Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 30,193]

13 hours ago, shrenshah said:

Wasnt aware of Guehi current form but Ampadu can take his place..he is not playing right now but he is a gem of a player

My point with the poat is we can completely overhaul our team if the board is up to it...

Ake would be an upgrade on what we have so 40m for him is a good buy considering zouma and ac are rated at 30m

Mount aint a chelsea level player yet, frank likes him but the sooner he is dropped the better

Pulisic is sold to dortmund in order to get sancho

Rlc starts at cm with kante

The Ake buyback is history. Expired. Done. Gone. Kaput. He is never coming here. Lampard said he is weak within a high pressing schema.

Pulisic is not going to be sold back to Dortmund for Sancho. They will simply find another teen or two and develop them. If we sold Pulisic after just one year, the USA market would turn on us with a vengeance.

Ampadu was a flash in the plan so far. Multiple managers now have not rated him. He may come good yet, but I am not holding my breath atm. We cannot even figure out his correct position.

I am also not sold on Guehi yet either. 

Mount I agree on. I would loan him out and buy Grealish for sure if we fuck up the Sancho deal, as no Sancho means a lot more time at RW for Ziyech.

Until RLC shows he is fully recovered back to pre-injury form I do not count on him for much.

I just hope the board has plan B and plan C for positions if/when plan A goes to shit.

[Vesper 30,193]

17 hours ago, Blues Forever said:

Watzke already said he won't sell Sancho for less than Ousmane Dembele (€145m).

2 points.

€145m is the exact same £120m we all have been saying is probably a good guess for what he might go for.

Point 2, Dortmund will never see the full €145m payout for Dembele, as he is damaged goods who will never hit all the bonuses, just like we will never see the full payout for Hazard from RM. So yes, lets do a deal like that. Win win, as if he is that good and hits all the bonuses,  he will be a CL winner with us and a Ballon d'Or winner as well. If not, we get him for far cheaper.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

16 hours ago, shrenshah said:

Just hoping that ziyech is uses as a 10 instead of the right wing

Ideal summer as per current rumors

Buy

Ziyech 38m

Sancho - 150m

Boga - 12m

Werner - 60m

Onana/Maignan - 40m

Ake - 40m

Chilwell - 70m

Backup keeper - 10m (prefrably english)

 

 

Sell

Kepa - Loan with option to buy 50m

Pulisic - 50m (accomodate sancho)

Alonso - 20m

Emerson - 20m

Zappacosta - 10m

Batshuayi - 30m

Jorginho - 50m

Drinkwater - 10m

Barkley - 20m

Zouma - 30m

Andreas christensean - 40m

Bakayoko - 20m

Pasalic - 10m

Boga - 30m

Release giroud willian pedro caballero

 

We are looking at a spend of 420m and sale of 350m...some sales may not happen so say we sell 270m worth of players then we still spend only 150m plus there is impending kepa sale money with whom we buy a wc cb to pair with ake or rudiger next summer

 

Team looks like this

Gk - Maignan/Onana, Backup keeper

Rb - Reece, Azpi

Cb 1 - Rudiger, Tomori

Cb 2 - Ake, Azpi, Guehi

Lb - Chilwell, Azpi, Maathsen

Cm 1 - Kante, Gilmour, Tino

Cm 2 - Rlc, Kovacic, Mount

Amf - Ziyech, Gallagher, Mount

Rm - Sancho, Ziyech, Cho

Lm - Werner, Cho, Mount

St - Tammy, Werner

Lets be realisitic, Kepa and Pulisic are going nowhere. This isnt FIFA or FM where you can sell somebody with ease 1 or 1 and a half years after buying them. We arent selling Jorginho either. That would be stupid. Even if his agent has said that about Juventus and other proposals I wouldnt be surprised if its a ploy for a new deal. Selling 3 of our most expensive signings in one window, what have you been smoking?

[Vesper 30,193]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Lets be realisitic, Kepa and Pulisic are going nowhere. This isnt FIFA or FM where you can sell somebody with ease 1 or 1 and a half years after buying them. We arent selling Jorginho either. That would be stupid. Even if his agent has said that about Juventus and other proposals I wouldnt be surprised if its a ploy for a new deal. Selling 3 of our most expensive signings in one window, what have you been smoking?

Realistic targets assuming we do not go for Sancho or do and fail

GK Sven Ulreich (backup and competition for Kepa, who I cannot see being sold at what will surely be a £60m or more lose when his crazy salary has to be partially paid just get a team to pay us half what we did in fees) Ulreich is a tested keeper who is now 3rd at Bayern.

CB Nothing. Lamps likes his 4 he has, but I would LOVE AC to be sold and replaced with Declan Rice, who I see as our future at CB and or DMF if needed.

LB Chilwell and nothing more, meaning we disastrously keep one of the dregs yet again. It damn well better be Alonso sold, as he is soon worthless or near worthless if not dumped tjis summer. If Chilwell goes down we are FUCKED.

RB Nothing.

DMF I want Declan Rice (who I see as our eventual top CB tbh, see above) and want Kante sold. Neither happens. I have no idea how badly we want Soumare from Lille.

CMF Nothing

AMF Grealish, a MUST if no Sancho, as Ziyech will thus be a locked down starter at winger. RLC is a massive gamble, Mount is not good enough, Barkley needs to be cashed in on.

Winger Ziyech is a done deal maybe Boga will be purchased. FFS bin fucking Willian and Pedro!!!

CF Werner is not coming here, and we might even miss out on Dembele, in which case I would go for Victor Osimhen.

That is it, best case on the realistic end, and even some of that is probably not going down. I trust our biatd as far as I can spit into a gale.

[Atomiswave 6,117]

16 hours ago, Vesper said:

I am convinced we end up with Chilwell, now that Shitty are banned and Pep may leave

the big thing is the price

I would love to have Alaba, but doubt the club is going to make that move

He turns 28 in June, so this is deffo the last summer Bayern can get max money as fullbacks generally fall back rapidly once they turn 30. However buys him only gets 2 sub 30yo season out of him. Say he is still pretty much prime at 30, and that is 3 years max. £60-70m for 3 years prime is not good value IMHO, and I cannot see Bayern letting him go for less than 60 or 70m quid. Telles is 6 months younger and roughly half the price, which is why I prefer him as one of the two LB's we should buy, along with either Gosens or Theo Hernandez. Either two of those 3 would cost less than just Chilwell, plus we can sell both Alonso and Emerson, so the net cost is very low. If we only buy Chilwell and no one else, we only can sell one, and if we hold onto Alonso, we are basically giving up ever getting fuckall for him, as he is soon 30 (December this year) and will rapidly devalue even more than he already has. Even if we only get £50m for both Emerson and Alonso, that would make, say Telles and Theo Hernandez cost only £20-30m net for both, versus say a net cost of £55m for buying only Chilwell and selling only Alonso or only Emerson. Buying Telles and Gosens would be close to par or only £10-15m net max depending on what we paid for Gosens and what we got via the 2 sales.

It is not that I think Chilwell is a bad player at all. I just think £80m (or even more) for him is crazy, and the I also fear we end up selling only Emerson, and simply long term kiss away selling Alonso for anything other than peanuts. Plus, when Chilwell cannot play, we are still fucked at LB in that scenario. Alonso is only god for a back 3 wingback role, and we so rarely play this.

 

I sure hope not mate, he is nowhere near worth that outlay. Let manu have him. Much rather Telles then. Would BM really demand that much for Alaba though? With 1 year left he cant go for more than 50, we got not even doubla that for Eden in a similar scenario. If they really would demand that much then fuck BM.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

I am not sold on Chilwell being the best player to go after at that position, and that price seems too much. 

[Vesper 30,193]

4 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

I am not sold on Chilwell being the best player to go after at that position, and that price seems too much. 

£50m MAX

80m or more is insanity

[Blues Forever 1,232]

The problem is Lampard seems really fancy Chilwell and he look like our first choice target for LB. The fact that Lampard didn't go after Telles and Grimaldo who have a release clauses in Jan speaks volume about that. 

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

40 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

The problem is Lampard seems really fancy Chilwell and he look like our first choice target for LB. The fact that Lampard didn't go after Telles and Grimaldo who have a release clauses in Jan speaks volume about that. 

Not neccessarily. Dealing with Porto and Benfica is never easy though either. Image rights, agencies/other clubs owning percentages of rights etc too.

Im not totally against signing Chillwell if the price is not over the top. 50m max maybe. As hes young and English you have to pay a bit more but he has huge potential to grow as well. He is good, maybe not at the level that fee warrants but a long term investment at LB isnt necessarily a bad thing.

[Strike 7,491]

Gosens? Now that Pasalic has joined Atalanta permanently for a decent price

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Gosens is more like a WB than FB to me, similar with Alonso.

[Special Juan 28,141]

I don't rate any of the strikers at this club right now, not one of them. Can we just fucking please go out and buy one top quality striker, please.

[NikkiCFC 8,325]

@NicoSchira

 

Yesterday a scout from #Chelsea was in Roma to observe Sergej #MilinkovićSavić during Lazio-Inter. #Blues are interested in the Serbian midfielder for the summer. #transfers #CFC

[Jase 43,479]

38 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

@NicoSchira

 

Yesterday a scout from #Chelsea was in Roma to observe Sergej #MilinkovićSavić during Lazio-Inter. #Blues are interested in the Serbian midfielder for the summer. #transfers #CFC

Yes, let's stock up more midfielders! WE NEED MORE! 

[NikkiCFC 8,325]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

Yes, let's stock up more midfielders! WE NEED MORE! 

If we sell Kante or Jorginho I wouldn't be against it. 

But buying Serbian player for a lot of money is almost always a bad idea. 

Jovic Real

Matic United 

Markovic Liverpool 

Maksimovic Napoli 

Krasic Juventus 

Kezman Chelsea 

Sulejmani Ajax 

 

[Special Juan 28,141]

Barkley will defo go, not only is he poor but he is way out of his depth here.

[Superblue 6,372]

3 hours ago, Special Juan said:

I don't rate any of the strikers at this club right now, not one of them. Can we just fucking please go out and buy one top quality striker, please.

Tammy is more than good enough as a squad player/rotational striker. Still has a lot to do in my opinion to be the long term first choice for us, but he and we need competition in that spot.

Giroud is just too old and static to fit into what Lampard wants the team to do, and Bats is one of the worst strikers I've seen at the club since the mid 90's.

I just wonder with the signing of Ziyech for what appears a relatively modest fee in the current climate, the club opts to spend a larger proportion of the transfer budget (or Hazard money) on a striker rather than a pursuit of Sancho.

The bigger problem at present is I don't think there is a vast number of strikers I'd have full confidence in us buying and they hit the ground running here. The market for strikers not just now, but in the last 3-4 years (basically since we sold Costa and the two main options on the market were Lukaku and Morata) has been pretty rubbish compared to previous years.

 

[Vesper 30,193]

Honigstein: Storm Denis (Zakaria) blows away Dusseldorf and shows why Liverpool were once so keen on signing him

https://theathletic.com/1606925/2020/02/17/denis-zakaria-gladbach-bundesliga-honigstein/

It’s been a windy few days in the Lower Rhine region. Firstly, Borussia Monchengladbach’s game against 1. FC Koln had to be cancelled last week thanks to Storm Sabine. Then on Saturday, Storm Denis blew away Fortuna Dusseldorf at the Merkur-Spiel Arena, clocking in at a top speed of 35 km/h. It’s useful when you can conjure up your very own hurricane. This Denis, last name Zakaria, happens to be in the pay of Borussia. He wears the No 8 shirt but often plays three positions in one.

Gladbach captain Lars Stindl grabbed the majority of the headlines, shooting down Uwe Rosler’s resurgent relegation battlers with a second-half brace. French prodigy Marcus Thuram had another excellent game in the 4-1 win, including a reverse pass so well disguised that Dusseldorf’s defence were still looking for it 48 hours later. The secret star of the show, however, was once more the man in the middle, a player who didn’t so much dominate the space between the boxes but made it disappear altogether. When Zakaria gets on the ball, the turf seems to shrink to a five-a-side pitch. Not only for him. Nobody else can keep up.

The way the 23-year-old rushed towards goal from nowhere and then shrugged off poor Alfredo Morales with minimal effort twenty minutes from the end was case in point; the one-man stampede finished with him smartly dragging the ball back for Stindl’s second, the clincher of the game. Marco Rose’s men are now back within touching distance of the top of the table, four points off leaders Bayern with a game in hand.

The exact ending is yet to be determined but the impact of Zakaria is bound to be a huge factor in the ‘Gladbach 2019-20’ story. This is the season the Swiss international is moving on from ‘next big thing’ to ‘very much in demand’, with half of Europe now keen on luring him away. His current contract expires in 2022, but Gladbach are reasonably optimistic they can get him to extend. Sources at the club describe the Geneva-born son of a Congolese father and Sudanese mother as a highly intelligent, easy-going yet very driven man who appreciates the value of gradual progress.

He credits his mother Rina for his down to earth attitude and strong work ethic. She raised him, brother Richard and sister Bidour by herself in Switzerland after his father had gone back to work for the government of his home country. “I admire her a lot,” Zakaria told Blick. “She taught us how to clean, iron and cook ourselves. She wanted us to be independent once we moved out.”

He grew up in the centre of town, and played football in a playground for hours on end, with trees and a bench for goals. Afterwards, him and his friends often went to a restaurant nearby, to ask for some food. The chef liked them and served chips for free.

Initially a striker who modelled himself on Didier Drogba, Zakaria only really began playing consistently well in midfield as an 18-year-old at Servette. His old club thought he wasn’t quite ready to make it as a pro but Young Boys Bern did, and they were willing to pay €375,000 for him. There he became a key player under coach Adi Hutter (now at Frankfurt) and he was soon called up for Switzerland’s senior team.

Gladbach were watching. Others were, too. A number of Premier League sides made approaches before he moved to Borussia Park from for €11 million plus add-ons in 2017, a record sale for the Swiss side. Liverpool had come in with a firm offer of €6 million a year earlier. Zakaria, advised by his agent Mathieu Beda, opted to join one of the Bundesliga’s best developers of talent rather than getting lost in the reserves of an English team. Sporting director Max Eberl explicitly pitched Gladbach as a stepping stone, referencing the career paths of Granit Xhaka (Arsenal), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona) and Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund)

“Check out who came to us and went on to play somewhere else,” he told Zakaria. “If you’re up for it, we’ll take you to a really big club.”

He was up for it. No small thanks to him, Gladbach are growing as a club, too, but not quite quickly enough to keep pace with his development. When he eventually goes, he’s expected to double the club’s record sale, held by Xhaka (€45 million). “We buy potential and sell quality,” Eberl has said.

Zakaria certainly has quality. Kicker magazine ranked him the fifth-best defensive midfielder in the league in January, and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if he were to surge past Joshua Kimmich (Bayern), Charles Aranguiz (Bayer Leverkusen), Konrad Laimer (RB Leipzig) and Suat Serdar (Schalke 04) to the same place Gladbach could still end up in the league: first.

It may be worth taking Kicker’s rankings with a handful of salt, however. They failed to include Bayern’s Thiago on their list of the division’s best defensive midfielders, an omission that Athletic sources suggest brought roars of laughter from one bewildered player who actually did make the list.

Most importantly, Rose and his coaching staff consider Zakaria a dream of a player, an almost perfect package combining skill with exemplary attitude. Versatility, too: He can play as a centre-back, holding midfielder or box-to-box. His ability to win the ball in tight spaces and immediately charge towards the other end of the pitch is best served in front of the back four though.

Zakaria is, to misquote the Tom Jones’ dad-dance classic, a total ‘Sechs Bomb’ — a defensive midfielder (or Sechser in German football parlance) blessed with extraordinary explosiveness. A couple of weeks ago, he ran back half the length of the pitch to dispossess RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner, one of the league’s fastest strikers, turned on his heels and ran the other way, leaving his opponent befuddled in a plume of dust.

“Denis doesn’t quite know how good he is himself,” one admiring member of he club’s inner circle puts it. He’s increasingly the only one in that respect.

---

The top five sides all won this weekend leaving the sharp end of the table unchanged. RB Leipzig made light work of terribly inept Werder Bremen (3-0) and Bayer Leverkusen registered a lucky 3-2 win at Union while league leaders Bayern Munich set a new club away record of scoring three times in the opening twelve minutes of Sunday’s 4-1 win at Koln. The champions once again dropped their focus in the second half, however, allowing their opponents a series of chances and wasting many of their own. “We could have scored ten goals today and conceded five or six,” Manuel Neuer warned sternly.

Talking of mad scorelines, goal-crazy Borussia Dortmund warmed up for their not-so-romantic rendezvous with ex Thomas Tuchel — they play Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday — by destroying Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 on Friday night. Eintracht coach Hutter had been mentioned as a possible replacement to Lucien Favre before the game but the Swiss coach had very much the upper hand as his attackers (sans Marco Reus and Julian Brandt) ran wild. Jadon Sancho had another belter of a match, Erling Haaland didn’t. The Norwegian showed a series of poor touches and came away with a solitary goal to raise his tally to nine in six games for Borussia. That’s only one more than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Man Utd have mustered in their last six outings. Must do (a lot) better.

After a momentous week in Berlin, the post-Klinsmann Hertha won 2-1 at SC Paderborn to ease relegation worries. The upturn in fortune couldn’t be taken for granted: caretaker Alexander Nouri had not won a league game in 21 attempts with second division Ingolstadt and Werder Bremen before.

Over in the third division, Preussen Munster supporters showed how racism in the stands can be dealt with effectively. When a spectator directed monkey chants at Wurzburger Kickers player Leroy Kwadwo shortly before the end, the game was immediately stopped by referee Katrin Rafalski for a stadium announcement. Vast sections of the crowd rose to their feet to chant “Nazis out” and pointed to the alleged perpetrator, who was quickly arrested.

[Strike 7,491]

Athletic subscriptions are worth it?

[Vesper 30,193]

7 hours ago, Strike said:

Athletic subscriptions are worth it?

absolutely

superb writing