Jase

Or 14 hours away from huge disappointment. lol

A lot of reports saying it's both. They basically need to make up the €80 million. Reducing wages as part of selling players will help obviously but the bulk of the money will have to come from a sale and Inter reportedly only one eyeing major sale.

Mikel is a two-time Premier League champion, three-time FA Cup winner, a Champions League and Europa League winner.

What's with all the former Dutch players coming out to criticize Tuchel over Ziyech? Ziyech is not that good to "force" a manager to have a system for him. Is it a new thing that players who come from the Eredivisie tend to struggle in the Premier League? Or better yet, is it any wonder that players who play in a specific system like at Ajax are struggling elsewhere? Van de Beek is barely getting used at all at United. Frenkie de Jong has had his own struggles at Barcelona. De Ligt has also been found wanting at times at Juventus, especially when he first joined.

And then, there's Barcelona looking to get Aguero, Depay, Wijnaldum as free signings and likely pay them big wages too...

Exactly. Managers and others tolerated with his lack of workrate because of what he could produce in the final third but if he can't do that anymore, then what's the point of having Hazard? What does he have to fall back onto? Also, haven't people been saying a reliable goalscorer is all that we are missing? Why are people wanting to bring back Hazard and Hazard is this current state no less? It's worth noting or remembering that ever since we last had a goalscoring striker aka Costa, having just Hazard got us nowhere. Sure, we won the FA Cup in 2017 and Europa League in 2018 but we fell way off the pace in the league and were rubbish in the Champions League. Whatever happens in the final tomorrow, Tuchel has got us in a good place right now. We should be looking to fix some obvious problems in the squad and not buy players because of nostalgia or nonsensical reasons.

Since his situation was somewhat similar to Hazard's, it's worth remembering that it took like half a season for Bale to get back into some sort of decent shape back at Spurs and even when he did get back into shape, he only managed some goals here and there against terrible sides and ultimately got Spurs nowhere but the Europa Conference League. Heck, even Bale admitted that he joined Spurs only because he wanted to get his fitness back for the Euros. Wasn't bothered otherwise. And not to mention, Spurs wanted Bale last summer because they wanted a big name player, they wanted good PR but as mentioned, it got them nowhere in the end and probably got them a large medical bill.

The Hazard of two years ago? No. The current one? Yes. It's nice to go down the nostalgic route with Hazard and bring him back but the quicker people realize this Hazard is NOT the same Hazard that left the club two years ago, the better! But what if Tuchel sticks with the back 3 system? I also don't even know why Kante and Kovacic are mentioned there when Hazard doesn't even play in midfield! If we stick with the back 3, he would be competing with 7 other players for 3 positions, which is totally overkilled!

Even if it's only a loan, taking the current Hazard back would just be stupid and a waste of space. This is not the same Hazard that left the club two years ago. Since he went to Madrid, he has suffered like 5000 injuries and has barely been able to string together any sort of consistent performances. In fact, in the two years at Madrid, he has made only 43 appearances or played only 2,441 minutes in all competitions. For context, that's less than 12 of our players who have managed more this season alone. Heck even our own player who is susceptible to injuries aka Pulisic has managed to play 2,428 minutes this season. Given all those injury problems, his advancing years and the lack of care for his fitness as well as wellbeing, it's very likely he is way past his peak and is no longer able to play at a high level and at the level he was used to. On top of that, how many attackers do we need? If we are not going to sell any of the attackers and gonna go buy a striker this summer, there are so many attackers that we could have and try to keep everyone happy and even more so if Tuchel intends to stick with the back 3. Then there is also the fact our attackers will need game time to develop, to improve and that's not going to happen if they are gonna be in and out of the side. Adding someone like Hazard would just complicate matters because he would just be taking a spot from Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, CHO, Mount or Ziyech. For all the faults of those players right now, they will contribute more than this current Hazard and especially in this team, this setup that Tuchel has going on with us. If we want to sign an attacker, we should focus on getting a striker only and then use the money to upgrade other areas in the team like the midfield and defence.

We criticize the club for buying shit players and now there's people just brushing it off like it's nothing. Midfielder? If Hazard comes back, he would essentially be taking a space from Havertz, Werner or one of the attackers. How exactly does that inspire confidence? People need to realize that the current Hazard is not the Hazard that left the club 2 years ago.

Am sure Neville, Scholes etc have criticized the players before but otherwise, is it really a surprise that they don't go after Solskjaer aka their mate? They would rather go for the obvious/easy targets in Woodward or the Glazers. Solskjaer is basically having United play like they did under Mourinho and the only reasons why he has been getting away with it are because he hasn't upset people - in or out of the club - and that he's a former player of the club. He has been their manager for 2.5 years and he has won zilch and goodness knows exactly where they are heading. Van Gaal and Mourinho got sacked for less than this.

His actual quote here...

A neither here nor there response. lol

Best course of action is probably 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst'.

Juventus are a confused club. They got rid of Allegri because they wanted to move to a different playing style but are gonna him bring back because they couldn't go through the process of change with Sarri, Pirlo or someone else.

There was also the shootout against Eintracht Frankfurt and his penalty saving record isn't too shabby. The tricky thing with Kepa is there were also the shootouts against Man City (League Cup final) and Liverpool (UEFA Super Cup) where he failed to save penalties because of his flaky wrists, despite getting a hand on some of them. Mendy doesn't have a good record at saving penalties but so did Cech...until that night in Munich.

Timo Werner exclusive: My confidence was gone but I will never hide https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/05/27/timo-werner-exclusive-confidence-gone-will-never-hide/ Timo Werner paused momentarily as he thought about whether or not he will volunteer to take a penalty if Chelsea’s Champions League final against Manchester City goes to a shootout. “That’s a good and hard question, but in the end I think... yeah, I would,” said Werner. “Because maybe it’s worse that you don’t shoot and say, ‘ah no, I have fear’, and let your team-mates down. That’s worse than to take a penalty and to miss it in the end. Because you take the responsibility and you try.” Werner has scored three penalties in Chelsea’s run to the Champions League final, but missed the last spot-kick he took for the club in the FA Cup against Luton Town back in January. And given the nature of Werner’s first season at Chelsea, during which, by his own admission, he suffered a crisis of confidence in front of goal, it would be understandable if the German decided to stand aside in the event of a shootout. But that is not Werner and his reply underlined his determination to keep going, to keep putting himself in position, to never hide and his refusal to give up on his Chelsea career. As did his willingness to fulfil a request to undertake his first extended English interview at the end of what he described as “in terms of scoring, the worst season”. “When you don’t try, you will never come back to the feeling of how to score and your confidence will never come back,” said Werner. “I could say, ‘OK, I stay away from the goal and I stop trying to score. And then next year I maybe go to another club and I will try there from zero’. But that’s not my ambition, I want to be a very good striker at every team where I play so I want to be a good striker now at Chelsea. “That’s my ambition to say, ‘I want to score, I want to go there where the ball is dropping in front of the goal’. I never was like this, to say, ‘I’m scared now to score’. Of course, maybe, I was scared, but in the moment when I had the ball already on my feet to score. Then maybe this fear came because I was not self-confident enough.” Werner was not short of self-confidence when he signed for Chelsea for £47.5 million last June, following a season in which he had scored 28 Bundesliga goals for RB Leipzig. The early signs at Stamford Bridge were encouraging, as Werner netted eight goals in nine games after opening his Chelsea account against Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup in September. But the 25 year-old can identify the exact moment things started to go wrong, as he returned from an international break with Germany and went 14 Premier League games without scoring. “I had these two or three games after the international break where I missed a lot of chances and that was in my head, and after this my confidence was gone,” said Werner. “It was like a period where in my head I was going crazy because I missed those chances. “Sometimes when you come to a new club, you know that everybody has big expectations for you and they want you to score the goals for the club. So maybe that was too much in my head, that I have to score every game, or be the man who scores all the goals.” Things got so bad for Werner that he revealed how a missed chance early in a game could write off an entire match for him, but he also believes that the Champions League semi-final second-leg victory over Real Madrid, in which he scored, proves that he is overcoming his problems. “I had one game, I can’t remember the exact game but it was in the middle of the season, where I missed a chance in the third minute. The game was gone for me,” said Werner. “Now, for example, Real Madrid in the semi-final, I scored a goal and because my shoulder was offside, they disallowed the goal. Two or three months ago, it would be in my head, ‘why, why, why’, and the game would be gone. Now, I play my game and 15 minutes later, I scored. “That’s the thing I learned and that’s the thing for the next season. Maybe I should put a tick next to this season and now the Champions League final is like a bonus game. So it’s something different and I’m glad that the season is over, that the things are gone now and next season I know where I have to improve and what I have to do to be better.” Coronavirus restrictions made it hard for Werner to try to relax and forget about his bad run in front of goal, and head coach Thomas Tuchel stopped him from staying behind to do extra finishing practice at the club’s training ground. “No he didn’t (let me do extra practice),” said Werner. “I had a lot of managers when it was not so easy to score say, ‘OK, come, we practice outside to give you a better feeling’. But also there is Thomas who says, ‘you scored your whole life. But it doesn’t come because you practice every day, it comes because you were calm, you had your head free and you know what you do because you have this instinct to score’. “It’s maybe the worst thing that you think too much, ‘OK, when I get the ball now, I want to hit it in the right corner’. No, when you get the ball, you shoot the ball and you know exactly where it goes. Maybe that’s the point he wanted to get through to me, that I don’t have to practice all the time to get the feeling back, that the instinct works. “I was not alone at home in lockdown because I live with my girlfriend, but it was just us two and, of course, then you think more about it. Because when you go out, for example, with your friends or some players in the evening and you eat something, it’s something different to sitting at home and taking Deliveroo in front of your TV, and then you think about it again because you have no other distractions or things to change it. Maybe it made it worse, but still it should not be an excuse.” Part of the difficulty of judging Werner’s first season at Chelsea is that it has not been a write-off. He became the first player since Eden Hazard to hit double figures for goals and assists in his first campaign for the club and Tuchel’s side are unquestionably more dangerous with him in it. But Werner does not dispute that he will ultimately be judged on goals and is honest enough to admit that, in that area, he has fallen short of what was hoped of him. “I think a lot of people’s expectations for me, outside the club but also inside the club, were very high because of my goalscoring record,” said Werner. “I also assisted many goals last year in my old club, but I think the main reason why they brought me here in the club is to score and maybe at the end 12 goals and six goals in the Premier League, that’s not good enough. “You have to say that I have 12 goals and 15 assists or something like that in every competition and 27 goal contributions, that’s not so bad in what’s maybe my unluckiest season, maybe my worst season I’ve had for many years. If I’m scoring next season, hopefully, maybe people will become happier with me.” Chelsea fans demonstrated their appreciation of Werner in the last home game of the season, for which 8,000 supporters were allowed into Stamford Bridge, by singing his name to the tune of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough. That support put an extra spring in his step and Werner is adamant that he will not look to leave Chelsea this summer, even though the club will attempt to sign a new striker. “I heard the fans singing a song for me and that gives me a lot of power and I think that’s what you miss in the times where you have difficult periods where you don’t score,” said Werner. “That helped me a lot and it really gave me a push in the game. I thought it was much easier to run, to go into duels, to keep the ball, to try to score. Of course, it gave me that little bit of power that maybe I had lost in the last few months.” Asked if he wants to stay at Chelsea, Werner replied: “Of course. In terms of scoring and missing chances, it was the worst season. But in the end I still have 27 goal contributions. I think I’m the first in our team for that, so it was not everything bad and I don’t think about leaving the club this year, for sure not. “And also for the next year because I think we have a very good team and I hope to come back to scoring and that I can do everything that’s expected of me.” Werner is careful not to say that winning the Champions League would make up for all his missed chances, but it would write his place into Chelsea history and offer a different perspective on his first season at the club. “That would be the best ending of the season, for me, to win this trophy,” said Werner. “I don’t care if I score at the weekend if we win. Yes, I help the team and if I score, I’m very, very happy. If not, then I try to give my best to make maybe an assist for another guy. But, at the end, we have one goal, to win this final, to win this trophy because it’s the biggest trophy in Europe and everybody wants it. “I don’t want to say the rest (of the season) would not mean anything anymore, but, yeah, at the end when you win this cup, I think no fan or no supporter would say, ‘ah, but this guy had a bad season’. No, at the end, they say, ‘we won the Champions League and this is a f****** great team’.”

Doesn't matter. Will take our chances. Even if we can't get Haaland, it would give us time (between this summer and next summer) to see if there's any other striker that pops up.

Waiting for Haaland would be the better outcome given what he can give in the long term compared to someone like Lukaku.

Has anyone here listened to the podcast? What did Matt Law say regarding our transfer plan this summer?