Chelsea Transfers

[Alabama 1,992]

Matheus Nunes links yet again....

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

2 minutes ago, Alabama said:

Matheus Nunes links yet again....

€60M asking price….yeah no.

[DDA 9,690]

21 minutes ago, Alabama said:

Matheus Nunes links yet again....

Hes a very good player

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

5 hours ago, DDA said:

Rui Costa is just being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn at this point.. it doesn't matter what way you look at it. . It's a bad business move to turn anything over 80m down.

Not really. Currently its mid season, late in the window, their in a title race and still in the CL. It makes no sense to sell unless they get their valuation - which is the buyout clause.

Plus sell on fees to River Plate is 25%. So the more the better. If they truly value their player at £106m and he was to leave for cheaper they’d look like idiots. Particularly if he was to become this world class elite level midfielder for the next 10 years that he is touted as. 

It would be like if we sold Hazard in January for cheaper and not the summer - where we stood our ground and got what we wanted. 

[Alabama 1,992]

40 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

€60M asking price….yeah no.

Sure....though Wolves will demand crazy money.....

[NikkiCFC 7,944]

Mourinho didn't want Mata here, why would he want type of player like Ziyech. Doesn't sound like his type. 

[Gundalf 804]

Wait, wasnt Nunes the hyped midfielder starlet here during the summer before Enzo occurred?

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

16 minutes ago, Gundalf said:

Wait, wasnt Nunes the hyped midfielder starlet here during the summer before Enzo occurred?

Yes, was Wolves most expensive buy for 45 million pounds.

[Vesper 28,795]

Chelsea are open to player sales despite current injury woes

https://caughtoffside.substack.com/i/98863393/Chelsea-are-open-to-player-sales-despite-current-injury-woes

Chelsea will definitely be thinking about outgoings towards the end of the January transfer window, but there is perhaps less urgency than there would be if everyone was fit right now. Of course Chelsea would like to sell for financial reasons after their spending, and also to reduce their wage bill, but they also have to be conscious in certain positions that they do have an injury crisis.

Specifically, if we’re talking about midfielders, they haven’t yet signed a central midfielder, so they have to balance the fact that summer is going to give them more time and ability to get them more value, too.

Still, there could be opportunities because of the size of their squad. Hakim Ziyech is one who is available, and Chelsea could try to cash in on the back of his excellent World Cup with Morocco. In many ways it would be a shame if he didn’t get the chance to show what he can do at Chelsea, because he can offer something very different from the other wingers at the club. He showed that with Morocco, where he wasn’t just a goal-scorer and creator, he was also somebody who tracked back and defended resolutely, and showed leadership too. Chelsea definitely appreciate leadership, especially at this stage of the season with a lot of young players being thrust into the starting line up. But Ziyech can still command a relatively healthy transfer fee, and a sale or loan gets him off their wage bill. From Ziyech’s perspective, he’d love a move back to Ajax, but their manager Alfred Schreuder has ruled that out, Milan’s interest has cooled as well, so it’s Roma or Newcastle who are the clubs to watch. Newcastle like the player but there’s a concern about his wages - they’re reluctant at this point in the season to match Champions League-style wages and also don’t want to bring in too many high earners in case it causes squad unrest. Still, they like the player so it can’t be discounted, either on loan or in a permanent deal. Chelsea would ideally like to recoup a lot of what they paid for Ziyech, which was around £33m.

Christian Pulisic is technically available on the market, though Graham Potter has said on the record that he won’t leave in January, and the fact that he got injured until February doesn’t help matters. Like Ziyech, he had a strong World Cup and that could change Potter’s thinking. Pulisic didn’t desperately enjoy working under Thomas Tuchel, so a fit Pulisic under a new manager might be able to shine at Chelsea. It could be that this injury will prove a blessing in disguise for Chelsea, because it gives them more time between now and the end of the season to see if they can get the best out of Pulisic. There are admirers of course, Newcastle and Manchester United enquired about him in the summer, with the latter quite keen on a loan, but I’ve always been told that Serie A is the more likely destination for Pulisic. Juventus have considered him in the past and he even spoke to Weston McKennie about the club, and more recently AC Milan have been linked as well. But we’re looking at a summer exit if Potter is true to his word.

Chelsea could also be tempted to loan out Conor Gallagher, depending on what happens in central midfield in the coming days. Clubs like Crystal Palace, where he was on loan last season, and, again, Newcastle, would both be interested in Gallagher, so we’ll have to wait and see based on Chelsea’s own movements in the market. The club have indicated they’re against a sale, but that could be tested if they were to receive an offer in the region of £35-40m. It’s one to watch in the final few days of the market, because if Chelsea can get a midfielder in, someone might try a concrete late move for Gallagher, and then Chelsea, unlike last summer, could be tempted to do business there.

With N’Golo Kante, from the messages I’m receiving, his preference has always been to stay at Chelsea, and contract talks are suddenly moving in quite a positive direction. It previously looked quite unlikely, and like Chelsea would lose him on a free transfer in the summer, and Kante obviously wouldn’t be short of options as a free agent, but we shouldn’t underestimate that Kante is very settled - he’s a humble player, not a greedy player, not confrontational in the manner that he and his agent negotiate. He thinks a lot about his work-life balance, and he’s very happy at Chelsea, likes life in London, and that’s all going to help Chelsea. He’s also very invested in this new project and being a leader within it, so that all adds up now to the player being willing to accept a new deal on a smaller wage. This is all very helpful to Chelsea, because they want him to re-sign, and it’s a shame in many ways that he’s injured at the moment, because the best way to get the deal he wants is to be fit and playing and integral, but it’s all moving in a positive direction, so it wouldn’t surprise me now if an extension was agreed after the January transfer window closes.

With Jorginho it’s a slightly different matter, because although his agent says the priority is to renew with Chelsea, there is a feeling within the club that he may leave and that a return to Napoli is not impossible. Although it might seem sensible to keep both Jorginho and Kante, because they’ve got injuries and haven’t yet signed someone yet in that area, the ownership do what to reduce the wage bill and the average age of the squad. Even if it doesn’t happen in the net few days, the club do expect to add a couple more midfielders, which may mean it becomes in the interest of all parties to lose Jorginho. That is a reflection, I suppose, of the forward planning of the club ahead of the summer, as opposed to judging the situation only now, because of course based on what’s happening now - Jorginho’s playing, he’s got the captain’s armband, and you could make the argument that letting him go in the summer would be unwise, but in the summer Chelsea’s midfield is going to look a whole lot different, so if Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo arrive, then there comes a scenario when Jorginho falls down the pecking order, having renewed on high wages in his 30s, and with the club having already done the same with Kante, then it might be a little counter-productive to the direction the ownership want to move in. So it could help if there was some indication or Jorginho being willing to bend on the wages and length of contract, but at the moment that situation is not looking as positive as with Kante.

 

[Gundalf 804]

3 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Yes, was Wolves most expensive buy for 45 million pounds.

60 million asking price isnt that much then.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

1 minute ago, Gundalf said:

60 million asking price isnt that much then.

He really has not been the player everyone thought he would be....yet. He may need more time to find his way in the PL. I think 60M pounds is starter money.

[Gundalf 804]

4 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

He really has not been the player everyone thought he would be....yet. He may need more time to find his way in the PL. I think 60M pounds is starter money.

Is he so much worse than 100m Caicedo?

Edited January 25, 2023 by Gundalf

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

2 minutes ago, Gundalf said:

Is he so much worse than 100m Caicedo?

As much as we need a midfielder, I have moved to the camp that is saying limp through the season with what we have, give some youth some minutes, and go after the midfield in the summer. At some point, even with the super long contracts, we will hit the FFP tipping point.

[Pizy 18,368]

Thought Nunes was very impressive when he first got to Wolves but haven’t really heard much about him since. Liverpool fans seem to be happy they’re being linked with him so I guess he has continued to look good? 

[TheHulk 1,855]

 

[TheHulk 1,855]

16 hours ago, Vesper said:

We are under NO obligation to pay their taxes. If that was the case Neymar to PSG would have been around €300m. If we pay them 120m euros and Enzo agrees to terms, no way can Benfica block it. They would be instantly in contractual violation and would get crushed in court.

I read somewhere that it doesn't make sense to activate the buyout clause for either Chelsea or Benfica because they lose more money with taxes than if they agreed a fee. Rui Costa is a cunt and Todd really fucked up pissing him off with that lowball.

[milka 3,346]

this guy seems like a much more realistic target than Enzo and Caicedo  right now

 

[Pizy 18,368]

6 minutes ago, milka said:

this guy seems like a much more realistic target than Enzo and Caicedo  right now

 

I guess you could consider him an alternative to Caicedo. But he’s not really anything like Enzo in terms of playing style.