Jype

In my books they can all be sold, as can Ziyech. Obviously they won't all leave in one go but should look into getting rid of at least one or two of them. Basically try to sell whichever of them that buyers can be found for.

Done his ACL, hasn't played since January and will continue to be out of action till September by the current estimates. Nobody will touch him until he's shown he's back to his previous level after the injury so any transfer for him is surely ruled out till 2023. Not a lot of obvious quality forward options out there who fit the system.

Yeah for sure getting rid of Timo won't be easy because of his high salary. I don't really see a market for him either and haven't even considered his future to be in question because of that but if Tuchel and the player both want a move to happen then maybe a solution can be found? Boehly already showed with Lukaku he can be ruthless if there's a willingness from all parties to make something happen, even if it's not necessarily the best deal for the club financially. Most reports are saying the club and Tuchel still want two more signings done but any more incoming signings probably depend a lot on who the club can sell.

Wasn't this the dude who broke the news on De Ligt to Bayern? Could be something in it. Would definitely let him go if a decent offer comes in.

That is more or less the kind of salary I would expect Mount and James to get in their oncoming contract negotiations, maybe I'd give the academy boys a little bit extra to make it an even £200K/wk but in the same ballpark nonetheless. I don't really see it complicating anything, that ship has already sailed with Havertz, Chilwell on around £200K and Werner on £270K wages. Close to £200K a week or more seems to be the going rate for a starting player at Chelsea nowadays.

According to El Chiringuito it looks like Kounde will earn a net salary of €6M per season. Roughly £180K/wk before tax, sounds about right for a player of his status and role in the current market. It was always so obvious Gerard Romero's claims of €12M net per year were bullshit but the Barca fans took it as gospel. This victim mentality was always ridiculous like how they implied through media it's either to Barcelona for success or to Chelsea for the money. It's not like they haven't signed multiple players just this summer for minimum €6M net deals (Lewandowski, Raphinha, Kessie, Dembele all on equal or more).

That has got to be one of the worst suggestion I've seen on here lately. Problematic attitude, massive salary and been shit since about 2018. I'd rather stick Kepa up front than sign Icardi.

Raphinha I'll give you, his move was being worked on by Barca since early this year (Feb-March) so once the sanctions got lifted and Chelsea could start doing business it was always going to be difficult to change his mind. Kounde situation is very different though. If we end up missing out on him the blame will be entirely on Boehly and Tuchel. It's a transfer that was like 95% done last year, only for things to fall through last minute when Sevilla raised their asking price but the player was definitely more than happy to join and personal terms were agreed a year ago. Pretty much all of last season everyone was thinking it was in the bag for this summer and at the beginning of the transfer window we had a totally free run at him for all of June with no other clubs in for him but Boehly/Tuchel spent the month chasing after De Ligt and Ake instead, only to miss out on both of them as well. Eventually the focus shifted back to Kounde but now it looks like it may have been too late. I wasn't all that bothered about Kounde last year and was quite happy for Chalobah to be given the chance instead and I'm not that bothered about him now either but some new CB sure as hell needs to be signed and the options are running out. And most of all it's definitely not a good look on the club to dick around multiple targets only to miss out on or get rejected by almost all of them.

The club really should learn from the Raphinha situation and just give the fucker till midnight today to make a clear decision whether he'll join or not. If yes, complete the deal within the next 24 hours. If he hesitates, tell him he's free to wait for a Barcelona bid that may never come and the Chelsea offer isn't on the table anymore. Enough of this waiting around, the season starts in two weeks.

Why would Sevilla even entertain the idea of accepting €58M for Kounde if it's true Chelsea have already offered €65M and most certainly with a quicker payment schedule. In Raphinha's case the player was desperate to join broke ass Barcelona so Leeds pretty much had no choice but to accept their lower offer but going by reports it looks like Kounde is more open to joining either club and has even agreed personal terms with both.

Every transfer takes a couple of days to sort out all final details before any announcement takes place. And even then Chelsea seem to take a few more days before announcing anything, just look at the timelines for Sterling and Koulibaly deals. The transfer fee with Sevilla was agreed only last night so I wouldn't panic yet. If we don't hear anything in the next two days about final contract terms accepted and a medical being planned, he's clearly holding out for Barca to match the offer. At the moment it's impossible to say one way or the other.

It didn't take long to finish Koulibaly's transfer when it became clear De Ligt was off the table so hopefully there will be a similar Plan B in the pipeline if Kounde ends up at Barca. At least unlike Raphinha deal it shouldn't take too long to clear this one out. Sevilla want a deal done this week and going by reports Kounde himself also wants to settle his future ASAP one way or the other. Also looks like Barca will be selling more future income tomorrow in another terribly shortsighted cash grab deal so they should have the funds required to match the bid if they want to. After that it's up to the player himself and hopefully he won't take long to decide.

These Kounde, Raphinha, Azpi, Alonso etc. situations really make me hate Barcelona and the way they choose to conduct their business. And that's even with me being quite happy to let Azpi and Alonso go and not being that bothered about the other two players. I'd happily have taken Raphinha if he wanted to come and same for Kounde but the minute Barcelona get involved these turn into boring never-ending sagas. All this 'you should reject all offers till we break some more piggy banks and can finally afford you' stuff really messes up all plans for the other clubs involved and just reeks of Barcelona's rotten, entitled attitude. If they can't afford these players, just fuck off and move on. Instead of negotiating with the selling clubs directly, they choose to focus on turning the player's head even though it's entirely unclear whether they actually have the finances to pull the transfer off or not. It just causes unnecessary delays for everyone in a crucial time preparing for the new season. Fuck Barcelona and everything they stand for.

They're selling a percentage of their future revenue to a third party for a quick cash injection. At the beginning of July they already sold 10% of their La Liga broadcasting rights for the next 25 years for €207.5M and now they're selling more to another company at a similar rate. It's a terrible deal for them because even at current values they're losing a ton of money and if/when the broadcasting deal values eventually go up in price with every contract renewal they'll stand to lose even more. Not that their club leaders care about what happens 10-25 years from now, they're all about making a flashy impact right now so they get re-elected and when their term is over their successors are left to deal with the fallout. I'm pretty sure the Barca leaders are still banking on the Super League being a thing in the future and that's why they're doing this now. If the ESL happens, the club would probably give less than zero fucks about what happens with the domestic tv rights because Super League is where the real money would be made anyway.

I agree. I'm not sure if Koundé is worth 65m€ as I haven't watched him enough but the club have been after him a long time now it would be kind of stupid to miss out on him now. At the beginning of the summer we had a free run on Koundé and Barcelona wasn't even remotely in the picture, back then it would have been the easiest transfer to complete with the player desperate to join since last year and most of the negotiations between clubs already done last year so the price was more or less fixed too (even though Marina isn't in the picture anymore). Boehly and Tuchel decided to target De Ligt / Aké instead and are now only after Koundé when other targets failed so if they miss out on Koundé as well, it's definitely not a good look. I think this is what will likely happen if the club miss out on both Koundé and Kimpembe. Or they refuse Azpi's move and he will fill out the fifth CB position (KK, Silva, Chalobah, Colwill, Azpi).

Don't think he's looking to leave anytime soon, in fact just this pre-season he said in an interview he's looking forward to the club offering him a new contract. If/when he signs a new deal it's very likely he'll stay till at least 2025 I think, after that it's probably dependent on how competitive the team is.

Right time to let him go for sure.

It was a buy option that turns into an obligation if certain criteria are met. Seeing as Milan won the league title and the move hasn't yet turned permanent, team success probably wasn't one of the obligation terms so it must have been based on appearances or something. Bakayoko made one league appearance since January 2022 so must not want to trigger it.

How does him not getting along with Leonardo matter when the latter is not even at the club anymore? Leonardo got sacked and replaced with Luis Campos.

He's a low budget option for a reason, and that reason is he's not very good.

A future deal for Declan Rice should absolutely be a talking point in any negotiations for Broja if the plan is to make it a permanent transfer. Not exactly fair if they continue being totally unrealistic in their demands for Rice (£150M or fuck off) and at the same time expect Chelsea to just hand them a quality young player for what is essentially a very decent price in this market.

I struggle to understand why Broja would sign a 5 year contract last year before his Southampton loan if his first idea is to leave on a permanent transfer the following year? Even during the Southampton loan he said in interviews his priority is to make it at Chelsea but now all of a sudden he's demanding a move elsewhere. And I also struggle to understand why the club would go along with his demands seeing as he's tied to a long term contract. If the idea is he's not needed at the moment, just send him on a two year loan to West Ham or wherever and watch him double his market value in that time. Then in 2024 see if a role can be found or if he's to be sold. Maybe insert a break clause for next summer so he can be re-called early if he's absolutely going to have a role in the first team squad at Chelsea.

In his first season back at the club James started a total of 20 games out of 46 possible in the PL and UCL. Of those 46 games he missed 8 through injuries so whenever he was available he started 20/38 games. Mount was a key player from the very start but in the first year James had more of a similar role as Chalobah last season. Still a very healthy amount of minutes for his development but he definitely had to prove himself first before becoming a starter. I'm pretty sure Colwill would be happy with a similar pathway and isn't demanding to become a regular starter immediately, but if the club sign both Koundé and Kimpembe in addition to Koulibaly already signed the pathway will become more or less blocked.

Salary also matters. For their current clubs Kounde is on something around €70K/wk at Sevilla while De Ligt earns more than €200K/wk with Juve. I think it's safe to say if both players move this summer to new clubs, De Ligt will still be on a contract worth a lot more money.

Official bid for Koundé about to be made in the next few days. Unclear on the amount but said to be less than Sevilla's asking price of €65M.