Jase

That could happen or maybe not at all. The thing with letting a tribunal decide a fee is that it could go either way, no? Given the hoo-ha we went through last time with Solanke, the club probably want to avoid that.

True but last year's award got "conveniently" cancelled and nothing since the start of 2020 has made sense anyway.

I don't disagree that Messi will likely win it but Lewandowski still ended up winning everything possible with Bayern and he still scored a ridiculous amount of goals (including breaking Gerd Muller's Bundesliga goal record), the kind of number that saw Ronaldo/Messi won it in previous years. On top of that, you had someone like Modric winning it a few years ago, as a culmination of his brilliance (not sure if that's the right word) etc.

Leeds are supposedly one of the two clubs pushing hardest to sign Bate. So, I'd assume Bielsa/Leeds have plans for him. Think the reason Bate (and the other two) wants to leave is because we still have Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho while Gilmour is out on loan AND we are supposedly looking to sign a midfielder. It's understandable if the likes of Bate doesn't see a pathway to play regularly in the first team in the near future and wants to leave. As Pizy mentioned in the other thread, when these young players see others are making a name for themselves elsewhere, it's probably hard for them to just sit around, bide their time and hope something will fall their way. Can't blame them if they want take control of their future, especially when we look to be heading back to pre-2019. Also, the problem with them signing an extension, even a year or two, is that they will give almost all the control of their future to the club. With a year left now, they have practically forced the club to sell them now or get nothing.

Lewandowski should be getting it after he was "robbed" last year.

Everton fans are cursing their luck right now. They got Ancelotti, they had hopes to qualify for the Champions League but that didn't happen, Ancelotti jumped ship to Real Madrid, Benitez took over and now this...

My point is if Rice won't sign a new contract, which doesn't seem like he will, then West Ham have to sell him at some point. They can't afford to let him run down his contract if they want money.

Just saw that. Where did that come from?

Name not mentioned for legal reasons but he's 31 years old apparently.

But will West Ham allow that? They aren't exactly a rich club.

Only 1 year left on his contract as well, I believe.

Not sure if it's really all Tuchel's fault here. But it does feel like we're back to pre-2019 again when it comes to the young players. We are still all about the here and now and/or buying players from outside. Mount, James etc got somewhat lucky with the transfer ban in 2019.

There is reportedly a friendly on July 22, Thursday but haven't seen anything confirmed. Will create a separate thread for it if/when it's confirmed and not played behind closed doors.

Bournemouth 1-2 Chelsea PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS 2021/22 Pre-Season Friendly 27th July, Tuesday 2021 Vitality Stadium 19:45 Kick Off (UK time)

Thought as much. 🤣 Pretty sure the auto-correct can still be turned off, no? Judging by Simon Johnson said, it seems like Livramento is determined to leave because we still have Azpi and James and the club tried to sign Hakimi and are still interested in Traore.

Huh? Whaaaat?

Welp... - Five clubs have expressed interest in Bate - West Ham, Leeds, Liverpool, Leicester and Brighton. West Ham and Leeds are the two clubs pushing the hardest and are believed to have made an offer. - Peart-Harris is the most advanced of the three in terms of securing his departure. Reportedly on the verge of moving to Brentford. - Livramento is being strongly targeted by Brighton. - All 3 have one year left on their current contracts and are refusing to sign extensions. All 3 concerned over the chance of first-team football in the long term.

The daily complaints are upstaging the recycled BS transfer rumors.

The auto-correct there. 🤣 And so much for your optimism yesterday...

You want him dead? You are so cruel...

Am assuming that ExWhu fella said it in a podcast or somewhere else because I don't see that info on his Twitter feed? Also, are West Ham assuming that we'll drop our asking price for Abraham if we sign a striker? What if we ended up not signing one? Then what? At least we have some strikers at our disposal but they don't. So am not sure if they can wait long when their need is arguably more urgent.

Is the wages etc offered not part of the pulling power? How can our pulling power be high if we don't offer as much wages compared to the other clubs? We used to blow clubs off with Roman's financial muscle when he first came and now we're complaining about others blowing us out by doing the same to us. So you don't think we have to offer mammoth wages to Haaland if we sign him this year? He, Raiola, his dad, his camp know that they can get A LOT of money if they move next year and they can easily demand the same kind of money from us this year. Otherwise, am sure they are willing to bide their time for one more season at Dortmund, especially when they haven't made any noise about leaving Germany.