Chelsea Transfers

[Hashishi 148]

8 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

We are in for EVERYONE with Boehly! 😅

All we get is dregs though. I fully expect Gvardiol to reject us now for Real or City in the summer.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,809]

25 minutes ago, Hashishi said:

All we get is dregs though. I fully expect Gvardiol to reject us now for Real or City in the summer.

From a player's perspective, that would be the best choices. You are gambling that Chelsea will get to be league champs in the next few years.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,809]

 

[Superblue 6,372]

20 hours ago, Vesper said:

and that Messi move was one thing out of hundreds of other interaction all WC long, Gvardiol was immense in all games, and even Beckenbauer and Maldini got spun the wrong way many times

 

Maldini met his match the day he came up against Dennis Wise!

[Hashishi 148]

1 hour ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

Don't think we should go for this. He's been playing in a farmers league for too long. 75m is waaay too much for someone of his calibre.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

3 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

This is so stupid. Just like Rom he is still the exact same player we sold for significantly less. We really don't learn do we.

[LAM09 7,043]

12 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Would have been fine if he was up to it as a footballer. It wasn't his talk that was the problem. 🙂 DDF is streets ahead of Rom technically so he already looks to me like someone who should be able to walk his talk better than Rom ever could.

I like DDF, and will be delighted if we bring him in. Adding the Russian lad would make it a pleasing, and very encouraging, window. Encouraging in that we'd be getting the right level of prospect, at the right end of the market. The end of the market where some instances of failure must be expected, but where failures are not financially ruinous, and where success is automatically a jackpot.

I recall Lukaku doing well in Belgium and then having a promising loan spell at WBA. I'm not going to say anything about a player I don't have any clue about, but the former delivered to an extent despite his technical flaws. 

As I've previously stated, the direction is a pleasing one & one that arguably proved most successful in terms of incomings a decade or so ago. However, both appear to be options for a few years down the road rather than ones that could seemingly break through by next summer.

[Tomo 21,751]

27 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

I recall Lukaku doing well in Belgium and then having a promising loan spell at WBA. I'm not going to say anything about a player I don't have any clue about, but the former delivered to an extent despite his technical flaws. 

As I've previously stated, the direction is a pleasing one & one that arguably proved most successful in terms of incomings a decade or so ago. However, both appear to be options for a few years down the road rather than ones that could seemingly break through by next summer.

It's quite funny (in a bad way) that the one time signing Lukaku would have made some sort of sense we missed out and the two times it made no sense whatsoever we signed him. Although that said he would have been quickly out of the door once Sarri arrived.

I'm convinced that tour of Stamford Bridge was a stunt and he wasn't even a Chelsea fan and unfortunately we fell for it twice.

[Pizy 18,888]

The strikers we’re being linked to are all so hugely underwhelming. Couple of teenagers in Moukoko and Fofana who are 100% not ready to be majore contributors at a top club and Tammy who is pretty bang average for a massive fee after we let him leave once before.

There’s not a ready made, mid-twenties forward who we can target? 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,809]

26 minutes ago, Pizy said:

The strikers we’re being linked to are all so hugely underwhelming. Couple of teenagers in Moukoko and Fofana who are 100% not ready to be majore contributors at a top club and Tammy who is pretty bang average for a massive fee after we let him leave once before.

There’s not a ready made, mid-twenties forward who we can target? 

Dušan Vlahović age 22

[ZAPHOD2319 4,809]

 

[LAM09 7,043]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

It's quite funny (in a bad way) that the one time signing Lukaku would have made some sort of sense we missed out and the two times it made no sense whatsoever we signed him. Although that said he would have been quickly out of the door once Sarri arrived.

I'm convinced that tour of Stamford Bridge was a stunt and he wasn't even a Chelsea fan and unfortunately we fell for it twice.

That's a common trend at this club, especially when it comes to CFs. Buy them at the wrong time and expect big things from them. 

There are so many bad habits that I hope disappear under new ownership. I'm also under no illusion that those bad habits won't be replaced by new ones.

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

The strikers we’re being linked to are all so hugely underwhelming. Couple of teenagers in Moukoko and Fofana who are 100% not ready to be majore contributors at a top club and Tammy who is pretty bang average for a massive fee after we let him leave once before.

There’s not a ready made, mid-twenties forward who we can target? 

Osimhen (24 in a matter of days). It isn't hard to narrow it down.

[Hashishi 148]

1 hour ago, LAM09 said:

That's a common trend at this club, especially when it comes to CFs. Buy them at the wrong time and expect big things from them. 

There are so many bad habits that I hope disappear under new ownership. I'm also under no illusion that those bad habits won't be replaced by new ones.

Osimhen (24 in a matter of days). It isn't hard to narrow it down.

Osimhen would cost a fortune though. I fully expect another auba level striker to join next month.

[OhForAGreavsie 6,070]

4 hours ago, LAM09 said:

I recall Lukaku doing well in Belgium and then having a promising loan spell at WBA. I'm not going to say anything about a player I don't have any clue about, but the former delivered to an extent despite his technical flaws. 

As I've previously stated, the direction is a pleasing one & one that arguably proved most successful in terms of incomings a decade or so ago. However, both appear to be options for a few years down the road rather than ones that could seemingly break through by next summer.

Rom never delivered for Chelsea, did not deliver to a satisfactory standard for ManU, and would not have delivered for us if we had been unfortunate enough to re-sign him from Everton. He has never shown anything to contradict my autumn 2011 prediction that he would never be good enough for Chelsea. I made that prediction based on my assessment of his technical level and my conviction that a player's output will, ultimately, be tethered to his technical level. Form fluctuates, but it fluctuates around a footballer's basic level.

This conviction also allowed me to correctly predict that, sooner or later, Torres would fail at Liverpool and, of course, that he would fail at Chelsea. As I argued since before he joined Liverpool, Nando was an ordinary footballer whose purple patch must ultimately collapse to its true level as set by his talent, or lack of it. You are 100% correct to caution against overestimating DDF, a player few of us know anything about. The one thing I feel able to assess is that his technical level is higher than Rom's and so he at least has a chance, which I maintain Rom never did.

I do want us to sign DDF if it's for the fee reported. That's the kind of money which should be paid for a player who is no more than a prospect. If we get him one of his biggest challenges will be in his head. Moving to a stronger league he will obviously find it harder to produce but, where he is now, he knows where he stands in the pecking order. Once in England however, he will find himself lower down and that will affect his confidence. Confidence plays a big part in what a player tries to do, never mind what he actually can do. If he arrives we'll see how he copes with that knock.

Edited December 16, 2022 by OhForAGreavsie

[LAM09 7,043]

2 hours ago, Hashishi said:

Osimhen would cost a fortune though. I fully expect another auba level striker to join next month.

We're more than willing to spend £100m plus on Leao or Gvardiol.

The last thing we need is another stop-gap.

2 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Rom never delivered for Chelsea, did not deliver to a satisfactory standard for ManU, and would not have delivered for us if we had been unfortunate enough to re-sign him from Everton. He has never shown anything to contradict my autumn 2011 prediction that he would never be good enough for Chelsea. I made that prediction based on my assessment of his technical level and my conviction that a player's output will, ultimately, be tethered to his technical level. Form fluctuates, but it fluctuates around a footballer's basic level.

This conviction also allowed me to correctly predict that, sooner or later, Torres would fail at Liverpool and, of course, that he would fail at Chelsea. As I argued since before he joined Liverpool, Nando was an ordinary footballer whose purple patch must ultimately collapse to its true level as set by his talent, or lack of it. You are 100% correct to caution against overestimating DDF, a player few of us know anything about. The one thing I feel able to assess is that his technical level is higher than Rom's and so he at least has a chance, which I maintain Rom never did.

I do want us to sign DDF if it's for the fee reported. That's the kind of money which should be paid for a player who is no more than a prospect. If we get him one of his biggest challenges will be in his head. Moving to a stronger league he will obviously find it harder to produce but, where he is now, he knows where he stands in the pecking order. Once in England however, he will find himself lower down and that will affect his confidence. Confidence plays a big part in what a player tries to do, never mind what he actually can do. If he arrives we'll see how he copes with that knock.

Neither did Salah or De Bruyne. This narrative of players not delivering for us really needs to stop at this point, as none of them were giving a fair crack of the whip. Both players have gone on to become the best the league has to offer, and we lost out on them because of managers. There's nothing more to be said about it. Lukaku's issue has always been his ego. He was a big fish in a small pond in Belgium along with the likes of Defour & Witsel, and none of those players managed to live up to their potential. 

I can't agree with your thoughts about Torres; he had everything needed to be a top CF but heavily relied on his ability to burst past someone (just look at his montage against Vidic, who some believe to be the best CB to every play in the league). The moment he got seriously injured at Liverpool, he lost that edge, and as a result, his confidence was shot. Roman, Ancelotti, or whoever it was still went ahead and spent a record fee on someone living off a reputation. That's the biggest worry I have as well. More players than I can name have been gifted with talent but couldn't handle the pressure of being away from their families, adapting to different surroundings, or the struggle of having to fight for a place.

These sorts of signings have to be more than just gambles that will at the very least return a small profit should things turn sour, which has been the story of almost every youth player we've signed since the Belgian trio & Salah. Just look at Real Madrid; they've gotten a lot of flak for their lavish spending on players who can't even legally buy a drink yet, even though there's a purpose behind their thinking - the first team.

Edit - Just to clarify, I'm not saying we should follow RM's strategy with regards to spending stupid money on kids. We should rather be going after players who could make the jump to the first team from the get-go. A name that comes to mind is Kvaratskhelia.

@Vesper pointed him out as a potential option before most of Europe even knew about him.

Edited December 17, 2022 by LAM09