Rekin

According to The Times Chelsea are monitoring Barkley together with Spurs and Man Utd. Everton are said to demand £50m, which just serves as evidence that they are from a different planet. I wouldnt mind him, but never ever for that price.

We were interested in Lukaku, so we made a bid. We were interested in Sandro, so we made a bid. We were interested in Morata, so we made a bid. Chelsea did not make a bid for PEA. See the pattern? It is natural to make enquiries, but it is extremely far from having a concrete interest. Matt Law wrote like two days ago that Chelsea were sounding out several striker options, but that Morata was the preference.

I might be completely wrong, but I think there is a reason that Matic hasnt been sold yet even though Inter, Arsenal, Juventus and United has been after him for a while. The club is likely checking whether they can find a replacement before they allow him to leave (or checking if he can be used as a bargaining tool for Sandro). It would just be very incompetent of the board otherwise, three senior CM's with one currently injured is just asking for so much trouble. When you then consider that Fabregas is the third one, it becomes even more of a scary thought (not because he is bad, but because he is nothing like Baka/Kante).

People like extrapolating their personal preferences onto the board. Then when the board doesnt buy the player, it is due to their failure, rather than a lack of interest.

Yeah, that is the challenge. I expect us to get two signings before deadline day, and then 1-2 more during it. Matt Law who is quite reliable has been reporting for months that Chelsea is looking for a CF, LWB, RWB, RW, CM, backup GK and CB. We have solved three of those, and seem very close to closing CF as well. That leaves us with LWB, RWB and RW. If Matic leaves, I expect us to look at another CM too. If we count Morata as done (I know it isnt, but Di Marzio and Law are both reporting that it is very close), then we have almost 1,5 months to close 3-4 signings. That is roughly 1,5 weeks per signing. I think it is doable but hope that it doesnt lead the board to compromise on the quality. Still, Rudiger, Bakayoko and Morata are all skilled players yet to hit their peak.

I know that people are freaking out over the size of our squad, and while I believe that there is truth in it, I also believe that a silent clean-up of the team is taking place since Conte joined. Let us look at the team at the start of last season (senior players): CF: Bats, Costa Wingers: Willian, Pedro, Hazard, Oscar CM: Kante, Matic, Mikel, Fabregas WB/FB: Ivanovic, Alonso, Azpilicueta, Moses CB: Terry, Cahill, Luiz, Zouma GK: Courtois, Begovic, Eduardo There are some amazing players in there but also quite a few who are either well past their peak (Terry and Ivanovic) or been mediocre for the team for some time (Mikel and Oscar). These players were sitting on big salaries while contributing very little (excluding JT's leadership) and they have all since been removed from the club to put it bluntly. Begovic wished to play more, and Zouma needed game time to see whether he is still good enough for the team so both of them have been allowed to do so. We then have Matic and Costa where the latter has had discipline problems for some time, and there were rumours that the same applied to a lesser degree to Matic (dont know if it is true) so it would make sense to get rid of them in order to improve squad harmony on and off the field. It also seems to be what is happening right now. In other words, we have over the span of three transfer windows with Conte gotten rid of (or at least in the process) the old, the mediocre and the troublesome while retaining the stars and the above average supporting players. I believe that the board saw what happened to the team when the old core (Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cole among others) got in the 30+ range, and how that made CFC's performances drop forcing us to have some dog years (masked by the CL win) and is now trying to avoid it. Furthermore, our team has been well known for having a very vocal dressing room which coaches has lost more than once. Bringing in a charismatic disciplinarian like Conte, who also just got an extension to show that the board stands behind him, while removing the potential sources of discontent is a way for the club to build for the future in a different way that it has in the future. The danger lies in having a squad that is too thin, but there is still plenty of time in the window, so if we can solve that problem the future looks bright.

Far from a bargain, but a striker that will be useful for a lot of years. Crazy that it will cost us that much though, it seems every striker's value has doubled this window. Morata is the best technical striker available on the market right now (looking at passing, dribbling, first touch, shooting and overall link-up play), which combined with his pace will offer something both against defensive and offensive teams. I mean, Conte got him for Juve, tried to get him last season and is now likely to get him this window. Clearly he sees something big in Morata, and it is his opinion that matters the most.

I can see that we are simply not going to agree with each other on this. Your perspective seems to be that things are being done poorly without competence, and mine is that I am certain things are being worked out in the background. I guess we can return to this conversation again when the window closes and see who was right.

Most likely an extension of two years rather than a two year contract.

1) The narrative was that Chelsea matched the £75m, but not the additional £25m in Rooney and installments. Ergo, Manchester valued him higher than Chelsea. It is unlikely that the Manchester United deal happened within a day, so Everton most likely knew of Manchester's interest for quite a bit and did not need to rush into accepting anything from Chelsea. As far as PEA goes, it simply seems that Chelsea were not interested enough. Last I heard Morata was closer to Chelsea than Milan, but I guess we will see. It clearly seems though that Chelsea do want someone. As far as Belotti goes, it seems wrong to use the valuation of Lukaku on Belotti. Different players are valued differently, and I am sure that if Chelsea valued Belotti at his release clause, they would eventually go for it. 2) How much have you seen Telles? I do not know him very well, maybe seen a handful of games without really focusing on him. I'm just curious if you are disregarding him because you know him well, or because he isnt Sandro. 3) To me it makes a difference. One implies that Matic is a victim that is being removed against his will, the other that he is the one pushing for a move. In the end we do indeed lose a midfielder, but as long as we can replace him in shouldnt matter. The FFP thing is not a certain thing from what I hear, Roma fans were saying that the sale of Salah was enough, but I guess neither of us knows the true extent of it. Regardless, the point is that silent deals do happen at times. In terms of spending power, let us assume that you are right. We have a lot of money from sales, sponsorships, prices and other deals. Why do you think we arent spending it? Do you think there is a pile of money just lying around for no reason? Manchester city has spend much, much more than we have, and yet we are doing better than they are. The last paragraph is again just speculation on your behalf, we do not know the reason. To me the facts are the following: We have many signings that we want to get through, and we have a finite amount of money to spend. There is still roughly a month and a half left, which means that if we manage to negotiate a better fee for all of our deals, the money saved could be enough for another signing in itself. The people doing this are way more experienced than anyone on the forum is, and yet you see people acting as if they would do things better. I can tell you from my own experience that if someone ever came in to a negotiation room with the desperation the users here want us to show, then that person would be taken to the cleaners. Chelsea are using time as a negotiating tool most likely, and they are right too. What matters is that we can our transfers done before the window closes. Doing it in the first week of the window would be ideal, but I can imagine it would come at a noticable markup.

In response to: 1) You seem to believe every narrative that is negative regarding buying a new striker. Lukaku seems to have been beyond our valuation the entire time, so its a bit rough to label it as being "caught dithering". Regarding Morata and PEA we are at a stage called negotiating, and no one on this forum is involved in it. Dortmund will say one thing publically, another privately. Do you believe everything organisations say? Since it is going to cost a lot regardless, it makes sense that the board wants to explore all options first. We got Luiz and Alonso late last window, but both worked out just fine. I too prefer players having a pre-season a lot, but not every transfer is a simple "Hi, I would like to buy please". 2) You don't know that, and yet you have no problem presenting it as a fact. There have been rumours about Telles as well, so there is a second basket you can put your eggs in. 3) Again, you say Matic being frozen out as if it is a fact. What if he is the one who wants to leave? We heard almost nothing about Rudiger until Di Marzio within one day said that everything was done, so transfers or at least rumours about them can come very fast seemingly from nowhere. 4) Matt Law has been reporting for over a month that Conte wants a RW. I assume we will get one. Look, I understand that it is easy to think the worst. The thing though is that we just dont know a lot. There could be several deals being negotiated as we speak. I know the last Mourinho season had a terrible window, but history does not always repeat itself. Obviously I hope that we sign all our targets today, but the club has limited funds and a lot of transfer targets. It is really hard to balance this. People here just continously expect the club to pay whatever it takes for each target, but surely you realize how foolish this would be? I dont personally know what is going on behind the scenes, but having started my career in M&A I just know how fucking tedious negotiations can be. You can have an agreement one day, only for it to be void the next. The more stakeholders are involved, the longer it takes. If the board fails to get us 3-4 big signings before the end of the window I too will damn them to hell, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until then. My priorities are in order: 1: CF. Morata, Belotti or PEA would all be great purchases. 2. RWB & LWB. Both of these are ok right now, but we need to either get backups, or improvements. 3. RW. We need someone who can challenge Pedro and Willian for the right wing. 4. CM. I would look for depth here. Not expecting a large signing, maybe a 30+ for a short-term contract. Morata, Danilo, Telles/Sandro, Mahrez and random CM would be a great window imo.

Several of those were out on loan, so they were not squad players for us last season. The target for us seem to be 6-7 new players (of which we have 3 finished), which together with retaining Musonda, Baker and Kenedy should be just about enough. Strikers: Bats, new CF Wingers: Willian, Pedro, Hazard, Musonda, new RW CM: Bakayoko, Kante, Baker, Matic(or replacement) LWB: Alonso, new LWB RWB: Moses, Azpilicueta, Danilo(?) CB: Luiz, Cahill, Christensen, Rudiger, Azpilicueta GK: Courtois, Caballero, Eduardo This of course depends on us getting our targets, but I think the club is aware of the need for it. They are just not as much of a hurry as the supporters are. We already have two big signings, and a third one (Danilo) seems to be close. Perhaps I am the optimistic one, but I think we will still see several signings before the window is over.

Zouma, Ake, Chaloba, Begovic, Atsu, Traore, Terry and Aina played either no role at all this season, or next to none. Let us not act as if they are huge losses.

I always like getting them young, but I guess you have a good point here. Of the four strikers available at the start of the summer, he is likely to be both the cheapest (wages excluded) and the safest option. I mean, it is pretty unlikely that Belotti and Morata come in and start dominating the league after all, and that is what we want. By the time PEA is 32 and most likely declining, he will have given us a couple of good seasons while we buy ourselves four transfer windows to find a long-term replacement. These transfer sums are here to stay, so we better get used to them. Also, if someone told us as the beginning of the window that we would be getting Rudiger, Caballero, PEA, Danilo, Bakayoko and whatever RW we find then I doubt people would be too unhappy. As a Brazilian, what is your opinion on Danilo? Worth the shot?

It is too bad that Txiki Begiristain from Barcelona is 2 PL-titles behind Emanelo "The Cockroach" in the last 3 seasons. It is almost as if it comes down to how you spend, rather than how much.

30m would be great, but Leicester might be ok with getting less if he is sold abroad. We have been linked with Mahrez earlier in the window by Matt Law, so it is still realistic.

It has been widely reported that he already passed the medical, and has signed for the club. They are most likely just working on making an announcement.

BS. You sound like a child who only cares about getting new toys. It is such a silly season thing to do to point to players and say "we could have gotten this player, but our board/ambitions/chief negotiatior/Emanelo just sucks". How the hell do you know who we want, how close we were to get them and whether there was more we could have done? Tolisso went to Bayern early in the window, one of the most attractice clubs in the world. There is almost no solid info saying that we were close to him, or interested in the first place except for a little gossip around the time Traore signed for Lyon. We offered 70m euro for Sandro, if that isnt a huge commitment then I do not know what it is. Everyone is creating this scenario where we only started bidding "seriously" after Bonucci was sold, but there have been basically confirmed offers of 60m euro or more for several weeks, so Chelsea tried hard with this deal. It was always going to be an extremely difficult one. Southampton did absolutely not want to sell VVD, and would only have accepted a grossly inflated price. What is this world where you think that Chelsea can just throw £60-70m on Sandro, £100m on Lukaku, £50-60m on VVD and so on? Morata, Lukaku and Belotti all have their own problems. They cost(ed) an absolute fortune, and there are risks with all of them. We will likely end up with one of the two remaining or PEA, but they are big transfers that require a lot of work. Lukaku was clearly the main target, but can you blame the club for not wanting to pay £100m? Bonucci did not want to leave Italy, like seriously how hard is it to understand? You are blaming the club for every single thing when something doesnt go our way. Bakayoko has been hanging out in London, with Chelsea players, with Conte while the most reliable outlets reporting that he has passed his medical. The delay was caused by a knee injury, is that also Emanelo's fault? Danilo seems to be in the last stages of negotiation. If Chelsea really wants him, they will pay £5m more, and if they do not it suggests they have a different target in mind. Like seriously, I am not claiming that Chelsea's transfers have been flawless. I am sure a lot of things could be handled better, but people here just approach this as if it was Football Manager with unlimited funds. My god, I usually look forward to silly season during the normal season, but every year it justs brings out the worst in people.

So Chelsea should have paid £100m for Lukaku and now what, £70m for Sandro? Have you considered that there is a limit to how much we can spend? We have to be realistic here, we still have several players to buy. We cant blow a vast majority on two players if the idea is to buy 5-6. Assume for a moment that we all in all have £250m to spend. For this money, we want to buy a CF, CM, CB, LWB, RWB, GK and RW. This sum is written in stone, you cant increase it by selling players. How do you proceed now? As a side note, the actual transfer budget might be lower, and might be affected by the wages of the targets we get (for example, Lukaku and Sandro are both likely to want much higher wages than Belotti and Telles). Still, lets use £250m and ignore wages.

Which is?

Can you offer a suggestion for how this transfer should be handled?

I'm curious about this. A lot of people are praising Fabinho, myself included, and yet it is Bakayoko that is on his way. It seems based on reports from usually reliable sources such as RMC and Di Marzio that Fabinho is/was available, so why did the club not go for him? I see what Bakayoko can add, and I believe he will be a great signing but just why did Chelsea prefer him over Fabinho if there is such a clear consensus that he is better?

You seem like the type that keeps telling himself how special he is. My posts represent my opinions. I couldnt care less about how many likes I get, its not like I can trade them for anything useful.

Same, cant find the option.

Nah youre wrong.