Rumoured Mehdi Benatia

[ParNolio7 285]

So I can see the upside in this. He undoubtably would make us stronger in the short and medium-term

Problem is long-term doesn't really exist in modern football anymore, definitely for big clubs like Chelsea. Team needs to be at their top every season, compete for the prizes. You can't afford to have a transition year. Millions and millions are at stake.

A young, promising player like Zouma is bound to be the victim of that. Shame but that's the way it is.

[Special Juan 27,424]

Seems to be a lot spoken about the transfer to us, I just wonder how much legs this has. Reading around it could actually happen.

[Viper22 2,418]

Would prefer Varane, but he might not be available.

But if we sign a back up striker (Remy, Hernandez etc.) and still have cash left over then i'd say sign a CB. JT and Ivan are probably off next year so we would then have Benatia, Cahill, Zouma and then 1 of Omeruo, Kalas and Christensen. Personally i'd prefer that last spot to go to Kalas. A great long term signing and a good short term signing. But is he worth £30M? And we NEED a new striker as back up, and we need it now. That should be our primary focus.

[Special Juan 27,424]

Sounds like Kostas Manolas is close to joining Roma, which would mean Benatia is gone.

[iseah100 5,612]

Varane+Chicharito for £45m and I'm happy.

[Pizy 18,368]

Man, reading around twitter and all over the internet about how good this guy is kind of making me hope there is something to this.

Price is certainly steep for a defender but this isn't Luke Shaw we're talking about here who's unproven, he's a mature and fully developed beast by all accounts.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I honestly don't know how realistic this transfer is, but apparently United want him too. If he joins them, their team will be much stronger. As things stand, their defence is pretty weak. At Roma, the attacking players don't track back as much as all our players do, yet last season they conceded less than us - 25 goals(in previous season they conceded 56 goals), and Benatia was easily their best defender.

Also, Benatia played in 3-5-2, 3-4-2-1 formations at Udinese, so he's used to playing in a three-man defence, which would be very useful when we need to chase the scoreline. Considering that our midfielders in the pivot aren't the fastest lads out there, Benatia's pace would be handy when the opposition counter attacks. No matter how you look at it, we have only one good experienced defender(Iva) to cover two CB positions as well as RB in over fifty matches. One injury&fatigue and we would end up playing teenagers in important matches, and so far, our young CBs didn't exactly look solid even in preseason matches against shitty teams.

While I want a good striker more than a top defender, so far there's been no indication that we're going to sign a fourth striker (unfortunately). If we don't sign a striker, we'd better address another weakness, though it's a less serious weakness than the striker one. If we sign a striker and don't sign a defender, I'll be happy enough. If we address neither, not so much: two potentially vulnerable areas is one too many.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Expensive gamble im not sure we need at the moment

[sdrcfc 461]

Would he start over Terry/Cahill?

[cchuka 99]

He'll probably allow Terry get a rest once in a while. Does this mean Zouma's heading out on loan?

[ChelseaFC12 134]

FWIW He's better than both Terry and Cahill so easily one of them have to sit on bench.

[Korea 734]

Cahill + Terry are good in the Chelsea setup and team...

That doesn't mean that they are very good individually or in different setups.....

Benatia is very good for both Chelsea and individually. He would start over them eventually.

[Azul 1,615]

I'd rather want Hummels. He's cheaper, younger and even more experienced.

[Nero 1,838]

arab for chelsea!!!

[Pizy 18,368]

I'd rather want Hummels. He's cheaper, younger and even more experienced.

Highly doubt Hummels would be cheaper. Just made captain at Dortmund, too, so he's basically not obtainable.

[Azul 1,615]

Highly doubt Hummels would be cheaper. Just made captain at Dortmund, too, so he's basically not obtainable.

If you look at Dortmund's history of selling then you know that they don't overprice their players.

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

I'd rather want Hummels. He's cheaper, younger and even more experienced.

And not available.

[Azul 1,615]

And not available.

Was Götze available when he got sold? Try for better options and if none want to come here then go for Benatia. We should atleast try for Hummels imo, Dortmund is trying to keep him but that doesn't mean he will stay for sure.