OneMoSalah

Sounds like Madrid are targeting Thiago Alcantara so this tweet makes even more sense. I think it was to sweeten the Courtois deal and also to give us more of an incentive to buy him next summer, at a cheaper price too as his deal will be a year off.

Good god hold the bus, who said they’d rather RLC and Bakayoko played than we signed Kovacic because he isn’t “our player”? Fuck me I’ve had enough internet for the day.

All for Zouma plus cash for Martial. Zouma isn’t going to be a feature here. Martial will be a good option for us to have in the squad. Could be a very shrewd move.

He said he thought it would be best for him to leave Madrid to play. I can’t see him only leaving on a season long loan deal, there’s bound to be a purchase option, unless Modric is going to leave for Inter but then why would they even loan Kovacic out to us then?

I don’t know. For sure he isnt as good as some make out at the other aspects of his game but I think Higuain at Napoli is a similar comparison. He would still score a lot of goals here and I’m sure other aspects would improve along with that.

Don’t see the issue. We need a good keeper. Kepa is 100 times more experienced than Bulka, let’s not kid on the guy had a decent pre season but he’s nowhere near ready. If not Kepa then who? Butland? Areola? Trapp? Realistically all are probably inferior keepers with nowhere near as much potential either. Bilbao don’t sell players due to the nature of their recruitment so weve had to pay the release clause. If the board had much more of an idea that’s Tibo didn’t want to stay we should of looked to get him in Jan but he rejected a 20m euros move to Real Madrid to sign a new deal. Sometimes if you really want something you’ve got to pay that bit more. We have issues upfront but just because we spent 71.5m on a GK doesn’t mean we couldn’t have got an attacker beforehand or even looked to after.

A PL club would be daft to take him. It’s so evident he needs a lot of work positionally, tactically and technically. Talk of Villa wanting him, championships a more realistic option. anyway the game I think at CB in a back 4 Christensen could do with a bit of work yet. Ampadu impressed me a lot despite making some mistakes purely because you can see he has the right mentality for a kid his age to make it at a club the size of Chelsea. Emerson’s pace alone makes him more valuable than Alonso in offensive positions. Bakayokos a goner.

It’s a mixed bag. We created chances under Conte but when we get going properly under Sarri it will be different. I think everyone one them can get that extra 5+ goals on top of their usual output in that regard. Easily. Still a work in progress as we can see from the pre season games but it will click eventually.

Not 100% sure where this beaten at his new post far too often myth is coming from in all fairness. I get it people don’t like him he’s going etc but that’s happened about 5 times in however many years he’s been here hardly as if it is every week lol. It’s a good move Madrid get a upgrade, we get Kovacic and money and reinvest on another peetty good keeper. No point getting too wound up.

True but again. Hazard can be greedier, Willian can be, Pedro can be. Our problem is our wingers just don’t have that ruthlessness or selfishness to go and shoot when an opportunity presents itself inside the box or just outside instead they always look for another pass to basically walk it in the net and have done for years. That’s potentially for me, 5 more goals each of them over the course of a season. Seems a bit far fetched but over 30-40 games not really. Plus if Morata had scored a lot of those clear chances say at least another 5 on his total. So take all their numbers last season add 5 more on each we probably would have gotten results and probably gotten top 4. It’s not as black and white as that I know but that would be 20 more goals between the 4 of them. How many matches that were draws or losses would of been wins or draws because of that? A few I’d imagine.

Areola and Trapp are decent but I think Kepa is better. Maybe not but he has a huge ceiling. Madrid didn’t want him for nothing.

Everyone is talking about goalscoring midfielders but honestly look at Madrid or Barca’s MF? Xavi Iniesta Busquets never scored more than 10 plus goals but were an excellent trio. Modric Casemiro and Kroos the same. Even at Napoli under Sarri Jorginho, Allan, Hamsik.. Hamsik was the only guy who scored goals out of the three and even then his numbers have slowly dropped from his days of playing under Matzarri. Goalscoring midfielders (who play as an 8) are a bit of a dying breed in my eyes because everyone wants controllers/playmakers. 10s score goals but they aren’t really CMs (guys like de Bruyne etc are 10s who play as 8s). Guys like Barkley and Fabregas can score goals if they have a bit more freedom. I think Kovacic can too but he’s not going to get 10+ a season. Pogba and Ramsey are about the only top level goalscoring midfielder players I can think of in the PL who are pure number 8s. Maybe Naby Keita will do a job for the bin dippers in that regard too. Even then looking at Barca last season, Paulinho scored the most goals from their central midfield players but was sold off straight away... Personally I think the big problem will be if Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Morata, Giroud and Batshuayi don’t score say 50 or 60+ goals between them or whatever this season, our Mf will create chances now if this deal comes off and it all falls together quickly there is no doubts about it but if the front of the team doesn’t fire yeah we will find it tough.

Last I checked Icardi couldn’t play in goal.

A lot of talk as to why we didn’t go for Alisson but will spend 80m euros on Kepa. Somewhere on twitter it said apparently Sarri has been watching videos of him for 10 days and 100% wants him. Also Kepa has played more than one full season in Europe which people seem to forget about, where as Alisson who was a benchwarmer behind Woijech Sczeszny (spelling probably off) at Roma before last season... a lot of Liverpool fans questioning it too but he was almost Madrid’s new GK in Jan but Zizou preference was to keep Navas, he is undoubtedly a good goalkeeper so no need to panic. Most importantly Sarri is on board and wants him.

Yeah possibly but I think once we get going properly Willian and Pedro will be better than under Antonio. Particularly Pedro think he will be a goal threat more than anything else.

Unless one of Pedro or Willian go I severely doubt it. We’ve got Hazard/Hudson Odoi for the left and Willian/Pedro for the right. Jorginho/Kante/Kovacic/Cesc/Barkley/one of Drinkwater or Bakayoko for 6 CMF options. Still uncertainty around Batshuayi and Giroud as well as talk of Alonso being a target for Real so yeah maybe still be something done there if anything goes through but out wide cant see it. Unless CHO is not used and Willian plays left side when Hazard doesn’t play, only way I see us getting another right winger.

Sarri coming with Jorginho, now Kovacic and Kepa coming (possibly)? It’s not been an amazing summer with all the upheaval but those 3 signing along with keeping Hazard and Kante is actually a pretty good window. Sure we aren’t sure about who will start as our 9 and if Alonso can be solid enough defensively at full back but we will have more than enough to get top 4 I think, even more so if Kovacic and Kepa are announced. Sure Willian could have been sold for big money but again he can still be a good player here too. I think that if all these next 2 signings go through that we can’t necceseraily be too disheartened in terms of strengthening the team to some regard, also with CHO looking like he’s impressed Sarri maybe he’ll feature more this year too. But someone will still complain I suppose.

I think it’s a bit early to be making comparisons like this but it will give us a much more competitive and technical midfield than we’ve had in years, which coupled with Sarri and his philosophy should give us something good this season. But again CF and left back is maybe still an issue.

I’m sorry but if you think that keeping RLC and not getting Kovacic is the better option then I honestly don’t know. RLC isn’t even past Barkley yet never mind somebody like Kovacic. Also a loan player from Madrid? Before this guy moved to Italy he was one of the highest rated youngsters in the whole continent, he’s never been regular at Madrid which hasn’t helped but I don’t think people are seeing how much of a potentially great deal this could be, if it is a permanent transfer, ever better. When was the last time Chelsea went and bought two MF players of this profile such as Jorginho and Kovacic?

Yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sarri will also consider going with Hazard as a false 9 if we are really stuck. Unless we bring a CF in but not seeing it happening.

Don’t see it happening. West Ham have just gone and signed more technical players like Wilshere, Felipe Anderson, Yarmelenko... as well as having Guys like Noble and Lanzini on their books? You think Pellegrini is going to want a player like Drinkwater just after they’ve sold Kouyate who is a very physical and not as technically gifted player? He’d suit a Palace or somebody 100%. A team more direct and built around playing from back to front very quick. Pellegrini isn’t the sort of guy who would sanction a 35m move for a limited player who doesn’t offer any different to what they have.

I think it’s just been a hectic summer. World Cup doesnt help matters with players coming back late but the first issue for me was that the board should have had Conte sacked with Sarri in place to start pre season on day 1 and fuckd that trip to Australia off. That has cost us a couple of weeks extra that Sarri could have weighed up what was needed and worked more with the team. Secondly we spent 150m last summer but the majority of that we can say was wasted. That is a good amount of money and if it was on the right players it would be fine (but it wasn’t) and many fans wouldn’t be under the impression we need to spend 300m more to rectify these mistakes, fair enough you can’t just keep buying 200m worth of players every year because it’s not sustainable in the long run and it isn’t realistic. We don’t need to buy a new squad every 2 seasons, strengthen yes but not a huge reshuffle every few years. We could with a bit of something else in MF yet, a new GK when Courtois goes, another striker unless Batshuyi and Giroud stay and maybe a left back would be a big plus but there is still plenty of ability in this squad and anyone under the impression that we need about 15 new players, that’s a bit far fetched (Azpi, Hazard and Kante are 3 of the best in the PL in their positions, Rudiger impressed me last year and Cesc, Willian as well as a few others can still offer a lot, Pedro and Barkley could find themselves better off under Sarri than under Conte too). For me I think the board has this train of thought where they seem to think they can find players and trust they will be good under any manager. Bakayoko is probably somebody Conte would of thought yeah he could do a job but in all fairness he has never hit the ground running and is unrealistically suited now to what Sarri will try and do here. The fact the clubs never actually stuck with a manager for longer than 3 seasons in god knows how long doesn’t help even though there’s been plenty of success, there’s no clear style of play that’s been in place for x amount of years so identifying and signing some players is a bit more of a risk, although it can be the case anyway but under Pep at Man City or Wenger at Arsenal or Klopp at Liverpool they would never sign someone in the mould of Bakayoko or Drinkwater. I think Sarri coming here was always a sign towards change. Pressure will still be on but it will be attacking football an attacking system, something we’ve all heard Roman wanted since seeing Peps Barca team etc etc so let’s hope that if it goes well with Sarri here that it brings this big change all around the club. But again this is just ifs and buts. Need to see how it all pans out. We’ve hardly become a shite team like some people keep mentioning. Everyone’s strengthening around us but these teams have had an identity and philosophy in place for longer than we have because we chop and change coaches every 2 years.

Yeah it’s just becaue he plays in that 2 deeper positions unless it’s bigger game and they go with a 3. He normally would sub in for Modric or rotate with him so he’s hardly a DM. Kroos and Modric normally have Casemiro anchoring behind them for the big matches from what I seen even then they played with a diamond a lot last season too with Isco off the front I think.

He’s not a DM. He is rounded can play deeper if needed maybe but he’s a more offensive midfielder. He would play Barkleys role probably taking into account Kante and Jorginho are nailed on to start. He made his mark as a attacking midfielder in Croatia and for a bit at Inter but has was taken deeper a bit by Benitez and Zizou. He would be a great fit here regardless.

Again a non starter story to stir the pot. More than 3/4s of the players Mourinho has worked with would say something similar to what Willian said. IIRC Cesc said it a few years after he left the second time.... does that mean he wanted a move to United? Terry has gone and said it countless times throughout his career. Lamps as well. It’s a compliment. Not a plea for a transfer.