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We had no choice to pay that amount of money. I think he is very well composed on the ball and keeps possession well and draws fouls and he is still relatively young. That is the money for player this day and age and as we had a transfer ban, we had to pay that much. And generally, people did not want the player either way. But that is the point, a couple pre-season games and it is like a 'Eureka' moment. Majority of fans now would be happy to see him lineup against United.

Your underestimating them. Just because they don't have any 'star' names, they are a good team. If we beat RB Leipzig, I guarantee you would have considered it a win against strong opponents. Salzburg done the double over Leipzig home and away last season. Were clearly a class above Celtic last season too. Battered them at home and beat them away from home in a game they had nothing to play for but pride and Celtic needed to win. Season before in EL, also were unbeaten against Dortmund over 2 games and beat Dortmund in their own backyard. Napoli went through against them this season but again Salzburg gave them a run for their money second leg, managed to beat them, however went out on aggregate. They definitely could have upset one of the big boys last season. Many Arsenal fans I knew were not wanting to face Salzburg.

It is really frustrating to see how fans have such knee-jerk reactions. It just takes a couple of games or so for a player to perform and fans suddenly realise that maybe the player is quite good and has a lot of ability. I have long been a fan of Kovacic and was bemused by the majority of fans who were so against signing him. Suddenly is playing good in pre-season and Eureka! Same goes to Barkley too. Most fans trash talk him and write him off until he shows a few good games in pre-season. This is why I wish some of us would just be patient and allow a player to grow. Look how much people have taken to Jorginho after slating him off then he suddenly starts to settle and look good. Patience is a virtue. Kovacic has always been a talented player. Barkley is talented too.

But their attack is deadly. Holding was actually decent for them before he got injured last season. Tierney will improve them. With the so called £45m budget, if they get Tierney along with Pepe, then that is really good business as they need a winer desperately and they have got a top one too.

Really envious about this. Auba, Laca and Pepe in a front three is deadly. If they get Tierney too, I defo would say they have moved ahead of us and United for next season.

Zaha is better than all our wingers right now. CHO is a prospect but right now you cannot compare him to Zaha. Zaha has carried Palace for a few seasons now and I get he hasn't proved it at a big club but he has shown a lot of quality at Palace. He is better than Pedro and Willian and also right now better than Pulisic. I would love in an ideal world for Pepe to stay at Lille for another season and we grab him next summer.

Money talks, ...... walks. Wrong attitude to have in such a sort career (end of your career is different). It is not just Baker, but the clubs involved are only offering loan deals. All our youngsters go through the same process tbh. Ongoing cycle.

But while he is going out on loan, he is still playing regular football, albeit on high wages. He still will have a good career. But money speaks. If a team offered to pay his full wages, then I am sure he probably would move. This deal is with a view to by so be interesting to see how that turns out. People are forgetting though that Baker is extremely talented. He just has bene unfortunate with his loans.

It is a difficult one because Baker signed a contract a few seasons ago which was at least £30k p/w. No teams are going to purchase him and pay that amount a week, so loans are the only viable option. He was offered a big contract due to his excellent campaign for the Chelsea U23 and impressive loans at Vitesse. But now due to his underwhelming loans, will be difficult to sell him unless baker takes a pay cut, which he will not do. He probably the highest earner at Dusseldorf just by his wages he is on at Chelsea. Look at Izzy Brown for instance. Only made 2 appearances last season and again was probably the highest earned at Leeds due to what we are paying him.

Who knows. I would imagine it is more than £100k p/w though since that is what was offer in January and he has more importance now but £180k p/w does seem extreme. Listening to transfer centre now, they said it could rise to £200k p/w with bonuses.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/11769111/callum-hudson-odoi-close-to-new-chelsea-contract Skysports are reporting the contract is worth £180k p/w .

Crazy to think that, this time 3 seasons ago, we were talking about him being our biggest talent and probably breaking into the team the following season. His loans to all the English teams have not worked out, so good move. He had a brilliant season at Vitesse. Awful spell at Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday. Below average spells at Middlesbrough too. A shame because 5 years ago he won the young player of the year and had a brilliant goal record from midfield. Was scoring for fun. Very unique in fact he is ambidextrous. That Chelsea Youth twitter page who puts so much devoted time into the academy is probably Lewis Baker's biggest supporter and always saw him as an outstanding talent. If he was integrated into the team after his Vitesse spell, we may of had a total different situation but we will never know...

He already has cutting inside to his game and the reason we have not seen it as much in the first team is because he has regularly been played on the right. Look how many goals he has scored for our U18 from cutting inside. Check our youth cup game against Birmingham City season before last and the individual effort he scored. Also scored a fantastic goal in a 7-0 win over WBA couple seasons back. Shame I am not able to find highlights. But his goal against PAOK this season at home, was another example of cutting inside and finishing. By next big step I don't mean using us as a stepping stone. I mean as in this is where his career will be. If he decides to renew, he will be a key player for years to come at us and same with Bayern if he is not to renew. Latest news sound encouraging. Looks like he will sign but I saw something similar from the Standard weeks ago, so will only be content once he signs. I do think it is physical attributes. How many young English players go to Bundesliga and play. Oxford another example. Playing at Augsburg. He would not get into any other PL team. Yes, managers over there are more happy to play youngsters but more of a hesitation around here. Ampadu, if he goes on loan would get good minutes at some Bundesliga team but would not be a regular in any PL team over here. PL is defo the hardest league in the world. You will get players from clubs finishing in EL spots in Bundesliga moving to the PL to join mid-table teams. CHO can be a big player us and sure he will but if he went Bayern, think he would tear the league up quicker than he would do over here imo.

Although it was refreshing to see likes of Mount and RLC sign new deals, they were rather expected. I think we can all agree that if CHO signs on, this will be the biggest relief and will be the biggest success in a transfer window where we can't make any transfers.

PL is a lot more physical. Look at Gnabry. He did not even get into WBA team. Lookman goes to RB Leipzig and he performs. There are some good teams but the PL is a lot more tougher due to the physical nature. I don't think CHO is expecting to play every single game. He knows he will be on the bench sometimes. Bayern right now need wingers and their current ones are not world class. Gnabry, despite winning the POTY can and will be rotated if they have winger options. Coman too and he is injury prone. Muller is not and out and out winger and with more winger options, Kovac will not play him there. Davies still has developing to do. So, yeah due to transfer ban, you would think he would start more here, but either way he still will have loads of opportunities at Bayern. His ceiling his higher than all their wingers in that current team imo. And yes because playing for Chelsea against a lot of other teams, there is not a clear disparity in terms of quality. In the Bundesliga there is. Bayern are heads and shoulders above almost every team in that league, so he would look better. He won't have much defensive work to do because Bayern will dominate majority of their games and he will be receiving the ball a lot more. Regarding the financial aspect, we could have offered him £150,000 last season and he still would have rejected it. He defo is not making his decision based on financial. It is because this will be the next big step of his career. This is where his future will lie, so he weighing everything up. This has not been reported much, but right from the beginning of last season, before Bayern registered any interest, we wanted him to sign a contract, worth then around £50k p/w IIRC. He wanted to continue with the season. At that time that was a lot of money to be offered. Bayern also have a wage structure as well so pretty sure we would offer more than them. I am hopeful he will sign as he can become the key player for this club in a short space of time, but he just is not rushing. I don't think it is financially motivated at all though.

It defo is not financially motivated. The wages he is being offered by us at his age is incredible and I doubt Bayern would offer more. I think it is down to where he thinks he will develop as a player the most. He may be thinking, the Bundesliga is a better and possibly easier platform to look better, e.g Sancho, Gnabry (who won Bayern's POTS award) as the league is not as tough as the PL and teams are much inferior to Bayern in that league. I think he knows in terms of financial and playing wise, that will not be an issue at Chelsea but what he probably is looking at is as the whole career. Will there be long term stability at us? etc and joining a better team. I will be very annoyed if he don't sign. This time, not at the club as we have done everything we can for him to sign new contract. Excellent contract offer for a player his age and majority of players in league are not even near that money. Playing wise, will be prominent for us, so it really boils down to other factors.

Drinkwater won't be near the team. I suspect the only reason he is still here is because we will have difficulties, shipping him off. Also think Mount will be ahead of Bakayoko too and if you actually think that Lamps was not behind Kovacic deal at all, then he will not play him, if he considers him to be dross like you do. Also, last season RLC was in the pecking order behind Barkley and Kovacic, then got ahead of them through hard work and impressive performances. If Mount impresses, he will get opportunities. Especially as he has played a full season under Lamps and Lamps will give youngsters opportunities.

Kovacic also had to agree to the move. He obviously had reassurances from Lamprs about his role in the team. Yes, you can say most of our transfers happen close to deadline day, albeit this time round the club are on a transfer ban so you would think if it was 100% a club decision, we would have snapped him up from weeks ago, however we did not. Like I say, had Lamps not wanted Kovacic, he would not be here. And once again, thanks for making the same point over and over again. Let's see how the season plans out. If Mount and co prove themselves and impress enough, I am sure they will get chances, especially under Lamps.

3 months is still a while away and if he was born this month, academically he would be considered a year older so it makes a difference

He is 20! People forget that he is a kid. Yeah, the quality of opposition is not great but USA are not great by any means too and he has stepped up big time. I like what I am seeing and the signs are promising.

Well, we left it very recent, which happens to be same time Lampard was about to being appointed manager and that would line up with reports that Lampard approved the move. We didn't resign Higuaín yet signed Kovacic. Fairly obvious. I still think he can add goals to his game. I don't think he will be a world class player, but unlike you I have seen enough to see why we have bought him permanently and think he is a good player. We are on a ban and right now, should not even be looking at the fee. All things considered, we bought him and judging by this being the only transfer, I don't care about the fee. But either way you keep on bringing the same points over and over again. What are you adding new? We get it. You don't like him. Hopefully he proves you wrong.

Your getting boring now. A shame isn't it, that our new manager backed this transfer and given his full approval. Unlucky for some.

I am a big fan of Bissake but I don't think he is worth the £50m+ Palace want. He is very good defensively but his attacking ability needs work on. They already have Dalot who offensively is better than Bissaka but not as good defensively. Is it worth them spending that much on him? Not too sure. Other cheaper alternatives imo.

Pretty sure the club will ask for the transfer ban to be frozen while ban is in place and hope that the ban is realistically reduced to one window.

Surprised no one has mentioned this but he has started both games for Spain in their Euro qualifiers this week. DDG was left on the bench. Massive achievement and deserved. Has had his errors but on the whole has been very good this season and impressed. Shows how underwhelming DDG has been. Massive for him