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It might actually be a blessing if it meant taking him on loan instead of buying him out right, even if he wasn't available for a few weeks. He's a completely short term band aid signing, so spending any serious money to bring him in would be silly.

If we were going to go down the route of changing manager, Poch is definitely not the answer. His stock has been elevated beyond belief off the back of his Spurs stint. Let's not forget that they were already a team challenging and/or achieving top 4 under Redknapp and AVB before Poch. He didn't take a team that was consistently in the bottom half for the last decade before him. Did he improve them? Yes, he got them to become a more consistent mainstay in the top 4 but what else did he do besides that? They reached a couple of finals and got thoroughly outplayed in them. Any slight chances they had of a title challenge, they'd find ways to crack. There was absolutely no cut throat mentality from manager or players to elevate to a trophy winning side. He's already proven himself incapable of improving the mentality of a group to become winners. It's not forgotten on me, how much we used to have to put up with the media, ex footballers, etc gushing over how great a team Spurs were and 'pound for pound they had the best XI in the league'. I'm sorry, but if that was indeed the case then a manager doesn't have that group for that sustained period of time and not win anything (and bar a couple of finals, not even come close to winning anything). He'd perhaps be a safe bet to keep us where we are, as a perennial top 4 challenger but our ambition should be to build back to challenging for the title. Add to that his Spurs background, he'd be about as popular an appointment as Benitez was amongst our fan base. In that situation I'd rather take a complete punt on someone who hasn't had the chance to prove themselves at these levels yet, than to appoint someone who has already had those chances and proven that their level is below where we want to be heading.

Can't really support Tuchel here though. He'll know that in his 18 months here he's had to manage Kante's fitness and probably been lucky to have him available for more than 50-60% of the games last season. He'll also be aware that Lampard had the same exact problems in his 18 months here. Kante hasn't been able to stay fit since reportedly playing injured in the Europa League final against Arsenal. 3 years and an ageing player is enough evidence to suggest that this situation isn't going to improve. I can understand Tuchel not wanting to sell Kante and keeping him here for the 50-60% of games he's fit because he is a game changer and still is capable of putting in massive performances for the team. I'd liken it somewhat to when we had Robben here and my opinion was always that we were a better side having him available for half our games than we were not having him at all. But ultimately Tuchel should have scoured the world to find someone capable of replacing him when he isn't fit and long term replacing him altogether. It could well end up costing him his job that he's banked on us having enough quantity in midfield not to address it this season, but not considering how much the quality drops off when Kante and Kovacic aren't fit and they're regularly not fit. This is the biggest issue. I agree with Mount, in his current state he's a very good player but not an outstanding player but in our current state he's been elevated to one of our most important and seemingly un-droppable players. For me, I want to see him sign a long term contract and stay here for the best years of his career, and I see no reason why he can't continue to improve and develop as he gets older but on current form, he needs to be dropped and given a bit of a wake up call that his performances are a shadow of where they should be. Havertz is in exactly the same boat. At least with Havertz, I think Broja has had a couple of cameo's to justify putting him in from the start. In Mount's case, there isn't anything else in the squad to replace him. Ziyech and Pulisic aren't the answer. Beyond that, we're then on to Harvey Vale.

I think in our situation it's both. If you analyse the goals we've conceded so far this season we've conceded 3 goals now from a failure to deal with set pieces which is becoming an increasing problem, and we've now conceded in 4 straight games where we've lost the ball in our own half. For me both situations do point to quality but for me they point more to the attitude and mentality of the group that we're not switched on enough to deal with sudden changes and not enough players are stepping up to take responsibility in key situations. Where we definitely do lack in quality is in situations where we're chasing a game. I can't think of hardly any games in recent seasons where we've come from behind to win. There's a massive lack of maturity in our attacking when chasing a game, too many players suddenly seem to switch off from the basics and panic seems to ensue even when there's plenty of time in a game left. I must say Tuchel is not without criticism in these situations either. I can understand changing personnel and sometimes tweaking things, but too many times he'll make drastic changes that upset any sort of rhythm and balance to the side. I know Jorginho wasn't having a particularly great game tonight and is suspect defensively but when he was taken off tonight we ended up playing Kova essentially on his own in there anyway, and there was no fluency after these changes. It would have made more sense to keep both as a midfield base to control and dominate the ball to put Southampton under pressure. Instead we struggled keeping hold of the ball and sustaining pressure. Sometimes these situations need a calm head, especially when there's still 20-30 minutes of the game to play. You can panic a little more and try a more direct approach with a few minutes to go if still behind.

Whilst De Jong would be a quality addition and I'd in no way turn him down, I do think it's a greater need for us to bring someone in who can break up play in midfield, especially if Tuchel wants to try and use a back 4 system more regularly. Tuchel is right about Kante. If he's fully fit he's the glue that knits everything else together in the side. But ultimately it's also on Tuchel that we don't have a genuine replacement for Kante when he's out, especially when we had that situation so many times last season. Gallagher is not that replacement, he doesn't have the awareness and understanding to play that role. We're too easy to play against at the moment without that profile of player in midfield and Kante can't be relied upon anymore to stay fit, let alone perform to his peak every game.

Back to back away games now where we've been out battled by a significantly inferior team who simply wanted it more. To me that's unforgiveable. People who wanted Tuchel to switch to a back 4 can now see why it doesn't work. Leaves us far too open at the back because without Kante we haven't got a midfielder capable of breaking up play, and only adds another ineffective attacker to the team. Mount and Havertz have dropped completely off the grid this season. I can appreciate the work rate that Havertz in particular puts in, but ultimately we need quality from him in the attacking positions and he's offering far too little at the moment. Maybe they've both become too comfortable, unfortunately when they see options behind them like Pulisic and Ziyech I can probably understand why. Pulisic's cameo was nothing short of a joke and I'm not having the 'right wing back' excuse, because when chasing a game he's effectively going to be lining up as a winger. How are some of these players supposed to convince Tuchel for more game time when they produce that? He should be looking at the form of Mount and Havertz and sense an opportunity to force his way into the side but there's absolutely no desire being shown to do so. I think the time has come to give Broja a run in the side in place of Havertz for sure. The problem is besides Sterling you still have to play at least one of the others at the moment when none of them are justifying anything. I'd seriously consider playing Vale up there instead at present.

Think it's precautionary rather than an injury of any length.

Reece will be a massive loss if true, but with Koulibaly back and if Tuchel opts to play 4 at the back again there shouldn't be a huge shuffle around, it'll likely just be Azpi in for James. Obvious drop in quality but like a few others in our squad, Reece is someone that will need managing as games start coming thick and fast.

I think it's easier to assess things over the next few weeks when games start coming thick and fast. Broja has had a number of niggling injuries and a disrupted pre season so I can see the reasons why he isn't being thrust into a role currently beyond the bench but ultimately Havertz cannot play every game, even more so when a big defence for him at present is his tireless work rate up front. It also seems like Tuchel is wanting to try and utilise a 4-2-2-2 formation in certain games and situations. May not be all the time but it potentially bodes well for the attackers on the periphery as they might find more opportunities in some games as a result of this also.

That portion of the loan army wasn't really the money making scheme but instead the only viable option to minimise damage of awful buys. We've had to do something similar this year with Lukaku. I think the club will want to still utilise the loan market for younger players because the market is there and whether it's through integrating players into our first team following a loan spell away, or increasing the value of players to be able to sell them after a successful loan spell, we've had a lot of success on this front in recent years. Colwill is a prime example of the new ownership I think still seeing value in this model. He hopefully comes back next season either a more polished player for our team or his value is even higher than previous to sell him. Doesn't always work out the right way but with the younger players on loan, I think we get things right more than we don't, especially for the better youngsters we have.

Funny thing was, as we dropped deeper and Leicester put pressure on in the last 10-15 minutes he was an absolute warrior. It's quite extraordinary that we signed a near 36 year old who is now going into his third season here and is still the best defender at the club and in a situation where we have to be concerned about when and where to rest him because he's that important to the team. Beyond Silva though, everyone had to put a serious shift in on Saturday. I can see Southampton being a tougher game than it really should be purely because of that.

Just watched the 'unseen' video of the Leicester game that the club put up on their website and towards the end of the game Silva looked visibly exhausted. I do think with Koulibaly back from suspension, this might be a game Tuchel looks to pull him out and give him a rest.

What about the option of staying at Barca and refusing to take a pay cut?

Unless good money was put on the table (perhaps Ajax for Ziyech as an example), I'd be reluctant to let players out the door this late in the window and try to rush deals through for incomings. From what is seems Chalobah has had discussions with Tuchel and will stay and I think realistically the same should be done with the likes of Hudson Odoi. There really isn't that long before the World Cup but a lot of games between now and then to fit into the schedule. Tuchel is going to have to rotate the players at key times to keep players as fresh as possible and not overloaded. Chalobah will know first hand from last season how opportunities can open up. Loftus-Cheek found the same. Gallagher has also seen the same at the start of this season. Chances will come and it's up to players individually to seize them. If players like Chalobah aren't happy with their game time by the World Cup break then another opportunity presents itself then for a loan move away in the second half of the season and a longer period for the club to put some plans in place for transfer activity in January if they feel the need to.

Agree with Zaha, I've always felt when he's not "on it" he becomes almost anonymous. Having said that besides one poor year, he has scored 10+ Premier League goals in 3 of the last 4 seasons so has shown more consistency at least with his output in the last couple of years. You'd probably feel more confident that he'd give us 8 - 12 goals in the league than the likes of Ziyech and Pulisic. I just feel his time probably was a year or two ago to make that big move. For the right price, I'm not necessarily against it, but I'm not really for it either. I think better opportunities could develop over the next year for the club if they didn't sign him. And if those opportunities didn't happen, then he'd still be potentially an option to bring in next summer, and on a free transfer, to beef up the squad.

This is good due diligence from the club and ownership. They're clearly not taking the injury lightly. It's easy to be concerned about such a serious injury and whether they will fully recover, especially when there have been a number of players over the years at Chelsea who have succumbed to a serious injury and either retired or never been the same (Paul Elliott, Di Matteo, Casiraighi, Essien spring to mind). But I think that there are far more examples of players making a full recovery and going on to have successful careers, especially when suffering a serious injury so young and early in their careers. I don't anticipate the injury that Fofana suffered becoming a long term problem for him. One other thing on Fofana, obviously a huge amount of money being committed to signing him but when we were first being linked with him this summer the media briefings seemed to suggest Leicester wanted a world record fee, upwards of £85m and Chelsea were prepared to meet the fee needed if they couldn't bring it down. I think in the end and considering how the deal has dragged out, we've not done too bad to secure him on a £70 + 5 deal, albeit still a huge figure.

Given the circumstances that's a big win and a lot of character shown after the meltdown last week. Thiago Silva and Azpi were excellent in that second half, just why you don't just discard players when they hit 30. There are situations throughout a season when that experience and leadership is invaluable, and today was one of them.

Whilst we're questioning spending so much on Gordon, I do feel from Everton's perspective its hugely difficult for them to make that sale. They have to give themselves every possible chance of staying up. That's worth far more than £60m for Gordon if he was going to be a difference maker for them to avoid being relegated. I'd genuinely worry for them if they went down that they might struggle to shoot straight back up and they've certainly diced with it a fair few times in the Premier League era. Pretty sure we beat teams twice on the last game of the season to help them stay up pre Roman era. I feel for them it's worth the risk to hold on to him this season, even if it still resulted on them getting relegated and maybe having to sell him next summer for £20-30m instead.

I think if he hadn't got the serious injury he'd have had a look in by now. The season before for Leicester he was phenomenal as a 19 year old, including putting in a really strong performance against us in the Cup Final. I know that Leicester had a lot of injuries last season, but he was possibly the most missed of the lot, especially when Jonny Evans struggled with his fitness too. The amount is a huge investment but in reality it was always going to take a massive fee to prise him away when Leicester paid close to 40m for him when he'd only played about 20-25 games for Saint Etienne, and he's since been successful here in the Premier League. The biggest risk is buying him so soon after such a serious injury. If he had followed up his first season with a similar one last then I don't think there'd be much questioning of the deal but that injury does raise question marks. I think it's probably difficult to assess him on the basis of the start of this season when his head has clearly been turned. When we played Leicester at the end of last season, he played well again then. I feel he was probably a long term target for the club, possibly to replace Thiago Silva in a year or two, and would give the club chance to monitor his comeback from his injury. But I think circumstances this summer made us change tact to just go in and get him now. Let's hope he justifies the commitment the club is making. The talent and potential is definitely there, just no margin for error.

I can see Loftus-Cheek getting moved into the midfield. Have a feeling with Koulibaly out that we may go: Reece RWB, Azpi or Chalobah RCB, Silva CCB, Cucurella LCB, Chilwell LWB Jorginho and RLC in midfield and then three in attack. Be interesting to see if he changes any of these as Havertz doesn't look like scoring at the moment and Mount has started the season in poor form. Maybe a Broja or Pulisic could just freshen up that trio.

He obviously doesn't have the milky bar kid hairdo like that haha But definitely that awareness to spot the runs being made in front of you and the ability to execute them, he looks like he has a lot of promise in his game.

Makes complete sense for us to go in high on this one seeing as Ajax are buying him to replace Antony who they're going to be getting over double that money for. It's a starting point from our perspective to negotiate. Realistically if we got somewhere between 30-35m euros for him I think that would be an excellent deal for us, but I also don't think that's a bad deal at all for Ajax either as they're picking up a player they know has absolutely ruined that league with a much higher output than Antony ever has and is still 29 and could quite comfortably with his play style have another 3 - 4 top years in the Eredivisie. If they can pick him up and bank 50-60m euros extra for Antony, they should be pretty content with that.

A young KDB I agree. I see similarities to him and KDB when he was at Genk and then Bremen. History isn't too kind to him, I can't think of too many Russian players that have lit up the bigger leagues in Europe, let alone the Premier League and even some of their better talents in recent years like Arshavin and Zhirkov have been nothing more than decent on these shores. In such a case moving from the Russian league at a younger age to develop elsewhere may be a good thing, who knows?

Intrigued about the link to Zakharyan. I had heard of him before and was aware that he's highly rated in his country, and although you can't take too much from clips packages his comfort on both feet and vision/execution for a pass at his age do look impressive. This is the sort of player I've championed the club to be targeting now for some time. We need to be looking to buy players who can immediately slot into the team, but we should also be looking at players who in another year or two with the right development could become extremely useful players for the squad. In the case of Gordon, the risk is far too high in my opinion with the price tag but if its correct that this deal looks like being around 15m euros, a couple of these I think are always worth taking a chance on if the scouting reports suggest. If he's not quite ready for the Chelsea first team, then give him a loan for a season to continue his development. He is the sort of player you feel will otherwise end up at a Benfica or Monaco in a year's time and if he continues to develop bigger teams will be looking at him when he's 21/22 for 3-4x the price. Far too many times we've stumped up or been prepared to stump up big money on players who could have been obtained a year or two prior for a fraction of the price. This transfer market is now so competitive and so expensive that you have to give yourself every chance of making it work and finding advantages in it.

It's due to be played early November. Could be wrong but I believe it may be sandwiched between our last 2 league games before the World Cup break which are against Arsenal and Newcastle.