OneMoSalah

Could of done with him also though considering the only players we can maybe rely on next season that play midfield is basically Enzo and Connor 🤣 And whoever out of City/Arsenal/United doesn’t get Rice, they probably become instant favourites to sign Caicedo (well either United or Arsenal - don’t see City going for him and hopefully Liverpool don’t decide to enter the race). We are still there but if we are that keen, we need to start putting things together before it becomes too late. The groundwork should of been done to get things in motion. Particularly when it became apparent that Ngolo and Mateo were leaving.

He rejected 2 offers made at the beginning of the season as it was reported he wanted a similar deal/same deal as Reece financially which I think, he was probably entitled to ask for. And probably one that, you’d of expected the club to make to him. Think it was for 7 years too which was an issue initially. Then there was a third offer made in February (which I hope this isn’t true as it is an incredibly amateurish and probably solidified any doubts he had about staying here long term) that the club and Todd Boehly asked him to sign a 1 or 2 year extension in February with a significant increase in wages. Surprisingly since then there were a lot of rumbling that he saw this as a means for the club to boost his transfer value and that his relationship with certain people on the non footballing side of the club soured after that. I don’t think offering a 23 or 24 year old a 1 or 2 year contract would inspire them to stay. And if he’s such a money grabber, why not take the 1 or 2 year deal on a significant pay rise? And leave anyway? His hearts set on going and I am not surprised because if even 50% of the shit regarding that 1/2 year offer is true, why would you want to stay?

Who knows? There has been a huge failing/breakdowns in his contract negotiations since the World Cup though. Pretty sure he made it clear despite Poch wanting him to resign that his minds made up. Players come and go, doesn’t mean they are money grabbers everytime but its the typical lazy oh their cannot be any other reason for it.

I think theres no doubt Mudryk’s got good physical attributes - pace, acceleration, ability to change direction quickly etc but a lot of the clips of him playing well for Shakhtar in the CL group, people forget they played more as a counter attacking side. He’s not necessarily that young either, he’s already 22 and has made 82 appearances at club level. Not sure how many are starts or that but some of the others we signed of a similar age bracket over the years: - Badiashile 22, over 150 games. - Enzo 22, over 130 games. - Kai when he signed, 21 IIRC, 150 games. Maybe a lack of football exposure has an effect on him? Maybe after another 50-60 games he might start to come good and iron out a few more flaws? Who knows but I think technically he looks pretty raw sometimes, even the likes of dribbling wise he runs into players far too often. As did Timo who was a lot older and look how that went. Mudryk’s finishing is also very tame, the amount of good positions he was in, probably could have had at least 5 goals. He’s a very expensive project.

Money Mase 🤣 Jesus christ. Sorry but how thick can you be? We are the ones haggling with United over the sake of £3m plus some add ons…. Theres a £55m offer on the table, he wants to go, United willing to match the 200k p/w contract offer we were willing to give him. Yet hes a money grabber….. have a day off.

Would be fine but was it not reported Newcastle were making a £12m bid? I see Kova goes to City and now he’s a cunt…. typical. Daft move by us. I am under the impression that the clubs willingness to offload him probably swung his decision to leave, bet he couldn’t believe his luck when City were interested though. Although did say before that the clubs spending last season has hamstrung us and we were always going to he susceptible to selling good players who could still offer something here to our rivals. Think Inter was mentioned months ago when it was originally talked about their being a bit of uncertainty around his future. But yeah, daft. Not made one midfield signing and thats now Kante and Kova gone as well as RLC looking set to leave and Mount maybe going on a free next summer for the sake of a few million and potentially add ons. Said it before, our transfer strategy is wank.

Honestly between him and Mudryk, they are at similar stages of their development. One cost £80m one cost £25-30m so price wise its unfair to throw Nori in with Mudryk. Plus he is a lefty coming in off the right whilst Mudryks a righty coming in off the left and we had heaps of them. And even then, if we were crying out for young wingers why didn’t we just keep CHO at beginning of the season though? For instance was CHO really any worse than what Mudryk’s looked? Wouldn’t say so. Madueke is a different profile though, left footer coming in off the right, finding these players at good value is always tough.

I honestly think he’s gonna struggle. He was a decent enough up and coming player but his price tag is absolutely ridiculous. He was maybe a £35m signing at most. I don’t think we will ever see a return on the £80m or so his fee wis amount to, I really don’t. Looks like he is lost when he puts on a Chelsea top.

I don’t think its unfair to have expected more from him. He’s been one of Europe's best/highly thought of CBs over the past 7 or 8 seasons, a very proven and experienced player. Not a kid, a 30/31 year old who yeah sure he might of been a lot better next season but I think the clubs willingness to sell after one season maybe says it all. The criticism is always going to be it didn’t work out for him here and many, myself included, expected more. Whats unfair about that? He did have a few decent games actually playing against Dortmund in particular he looked good in that back in the middle role of that back 3 but he also had some games where he was pretty poor. Just think he was maybe a yard or two off the pace of the PL.

Yep few years too late. Still expected more from someone of his calibre though, but sometimes these moves don’t work out. Under either Mourinho, Sarri or Conte 6 or 7 years ago he would of been a different animal.

Him and CHO are on huge wages though, 125-150k apparently? so getting around the same or a bit more for CHO and the 12.5m for RLC is good enough. Can’t be too picky getting certain prices for the likes of them two and a few others who are miles off it.

Bayern wont pay ridiculous money for Mount either though. Should of took the £50 + 5 offer from United…. Demanding £60m+ for someone with 1 year on his deal was always stupid. I see wages is a topic of discussion again. Apparently he will be matching the 200k we offered him if he goes to United.

So I am guessing Mount will be staying/leaving on a free then? Why the fuck are we haggling for £3m and £7m in add ons? Just take the £55m and run jesus christ. If United pull out then we lose £55m next summer…. Not rocket science Todd.

Hmm. Still, why the last 4 of each? Seems stupid. But money talks

So another competition which you now don’t need to actually win anything to enter? Hmmmm. How does that work…. And I thought after the Super League fiasco they were clamping down on these sort of buy a place competition because of who the club is 💰💰💰💰

Interesting. Based off of WhoScored looks like he scored 10 of his goals when he started but his minutes also beg the question, is there a stamina issue there? Does he burn out quickly and need to be taken off? Or does he go missing and not contribute in other areas of the game and he is taken off for that? Poch could rectify the fitness granted as he is notorious for working players and getting fitness levels good. I think he missed 10 games also due to an injury which maybe played a part in reduced minutes. Thats what canned his move to Bournemouth also.

We dont need a solid striker though or someone who could turn into a good one in 3 or 4 years, we currently need somebody who is good enough and ready to go. Obviously has to be the right player but I get the feeling this is another experimental signing. A bit underwhelming to be honest but lets see he might surprise. Getting 12 goals in La Liga, where players like Joselu scored 16, Iglesias 15, Muriqi 15, Unal 14, Morata & Castellanos 13, Sorloth & Aspas 12 also… its hard to say if its promising or not. Fully agree. The squads already heavily populated with young players who “could be” good/top players. Plus with Broja here as well who Poch is keen to use this season by sounds of it, I don’t really get it. Why have 2 young CFs? Both at similar ages who both need to play regularly to kick on? Unless he is some sort of world class must have player but honestly not sure…. Maybe he will surprise us but 12 goals last season in La Liga is hardly hugely impressive. I suppose its the risk we take. At least he isn’t a £70-80m signing though.

Lots of reports that United going to offer 55m for Mount and if we reject that end their pursuit.

No way we are getting Tchouameni off of Madrid. Not a chance in hell. Depending on the Rice deal (if he goes to City cannot see us getting Caicedo as we have to offload guys to compete in that price range), even getting Barella would be difficult. Particularly as the reports were that after Newcastle were apparently looking at him for £50m, that their valuation of him was at least double if not triple that. Lukaku & Chalobah may sweeten the deal but it remains to be seen if Inter or the players really that keen on actually leaving.

True. The clamouring for Bakayoko on here was crazy too. Numerous comparisons to Yaya Toure, ‘he will be our midfield general for years’ etc etc…. he was the least impressive and interesting player from that Monaco team too. Fucking insane. Fofana kind of falls into the same category as the usual loan army signing from the previous ownership. Wasn’t given a chance last season so the likelihood was he was probably always going to end up being cut with the clubs dire need for selling players and a more experienced CF considering Armando is back up and running for pre-season coming around. I mean if DDF played last season and made an impression, I would of understood the signing but he didn’t. At all. Was that Brighton transfer genius that recommended him too. Again not surprised. His mind has been made up for months, probably hasn’t helped that a certain % of the fan base seem to have turned on him. Not to mention all the reports of the numerous changes around the club, mainly staff, which had affected/left some individuals disillusioned. Could he be one of them? Or did he feel the club dicked around too much to offer him favourable terms? Who knows. Fresh start probably do him the world of good anyway. He went from future Chelsea legend to a money grabbing cunt because he wouldn’t sign a 7 year deal or whatever it was he was originally offered. Or so you’d think reading half the nonsense spouted on here at the time. People above already mentioning money as well - point proven.

A pointless buy under Boehly & co. Theres a surprise. Thought these supposed 101 footballing geniuses we hired were behind his signing?

Rice is certainly more than just a holding midfielder though, as is Rodri who has popped up with some big goals in this new formation they’ve been playing. Rice can easily play box to box and has started adding ball carries, goals and assists to his game. Where he fits in at City is hard to tell but if they continue with their formation they used this season, he could easily play with Rodri in that 2 and they could use the likes of Stones in their backline again as opposed to in MF. It definitely again adds quality into an already quality team - which again, I wouldn’t be surprised if City evolve again tactically.

So tell me then whats the masterplan now then? All well and good saying lets be proactive and not reactive on Kante but by the sounds of things, there is a very good chance Rice and Caicedo will likely be City and Arsenal players (well you would assume Arsenal would just give Brighton the £90m they offered for Rice if Rice goes to City - any competent club would). Then we’ve lost/are losing 2 good players with experience and who out of the midfielders we have should of been nowhere the top of the chopping block whilst Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek are at the club. Are we going to rely on Andrey Santos, Enzo Fernandez, Connor Gallagher and Loftus-Cheek all season? Is signing another prospect in Lavia really going to yield results that will undoubtedly be needed in the short term to get next season and the project back on track? We’ve already missed out on Ugarte. Rice & Caicedo go next then there aren’t a lot of options. Really don’t see how shopping around for 3rd/4th/5th choice midfield options is a good thing. I would say its ridiculous in fact. If we were being proactive the Caicedo deal would already be agreed and done but we’ve hamstrung ourselves by spending hundreds of millions in the summer & January windows by the looks of it, meaning our budget and targets are really at the mercy of other clubs. Or we have to prioritise certain signings. It is looking likely that other than Nkunku which was done in January, we could not sign anybody until we see a few sales (Mendy, KK, Ziyech, Mount, Havertz). Who knows who will be where by then? Yeah but if we pulled the Havertz deal we would just be shooting ourselves in the foot. I mean think about it, who is realistically going to pay the £60-65m for him we want? Bayern wont. Madrid refused already to go over £45-50m. It is clear we need to sell to buy too.

The timing wasn’t right to sell then though, I mean as an ambitious football club you don’t sell your best player right after winning a CL when your objectives have to be looking to build on that and compete with Man City and Liverpool in the league. Tuchel and Marina would of got slated for letting such a thing happen. Just like how Boehly & co should be getting slated for letting him walk out the door so easily. If we could of got Kante to stay on lowered wages and a 1 year plus 1 extension he would of been useful to have around. Undoubtedly. Would suit Poch’s philosophy down to the ground. I don’t think he would of been difficult to convince but project sign everyone under the age of 21 and hope in 5 years time it bears fruit is in full swing. Even letting Kovacic go is a huge mistake. City in for Rice so if that happens then Arsenal will go for Caicedo undoubtedly. So who are we going to sign? Eric Dier?

If a club offers £30m or more just sell him. Who cares which club. And before the spreadsheet warriors start - fuck off 🤣