Chelsea Transfers

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

No chance. Real Madrid will surely have learned their lesson from 2003 in selling their only recognisable DM. 

Valverde also untouchable. 

[TheHulk 1,855]

 

[Duppy Conqueror 1,494]

1 hour ago, Gundalf said:

Just came back from a 4 days holiday with barely no WIFI. My latest news was that Liverpool will prepare a bid for Caicedo on thursday. So today I looked at the newest transfer list on transfermarkt and didnt see Caicedo listed so I thought that Pool wasnt serious after all and that we are still negotiating. 

It was VERY entertaining to read thru the last 50 pages in this thread. All the up and downs, all the drama and mood swings in here. From "its over" to "here we go" - I was well entertained 🤣

I was on holiday in Mayrhofen during the first summer transfer window of Roman..each morning going to pick up whatever british papers i could find,that were a day or two old..i remember we signed Duff the day we took a day trip to the Eagles nest in Bavaria. I found out whilst smoking a joint in the small outside area/garden of it.

[milka 3,344]

 

[Mhsc 876]

BTW honestly don't think Brighton deserve any hate for the way they've handled this whole situation, the fans admittedly have been obnoxious and kind of naive / stupid throughout but the club itself did what it had to do to get the right deal for them, fair play TBH. I would still do business with them in the future. Just have to hope that players who go there insist on buy out clauses to make it less painful.

[Vesper 28,772]

Saudi riches have backed Liverpool into a corner – as failed Caicedo bid shows

The Saudi Pro League’s effect on the English game has played havoc with squad planning and the Merseyside club have felt it more than most

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/08/14/liverpool-caicedo-Chelsea-transfers-saudi-pro-league-deals/

It may be some time before Liverpool bid £111 million for a player again, although they will surely never take the decision to do so in as short a timeframe as they did this week when their attempt to hijack Moises Caicedo’s long-trailed transfer to Chelsea was launched.

The move ignored most of the usual rules that governed the club’s careful transfer policy that helped build Jurgen Klopp’s Champions League and Premier League winning teams over the last eight years. The disruptive power of the Saudi Pro League’s effect on the English game was the prime mover. With Jordan Henderson – and most crucially Fabinho – gone so abruptly, suddenly Liverpool found themselves under pressure to sign a No 6 and to get the deal done urgently.

When Liverpool began to negotiate with Brighton for Caicedo this week there had been no significant back channel contact with the player or his representatives. It left little room for success but the gamble was considered worth it and the club made all the usual efforts to convince Caicedo and his representatives to negotiate. Even in failure, it did at least have one advantage: the price paid to Brighton by Chelsea will be significantly higher.

Behdad Eghbali, the Clearlake Capital representative in the consortium that owns Chelsea, personally oversaw the completion of the £115 million deal for the 21-year-old over the course of Saturday. Chelsea had got their man and once again they had broken the British transfer record for a midfielder. Liverpool’s late intervention, revealed by Telegraph Sport on Thursday, had ended in failure.

The game waits to see whether Chelsea will also be able to sign Romeo Lavia ahead of Liverpool as well. Liverpool have had three bids rejected for the Southampton midfielder, and it was Chelsea’s £55 million offer for the Belgian that coincided this week with the decision by the Merseyside club to go for Caicedo. It remains to be seen whether Chelsea continue with the Lavia bid now.

This was not how Liverpool had planned it. They began the summer with one key goal: to sign a pair of versatile No 8 midfielders. Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai were signed relatively quickly for £35 million and £60 million respectively. Both fees were dictated by the release clauses at their clubs, Brighton and RB Leipzig, which made those deals easier to complete.

Liverpool went up against Manchester United for Mac Allister and won. United turned their focus on Mason Mount, another who had interested Liverpool, who ultimately cost more. Earlier in the year, Liverpool’s long pursuit of Jude Bellingham came to an end when the player made clear that he would be joining Real Madrid over all other suitors. Until the intervention of the Saudi Pro League and the departure of Fabinho in particular, Liverpool had been satisfied with their trading.

 

Now they find themselves forced to make decisions as swiftly as possible on deals bigger than ever before. There has been much change in the club’s recruitment department in the last two years with the architect of Klopp’s most successful teams, Michael Edwards, having departed and his anointed successor as technical director Julian Ward leaving just 12 months later. Others within the department have gone too. The most recent incumbent, Jorg Schmadtke, has been thrust in at a time when the club have been forced out of their usual rhythm.

In their most successful years, Liverpool pursued their targets much more leisurely and often – in the case of Virgil van Dijk – came back in a subsequent window to close the deal. The Saudi deals have offered the chance to earn fees on players that were never projected to do so – but they have also played havoc with squad planning.

“Do we go for quantity or quality?” Klopp asked rhetorically on Friday. “The only chance we really had was to go for quality and then we have to stretch things.” With the recent departures, much more responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott and crucially that No 6 role will have to be filled. Their squad should have been all but complete by now, although as the last few weeks have demonstrated – nothing is certain.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

£60m for Lavia? Southampton can get fucked. Let him go to Liverpool for that, be daft to even entertain paying that after spending £115m on Caicedo.

[lucio 5,418]

4 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

£60m for Lavia? Southampton can get fucked. Let him go to Liverpool for that, be daft to even entertain paying that after spending £115m on Caicedo.

thats just todays market , random teenagers who have never set foot in europe cost 20m. Getting another midfielders of lavias ability will cost around the same most likely anyway

[Fernando 6,453]

Yeah for 60 million I don't know. 

We should just let that go. They made us overpaid for Caicedo and we make them overpay for Lavia. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

And extra 60 million gives us the best midfield in the league.......

[Gundalf 804]

As long as we dont break any FFP rules, we can spend all the money that is available, I dont care. 

[lucio 5,418]

having 2 physical beasts in midfield was important for Poch at spurs , so it will probably be money well spent

 

[Fernando 6,453]

2 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

And extra 60 million gives us the best midfield in the league.......

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

[Gundalf 804]

I know this name was mentioned here as well. I still dont know what makes people think that he ever was available. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

10 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

Lavia is that good and he will only get better and better.

[lucio 5,418]

4 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Lavia is that good?

I wanted Caicedo badly and that's it, but is Lavia really that good that we can't get from anywhere else?

Where is @Vesper with the DM list of other top targets available? 

we could get manu kone or Thuram

but lavia probably has similar potential to them

Kone in particular looks exceptional. The gladbach owner says they want a big fee though

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

[Altezzoso 13]

1 minute ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Felix has a tweet that the owners of Liverpool flew in to cry to the league in person about Chelsea's spending. Not sure I believe it. They would have lawyers cry for them.

Johnny H was at the match yesterday so it's not entirely implausible