Reddish-Blue

He would definitely be best of the lot (considering the players we're being linked with). I wouldn't mind another loan if Atletico were okay with it. At least gives us an option till Nkunku is back up to speed.

I think it's just us signing the wrong players from the Dutch League. Noni was nothing more than a solid youth prospect who was just finding his rhythm in the Dutch League...he very likely needed another season on loan in a more challenging league before returning to Chelsea. I recall our London rivals signing Vertonghen, Toby, Eriksen from Ajax and they turned out to be good signings.

It's not a made up player, Hazard/Willian/Mata could do most of those things quite well. Problem is, as plenty have mentioned before, we never replaced Hazard/Willian with the same level of player and we're paying the price for it. Pulisic was meant to be the holy grail but we found out he was made of glass, then it was meant to be Mount/Havertz to save the day but now all are out the door.

Honestly, we should just re-integrate CHO into the first team squad. All this talk of Barcola and these other youngsters won't make us better. Liverpool actually did it better than most by going after Diaz/Jota, both of them have that spark to ignite the attack throughout the game, why can't we find a player like that? We could have gotten Diaby from Leverkusen or Barnes from Leicester if we were keen on wingers but for some reason the club didn't get linked to either of them.

The fact that we don't have many players in that 26-30 age group is a massive concern. The young guns will always need a few experienced heads alongside them to lead the way. Get the feeling that we'll be found out quite a bit this season by the rest of the top 6. Enzo - Caicedo - Lavia will be a huge midfield for years to come but who's the experienced one that can settle the team down when the going gets tough? A player like Jorginho would have been handy right about now....

Seems like whoever we try to play in the #10 role gets injured.... Time for Poch to roll out the newly invented triple DM formation: Lavia - Ugo - Caicedo. Forget about scoring goals, just play 7 man at the back and give a hard tackle to every player that tries to run into our half

That's because we went away from getting quality, experienced players like Cesc, Hazard, Costa, Willian and going after "projects" like Mudryk, Madueke and co. I don't mind the investment in guys like Casadei, Gabriel and these other youngsters but we got our pants pulled down by both Shaktar and PSV for these two wingers. I'm sort of surprised we didn't get Ward Prowse along with Lavia, at least he would have provided quality set pieces for our CB's, striker.

Yeh and Everton were about to sign that same merchant like 1 season prior for around 30 million with add-ons... Makes you wonder what the club saw in him to pay 60+ million for him...

I don't see how that relates. United could have had Vlahovic for much less than 70 million yet they never showed any interest and they only wanted the Denmark striker. If Vlahovic was really that good, he would have moved from Juventus by now.

Maybe Juventus could actually come down on their asking price for Vlahovic and the deal would be done. They were originally asking for Lukaku + 40 mil for him, which is crazy for a player who scored only 10 goals last season in Serie A.

Maybe Chalobah (but he is out injured atm) along with CHO, Lukaku. Ziyech's on his way to Turkey so hopefully that's sorted. It's a shame we couldn't offload Cucurella

Doku just sounds like CHO but with a bit more quality? Don't see why we would need him for 60 million. Would prefer the club to get a proper goalscorer to lessen the load on Jackson and co till Nkunku is fit to play again.

Hall will probably end up a good player in a few years time but I don't think he'll be missed that much, feel we have enough young talent now to build a solid lineup for the next 3+ years. 35 million is decent business and helps balance the books.

I don't think anyone wanted to take the punt on Isak at 70 million, was linked to both United/Arsenal but neither were that keen to pay that sort of fee for him. Newcastle's signings are all solid, Isak, Wilson, Tonali, Harvey Barnes (surprised that no-one else went in for him as a squad winger, had pretty good stats for Leicester), Bruno G, Botman, Livramento once he's fully fit...

I mean back in the day Essien, Kalou, Drogba would all go AFCON and we were still solid as a squad... Jackson & Kudus going to AFCON wouldn't have been a deal breaker as the other African players have been sold (Mendy, Koulibaly, hopefully Ziyech).

RLC was also wasted in the deeper midfield roles. He's at his best taking on the opposition and trying to score/create goals. Always felt he'd do well in a different league where pace/intensity isn't as high as the PL.

I would think the Hall deal isn't related to a potential Chalobah/Gallagher sale. Hall's transfer fee would probably go straight to Palace for Olise (if that's still happening...) If Gallagher is likely to be sold, then that would cover a large part of the Lavia deal. 35m is alright if it includes future sell-on clauses.

The funniest thing is, we have a striker sitting in the reserves/training alone who in an ideal situation would fill that no.9 role. People say 'proven record'....well that's what he has during his previous stints in the PL and in Serie A. People say 'experienced'...well, he's definitely experienced. Such a shame that we're now left with a 97 million dollar hole in the first team squad thanks to Tuchel and the previous management.

Wasn't it Liam or someone else on twitter who mentioned that the club are looking at Sterling's performances this season as he's considered one of the pre-clearlake signings and they prefer to have players on the new structure of lower base wages with large performance bonuses. I don't see him leaving this season but it'll be interesting to see what happens next summer if he's not scoring goals or leading from the front.

What you're not taking into account is the fact that United, Pool and Newcastle have much better finishers and more experience where it matters. United can long horrible for many games but you just know Rashford, Bruno or someone else will pop up with 2 goals and they get the 3 points. Liverpool will kick into gear sooner or later, they always go through a good patch every season where Jota, Salah and co start scoring for fun....and Newcastle is arguably the biggest threat of all, they have all the players needed to stay in the top 4.

This is why the Lavia signing is so confusing, if he was say 28 years old and coming in to help out the midfield with some experience, that would make more sense. Poch about to roll out a team with 3 DM's next season as part of the Chelsea revolution, forget about CB's, time to collect all the DM's out there.

Think the only reason for that is to help balance the books for FFP...with no-one keen on Cucurella on a permanent transfer. Clubs will be lining up for Maatsen at the 20 million mark. I was actually keen to see Maatsen play as a backup winger this season, seemed to have proper pace/dribbling that could really be useful alongside Chilwell/James/Gusto.

I would assume Southampton is just following Brighton If Liverpool bid 60 as per other reports, why would Southampton accept 55 from us?

Rival fans are just salty as they thought our days of spending big were over after Roman was asked to sell the club. I agree that they are superior players, just not sure if 55 million on Lavia was needed considering we still lack quality in attack. Would have preferred that money go to someone like Kudus who could have helped our attack this season!