Chelsea Transfers

[Superblue 6,372]

6 minutes ago, Jype said:

If Haaland and Lewandowski are both unattainable, I'd rather not buy any attacking players. I trust Havertz, Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech all to improve their goal records from last season and Broja is a wild card who can stay as a backup striker. It's definitely a gamble, but I'd rather go with that than buy some second rate striking option like Danny Ings who'd no doubt be part of the 'deadwood loan brigade' sooner rather than later.

As for other areas, I'm not really sure. At some point I'd love to see Declan Rice in midfield but like I wrote a few days ago maybe the time for that deal is not this summer as Jorginho-Kante-Kovacic are all still going strong and I'd rather not disrupt their dynamic, so either one of the loan army stays or the club need to get another midfielder who's maybe not expected to be an immediate starter like Rice would.

Central defense depends on outgoing players. If Zouma can be sold I'd try to get a quality CB in, but I wouldn't be opposed to sticking with our current options either. Christensen and Rüdiger contract extensions are important.

So without a top striker signed I'd expect the window to be rather quiet as far as incoming signings are concerned. Haaland could then be tried again in January depending on how Dortmund's season is going, because for example if they're comfortably in top4 but out of the CL knockouts they might not have that much left to play for and might then be tempted into selling Haaland 6 months before the cheap clause kicks in when they would surely still get +100M for him.

I mentioned on the forum a few days ago that in the Premier League, the six of Werner, Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount and CHO scored 24 goals between them. An average of 4 each. I just cannot see how they don't improve on that number this coming season. Even if they could double that outlay to an average of 8 each which I don't think is unreasonable considering Pulisic scored 9 in his first season and Havertz and Werner have multiple double digit scoring seasons in Germany, then we'll be in better shape. 

One other possibility that hasn't been mentioned much regarding Haaland is whether we can negotiate a deal now with Dortmund for next season. If his release clause is £70m or whatever, offer them £15-20m above that as a sweetener to negotiate early and look to lock him up for a year's time. Lot's of risk attached to this given the numbers but I'm sure some potential clauses could be factored into the deal if he picked up a serious injury for example. Haaland might not be prepared to go for something like this but it could be worth the consideration, we haven't been against doing similar deals in recent years with Pulisic and Ziyech where we've agreed a deal mid-season for them to arrive at the end.

[Pizy 18,858]

I know Ben White is 3 years younger, but if he’s worth £50m how is the price being thrown around for Zouma only €25m? Unless we’re just desperate to get rid of him which I doubt.

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I know Ben White is 3 years younger, but if he’s worth £50m how is the price being thrown around for Zouma only €25m? Unless we’re just desperate to get rid of him which I doubt.

English tax.

[Superblue 6,372]

6 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I know Ben White is 3 years younger, but if he’s worth £50m how is the price being thrown around for Zouma only €25m? Unless we’re just desperate to get rid of him which I doubt.

The same reason why Rice is being quoted at around double the price of other midfielders like Locatelli, Camavinga and the Monaco lad.

[Tomo 21,751]

5 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Also, Ole has finished in the top 4 for consecutive seasons.

I don't care if he has bungled trophy finals, but the thing is at this point, we are not yet a league title challenging side and our competition in the league is still against the likes of United and Leicester. 

Even if the likes of Sancho and possibly Varane take time to integrate, their old squad is still there. You can't tell me they are weaker for making new signings. 

Who says their weaker? They'll probably still finish top four again but as we saw with Arsenal for years and what we see with Tottenham, the mentality to win medals is either there or it isn't.

I won't be confident if we have a title race with City as I feel their experience in them will see them through, it's highly unlikely both City and Liverpool will be so poor to allow this to happen but I'd be mega confident if we end up in one with United.

[Tomo 21,751]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

Cant wait for Kepa to concede a goal in Carabao Cup for people to say he should be number 2 😆

If he was a free transfer like Turnbull he'd be third choice (at best) already.

[Alabama 1,992]

Unpopular opinion....forget Haaland sign Tchouameni and Martinez....that guy would be immense for us...

[Pizy 18,858]

17 minutes ago, Jas said:

English tax.

 

15 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

The same reason why Rice is being quoted at around double the price of other midfielders like Locatelli, Camavinga and the Monaco lad.

True, but it’s not like Zouma is some small time player. He’s a full fledged France international who has played well in some big games for us. And he’s still relatively young as well.

The club really shouldn’t be thinking of selling him for less than like £35m. Some midtable PL club would probably pay that.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

27 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I think a centre back becomes vital if we don't manage to tie down Rudiger and Christensen to new contracts. 

If they both commit (I assume Azpi will too) then I don't think it becomes an area of urgency. However if the right bid came in for Zouma I wouldn't be against selling him and looking at a younger centre back to come in and probably be backup initially but grow into a role that will need filling with Silva and Azpi not getting any younger. Someone comfortable to challenge Rudiger on the left side would be ideal, could Lacroix do this?

Centre midfield does seem an area that will need something unless Tuchel sees one of the loan army filling the role. The problem with that is I don't see any of them being comfortable playing in a 2 man midfield, so the market maybe where we have to enter for that. Could we conceivably run though with 4 centre midfielders who are all the profile whereby they would probably feel they should be starting regularly?

What would be your answer then for the attack? Keep Tammy or Broja and just roll with what we already have?

With the amount of games we are gonna play coming season, 4 midfielder who all are starter material will be fine. each of them will probably still get 20-40 games esp with the 5 sub rule in all competitions bar PL. Kante and Jorginho are getting old, will get injured more often so we need cover for possibly longer periods.

Similar in CB. We have to think ahead silva, Azpi are old,  the former is often injured, the latter also has to cover for rwb. Rüdiger and AC I expect both to sign new contracts. if zouma stays we can as well roll with what we have but if we want to plan for the future, this is the perfect time to blood in a promising young CB to learn his trade from some of the greatest defenders in the game.

In attack we will have to take a leap of faith. If we can't get the necessary Haaland or Kane, which we will not, there is no ready made world class striker to score the goals so we should not buy an average one. I rather take a gamble on our young players than take the gamble of signing a mediocre striker for 50m. we have to rely on our other attackers improving. broja to me looks like a shoe-in for Tuchels style, pacey, industrious, mobile. If he gets his confidence up and scores goals, i dont see why he can't contribute. Obv we have to keep Tammy to play the Giroud role.

[Superblue 6,372]

11 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

With the amount of games we are gonna play coming season, 4 midfielder who all are starter material will be fine. each of them will probably still get 20-40 games esp with the 5 sub rule in all competitions bar PL. Kante and Jorginho are getting old, will get injured more often so we need cover for possibly longer periods.

Similar in CB. We have to think ahead silva, Azpi are old,  the former is often injured, the latter also has to cover for rwb. Rüdiger and AC I expect both to sign new contracts. if zouma stays we can as well roll with what we have but if we want to plan for the future, this is the perfect time to blood in a promising young CB to learn his trade from some of the greatest defenders in the game.

In attack we will have to take a leap of faith. If we can't get the necessary Haaland or Kane, which we will not, there is no ready made world class striker to score the goals so we should not buy an average one. I rather take a gamble on our young players than take the gamble of signing a mediocre striker for 50m. we have to rely on our other attackers improving. broja to me looks like a shoe-in for Tuchels style, pacey, industrious, mobile. If he gets his confidence up and scores goals, i dont see why he can't contribute. Obv we have to keep Tammy to play the Giroud role.

I think it's important that Kante continues to be managed so you're possibly right with another quality midfielder to add. 

From what it sounds Tuchel seems to like Sterling at RWB so if he can stay fit it could very well be Azpi, James and Sterling across those RWB and RCB roles. Silva and AC for the central role and then Rudiger and Zouma for the LCB role. I would prefer a better fit there than Zouma, although as backup we could have far worse.

I agree with the attack. I just don't see the players out there on the market beyond a Haaland or Kane that we can be confident will add and improve to what we already have. Given Tammy didn't really feature last season though, could it be argued that Broja would fill the Giroud role and Tammy is therefore still dispensable, even without a replacement?

[Superblue 6,372]

17 minutes ago, Pizy said:

 

True, but it’s not like Zouma is some small time player. He’s a full fledged France international who has played well in some big games for us. And he’s still relatively young as well.

The club really shouldn’t be thinking of selling him for less than like £35m. Some midtable PL club would probably pay that.

He's also a backup player for us, compared to an important player like White is for Brighton or Rice for West Ham.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

 

[Milan 17,955]

'Chelsea must hate Bayern'

Naah, they prepared a nice party for us at their place in May 2012.

[NikkiCFC 8,288]

39 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

He's also a backup player for us, compared to an important player like White is for Brighton or Rice for West Ham.

But White is also a lot more expensive than 4 times CL winner, 3 times LaLiga winner and World Cup champion.

Barella was amazing in Cagliari and Locatelli is now great for Sassuolo but Rice will cost more than both! That is mental!

English tax is crazy! Great that we have academy who could always provide us with 5,6 squad players at least. Because alternative is paying hundreds of millions for average players...

[NikkiCFC 8,288]

32 minutes ago, Milan said:

'Chelsea must hate Bayern'

Naah, they prepared a nice party for us at their place in May 2012.

Hope we win there again in 2025 final with CHO, Kai and Werner scoring.