Jype

Would guess somewhere around 30M€ give or take a few. I'm actually more interested if he's taking a wage cut or if there's some kind of salary compensation included in the deal. No way Leipzig are paying as much as he earned with us. Best case scenario would be a fee of +30M€ and player taking a wage cut so we'll get him off the books completely. That'd be a total saving of £23M a year on the club's books for wages+amortisation.

Permanent deal for Werner, not a loan.

If the midfield is weak, it's a personnel problem and not a system problem.

Nothing wrong with the 3-4-3.

Plus if a player turns out not good enough they will be impossible to shift if they've cost too much money and are on too high wages. It's not our money but as fans we should care how it's spent because it will significantly affect future transfer dealings. A few costly flops might easily mean there won't be enough money to fix the problems with other new signings, thus spiraling into mediocrity and not challenging for the big trophies.

What I meant was that the numbers don't add up. There are already so many midfielders in the squad that for someone to come in, at least one has to leave. I made no comment on whether or not I think the current midfield is good.

Don't really see a need for Frenkie De Jong unless Jorginho leaves. He's a good player but currently the midfield is stacked and there haven't been any rumors of players being sold so I don't see why we would be after FDJ? Though it would be worth it just for the RedCafe meltdowns alone. 1330 pages and counting in their FDJ thread.

FFP as we know it is dead and buried. The new rules have been announced but they won't take effect for a few more years.

14 apps in the PL at 18yo is no joke. Can't say I know much about the player but I'm reading he's regarded as one of the best young talents in the country so snapping him up can't be a bad idea, as long as there's also enough money in the budget to address more pressing concerns. Maybe one year out on loan and if he succeeds then integrate him in the squad next year when the likes of Kante and Jorginho most likely leave?

Don't think Tuchel would let Gallagher go. It was already confirmed when pre-season started that Tuchel was very impressed by his Palace loan and promised him a place in the squad as soon as last season ended. With the other loanees (Broja, Colwill, Ampadu) it's always been about giving them a chance in pre-season and see how it goes but Gallagher's pretty much been nailed on to stay for a while now. Leicester have been interested in Colwill so him somehow being part of the deal could be a possibility, either on loan or a permanent move. Wouldn't be against offering CHO + 50M for Fofana.

Fair enough. Likewise the doom and gloom brigade should be called out if things go about as can be expected so a 3rd or 4th place finish with around 75 points give or take a few. And even if there is some 'down tooling' from certain players, Tuchel is not going to be blameless either.

Maybe you're reading too much into pre-season? Some of the want-away players will probably get their moves and be replaced with players of similar quality. Let's face it, none of them have been all that great so probably won't be too hard to replace with players who give equal performances. The rest of them will stay and as soon as the season starts and the window is closed most of them, if not all, will continue to do their best to help the team. Even if they still want to move, they'll have to do as well as they possibly can to get their preferred moves later on. Stinking up the place for a season won't lead to anything good for their futures either. As for the attack lacking goals, that was the case last season as well and the team still scored third most goals in the PL by a large margin and conceded tons less than any of the top4 rivals Spurs, Arse, Man Utd. While there's definitely a lack of a focal point in attack, the game system is set up so everyone will chip in collectively and the overall amount of goals scored is by no means bad and I don't expect that to change. How the window's gone so far I'm definitely not being very optimistic about closing the gap to the top-2 but I also don't think the chasing pack have done anything significant to close the gap to us either.

Missing out on top 4 would be a massive failure. Not quite sure about sack-worthy but massive nonetheless. While so far there's not been a big enough improvement in the transfer market to even dream of a title challenge, the squad isn't really any worse than last season either and even then we finished on 74pts. If there's a big drop off in the points total and we miss out on top-4, it's definitely on Tuchel. Even if the rest of the transfer window is somewhat of a disappointment and we only get a couple depth signings (CB around the level of Christensen and maybe RWB backup) I would still definitely expect a minimum 75 points overall in the league. Koulibaly and Sterling are both good signings for the first XI and having Chilwell back will be huge also. None of Spurs, Arsenal or especially Man Utd have signed anyone to make me really scared about them over the course of a season. I wouldn't be too surprised if Spurs nick 3rd place because having Conte for the full season will likely have a big impact but I'd be really disappointed if at least two of those teams do better than us in the league.

No idea how reliable the journo is, and unless I'm not mistaken the lad couldn't join before 2024 anyway when he turns 18. Real Madrid have really struck gold in these kind of early deals with Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo.

€50+10M apparently. That's 5 mill less than our offer,

And apparently he was played as a left-back in the friendly against Barcelona, which doesn't really suit him either. It was always obvious he won't find another top club whose game system favors him as much as Tuchel's 3-4-3. In seven months time Rüdiger will be 30 years old and thus far in his career he's only showed true world class level in the 18 month period under Thomas Tuchel so him being so anxious to move on was always a mystery to me. Money definitely played a big part in his decision to leave but if he'd waited till the takeover was done I'm pretty sure Boehly would have given him whatever he asked for in wages. Sure he'll probably win more team trophies at Real Madrid than he would've at Chelsea but if he's not going to be a key player in those wins, will he care as much? I really like him as a player and hope it works out well for him at Real Madrid but I have my doubts.

That's Wesley Fofana with a Chelsea shirt when he was a kid. No idea what the caption says but apparently the picture was uploaded to social media by someone who's friends with Fofana.

For sure. If he hadn't signed a new contract just four months ago, he'd probably have been available for £50-60M at most but with a contract till 2027 Leicester hold all the cards and will definitely demand close to 'Maguire money' for him. Before his leg break he was well on his way to becoming a world class player. I'm not a doctor but a leg break probably isn't as bad as a bad knee injury or a muscle tear as long as the bone has healed properly so maybe it won't be a big concern? If Fofana is made available by Leicester and the club get enough medical records to make sure he's made a full recovery from his injury, I wouldn't mind having a go at him even if the asking price is a lot. Having a fully fit Fofana at his 2021 level would be a huge asset to the team.

Zinchenko would have been a good backup for Chilwell at LWB, just like Perisic would have been. I don't think he would've gotten a game in midfield ahead of Jorginho/Kante/Kovacic/Gallagher. Bissouma would have been a pointless signing. We already have more than enough depth there and he's not a clear improvement on any of our current midfield options, although for sure he'd have been a more long-term player compared to Jorginho/Kante. For our next CM/DM signing to replace Jorgi/Kante I'd like to think the club should aim for a higher standard than the likes of Bissouma. Jesus I'll give you, he'd have been a good signing for us too.

Exactly. For Spurs getting the likes of Richarlison, Bissouma, Perisic and Lenglet does wonders for their squad depth but I wouldn't say any of their new signings really improve their best XI. Last season Spurs managed to get decent results even with shit rotational players because the only played in the Conference League and didn't even take it seriously but if they're going to want to do well in both the PL as well as the UCL their key players are going to have a lot more match load and getting these good depth signings was the least they could do. Conte is an excellent manager and having him for the full year instead of joining mid-season will be a much bigger impact than any new signing so they are definitely a threat. As for Arsenal they replaced Lacazette with Jesus which I definitely consider an upgrade and Saliba returning from loan is an interesting one that can potentially improve their XI but the other incomings (Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira) are just more depth. Like their North London rivals, Arsenal too were in desperate need of squad depth with the return of European football this season. Even with the addition of these depth signings, will they do better in the league after adding another 8-12 European games to their match calendar or will the increased match load turn into a negative for their EPL form because their key players start getting more tired and get more injuries? Of all the Spurs/Arsenal signings the only ones I'd definitely take for our squad are Jesus and Perisic, and of them only the former would be in competition to be a starter player and the other just a decent backup for Chilwell.

Hope it's true that Morata stays at Atletico. It was said last night Juve's first priority is to sign Morata back but as an alternative they'll look at Werner.

Yeah I just edited my post to say it was not meant to be about Pau Torres but rather just an observation. I don't know Torres enough to say where I would rate his skills both in defending and as a ball player.

You just basically described Kurt Zouma and he was sold because those attributes didn't make him a good enough defender for what Tuchel and pretty much every modern top manager wants from his defenders. If a team is looking to control the game and rarely needs to have defenders pull some last ditch tackles or constantly clearing crosses in the air, having a defender who's 10/10 in defending and 6/10 with the ball on his feet is nowadays considered worse than someone who's a solid 8/10 at both. That's not me saying anything about Pau Torres btw, just a general observation.

"Surgery is surgery" That's like saying a nose job from a plastic surgeon is comparative to an open heart surgery, right?