Magic Lamps

Lamps has beaten Pep and Messi before, he can do it again.

There has been he consensus that she does not pick our targets just leads the negotiations. If we apply this logic to our sales and extensions, she also does not pick the players to be sold or offered new contracts. She can only be judged by the terms of deals, contracts and negotiation outcomes. So she can be blamed for the fucked up no sale and extension of Alonso, Kepa's and Drinkies wages e.g. So it is a bit weird that we praise her now, when the only spectacular deal this window so far is Ziyech who we signed way under market value and on a decent contract. Werner was release clause, Havertz will go for above market value. I still think she excels most in sales. The real cock up was obviously Willian to Barca. on the other hand the Hazard and Schürrle sales were out of this world. I honestly think the involvement of Lampard and Petr in the transfers is what helped us identify quality players and eventally convince them to join us. Those two were not there before and our record was mixed. I always attributed this to the lack of football knowledge on the board. Overall I would give Marina a 7/10 for deals alone but i make it 8/10 bc of her dignified and professional presence and the good relationships she has established across Europe after we lost a bit of respect on an execute level after Peter Kenyon left.

meh forgot about the fkin nations league. seriously who needs this shit.

Need to build form and confidence early on. I rewatched analyses of games from early last season and we were all over teams, they just couldnt deal with our pressing. Brighton at the bridge a good example. 24 shots, 10 on target, just two goals. tammy missed 2 golden ones. With all these new signings it can be a massive advantage if they gel quickly and no ones knows how to play vs us yet like last season, where we waltzed teams early on and just couldnt take the chances. it can obviously also be a big disadvantage if they dont gel at all. But i will be positive as long as we see now Barkley, Alonso or Kepa in the starting lineup

City will probably run away with it but I am not sure Liverpool will be able to simply repeat the last 2 seasons with the paperthin squad they have. Their best players are not in their absolute physical prime anymore and it might also be a case of their intensity dropping after having won everything. It may sond weird but the signing I am most excited about is actually Thiago Silva. If he can acclimatize himself quickly he will instantly improve us. Managed well he may transform our defence. I can easily see us conceding 15 goals less next season, which means at least 5-10 points more. then we will hopefully score a bit more (i will need to see if werner really can lead a line on his own otherwise we will need to shift the system a bit which might hamper our goalscoring) resulting in maybe again 5-10 more points. the most important signign will be keeper. If we can at least get one who saves what he is expected this should bring another 6+ points . Overall 82-88 points is doable which should secure 2nd or 3rd place. But obviously this window is more aobut building for the future. I have so far stopped myself from getting too excited and drawing up fantasy lineups but i cant help to really look forward. Lets say we sign a stop gap goalie e.g. foster and then go on and sign a proper one for the future next season: 2020/21 lineup: ----------------Foster------------ Azpi-----Zouma----T.Silva---Chilwell -----------------Kante---------------------- ----Haverz--------------Kovacic-------- Ziyech-------Werner-----Pulisic 21/22 onwards: --------------Rajkovic (e.g.)-------------- James----Mbuyamba--Tomori---Sarr ------------------Gilmour------------------ ----------Havertz-------Mount----------- CHO-----------Werner---------Pulisic-- Highly hypothetical with the developments of the younger players but the idea itself is already way too awesome

It was obviously a bit of a tongue in cheek comment as I dont really rate Chilwell. As opposed to Drinky he has age on his side and is probably more hungry having won 0 so far. But there are some similarities in terms of the deals. We are gonna massively overpay on both wages and fee bc of English tax and Leicester playing hardball. Also Leicester's system (esp the great anticipation by Söyüuncü and their wingers tracking bakc like mad) papers over the glarign weaknesses Chilwell has just like Kante did with Drinky. Also both are/were injured at the time of the deal missing the start of the season and have a record of fitness issues. I think with our defence and not so defensive wing set up Chilwell will be way out of his depth.Even so, I dont think he is a bad player. The first match of his i saw was when he absolutely demolished some minnow national team with England and he can do likewise with the weaker EPL sides but vs merely above average wingers he has been burned numerous times this season.

This window is nuts. Imagine before the season begins we will have signed 7 absolute quality players. If we get Havertz, a LB, Sarr, Silva and a GK I think we can actually mount a title challenge already. Getting an elite oyung talent in Sarr who apparently half of europe wants would be immense. Also a nice touch getting him for free. On theplayer himself i have not seen much but he looks a more polished version of Tomori just so composed. Maybe not as overpowered in terms of pace but more comfortable on the ball. As for the dregs I think we will not be able to sell most bc of the pandemic but I could imagine loaning out a few and basically sitting it out this way. next year we might get better prices for some esp if they have impressed in their loans.

Drinkwater 2.0

Possibly been posted before but only just watched the transfer special from sky sports germany and they said that Chilwell will be signed for 35-40m euros and the deal will be confirmed on August 31. they are usually more or less reliable but sometimes also full of shit , so take it with a pinch of salt. would be a decent price tho. I could imagine if they run the unnecessary risk of going this precise on the details there might something in it. They also confirmed Thiago Silva but said Havertz is not yet imminent and still in the final negotiations.

I dont see us signing another defensive midfielder or sacrificing another midfield position to accomodate Kante. Kante will need to do his best as sole holding DM. I am also not quite sure if there is only one way dto bring out the best out of kante. he is not as limited as jorginho to only play one position in one system. For France he has been deployed in different systems some of whch he was sitting next to fkin pogba who has no positional discipline whatsoever in other games he was sitting next to matuidi who drifted to the right and ran up and down the touchline all game. You could argue he was at his best sitting next to Matic or Drinkwater at Leicester (sounds weird but is true lol) but you usually dont build your system around a defensive player who also happens to enter the twilight of his career

@NikkiCFC I used to think the same but Havertz sees himself as a right sided no.8 https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/transfer-news/kai-havertz-chelsea-transfers-werner-18820137 so the lineup posted may very well be spot on

SID prolly refers to Sport Informationsdienst a Sports media syndicate that usually sells on its content to the main papers In this case it could as well be Sid the sloth from ice age as they just pass on bitter Völlers BS. The deal will go through

was absoltuely baffled by that. Choupo Moting failed two clorious chances. Icardi would have been perfect for this scenario. terrible choice to let icardi rot on the bench. i thought he was maybe cup tied or sthlike that at first bc he never played when i watched. weird stuff

True psg Defence was class. Even kehrer just had a meh game not even a shocker. Apart frontet goal bayern had just one chance. Bayern are just so clinical it’s madness. If we had neuer and they had Kepa we would have thrashed them at the bridge

As usual. Opponents have all the chances but Bayern score the goals. Yawn. Psg offense had a shitterbut still created 3 or more 💯 % chances. Without neuer they would have won it. Sad day to be alive

I think this narrative of ‚it’s not your money so why you care about price‘ is short sighted. We care about the club and it’s finances so we don’t want the Club to buy overpriced players ( which we also find far from outstanding). A deal which could impair the clubs future finances And squad planning even if the deal would be financially doable right now. You can find something too expensive even if you are not paying yourself just like with any sponsored purchases. When my employer pays my trainings I don’t automatically pick the most expensive one just because I can cos I know that it might get deducted from my future budget.

He just can’t stop beating that dead horse for weeks now. It appears the most fiercely contested competition in England is not the PL but the title of the worst pundit out there and Merson has given himself a headstart before the season even begins.

Exactly. Similar players both flavor of the month. the main difference is the price tag and to some extend it is annoying Chilwell is injured. those 50m will be a massive chip on Chilwells shoulder while Regu would fly a bit under the Radar for the bargain he is. Would probably also command lower wages. Chilwell has the Baba Rahman vibe and we know leftback does not solve itself by throwing money at it. So of we are to throw money let it be not that much so it crippled our room for planing the future.

killer lineup. Can Mason play in a double pivot tho? The only sides i really dont wanna face in CL are bayern and PSG the others i think we can somewhat manage. Esp real and juventus are in such disarray we should be able to compete.

Ideal scenario given we are probably signing chilwell anyway would be to get rid of Alonso and Emerson. Sign Regulion as Chilwells bakckup, allow for the buy back closeepxriing in 2021 and afterwards let Regulion play over Chilwell. Then sell Chilwell with a profit.

that is true. 50m seems to be the standard price for an average but young, up and coming full back. Cancelo, Mendy are not even much better than Chilwell now.

according to whoscored defending set pieces is one of their major weaknesses

This is why I am not worried. He used to be one of the fastest CBs around and has kept himself fit. It is the strain of playng twice per week that is getting to him rn and he still looks the best defender in the CL final rounds tourney. He needs to be managed carefully but he could give us so much in terms of experience and football IQ. Zouma, Rüdi, Zouma are fairly quick so he can just tell them where to run basically lol.

whoever that might be. lets hope he is a set-piece nerd At the dunk extension: massive bullet dodged

It's amazing. I am watching it on my 85'' qled and the mere presence and intensity Lampard has is giving me shivers. Still a painful reminder we could have had 2 trophies (albeit 2 mediocre ones but still trophies) and ended with 0 which was only down to our lack of clinicalness and tactical naivety.