Jype

Even so, do you really consider the second choice LB to be the most pressing concern in the squad? The very first priority should be making the first XI as strong as possible so after singing a new LB (whether it's Chillwell, Reguilon or someone else) the club should focus fully on GK and CB areas before even thinking about the LB position again. And after those two are done I'd say DMF is next on the agenda, unless the defensive signing is Rice who can do both DM and CB. While I don't think he's good enough, at least for the big games, having Alonso as 2nd choice LB for at least another season should be the least of our problems in the short term.

Aside from Liverpool the first five rounds don't seem too bad. It's good to have 'easier' fixtures in the start with new players still settling in and Pulisic out injured. Other than that the fixture list doesn't matter, everyone has to play every team twice either way.

Alonso is more than good enough to play backup for one more season. Getting two new players for the same position in the same window rarely works out because it's much harder for the other one to settle in with little playing time. Alonso already knows the squad and the manager so it's easier for him to come in the team when needed than it would be for someone who's only just joined the club. Not to mention selling him at a good enough value would not be that easy right now but in 1-2 years shipping him out should be more doable. And just from the pairs you mentioned Walker & Cancelo doesn't really work. Cancelo is a good player but he hasn't looked anywhere near his best given that he very rarely plays. Real Madrid have Mendy and Marcelo because they're slowly trying to phase out Marcelo who's 32 and suffers from injuries. With Azpi and James the structure is also good because one is a young talent and the other is older so I'd think it's clear for the both of them that James' playing time will increase as time goes by. Having two 23yo left-backs like Reguilon and Chillwell on the other hand would be completely different because both would expect to be starters and the one who misses out will eventually become unhappy.

Yep, exactly what I meant. In these current pandemic times most clubs don't have the cash reserves to buy players because they need to ensure they have enough to cover all running costs (wages etc.) so obviously having an extra 35m€ lying around in the club's bank accounts would make many things easier. Of course all new signings would still go on the books for amortisation and wages and that's where freeing up 18m€ a year from Jorginho would come in handy.

Yep, I think getting 35m€ would be good enough value. Would be just enough to write him off the books, freeing up 11.6M€ a year in amortisation and another 6M€/y in wages. Overall 'savings' of almost 18M€ per year and not to mention having extra funds (the 35m€ fee) to pay new transfers with. If Lamps doesn't want him anymore it makes sense to sell him, even at a price little bit lower than his market value. But not sure who in Italy can either afford or need him now that Juve is out of the question.

36 next month. Still looked really good in the CL, although that's only a couple of games.

Yes. When Romano says "here we go" it's time for that.

Who decides what a player is worth? For example going by Transfermarkt values Havertz is ranked 12th most valuable player in the world. Ahead of him in their listings are only Mbappe, Sterling, Neymar, Mane, Salah, Kane, KDB, Sancho, Messi, TAA and Griezmann which to me sounds fair enough. On that site Joao Felix is tied with Havertz at €81M valuation and he moved for €126M last year. Havertz is probably considered better than Felix so Leverkusen have every right to demand silly money for him, not just for his current level of ability but the huge potential too. Whether it's a good idea for Chelsea to pay €100M for him is a whole other matter and probably depends on how big the club's total transfer budget is. If the club still consider deals for defensive reinforcements to be financially viable even after spending a lot of money on Havertz I say go for it. It's not money straight out of my own pocket and it would be really exciting to see the club sign one of the highest rated young players in the world. The board clearly know the defense needs additions too and going by reports they're not done with the market after potentially signing Havertz so as long as that happens too I don't really care whether the fee for Havertz ends up being €80M or €100M. And it could be that a big part of that difference will be made up via add-ons so it shouldn't impact this window's budget too much.

Is it that good though? In pre-COVID circumstances Leverkusen's asking price was €120M so a 33% discount with some of the fee even tied to bonuses doesn't exactly scream instant sell to me. They've been adamant since around May that they still want €100M and they're well within their rights to demand that, even in the pandemic circumstances. Of course if they don't sell now, they're risking Bayern München getting him for €50M next year and Leverkusen having to endure +10 years of Havertz spanking them in the Bundesliga so finding a solution now benefits both clubs. But saying they should accept a deal that heavily favors the buying club is just arrogant thinking. Marina stood firm on Hazard's asking price last year and got a wonderful deal in the end so Leverkusen have every right to demand a good amount for their most valuable asset too.

I'm not buying that. All other sources (who insisted personal terms agreed a long time ago) have been saying €9M/year. With probably bonuses on top. Not to mention a contract like that completely destroying the wage structure at the club I'd say unless FFP is dead and buried with Roman happy to cover for all losses like it's 2005 again, the club can't afford to have Havertz costing a total of €40M/season on the books. A deal like that is asking for trouble, whether it's FFP or unsettled players earning less money.

So in reality no new development has happened? Didn't we figure it out ages ago that there's roughly a €20M difference in the fee to sort out with Marina willing to go as high as €80M including add-ons and Leverkusen insisting on the €100M? But at least the clubs are still talking so they must believe they can reach an agreement in the end. One way or the other this won't drag for much longer.

No club is going to pay Gimenez clause, especially with that injury record. At least I'd hope so.

Exactly. Transfer negotiations in real life are nothing like in FIFA or FM where you just randomly send offers to clubs and see if they accept. In reality it's endless negotiations and only submit an actual offer when the clubs are done talking, either to the amount verbally agreed in the negotiations or a bid to the highest amount the buying club is willing to go, basically a 'take it or leave it' type offer. Apparently Bild have said Leverkusen have set a deadline for August 28th when they return to pre-season. Like I've suspected all along this won't drag onto September so one way or the other we'll hear something within the next week or so. A couple weeks ago I was feeling really confident about this one happening, but now I'm thinking it's a 50/50 chance whether Marina comes up with the cash or not.

Yea, 4 players for 4 spots. But they're also going to lose Coutinho and Perisic from this seasons squad so without another signing after Sane they're not as strong in squad depth than this year. Of course a signing of €80-100M is not ideal for squad depth but Müller and Lewa are also on the wrong side of 30 so if they suddenly raise some funds they might just think "what the hell let's go for it" if this summer is their only chance to sign Havertz. It's unlikely but it could easily happen, especially if they win the CL and want to make a statement signing that they're not going to settle for what they've got and want to keep improving. United also have Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Bruno for their front 4 and they're still after another signing to improve their attack so why wouldn't Bayern? Only reason why they haven't gone for Havertz yet is lack of money.

I don't think it's off yet, but like I said last week it's starting to look like it's far from the certain deal we previously thought it was. Negotiations probably still ongoing but it's clear Leverkusen are/were trying to ramp up more interest in Havertz with the comments from their executives last week saying many clubs interested and he can go for a certain price etc. Marina isn't going to pay the full asking price so they're trying to wait and see if someone else will bite. Bayern could still be in the race if they sell some players (mainly Thiago) so Leverkusen are not in a rush to accept anything less than their full price. It's clear Havertz himself won't go on a strike or anything to force a move so we'll see how it goes. Still think this is likely to go through eventually, but Marina needs to cough up the money and I don't think that will happen unless some players are sold first to raise funds.

Yep. I'd say due to age Batshuayi in three years will have more resale value than Thiago, unless he fails spectacularly at his next club. Also need to consider the wages. Thiago as a world class player will demand two or three times more money in wages than Batshuayi, who probably wouldn't even get what he currently makes at Leeds. And anyway, what does Liverpool being too broke to buy Thiago at a more than reasonable transfer fee got to do with Batshuayi's valuation? I do think €25M is too much for Michy but I also wouldn't be surprised if Leeds actually paid it. They have money to spend following their promotion and Michy is probably one of few strikers with big league experience they could realistically go for. I'd be happy with anything above €15M but let's hope Marina can negotiate a good price.

€25M for Michy would be like winning the lottery.

Why's everyone acting like he had a great game yesterday? Was I watching a completely different match or did they not concede a ton of great chances only for United to fuck them up? That assist for Sevilla's first goal was nice but other than that he was not really all that good. Would still take him at €25M ahead of Chillwell at £60M if there was no buy-back included but let's not go over the top with the praise.

I bet most of the Leicester fans now saying Chillwell is shit are only saying that because they accepted a long time ago that he's leaving for a bigger club and are now desperate to bash him to feel better about it. Reminds me of Spurs fans when Walker went to City, he supposedly turned shit overnight too. It's clear Chillwell didn't have a good end to the season but then again neither did anyone else at Leicester. Still you don't see them saying the likes of Söyüncü, Ndidi or Maddison are shit because they're not going anywhere but the fact is none of those players played any better than Chillwell either. I too am not fully sold on Chillwell at a world-record fee for a LB but first of all I'd wait to see what the actual price ends up being if the deal does go through. If the initial fee is not something ridiculous and a big chunk of the full fee is tied to add-ons I'm fully behind the transfer so let's wait and see. As long as the LB signing, whether Chillwell or someone else, is kept within the budget so enough money is left to improve other areas I'm happy.

Would Foster be first choice though? If Kepa can be sent on loan somewhere I wouldn't rule out getting two new keepers this window, a new first choice and someone like Foster as backup. Caballero is 39 after all.

Dunk is definitely an underrated player, he's been great for Brighton a few years and even got appointed as their captain this season so he must have good leadership qualities too. That said, I'm not convinced he's an upgrade over our current CB options. I guess I would rate Dunk somewhere around the level of Gary Cahill a few years ago, could be a solid option but never a truly great one. I'd take Dunk ahead of Zouma though.

Yep, it's always been ridiculous. I think last season it went to Sterling who's been playing regular PL football as a starter (+200 games) since fucking 2012 and is one of the highest paid players in the league. Sterling at the time was 24 years old. The cut-off for YPOTY should be 21 age or a maximum of 50 appearances in the league at the start of the season concerned, whichever comes first.

Who would've thought a year ago that two teams from Group G (Zenit, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig) would be playing in the semifinals. If only Atalanta had held on against PSG...

In pretty much every transfer I've seen buy-back clauses included in they've been around 30-50% more than the initial fee, at the very most a 100% increase. That's basing it on deals for players like Morata, Carvajal, Boga, Aké etc. Two of the ones mentioned were even from Real Madrid under Perez' leadership so it stands to reason that's the kind of deal they would be looking for this time too. So with a £22.5M fee for Reguilon we'd probably be looking at a £35-45M buy-back at most. Otherwise what's the point of even having a buy-back clause if it's set so high he would most likely be sold for around that price anyway. I think Real Madrid are serious about including a buy-back for Reguilon. Marcelo is not getting any younger so he might still have a place there in the future, but selling him now would give them much-needed funds during the pandemic times so any player not in their immediate plans is up for grabs but ideally they'll want to leave the door open for those they actually rate.

Good post, agree 100%. Chillwell is a gamble but so is any other signing. Telles and Tagliafico are cheaper but both will soon be 28 and need to settle in immediately to be considered successful signings and coming from Portugal/Netherlands it's far from a sure thing that they would hit the ground running. I would prefer Reguilon over Chillwell but only without a buy-back clause, which looks to be something Real Madrid are insisting on. And even then the only thing leaning me towards Reguilon is the price, I consider them to be equally good players. Chillwell was good in 18/19 and even better in the first half of 19/20. Their whole team was a mess since around January so I'd much rather judge him on the earlier games when he was playing in a more functional team. Let's face it, in January anyone would have taken Chillwell without a second thought. The club have been scouting Ben for a long time now and it's been clear since around August/September last year that he was the first choice target for Lampard at left-back. They would know what they're getting from him and probably aren't looking at just the last few months of the 19/20 season when deciding whether he's good enough or not. Fans are more fickle and reactive to base their opinions in short-term form so it's probably a good thing they're not in charge of the signings. Reguilon is the new flavor-of-the-month player but I doubt many on here have watched him (or Telles, Tagliafico) extensively. I too have doubts on Chillwell's price and the effect it may have on other signings this window but as long as the club know their budget and consider him a viable option financially I say go for it. Havertz for me is a priority at this moment and if that were to fall through because of money spent on Chillwell I would be unhappy about it but so far nothing suggests those two deals have anything to do with each other. For £50M plus a maximum of £15M in performance based add-ons I would consider Chillwell a good signing, as long as it means the club still have money for Havertz and a goalkeeper at the very least. Getting a new CB (or Rice) will probably depend on player sales to raise funds and more importantly make room in the squad so I don't think Chillwell signing affects that. For £80M or something as ridiculous as that I'd say hard pass on Chillwell.