Superblue

Seen some reports linking us with Marash Kumbulla from Verona. @Vesper know anything about him?

Based on the current trend we're due a strong summer window. 2014/15 - Good. Fabregas and Costa 2015/16 - Poor. Pedro came good but having won the league the year before it felt like no ambition to kick on 2016/17 - Good. Kante; To a lesser extent Luiz and Alonso were important signings for Conte to win the title 2017/18 - Poor. Besides Rudiger, probably our most wasteful window in history 2018/19 - Good. Kepa, Jorginho, Kovacic on a loan that turned permanent 2019/20 - Poor. Unable to buy. 2020/21 - ??

In all fairness Spurs have barely managed to get above us despite reaching the Champions League final which would have been a huge windfall for them. With Champions League revenue back this coming year, we should be much closer to Liverpool and Man City's revenue figures. The top 3 won't be budged anytime soon, Bayern monopolise their country and PSG are bankrolled. To be fair with how small our stadium is, we punch pretty damn well. Oh well, I'm sure Spurs will find a way to argue this makes them the biggest and best team in London despite those cobwebs thickening in their trophy cabinet.

The problem is the real top drawer players will not move this window. So the alternative is overpaying for a 3rd of 4th choice option in those positions this January. If we overspend and they under-perform what are we expected to then do in the summer having blown big money in this window. Just as an example based on players we're being linked with, if we've been given an idea that Sancho and Werner are interested in a move in the summer, should we wait or should we instead spend our money and buy Zaha and Dembele just because we may be able to get them now if we pay enough? There is no way we'd drop £80m on Zaha to then be in the market for Sancho in the summer. I think the club are doing the right thing, if this is indeed their strategy. If we miss out on Champions League football options such as Zaha and Dembele would likely still be attainable in the summer anyway. The only position possibly is left back because I'm not sold on us trying to buy Chilwell. In the last month I've kept more of an eye on him and he has been underwhelming at best, particularly defensively. If there is someone available now alternatively to Chilwell then I'd be inclined to make a move for them this window. As you mentioned, if we really need to bring a player in to freshen things up or add an extra body then it would probably be a loan and in that situation you do have to ask the question why is that player available on loan from their parent club in the first place?

I personally would have used a more dominant alternative to Christensen against Burnley who will look to long balls and set pieces to create chances. I would have also started Kovacic over Barkley. He's going to have to be disciplined to play that role today for us. It's worrying how weak our bench looks, particularly with regards to midfield and forward options with just a couple of injuries.

£8m is phenomenal business.

What are the 2 different values for? Did we really get £8m for Michael Hector?

No links might be a good thing because in recent year's we've brought a few players who have barely been mentioned amongst the rumour mills.

If ever we needed CHO to spark into life and show some form it's now. To be honest, I would be inclined to play a 3 of CHO, Mount and Willian against Burnley but with Willian on the left and CHO on the right. Willian has had a couple of great games on the left side (particularly recently the Spurs game) and CHO looked better in the last game on the right. I think at present when he plays on the left it's predictable that he's cutting inside and has little support from the full back to provide a decoy. On the right side he can be a bit less predictable with his wing play which will help him gain form and confidence in the short term and if Reece James plays at right back he also has a genuine threat from the full back to aid him also.

A few reports too that Spurs have agreed to buy Piatek for about £30m.

Probably because Costa is on a steep decline, Felix is still adjusting and needs time and Morata, well, is Morata I guess.

As long as it's all taken with a pinch of salt I actually quite enjoy it. Sometimes I seriously wonder if some journalists are on the big club's forums such as this one, see some of the players the fans want and the next day we're linked with them.

If this is true, then realistically I think he has a main target in mind (Sancho perhaps) that is simply not available this window but he wants to freshen things up and add a new face to the group. This seems to be the compromise option to that. Do a temporary stop gap now and get who we really want in the summer rather than settling on a permanent signing which is lower down our wanted list. I think unlike the Conte's and Mourinho's, Lampard would be willing to compromise in certain areas to get the right players in. If it was Conte he'd be pushing us to spend £60-70m on option 2 or 3 right now.

Couldn't agree more. Unless we're talking a Messi or Mbappe talent, it's impossible to make a judgement on a player at 19, 20 years old. It seems like most are either grossly underrated and written off, or massively overrated and hyped beyond all realistic expectation. This season has shown a bold shift in mentality at the club and it's been refreshing but by no means is it anywhere near finished, the last few weeks are a reminder of that. Let them develop and let's see what we have in 2 or 3 seasons time. I, like I'm sure most Chelsea fans, am hoping to see them all here in amongst the first team squad making important contributions to a winning team (fingers crossed still being led and coached by Super Frank).

I think Pedro's lack of minutes is down to Lampard's lack of faith in him rather than necessarily being '4th choice' wide man. It's key that Lampard wants this deal or at the very least considers it a compromise for getting his first choice in the summer, whilst still being an improvement on Pedro. If that's not the case, I would agree he won't play much and it would be a bit pointless apart from a way to allow Pedro to leave this month.

It completely depends on if Lampard fancies having him. If he does then I'm fine with it because it probably means that Chelsea will allow Pedro to leave and still keep us with 4 wide players. At the moment Lampard clearly doesn't fancy Pedro and it's stretching our options with just 3 wide players. You ideally need 4 to be able to rotate and have attacking options on the bench that the manager trusts to use when the first choice ones aren't working out. The alternative would probably be to drop £80m on Zaha this January and then not be in the race for Sancho in the summer. This way we suddenly open our options up for the summer - we could still buy Zaha, we could make a move for Sancho or we could even look to buy Lemar if he blew up. It makes a lot of sense as a cheap, risk free way to freshen things up a little. January is such a difficult time to make key signings and that's exactly what we need to do to add to the talented group of young talent we have.

On loan according to the article. I would far rather we take a risk with something like this on loan and gives us chance to assess properly in the summer than just buying a third or fourth choice simply because they're available now. We've made too many mistakes along similar lines in recent years.

I think it's what we all expect. Lampard has already stressed the need to be more clinical in attack so an offensive player is clearly on his wishlist and his contact changing at left back also has to be taken as an indicator that he's not happy there either.

He probably has the biggest potential of all of our youngsters but I personally think it's impossible to make a comment such as our only future world class youngster. I think all the young players we have (including Pulisic) in the first team squad this season are excellent players for their age and it remains to be seen how each player 'kicks on' and develops further with more experience and game time over the next couple of seasons. You only have to look to the manager for a late bloomer. Whilst he was a good premier league midfielder, I don't think any Chelsea fan would have expected Lampard to be regarded as world class by the end of his career in his first 18 months at the club. He only really started showing that form at about 25-26 years old and arguably his peak was just shy of turning 32 years old when he scored 22 goals in 36 games in the Premier League in 2009/10. Hopefully Reece and Tammy both commit their long term futures to the club and they'll all be tied down for years to come and all deliver on their potential for Chelsea.

To be honest if Lampard wants Dembele then I am happy with getting a deal as long as we don't pay much more than £40m. It's clear as day that Lampard has no faith in Giroud and very little in Bats which is leaving us incredibly thin up front, as if Tammy were to go down injured we'd have big problems. Having two strikers that Lampard can trust will only benefit us.

To muddy the waters even more, I've seen a few times on Twitter tonight that apparently Conte wanted him at Chelsea and we approached United on deadline day in the summer of 2017 before we went in for Zappacosta. There are no words...

Great video. My dad went to the Wembley final, I think he was 10 at the time (ironically he took me to the 1997 cup final when I was 10) and he always speaks fondly of the late 60's/early 70's team (similar to how I feel about the mid to late 90's team to be honest). I must admit I love watching old videos of them because they played some really good football at the time and had some real characters in the team. Little side note my dad spent a good chunk of his childhood in London before my granddad moved down to Gloucester with the RAF. My granddad is a Spurs fan but took the kids to watch all the London teams in those days and my dad decided to support Chelsea after going to watch them whilst his younger brother chose Arsenal. My dad's eldest brother chose Liverpool as that is where my nan was born. I don't think there was much banter from any of them growing up it was just full on rows and fights!

I agree, whilst I wasn't blown away at the time and felt we overpaid, I thought the transfer would be a quiet success because he seemed the profile to suit a manager like Conte who seems to have a habit of getting something extra out of decent or good, but not great players. But I'm pretty sure he came in injured, and just never got a run or seemed fully fit in that season. Once Sarri came in, it was clear that Drinkwater and Bakayoko were completely surplus to requirements.

Drinkwater is a good, solid Premier League player. He's just not at Chelsea's level, simple as that. You always hope that players can make that next step up, and he has simply failed to do so. His chance would have come in the middle of his first season when we had injuries and Bakayoko was struggling like crazy but Drinkwater was injured too then and once we had fully fit bodies in the midfield he was always going to be near the bottom of the list. Hopefully he gets a run of games and plays well at Villa. He should be a good signing for them.

The only player I can think of in such a bracket that would be attainable for that sort of figure is Diop at West Ham. He actually looks a very good player, I'm just unsure if its the right move when we have other areas which require strengthening more. My brother in law is a Hammer and generally pretty fair and honest with his assessments, and thinks Diop will become a star and likely move to a bigger club sooner rather than later.