Jype

Hope Timo and Hakim don't reveal all their tricks today, need to leave something for the other game against Brighton in two weeks.

Not predicting league position because that depends on others too but my expectation is 80-85 points. That would most likely be second or third place. Reach QF in the champions league.

Really excited by this signing. JT had one of the best seasons of his career at 35 and played every single minute of the PL season in 14/15 so let's hope Silva can still have a big impact too. At his age he might not be able to play two games a week anymore but he's still a big improvement and most importantly he's an in-game leader that team have been crying out for since JT left. Expecting big things from him, even if relying on him is not a long-term plan. With Silva in the squad for the next season or two the club can start planning for a longer term replacement but the CB area should not be an immediate problem anymore. Really smart contract management by the club too. A one year deal with club option of a second year minimizes risks but if he's still as good as we're hoping him to be the option will surely be used. If not, he will just play a squad role this season and be released next year. At least he can't be worse than what we saw this year.

The virus may not be a serious health risk for them personally but it will fuck up their season preparations for sure. And even if it's not a big risk for them, they can easily infect someone else who might suffer worse from it so it's quite stupid. Where I'm from they loosened travel restrictions and quarantine rules a while ago but even as someone who loves travelling the last thing on my mind was to go anywhere because I thought it would be really irresponsible. And surprise surprise, new cases were on the rise nationwide as soon as people started coming back from their trips. If things continue like this, pretty soon we're right back to where we were around March-April with the pandemic in full flow again.

No one is paying £80M for Rice, it's just an over the top price West Ham have set to ward off any offers because they don't want to sell yet. When he eventually does move, the price will be a lot lower than that. Sure there might be the infamous English tax on the price like with Chillwell but are you seriously suggesting the market hasn't inflated in the last ten years?

Werner and Ziyech weren't even in the country at the time of signing. And I'd assume sponsorship reasons play a part too. New shirt sponsorship with 3 only started in July so the club probably didn't want to present them with the old shirt and Yokohama sponsorship.

Cesc was 10 years ago and Rice is now. Ten years ago 30M got you a great player, these days not so much. Lille sold Hazard for £32M and Pepe for £72M. Different times, different market.

I think Matt Law beat him to it even earlier, saying in October-November last year that the club are targeting Chillwell for a summer move. Both good sources either way.

There's hardly any pre-season to begin with. After the weekend everyone will go join the national teams and when the international break is over the league season is only a few days away. Signing an injured player is not an ideal situation to be in but if it's only a minor injury and the doctors have done their job during the medical it shouldn't be an obstacle for the move. After all the club are planning to have Chillwell for at least the next five years, not just the immediate start to the new season.

That's a pretty shitty reason not to announce it when the whole world already knows Havertz is leaving so unless the clubs Leverkusen are negotiating with have been living under a rock these last couple months they will know it too. I think the only delay is preparing the necessary paperwork, Havertz having a medical etc.

As long as he actually makes the saves he's already better than Kepa. For around ~20m the club could do a lot worse I think. For that price he's probably not too high profile to be reduced to 2nd choice if he fails to impress and selling is also a lot easier. So if the club (Lollichon, Cech etc.) have scouted him well and think he's good enough I'm more than happy to give it a try, even tho I know nothing about him. I'm just happy if Kepa isn't first choice keeper at Brighton on 14th September.

I don't think the deadline matters anymore if everything is already agreed between the clubs and it's only a matter of completing the paperwork and Havertz having a medical. They already know he's not going to be their player anymore so even if the move isn't officially signed and sealed before Friday I doubt they're expecting him to show up for pre-season. But Havertz is going to Germany duty early next week so I'd assume both clubs want the deal done before that. I'm guessing confirmation on Friday, the club probably want to do some social media spectacle to milk everything of the signing so in addition to the medical, contract signing etc. it probably takes a couple more days.

His hand are fucking massive.

Mendy only conceded 19 goals in 24 games at Rennes last season before the season was cut short. Previous year 42 conceded in a promoted side, which is not bad either. Can't say I know anything more than that about him but if he's done really well for two different teams in the last two seasons he could be quality. Looks quite physical so I'm just guessing but he could be a good commander of the penalty box too, which would immediately improve the set-piece defending. I'd take a well-scouted unknown keeper at around 20m ahead of another big money gamble anytime. Less pressure due to price and after Kepa disaster people should be rather easily impressed so it'd probably do good for the new keepers confidence levels. Silva and Chillwell should improve the defense too which could make the keeper's job easier. Rennes were reported to be interested in a loan for Tomori so maybe a loan deal would sweeten the negotiations a little.

Aymeric Laporte, Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, David Silva just of the top off my head. Eric Bailly was good before injuries wrecked him.

I'd be really surprised if Chillwell gets 190k/wk. But he should be getting around 120-140k easily. Maddison just signed a new deal at Leicester and got 110k/wk so even clubs like Leicester without CL football pay those kind of wages. If he'd extended his deal Chillwell would've definitely got around the same so it makes sense for an ambitious CL level club to pay a little bit more. But 190 is still stretching it.

Yeah, wouldn't expect Ziyech to score a lot more than Willian but I would expect him to be much better at creating chances and passing that final ball to the ones who actually do score the goals (Werner, Havertz etc). Also isn't Ziyech supposed to be really good at set-piece deliveries? Willian has been the main corner taker in the last couple seasons and it's been horrible.

Yep. If anyone had suggested a year ago the club would finish top4 and go on to sign Werner, Ziyech, Havertz, Chillwell and maybe Thiago Silva we'd have been calling the men in white coats and have them locked up for being out of their minds. After the January window my realistic expectation for the summer was signing players like M. Dembele, Coutinho (loan) and Telles (didn't think Leicester would drop out of top4). That probably would've improved the team too and by any means those are not bad players but even in my dreams I didn't expect to sign better players in each position and then some. Assuming Havertz, Chillwell and Silva are all completed I'd say only a GK is needed and the squad is more than ready for the coming season.

Ornstein saying 'move is now almost done'.

Yeah, after the final I'm fully convinced Thiago Silva still got it. The 'pace and physicality' of the PL shouldn't be a problem if he can handle himself against Bayern without getting embarrassed. Sure he's 36 next month but even if he joins it doesn't mean he will have to play every game. He could be use sparingly in the more important games and rested in the lesser matches to keep him always fresh.

Loan with €30M obligation sounds way too good to be true hahah

I did, and saw very much mixed feelings. Some think Chillwell is among the best in the PL, some think he's alright and some think he's bad. And as I've said many times I myself am not yet 100% convinced about his skills either. I've seen some great and some bad performances from him so remains to be seen whether he'll be a good signing or not. But at least I'm willing to give him and Lamps my full backing to show they know what they're doing instead of write him off before he's even joined for fucks sake.

They are only talking about the current financial year though. A €15M fee would write off the rest of Baka's amortisation value and get him off the books for good, thus break-even value. Obviously a lot of money has already been lost on Bakayoko but all of that has already been paid and accounted for in the last few financial reports and at this point nothing can be done about that anymore. Only focus should be on the current moment and future.

Agree to disagree then. I don't consider a team/player to have had a good performance defensively if they conceded a lot of clear-cut chances, whether they end up as goals or not. I don't care what the stats say about that, I will rather go with what I see with my own eyes. And anyway I was responding to a guy who kept going on and on about Chillwell being 'destroyed' by Lamptey. That game ended 0-0 so going by your logic Chillwell must have had a glorious game that day, having kept a clean sheet and all.