Jype

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.

Arranging a friendly with a small team as part of a deal for a big club to sign one of their players is not unheard of and happens quite a lot actually so I can see why some people have begun speculating. I also found it odd for the club to announce a game at Stamford Bridge out of the blue because Chelsea rarely play these pre-season games at the Bridge nowadays. Maybe if it was a testimonial to Lampard or something like that it would make more sense but now it just looks out of place with all the other pre-season games in the last five years or so being played away from home. But, with Griezmann being a player we most certainly have no use for I'm pretty sure there's nothing more to this story than just another friendly match, unless it's something like us sending one of our fringe players on loan to El Real.

At Vitesse?

Yeah, whatever happens they can just delete the wrong article and claim they were the first to report it. Talk about covering all bases.

Here's hoping they got the latter one right, would absolutely hate to see a player of Vidal's level go to those cunts.

You talk as if a player who's just about to turn 29 is somehow over the hill and constantly in the decline, when in fact that's probably when most players are enjoying the best time of their career, being fully matured and still physically in top condition for at least a couple of years. Luis can easily offer us 3-4 at the highest level and after that it's probably time for him to move on. Comparing him to Torres is just pointless because his career, much like Essien's like we saw at Chelsea, was clearly ruined by his many knee and muscle injuries which meant he was already way past it at 27. Luis hasn't had that so it's more than likely he'll still stay in his peak physically for another few years before he begins to decline. After buying so many young players in the last couple of years I would much rather have the club spend £15m on Filipe now and get, if not guaranteed then at least very likely, success with him than take a gamble on some unproven an unexperienced player who might prove to be almost as good if everything goes perfectly. It's not like the club can't afford to buy him at £15m so why accept getting someone who's not as good as him? While it would be ideal to get someone a year or two younger there are no such players available at the moment who are anywhere near as good as Luis is so getting him makes all the sense in the world.