Jype

Yeah, absolutely shocking. The club have had all summer to secure new wing-backs to add competition and cover for Moses and Alonso but so far they've got fuck all to show for it and as it stands the club are going to compete in four competitions with just two wing-backs in the whole squad. Last week they finally understood Alex Sandro doesn't want to join and now with less than 48 hours remaining they find out their number one target for RWB who's been chased all summer doesn't even want to play that position. Time to go full panic mode. Who's the Papy Djilobodji alternative for right wing-back?

Oh come on, no need to be so bitter. If he doesn't want to join, then he has every right to decline the offer. At least he let the club know of his decision now with two days left to go after someone else, fair play.

Oh ffs, always some drama with the Hollywood FC that is Chelsea Good luck to the lad then. He won't get in Liverpool's central midfield either as anything more than a backup option and Arsenal will keep playing him at wing-back.

Yeah, it's not an ideal situation. The board need to tell Chamberlain to hurry the fuck up and sign the contract by end of the day tomorrow or deal's off the table with the club starting to look at some other alternatives for deadline day buy. Would be beyond idiotic to let the deal stall till last hours of the deadline with no other option lined up because if he then decides to go to Liverpool instead we're fucked.

Because Arsenal aren't selling unless a ridiculous bid comes in, and by ridiculous I mean like £80M or even more. Of course Sanchez is a world class game changer and AOC is only a decent squad player but still, completely different roles. I for one fully understand the reasoning behind getting Ox and Drinky for the combined price it'd take to buy Sanchez. Getting the first two would pretty much complete the squad in both quality and quantity in midfield/wingback departments, whereas Sanchez would be more of a luxury signing to further improve the strike force which is already pretty good once Hazard returns. Not fussed if City get him, they already have a ridiculous amount of attacking players and getting Sanchez won't improve them by much because it will only knock other good players like Jesus, Sterling, Sane etc. further down the pecking order.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-set-frantic-final-48-13547013 A trusted Liverpool-based journo doesn't even mention AOC in his article about the last two days of Liverpool's transfer window, it's all about VvD and Lemar for them now. Of course they might still change their mind and make that dreaded late bid for Ox if they don't get any closer to Lemar tomorrow, but Pearce doesn't even consider that a possibility in his piece, which is a good sign I guess.

Could be a blessing in disguise too. Tottenham have been sniffing around all summer but when the injury got worse the rumours have been pretty quiet so maybe they dropped their interest, paving the way clear for Chelsea to get him. And also like Artandur said it saves a significant amount of money to buy him when he's not fully fit. Sure it's a risk, but for a club like Chelsea it might just be a risk worth taking. If he's a success we get a 23-yo HG player with huge potential but if he flops then most of the £25M fee can easily be re-couped later just because of his nationality

Not really, he's started only 8 games in the NT so far since his debut in 2013 with a further 14 substitute appearances. He's usually included in the squad whenever fit but he's by no means an important player for them.

Robbie from the famous Arsenal Fan TV saying he was told a month ago by a club source that AOC is going to Chelsea.

From what I've understood the club are interested in signing both, not just one. Drinkwater is obviously the club's priority and he's close to signing but for now I wouldn't rule out Barkley joining too. Ross Barkley would be a luxury player to add depth and tactical variety. Unlike for Drinkwater I can't really see a clear role for Barkley in the squad but I have a feeling he would prove a useful player in the long run, especially coming off the bench when the team needs goals. The only problem is his current injury, which might take him a few more months to recover from.

Exactly. Losing this battle to that joke of a club would be embarrassing as fuck, especially now that it's been reported that even a fee has been agreed with Arsenal so clearly they're willing to deal with Chelsea.

Sure, but the BBC report also said this: "Liverpool have also shown an interest, but the former Southampton player is set to move to Stamford Bridge." So before people start to lose their shit over something Jim White said, which may or may not be true, I'd tend to think it's pretty much a done deal and just lacking official confirmation at this point.

Signing a 22-year-old Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco's title winning side or 24-year-old Alvaro Morata from back-to-back CL winners Real Madrid wasn't shaping up the squad to fight for titles in the long-term? Antonio Rüdiger, aged 24, doesn't look like a bad player either and the 24-yo Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is also likely to join and personally I think he'd be a wonderful addition to the squad. Oh, and then there's also Andreas Christensen who's barely passed his teenage years and is looking like a prominent member of the squad now after being integrated into the team over the summer. Lemar and VVD I really don't believe Liverpool will even get and while Keita seems a cracking player who will improve them once he actually joins them next year, we simply can't get them all ffs. So far Liverpool have failed massively in this transfer window having signed only Salah and that neverheard left-back from Hull so after finishing in fourth place last year it's pretty fucking obvious that they'll need more additions to even have a shot at competing for the title, and that's why they get linked to exciting first team players now whereas Chelsea completed the most important signings Morata and Bakayoko earlier in the summer so at this moment all that's needed is signing some squad depth. Liverpool are also potentially losing their single most important player from last season in Philippe Coutinho and pretty much guaranteed to lose one of their key midfielders Emre Can next year on a free transfer to Juventus because that's what kind of a club Liverpool are for the players, a mere stepping stone to be used to make it to the big time clubs. At least in Chelsea players join to actually win trophies, not to use the club as a shopping window for eventually getting a move to a club where they can win titles. Also I would argue that last season's title winning team at Chelsea is already a really young bunch of exciting players with pretty much all key members being aged 26 at most and apart from Cesc, Cahill, Luiz, Pedro and Willian no players in the team have even reached their peak years as players yet. Still some people find reasons to complain, a great example of the good old 'grass is always greener' mentality.

Real quote? Don't post everything you read online.

Yeah, I'm with you on this. Fee is too much but I'm not going to hold that agains the player, it's not his fault the market has gone crazy. As a player he's actually quite decent and look at it this way: knows the league, already has experience of playing alongside Kante and at his age coming from a lower side he's probably more than happy to accept a smaller role than the other midfielders in the team so for a squad player he has the potential to be a great signing. He's one of those players who can be called upon to do a job in the league anyday but not quite enough to make me convinced when going up against the big boys in the Champions League, but unless something unexpected happens he wouldn't be in line to start those kind of games anyway.

Fee confirmed to have been agreed by reliable journos so unless something unexpected happens he's coming. Only a failed medical or a last-minute desperate over the top bid from Liverpool can collapse the deal at this point.

So hold on a minute, a French media outlet breaking the news of a transfer between a Russian owned English club and a Thai owned English club for an English player? Sounds like a dodgy rumour at best, why would they be the first to report it? That being said, I fully expect him to sign either way but it's not because of that latest tweet.

Atletico managed to loan Vitolo to Las Palmas just fine, so why couldn't they do the same with Costa?

He says AOC would be number five for the summer, not that there's still five to come. So far there's been Caballero, Rüdiger, Bakayoko, Morata and now OX looks likely. Still expecting a couple more though.

Not so sure about that. Vitolo was signed and then sent on loan to Las Palmas from Atletico and not Sevilla, so clearly they can still sign players and send them out on loan and basically the only restriction from the trade ban is that whoever they sign can't be registered to play for Atletico. Despite Koeman mentioning it a couple of times I still remain highly sceptical Costa would actually go to Everton on loan, but if he did then his availability would depend entirely on how his transfer to Atletico was structured. If it's a pre-contract from January and the loan deal was between Chelsea and Everton, then he can't play but if he actually signs for Atletico before the deadline and goes on loan from Atleti to Everton then there's no restriction to prevent him from playing against Chelsea.

So disappointed if he ends up at Liverpool, think he'd be really good for the RWB. I can accept Arsenal not selling at all, but not being able to beat Liverpool for a player the club have been after all summer would be really embarrassing.

Am I the only one who thinks all this 'AOC wants to play as CM' talk is bullshit? He's thrived as a wing-back in the last six months more than he has over the last six years at any other positions, much like Victor Moses has, and I think he'd be more than happy to keep playing there in the future too if that's where he's at his most useful. Surely he's not dumb enough to stubbornly want to play only as a CM when he's not very good at that position and would mean he will most likely never be a key player for a team fighting for the title whereas in wing-back he can become one of the best in the world. Just seems to me like an excuse for wanting to leave Arsenal, as he's hardly going to say 'I wanna leave to win more trophies at a better team' until his transfer is 100% completed because it could backfire on him badly if he doesn't get the move.

Hazard included in the Belgium squad. Fuck off Martinez, can't beat Gibraltar and Greece without Eden?

Yeah, all depends on how the group games have gone up until that point. If a win is severely needed to qualify then the best team must travel, but if qualification is already in the bag then maybe some players can be left home. Either way, if it wasn't crystal clear to the board before today's draw then surely now even they realize that more depth in the squad is much needed.

09/09/17: Leicester - Chelsea12/09/17: Chelsea - Qarabag 17/09/17: Chelsea - Arsenal---23/09/17: Stoke - Chelsea27/09/17: Atletico - Chelsea 30/09/17: Chelsea - Man City---14/10/17: Crystal Palace - Chelsea18/10/17: Chelsea - Roma 23/10/17: Chelsea - Watford---28/10/17: Bournemouth - Chelsea31/10/17: Roma - Chelsea 05/11/17: Chelsea - Manchester United---18/11/17: WBA - Chelsea22/11/17: Qarabag - Chelsea25/11/17: Liverpool - Chelsea---02-03/12/17: Chelsea - Newcastle05/12/17: Chelsea - Atletico 09-10/12/17: West Ham - Chelsea So here's how the CL matches are lined up with the upcoming league games. Away games in Madrid and Rome on the weeks with clashes against Manchester clubs and the exhausting trip to Azerbaizan right before Liverpool away. Probably the worst possible schedule they could've come up with.