Superblue

I'd look at it the same way. If it suits let him go back on loan and let them cover his wages for the rest of the season in the hope that he can be sold for a few million in the summer after a good 6 months. Worst case scenario, you can give him a free transfer in the summer (as opposed to now) if there's no takers for £5-6m. It's a shame really that we already have 2 loans in the team, otherwise I'd have been inclined to propose a loan swap with Auba and a cheeky proposal to take Raphinha for 6 months, given he's struggling there and they're extremely unlikely to command anywhere near the fee they paid out for him in the summer without a spike in form.

They're not giving anything out yet on Sterling either, but the fact his scans and assessments are being done would also suggest his could be similarly as bad. With that in mind, you can perhaps see a bit more reason for why we've bit the bullet for Felix in the short term to add an extra attacker to the squad. It's still a big commitment though when realistically we're finishing out of the top 4 this season anyway, bar a huge turnaround in fortunes.

I'd like to think this is the whole point of the scouting and recruitment areas of the club being completely revamped. All of these names being mentioned - Caicedo, Enzo, Mac Allister at one point were available for low fees earlier in their development and just require some time and patience to develop. Football moves so quickly, there's no chance that 6 months ago when Benfica were signing Enzo that fast forward to now he'd be being looked at as one of the top midfielders in world football and 120m release clause sounds a "fair deal". Any way you want to look at this, 120m is a massive risk on a player. He could become one of the top midfielders of his generation but are you prepared to gamble 120m for that? He's played in Europe for 6 months in the Portuguese league. He looks a real player but there are so many factors to consider, and it's hardly like we have a great track record of big money buys as it is. The key is for the likes of Vivell, Winstanley, Shields, etc to find the next ones because there will be a next one, that's how football works. It's a never ending conveyor belt and it's all about picking the right one from it at the right time. It also isn't as simple as looking at the best player we all think can be bought on the market if the fit here isn't right and that's another beauty about recruitment in sport. There's no guarantee. We may pick a player up that people don't rate at the same level as Enzo, but he ends up slotting into the side and fits like a glove for our team. Liverpool signed Wijnaldum who struggled in a relegated Newcastle side and he just fit them and elevated his game. Maybe we do the same in the summer with Lavia if Southampton went down, and he needed this season of playing more regularly to kick on and we get the benefits from that next year. I don't know, but I know that if we start shopping at the Enzo end of the market yet again, if it goes wrong, it significantly limits what we can do then moving forward.

In fairness we've limped into the Champions League spots the last 2 seasons. We caught a bounce off Tuchel coming in and even then proceeded to try to throw it away and needed other teams to do us a favour on the final day because we couldn't do it ourselves. Then last season we were fortunate we started the season so strongly like we have regularly done in the past because from December onwards the season completely nosedived and we barely clung on to top 4. If we're all being honest with ourselves this run of form has been coming and arguably is just carrying on since last December. Not sure of the stats but the second half of last season under Tuchel probably has us in about 8th-10th position in the league too. All of them offer the same problem - great on their day but their day comes once every 4 or 5 games, or a patch of form every 3 or 4 months. They're not helped by the midfield issues and our full backs being crocked more often than not for the last year but even in Tuchel's first 12 months here they were all like that then too. The consistency and mentality of the group as a whole is a massive problem.

Pathetic

It's definitely excessive. Having said that, he's a player that very much divides opinion and I am intrigued to see how he'd do over here. The most awkward situation will be if he's a huge success because I don't know where that leaves everything then. We'll be committed to Nkunku but there will be a clamouring for us to keep him and I'd assume he'd want to stay too if he caught lightning in a bottle here. I can't see a situation where you could accommodate both Felix and Nkunku unless perhaps you reverted back to wing backs and played two central attackers behind the striker.

Some have mentioned that Atletico are trying to keep hold of Felix for a new manager next season, but I'm also wondering whether it suits us just as much as we have no intention to buy him anyway. It is perhaps that Potter has a plan for how he wants us to set up moving forward and Felix is the stopgap signing to perform the role that is earmarked for Nkunku next season. Obviously if Felix is successful it certainly poses questions then, but realistically I don't see us buying Nkunku and Felix for big money when they'd be performing similar roles and likely playing for one place in the team. Separate note regarding Lavia - makes complete sense to hold off until the summer on this one. Southampton are not going to want to sell now when fighting off relegation. If they go down, his price could potentially come down significantly, and if they stay up I still think we'd have more chance of getting a much fairer price for him than we would right now.

Atletico will have moved on Felix and Cunha on loan this window. Surely they'll be looking at a replacement in the attacking positions (unless they already have one). Wonder whether we could push one of ours in their direction - they do like usually buying our problems.

Whether Potter is the answer long term or not is irrelevant currently. It's more important right now to change and shift the culture at the club. It's well known that Pep rejected our overtures because of the hire and fire mentality. If Potter was to get the boot, we'd be on to our 3rd manager in the first season. It would completely undermine what has been released about the ownership looking at things on a longer term position. I can't sit here and say Potter is going to be a success. At present he's dealing with a ridiculous number of injuries (more than what Liverpool had to deal with a couple of years ago when Klopp had them in a similar position to this one at a similar stage of the season), and he does seem to be trying to move the team into a back 4 system which I think is right for the long term but he's having to try and make it work currently with players like Jorginho and the centre backs not well suited. Having said this, it's an even bigger car crash currently than I'd expect. But for me, unless we got sucked into a relegation battle, the owners must stick to their position. The last thing we want is to be in a similar position in 3, 4, 5 years time and we get turned down by a world class coach because the sacking culture hasn't stopped.

From what I've seen reported Atletico don't want a buy option (probably for that very reason that they're hedging their bets a successful loan will stir interest) - it's either been no option or an obligation. Personally, I wouldn't have entertained this deal. However, I think no option is better than an obligation because the risking of losing out to him is not as bad as the risk of being stuck with another expensive player who struggles.

Felix isn't just an odd fit for us, but I think in general. Like you said he does have a lot of talent and he's still young and likely to develop further but you feel to get the best out of him he needs to play as a second striker in very much a free role. It's a formation and style that isn't used very regularly anymore. Unless this is something that Potter is looking at, he feels very much like another square peg like Havertz is. Havertz effectively needs that role too. The problem for both of them is we still don't have that central striker (not named Auba) that can play with either of them. The one thing I would say is at least it's a loan, albeit an expensive one. It's up to him to prove himself and I'd assume he will want to in order to get out of Atletico permanently. If he was a great success then we can look at buying him in the summer. If he struggles then at least it's not another player we'll be looking at on the books wondering how we'll move him on.

The biggest issue with Felix for me is the same problems we have with Havertz - I can't work out his most well suited defined position and role in a team. I don't think in the bigger teams he can be afforded a freer role like he perhaps enjoyed at Benfica (and Havertz did at Leverkusen) as their best attacking outlet at the time. As @Vesper said, the figures being mentioned for what is nothing more than a 6 month loan and what seems to be no buy option makes it such an unattractive proposition.

I've seen a couple of highlights of him and he actually looks pretty decent to be fair.

Also if we signed Thuram, given our current injury issues and threadbare squad, maybe we can ask his dad to sign up too.

I've said a number of times that the club shouldn't be wasting tens of millions on players that are filling squad places. We've wasted far too much money in that way in the past. Instead we need to strike a balance of creating spots and opportunities for academy and younger players to be promoted and fill them, alongside good value opportunities which are not costing the club a fortune in this day and age. I do think Thuram fits into that bracket if talk is correct that Gladbach are only looking at around £8 - 10m for him. He could easily be a very cost effective way of solving the empty abyss that seems to be our striking options at present, and offers the flexibility to play out wide or alongside another. The one thing he does offer which we completely lack is a direct, robust, physical presence in attack with pace. Our side at times looks so slow and one paced. Teams not only look at our current defence and feel they can attack it with pace and stop us pushing too high up the pitch but also at the other end, teams can do this and keep the pitch compact by pushing their own defensive line up as they're not worried about the space in behind because there's little pace in our team to expose that. At the very least Thuram would give something completely different for teams to consider. For the price, I wouldn't be against taking advantage of the expiring contract and snapping him up. He certainly feels like someone we'd be taking a bit of a punt on but hopefully we'd have a 25 year old seemingly on an improving, upward trajectory with his prime years ahead for a steal. At worst, we've got a player who should be more than capable fulfilling a squad role across a front line consisting of a number of players who are struggling to offer consistent output anyway.

How many 'ready made superstars' have we bought that have turned out to be hugely successful signings here? Off the top of my head the only ones you could argue are Ashley Cole, Makelele, Ballack and Fabregas. The rest have ranged between average down to complete busts with a number falling into that second category. Even when we've been in positions of strength, our best signings have always been players on an upward trajectory that come here with their best years ahead of them and thrive and develop further here. Our new scouting and recruitment team should be targeting that profile of player anyway and that's ultimately what they should be paid for.

You really think they'll spend about £250m in the summer for those two? I'm not even sure they'd be prepared to pay for one of them, let alone two.

His Chelsea look is pretty iconic that it's easy to forget he was playing for Sampdoria and initially with Juve with a full head of hair! 90's Italian Football on Channel 4 was incredible, iconic music too! A ridiculously strong league back in those days, with so many strong clubs and top players and Luca was one of the best of them.

There's a shade of Mikel about him when he lets the ball across his body and uses his frame to block players from taking the ball. It makes him incredibly press resistant. It was something Mikel probably didn't get nearly enough credit for at the time. There's a bit more mobility and attacking intent from Zakaria though in his game. I've been impressed with what I've seen so far and do feel he's growing as he's getting more fitter and more confident. Whilst I wouldn't say go and buy him outright right now, I do think given the prices being bandied around for players, his price feels a fair one that we could visit at the end of the season if he's continued to kick on. Or we could pull the Italian trick on themselves and try to negotiate a better deal. He is part of the reason why I don't want us to panic buy this window in midfield if the right player isn't available. We have him here for the rest of the season, let's make sure we make the right decision with him at the end of it, whichever that may be.

It's forgotten because United won the treble that year, but that 98/99 team were incredible and only finished 4 points off United that season. We lost Poyet for a period who at the time was Lampard esque with his scoring from midfield and we let a 2 goal lead slip at home to Leicester and I think lost to West Ham too late in the season when we were arguably in the ascendancy to go on and win it. Given the way that United side are revered (and rightly so winning a treble), it could so easily have ended up rewriting a significant sporting achievement.

I'm so gutted about Luca today, this one just cuts. I was just 9 years old when he joined in the summer of 1996, and although football around the globe wasn't as readily available as it is today, Italian football at this point was the pinnacle and this was a household name whom we had just weeks before watched captain Juventus to the Champions League. He might have been a declining force on the world stage but like Ruud Gullit a year before him, it was a world superstar coming to the Bridge the likes of which we'd not seen before. The move could easily have gone so wrong, but for someone with such a huge career behind him there was no ego. Every time he graced the pitch at the Bridge he gave everything and the fans in turn reciprocated the love. That 4-2 comeback against Liverpool is one of my all time favourite games, where he scored the third and fourth and I was at the Cup Final in 1997 and one of the clearest memories I have of it was Vialli's introduction late in the game and the first time he got the ball, the atmosphere was electric for him. Maybe there's bias and Chelsea blinkers on, but I've always felt a lot more of the foreign players that come to Chelsea hold an affinity for the club long after their time here than most other clubs, and Vialli highlighted that. Despite spending the twilight of his career here, you can tell how much he loved the club, still followed and supported us to his death and continued living in the area for the rest of his life even after leaving. Despite the success under Roman, that late 90's side is up there, if not my all time favourite era supporting the club - a time where it was just enjoyable without the pressures and level of scrutiny/exposure that exists today, and I feel blessed that I lived to experience such a great player and man represent the club that I love. Cancer is a bitch, and having seen up close what it can do to a human being, the one solace that I can take is there's no pain and suffering for him anymore. Rest in Peace Luca, we love you x

Jesus Christ, I've only just jumped on here after last night and had to trawl through half a dozen pages of rambling and moaning. The Benfica side is saying we offered one thing and now something else. The Chelsea side (Matt Law today, but particularly David Ornstein all along) is saying that the figures being put out there were never offered and we're sticking to our own valuations of the player. You clearly believe the Benfica side, probably because you're pissed off that the potential transfer has collapsed. But the facts are none of us were there, so it's all just assumption at present and when two sides of a story are wildly different the truth is usually something in the middle. Whilst I'd love us to buy Enzo, I also don't want us being mugged off in the market and paying over players valuations. We did enough of that in the summer, the club needs to at times make a stand and ensure it's being run financially sound moving forward. Whether we like it or not, THAT is more important for the long term future than any player potentially being bought or not.

Surprised at the reaction on here tonight, although on reflection maybe I'm not. This forum, social media, etc is so negative at present it becomes a grind just to bother trying to interact and have constructive discussions about the club. We've lost 2 attackers to injury in the first 15 minutes today, to now bring it to an even 10 players out. It's not just a couple of squad players out, we've got 6 or 7 players injured who'd be locks to start in our strongest set up, and it's getting stretched every passing week. When Liverpool had injury problems 2 years ago they were in a similar position to us now and just about built momentum when players returned late in the season to save a top 4 spot. When City struggled to keep key players fit they finished about 20 points off Liverpool the one season. I think a bit of context is needed when considering just how depleted we are across the pitch at the moment. Could have easily folded tonight but I thought we played well up to the penalty area. Kovacic and Zakaria both were excellent not just individually but looked like they complemented each other very well and it made a difference having their legs together in the middle compared to Jorginho. But thought the football was pretty pleasing on the eye in phases, being brave from the back and midfield to play out of City's press and it opened them up at times. We just lack a cutting edge - it doesn't help when we have a few attacking options out injured and our two full backs, but it does probably run deeper than that and longer term we need a couple of additions in those areas to create and finish chances in the final third. To be honest watching us tonight, we looked a lot more like Potter's Brighton - trying to gain control of the game and playing comfortably on the ball but lacking a killer instinct in attack. I personally though come out of tonight's game more pleased with the performance despite the loss, than I do the draw against Forest for example where we were awful. City was always going to be a struggle and will be again at the weekend, the key will be can we play a bit more positive like this against Fulham and Palace because we'll find it easier to open teams like that up and hopefully offer a greater goal threat than we did tonight.

Enzo can want the move all he wants, it doesn't mean Benfica are going to sell him.

I think what's important from that Ornstein video is that he is basically suggesting we have targets such as Enzo and if we can make a deal in January we will, and if we can't then we'll potentially return in the summer. I really hope this is the case and we don't end up buying for the sake of it this window. Whilst there will be mistakes and a learning and building process, I like a lot of what the new ownership are trying to put in place with regards to a football structure at the club with a more modern approach to scouting and recruitment. It's why I do believe with time, they could get something going here which is actually sustainable and doesn't require an owner to fund us year on year. But if we blink and start bringing in players who are just going to add to the current problem (an example in my head would be Edson Alvarez) I'll be far from impressed.