Jype

I'm not buying that. Mikel is on around £80k a week and these days paying that for a player in his prime with almost a decade of experience in top level football for a club of Chelsea's stature is not at all unreasonable. He's a player whose game is not based on his physical attributes, at least not pace, so he should still have at least another five or six years left before he starts to decline so I'm having a really hard time figuring out why no one is interested. Hell, only less than six months ago Milan were happy to take Essien off our hands and he was way past it and still on high wages. Italian football would fit Mikel like a glove IMO. I know that despite things starting to look better in recent times some of the clubs over there are still not doing too well financially and paying Mikel's wages would be a big investment for them but if the transfer fee itself is more than reasonable, at least compared to some of the other fees they are paying over there (i.e. Iturbe to Roma for €30m), it could end up being some really good business to someone. And if none of the Italians want him, there's still Turkey who have a bunch of rich clubs and are no strangers to paying good wages to some big name players.

Don't even need to go that far back to see some massive changes. Cech, Bosingwa, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou, Mata, Bertrand, Drogba Subs: Turnbull, Ferreira, Essien, Romeu, Malouda, Sturridge, Torres The team that won us the Champions League. Seven of the starting lineup already gone with both Bertrand and Mikel also on their way out and Cech about to be replaced as the number one keeper. From the bench we only have Romeu and Torres left but they'll both be gone once we find someone willing to take them off our hands so of the whole 18 man squad only Cahill remains firmly in our plans going forward. Of course Terry, Ivanovic and Ramires were suspended but still, some huge changes in just two years time.

What's that, some kind of a hybrid of Big Phil Scolari and David Luiz?

Look there posts above.

He later stated he's not so sure if Pasalic is eligible. He said Delac is not available because of the work permit and someone pointed out that Pasalic, like Delac, is also from Croatia so he might not have one either. Or maybe Pasalic has a work permit but we just don't know about it? He did make the preliminary WC squad after all so might have got one on the exceptional talent rule? Another thing worth noting from that list is that players like Bertrand, McEachran, Marin and Kakuta are not there despite being available. Pretty much confirms none of them has a future at the club. And before anyone says Terry is not there either, @chelseayouth did correct that later.

http://www.marca.com/2014/07/15/en/football/international_football/1405418691.html 20m euros is roughly 15m pounds. This was also reported by Rob Beasley and some other English journos a few days ago, although they did say there were some add-ons that could take the deal up to the full buy-out of £19m but those include us winning a few major trophies along the way and if that happens does anyone really care if we had to pay a little more?

This goal also deserves to be mentioned here. Farewell Demba, you will not be forgotten.

So, around £15m then. With Diego Costa both clubs announced that the buy-out had been met but here it just says an agreement has been found so I can only assume we got the €5m discount that has been rumoured in the last few days. Cracking business, welcome Filipe. :blue scalf:

"And Lukas Podolski is Arsenal’s version of John Terry. He put the kit on for the celebrations and wouldn’t let go of the World Cup." - Adrian Durham Here's what some deluded Gooner had to say about that in the comment section: How the fuck does the same not apply to John Terry then? The double standards are strong with this one...

Just hope we don't have any Besiktas fans coming here now to boast how much bigger a club they are after snapping up one of our 'best players' like the Fenerbahce lads did when Meireles signed for them...

All the best for him at Besiktas. Top professional who had some memorable moments at Chelsea and THAT goal against Liverpool will forever be in the history of English football, especially if the Gerrard chants continue. Hope JT got his iPhone charger back before Demba left!

I'm sure there will be a bunch of ChelseaTV streams available. Excited to see the likes of Zouma, Van Ginkel and Baker today.

Don't do this to yourselves lads, he's not coming to Chelsea.

That's hilarious. Did he really just kick a child at 1:30?

Exactly. First step would be giving Costa the number nine shirt and after that every staff member at the club should just start giving Torres the cold shoulder and act like he doesn't even exist. Sooner or later he'd get the message and ask for a move.

Haven't seen you here in a long time, what have you been up to lately?

Wow, good business by Porto.

Any idea how much he cost them? Just watch him be the next player Porto sell for +30m within a couple of years. Couldn't have wished for a better Mangala replacement IMO.

Not that much IIRC. Received somewhere around £55m from the sales of Mata / KdB but spent £21m on Matic and little over £10m on Salah and Zouma each, totalling approx. £45m on the arrivals. Either way there's still some money left from January and the sales this summer could well go over even higher than @didierforever mentioned because in addition to the deadwood there's players like Lukaku, Mikel and Cech whose futures at the club are very much under doubt at the moment. If we were to sell all three we would definitely gather over £100m total from the sales and either make a hefty profit while still strengthening the squad with players like Costa, Fabregas and Luis or alternatively have more than enough money to get another +30m player in. Exciting times.

http://www.vi.nl/nieuws/van-aanholt-breekt-na-zeven-jaar-met-chelsea.htm The source, Voetbal International, are one of the leading Dutch football media outlets if I'm not mistaken and I doubt they'd be posting quotes from the player without first checking if they're true. I think we're fine with Filipe Luis, should he sign of course, playing the majority of games and Azpilicueta being deployed at LB if the Brazilian is not available. Luis has proven that much like Cole in the past for Chelsea he can play around 50 games a season at the highest level and in case he gets injured or suspended we're more than fine with using Cesar on the left and Ivanovic on the right. I think Zouma can also be deployed at RB even though it's not his ideal position so Luis, Azpi, Ivanovic, Zouma is enough options for the full-back department. While it would be best to have a proper backup player for Filipe Luis I don't really know anyone who fits the bill at the moment and keeping one of the youngsters, for example Aké who can play LB, around just in case the team gets plagued by injuries wouldn't do his development any good. Maybe we could send the youngsters (Ake, Omeruo, Chalobah) on loan with a re-call clause and trigger it on one of them if things get bad. Or alternatively get a Tiago-like cheap squad player who won't complain about the lack of playing time but can still do the job when called upon. Neither Cole, Bertrand nor Van Aanholt tick all those boxes (cheap, reliable, happy to be backup) so that's why they're going / gone.

Somewhat agree but there's the slight difference of Lukaku being 19-21 when he had those seasons and Ba being 25-27. One can still improve massively while the other is enjoying his peak years now and was not good enough. Anyway, Lukaku with Demba's attitude would be fucking amazing. Too bad we can't make a hybrid of these two players.

"Where I play next year? I do not. Do not know, at least, at Chelsea. I'm done here" Quite obvious van Aanholt won't be staying as backup LB then. No idea where he'll end up, reckon he might go to some Dutch club on a permanent transfer for at least a couple of years and then move to a bigger league sometime after Euro2016 if he manages to impress? Not PL quality at least not yet and I wouldn't count on him staying in the Netherlands to do his defensive abilities any good but not sure if he's got any takers elsewhere. Hope we can get at least a few million for him.

That alone is what's making me think there's nothing concrete in this. United at the moment are being linked to nearly anyone: Fabregas, Kroos, Di Maria, Robben, Reus, Hummels, Cavani, Schweinsteiger etc. What all of these players have in common is that United either missed out when they moved elsewhere or have absolutely no chance of signing them because they're not going anywhere at least this year. The media are going over the top with linking everyone and their dog to United because that's what sells papers, and a cynic would say that also sells Manchester United season tickets if these rumours are coming from someone inside the club. I also find it odd that no one in Italy seems to be reporting much about Vidal going to United, at the moment it's all just English media with some whispers also coming from Chile.

Chelsea striker Demba Ba set for Besiktas I know it's Goal.com but there are direct quotes from the Besiktas chairman Fikret Orman: If these quotes are to be believed, a deal is close to being finalized and for a pretty good price too even if it's slightly less than the £10.3m mentioned there. At least it looks like it will be a permanent transfer and not a loan. Interesting to see whether they'll also be taking Marko Marin like has been speculated in the last few days.

Yes and that's pretty much what I also just said, that I understand why people would speculate because these things have happened in the past with other clubs, but that I'm still sure there's nothing in it this time.