Jype

http://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/news-en/schalke-04-pursuing-chelsea-defender-zouma-the-situation/ Haven't laughed this hard in ages, how the hell is DiMarzio reporting shit like this? Don't believe it for a second but if the club were to even consider loaning out Zouma with an option to buy, everyone at the club needs to get sacked and Roman admitted to an asylum for an obvious case of mental illness.

Stop it, that's horrible.

Exactly. Loan with a few million fee + €20M buy option seems a lot safer bet than just buy at €20M. If he comes good, the €20M is peanuts and if he fails to impress then cutting him loose next year will be easy and the club can pursue another target. From what I've heard about the guy since yesterday it seems promising. Not the best left-back out there but a good player anyway and can still improve under a manager like Conte. At this point in the window I don't see many better options so I say go for it. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Yeah Di Marzio is saying a deal is close. Prefer some other targets but willing to keep an open mind and see what this guy can do.

Really tall for a full-back, 188cm. No idea if he's good or not.

Damn, followed the draw live and was almost relieved when I saw the Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool all get drawn elsewhere but then we get the only remaining "tough" draw and away nonetheless. Remains to be seen how much effort Leicester will be putting to the League Cup though. They have so many fixtures coming up this season and with the CL group stages and PL games surely taking priority over the EFL Cup we may see a severely weakened Leicester side here.

Anything above €25M will recoup their money, Roma's rumored clause only affects the profits. But even so, Milan certainly won't sell him just to break even. Will need a massive bid to make them even consider it.

It's not up to Conte. He's been saying for a month that he expect the club to make some signings and maybe has given the board a list of names who to go after but that's where his responsibility ends, he's not like Wenger who has the ultimate say on who the club go after and how much to pay for them.

Yeah of course Nainggolan definitely the first priority, he's been my dream signing in midfield from even before he was first linked to Chelsea. If Roma are adamant he won't be sold, the club can then inquire about Manolas because the Koulibaly chase isn't going anywhere and Manolas is probably better than the other alternatives we have in Maksimovic and Romagnoli so if he suddenly comes on the market we should definitely be in for him too.

Cheeky bids for both Nainggolan and Manolas tomorrow and see if they bite. Was watching the Roma game and the commentator said something about Roma counting heavily on getting the income from CL qualification to allow them to pass FFP, and without the CL money they might be forced to make some sales. Nainggolan and Manolas are their two most valuable assets and wouldn't rule out one of them being sold if that's true, and at this point I'd take either of those.

English Football League?

Yeah, because the likes of Özil or Sanchez are so shit. Just because Barca or Real don't need some player doesn't mean they're not good enough to start at a top club. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

You do realize it says Chelsea have NOT given the ok for that offer?

AS were quoting Sunday Express so wouldn't exactly read much into that. But yeah either way I don't believe for a second that James is happy to be a bench player behind the likes of Marco Asensio or Lucas Vazquez. Just doesn't strike me as the type of guy who's happy to take the paycheck and not be playing when there's huge opportunities for him elsewhere with equal pay.

Begovic - Azpi, Cahill, Ivanovic, Aina - Chalobah, RLC, Fabregas - Moses, Batshuayi, Pedro That's what I would go with. Starts for Aina, Chalobah and RLC are no-brainers here and I'd like to see Batshuayi and Cesc starting too to give them the chance to truly earn themselves the start against Burnley this weekend. Maybe play Courtois in goal if the reports of Begovic being on the move are true.

How the hell can it be even jokingly considered "the worst transfer", when the club would easily recoup all of the money spent on him in case he was sold and in fact probably even make a profit. Never in any transfer reports with Oscar has the rumoured fee been less than the £19M Oscar was bought for (that's right £19M and not £25M, confirmed by Internacional in their financial report of that year). It's true he hasn't been quite what was expected of him when he signed but let's not be ridiculous here.

Yep, and to think this match was without Cristiano so when he's back that's another player ahead of him in the pecking order. Benzema will shake things up too, even if he doesn't play in the exact same position as James he's still another option for Zidane to choose for the starting XI or to take on as a substitute so it might further limit his playing time. Guillem Balague apparently has said he believes James will be off as soon as a €60M bid comes in. That's 52M in pounds, whoever gets him will get a pretty good deal considering the price madness of this transfer window. Having given it some thought I really wouldn't mind signing James. Not really sure where he'd fit in but I have faith in Conte to get the best out of everyone and an in-form James is a world class player who would improve pretty much any side in the world. At the moment Chelsea are too reliant on Hazard in attack but James would maybe change that.

League Cup

Have 150€ at 1/2 odds on Lukaku to still be at Everton when the window closes, even more reason not to want him at the club. Looking good so far.

Feeling optimistic, let's smash them. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Before doing the usual and slating the board let's first see if it's a loan with a forced buy-clause like was rumoured recently. Those are not that uncommon these days, done with the intention of getting the income from sale to only appear in the next financial year's books. But if it is only a loan with some small loan fee it's pointless, we're talking about a player whose value is only on the decline as time goes on because of his age. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

€2 million a year net salary, before taxes that's almost 100K a week and I doubt he'd get much more than that at Chelsea either. Most new signings at Chelsea get around £80K a week at first and more if they extend couple years in. Either way the wage is not the issue here, it's Napoli's unwilligness to sell. With the pay raise they have convinced Koulibaly to stay another year without making a fuss and most likely promised to let him go next year if he wants and a good enough offer comes in. Oh well, time to move on it seems. Cheeky bid for Jose Fonte as a stopgap till next summer? Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

That may be true but the thing is Arsenal must be getting pretty damn desperate at this point in the window and if a world class player comes on the market they should be one of the first clubs to get in there. Maybe it's just me but personally I don't see a problem with James - Özil - Sanchez in a three man attacking midfield, they could seamlessly switch positions inside the game and work their magic. But even so I wasn't basing my comment on tactical reasons but rather Arsenal signing him to please their fanbase who are getting frustrated now more than ever about their lack of transfer activity. Much like the Özil signing a few years back on deadline day, signing James would be a big statement from them that they still have "ambition" even if that wasn't really the case, their fans would shut up for a while and only realize later that they're still shit and start calling for Wenger's head again.

If he leaves Real Madrid I got a feeling he'll end up at Arsenal. Would fit their team like a glove and there's enormous pressure by their fans on Wenger to spend some money. Mahrez was their primary AM target but he signed a new deal to stay at Leicester so next up James would be the logical solution. Won't be cheap but he'd improve their squad massively. Hope I'm wrong, don't want to see him go there. Don't really know if he'd be good for Chelsea either though.

They wanted to keep a guy who they used for all of 29 minutes in the league through out the season? Somehow I doubt that. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk