Superblue

It will be interesting to see how this Kane saga evolves. Spurs may be reluctant to deal with us, but if they feel that City have tapped Kane up in any way Levy may also sour towards them too. Levy will probably feel he can save face a little in this situation as he's not the one actively selling Kane, but instead Kane is trying to force his hand. In that scenario I think Levy will just want to get the best deal for Spurs rather than being concerned over who he's dealing with. Might be worth throwing our hat in the ring with a bid if we're serious about trying to get hold of a top striker.

If we're looking at stop-gaps then we might as well stick with Tammy.

It's a shortened summer break, so I'd be surprised if the players haven't at least got a reasonable level of base fitness to work from. The only two which might need a bit more work is James and Chilwell as they didn't feature much in the Euros so their match fitness will be in a worse position, but I don't think they'll all be a million miles away from being ready for the start of the season. Also to note given the sheer numbers Tuchel has currently, I'm sure he can operate a number of competitive in-house games to get players up and running beyond the Spurs game.

Brighton would be a great shout for Tammy, especially now with the Ben White money. If they had someone who could score them 15 goals a season they'd be mid table comfortably.

Yeah I've no doubts we've probably been taken aback a little by how much of a struggle it currently is to move players on. Players like Zouma, Tammy and Barkley you'd assume would be amongst the more desirable and easier to sell players, especially when you see some of the other players we still have. I do think in the end though we'll manage to move most, if not all, that we want to. Whilst teams that want to keep hold of players will likely become even more reluctant to sell later into the window, buying clubs will usually become more desperate which actually works in our favour for players we're willing to sell for the right money.

Whilst I somewhat agree, these are three players who are obviously dispensable and so far we haven't received offers acceptable to us. Getting a player that we want in exchange for three players that we're trying to rid of and probably save a few million a year in wages isn't the worst business. Having said that Zouma and Barkley will have extremely low amortisation values now and Tammy's would be nil so purely from an accounting perspective we'd be better off selling all three if we could and putting a bid in for Rice. Same with selling Zouma for the right price rather than include in a player exchange.

You do wonder whether West Ham would be in a position to turn an offer down if we offered something like Zouma, Barkley and Abraham in exchange for Rice. I know that is almost certainly never going to happen exchanging 4 players in one deal but they are three players who are capable of starting for West Ham, all still at a good age. It would strengthen their squad in my opinion even if they lost Rice as a result, but in our situation it would be moving on three disposable players for one that we want.

I don't see any reason why Kounde or Christensen can't fill in for Rudiger in the LCB role. If the Kounde/Zouma deal goes through it'll be a group of Silva, Christensen, Rudiger, Kounde and Azpi for the back 3 and then if required James can slot in there too.

I agree, I don't think any of the big strikers move this summer.

Spurs aren't getting stronger trading Kane in for Vlahovic.

He definitely offers a more attacking alternative in that RWB role which I think could be handy against some of the bottom half teams to try and stretch them. He looks the fittest since his injury so I'm hoping this season we start seeing some of that potential realised. There's definitely a player in there and I think Tuchel knows that. I agree on Ziyech too, I've said for a while now that I'm not prepared to give up on him after last season. His passing and not being afraid to have a shot in and around the penalty area could be very helpful in us trying to unlock some of the teams that sit in against us.

I suppose it all comes down to what value Spurs and Sevilla place on Sanchez in the same way that Chelsea and Sevilla do. I would personally say that Zouma is the better player but both being backups there probably isn't a whole lot of difference in their valuations. It probably is also a case of different sources or interpretations quoting different figures in euros and pounds. In pounds that release clause is £68m, so a £50m price point wouldn't look completely illogical then.

Or are we taking advantage of the current climate? Whatever your thoughts are of Kounde, there is no doubting how highly rated he is by Sevilla and in a normal situation without Covid, I would expect them to be holding out for as close to, if not in full, his release clause. If we are able to buy him for a good amount underneath this clause and he has ranked highly among long term defensive targets then it probably does make sense to do this now. If Zouma, a player who has been nothing more than a backup under Tuchel, helps drive the price down even further then it probably makes the deal even more attractive to the club. We're once again unlikely to be competing with Madrid and Barcelona who could very well be in for him otherwise, given people's thoughts of him in Spain so it's taking an opportunity that the market has presented.

A lot of other countries won't have been propped up as well as the Prem with nearly 18 months of no fans, so I can understand dropping below the release clause if Sevilla need to sell and raise funds. Also if reports are true, Spurs were in talks but he rejected them. I very much doubt they would have come anywhere near his release clause so probably around £50m as a starting point may sound about right. I suppose if they were to receive £20-30m + Zouma and have also received around £20m + Lamela for Gil then they've actually raised some good funds and gained two decent players to fill those gaps immediately.

Midway through the second half RLC seemed to switch into that holding role instead of Gallagher and it did seem to wrestle back the initiative of the game.

Gallagher will be a decent midfielder for a bottom half Prem team because he has bags of energy and running, and can do a bit of everything to a reasonable standard but at the level Chelsea require he just does not look good enough technically unfortunately. The composure and passing of Drinkwater, Barkley and RLC is much more crisp and polished.

I can see Tuchel using Broja in the first team squad next season.

I can see Bournemouth's defending has got no better since Eddie Howe left.

Good delivery there. Nice finish from Broja, he looks pretty sharp.

Drinkwater looks significantly more comfortable than Gallagher in that midfield two. Maybe it's down to situations with Gallagher not wanting to put a foot wrong, compared to Drinkwater looking to impress but he's been much more involved and his passing range is a lot more polished. Not saying for us to keep him but if we can't shift him he could probably do a job at backup next season in this system. Also CHO is definitely an option at RWB next season against sides we're likely to dominate as he'll stretch teams more than James or Azpi can.

Must be a back 4 with that team. I guess Sterling and Alonso at full backs and Sarr one centre back. No idea who the other centre back is though, Drinkwater?!

I suppose one argument would be that a number of these big, strapping centre forwards we're talking about probably don't have as high a skill level as him. I've watched a few videos of him today and one thing is he does look powerful across the ground so I don't see him being consistently bullied in that way. The height is obviously a concern but everything else about him looks very, very good. He's never going to win everything in the air, and there will no doubt be cases where it is a problem. However no player is completely perfect and if Tuchel is looking at defenders who are comfortable on the ball to dominate possession and quick across the ground to play a higher line then he does seem to tick boxes.

Which wouldn't have been in the last couple of hours. So once again we have a situation where we've heard next to no links with a player, nothing from the trusted, reliable news sources and then when things do break they are already seemingly in an advanced situation. It's the exact reason why people shouldn't be getting so worked up about the lack of news and links in recent weeks.

The option of driving down the fee with a player could be very good for us given the abundance of players we still need to try and move on. Anyone know Sevilla well enough to be able to suggest who could be realistic to push their way? Obviously wages is a big consideration, but Sevilla should have a pretty decent pull for players and can offer Champions League football too.

What would you say is a "good fee" for Kounde?