happen, of course. The Manchester clubs will make at least a few of these flashy signings each this summer just like last summer. Surely Conte will already have his targets in the hands of the club. After the final I hope we see movement quickly.

I guess? That in itself is madness. A £50m squad player. City will have about £250m worth of attacking player alone in their team! Crazy! And I'll still back us to finish ahead of them if we have a great summer.

Just seems mind boggling. Spending 75m on someone who plays in by far the strongest area of your team. Almost like Barca or Real Madrid bringing in Hazard without selling any of their current players.

He's still arguably their best player!

Where on Earth does Bernardo fit in their team when they already have Sané, Sterling, David Silva, De Bruyne plus Aguero and Jesus!? What the fuck!?

I wonder how effective he'll be in England. He's really the polar opposite of a Mourinho striker. Unless Zlatan is staying and he plays off him. Trying and struggling to think of another tiny main striker that has torn the PL apart. I know the physicality of the PL is overhyped a lot, but Griezmann looks even smaller than guys like Mata and Coutinho. He'll be going directly up against big, physical CB's and the thugs that the likes of West Brom and Stoke employ. Will he be able to handle that? We'll see. I don't think he'll find it as easy to score 25+ goals here like he does in Spain. He'll do well, certainly, but enough to warrant a £90m price tag?

Think wining the league means there's almost no pressure on us at all. Our players will be playing without fear of failure and only glory on their minds. Arsenal, meanwhile has one game to save their season from becoming an embarrassing, abject failure. For that reason the pressure is totally on them.

If true, such a waste for any top player to go to either Milan club these days. Basically midtable mediocrity and almost no chance of pipping Juve, Roma, or even Napoli these days.

Looks as though they'll be down to absolute bare bones along their defense. Their 3 best CB's may all be out and now Gibbs may be out as well. That likely means that they'll start with that young kid Holding and the old statue Mertesacker at the back. We should be dominating their midfield and defense. If we manage to keep Sanchez and Ox quiet I don't see how we lose this.

Is that not a valid concern? If ourselves and United are after the same player and they offer 100k more than we do where is that player going?

£300m Mourinho spending spree inbound. Hopefully we aren't after the same players because I doubt we'll offer players £300k a week like they will.

Guess I'll watch this. Until United score, anyways.

United will win comfortably, I think. I'd do almost anything to see Mourinho in the Europa League again next season but he's a master at these one off, must win, grind out a result matches so I expect a straightforward win.

Absolutely beautiful if real.

I agree. I doubt we'll even try to compete with United spending wise, though. I may be proven wrong if the Lukaku figures turn out to be true, but I can't really imagine us spending £80-100m on a single player like they do. I think we'll be buying a bunch of very good player with potential to become great whereas United will buy ready made superstars like Griezmann and like they did with Ibra and Pogba. Mourinho absolutely needs to win a big trophy next season or he'll have failed. He'll spend ludicrous amounts of money to try to ensure it happens. We thought the spending of the Manchester clubs was insane last summer but I think this one will blow it away.

Think regardless of whether they win the final they'll go crazy in the transfer market. Maybe slightly crazier if they win. They so desperately want to be the Madrid or Bayern of the PL by buying big name after big name. Griezmann will be one of about 3 or 4 "Galacticos" they'll bring in, imo. I trust Conte (if given the backing by the board) to buy intelligently enough to stay at the top. Both ourselves and Spuds (Liverpool, too, to a lesser extent) proved this season that simply bringing in huge names isn't a guarnetee of success. But yeah, I expect them to break the transfer record more than once this summer.

Couple of tough decisions for Conte here. Do we start Cesc against his former club who he'll be desperate to beat? He's in great form and they'll have a weakened defense that he can pick apart. Or do we go for safety first and start with Kante & Matic? Then there's the Willian/Pedro spot. Both have been fantastic lately.

30 wins from 38 matches really is insane when you think about it. In Conte's first bloody season!

Diego having an absolute shocker so far...

Diego will score 10 here and win the Golden Boot.

Prize money + Nike sponsorship + player sales + whatever funds were going to be there anyways out of Roman's pocket. We really could afford a Real Madrid/Man United/City style summer if we want to. More money available than ever before and with the club in a better position than ever before. Alexis, Verratti, Kyle Walker, and Van Dijk and we'll be one of the favorites for the CL and clear favorites for the PL. We MUST go big this window! Give Antonio all the tools to build a dynasty. Mourinho and the club talked a big game after winning the league last time and we failed miserably to live up to it. No complacency and no settling for "good, but not great" signings.

Still way too much. Would he even displace Matic? I don't think he would. For that sort of money we need to be getting a clear upgrade. Unless Conte is switching systems.

That is way too much for him.

We keep saying the fee would be ridiculous, and it is, but when you compare him to what United bought Pogba for it may be a bargain years from now when we look back on it. Pogba doesn't score goals and really doesn't directly create many either. For about the same price we'd be signing a player who's the same age as Pogba but scores a pretty much nailed on 20 goals per season in the PL alone. So yes, £80m+ is crazy, but if he scores us 20+ goals a season for the duration of his contract that'll be worth it. So long as he's not the sole player we depend on for goals I'll be happy with his signing.

My absolute dream signing and probably my favorite non-Chelsea player in world football. Don't think I would be able to contain myself if we somehow signed him. I really do think we'd be unstoppable domestically with him added to our midfield. We should pay whatever it takes to try and lure him away.