Magic Lamps

Would be a strange move. But we have been messing with that leftback position for years. Playing Azpi, a rightback over Bertrand the best (natural) left back in the league after he left us and Filipe Luis the arguably best left-back in the world before he joined us and then signing a 20 y.o. nobody from fucking bundesliga who will never be anything close to one of the three mentioned for more than 20m € is just plain bonkers.

41m €/29m pound to Liverpool done. bundesliga record fee. I wonder how he will fit in. They can't possibly play Sturridge, Firmino, Sterling and Coutniho at the same time. Maybe an indication that sterling will leave this summer.

Well, busy transfer windows are fun IMO, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. But for smaller clubs, FFP has more downsides. When they need to renovate, they can't and when they have a potential worldclass player in their ranks already he will be easily priced away from them. But I guess the latter has always been they case. Of ocurse for Chelsea, it is easy to say, better everything stays at it is, as we are a team on the ascent anyway while currently being the best team in EPL, too. If everyone stayed where he is, we would win the league by an even bigger margin next year for sure. But it won't. While I don't see BArca, Real or BAyern improving signficiantly with the players available. All 3 of our domestic rivals can and will improve. Instead of reacting, we should simply be proactive, replace the leavers (Mikel, Cech, Drogba) with the accoridng squad players (Begovic/Green, Song/Witsel/Schneiderlin, Falcao(please not)) and additionally improve on some aspects that have been an issure last season. With 3 of our cbs aging, we might bring in someone like Stones, also ascoring mdifielder with soem defensive prowess would be nice as the Ramires/Fabregas connection does not work in big games. Yeah, probably he is not what we need but saying it is because of RLC is like "we don't need Messi because we have Traore". He would not fit our system, as he does not complement Matic and Fabregas enough. But I honestly doubt that RLC will be a major factor next season.

I guess he is about 20m more English and 10m more homegrown than Kalas. But Omeruo is as homegrown as Stones and consequently 10m more homegrown than Kalas. But then again milner is as English as Stones and still was free, so we should get Stones for the 10m he is homegrown. wtf

Always love it when people list "big tournament next summer" as a reason for no switch. This way it would be impossible for all internationals to move every other year which is BS. Typical case of speculative jounralism

Randomly came across a player called Dani Parejo who had a couple of brilliant performances against the mighty Barca. Turns out he is actually the captain of Valencia. Running out of contract next summer he has been argaubly the best CM in la liga the past season. His style is kind of a Iniesta-Lampard hybrid (think Paul scholes), being both a decent goalscorer and creative (11/8 this season). Can play anywhere in midfield. As technical as it gets. Dribbling, passing, shooting, crossing, vision, freekicks, the whole package. Decent strengths, too. Could improve on his tackling and defensive workrate but could be worse. As there is nothing flashy about him he would be dead cheap and for some reason is not linked with any top clubs. Me thinking he would be perfect as Cesc backup and complement. can play with and instead of him, as 6,8 or 10. perfect age, too (26). what do you think, esp supporter ?

Yup but not many world class players to move this season anyway. This is the downside of the FFP monopoly. Most great players are settled in their clubs already. Shame. The only exception is sadly our very own Petr. Last season Kroos, Di maria, Costa, FAbregas, Suarez, Sanchez, Griezmann, Xabi Alonso, James all moved to a big club. This season there are even less top players at non top clubs. And most are bound by contracts and outrageous fees. I will try to make a list of possible more or less WC player moves and the clubs tracking them Griezmann - us, Bayern, PSG Pogba - PSG, Real, City KDB - Bayern, ManCity, PSG vague: Higuain, Götze, Gündogan, Schweinsteiger, Reus, Sterling, Miranda, Varane etc All in all not that impressive. With every single one we would not even improve that much like we did with FAbregas and Costa last summer, even though both were relatively cheap.

and they also had less contract. 50m pound fucking sterling on a 20 year old. that is 69,5m €. more expensive than Zidane, Kaka, Torres. I would not want us to pay that much for a player again, we can't be 100% sure he will become world class. When Hazard joined us for like 40m € he was a few months older than sterling is now, it was expensive, but everyone could see he was worth it, he had already been a major player at lille for months, scoring goals for fun left right centre, leading them to league titles and been injury free. If this was also the case with Sterling, he'd be worth 50m. but it isn't. He is a golden boy but still a boy. If anyone pays that much over the odds, I am not sure what hte pressure will do to the boy. Liverpool are crazy to demand that much. They will lose him for peanuts next year.

Exactly. It makes him unpredictable. He does not have that many options when on his own down a fixed flank against a deep sitting team. No wonder defenders had worked him out. All they had to do was cover his right foot. If so he would just pass it backwards. But with more freedom to move around, he can face unprepared defenders and gain momentum more easily. He has all it takes. Great athelticism, amazing workrate and technically accomplished. Never will be a great goalscorer but still can be an awesome provider. The assist was immense: Taking on the defender, ok with space he can always do that, but spotting the run, using the momentum for the free cross and delivering such a perfectly timed and placed ball with the outside of his foot at full speed is a world class trait. Let's hope he keeps that on. Him and Hazard hitting top form simulatenaeously and we would be unstoppable.

This would look really decent and also a good overall solution. The nearby buildings and lanes would not be impeded + the iconic Stamford Bridge Stands and facade would be retained. Lowering the ground is a common practice when a stadium gets build. Olympiastadion Berlin, Camp Nou, Bernabeu and many more have a lowered pitch. Lets hope there is not a forgotten tube tunnel below. Though I wonder how the stands would evolve given a lowered ground. they are already pretty close to the pitch. where shall the new lower stands fit?

If ManCity get Pogba and Sterling and maybe even de Bruyne we will be in trouble as soon as they get a competent manager in.

Schneiderlin is better. Schneidelrin has much better distribution, tackling and strategic sense. Witsle is more like a like for like replacments for mikel. has some skill and strength but ponders too long on the ball and has close to zero productivity.

Hes still shit. Even sommer, karius, bürki, adler and zieler are better.

Because he is cheap, there is a possibility that he could recapture his form of 2 years ago. Tho, imo that possbility is about as high as Solanke becoming a world beater this season. So it would be even cheaper to have some young, homegrown talent as 3rd choice. But every coach has his darlings and obviously mourinho sees sth in falcao like he does in ivanvoic.

the thing is he has only excelled at Vitesse after being moved from RW to CF. I don't see opportunites for him to play as our lone striker whilst I cannot see him assert himself in his second favourite position.

the chance to sign him sailed when he moved from Bayern to WOB. Still a nice, tenacious tackler but never worth 30m. Met him person a few times. Decent bloke. Very professional. Spends a lot of time with the fans. Strangely looks small and fragile like a twigman in person though for a dm.

some say he is the best lb in serie a. also impressed in the WC. But I am not a fan either. At least he fits Mou's mantra that defenders have to be tall.

I think you are spot on with your first point. Even Varane or Falcao would not really make the fans climb the fences. We got enough numbers in most offensive positions and also enough talent, some of them just have to hit form. Yes, Arsenal and the Manchester teams will spend a lot, but it is not that they will pull some world class players out of the hat which we can't sign. There simply aren't many world class players available atm. Yes to fend off the domestic rivals it should suffice to make sure we improve here and there in quality and depth and have another one of our attacking mids finally flourish. On the other hand to win the CL next season we would need some major reinforcements, that would help us more mid to short time than in the long run. Those would include people like Schweinsteiger and Bale. When we last won the league 2010 and we only signed benayoun and ramires, while losing ballack, deco, belletti and more, we knew we were fucked when lamps and drogs caught injuries. This time round our squad in younger and on the ascend however, an injury to two out of matic, fabregas, hazard and costa would likely wreck our title challenge. This is why I think, Mou should step out of his shadow and buy some quality players for depth AND to improve us as a team (like more tactic flexibility esp in big games) .

nothing to do with monarchy, I think. Any head of state would have honoured the nation's greatest football player of the generation.

Germany lucky to be still ahead against the amateur side of gibraltar, a country of 6k registered footballers vs one with 6m... I wonder why we play players like Rudy and Weidenfeler who have no future in the side. Behind the left world champions, the squad is pretty bleak and full of average players like rüdiger, hector, bellarabi etc.will be a pretty hard job to win the euro. even qualifying will not be easy. luckily the 3rd spot also warrants a place in the playoffs. respect to gibraltar and esp their goalie. penalty saved and a save from point blank range. amazing effort.

Arsenal always used to have some great teams. Remember when they had Rvp, Adebayor, Fabregas all in top form? They always succumbed to the pressure in the end. However, you are right we should not underestimate them. 2 years ago we also thought they would never win a title, now they won 2 fa cup and a community shield. hardly impressive but they are getting there. Maybe even if the don't get rid of that choker mentality aka Wenger, signing some immense winners like cech will make them evolve from the inside. And then there are city and utd who will also look to massively improve their squad. harsh times ahead. obviously we won't prevent them from signing Cech but we should better make sure to sign some absolute world-beaters to stay ahead of the pack.

We'd better do some freakin great business in the transfer window this summer to make Cech to Arsenal immaterial. Otherwise our most notable transfer move would be strengthening our probably biggest rival.

About fitting that he got an officer of the british empire whilst Gerhard only is a member.

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/transfers-europes-biggest-bargains-20-players-steal-summer-144030850--sow.html nice list of quality bargain players. Not that we have to buy on the cheap but geiss, darder, vazquez, san jose, mauri are some nice options for literally nothing. Vitesse will be happy if any of our club officials comes across that list^^

I don't even think Schweini will leave this summer. If he had decided to do so he would long have prepared the move. But he wants his last big contract and is building up his negotiation position.