Jype

Would make sense. Leeds could do with a "big name" signing and Bielsa knows Batshuayi from their time together at Marseille. The main man at Leeds is Patrick Bamford, no way Batshuayi is worse than him.

That last bit is vital IMO. Like I said a couple of days ago, a breakthrough must be had in the next week or two. Don't want to leave this hanging till September when both teams are back in training and want some clarity of the squad for next season.

The only reason Koulibaly has not been picked out of Napoli is their 100m€ price tag (pre-2020) and Aurelio De Laurentiis being an absolute cunt to negotiate transfers with. Nothing to do with race. And now it's starting to be too late for him. 75m€ for a 29yo player is big money, especially when he's not been at his best this season. Again nothing to do with race.

Seen some Arsenal fans suggesting they could play him as a central midfielder. That lot are in for a rude awakening once they actually start watching him every week. It's no wonder Chelsea fans have largely been frustrated with Willian for ages but many opposition fans who only watch Chelsea few games a season think he's great. For example if someone watched only Spurs away and a maximum of five other games, they could easily be mistaken that Willian produces that kind of performances more often than not. The goals he does score are usually very nicely taken but he just doesn't do that often enough. Sure looks good on youtube though.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8625015/Arsenal-pay-Willian-35m-three-years-despite-staff-cuts.html Wow.

Whether Havertz joins or not I would think a left-back is definitely coming, just need to shift Emerson first and then we'll start seeing some more concrete developments there. And with Lampard losing all faith in Kepa a new goalkeeper is a must-have too. No idea who that will be but there's no coming back for Kepa after being dropped in the winter and then shortly again after being given another chance. New GK will come regardless of whatever happens with loaning/selling Kepa. CB is a tricky one. It seems Lampard is only after Rice and I don't think he's a realistic signing for this summer.

True. But all this was just to say Havertz doesn't look anywhere close to being done at the moment and it could still easily collapse. That's why I was curious what got you so confident about it.

Thiago would definitely be an improvement on pretty much every midfielder at the club but who would you move on to make place for him? The answer is not Jorginho because the club have been trying to move him on and been unsuccessful at that. Kante, RLC, Kovacic, Mount and Gilmour are going nowhere and rightly so. Barkley probably will be sold if a buyer is found, but it's looking like Havertz is going take that spot if he joins. So if Havertz deal goes through and assuming Barkley is sold/loaned that still leaves 7 players for 3 spots which is already one more than ideal so the solution is definitely not to go after yet another midfielder. Based on reports Thiago is earning €230K/wk at the moment in Bayern. Seeing as the next one will be his last big contract and he's still a world class player I'd be really surprised if his next deal won't be a fair bit higher than that. So a €30M fee and €250-270K/wk for a 29yo player.

That's true, I would much rather have Marina than Woodward. But let's not pretend Marina's haggling hasn't cost the club some almost certain transfers in the past, the most notable being Lukaku from Everton. She thought there was no competition to sign him and everyone, including the fans and media, thought it was pretty much a done deal with just the final details to sort out but that one fell through. And around the same time Alex Sandro was more than willing to join and Juve also made their asking price clear but that one didn't happen either. So I wouldn't say Havertz is in the bag yet either, lots of things could still go wrong. And while I believe it's going to happen in the end, I'd still prefer this to be done asap so that the club can focus fully on the remaining targets and player sales. Still a lot to do in the transfer window after Havertz.

Sancho also has/had personal terms agreed, according to Romano & co. He wants the move too but isn't ready to be a cunt about it towards Dortmund because there's a chance the clubs can't agree on a fee. If he didn't want the move, any transfer negotiations wouldn't have taken place to begin with. With Havertz there is a gentlemans agreement between him and Leverkusen (see Völler's comment above) that he can go when the asking price is met and so far nothing suggests Marina is willing to meet it and instead she's trying to negotiate the price down by a good 10-20 mil. I think that was the case with Sancho too and the €120M price was made clear at the beginning of the summer, but United haggled too long and angered the Dortmund chiefs who are now trying to make a point that they're not to be fucked with. That move could still happen but it's much harder now, and the same could soon be true with Havertz too if the start of the season gets nearer and the deal still isn't done. Like you said, Leverkusen need the Havertz money to sign players. If they don't get that money soon, they could still say it's too late for them to buy any reinforcements and do the same as Dortmund are doing now with United. I believe Havertz move is still very much on but a breakthrough in negotiations has to happen in the next week or two. Otherwise there is an actual risk of the move falling through. Lots of deals have collapsed at much later stages than this.

What makes you so confident? Völler makes it pretty clear that nothing's been agreed and the clubs could still be a long way from reaching an agreement. Just because personal terms have been agreed doesn't mean it's 100% happening, just look at the Sancho deal to United.

Just pay up. If the club really consider Havertz a 'generational talent' (hate that term) they shouldn't haggle over a few million and risk fucking up the chance to get him. It's clear Leverkusen have told Marina what it takes to sign him and Havertz himself is eager to move so it should be a fairly straightforward deal. Sure it's a lot of money but the longer this drags on the higher the chance Leverkusen say 'too late, let's return to this again next year' or some other clubs could join the race too (ie. Bayern when they sell Thiago). In a lot of ways this is very similar to United's pursuit of Sancho, and at the moment it's looking like there's a clear chance they've bottled it. Would hate to see that happen here.

Because at Chelsea the midfield is already well stacked as it is and will be even more so if/when Havertz joins. Thiago does offer different qualities than any current midfielder at the club but it doesn't really make much sense to go after him when there are more pressing concerns in the squad. And the low fee is not the only thing to consider, Thiago has big wages too and is looking for the last big contract of his career so he's going to demand a lot. At 29yo the club probably wouldn't be giving him more than a 3 year deal so altogether with amortisation and wages we're looking at £20-25M a year for him. To put into context, Havertz at £70M fee and the rumoured £9M/year wages would be somewhere in the same ballpark annually because of the longer contract and costs being divided to a longer period. Don't let the inexpensive transfer fee fool you, Thiago is not a cheap player. As for Reguilon I agree, signing him would make way more sense than getting Chillwell at a much larger transfer fee.

All those social media posts of current/former Chelsea players with Rice reminds me of the time Barcelona were after Fabregas. Interesting caption from JT there, he definitely seems to think of Rice as a CB.

Yep, having good squad depth is now more important than ever. Unless they can somehow cough up some extra funds for quality signings I can especially see Liverpool suffering from the fixture congestion. City should be a lock for the title with their ridiculous squad, it's theirs to fuck up. Lampard so far has been a big fan of rotating the squad, though this season a lot of the rotation was probably down to Lamps not necessarily knowing what his best team is. At least in defense areas. Either way I can see pretty much every player in the squad getting a lot of minutes with two games almost every week till at least March and possibly even further depending on the FA Cup and CL runs.

How is Christensen similar to De Bruyne situation? De Bruyne was moved on without ever getting a fair chance (only two starts in the PL/CL) despite showing in his Werder Bremen loan, his national team performances and in 2013 pre-season that he was a really good creative player. Christensen on the other hand has already played 100 games for Chelsea across three seasons and only ever looked half-decent in the back 3 under Conte and even then his performances got gradually worse as the season went on. Under Sarri/Lampard he's looked like a deer in the headlights of a car. I do think Christensen could look more solid in a team with better defensive organization but even then he needs his CB-partner to be a physical monster to cover for his own lack of strength and preferably the other CB should also be one with great leadership skills because AC is not a leading defender.

Exactly, I think 20m€ for Bakayoko is really fine since it's more than his remaining amortisation and gets him off the wage bill for good. And despite only 4m€ 'on the books profit' it would also boost the club's available cash funds for the full 20m to spend elsewhere. It's a lot better than any deal involving a loan with option/obligation to buy which would mean less income for the 20/21 financial year. With covid still affecting matchday income etc. this coming season it's much better to get as much money in from transfers as possible by selling the loan army / surplus players rather than keep loaning them out. It will also make things a lot easier once the new loan restrictions kick in.

I for one have been saying the exact same things about Willian since about 2017, as have many others. Not many players have divided the fan base as much as he did so it's not a case of people just deciding he's shit now that he's joining a PL rival. And I still don't think he's shit, just that he's not good enough. And the trophy argument is just lazy. I don't remember Willian playing a vital key role in any of them. Yes he may have been a regular starter for most of his time at the club but I honestly don't think he was even in the top5 influential players for any of the trophies won during his time at the club. I don't see anyone saying the defense is good enough, quite the opposite really. Kovacic I really think is good enough and James is still young and has potential to improve a lot. But anyway what's that got to do with Willian? None of the players you mentioned had their contract up after the season so replacing them is a lot more complicated. Many of the players on your list will most likely be replaced as soon as the club finds a buyer for them. If guys like Emerson, Rüdiger or Christensen had expiring contracts like Willian I wouldn't want the club to extend them either because like Willian I don't think they're not good enough. Replacing everyone in one go is probably unrealistic, it's a marathon not a sprint. Got to start the overhaul somewhere though and releasing Willian is a good start. But you're right in saying much more is needed than just refreshing the attacking areas. Money. The point is money. Even though the squad is nowhere near good enough to actually challenge, just this season the club made more than €80M from reaching the Champions League RO16 and having that revenue is extremely vital to improving the team in the long term and making sure it's ready to compete in the future. The squad rebuild is only at the beginning so not challenging for the PL and CL titles right now is not the end of the world, of course there needs to be constant improvement or else the risk is ending up like Arsenal.

In some cases players have perhaps made the step up a little too early, like Memphis Depay. If he'd stayed a couple more years and really established himself he probably would've done a lot better. He's shown now at Lyon that he's not a bad player and if he moved back to the PL now he'd be much more likely to succeed. The ones who've continuously showed their class and proven themselves to be too good for the league have generally been pretty good, not just in PL but other leagues too. The biggest flops like Vincent Janssen or Afonso Alves had just one great season in Eredivisie before their big moves so I'd put it more down to them just being one-season wonders rather than players who just couldn't deal with the Premier League level. Neither of those two have done anything significant even when moving down a few levels after their stints in the PL so they're just bad players full stop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_football_transfer_record Looking at the top20 biggest transfers out of the Eredivisie I wouldn't really call many of them flops, apart from the three I mentioned and Davy Klaassen. Sneijder and Huntelaar were flops at Real Madrid but quality players elsewhere. Lozano hasn't really shown anything at Napoli either but I'd give him another season before making a judgment. Ziyech has been Ajax's best player for three seasons in the row and from what I've heard he had two great years at Twente even before moving to Ajax. He's obviously way too good for the Dutch league, but it remains to be seen whether he can settle in immediately or if it will take some time before we see the best of him. I wouldn't expect any immediate fireworks from him but I don't think he will be a flop signing.

I agree. But for now there's no way to know for sure how well Ziyech settles in right away from the start, or even at all. For me that was the only argument in favor of keeping Willian but to give him a 3 year contract on big wages would've been very counterproductive in the long-term. Had Willian stayed he'd have been the safe 6.5/10 option but if Ziyech settles in quickly and plays at his best level he'll already be a big improvement, not to mention that betting on CHO's development has big potential too.

Quotes from Zorc are pretty much identical to Ousmane Dembele situation three years ago. Dembele ended up acting like a total cunt and got his move in the end, but not before Dortmund milking Barcelona for every last cent (€105+40M). But with the news of contract till 2023 they have no need to sell this year. So in theory they could still say no even if United came up with a €120M offer now, as long as Sancho himself is happy to stay for one more season and then leave on good terms next year. However if he's desperate to go to United they'll end up selling. Either way, if the Dembele saga taught us anything it's that Dortmund won't accept a lower fee just because the buying club can't afford full price. So for United it's €120M of gtfo.

Maybe, but Pedro was never the one to create the chances though. They had Xavi, Iniesta and Messi for that. Say what you say, but even in 2009-2015 Barcelona Pedro was the workhorse. Which is not to say he was a bad player by any means, but only that he's not a very creative player.

I didn't exactly mean signing a better winger in 2013 instead of Willian (although at the time I remember not wanting him at all because of KDB). What I meant was that the club could have maybe tried to get an improvement at RW somewhere along the way when it became clear that Willian's level was not world class and that he was very unlikely to improve either. So maybe having a better option for the full 7 years was not realistic but just from the ones you mentioned Mahrez would've been easily available anytime from 2016 to 2018 and he'd have been a big improvement. Over the years there have been others too, but the club decided to trust Willian and since Pedro joined there was never any intention of looking for an improvement.

But still never been good enough. Just because he was better than some of the other shit we've had in RW doesn't mean he was worth keeping around. Let's be fair, if the competition for him over the years was players like Pedro, Moses, Kenedy, Cuadrado, Remy, Schürrle and a 2014-Salah the bar wasn't exactly set very high for Willian to stand out. Pedro and Willian were both decent workhorse players but ultimately neither of them were ever really good enough. It's no wonder that both of them enjoyed the best football of their Chelsea careers under Conte when high work rate and being good on the counter-attack were one of the most important qualities in a player. But stick them in a team that dominates possession and needs their attacking players to often create something out of nothing and they both look shit. If we'd just had a Hazard-level player on the right wing instead of Willian/Pedro I'm sure the team would've been much, much more successful in the last 7 years. Don't get me wrong, two league titles and a few cups is by no means a bad record but it could have been a lot better.

Yep, also around £8M a year in amortisation on the club's books (5M for Pedro and 3M for Willian). Overall that's £20M per year off the books with those two gone. That alone will cover the entirety of Ziyech annual cost (amortisation+wages) with a good amount of money still left over.