BlueLyon

I realy realy hope he has brilliant season there. Good luck Lewis

We have pull of being champions of england. If the club acted like that, being ambitious in the market, it would be big enough pull to attract nearly any player. But instead we are pennypinching and our summer business past two months brought us from "we will challenge for CL next year" to "hopefuly we finish 3rd in PL".

Well he would fit in with our policy of buying injured players

Yes, exactly. At the start of window, we all expected signings that will push us as close to CL trophy in next two years as possible and at least be favourites for PL again. Two months later, we talk again if we can finish top 3 in PL, same as last year. Where the hell does this club have any serious ambition? Yes we managed to win 2 PLs in last 3 years which is incredible incredible feat. But if we were so great, we would never finish 11th in between. And for this season, who knows whats gonna be. Every team that is challenging for top would bring serious competition for Willian and Pedro, but only we stick with just them. We should bring someone to replace Oscar, someone who fits better. We didnt. We should bring backup for Eden. We didnt. We should get a marquee player to play with Eden to create more dynamic in our team, we didnt. Hell we cant even keep the likes of Matic here and buy two damn wingbacks that are absolutely crucial in this system. Our board relies on current players way too much, like we will repeat last season. But we might as well repeat 2015/16 season too with such poor approach.

Almost everyone hates psg atm haha But they are interested how far they can go with such promising squad.

Boudebouz, player with most chances created in last season, moved to Betis for only 7m. Bargain of the summer.

Missing on Mendy or Walker...ok we cant have them all. But now it seems we are missing on every quality fullback/wingback out there ffs. And we urgently NEED two new fullbacks. That is either because we lose on every target or we have decided to persue the very best which requires some time. If Sandro and another good RB wont be here by 1st september, I will be very dissapointed.

I think he will be the kind of player who is good, but next summer we all willl agree we need someone who is defensively more sound. Unless Conte improves Cancelo much better in that area.

I dont need to say I rate Verratti very much, he is one of my fav midfielders, but trust me, Kovacic is not far off. He has replaced Modric and then Kroos when they were injured and he played absolutely brilliant. Was arguably best player in those few games for Real, ask any fan who saw those games. Verratti on other hand, as much he is brilliant and all, he still has plenty to prove in europe that he can lead their team. That said, both are fantastic midfielders, Verratti is impossible, however Kovacic could be bought for certain price.

I thought I was clear enough 25m was just loan. But Im sure the additional fee at the end wouldnt be ridiculous. Still, i would rather pay 50m for Kovacic than 30 for Drinkwater. Kovacic is absolutely brilliant midfielder, on same level as Verratti.

Gazetta is saying Kovacic is available for 25m loan with option to buy. Surely we should be all over him if thats true, no?

Imbula is going to monaco Also Amavi has nothing to do with Sidibe, since he is a LB and Sidibe is RB.

I havent seen much of him last season, but I hear he is absolute rubbish defensively...

So Chelsea wanted to loan him out and are now considering Drinkwater for 30m? How does that make any sense? In that case, when you said Nate wanted to leave and we had no other option, its not realy as simple as that. Possibly Nate just wanted opportunity here, but we decided to loan him out because we will get other midfielders, hence he then decided to leave permamently. If Drinkwater actualy ends up here, I wont realy understand what exactly does our board want to achieve... We had Bertrand Traore, Ake, Zouma, Nate, we still have Baker, Christensen but more and more it seems they wont play big part of this team. We have plenty of decent squad fillers at least, yet seems the board or Conte doesnt rate anyone. And I bet they will be at least decent wherever else they will play. In my eyes our squad was more than good enough if we kept most of youngsters and Matic for squad depth and added new signings Rudiger, Baka, Morata, Caballero and two new fullbacks. Instead our squad is thin as fuck. And if we cant convince young players to stay, how did United convince Martial? How did Real convince Kovacic, Asensio? There probably comes the part where we threat our loanees/youth as products. And they know that so they dont give a shit either, like Solanke who left to Pool.

Actualy they changed their market policy. Before it was very limited, I remember Conte wanting top fullback, but he didnt get one. Eventualy Juve signed Alex Sandro. They also splashed the cash on Higuain, Dybala, Bernardeschi, Costa,... Back then under Conte, Pirlo, Tevez, Vidal, Pogba,...came for peanuts. Its true Juve sold quite a few players too, but regardless they spent more.

I know he wanted to play...but the second part is where the problem lies. We should do everything in our power to keep Nate. Btw I read Nate decided to leave to avoid another loan, is that true?

Realistic is relative. Was Neymar realistic few months ago? If we throw 40m at lets say Goretzka, who knows, maybe schalke would accept. Or Seri, Sanson, Parolo,...there are quality midfielders around, either cheaper, better or with more potential than Drinkwater. I rather pay Real 60-70m for Kovacic than 40m for Drinkwater. All we are doing atm is replacing good players (Matic, Diego) with good players and now it seems we are going to overpay twice for decent backup midfielder. BUT where is the improvement on first 11 since last season? We are not that great that we only need some depth since we will play CL too. We need quality first 11 players or at least players who have such potential. We need wingbacks, Im actualy quite positive Sandro will be cfc player, now we are looking to add RB aswell. But we ultimately also need someone in mould of Eden. If no one else, Lanzini would be allright, but obviously board wont bring another attacking mid before we sell either Willian or Pedro. About Drinkwater, unless we are looking for english player, in that case we already had Chalobah who is decent enough to be 4th choice midfielder, I dont see point of buying exactly him for that stupid money.

They signed Tielemans, Meite, Kongolo, Ghezzal, not to mention Lopes and Maximin who are super highly rated in france, have returned from loan. Their team also has some quality talent like Jorge, Toure and Boschilia...they will be fine. Edit: i just saw Maximin was sold to Nice...I have no idea why the hell would Monaco sell such promising player...

No sense in spending that much on CB when we need wingbacks and midfielder. I dont understand why we dont put these 60m that are supposed for Vdv plus whatever we would be giving for Drinkwater in a bid for someone like Kovacic. Quality young midfielder who would improve our 11 greatly. Just imagine Kante-Bakayoko-Kovacic midfield. And for our attackers, we could add Lanzini who is quality. But instead we are lurking around ok players and players where we are already quite filled.

Im actualy happy manchesters got all the hype again. It means the pressure will be on them more than on us. If we focus on our job, we can surprise the league once again.

Not sure if anyone here knows Malcuit but he is worth a look...he moved from saint etiene to lille this summer and I think he will get proper recognition under Bielsa. Was very good in etiene.

I think there are two major reasons why the board makes the transfers. 1.) the transfers go along with Chelsea club and its idea, not the idea of manager. Because if the manager gets the sack, its possible his players are no longer useful for next manager etc. Instead we have board making decisions on players and we pick managers fitting those players. 2.) if Conte openly wants lets say Alex Sandro, what happens with Alonso? After having good season and now suddenly benched? Obviously the relationship would not be as good anymore. Or if Sandro or anyne else doesnt come, Alonso would then be in awkward situation, knowing Conte wanted to bench him, but now has no other option. IMO its allright if the board makes decisions. But in our case, the board doesnt seem to be ambitious enough and find the weaknesses in this team that need improvement. Therefore they should listen to Conte, but either they dont or they are failing to bring targets that were picked. Either way, it points towards failure. Ridiculous example but still, PSG had Draxler, Lucas, Pastore and Di Maria, yet they sign Neymar. Ambition. Improvement. United has Valencia, but they are keen on another RB. City has plenty of attackers, yet they added Bernardo Silva. We should not follow that footrprint of overloading the squad with big money players, but we should go the middle way, which improves our team in places that need more quality or quantity. It seems we are not doing it.

True lol...their team on other hand would look pretty decent with him and if they keep others. I can see pool in top4 if they bring quality cb which vdv is. Pl this year will be exciting, hopefuly we bring some reinforcements before sept 1st or it will be risky like last season.

First real test of the season.

I think he will be fantastic for liverpool in next few seasons