Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 26,660]

16 hours ago, Blues Forever said:

Barcelona latest offer to Dembele is €6m net/year + €1.5m in bonus to player for extension. There won't be any bonus for his agent.

that is only (gross) around (at current FOREX) £198.8K PW and a £1.29m signing bonus, no agent add-ons

a MASSIVE pay-cut for him

Edited June 28, 2022 by Vesper

[Jype 6,386]

8 hours ago, Tomo said:

I mean, I wouldn't want Ake as our marquee defensive signing but if he's coming with MDL i wouldn't mind it too much.

He ups the average age of our defense and it offers Colwill a realistic pathway if he deserves it.

That's what I'm thinking. Aké together with someone like MDL could be decent. I don't think expecting the club to sign two marquee players for CB in one summer is realistic because there are concerns elsewhere on the pitch too that need addressing, and then there's of course the Colwill situation to think about as well. 

Aké-Silva-MDL with Colwill and Chalobah in reserve doesn't sound too bad. I don't necessarily think Aké is good enough to be a starter in a title pushing side but at least in the short term having him and Colwill for the LCB role would give the club some breathing room and we could see what Colwill is made of before deciding whether a long-term high profile CB needs to be signed on the left side or not (ie. Gvardiol).

[Vesper 26,660]

9 hours ago, Tomo said:

One of Ten Hag's first actions in his first United presser was to suck off Harry Maguire.

They invested in Varane last summer and bizarrely are dead set in making Maguire work, CB is the last place they're investing in certainly for the price it would take for MDL.

the more Manure sticks with slabhead, praises slabhead, nurtures and coddles slabhead, the happier I am

[Vesper 26,660]

9 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

How he got a move to City in the first place I will never understand

Because Pep saw him as a hybrid CB/LB, as LB has been a nightmare for Citeh until they got Cancelo, who is a bit like a poor man's Maldini (a right footer who is superb as a LB, although Maldini was far more ambipedal than Cancelo, and a far better player overall, the best combo defensive back (as he also was a top 10 all-time CB) in football history, and for me the 2nd best defensive back ever, after Franz Beckenbauer, and that call is a close run thing)

[OneMoSalah 8,449]

8 hours ago, Thor said:

Not sure what people have against buying off City, or any other great team if the player is on the bench. 

 

With the amount of talent they have, and some other teams, the bench players can be great pieces, or players that haven't gotten a proper chance due to not fitting the current system. Kovacic is a great example of this. I'm sure Salah isn't that good either who was sitting on our bench. KDB too. Why did Liverpool and City ever buy them... 

 

Ake is a nice piece. Not sure if he is what puts us over the top, but clearly a capable player and could shine. 

Its not about buying off City, its about the fact Ake is a very average footballer and doesn’t upgrade or replace what we lost in Andreas and Toni. Utility/squad player maybe he’d do that role but is he going to trade one bench for another one potentially?

[Superblue 6,327]

48 minutes ago, Strike said:

In this summer's case, I agree Marina and Cech made the wrong call trying to keep Lukaku when the man himself was driving himself out.

But long term, I don't think its a good idea for Tuchel to be leading recruitment. Get a director figure who will allow Tuchel to concentrate on tactics, organising the team. There are times when a coach's judgement on recruitment is also clouded - Conte signing Zappacosta, Mourinho trading KdB, Salah.

The importance is putting a plan in place throughout the club.

There's never been a trend with our managerial appointments for starters, which is why we're so regularly left with so many players ill suited to the man in situ. Just look at the last 4 managers - we've gone from a back 3 counter attacking system, to a progressive back 4 system, to Lampard trying to play rock and roll football, back to Tuchel's back 3 but in a more possession, controlled based approach compared to Conte's system.

When Klopp and Pep both walked in they made a lot of changes and were backed to let players leave who had cost the clubs big money. Finally backing a manager who has already been here for the last 18 months is frankly what we've cried out for ages. I'm hoping over the next summer or two the decks will be swept and a number of players that no longer fit the club will be moved on.

Moving forward with the recruitment, there needs to be synergy between the director of football and the manager. But then in the event Tuchel moves on in the future, we need to ensure then our recruitment of our next manager is also suited to the group of players at the club rather than simply bringing in the next 'flavour of the month' manager.

In turn if there's an ethos and philosophy running throughout the club with regards to recruitment, coaching, etc this will also help the academy in developing players for the first team, rather than changing formation and styles every year to try and mirror the first team. We're fortunate to get Reece James and Mason Mount, players with the potential of being pillars of the club's foundation for the next decade. The academy isn't just going to churn out players of that quality at will, but it is and should continue to be capable of bringing through players to play squad roles in the first team and fill positions that otherwise we'd have to spend potentially tens of millions to cover (Chalobah, potentially Gallagher, Colwill, Broja, etc).

There's very much a sense of the unknown here and it is quite a daunting prospect of life after Roman, but some changes have been needed for a long time with regards to the recruitment, scouting structure and long term planning around the club and I'm hoping that the new ownership gets this right.

[Mário César 760]

 

 

[Mário César 760]

 

 

[Mário César 760]

de ligt + kound

Ake seems to be short, tbh

[Superblue 6,327]

Reports from France suggesting we've now made a contract offer to Dembele. Of course this could be more agent spinning from his camp, but from what it appears over the past few days we've shown interest to him this whole time without putting our cards on the table. It's not left us in a bidding war with other clubs and in particular Barca which it seems is what Dembele's camp were expecting to drive his demands up more.

It looks like this has backfired spectacularly if reports from Barca's end are correct with regards to the offer they've made him. If we did manage to get him, I'd expect it to be a far more reasonable and manageable contract position now. If he decides to take the pay cut and stay at Barca then we move on.

[Mário César 760]

city wants included reece james in negotiations 

fuck off

[Pizy 17,832]

Oh, wow. The City fans on Bluemoon are adamant that Aké should stay. Apparently he came into their side last season and was extremely good? Must admit I didn’t watch them at all when he was in the team.

[Mário César 760]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Oh, wow. The City fans on Bluemoon are adamant that Aké should stay. Apparently he came into their side last season and was extremely good? Must admit I didn’t watch them at all when he was in the team.

I also feel a bit surprise to read that

between kounde and ake who you prefer?

[Pizy 17,832]

10 minutes ago, Mário César said:

I also feel a bit surprise to read that

between kounde and ake who you prefer?

Koundé for sure. Much higher ceiling I think. Aké is perhaps less of a risk since he both knows the league and knows the club but I don’t think he’s got world class potential like Koundé does.

[Superblue 6,327]

Apparently we're interested in Zinchenko too.

I guess if you can't beat them, buy them.

[Mário César 760]

4 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Apparently we're interested in Zinchenko too.

I guess if you can't beat them, buy them.

where you read that?

[Superblue 6,327]

 

 

[Mário César 760]

Zinchenko

Kounde

Sterling

That's my preference. 

[nyikolajevics 2,339]

Where would we use Zinchenko? LWB? CM?

 

Especially strange if we get both him and Aké.

[Pizy 17,832]

7 minutes ago, nyikolajevics said:

Where would we use Zinchenko? LWB? CM?

 

Especially strange if we get both him and Aké.

I’d assume as a rotation option behind Chilly. But in that case I’m not sure why he’d want to come here and be in the same role he’s at with City. He surely thinks it’s time for him to go somewhere and be a starter. He’d be in the bench just as often here as he was at City.

Anyway, in regards to potentially signing both Sterling & Dembele, I just wonder how that would work with the formation we play. It leaves our player of the season Mason Mount the odd man out. That’s something we haven’t really thought about. And if we switch formations to a 4-3-3 to fit him into the team we screw up the CB situation. Playing in a back 3 has been the primary reason Silva has been so comfortable even at age 37/38.