Superblue

I'd be happy with Llorente, but I get the feeling if we buy him that Bats will want to leave and we'll probably let him, which still leaves us with 2 strikers still.

We are far better coming in for him in January. £40m for Barkley is a reach at the best of times, let alone with a year left on his contract.

You have to assume that our confidence in getting ox perhaps led to us allowing boga to leave on loan so we're left yet another player thinner within the squad currently.

Yes I would agree that surely through agents or intermediaries we would have been aware of his preference and ambition to play in centre midfield so seems baffling that we've continued to pursue the move, more than likely ahead of other targets that are no longer viable.

If the reasons are true though, would you be happy us buying him to play centre midfield?

If that is the reason for rejecting us then he needs to set his sights to a mid table team that are willing to take a punt on him in that position. He's young enough to go play week in week out there for a couple of seasons and if he flourishes a big club will buy him. No team in the top 6 will take a chance on playing him central midfield when his best work so far has been playing wide. For my sins my best mate is an arsenal fan and he said ox would be terrible playing central midfield for them. Wing backs seems to be the fashionable thing currently and he has the skill set and potential to excel in that position.

I don't think its about Conte making a player better, it's about him finding the right formation, tactics and fit to bring more out of players. Moses is an average winger, his end product isn't good enough and he's not defensively solid enough as a full back. However it's clear that his pace, power and energy suit him as a wing back, whilst his offensive and defensive abilities are both of a sufficient standard for the position without excelling. Last year brought Luiz's game up a level, Hazard was back to his best, Cahill probably had his best season at Chelsea, Alonso silenced doubters, Pedro, the list goes on. He clearly has an eye to identify talents in players that perhaps others don't that will suit the system that he wants to use for the club. Kante, Luiz and Alonso proved to be excellent buys last season and Morata, Bakayoko and Rudiger look like they will also be good buys based on their promising starts. Hopefully if we are to buy the likes of Ox and Barkley they will have the same impacts.

I agree with this. I've said previously there are lots of similarities between this and Joe Cole. When we brought Cole he didn't seem to have a defined role and needed to leave his boyhood club to flourish without the pressure of unrealistic expectations. As people have alluded to already, he has some characteristics to play either as a central midfielder or higher up the pitch - he needs guidance now. My biggest concern is that he doesn't seem to have been trusted much, certainly under Koeman, and at his age its important he shows quickly the tactical awareness and discipline that appears to be lacking from his game currently. The raw talent is clearly there.

Everton apparently interested in him too.

Not just this but conte may see him as a fit for particular games. For example if bakayoko or kante is injured away to city, conte may feel that drinkwater is a more solid option instead of fabregas. Or home to Brighton and fabregas isn't available he may be seen as someone more comfortable on the ball than kante. With the volume of games next month and beyond it's ridiculous to not think that four central midfielders isn't necessary.

He strikes me as a late bloomer that's only really kicked on in the last couple of seasons. Who's to say he's reached his ceiling. He perhaps feels he's hitting his prime and fancies testing himself at a bigger stage. If he works hard and performs I fully believe conte would play him over others if he deserves to play. That's the only true chance any player needs...

Completely agree I'm a big fan of both Willian and Pedro and feel it's criminal how under appreciated they are to the cause. Yes they have games where they can be poor, but Hazard has his fair share too and I would argue the drop off in hazards game when he is poor is far worse than drop off in the game of willian or pedro. Don't get me wrong either this isn't bashing of hazard because he's a phenomenal player.

The error was not bringing our target in first. There is an argument that if we bring someone in first it weakens our position of selling because the buying team knows that we're happy for Matic to leave but in this instance we knew United wanted him and would've paid our asking price. Now we're in the position of looking desperate. We probably could have negotiated Drinkwater for £20 - 25m before selling Matic but Leicester can see we're desperate and have just flogged Matic for £40m so were always going to play hardball to get more money from us.

Yeah agree, if the choice is buy a centre back and move Luiz into midfield or keep Luiz at the back and buy a midfielder it's the second option all day long. He's a serviceable midfielder, who may play there a couple of times a season when struggling for numbers or possibly late on when holding on to a lead. But he's a natural and one of our best centre backs, he's a far better player than he was in his first stint at the club in that position. We need a natural central midfield option in the squad so there is little need to play him there in the future.

Are you saying that we haven't played attractive football. I would say that the winning run last season was some of the most refreshing football I've watched the club play for a long time with a new formation, approach, mentality. The home game with Everton in particular I would argue as one of our most complete and dominant games I've watched us play and Everton are far from mugs. Conte played the best way to get a result in the Spurs game, I'd far prefer flexible managers who will tweak their own tactics and mindset depending on the circumstances than one set on playing one way. People like Guardiola and Klopp when their teams are on song it's great, but when things don't go their way there seems no plan b or alternative approach which becomes their downfall.

It really felt like his mojo was back today and should be the springboard for our season. In a ridiculous way, such a hard game like this so early in the season was probably what we needed to refocus.

In my opinion, a game and result like this was more important to see than outplaying Spurs and beating them comfortably by 2 or 3 goals. We all know what happened 2 years ago, and with the summer that we have had, last week, the media frenzy of trying to shoot us down, we needed to see a lot of character today. John Terry is now gone and despite him not playing last season much, his influence cannot be underestimated. Add to this that our new captain (whatever people want to think about Cahill) was suspended and as a result, we had a team with no English players lining up. We also had four players in with no real Premier League experience, one being a 21 year old entrusted with being the centre back in the back 3. The team stood up today, it wasn't pretty but its not like Spurs opened us up continuously and created clear cut chances throughout the game. We dug in, fought and reaped the rewards. I do believe we get Cahill, Fabregas and Hazard back, Bakayoko fit and buy a couple and we'll be well up there again this season.

Morata could get really isolated with that formation as we'll be inviting Spurs on to us. We will need runners from midfield, ideally Bakayoko would potentially provide this but he will be nowhere near match fit.

I'm not a fan of Dier but he gives Spurs the tactical flexibility to change from 3 at the back and match us up, to 4 at the back and pack the midfield depending on the circumstances.

Huge game for so many players today - Christensen, Rudiger, Bakayoko and Morata all have a chance to really prove themselves at the club with a big performance. I'm feeling we need a big performance from Willian too today as our senior attacking threat.

I'm pretty sure, having been a regular and won the league, that if drinkwater did come in he would believe he is good enough to push for a starting spot. Any professional should have that mindset if they are at a top team. If starting berths are locked down, which I believe they will be once bakayoko is fit then it would be incredibly hard to attract another player at the very top level of they aren't guaranteed as a starter. The next step is to ensure that the next players to come in don't cause a huge drop off in quality when called upon but have to be willing to join the club with no promises and aware that they won't be first choice when they join and need to force their way into the team. You can't just buy top level players for that role. Case in point, look at city pursuing Jonny evans.

We could buy Messi and there would still be people who would find something to moan about...

A lot of pessimism for this transfer on this forum, but I don't think it's bad at all. People need to realise we're not buying a first choice midfielder. We already have Kante and Bakayoko primed for that, and Fabregas to boot. This is a depth signing and it ticks a lot of boxes - homegrown, experience playing in a 2 man midfield, Premier league experience (including experience within a title race), some experience in Champions League, already history playing with our main midfielder Kante. At 27, he should be entering the prime years of his career and over the past couple of years his career has really pushed on and progressed so who's to say there's not more to come. There are plenty of players who develop and bloom much later in their careers (Kante for one, Drogba another). If price is the biggest gripe, that's a decision made by the board to decide what they believe is acceptable and really shouldn't be an issue or worry to any of us.

10/10 - the Desailly goal was the tricky one for me.

How are they getting him on loan?!