Superblue

Embarrassing to say that is pretty much par for the course in Gloucester mate.

Modric plays in a deep midfield role though, and I do think Croatia reaching the final played a huge part in the decision making. Similar to Cannavaro back in the day. The problem for Hazard is he plays in a similar attacking position to the likes of Messi and Ronaldo and his raw numbers simply don't compare to them. If it was anyone like Hazard, Neymar, Bale, etc I think it would have been extremely difficult to justify them over Ronaldo or Messi. I think @Vesper mentioned earlier that Hazard will turn 30 in 18 months time with a lot of wear and tear on his body. If something like that is going to happen it will need to be in the next season or two in my opinion and when Messi has just banged in 50+ goals this season, even if he slows down I can still see him scoring 30-40 goals over the next couple of years. Can Hazard realistically compete with that?

I don't see many options available to him in England and Italy. United may be in the market if they ship out Lukaku but ironically that is looking like Inter if they do. None of the other top English teams need him. Juventus don't need him, Milan have Piatek and I don't see Napoli or Roma prepared to pay that sort of money for him. If he'd rather play in England I think his best chance would be to stay at Frankfurt one more year and continue developing (and hopefully show this season wasn't a flash in the pan) and then we may well be in for him next summer when we'll be likely desperate to bring a striker in after our ban.

So long as he doesn't end up over here in England (unless it's at us) then it's ok!

Speculation hotting up for De Ligt to United.

Oh I agree, I'd have my doubts over the fit and no doubt theres greater pressure but look at that Juventus squad compared to everything else in the league. Just looking from Sarri's perspective if they wanted him I think he'd struggle to turn that down.

He still never won anything though. He punched above his weight with Napoli and their budgets against Juventus but it still wasn't enough and he obviously had restrictions on him there. The biggest thing for me though is the appreciation he has in Italy for his work. He's tried another country and been generally ridiculed by fans and media for his philosophy and style so if the best club in his country come calling it has to be a big attraction.

If Juventus want him I think he'll be gone. The opportunity to go back to Italy, where he is highly thought of, to work for the biggest club there and the almost guarantee of winning trophies. The job required at Chelsea is a potentially huge one and made all the harder with next seasons ban, so I could fully understand if he decided to leave.

I know. My original post was just stating the situation & the reason why Bulka is supposedly moving on. I do agree with Bulka too though, the club should have had more faith in him. I guess the risk though bringing in Kepa and if he initially struggled to adapt is if the club could have gone into the season just with two very young and inexperienced keepers.

I suspect that's because he wasn't given any game time this season. True, but since that has happened and made his decision then retaining caballero next season is a no brainer for me.

I'm not talking about Jovic, I'm making a point about people bitching and complaining that the club didn't sink millions of pounds on a striker who had scored a few goals in a half season period in a top league (one I personally dont rate that highly to be honest). If we had signed him and he struggled the board would be ridiculed for such a risky purchase, seems they can't win at times.

Piatek had scored a few goals for 4 months though including a hot streak that any striker could hit, I can fully understand the club being hesitant on signing someone up on the back of 20 games. How many players have been signed up off the back of one good season and then tanked. A lot of people are worried about Lampard being appointed due to his inexperience, yet signing Piatek would have been in my opinion a far, far greater risk.

This is debatable. Our transfer window success in the summer of 2016 and 2018 when we didn't have CL football were light years ahead of summer 2017 when we had CL football.

But if rumours are true Bulka refused to sign a new contract and is leaving anyway.

If it's not Sarri or Lampard, then what's the answer?

For all we know this could be the groundwork being laid for a long term plan. I've read a few reports that the club wanted a number of the old guard back at the club at the end of their careers and this could well be the start. Possibly leaving the ban as it is too would give the likes of Lampard and Cech a season to bed in without crazy pressure on them because I think most of us fans realise next season will be a bit of a struggle. It sounds stupid having came 3rd but a top 6 place next season but a couple more younger players coming through alongside RLC and CHO with a much happier and positive atmosphere at the Bridge and no more ban looming over us could be seen as progress with more positivity to look forward to than currently.

The only likely way the club can rebuild this season is by integrating some of their younger players into the first team and squad. Can Sarri be trusted with this? I actually think he did a good job in the overall development of CHO and RLC this season, but there is also the counter arguments of whether this suggests he should have used them sooner and whether ban pressure led to their increased exposure in game's. The big worry for me with Sarri is he seems to be loyal to players already experienced and used to his system and as a result would this mean that younger players would not get a fair shake as he'll far rather trust those he's worked with this last year? That would be fine if the players we currently have are performing but a number simply haven't this last season.

Makes sense. I'd have probably kept him myself anyway before the ban because he's an excellent backup striker. In the current position we're in with the ban, it's even more vital he's retained. I've no problem Abraham or Bats given a chance next season to stake their claim but at present Giroud is the only striker on our books we really know what he's about and what he brings.

Talks apparently scheduled this summer for a new contract according to new reports and the club seem to be increasingly confident that he'll commit. Will be a great boost to tie him down, get one less problem out of the way and look forward to him returning from injury as soon as possible (we'll need him!).

My only real concern if there is no transfer activity this summer is the lack of goals in our squad. Take out Hazard as expected, and with CHO and RLC injured I struggle to envision any of our current squad managing to reach 10 goals unless Abraham or Batshuayi came back and it just 'clicked'. I could cope with everything else, even our full back options, for another season if we had a goalscorer in our squad to be the difference in tight games. There is one advantage to buying players this summer and that is being in the Champions League should help us with attracting our main targets. However, we need to be brutally honest that at present we're nowhere near City and even Liverpool and as a result we need to rebuild this squad properly, not in a rushed, panic way. If that means taking a step back next season and finally looking at some of our loan players and giving them a chance to see if they have a future at this club then so be it.

The problem is if Mount isn't deemed ready and RLC is out long term, can we realistically afford to pass on a deal for Kovacic. We'll have Jorginho, Kante and Barkley our only fit senior midfield options and playing a midfield 3, we're one injury/suspension away from a problem and two away from a crisis. Unless we're bringing back someone like Bakayoko or Drinkwater back out from the cold. I would rather Kovacic if a deal can be done on the cheap to be perfectly honest.

He'll be turning 29 at the start of next season. I'd rather a younger option or put our faith into Reece James. Our efforts should be going into plotting a left back purchase, that is far more important in my opinion.

I can only assume that they have been advised that it's unlikely they'll get the ban either deferred or cancelled altogether by their lawyers. The additional worry is that the ban is increased further. I wouldn't put it past something like this happening, controversy follows this club.

It is a problem when they don't though. Perhaps it's the concern of getting caught on the counter attack but we look toothless at times when a ball is crossed in or cut back and the only player we have in the box is Giroud or Higuain. It was already an issue losing Hazard, our one regular goalscorer this last season. Losing RLC too for potentially a substantial period of next season is a huge problem, as currently he's the only other player in our team I'd label as a genuine and potentially regular goal threat.

I'm not saying it will fix anything but based on this season, things have been far from smooth and for me, we don't get enough people in the box especially from midfield. The only time we really have is in recent weeks with RLC playing. The idea of having someone pushed further up the pitch may help with this because without Hazard next season and without a striker capable of scoring on a regular basis we're going to need all the help we can get scoring goals next year.