Chelsea Transfers

[bluesman2610 1,417]

David Fofana official joins January 1 as per Chelsea official website.

[MoroccanBlue 5,383]

58 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

We aren’t going to sign Enzo in January for 120m euros. Not a chance.

We'll see. 

The owners have embarked a 1.5b investment for the course of their ownership. The idea may be to spend huge now on young top talent to secure a stable future, which I think is the plan to oblige with FFP. 

[Vesper 30,195]

7 hours ago, ChelseaFanUK said:

Who is the most reliable Portuguese media? Record, O Jogo, Jornal Noticias, a bola etc?

Guide to Portugal's football media sources

 

With the summer transfer in full swing, this means that all the big leagues will be looking into the Portuguese league for any potential transfers. This also means Portuguese people and newspapers will be flooding social media with lies and obscured rumors. I made this guide to help people on this sub to understand where the rumor comes from and how much legitimacy is behind the news.

 

Abola

Abola which means "The Ball" in English is the most popular Portuguese newspaper for football. They're so popular that they released their own television channel. This newspaper tends to be bias towards Benfica and is considered the most reliable source out of the 3 newspapers. It can be said that 1 out of every 2 stories might be true.

 

O Jogo

O Jogo which means "The Game" in English is a Portuguese newspaper that stated in the city of Porto and tends to be more bias towards F.C Porto. This newspaper is often criticized by Benfica often in public. As a FC Porto fan, I tend to not believe anything within the newspaper as these guys will print stories that often make you scratch your head. It can be said that 1 out of every 3 stories might be true.

 

Record

Finally, we come to the last of the big 3 newspaper which is Record. Record is the third-best selling Portuguese newspaper for good reason. This newspaper will print stories that will literally make you say "wtf". It will do anything to get more sales against Ojogo and Abola. They will print stories like "Di Maria to Benfica" or "Falcao to Fatima" that can puzzle people. Unfortunately as a kid, I love reading this newspaper and would buy a copy each morning to read in my grandfather cafe. Why? It was practically similar to a Children's book with made up stories and you can use your imagination to believe Messi will be playing at Porto. I'm not really sure who they're bias to but it can be said between Benfica and Sporting. Be wary of stories from these guys.

 

RTP

RTP which is short for "Radio e Televisao de Portugal", is the main public channel for Portugal. These guys tend to be a reliable source for many football fans. The sources they use are very reliable so anything you see on their daily news can be taken with some confidence. This is a very good source to follow if you see a story from RTP posted on r/soccer.

 

Jornal de Noticias

Journal de Noticias which means "News Journal" is one of the oldest daily newspaper in Portugal. Again this is a very reliable source similar to RTP. Even though both sources are in Portuguese, we are lucky enough that there's a lot of Tugas here that can translate their articles to keep us up to date. This is the most common newspaper you can find in Portuguese cafes. If you see a foreign player in a photo with any of the Portuguese club names in the article then its safe to presume its a transfer rumor if you don't read the language. I actually love this newspaper as a second generation Portuguese, it helped me to learn to read the language.

 

BONUS

Psoccer and Portugoal on twitter are great sources for English speakers to keep up to date with the crazy world of Portuguese football

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

24 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

We'll see. 

The owners have embarked a 1.5b investment for the course of their ownership. The idea may be to spend huge now on young top talent to secure a stable future, which I think is the plan to oblige with FFP. 

If we somehow structured some sort of deal with them, for around 70-80m maybe but I severely doubt they’ll settle for anything less than their release clause. Even before the WC I would of doubted so. His WC performances have just reinforced their player value.

Both Benfica and Porto are notoriously tough negotiators and always have been when they know theyve got huge talent. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens if our interest is true.

Edited December 28, 2022 by OneMoSalah

[whats happening 1,618]

i am really confused about the badiashile signing...i guess colwill is worse than expected.

[Blue Armour 4,443]

It's official now

 

 

[Pizy 18,928]

So what’s the plan for David Fofana, I wonder? Are we really planning for a 20 year old from a tiny league to come in and go straight into the team? Are we giving up on Auba already?

[DDA 9,941]

30 minutes ago, Pizy said:

So what’s the plan for David Fofana, I wonder? Are we really planning for a 20 year old from a tiny league to come in and go straight into the team? Are we giving up on Auba already?

Yes and yes. Auba is done at the highest level. 

[Johnnyeye 7,510]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

@Johnnyeye

You are Benfica fan, what does their media say? 

nothing concrete yet, Benfica don’t want to sell him, let’s wait and see if there are any developments. Any deal for Enzo will only be done in the summer i think. He is an integral part of Benfica’s plans for the rest of this season. He just won the World Cup and was named best young player, you can only imagine how high his price evaluation will be.

[milka 3,393]

 

[chelsea_4_eva 1,182]

Well when the choice is between Enzo for £105M or Rice for £80M (rumoured, maybe even higher), I would pick Enzo all the way. Not to mention that I would think we would have to pay a higher salary for Rice than Enzo, something to also take into consideration.

[Tomo 21,751]

12 minutes ago, chelsea_4_eva said:

Well when the choice is between Enzo for £105M or Rice for £80M (rumoured, maybe even higher), I would pick Enzo all the way. Not to mention that I would think we would have to pay a higher salary for Rice than Enzo, something to also take into consideration.

I would pick Enzo over Rice even if the latter was avaliable on a free.

[Pizy 18,928]

4 minutes ago, chelsea_4_eva said:

Well when the choice is between Enzo for £105M or Rice for £80M (rumoured, maybe even higher), I would pick Enzo all the way. Not to mention that I would think we would have to pay a higher salary for Rice than Enzo, something to also take into consideration.

The main thing people have to take into account about Rice vs these other options that doesn’t get mentioned often is that there’s no settling in period or adaptation for Rice. He’s got basically zero potential to fail or be a bust since he has already been performing at the top level in this league in a very specific role that can translate to any team really. He’s not someone who is asked to create or be a match winner or be a goal scorer. You can easily plug him into any of the current top teams and he’d be solid.

With players coming from another country and league it’s always a gamble on whether they can quickly adapt. And at over £100m you may want to minimize the risk and go for the safer choice.

Look what we’re experiencing now with Koulibaly. He was a beast last season in Italy and a dominant CB. Comes to the PL and has looked almost lost at times dealing with the dramatically quicker pace of the play. Imagine spending £100m or more and going through this. Definitely something to consider.

[Strike 7,492]

 

 

[DDA 9,941]

Enzo is on another planet in comparison to Rice. Its not even fair to compare Enzo within the same bracket. Rice is a workhorse, good at defending and bang average on the ball, almost a transit van of football.

 

Enzo is a ferrari, end of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tomo 21,751]

10 minutes ago, Pizy said:

The main thing people have to take into account about Rice vs these other options that doesn’t get mentioned often is that there’s no settling in period or adaptation for Rice. He’s got basically zero potential to fail or be a bust since he has already been performing at the top level in this league in a very specific role that can translate to any team really. He’s not someone who is asked to create or be a match winner or be a goal scorer. You can easily plug him into any of the current top teams and he’d be solid.

I disagree.

Rice is largely playing in a dumbed down counter attack system where abilities on the ball aren't particularly important let alone crucial. Here he's going to be expected to start attack and break lines in the build up. For example, how often if atall has Rice initiated attacks the way Jorginho did for our first goal yesterday?

Also look the previous defensive minded players who shone in Moyes' compact underdog system but looked lost when they made the step up. Gravesen and Lescott the two big examples. Heck his system is so helpful towards defensive minded players even Tony Hibbert had a decade long PL career.

He absolutely does have the potential to be a bust, "PL proven" or not.

[Vesper 30,195]

46 minutes ago, Johnnyeye said:

nothing concrete yet, Benfica don’t want to sell him, let’s wait and see if there are any developments. Any deal for Enzo will only be done in the summer i think. He is an integral part of Benfica’s plans for the rest of this season. He just won the World Cup and was named best young player, you can only imagine how high his price evaluation will be.

here is the thing

Benfica is battling for major trophies

they are on course to win the league for the first time since 2018/19

they have not lost a game

 

plus they won their CL group and think they can go deep (they drew Brugge in the next round)

they truly only fear Citeh, Pool, Real, Bayern, PSG, and maybe us

and two of the 6 will be knocked as Pool plays Real, and Bayern plays PSG

I think they fancy their chances against Napoli, Inter, plus AC Milan OR Spuds (those 2 play each other), 

as for the transfer in January

IF we meet the release/buyout clause of €120m

and IF we pick up Enzo's tax liability (explained before) for him activating it

and (biggest one) IF Enzo accepts, then there is nothing Benfica can do to stop it going through in January

[Vesper 30,195]

IF there is no tax liability and those reports were bullshit

then I do buy into the possibility we may be offering more than the  €120m realise clause in order to get favourable repayment terms

it also could be both things combined

[Vesper 30,195]

potential (I have no clue how much over the 120 euros we are prepared to offer) Enzo price

potential Bellingham price

Enzo age: soon 22,  Date of birth 17 January 2001 (age 21)

Jude age: 19, 2 and a half years younger,  Date of birth 29 June 2003 (age 19)

Salary for Jude will likely be 33-50% or so higher than for Enzo, I am guessing

so, over a 7 year contract, potentially £55m to £85m more for Jude (VERY rough numbers) in terms of salary

[Pizy 18,928]

35 minutes ago, Tomo said:

I disagree.

Rice is largely playing in a dumbed down counter attack system where abilities on the ball aren't particularly important let alone crucial. Here he's going to be expected to start attack and break lines in the build up. For example, how often if atall has Rice initiated attacks the way Jorginho did for our first goal yesterday?

Also look the previous defensive minded players who shone in Moyes' compact underdog system but looked lost when they made the step up. Gravesen and Lescott the two big examples. Heck his system is so helpful towards defensive minded players even Tony Hibbert had a decade long PL career.

He absolutely does have the potential to be a bust, "PL proven" or not.

Meh. He’s no Fabregas or even Jorginho at controlling the entire match from midfield but I think Rice gets wrongfully shit on for his ability on the ball. He’s not spectacular but more than good enough.

I’ll put it this way, if we are playing against a very athletic, quick team like for example Liverpool or Arse I’d much rather have Rice in the middle of the pitch for us than Jorginho. Much safer defensively and don’t lose much if anything when in possession.