Jype

They also share the same agent, so if the club are interested in Tchouameni talks could already be ongoing between the club and the player's entourage. After Gallagher's loan deal it's obvious the club need to dip into the market for a 4th midfielder and I wouldnt' say no to Tchouameni. I've made it clear Rice is my top option but like I wrote here a few days ago he's not the one I think the club should be after this summer. Rice would expect to be an immediate starter and would maybe disrupt Jorginho-Kante-Kovacic who have all played really well under Tuchel, but maybe Tchouameni wouldn't be too high profile to play a smaller role at first and then see how he gets on once he's fully settled. If Rice is serious about playing for Chelsea and wouldn't push for a move to Man Utd or wherever, he can then be bought in another 1-2 years when his price keeps going down (contract running shorter) and Jorginho-Kante are both getting older.

Yeah. If they had zero intention of selling they wouldn't publicly flirt about the possibility someone putting in a crazy bid. Don't think such a bid will be coming their way though. Marina hasn't really succeeded in selling the unwanted players this window (Tammy, Batshuayi, Barkley, Bakayoko, Emerson etc.) who could potentially bring in enough funds to make a crazy bid for Haaland financially viable, and I have a feeling Dortmund won't sell near the end of the window no matter what so the bid would have to be made in the next week or so and I can't see that happening.

€4M/year in wages sounds quite reasonable, if true.

Reports on Kounde's current wage range from around 50-70K / week. Their highest paid players make around 100K/wk. Zouma at the moment should be around the same (some reports £50K/wk) so I don't really see how that would be a huge problem for Sevilla unless Kurt is looking for a big pay rise to 'downgrade' clubs.

Colwill is not part of pre-season because he already joined Huddersfield on loan for 21/22, that was confirmed already in June. He's only 18yo so with him there's plenty of time to develop into a role but first he has to impress in the Championship before even thinking about including him. As for Mbuyamba, he's been injured a alot since joining and hasn't even had many chances to play at PL2 level so he'll defo stay with the development squad for now.

That doesn't seem too outrageous, and if the fee was 30M€ up front+ 5M€ add-ons then even better. Hopefully that will be enough for Sevilla. Basically that would mean the club traded Guehi, Tomori and Zouma for Koundé and got almost 20M€ cash on top.

I believe he said that in Romano's podcast where he was a guest speaker to talk about Haaland. If Dortmund's internal deadline for 1st week of August is true (which I would be inclined to believe) then we'll know something soon enough. Either the club will soon step up and go all-in with a massive bid that's simply too good for Dortmund to refuse or just give up on the whole thing. Whatever happens it won't drag till the end of the window, which is good for everyone.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. As for the player valuations, Lamela is definitely not worth €25M and that doesn't even need arguing. On Transfermarkt he was listed at €16M and while that seems quite fair I doubt any club would have paid even that much for him in the current financial climate. Zouma is listed at €32M which seems fair as well, and in a straight cash transfer he could go for a bit less than that. If Lamela's value in the exchange transfer somehow got inflated to €25M we shouldn't even consider Zouma being valued at a penny less than €40M in any part-exchange deal if we're counting his value against Koundé's release clause of €80M. Even then we'd be looking at a maximum of Zouma + €40M to make it happen.

I dislike this kind of statistics because playing for Real Madrid or Brighton are two completely different things so comparing for example Varane and White on defensive stats (tackles, interceptions, clearances etc.) is pointless. Of course the CB playing for a bottom level club will have more defensive actions per game than one playing for a team who control most of their games on the opposition half. That said, on an individual level without comparing to the others Koundé comes across really impressive in almost all metrics. I could see him fitting really well in the RCB role.

They accepted €25M + Lamela from Spurs for Bryan Gil who's supposedly a really good talent and had a release clause of €50M. Lamela is for sure not worth €25M so that means Sevilla had to settle for an overall package a good €10-15M less than the release clause because they're in some financial trouble. If I had to guess Sevilla would take €60M cash for Koundé but with a player exchange it would probably be somewhere around Zouma + €30M. Zouma should probably be valued around €25-30M, which is in line with the club's rumored asking price and the player's valuation on Transfermarkt (€32M).

Yea, some journo tweeted that talks over Koundé transfer have been ongoing for two weeks now and today's the first we're hearing of it. Who the hell is that guy?

Yea. Wouldn't be surprised if the timing is linked, and Dortmund have made it clear they're not selling Haaland this year so the club are starting to use the 'war chest' on other areas instead. Maybe by early August we'll also start hearing some news about the midfield situation as well, assuming Tuchel isn't planning to use one of the loan army there as backup instead.

True, but it'd also be some smart pre-emptive planning ahead of a bigger CB rebuild later on. Zouma is perhaps not good enough, Silva will definitely leave in 2022 due to his age and at the moment Rüdiger, Christensen, Azpilicueta all have their contracts up next summer as well. I don't think all three will leave (especially Azpi) but I wouldn't be surprised if Rüdiger did, and there's already been some talk that he could choose not to extend his deal and get a big pay day somewhere else as a free agent. It would be a disaster going into the 2022/23 season and potentially having to get as many as 3-4 new central defenders in just one transfer window and all having to settle in at the same time. Long term planning is really important and that's why getting a new CB this summer could be a good idea.

Aside from his size isn't Koundé supposed to be really good? He's the same height as Azpilicueta (1.78m) so obviously a back-3 can successfully have one CB who's not all that great in the air. He's also taller than Reece James who many were campaigning to play at RCB in case the club signed Hakimi as wing-back, so why's Kounde's size all of a sudden some huge problem? I could see some problems with having two fun-sized defenders in the back line (Koundé together with Azpi/James) but having just one smaller player is a non-issue, as long as the other two are good and strong enough to compete in aerial duels.

Yea, here's Romano tweet about it.

Varane's wage will surely be more than double than White will get at Arsenal, making him the more expensive player overall across 4-5 seasons. And that's even before taking into account White's potential re-sale value in the future. Re-sale value might not always matter for the big clubs aiming to win trophies, but for the financial side it definitely makes a big difference. Varane is definitely the better buy for United because they need a proven player who will straight away improve their starting XI for a title challenge and should still have at least a good 3-4 years in him, but Arsenal are getting White with the intention of either having him a crucial part of their back line for the next 10 years or get a few years out of him and then sell to Man City or whoever down the line for an even bigger fee than the one they're paying now. Completely different type of transfers, you can't really compare them.

If Haaland and Lewandowski are both unattainable, I'd rather not buy any attacking players. I trust Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech all to improve their goal records from last season and Broja is a wild card who can stay as a backup striker. It's definitely a gamble, but I'd rather go with that than buy some second rate striking option like Danny Ings who'd no doubt be part of the 'deadwood loan brigade' sooner rather than later. As for other areas, I'm not really sure. At some point I'd love to see Declan Rice in midfield but like I wrote a few days ago maybe the time for that deal is not this summer as Jorginho-Kante-Kovacic are all still going strong and I'd rather not disrupt their dynamic, so either one of the loan army stays or the club need to get another midfielder who's maybe not expected to be an immediate starter like Rice would. Central defense depends on outgoing players. If Zouma can be sold I'd try to get a quality CB in, but I wouldn't be opposed to sticking with our current options either. Christensen and Rüdiger contract extensions are important. So without a top striker signed I'd expect the window to be rather quiet as far as incoming signings are concerned. Haaland could then be tried again in January depending on how Dortmund's season is going, because for example if they're comfortably in top4 but out of the CL knockouts they might not have that much left to play for and might then be tempted into selling Haaland 6 months before the cheap clause kicks in when they would surely still get +100M for him.

Perhaps he just fancies getting a good amount of money for doing virtually nothing? 😂 During his years at Fulham he's been either the backup keeper or out on loan at lower league clubs for most seasons anyway, so maybe he just doesn't have the drive to be the number one goalkeeper and is just happy to be a part of a team. For many people football is just another job and not something they're too passionate about. I can't imagine an easier job in professional football than being 3rd choice keeper at a top team. Decent salary, no pressure, get to train with top players and perhaps even lift some trophies while they're at it.

True, but when Caballero played his games Mendy wasn't even signed yet so at the time neither he or Kepa were considered 3rd choice.

Will be a decent enough option for 3rd keeper, I think. Free transfer and homegrown status are important when talking about a player who most likely won't play a single minute all season. When was the last time our 3rd choice keeper even played in a competitive game? Sometime around Turnbull/Hilario era I would guess?

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/kepa-arrizabalaga-premier-league-Chelsea-soccer Great read, a column by the man himself.

Swansea and England U21 are without managers at the moments, so maybe one of those for JT?

Looks a huge change from his physique in 2019. Boy's been hitting the gym.

Eze won't be playing anytime soon, he's done his achilles badly. Will take most of next season for him to come back and even then like we've seen with CHO/RLC it will take a very long time for things to be normal again, if ever.

Is it though? Last season Griezmann scored 20 goals and made 13 assists for Barcelona. In the La Liga alone he either scored or assisted a goal every 124 minutes while starting almost every game. Griezmann's first season at Barcelona was bad but last season he was already much better. I thought Griezmann was always a bad fit for Barca because even before signing there was a lot of talk that Messi didn't want him there and we all know how much power the growth hormone midget has at that club, so it's difficult for an attacking player to shine if he has a bad relationship with Messi. Just remember what a shit show Zlatan was at Barca because he clashed on the pitch with Messi (and off the pitch with Pep). I still rate Griezmann and think there could be a good 2-3 years left in him. If all other quality striker options fail I'd maybe consider taking him on loan, but first of all would Barca really allow a loan deal instead of a permanent transfer and secondly if reports are to be believed his wages are absurd. Thirdly, I'd really like if no other club bailed out Barcelona and let them rot with their ridiculously high paid players to see how far their demise goes.