OneMoSalah

I honestly don’t think it will happen at all at this rate. Even more so now considering the statement/reports re their stance. If we really want him just offer them £95m and if they don’t accept that give them the £100m. We are already going to be overpaying by about £30-40m might as well overpay by £50m if it means its the difference between getting him or not getting him. There is clearly no plan B.

If our starting pivot is Enzo and Gallagher we will get humped in midfield. Simple as that. They have got good attack minded players in midfield with AMC and Szoboszlai so having two guys who aren’t the best defensively or positionally partnered up in there would be a big risk. And we don’t want them being given any opportunity to find the likes of Salah, Nunez or Diaz. Although Bayern showed that Liverpool are still very much not as strong as they have been defensively. Preseason is preseason also though be different matter competitively

Simon Phillips and his opinions strike again. Obviously any deal getting Lukaku out of the club makes sense for Chelsea… even if we got Rickie Lambert or Grant Holt in return. I mean talk about pointing out the obvious.

Sanchez for 25m. Was displaced pretty easily last season and for me doesn’t strike me as someone who’s going to realistically displace Kepa. So I think its fair to say Kepa is going to be our number 1. But wonder if we will get anywhere for Caicedo now - although again wouldn’t be surprised if we fuck about for another week and offer like a 5m raise on last offer then shite the bed on deadline day for like 100-110m.

This obsession with putting James in the pivot is ridiculous. Like it makes no sense at all. We need someone to play a more restricted/disciplined role next to Enzo as he isn’t disciplined or defensively strong enough to be that player so why the obsession with putting a RB - who’s greatest strengths are getting up and down the pitch, affecting the game in the final third - in that position? Playing him on the righthand side of a 3 man MF would maybe make more sense but as a more disciplined midfielder? No sense.

Well we appointed some of RB Leipzigs footballing people so this was bound to happen eventually - links to a poor player who they know well and know is available due a relegation despite the fact he wasn’t particularly good at either Leeds or Leipzig. Avoid. Pretty sure he just ran about for 90 minutes kicking people under Jesse Marsch at both clubs. People complaining about not signing Gvardiol because of Fofana really are clueless too. Like properly. Fofana played RCB in a 3 under Tuchel, Koulibaly played LCB in our 3 under Tuchel 🤷‍♂️ And even then, going for him this summer would only of made sense if we were not keeping Levi as we already signed Badiashile. Some of you need to open your eyes a bit and watch football to see what their strongest foot is, be mindnumbingly retarded and pointless having Badiashile, Colwill and Gvardiol here at once who are all young, left footed centre backs, who prefer playing on that left hand side when we play a back 4 with Poch, no? Be like having 8 left wingers but no right wingers. Or 6 GKs. Just daft as fuck.

Honestly think this will be the same as Chinese league. But the Saudi’s have the money to sustain what their doing. It’s going to get very out of hand either way and they will not go bankrupt like certain Chinese clubs did but I think UEFA & FIFA are going to end up coming down on them hard as a lot of big European clubs will be extremely concerned. The money Saudi have in comparison to European clubs/owners is incomprehensible really but I think that if they keep going like this for 2 or 3 years, European clubs will continue to complain but this may lead to much more stringent financial rules/shackles being put in place for all football clubs as well as them as I cannot see it being one rule for one one rule for another. But at the same time, some clubs would never get the money they’ve gotten for certain players also and like us doing multiple deals with those clubs - its also encouraged the Saudi’s to spend spend spend. So it is a bit hypocritical for the likes of Klopp, Pep, ourselves or whoever to be completely up in arms about it. The PL did do the same to other huge clubs in foreign leagues with the TV deals, clubs who finish in positions 7,8,9,10 here can spend £100-150m and barely bat an eyelid.

Has anyone watched Disasi frequently (and not on a 2-3 minute sped up ‘Welcome to Chelsea’ youtube compilation with a dodgy EDM tune either)? Haven’t seen him play and reading mixed reports. Some saying good some saying bad. At least hes not another 18-19 year old though and has actually got a bit of experience by looks of it. And has some NT games for France. Also wouldn’t be surprised if United are in for Caicedo. Although could just be Brighton trying to get us to up our bid but at the same time they’ve repeatedly been saying they wont sell him unless their valuations met and their manager also made a jibe at us about having European football so wanting to keep him. So I don’t get why Brighton would make it up either. Utd have been following him since he played in Ecuador, nearly signed him ahead of Brighton and have been linked to another midfielder (Amrabaat in particular). Picking from Eriksen, Mount, Fernandes, Casemiro, Caicedo/Amrabat would be pretty strong but also hard to see who plays every week and for the price of Caicedo - seems a risky thing to do. But then at the same time, reading a lot about them wanting to sell Fred, McTominay and Van der Beek so obviously they still want to get some more quality in there. I just hope its not City or Liverpool though as thought they were out of race (despite City going in for Rice).

But wasn't everybody shouting about how Todd had won the spreadsheet championship for us because we sold like £200m worth of unwanted players and therefore had reduces our wagebill by 30-40m a season this summer? Not to mention all the pro talk of the incentive based contracts/deals meaning no superstar contracts? Now because United, who alongside Barca, Madrid and Bayern, are one of the biggest sides in European football have gotten another £15m a season on a sponsorship deal everything is fucked? Or because we might only get a £20 or 30m sponsorship as opposed to a £40m or £50m one? Lets just face it, that may just be the reality of everything with the clubs imagine after the whole situation & restrictions put on us by the government prior to the sale or after finishing 12th under new ownership where a lot of questions have yet to be answered.

If this is true, starting to get a bit concerned about this guy. Why would he sit going about telling his own teams fans he wants to leave Brighton at a club dinner & awards event? His mentality and how he is going about trying to get this move is absolutely mind boggling and quite frankly, ridiculous. If this is how he wants to go about coming here and the sort of character he is, when he is meant to be representing their club, telling fans that at a club event, wouldn’t even bother. Or whoever is telling him to do this, are poorly advising him. Imagine a Chelsea player going about at a club dinner/awards night saying they wanted to leave to club fans? The boys obviously frustrated but very idiotic and needs to check himself a bit.

Do you suppose that he sits training at Cobham with the unwanted players for 1 week then be integrated with the group once they come back from the US? I think that would be an incredibly stupid way to introduce a new player to the club in all honesty. Going to the US even for 1 game gives him a chance to get to meet the manager and the boys who are going to be there and who knows, maybe Poch sees something he likes? I mean we already had 29 guys there. One more wont hurt.

Great technique and finish but the GKs positioning and attempt is awful, too slow on her feet, never had a chance. Lauren James definitely amongst the very very best in Women’s football though - no doubts about it.

Yeah. Would expect most players to take the ball there. Even if they had one leg and were blindfolded.

Broja’s very much someone who has yet to fully convince he could be a regular for a club of our ambition though if I am honest. Jackson looks a much more refined player despite still being raw in certain aspects in comparison too. Different profiles of players but would think Vlahovic would probably end Broja’s chances of being regular here. Although it could still be argued that having the 3 of them could still leave us light upfront as all are relatively young and inexperienced. Who knows though - could be a good move.

Kova replaced Gundogan. No doubt City will replace Mahrez and if they want to sign Gvardiol, will do that. Balogun, fresh off a 20 goal season in Ligue 1 (if they don’t sell him and sell Nketiah instead) will be Arsenals 2nd CF option. Think Nketiah going Palace for £30-35m by looks of it so would think Balogun would be staying and competing with Jesus. Casemiro slowing down? Certainly a weird take. Was one of the best midfield players in the PL last season. Showed he was a much more complete and capable footballer than anyone gave him credit for at Madrid. Think United as a whole petered out towards the end of the season, not just individuals, another midfielder and CF (boy fromAtalanta looking more likely) puts them in a good place after they signed a pretty decent GK to replace De Gea. Still need to shift some deadwood. How Liverpools midfield gets on this season remains to be seen but some would say selling Henderson and Fabinho and releasing Milner to replace them with Mac Allister and the boy from Leipzig is smart, smart business. Considering Liverpool issue in midfield over the past couple of years has always been creativity and legs, they’ve just added a lot of both. Lavia move to replace Fabinho is a bit off for me as it would be for replacing Kante here - think they need a more established player to do that, as do we re Kante replacement.

Pretty sure your the first to put his name close to their names in any context or potentially call him the heir of anybody - yet alone the serial winner and club legend that is Didier and then Diego, our last top level CF….Or at least in this thread. Does seem a bit hypocritical to tell people to curb expectations when you’re the first to potentially make such a complete unnecessary and ridiculously high level comparison so early. But yes pre season so far so good, competitive games are a different nature though and thats when things will Matter.

Agents can only advice so far though and I am sure Caicedo was happy enough to sign a hugely improved 4+1 year deal at the time. If he maybe held his nerve and didn’t renew but stayed there the rest of the season, chances are he would of got his move by now and got paid more all the same as he would of had a better hand. Even if he hands in a transfer request, Brighton can just laugh it off and be like “Really? Didn’t we do this already 6 months ago?” Honestly, can’t help but admire Brighton’s stance to be fair. It’s frustrating for is but they really don’t need the money after selling a lot of good players the last 12-18 months, are in Europe for the first time ever and are ambitious enough to not sell somebody who is near about/arguably on equal par to Declan Rice who went to Arsenal for £105m. In an ever so inflated market, absolutely they should hold out for £100m. If it was roles reversed I’d be disappointed if we didn’t do the same. Our lack of a plan B though is incredibly alarming. All these football boffins put in place and it looks as if they are saying that Caicedo is the only midfielder in world footballer that may suit us…

Think its fair to say one or even twice new CMs is probably going to be our first priority. Cannot see us replacing Kepa this season in all honestly, particularly as we cannot even seem to get a CM in the door. Would imagine that will be on next seasons to do list as ultimately, Poch seems keen on giving him a chance. Barring a minor miracle in terms of someone who is much better coming available at a reasonable price, I think a back up GK is probably more likely than a new number 1 because the bloke who was third choice last year, Bettinelli, is absolutely awful and he cannot be number 2 no way.

Signed a 4 year deal in January though to 2027 with a +1 option so don’t see that really doing anything earth shattering to improve things on our end. That was after his January transfer request also, so yeah, don’t see it helping us either way.

I think with the changes and loss of personnel we’ve had in MF though and the experience amongst it, we really needed to focus on getting in there sorted as early as possible though. We’ve a lot of relatively new faces in there with Gallagher now being our most senior midfielder - he’s only been here as a first team player for a season. Get the feeling we should of been looking to do it early to give them all a lot of time to figure each other out sooner as most are relatively young. If one or two of the likes of Jorgi/Ngolo/Kova were kicking about the squad still, yes the timeframe maybe wouldn’t be hugely important as those guys have a lot of games and know how between them that could calm the young guys but we don’t have the experience or those sort of relationships in there now. We need to build that up - best way to do it would of been getting them in and establishing the partnerships early doors. Fair pre-seasons not exactly the most competitive but its better to settle those nerves or iron out those wrinkles in those games than competitive ones where points are at stake. Particularly with young, inexperienced footballers. After last season, for me it is absolutely paramount that Poch got the team playing like a team as quickly as possible. We seen the disaster that was a mishmash of players who you could tell didn’t have any sort of cohesion or chemistry largely throughout last season. Early signs look good but I am still skeptical of pre-season being much much more than initial building blocks and a fitness exercise.

Carney can play further up though but ultimately should be loaned/sold regardless (unless Poch see’s him contributing in the long run -> loan) - I don’t think he was ever going to be Chelsea material or that he is ever going to develop into a number 8, he looks more advanced closer to a 10. Using pre-season as a barometer when we were always short in MF given our outgoings there was always going to be a risky move re Casadei, Santos and Carney’s futures this season (although would say Santos will be around given the effort to get him a work permit in January and finally to get him one this summer). @MoroccanBlue advertising boardings/posters/whatever really means nothing either considering certain photos for the new kit launch still had Kai, Azpi and Mount in them also IIRC. Yes they weren’t released or were cropped to not show them but I mean just because Carney’s face is here or there, wouldn’t make a bearing on his standing in the squad as such if the manager wants to loan him or doesn’t fancy his chances making it here? Like I said above, MF we are notoriously short, so him playing regularly along with Casadei not really proof of anything. If Kante, Kovacic or Ruben had stayed for instance, do you think he’d of even made the tour?

Would say Inter move is definitely off, not just based solely off Lautaro’s comments but would think the whole Juventus negotiations will have offended a lot of their dressing room, staff and fans. He really has fucked it for himself, stupid cunt that he is. But what do you expect l? He’s always been one of the most arrogant footballers of a pretty arrogant Belgian generation. But his arrogance, he can’t back it up, just look at the biggest games/moments of his career - it’s pretty laughable.

They want £95-100m or a deal including Colwill. That price or this is non negotiable clearly. Have to admire their stance, they’ve already sold plenty since last summer so I doubt their in any rush to bend to our will and accept a cut price deal in their eyes considering the fees Rice and Bellingham have gone for. Plus Caicedo just renewed in January so as previously said, they hold the cards at the moment. They know we are desperate for a midfielder and they know they’ve got 4 or 5 years on his deal still to go. Wait and see though we will bid £85m in a week or two, then £90m a few weeks later before eventually offering the £95-100m right at the death when pre seasons more or less finished. Get it done or go for plan B. Simple as that. I am beginning to think its Caicedo or nobody for midfield which on it’s own, considering the amount of “top level” footballing people in this incredible footballing infrastructure Boehly and co have apparently put in place, is absolutely shocking. Lavia links died down pretty quickly but again our name is thrown in tentatively. Would think if we were that interested we would of coughed up the £45-50m they want for him so will go with the impression he was more under consideration if Poch wasn’t keen on Santos/we couldn’t get a work permit for him again. I know people were skeptical of how we done things before but under Roman if we wanted Caicedo, it would of been done in the first week of the window. Simple as that.

Kudus doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Not going to improve what we have or any better than some of the players we've sold. But lets see - reckon him and Caicedo deals will drag out if we are serious for him. Caicedo or bust approach is going to be a disaster. Surely got to be a alternative on our list, media keep reporting we will move on to other targets but lack of names except for Lavia (who most reckon is Liverpool bound) or bids for other players seems to indicate otherwise. This new footballing network/scouting system not covering itself in glory, is it? Not that they did entirely in January either but surely something in particular for MF players, has got to happen sooner rather than later.

Pretty sure Atalantas original price was £80-85m for both United and Paris but United have been negotiating it down whilst the player has no interest in going to PSG and wants Utd move. Think PSG were willing to pay more to get it done but he’s not wanting the move there. Looks like he could be good player but still a huge risk at that price if I’m honest. He got 10 goals in a full season at Atalanta, a team who have always been notoriously high scorers under Gaspereni, but thats the only season he’s placed at a relatively competitive level. I get he has got 6 in 6 for Denmark but again, he’s still a huge risk for £60 odd million. If he had scored another 15-20 goals across his club career, you could see why the fee was being insisted on. But he’s only got 27 in 87 games. Not sure on goals to minute ratio though so maybe bit unfair on his stats. I doubt we were ever/will be in the market for him anyway after signing Jackson or going after another more established CF until we resolve the Lukaku issue. Yes the player is limited, yes we could get X amount of money for him but we most definitely need to add one or two in MF first before we consider selling him. That is for sure. Would be incredibly incredibly stupid to do otherwise and by all accounts, it appears Poch has said he see’s Gallagher in his plans so 90% chance he be staying regardless. I mean why would the club defy the manager and sell him after he very publicly said he sees him in his plans anyway? We don’t need to sell many players now, considering the departures we’ve had - barring Ziyech, CHO and Lukaku really. Then find a few loans for some of the young lads. Our other MF options barring Enzo, Santos and Casadei are young and haven’t played any league football at a relatively competitive level. Most would imagine Casadei will be loaned and Santos I would think, stays, given the club’s insistence on trying to get him a work permit in January and managing to get him a work permit this summer.