Pizy

I think he'd do well in our current side, but even better if we got upgrades at both fullback positions. Play a 3-5-2 with Cesc in midfield, 2 new wingbacks, and Hazard/Pedro/Wilian up top next to Auba and we'd blow teams away. Really not unrealistic, either.

Wonder how he'd fair against the thuggish defenders in the PL. We saw them at teams like West Brom & Stoke winding up Diego and hacking down Hazard at every opportunity. Then again, Liverpool and City have pretty small and slight strikers and do just fine so I suppose it wouldn't be too much of an issue. If only a source other than the terrible Mirror were reporting on this.

Oh, there will be! Maybe an even cheesier one.

July 1st, mate.

Didn't the Torino president say they would never sell Belotti to another Italian club? Anyways, it would just be weird to see us with a striker like Auba. Completely different type than we've grown used to here. It would be nice to have a striker with loads of pace. And I'm sure he'd link up well with our attacking players.

Okay, most. Stones, Sané, Jesus, Güdogan, Ederson, Walker, Bernardo. Mendy soon. Pretty clear these are all Pep players. All I'm concerned about is that Conte's excellent coaching can only go so far if we can't secure him top players. When our closest rivals are signing those top players and we have to settle I'll worry. So far we've done good business but are still miles away in some important positions. I hope to be surprised.

This season will be a completely different animal for us and every one of our rivals. Can we really afford to settle for 3rd or 4th choice targets while having a substantially increased fixture list and with all our rivals strengthening considerably? I'm not so sure.

He wanted both Alves and Walker. My point still stands, though. Since Pep has been there the City hierarchy have given him just about every target he's asked for. Quite the opposite here.

For sure. If Mourinho really wants him what should that tell you? That he feels he can improve the team! That should be reason enough to not even consider selling him there. Only way I'd be fine with it is if we immedietly used the transfer fee an reinvested it in another midfielder or similar quality.

I wonder what Conte's state of mind is right now. The transfers aren't happening quickly but they are slowly trickling in. We appear to be failing miserably at all of his supposed top targets (Bonucci, Van Dijk, Alex Sandro, Lukaku). Surely striker targets are being sorted behind the scenes but nothing seems remotely close. We have absolutely no depth at either wingback position. We don't have a single game changer in attack with Hazard out for a while and Costa AWOL. Then he sees Pep land his targets almost effortlessly with City just paying literally whatever it takes. Hope he's pressuring our board everyday at Cobham.

Yep. Bonucci leaving today was the final nail in the coffin for our chances at Alex Sandro. Whats really fucking annoying is that we'd probably still be willing to do business with them and sell them Matic after they utterly refuse to do business with us. Or worse, send him to Mourinho and help him strengthen our rival.

We could've just kept Ruben or forced Chalobah to stay if that's the case.

Already thinking about who else we'll sign in midfield. This is done. Kante, Bakayoko, and Cesc is nowhere near enough for a season in which we could potentially play about 60 games. Look at how strained Man United were last season. We can't allow that to happen to us.

Just imagine...

Just funny reading the United forum and seeing them all say he's average or not even as good as what they have there now. Cant wait to see him form a partnership with Kante and hopefully Cesc in a midfield 3.

Nice! Everything feels snappier for sure.

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!!!