Sandro Tonali

[the wes 7,212]

Chelsea want Brescia's Italy Under-19 midfielder Sandro Tonali, 18, and have sent scouts to watch him in Serie B action. (Sun)

 

[Vesper 30,083]

Best under 21yo Italian MF, looks to be a regista type. Great  buy if we can pull it off.

Only under 25yo Italian MF's I rate above him atm are (and Tonali has potential to be better than all of them, and any of these  below are already Chelsea level players, or close in Pellegrini and Mondragora's cases)

Bryan Cristante of Atalanta (on loan at Roma, for a fee of €5 million with a compulsory purchase option for an additional €15 million and a further €10 million in performance-related bonuses, an absolute STEAL) (love him, perfect Kovacic replacement, if we lose him back to Real, although I would prefer a move for Frenkie de Jong)

Roberto Gagliardini of Inter

Nicolò Barella of Cagliari

Lorenzo Pellegrini of Roma

and another one I really wish we would take a look at...... Rolando Mandragora (yet another Genoa find), a 21yo whom Juve just sold for €20 million to Udinese, PLUS he is already a favorite of mine AFTER THIS LOLOLOL >>>

Italy midfielder Ronaldo Mandragora banned for insulting Virgin Mary

https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/football/article/italy-midfielder-ronaldo-mandragora-banned-for-insulting-virgin-mary/276937

Rome: Italian international Rolando Mandragora has been banned for one Serie A game after making "blasphemous remarks" during his team Udinese's 1-0 win over Sampdoria at the weekend. The 21-year-old midfielder was caught on television shouting an insult to the Virgin Mary, while also referring to God as a dog.

The 21-year-old's "blasphemous expressions" went unnoticed by officials during the match, leading to a review by the Lega Serie A. The Italian FA said Mandragora was "clearly seen ... to make blasphemous remarks, visibly identifiable from reading his lips without any margin for reasonable doubt."

They acknowledged the Italian international was "cursing without addressing any of those present". In Italy, blasphemy is considered among the worst forms of swearing and the former Juventus midfielder will miss next Sunday's Serie A game against Fiorentina, the Lega Serie A confirmed.

[the wes 7,212]

Interestng reading on Tonali 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/11526660/who-is-brescia-midfielder-sandro-tonali-we-profile-the-teenager-linked-with-chelsea

 

[the wes 7,212]

 

Chelsea are battling with Internazionale, Roma and Sampdoria for Brescia midfielder Sandro Tonali, who has been dubbed "the new Pirlo" due to his playmaking skills and shabby haircut, according to Calciomercato.

Brescia rejected two bids from Roma and Sampdoria worth around €12m (£10.5m) in the summer with Chelsea prepared to go as high as €20m (£17.5m) for the 18-year-old. But Inter plan to make an approach in January and then loan the midfielder back to Brescia for 18 months.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

19 hours ago, the wes said:

 

Sandro Tonali, who has been dubbed "the new Pirlo" due to his playmaking skills and shabby haircut.

 

Maybe we can get Baka to grow a mohawk and we'll have "the new Nainggolan"?

[akgw13 867]

Kid gets his first call up. Looks and plays so much like Pirlo its freaky. He would be a wonderful purchase, expensive but fits with our philosophy of buy them young. If we manage to continue with Sarri for a few years this kid could develop beautifully next to Ampadu/CHO/RLC/Mount. Especially since we seem to be lacking this style of player in the academy and in our older ranks. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

Juventus leading Chelsea in Tonali race

 

https://readchelsea.com/2018/12/17/juventus-leading-chelsea-in-tonali-race/

[Vesper 30,083]

3 hours ago, Unionjack said:

Juventus leading Chelsea in Tonali race

 

https://readchelsea.com/2018/12/17/juventus-leading-chelsea-in-tonali-race/

Huge miss if we do not get him. Instead Sarri is chasing RB Hysaj (when LB is a massive weakness) and right-footed (when we need a left-footed RW) Pulisic who will cost well over £100m together.

Meanwhile nothing on the CF front that I can see either, other than gel hair offering himself pathetically to La Liga and Serie A.

[Unionjack 7,531]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

Huge miss if we do not get him. Instead Sarri is chasing RB Hysaj (when LB is a massive weakness) and right-footed (when we need a left-footed RW) Pulisic who will cost well over £100m together.

Meanwhile nothing on the CF front that I can see either, other than gel hair offering himself pathetically to La Liga and Serie A.

Me iz the eternal optimist Mrs!

I think I'm in the minority with not minding if we sign Hysaj. Sarri knows him inside out and he must want him for a reason IF we do sign him. In Sarri I still trust.

I'll start moaning when the windows closed and IF we add more deadwood to our growing dead forest full.

[Vesper 30,083]

33 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Me iz the eternal optimist Mrs!

I'll start moaning when the windows closed and IF we add more deadwood to our growing dead forest full.

I have literally no idea who we are really going after, if anyone. I do not see much happening, so will be pleasantly surprised if we make 2 or 3 bold moves.

I am already resigned to Eden leaving, I just hope we get something of value for him. As I predicted Barca has decided to not sell Demebele (well they will if you give them his 400m euro release clause! lolol).

The only true left wingers (so this rules out Messi, Salah)  near Eden (so replacement level) are

Kylian Mbappé (he only plays on the RW due to Neymar

Neymar

Ousmane Dembélé (eventually)

Leroy Sané (eventally)

CR7 (but only for a year or 2 max, and is already a bit diminished)

thats it and the last 3 are arguable atm (soon Ronaldo goes off list)

NONE of those 5 (and obviously not RW-ers Messi or Salah) are ever going to play for us, or at least not for YEARS and years.

Every other option at LW is massive drop-off, Asensio included.

We need to just cut our losses and accept we no longer will have a top 1, 2, or 3, or 4 player in world (other than Kante at DMF, but he will never play their under Sarri) for a good long time (barring a miracle Icardi buy) at any position. What we CAN have is a smartly put together young, athletic with a shit tonne of top 10 or 15 players with depth. We are nowhere near that and need to start pruning the old and the deadwood away damn quick, before these possible bans and bad losses (Eden and CHO, who I also think maybe or even probably leaves) truly sink us for years.

I do not see any moves in this direction. I have been in a funk every since we told Barca to take their £65m for Willian and piss off (and thus missed out on a 33m Malcom), plus didnt sell Morata for £60m and tried to extort £75m (which is MADNESS) from AC Milan (and thus didnt grab Icardi for only £98m in July), AND finally, when we didnt sell Luiz for £30m to PSG and immediately buy Thilo Kehrer (which PSG then did).

We shall see what happens. I will keep posting who I truly think are great targets, I just do not expect any to come here, at this point. Nicolas Pepe will end up my latest heartbreak, lol (and he even just said he DREAMS of playing for Chels on French national telly! FFS!)

PS

We so so dodged a bullet over SMS (not that we would have paid the 135m quid Lazio was demanding to one and all). He has looked like shit this year (1 goal, 1 assist in 19 games). I just watched him labour through a mid table loss to Atalanta. He was really poor.

Also, (and I own my mistakes) atm, Leon Bailey is also a disaster. His dodgy W.I. fam and biz managers have fucked up his head so bad. He looks a shadow atm. Maybe we could get him on the cheap and rehab his play (I really have faith in Sarri in terms of improving players). He is still really young and that whole Bayer Leverkusen team (other than Havertz and probably Tah and Wendell) is in a bad place atm, I think their manager, Heiko Herrlich, is doing a poor, poor job, given the crazy talent they have.

[Tomo 21,751]

@Vesper if Eden leaves i would say it's almost certain we will break our transfer record replacing him, whether or not we get the replacement right however is another question.

[Yeboii 1,844]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:41 PM, akgw13 said:

Especially since we seem to be lacking this style of player in the academy and in our older ranks. 

Billy Gilmour?