Reddish-Blue

Probably trying to keep whatever value Kepa has left... We're stuck with Kepa until the last year of his contract as no club out there will touch him.

Is there any point in having two short keepers? Raya would make more sense as a replacement for Kepa (with Slonina to develop on loan and potentially come back and fight for the #1 spot in a few seasons time).

I doubt it'll be City, more like United will come for revenge if the Mount deal falls through and they'll put up a bid for Caicedo just to make the situation difficult (as they have UCL football to offer).

I just like to call it Saudi money. Abu Dhabi, Qatari, Saudi PIF....at the end of the day, they have way too much money in their pockets!

At least with Sir Alex, he didn't have the luxury of Saudi money. Pep is like a kid in a candy store, he just buys whichever player he wants/needs

The board don't need to be taught anything, too many people expecting transfers like FIFA or Football Manager. The board are just cleaning up the mess left behind by Tuchel and previous management in giving Koulibaly 300k a week and not being able to sell Ziyech/Pulisic to anyone. Romano has said that we are focusing on getting the sales done first before going for the big purchases. If Arsenal or someone else comes in with a huge bid (let's say 90+ million) for Caicedo, then we'll just have to go after other options.

@Blue Armour or maybe the players just don't have that connection with the club? I doubt Cech, Lampard, Terry, Drogba and various other players would have been eager to join Arsenal/United in their prime years. These boys want to jump ship to our rivals at the end of a pathetic season rather than fighting through it.....easy to see why we finished in the bottom half of the table. If he wasn't a money grabber, he would have signed the deal at Chelsea and shown an interest in continuing to be the academy player to follow for years to come. All this boils down to Mason not getting the same wage packet offer as Reece. Think Tammy Abraham said something similar when he was looking to sign a contract extension (mentioning that he wanted to be on par with CHO's wages) and then the following season Roma give us a solid offer.

Didn't he make it pretty clear that he was keen on a new challenge with 1 year left on his contract? Probably didn't want to go through a rebuild type season

We'd still be a top level midfielder short (even if Reece was to fill in at midfield as needed). Losing Kante/Kovacic/RLC in the same window kills our depth for next season.

How much are they expecting to get for him? Maybe 100 million, can't really expect more than that with 1 year left on his deal and Levy hesitant to let him go domestically... Bayern's bid is actually good, they are basically telling Kane, "you wanna win trophies before you retire, here's your golden ticket"

I'd rather save the money than spend on Martinez/Vlahovic, feel like both will be underwhelming in the Premier League. Better off spending that money on Caicedo + another midfielder.

I doubt the new ownership group let him walk on a free, will probably go to someone else on deadline day.

We should be after Chiesa as well...would easily be the best attacker at Chelsea alongside Nkunku.

I think the whole attack was well below par and he'll look a lot better with proper full backs giving him width and support (Reece, Gusto or Chilwell on the left). Thought he was one of the bright spots (alongside Enzo/Badiashile) in what can only be described as a pathetic season. Madueke at least wants to improve and prove a point, unlike his two team mates who are eager to jump ship to United/Arsenal respectively.

I'd still keep him around as a squad player, fits the HG criteria and I feel he'll do well under Pochettino.

Think you're forgetting that Christensen declined the 5 year offer from the club...

Is that really all that surprising? He could be guaranteed starter for Arsenal, possibly captain sooner or later (they're more than happy to listen to offers for Partey and even Xhaka has a move to Bundesliga) or he could be a rotation option with Pep and be there for the trophy collection.

He's 19, not 22. I would think the club has a similar idea to how they developed Courtois for Slonina, get him a 2 year loan in a competitive league and if he develops to the level expected, he should be back at Chelsea in 2025 ready to take over the GK spot...

Fair enough but with City being linked to the likes of Gvardiol, not sure why you'd go and splash another 90 million to make Rice play CB. Feel like Pep is just letting Arteta know that he's still the master.

Exactly, seems like Arsenal would be the better fit for him (especially with Partey being shopped around and Xhaka has apparently agreed a deal back to Bundesliga but Arsenal won't sell until they get their key additions which are Rice/Lavia). Phillips barely played at City, Rice would have to agree to be a rotational player for Pep as he's not displacing Rodri anytime soon

I don't think we can compare our roles to footballers. At the end of the day, Chelsea gave Mount the opportunity to play in the premier league and he's an academy player so the general expectation is that he would stick around even in a shit season like the one we just had (could of easily come to terms on a 1 year extension or something along those lines which still gives him even leverage to ask out at the end of the 2024 season). The fact that he's keen to leave is probably more an indication that he doesn't have great ties with the club. Lampard & JT were both offered massive deals from other clubs to leave Chelsea but they didn't till they were in their 30's.

Now thats a statement signing. Tonali and Bruno G in midfield for Newcastle

I just mean that it'll be a massive expense on the books to get both of them in...100 million for Barella, 80+ million for Caicedo, 30+ for Jackson and we still have to get a goalkeeper, Nkunku is another 60+ million. In terms of sales, Mount & Havertz will get us 100-110 million and the Saudi sales will probably get us 40 million.

And that's why Leicester haven't received any real offers for either of them. Every club out there knows that Barnes isn't worth 50 million, more like 25-30 million (on potential) and Maddison will also find it hard to move as the only 2 clubs being linked are Spurs/Newcastle....and they'll be looking for a bargain (similar reason as to why Raya hasn't joined Spurs as they want Brentford to lower the fee from 40 million).

Unfortunately, we'd probably be sanctioned by FFP if we pulled off Barella - Caicedo in the same transfer window as the other players we're trying to sign!