Jype

Are you seriously comparing an 8 month leg break and a minor surgery to help with a slight discomfort where the operation was knowingly scheduled for when the season was over so the player wouldn't miss any games? It's like talking to a child.

Nah, it's one or the other.

I don't really see a problem with having both James and someone like Dumfries at RWB. James will miss a good chunk of games to injuries anyway and for one reason or another has only started 63 out of 114 PL games since being promoted into the squad. He's one hell of a player but also one who seems to be quite often injured so we can't be putting all eggs in one basket. And it's not like Dumfries is too good to be a rotational player, he only started little more than half of Inter's games last season, despite having zero injuries on record since 2020. If Dumfries were given the starting role every time James is out injured, as well as a handful of starts whenever the CB situation needs Reece to play emergency cover at RCB he should get a decent amount of minutes over the course of a season. If Tuchel is going to continue with the 3-4-3, having more good options at wing-back roles is vital.

Where has he said it? Nothing on his twitter in the last hours.

Fofana has played seven games of football since his season long injury. Huge risk to even consider him before he shows he can get back to his previous level.

Weren't U21 players excluded from the new FIFA loan rules? Mbuyamba is only 20.

Seems to be lots of interest in Werner if reports of RB Leipzig, Juventus and Newcastle are all true. Newcastle would probably be the only club who could easily afford to pay a transfer fee and take on his wages, the others would most likely be loan deals.

How is Dumfries an alternative target to Kounde? One is a CB and one is a wing-back. Also, how the hell has his value more than tripled in a year? Inter paid €14M for him last year and now he's supposedly worth £40M after a season where he started barely half of the league matches. Makes no sense. A rotational wing-back is needed for RWB so maybe this guy would fit the bill if a deal can be made at a reasonable value. James will likely play most games anyway but the team is severely lacking a decent backup. Dumfries seemed decent at the Euros last year but haven't seen his club games so can't say for sure. Whether it happens or not, a quality CB is still needed.

Why is Chilwell listed on there? For me he's been a great signing, just unlucky with the injury. No reason to group him with the flops.

Who's gonna buy Werner on a permanent transfer considering his salary and shit performances over the last two seasons? Still got three years left on his contract so if he leaves, it will obviously be on a loan deal. Just need to hope he'd then have a good season and can be sold next year.

€40M+5M, are Barcelona fucking joking? What should be Sevilla's motive for accepting €20M less than they already had on the table from Chelsea? Barca's antics should really be looked into. They have all these unofficial negotiations with just about every other player out there and make all kinds of promises to turn the player's head into wanting a move there. When the player's already become unsettled they then proceed to start low-balling the selling club with their joke offers. It happened with Raphinha, it's happening with Azpilicueta & Alonso and now it's happening again with Kounde. If you're gonna hijack a transfer, at least have the common decency of matching or improving the bid of the other club and conclude the deal quickly. Despicable club.

True, but he's been pretty consistent with his comments on how he was very happy that there was a clear structure in place (Marina & Cech) to take care of the business side of things, choosing the transfer targets etc. so he could just focus on the coaching. He just clearly doesn't like this part of the job and would rather leave it to someone else. That definitely doesn't mean he shouldn't face his fair share of the blame but a bit of context is important too. However the rest of the window goes, let's just hope a new sporting leadership is appointed asap. Boehly will probably still want to be involved in some capacity but it's clear he needs a lot of help.

Can someone from the mod team ban this wanker?

Ready to explore more options if green light doesn't come soon? Fuck me, don't they realize the move is already dead? Should have started exploring a plan B two days ago already.

Nah. At the very least he'll get shipped out on loans to get a portion of his salary off the wage bill till his contract runs out, surely at 23 the guy still wants to play and not just stay at the club stinking up the place for a few years. At least Bogarde was already into his 30s by the time he stopped giving a fuck and didn't have to worry about getting a new deal anywhere else because he'd likely have retired around 35 anyway. Sarr on the other hand still has most of his career ahead of him even when his contract runs out in 2025. In hindsight a terrible deal by the club but it is what it is. What is interesting though, is the discrepancy on the salary figures. As stated above, the sites list his wage at Porto around £34K and now at Chelsea £120K a week and it was reasoned by @Vesper that the lower number is just the portion that Porto paid. However, at the time of the loan signing Fabrizio Romano said Porto are paying the full wages and even a €2M loan fee: Someone is obviously reporting wrong figures but who?

Skriniar would be great but can't see it happening. Even if the club agrees a fee with Inter, there's still PSG to worry about and it can very easily end up the way of Raphinha/Kounde except with PSG this time. If the club do go after him, Boehly needs to have extensive discussions with Skriniar's agent FIRST before making any offers to Inter to get a guarantee he's actually going to join if the clubs agree on the transfer.

Good post, although I would have to say if Boehly and Tuchel had done more earlier then Kounde would have already been a Chelsea player at the start of pre-season so in that way it is their fault. More Tuchel's than Boehly's because the former chose the alternative targets (De Ligt, Aké) for whom a lot of valuable time and resources were used. If the club had been more decisive and gone after Kounde earlier he wouldn't even have had other options to choose from because the deal would've been long concluded before Barca could even pull any of their infamous 'financial levers'. Surely he'd not have waited around for more than a month to see if Laporta comes good with their promise of eventually going after him. De Laurentiis said nothing of the sort. He said the exact opposite actually, that Barcelona were indeed after Koulibaly but were told to fuck right off due to the fact they had no money. “I let Koulibaly go because he asked me to,” De Laurentiis told Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli. “Barcelona had come in, but they didn’t have the money because they are in debt. Then Chelsea came forward and we couldn’t say no to someone like Koulibaly, despite the fact I tried in every possible way to keep him, offering €6m per season net. “But if a player wants a new experience at a prestigious club, in the biggest league in the world, you have to recognise what he’s given you and not put up walls.”

I envy your optimism. 🙄 So far only Gerard Romero has said he's 100% joining Barca but surely he won't stake his reputation on it if there's no chance of it happening? His name will be in the mud forever if he's proven to have lied. But yeah, let's wait till Romano, Ornstein, Law, Jacobs etc. have had their say.

For fucks sake. 😂 Like many others here, I was never 100% fully convinced with the Kounde signing since last year but when it was 'confirmed' I was starting to get warmed up to the idea of having him, not to mention the Barca meltdowns that were good fun yesterday. Losing out on him in this manner is just embarrassing for the club, assuming it's true of course. Not to mention it will throw a huge spin in the team's preparation for the season if we have to cross yet another name off the 'shortlist' that is getting shorter and shorter every day.

That's a catchy tune, has to be said. 😂 Now just got to hope all the gloating doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

Some Spanish media reporting Barca could be making a last ditch effort to hijack Kounde. The saga that never ends. 😂

The lawsuit for Steven Zhang in that link is for the Inter Milan owner, not AC Milan. Not that it matters, don't think Rafael Leao is going anywhere.

Maybe Tuchel intends to keep Azpi as James backup if no one else is signed for the role? Would be a better backup than CHO, Kenedy, Dujon Sterling or whoever else the club currently has but if Azpi himself wants to go I probably wouldn't stop him. Not needed at RCB anymore with Kounde/Chalobah there.