Jype

Pretty sure after this season he will go to some club in Brazil and then retire after the World Cup.

Not sure whether he'll be great or not but I definitely haven't given up on Ziyech like some here have. There's a quality player in there somewhere, even though last season we only got to see that quality in small glimpses. However this season is make or break for Ziyech. Last season can be considered a free hit for him because there were a lot of injuries, it was his first season in the PL and surely it's not easy to move to a new country during a pandemic either, but now he simply can't afford to have another off-season. He's one of few players in the squad who's at the age where he's supposed to be hitting his prime years so another bad season would mean he's just not cut out for playing at Chelsea and/or the PL but he definitely deserves another chance.

No idea. Generally I don't have as much problems with handing out contract extensions to the loan army players (within reason) as many on here do because it must generate decent enough funds through loan fees etc. to make it financially sustainable and it protects the value of the 'asset' but surely Baba Rahman is one the club should have released immediately once the contract he signed in 2015 was up? According to Transfermarkt Baba has been out with injuries for a total of 999 days between 2015-2020 so basically he's been recovering from various injuries for 55% of his whole 5 year contract. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to extend him by two more years in the summer of 2020? By comparison it's almost as bad as if the club handed an extension to Danny Drinkwater next year.

Mendy, Rüdiger, Christensen, Azpi, Alonso, Kante, Kovacic, CHO, Ziyech, Werner, Havertz Doesn't look too disastrous for the first couple of games, assuming everyone from your list is out. And by the first league game everyone on the list should have had at least a weeks worth of training already (assuming 3-4 weeks holiday) so they shouldn't be out for too long. Would be vital to have everyone available by the Arsenal and Liverpool games, even if they're not all fit to start yet.

Yeah Drinkwater I definitely agree on. Nobody is going to take him, and the best we can hope for is a loan that covers even a portion of his salary. Bakayoko on the other hand, despite being a total train wreck at Chelsea (3-4 years ago) has been a regular starter at all his loan clubs Milan, Napoli and Monaco who are all UEL-UCL level clubs in top leagues. Previous years he might have been unsellable because the club still had too much amortisation value left (so club couldn't afford to take a big one-off hit) and his contract may have been too big for potential buyers but I would be really surprised if there are no takers for him at €10-15M. During his loans he's not been anywhere near as bad as that one season in a Chelsea shirt, and in fact I've even heard he's been actually quite decent most of the time.

Maybe, maybe not. Us fans obviously don't know the full circumstances behind the scenes so it's hard to say. We're talking about a huge investment needed to land Rice so I suppose it makes sense for the club to see whether he can keep playing consistently at a high level for a longer period of time to prove the previous season wasn't just a fluke and that he's the real deal before committing so much money on him? Also, it could be that the club simply couldn't afford to get him last year and it ultimately came down to choosing either Rice or Havertz but not both, and the club ended up walking over Lampard to get the latter instead. There was some talk of the board not being fully convinced by Lampard as the manager so they may have had some doubts over committing so much funds on Rice if the next manager didn't fancy him anymore so instead they went for the universally highly rated player in Havertz, which I would think is the right thing to do at the time because the club can still get Rice later (he clearly wants desperately to play for Chelsea) whereas Havertz might not have been available this year anymore. Now that Rice had a great season and Tuchel seems to rate him too it's "easier" for the board to sanction a deal if West Ham are open to negotiating. In a way it's a lot like Harry Maguire to Man Utd. Jose wanted him in 2018 after the World Cup but the club said no, only for them to pay up and get the player for Ole a year later.

To be fair it probably helps Rice enjoyed a great season, both on a personal level and team performance. Back in 19/20 he was also one of West Ham's top performers but that year they only narrowly escaped relegation, whereas this past season they finished in European places with Rice again one of their most consistent players and England went on to play in the Euros final with Rice starting every game. If the club's higher ups weren't convinced by him before they certainly should be now.

Batshuayi, Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Zappacosta and Emerson all have just a year left on their high wage contracts though. While those players are not good enough to play for Chelsea they are still good enough to play for many top flight clubs around European leagues. Assuming there are clubs who consider them good enough to play for them and are willing to pay market value transfer fees for these players with reasonable wages, Chelsea should only really have to subsidise the wages for the first year at their new club so in other words till the end of their current deals. Surely the players themselves know they're not going to get wages like that anywhere else now that their stock has plummeted in recent years, so let's say they accept a 5 year deal at £50K/wk at their new club. Chelsea will pay the difference (£50-70K/wk) for the first year and after that they only receive the lower wage from their new club. That way the buying club will get the players on wages they're happy to pay and can even pay a fair transfer fee for the players (most should vary from around €5M-15M). The real problem are players still on long-term deals like Kepa who still has four years left. No one is going to pay him as much as he currently makes and it's also difficult for Chelsea to subsidise the high wages for four years without getting anything in return. Most of the others on the list (especially Zappa, Drinkwater, Bakayoko) have been such problems before but are currently nearing the end of their contracts so it should be getting a lot easier to shift them.

Rice playing alongside him was one of the reasons Phillips looked so good for England. Rice might not be as flashy but despite being 3-4 years younger he's definitely the better and more experienced player of the two. And that's not me saying Phillips is a bad player, on the contrary I rate him highly as well but Rice is still a better player and I've got no doubt by the end he'll have had a better career than Phillips. I'd love to have Rice at Chelsea but maybe not this year. He'll be too expensive and with Jorginho-Kante-Kovacic all performing well under Tuchel there's really no need to spend so much on him right now. Only way I could see a deal being struck is if Tammy goes to West Ham as part of the deal and the clubs can negotiate a deal that benefits both clubs equally, otherwise it's better to wait another year or two and see if he can then replace Jorginho as a starter when he'd also be cheaper to buy (assuming he doesn't extend his WHU contract in the meanwhile).

That's not much at the moment, but depending on the size of the sell-on percentage the biggest chunk might still come later if he develops as expected. Already close to £60M in transfer fees received this summer, not bad. Still a lot of players to be sold though. All outgoing transfers are off the wage bill too. Youngsters like Bate probably didn't earn all that much and most of the loanees likely had their wages paid by the loan club so there might not be that much savings on some of the outgoing players but a first team player like Giroud leaving will definitely affect the wage bill in a positive way.

Ah yes, the impact sub who just scored 41 league goals in 29 matches this past season and overall 55 goals the season before. If anything, Lewandowski has only gotten better since turning 30 and is currently playing the best football of his career. Of course he's at an age where decline might be rapid when it finally happens but so far there's no signs of him slowing down. Not that he's leaving Bayern anyway but I'd definitely take him if a transfer was doable,

On the other hand the squad went through a massive overhaul last year with six new high profile additions coming in so this year was always going to be a bit quieter. With pretty much no pre-season and a tightly packed season schedule last year, some of last summers signings (especially Werner, Havertz, Ziyech) are maybe still not fully settled in. Obviously I wouldn't say no to a quality addition or two (especially in the striker department) but the squad really doesn't need all that much to compete. Retaining the same squad doesn't work if the squad has already peaked, but most in this young group are still developing both on a personal level and on playing together as a team so I wouldn't panic even if there isn't any major signings. Btw, after winning the UCL in 2019 the dippers didn't sign anyone aside from a new backup goalkeeper and they did alright in the following league season...

I don't see the club offering €175M to Dortmund. If it's true the club are preparing a 'big offer' it will still probably be only around €100-120M to test the waters. We have to remember that Raiola (and Haaland's dad if reports are to be believed) will want a big fee too and it will not come out of Dortmund's share. If the offer is €175M to Dortmund alone then the whole deal including agents fees would be north of €200M easily and I just can't see the club paying that much for anyone.

As much as I've wanted him to stay and succeed, I'm inclined to agree. He's been in the squad three years now and is still yet to get a consistent run of games and with each passing day of playing very little football his sky-high potential is crumbling. At the moment there's too much competition for attacking positions in the squad, and the only way I could see CHO nailing down a starting spot is at RWB but after initially playing there it seems Tuchel doesn't really fancy him at wing-back. Also contractually the right time to loan him is now or never. He currently has three years left on the deal he signed in 2019 so even if he spent one season out on loan he'd still have two left by the time he got back and if he'd done well he could easily overtake Pulisic/Ziyech in the squad hierarchy and finally start being a regular starter in the team, but if he stays another season playing a bit-part role then loaning him out will get a lot trickier if he were to come back with just a year left on his contract.

The most out of the blue transfer was definitely Marko Marin. Obviously that one didn't work out in the slightest but he was still a somewhat highly rated young player with 3-4 years of Bundesliga experience, played CL football for Werder Bremen and was even in the Germany squad for the 2010 World Cup. No transfer rumors whatsoever and then one day while the season was still going (like March-April) the transfer was announced on the club's website. Of last years transfers Ziyech was also a discrete one. The first time we heard of it was when the Dutch media told everyone it was a done deal and after that it didn't take long for both clubs to announce it too.

Tuchel will probably look at the likes of Gallagher, RLC at the start of pre-season before deciding whether he needs another midfielder or if one of last seasons loanees can fill that role. Kante/Jorginho/Kovacic will all still play significant roles and they were all excellent ever since Tuchel came in so if they all maintain their level the fourth man will most likely not have that much playing time like Gilmour didn't either. Someone like Gallagher could easily fill that role if Tuchel likes him, and a big money midfield signing could be postponed by at least another year, maybe even two. Later we could see how Gilmour has developed and whether Jorgi needs replacing.

As long as a loan club pays for the full salary and covers the remaining amortisation value as a loan fee, it makes perfect sense to extend if the player was willing to do it. Bakayoko right now has a year left on his contract so amortisation value of €8M for next year. If he were to extend it would go down to €4M a year for the next two years which means the player is "cheaper" on the club's books and it would be more probable to find a club that pays for the full costs during the loan and then hopefully the same club would then take up the option to buy next summer. Surely the transfer market hasn't fully gotten over COVID yet and most clubs (especially Italian ones) still can't afford to pay a lot for players but perhaps next year they could. If the club think loan fee + future transfer fee is bigger than whatever next-to-nothing fee they could get for the player in these circumstances it's only smart business to try to renew the contract. Bakayoko however doesn't seem too keen so it's up to the club to find a permanent new home for him this year.

United's transfer dealings deserve absolutely zero praise though. If their board had any competence at all they should have easily wrapped up Sancho a year ago already. The 'links' to Varane and Camavinga are just that, links. Those moves might materialize or they might not, but a bid has not been made and as far as I know United are not in advanced negotiations for these players. Transfer dealings are funny. Pretty much everyone thinks their own clubs are not efficient enough because they religiously check the news multiple times every day and 99% times there's no updates so they think the club are not doing anything, but for other clubs they are not as emotionally invested and only see news of confirmed transfers when they happen so they might think the other club is more efficient in the market. In reality the other transfers take ages to complete too but you just don't follow the transfer saga as much.

Yea, have to agree. Ampadu showed some potential at 16-17 but hasn't really improved since then. The loan to Leipzig was quite obviously a big mistake because he wasn't good enough to play regularly for them and he wasted another season sitting in the stands. Lack of playing time at a crucial age can really wreck a player and Ampadu pretty much went three years playing just 5-7 games a season before his latest loan to Sheffield Utd where he was more of a regular. Maybe if he'd got better loans earlier it would have been different, who knows? I'm all for Gilmour going out on loan if the club find him a good destination where he can play his natural game and improve as a player with regular game time. It's a tough ask to get regular playing time at Chelsea now behind Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic but maybe next year Billy could slot straight in for Jorgingho if he has a good experience out on loan. Though if Tuchel wants to start integrating Gilmour in the team better I wouldn't mind him staying with Chelsea next season either.

If a club, be it Chelsea or someone else, is willing to pay an obscene amount of money as a transfer fee to secure their services they have every right to ask for the best possible contract. Whether it's morally 'right' for the clubs to pay such moneys in times like these is another question entirely but I can't fault the players for continuing to look out for their own best interests. The real scum bags are people like Jeff Bezos who during the pandemic have only stepped up their efforts in exploiting regular people to get even richer, as if the +100 billion is not already enough.

Why wouldn't they ask for a shit ton of money? If they can't get it this year, he'll just stay at Dortmund another season and then have clubs lining up to offer silly money in wages and signing on fees next year.

Contract until 2025 and slowly but surely increasing his value with good performances out on loan, so why would he be sold? I have no idea if he'll ever be good enough to take on a role at Chelsea but I think selling this year would be a mistake because even if he ends up sold later he can easily fetch a lot more than £15M.

Chance for Arsenal to win a trophy! 🥳

From what I've seen Hakimi is not that great in a back 4 but as a wing-back he is devastatingly effective and probably the best in the world at the moment. He's probably one of the fastest top level players out there so he would offer something no other FB / WB in the team currently does. If he's signed, I'll happily have him in the squad but if the transfer doesn't happen I'm not that bothered because the wing-back areas are already pretty well covered.

Sancho was always going to leave this summer though, so I don't think Chelsea's interest in Haaland has ever been dependent on Sancho staying. If anything I think Sancho's departure getting confirmed might push Haaland himself to quietly hand in a transfer request too, not that it will change anything if Dortmund are still hell bent on him staying till next year. It will be up to the Marina & the club to present Dortmund with an offer they can't refuse.