Superblue

From what it appears we don't want to be bidding much more than £15-18m on Aubameyang (which I completely agree with) and I really doubt that Toney is gettable at £40-45m. I wouldn't at all be surprised if Brentford will be asking for £60-70m for him. So I do think there would be a bigger gap than what you'd initially estimate. The accounting treatment of transfer fees vs wages has to be a consideration also. Wages are easier to be able to absorb or reduce on an annual basis by being able to loan a player out, even if the loaning club are only paying a proportion of the salary. If Aubameyang for example came in for 1 season and after that we looked to move him back out, we could probably find a suitor to take him on loan and carry a good chunk of his salary. A transfer fee is essentially a sunk cost. Even when loaning a player out we're still stuck with their annual amortisation on the books. If Toney flopped here like Lukaku, you might be able to move his wages on by loaning him out but you're still stuck with his transfer costs which could easily fall into a £12-15m a season territory for 4 or 5 years. We might get a loan fee for him but it won't fall into this size bracket. On paper Toney seems to be the more sensible buy long term but a transfer like his we have to be far more confident is going to work because it has longer term consequences to get out of. With Aubameyang I don't know Barca's exact position, but dragging this out even later into the transfer window we may be able to get him significantly cheaper or even on a loan just for him to be cleared from their wage bill. The other option we do have is for now to simply make do with our current attacking crop. With the World Cup in the winter, there's a shorter timespan of games before the January window, and it's something we can possibly revisit then when we've had more time to plan. There will be plenty of time in December to discuss deals with clubs without the chaos that there currently is.

I agree, I think he's a much better footballer than he's probably given credit for and his profile is a significantly better fit than Lukaku was. I think the problem is the price. How much would Brentford want, perhaps even more so as local rivals. It would have to be upwards of £40-50m. I think if we showed a legitimate interest, I do think he'd push to make the move. Pretty sure he's been caught a couple of times not speaking very positively of Brentford. I think ultimately the difference with Aubameyang is if it doesn't work out, I think he is easier to absorb and bring another attacker in next summer. If Toney costs 3 or 4x as much he immediately becomes a big money signing. The risk if he flops is we're stuck with two very expensive failed strikers on the books and still searching for another. The club would have to be very confident that Toney is "the guy" for likely the money it would cost and if they felt he was that then I'd assume we would have made a move for him much sooner in the window.

So basically then all of our players 30 or over play in positions where there is a greater pool of players who seem to perform for longer into their 30's (i.e. centrally rather than wide) Jorginho isn't a destroyer defensive midfielder and has never relied on his physical attributes and Azpilicueta is predominantly a defender in a back 3 now.

Ironically that seems to have sparked up again over the last day or two that Barca are pushing for De Jong to make a decision next week - take a pay cut or leave. Conveniently missing out hidden option number 3 where he stays on his current contract and there's absolutely nothing Barca can do about it.

Liverpool have Matip, Van Dijk, Thiago, Henderson, Milner, Firmino and Salah all in their 30's and Fabinho, Oxlade Chamberlain and Robertson all turn 30 next season. Add to that Liverpool don't rotate extensively and these players have a lot of mileage playing Klopp's high intensity football for a number of years - do you carry the same concerns for them as you do us? Just because a player turns 30 doesn't make him immediately a bad player. More and more players now are playing at a high level well into their 30's and for some arguably are getting better in their 30's. I know we shouldn't expect everyone to be like Thiago Silva and still be playing at the highest level at 38 years old, but you're listing a number of players that are 30, 31 years old and a 27 year old Sterling. There will be a time when they will all eventually be replaced but it's not a situation where we need to replace 4 or 5 in one summer.

If that's the case I'd sit on the offer if I was Boehly, see whether they get more desperate later in the window.

If that is indeed the case then it only makes this worse as they are essentially being charged for the same thing (one would assume) and receiving different charges. I'd assume Tuchel will be given a further fine for the comments then but really wouldn't put it past the FA to add to the ban. We play Liverpool soon so they're probably eyeing that game up to get him off the touchline.

The bigger question is why are both being treated differently, unless Tuchel's is essentially punishment for his post match comments. It gives me vibes from a few years ago when Chelsea and Spurs got charged for the brawl when they bottled the title and we got fined about 3 times as much as them. Get fed up of the inconsistency the FA choose to show.

The ban is suspended until Chelsea receive the written report and reasons for it so available for Leeds.

Doubt it. Tuchel himself said today at his press conference he doesn't want to lose too many players being linked with moves away because he's fully aware in a couple of weeks time it'll be 2-3 games a week not 1 and he'll need to start rotating a bit. I don't see Aubameyang coming in and starting every game personally.

Lukaku was clearly bought as a longer term option and assumed to be THE striker at the club to just slot in and be a regular starter. I agree that you don't want someone coming in and automatically assuming they are going to be playing week in week out but we don't know how Aubameyang fits if he does come here. At least in this situation, we already know that Tuchel loves the player and has an excellent relationship with him so currently all we can do really with this one is trust his judgement. Clearly no one on the market that we are prepared to commit to and a David or Osimhen would be significantly worse than Aubameyang for the long term if they didn't work out. They'd cost a fortune, probably command wages not dissimilar to Aubameyang but a far lengthier deal. If they bombed we'd be looking at enormous costs or there may be a reluctance to replace them and try to keep making it work, a bit like we had with Torres. At the very least with an example like Aubameyang the costs can be absorbed far easier for a couple of seasons if it didn't work out that well and it shouldn't prevent us going to the market for another attacker potentially next summer when we've had longer to plan.

Very true, a lot of players have got big moves due to doing well in the World Cup or Euros as opposed to considering their domestic form. It was just an observation that I assume he had a strong showing there. He didn't have the hype or big money transfer that Sanches had which, like you say, could add some bias to a judgement. I think the main thing though is this does seem to be a signing with Neil Bath and Jim Frasers fingerprints over it which fills me with more confidence that there's a lot that they see and like in Casedei.

Don't really know much about Casedei and as others have mentioned any highlights videos of his don't stand out. However he was named in the U19 Euros team of the tournament and Neil Bath has provided the quotes on him on the Chelsea website which suggests this is very much a Bath/Fraser identified signing as opposed to a Tuchel/first team signing. For me Bath and Frasers track record speaks enough for itself to trust that they see a lot in this kid to be willing to push the club to sign him for quite a large investment.

Yeah as mentioned at the end its the only thing really putting me off the deal. Even if it was £8-12m and giving him a 2 year contract with an option for a third if things went well, it would be far big a deal in my opinion. But even if we can knock them down a bit on their current stance for price, we'd still be looking at likely more than double the bottom end of that above price.

In what way are Lukaku and Aubameyang remotely the same type of player?

Nobody is a guarantee otherwise such a player would be deemed priceless. I'm not desperate for Aubameyang but I'm also not against it either. It's a short term punt that isn't going to have longer term effects on the club like a Torres or Lukaku signing had. If he chipped in with 8 - 10 goals this season and it won us a few points along the way then its proven to be a short term solution to a problem at the club. I'd liken it to when Mourinho bought Eto'o in his first season here. Tuchel knows him well and he has a proven track record in the league so as an attempt to band aid a problem in the squad, it's probably one of the more safer options than buying a largely unproven commodity for 2-3x the price. We also have to get away from this notion that once you hit 30 its downhill from there. More and more players, especially those at the top level, are having longer careers and in a number of cases are actually finding themselves even improving into their 30's. I'd acknowledge that Auba struggled at the end at Arsenal but its difficult to know how much of that was to do with his relationship with Arteta. His six months at Barca have been excellent and you don't really see many Barca fans wanting him to leave which should say something. Personally as a stop gap solution he ticks a lot of boxes and makes a lot more sense than a number of other options. My bigger issue is the price being mentioned considering Barca took him on a free 6 months ago and considering he is a short term signing.

Worth noting despite his issues with Arteta last season, Aubameyang is on that list in a reasonable mid table position with a very good pressure stat.

Guess it depends on who you're asking out of the FA/PGMOL and actual football fans that have him referee their team

It's the second half of the season I'm more concerned about. Even if we suffered a couple of injuries I think we can push through the first half of the season which is only going to be a shortened period anyway. I can see the second half being a real slog though if we go deep in most competitions and are in some sort of push for places in the league, whether its challenging the title or top 4 race. I'm not against some players like CHO and Trev and even Pulisic going on loan. The World Cup isn't going to be the only driver for some players, some will simply just want to make sure they're playing. But the club need to be smart this season and either only loan until January and revisit the situation then whether to extend the loan or bring players back, or they include break clauses into the deal to allow us to cancel in January. Last Jan when we wanted to bring Emerson back to replace Chilwell we couldn't. There should be no reason why, as an example, we can't offer out for Trev and want a £3-5m loan fee for the season, but if we decide to operate the break clause in January then no loan fee is paid for the whole season. It gives us control over the second half of the season but also fairly compensates the loaning club if they lose a player mid season.

Something I think the club should be seriously considering this season if they are looking to allow a couple of players on loan such as Chalobah, Hudson Odoi, Pulisic is to only let them leave for now until the January transfer window. With the World Cup this winter, the season is essentially going to be treated as two halves. I'm sure I read somewhere that we are likely to have comfortably the most players at the world cup with around 20. This has to be under consideration for the club and should make us reluctant to let players leave for the full season. We only saw last season with Chilwell's injury how one or two can go towards derailing plans and leaving us light in areas. Although we have a largely versatile squad you still want to retain the numbers as the season runs deep. The World Cup could throw up all sorts of problems for us - injuries, fatigue, loss of form/confidence. We need to try and ensure we protect ourselves a little bit more than maybe we usually might need to.

It's not the exact same, but I do think the two have similar personality traits. Is being late for training any more or less unprofessional than putting in the expected effort to training or listening/following instruction? From what I've heard and read regarding Tuchel's management is that he doesn't treat the players like children and try ruling with an iron fist, they're respected to hold themselves accountable and responsible which is probably why it's a bit easier for him to turn a blind eye to someone sometimes being a few minutes late. I think as you said, the difference with someone like this is it isn't malicious and shouldn't be a dressing room problem if its dealt with in the right way which is probably an experienced head like Wenger or Tuchel pulling him to one side and just bringing him back into line if they feel he's veering off course. Arteta made things a much bigger issue than it should have been and that very public and hard line show of discipline bit them in the end because they nearly made top 4 playing Nketiah up top. In hindsight Aubameyang could have been that difference. Tuchel could have easily taken a similar stance with Lukaku last season and just cut him out the squad but he was experienced to know that the team may still need Lukaku at some point and could be the difference in winning some games and the situation couldn't be sorted until the end of the season anyway. Case in point, he scored in both World Club Cup games.

Like this idea. As mentioned previously the referee 'community' has been so protected and insulated for too long I believe they are extremely reluctant to call out on each others decisions. For me, VAR training and refereeing away from the pitch is significantly different from an on pitch official. These should be completely independent as a 'group' from the referees and new VAR officials should be trained as such (i.e. you do one or the other, no capability to be both).

I don't buy the idea that Aubameyang is a negative influence or dressing room "cancer". From what I've seen he seems to be a very likeable personality and doesn't carry much of an ego. I think his biggest problem is he has an extremely carefree attitude and this is what clashed with Arteta. I'd liken his personality to Hazard to be honest who it's been regularly reported put minimal effort into training and not much more consideration into tactical instructions. I think a less experienced manager may have struggled with giving Hazard a little leeway in that regard (you never know if he'd stayed, maybe Lampard would have experienced similar problems with trying to cater for him in an environment he's looking to bring discipline into) in the same way Arteta had no experience dealing with personalities like that and hence why the relationship soured so quickly. It's a completely different personality trait to someone like Lukaku who gives off an overbearing negativity when things aren't going well and holds an incredibly high vision of self-importance for himself. Tuchel knows him anyway so I wouldn't envisage him being a problem if he were to come here. I actually wouldn't personally be against him. Our track record with shorter term, veteran strikers to help the team is far better than that of expensive striker signings supposedly in or around their prime. The sticking point is the cost involved. The transfer fee seems ridiculous for someone Barca signed for free 6 months ago and considering they seem to be willing to grant Depay a free transfer, who you'd assume would be able to command at least a nominally reasonable fee (£10-15m). If this would be an £8-10m signing for a couple of seasons I'd be significantly more receptive to the deal than what it currently sounds like at upwards of £20m.

Just to put it out there this will be just as important as any new signings. If we can get Mount and James signed up to deals that long that'll be two key, young players locked into the club for the best part of their careers.