oldportblue

an old washed up arsenal fool trying to wish his wet dreams into existence

ok so the decision would be entirely up to him, I see... Don't see him leaving his boyhood club for us in that case Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

that article says the release clause is 40M€, can he still reject us if we meet the clause? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know why but I also have a feeling he'd do well with us...

agreed, we shouldn't get our hopes up because of this and take with a huge grain of salt but... having said that, other media are now picking up the sidibe links (evening standard talked bout it a few days back and now the sun too)

take it with a big grain of salt but this was just retweeted by Thibauted, a chelsea fan account: it says Sidibe is at Novotel with his agent and with bakayoko (perhaps to convince him) and the Monaco fan who posted it thinks he may be on his way to chelsea

they're not gonna sell rabiot though... krychowiak is an attainable target I think

according to this paris "insider" account, he prefers MU and has a deal with them:

according to some french twitter accounts, he has been spotted wearing a Chelsea kit several times throughout the years: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ugh anyone but dan levene, can't stand him

"I would like Southampton to consider the interest in me from top clubs should it still exist." "I want to play European football again and challenge for major honours. I am incredibly ambitious." " I want to achieve as much as I can to fulfil my potential in what is a very short career as a professional footballer." -Virgil van Dijk

perfect! now le'ts get him

But the German (Klopp) is well equipped with defenders, with Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan and Joe Gomez all fit for the season. He said: “We have four ­centre-backs. I don’t think we need more. “Just at the moment I’m fine. The transfer market is open until the 31st of August. “We cannot force things and we would never get a ­centre-back just because someone is available." hopefully we can get him, he is bordering on WC imo

Agree, about Costa, great player but massive pain in the ass and not the sharpest tool in the shed as they say... But in terms of our spending we are truly behind the like of huddersfield. Counting only spending paints a false picture. To truly understand the investment being put in, it is crucial to review departures as well. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree

Costa OUT, Morata IN (stagnant and arguably even a downgrade) Matic OUT, Bakayoko IN (slight upgrade but could be consdered stagnant) Begovic OUT, Caballero IN (switching one decent backup GK for another, stagnant) Rudiger IN (decent reinforcement for the squad but doesn't seem to be starter quality) So in effect, the only addition (and not replacement) we've made is Rudiger, a squad player.... For a team who just won the title, wants to build on that and compete in 4 competitions, that is pretty woeful. Conte, Cahill and others also keep emphasizing the need for more players, this is not some sort of well kept secret. As to Costa, the only reason we'll struggle to get 58M for him is because of the way events unfolded between him and Conte, had none of that happened, we could have probably fetched a nice sum for him... In any case, that wasn't my point here. I wanted to refute the idea that signing Morata for 58M is a sign that we aren't stagnant, IMO it is, since he is a replacement for a better player (Costa)

Are Huddersfield losing a striker that is worth potentially even more than 58 Million pounds, like we are with Costa? And Costa hasn't even been sold yet, once he does, our net spend will be in the negative. Net spending is the best way to see who has truly strengthened (MU, City) and who has pretty much sold and bought at the same level to remain stagnant (us)

yup and according to the sun (I know..), liverpool have given up their chase for him altogether, we basically have a free shot at him. He's still not training with the Southampton squad as far as I know so it seems there's no reason we shouldn't get him... I like Cahill a lot for his character, big goals in big moments, that he's British etc but VVD is a class above IMO.

So we're being outspent by bournemouth, huddersfield, newcastle and leicester (not to mention by MU, MC, arse and scousers) at the moment... Also I just read that Roman is getting divorced with his wife of like 10 years, Daria Zhukova... maybe this has had an impact on his involvement in transfers this summer? Obviously I have no clue and am just speculating but it could be... In any case, I can see us doing a big late push and getting a few players in, van dijk and drinkwater seem the most likely at the moment and I would welcome both tbh (drinkwater as a competent back up midfielder). There is also news that liverpool has pulled out of signing van dijk altogether, with him currently on strike at his club asking for a move away, I hope and think we should be able to close that deal

that's good, we desperately need some creativity in the side, looked sort of toothless without Pedro last game

Is Pedro fit to play?

would be amazing but he reportedly has his heart set on liverpool... I rate him above all our defenders at CB except maybe luiz who is of a similar level imo Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

hazard is injured as we speak, no one will buy him for 150M until he plays again and shows his fitness, that's too big an investment for such a risk.. IMO, he is 100% staying at Chelsea this season. As to the future, if we continue winning titles and are competitive in CL, we have a good chance to keep him long terms as well

No offense taken mate, everyone has the right to their opinion. Whose to say that if we spend 90M on bale we won't be able to make signings in the future? I don't worry about us lacking money at all, we are doing very well and we can afford to buy top players for top money. The idea that we are working with a specific strict, set budget is open to debate. As far as I've known and seen while supporting chelsea for 15 years, we tend to go for huge bids for top players on a consistent basis if we feel that the player in question can elevate the club not just on the pitch but commercially as well, and when those bids are rejected, as has often been the case, we don't necessarily use that money on other players... In some cases, the attitude of the club seemed to be "we'll try hard for world class player X, if we don't get him, oh well" (neymar bid in 2013, torres 2011 etc) and not necessarily "we have 100M to spend, if we bid and the bid for player X is rejected, we will buy 2-3 players instead", that's more how fans think. I think the board looks at signings on their individual merit and when a rare opportunity presents itself to get a truly WC player, they tend to jump on it, even if they have to pay over the odds. The board is also interested in making a big splash in terms of visibility, status etc by signing players who can actually elevate the club's overall prestige and status... from what i've seen, Roman is ready to splash major cash on WC players if they will being excitement and possible success and elevate the club and I'm all for it. That's why I say who cares about what it costs? we've made reported bids of 88M for the likes of higuain recently, why not bale (who would actually recoup a good chunk of his transfer fee via shirts, merchandising and overall added visibility to chelsea, if you are concerned with money) I personally feel it's in the club's best interests to try to get top WC talents when they become available because they are few and far between. It sends a message to rival teams, increases the attractiveness of the club for other players to join, makes the club's brand greater etc... Even if they end up not working 100% perfect on the pitch, like torres for ex., I still feel they provide value to the club overall. I would have loved for us to do what PSG just did with neymar. Would you have said no if you knew the deal would be done if all we had to do is pay the 200M? I certainly would not. Granted bale is considerably less exciting than neymar but the reasoning still stands I think with say 90M instead of 200M. Having said all that, we have been spending very little in net expenditure these past 3 years but it's hard to say if that is by design or also due to missing out on top money targets consistently (which has been the case recently)... IMO, we can afford to spend much, much more than what we have in these past few years, especially on world class talents. anyways, just my 2 cents