Magic Lamps

True. But I'd imagine this signings having already silenced those critics with a series of extraordinary performances in pre-season. Heck how many people here are calling for Moses to be kept and he has not even been half as good as Chalobah. Also the guy Nat would replace in the squad is John Obi Mikel. That alone should suffice.

I can so see this happen. Typical Chelsea to be in the market for top class players and then buy some no name after missing out.

If Everton don't accept a British transfer record sum for Rom, they are stupid. They were stupid not to accept 40m for Stones, who is only a moderatly above average player, last season, too so I could imagine them trying to keep hold even though he will never command such an inflated price again.

Atletico won't win shit next season since they are chokers. They had 2 glorious chances to win CL but failed miserably both times. We got a great chance of winning domestic silverware without European distractions. You get more than twice as much money for winning EPL than for winning the CL anyway. I think a top four finish + an FA and/or COC is within reach. Our rivals as of yet have only purchased hugely overpriced, overhyped players who will not drastically improve their first team. Our 2 major signings so far have been very sensible and greatly enhanced our chances of winning titles next season. If we can impove our defense, which I am sure Conte will, with or without signing new players, we can beat any team in the country on our day.

ONce again people are only painting in black and white. Lukaku ia good player. Not an average or even bad one. Simply a good striker. Is he a 60m striker? Ofc not FFS. But that is not even the point. What striker worth 60m is available? No one. Higuain surely is not one. Neither is Icardi or Cavani or whoevs. Moreover we need a long term successor, the one we hoped Costa would be. Esp for a 2-striker system we can't have enough forwards.. Whilst I am against this signing, in case Costa leaves, we need to replace a very good striker in a market where none are available so obviously, the board regards Lukaku as the lesser evil. What worries me most about Rom is that he is still pretty much the same player as he was 3 years ago. He might have slightly improved his first touch and spacial awareness but that's about it. He is still scoring mostly against weak teams and disintegrated defences like ours last season. And that is not because everton are a poor team. At Belgium he had every other creative player in Europe behind him. You'd exepct him to create space for Hazard there, why would he do better here? The only good game he made was against a desperate Ireland team. He only scores when he has space. Drogba was significantly smaller than Rom but he could create space left, right and centre, because he had the movement, the skill and most importantly the cleverness to do so. He was so smart in his utilization of his body, he always appeared bigger than he actually was. Lukaku is the exact opposite. When he gets surrounded or marked tightly by defenders, he loses his cool and the ball, instead of trusting in his superior upper body strength. When a well organised team does not mark him but covers the space around, he still can't make efficient runs behind. I don't know him personally but his constant lamenting in the press indicated that he is not really addressing those issues himself. Drogba also could pounce on a mediocre cross as he was quicker in his thinking and better in his anticipating of the curve of the ball. Lukaku needs it right to his head to even show his surprisingly tiny...err.. leap. Given time and space to run he is deadly though. He will just bulldoze defenders out of the way and finish with aplomb. That ofc if he is not too frustrated already. While not exactly a Zidane, Lukaku is by no means a horrible technician. His shooting technique is excellent from close to mid-range, he also knows how to shift his body to set up a shot and how to finish in tight spaces. Also his general dribbling has improved. I just don't know if that is enough. The way we play or more importantly the way opponents play us does not really let him exploit his strengths but rather would force him mould his game more into a hold up striker right in the front to make space, collect and defend balls where the space is the tightest. That is not his game. As with DAvid Luiz, RLC or even Willian, I must say, he does have all the tools, but I don't know if he has the head for it.

Actually it is quite decent. Hummels, benatia, umtiti, Bailly just moved, Juan jesus, too. Then there is Murillo,koulibaly, manolas, höwedes and this guy here. As for Mustafi he is a cool guy, relaxed, won't bitch around when he is on the bench, very mature for his age. Not a typical German defender tho. Spent the years most important to his development at Everton and sampdoria so he is robust, not too technical. Not a monster in the air but a very tenacious and composed tackler. Can play right-back if necessary. Would do a job here but I am not sure how high his ceiling is.

Well IMO Azpi is a competent right-back. Did not really make Pedro or Willian much better when they played there. I just feel we do not have a tactical balance between fullback and winger on either side yet.

I think he was talking about Willian, who is indeed rarely a goal threat even though he has worked on that massively. As for Mahrez a am surely not against signing him he is too classy a player but recent years have shown that our rw issue won't be solved with money thrown at it. We should only sign another one if someone there leaves or conte has a clear plan how to make this signing work.

This is probably why he got loaned out immediately.he was almost as bad as Iva.

Surely he would be the culprit again but honestly he did not do too much wrong apart from his horrendous mistake. Nonetheless he should be one of our fittest players but still looks too slow, esp mentally. Finally has to go or take an absolutely marginal role in the squad like 3rd the and 5th cb.

best player on the ptich together with Jose Mario and Raphael Guerreiro.

MOst important target in the transfer window is keeping the squad together. Losing Costa would be an enormous setback even if we get Morata. Sure, Even if we get Kante and Koulibaly we should still sign another CM and CB or at least trust s.o. like Hector or RLC there. we do not need to compete with the very top clubs anyway next season and on a domestic level I really think those can do a job esp with someone like Conte catalysing their progress

got at least on par with Löw in the tactical battle. getting a technically far superior GErman side into the penalty shootout is difficult enough. Tho it has to be said that Italy were never gonna score from open play against that rock solid German 3-man defence. But that is down to their lack of clinical finishers. Mind they had enough shots.

Nothing concrete yet. Kante to us is still too good to be true. Would be a long step in the right direction.

I reckon we will only get one of Kante/Nainggolan, but I am fine with either even tho I'd prefer Kante for he is younger and already knows the league. Krychowiak, who i have been talking about for a year now, would be the player to replace Matid, if the latter can't resume his 2014 form. Since 4-2-3-1 is dead and Conte prefers 4-4-2 anyway I could realistically see us lining up as follows, provided Conte has the balls to bench Fabregas, which IMO he should if he really wants to play only 2 cms. Fabreags is the perfect utility player against stubborn defences or teams that leave vast spaces between like ManU under LvG, Arsenal, West Ham. But against competent spaces with a well organised, physical midfielders and at least a medium press he is virtually useless. -----------------Courtois---------- Azpi---Zouma--Koulibaly--Baba -Kante/Nainggolan-Matic/Krychowiak------ Willian/Pedro-------------Kenedy/Hazard ---------------Hazard/Morata-------------- --------------------Diego---------------------- We will not win the league anyway with the team Pep is building but I am convinced we can finish in the top 4 with that, a young, compact, quick team, mobile, mostly athletic players

No we won't. He is not gonna come here. If all your wet dreams you tend to post here scarcely supported by any kind of arguments, we'd sign every other so-so player in Europe. Real will exercise their buy back option. Also I doubt that he would take this step back.

It is such a shame he misses a tournament again. This team is short of pace and firepower now. Almost no wingers. I would honestly start Sane or Schürrle just to have the necessary speed to break team down on the counter when the opportunity is there.

Don't see the need. Would have made sense last season before we bought Pedro, but Willian is better.

Everythink you just said is wrong. In your previous post he had 1 red card now 0, you continue to contradict yourself. Seriously mate check your facts http://www.transfermarkt.de/antonio-rudiger/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/86202 Case closed.

So is he not 23? Enlighten us with one or two thinks then. I can recall him getting sent off 3 times causing 2 pens and another 2 stupid mistakes where he failed to prevent goals only from the matches I watched. But. I guess you do not care about facts and argument anyway as all you do is repeating your opinion over and over again.

I think you are missing a verb there. But yeah I mean it. He was erratic, committing dumb challenges, a red or a caused penalty every fifth game. A few mates of mine are Stuttgart supporters and they did not mind him leaving. It is not that he is a talent anymore, he is 23 but Zouma at 21 has been ten times the player Rüdiger is before his injury. IMO we should not look below the level of quality of our very own Kurt when purchasing a player who is 2 years older.

Oh God pleas no. I don't get what people see in Rüdiger. He was an atrocious player in Stuttgart, error prone af and a horrible attitude. I hope this deal collapses...The players we are linked so far make me feel like we are going the path of the Milan team, relegating ourselves into irrelevance by signing average, overrated, overpriced players that don't fit the identity of this club.

45m for a 28 y.o. is insane. For that price we should stay away and look at Kante and Krychowiak, just as good but younger and cheaper.

Atletico gifted them the title. about the softest cl win ever given the run in they had malmö, as rom, man city... Atletico sweeping aside all the big guns for them. football is so unfair. barca or bayern would have made light work out of this rigid REal team.

Atletico only have themselves to blame. They were better than Real, who needed a blind linesman to score a clearly offside goal, all night long. Should have won it in regular time with all their chances. Also typical Ronaldo doing fuck all the whole game but scoring the decisive penalty. Why even let Juanfran take a pen? Everyone knows he is horrible from the spot.