Chelsea Transfers

[shrenshah 186]

Why is madrid selling reguilon for a mere 20mn euro
Is he not good or are madrid so cashstrapped

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[Blues Forever 1,232]

44 minutes ago, shrenshah said:

Why is madrid selling reguilon for a mere 20mn euro
Is he not good or are madrid so cashstrapped

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Doubt Madrid would sell him for that price, i think €30m - €40m is more likely.

[Puliiszola 519]

1 hour ago, Blues Forever said:

Doubt Madrid would sell him for that price, i think €30m - €40m is more likely.

Rumored price if 20-25m euros.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

1 hour ago, Puliiszola said:

Rumored price if 20-25m euros.

Seriously doubt Madrid want to sell Reguilon for that price. 

[Styl1994 188]

Signings I would be happy with for rest of the window 

Onana 

Reguilon 

Rice 

Havertz 

Benrahma

Foster 

[coolhead23 1,146]

Decent Analysis on Onana 

Had the same concern on his decision making ability and not sold on him being a ball playing goalie. Biggest issue from this video is that he parries the ball in such a way that it remains in dangerous play. However i do feel he is a solid upgrade at the cost he is available 

[Puliiszola 519]

7 hours ago, King Kante said:

Everyone says sell the following: 

Batsh*t, Barkley, Emerson, Kepa, Drinky, Baka, AC, Zappa and Baba

And then you have a mixture of people who say sell: 

Jorgi, Alonso, Zouma, Rudi and Kante

The problem however is wages, with the exception of Emerson (reported £40k a week) and Zouma all of those players are on wages way too high for their ability. 

For me, we have four categories that these players fall into: 

Cat 1 - Have a decent market 

Emerson - His wages are cheap enough for most top 6 Italian sides 

Zouma - Has enough cred in the bag from his previous loans to be able to sell

Barkley - A bit of a push due to £100k a week wages, but due to his nationality and physical strength may just be able to convince someone

Cat 2 - Absolutely no chance we will find a buyer

Kepa - £170k a week makes him a top 10 paid GK in the world. Plus he was brought for £72m. At best we may find a loan where we have to pay his wages.

Drinky - No explanation needed. Likely to have either alcohol problems and/or mental health problems. 

Baba - Reportedly on £60k a week. Chronic injury problems. 

Zappa - I actually think he is an ok player. However, high wage (£70k a week) plus ACL injury means he is a no go for anyone. 

Cat 3 - Very small market 

AC - Will not be wanted by any PL team. Earns £70k+. Rated at £30m+ by club. Only team that may still rate him in that region (at a push) is Gladbach. 

Kante - Had bad injuries for a year now. Very high earner (£150-£300k depending on what source you want to believe) only market is PSG as the other top 5 European clubs do not want him/or do not have the finances this year. 

Jorgi - Would have to go back to Italy, unless Pep still wants him. Only clubs that he would fit are Juve and Napoli. Napoli do not have the finances after buying. Juve have too many midfielders on high wages. 

Alonso - Inter are the only team where he would make sense. They have already laid out a sizable amount on a RBand seem to insanely being giving Utd a reprieveon Sanchez. Seem to not being getting Martinez money this Summer. 

Cat 4 - The players have unrealistic views on their ability level and who they should be playing for. 

Batsh*t - Seems to think a team like WHU are beneath him so that rules out mid table PL sides. Also refuses to go back to Belgium (from reports.) High wage of £110k will not be provided outside of England. 

Baka - Apparently only wants Milan. Milan do not have the cash to pay him £110k a week. Also, fee would be prohibitive for them, hence way they past last Summer. 

Rudi - Seems to be someone very happy to be at Chelsea. Cannot see him moving anywhere unless it is someone of a similar level or higher. Not going to happen. 

That for me, means the only ones that we may be able to shift are: 

Emerson, Barkley and Zouma (however, he isn't really a CB that is first in line to be culled.) 

Then we have outside chances of: Kante (losing him is a risk owing to the make up of our side), Jorgi, AC (if Gladbach have cash or are willing to swap a player) and Alonso (if Inter have more cash that what it appears.)

The rest I think we are lumbered with, with our best hope being a loan. Those in Cat 2 are pretty much a drag on finances as at best they will be loaned with subsidised wages. 

There are 2 reasons why a team wants to sell a player: 

1. Raise funds for incoming player

2. Get the wages and amortized values of players off the financial books

 

Lets take zappacosta for example, a classic case of option 2 (where we just need him off the books). 

Out of his 25mil euro fee:

17/18: Amortization: 6.25mil

18/19: Amortization: 6.25mil

19/20: Amortization: 4.2mil (Since he signed a contract extension of 1 year hence the change in amortization value)

So basically we have 8.4mil euros of value left of him on our books. If we sell him for 10-15mil this window.

10-15mil euros for zappa, will be a very good buy for most italian sides. And i dont think we would have any problem finding a suitor for most of our players. Only issue will be finding suitors for the likes of Kante who seems to be sell for the money type players.  

[King Kante 1,450]

4 hours ago, Puliiszola said:

There are 2 reasons why a team wants to sell a player: 

1. Raise funds for incoming player

2. Get the wages and amortized values of players off the financial books

 

Lets take zappacosta for example, a classic case of option 2 (where we just need him off the books). 

Out of his 25mil euro fee:

17/18: Amortization: 6.25mil

18/19: Amortization: 6.25mil

19/20: Amortization: 4.2mil (Since he signed a contract extension of 1 year hence the change in amortization value)

So basically we have 8.4mil euros of value left of him on our books. If we sell him for 10-15mil this window.

10-15mil euros for zappa, will be a very good buy for most italian sides. And i dont think we would have any problem finding a suitor for most of our players. Only issue will be finding suitors for the likes of Kante who seems to be sell for the money type players.  

This is all well and good but the problem is that Zappa earns £70k a week, the book value is relevant as we need him to either agree a serious wage cut or find someone willing to take on those wages. Further, you say €10-€15m is good value for an Italian team. First, Roma do not seem to think so, which is why they are sending him back. Second, after them, you only have around 5 clubs that could afford that and none of them need him. 

[DANILA 290]

17 hours ago, Jason said:

Huh? There's no danger whatsoever with the HG or non-HG quota.

Doesn't matter, it still is net positive on that front. If it comes down to 50/50 selling Barkley or Jorginho, the latter is more likely to be sold all else equal

[Jase 43,479]

39 minutes ago, DANILA said:

Doesn't matter, it still is net positive on that front. If it comes down to 50/50 selling Barkley or Jorginho, the latter is more likely to be sold all else equal

But where is the market for Jorginho? If Sarri gets sacked by Juventus, then I doubt they would want him but even if he doesn't get sacked, will Juventus want to spend big money on Jorginho in this current situation? Other than Juventus, I can't see any other Italian club wanting him or able to afford him. Moreover, Jorginho still has 3 years left on his contract, meaning it is likely that Marina will want to recoup around the same money we spent on him - 50-60 million. Again, who is willing to pay that right now? With Barkley, there is the English market and for better or for worse, English clubs are more likely to spend on English players and given how cheap we got Barkley, Marina will probably be happy if we can get like 20-30 million for him. Heck, if we're lucky, we might even be able to use him in exchange to sign Rice from West Ham. 

[King Kante 1,450]

52 minutes ago, Jason said:

But where is the market for Jorginho? If Sarri gets sacked by Juventus, then I doubt they would want him but even if he doesn't get sacked, will Juventus want to spend big money on Jorginho in this current situation? Other than Juventus, I can't see any other Italian club wanting him or able to afford him. Moreover, Jorginho still has 3 years left on his contract, meaning it is likely that Marina will want to recoup around the same money we spent on him - 50-60 million. Again, who is willing to pay that right now? With Barkley, there is the English market and for better or for worse, English clubs are more likely to spend on English players and given how cheap we got Barkley, Marina will probably be happy if we can get like 20-30 million for him. Heck, if we're lucky, we might even be able to use him in exchange to sign Rice from West Ham. 

Yeah, this is exactly the problem. At the moment, there appears to be very little movement in the market outside of the top PL teams and possibly PSG. Real, Barca, Bayern (who look to be happy with Sane), Juve etc, aren't buying and if anything are also looking to clear the decks also. I think some PL teams will come to the market due to their finances but the problem with a lot of our players is that their wages are too high for their ability level. 

At the moment, people like Barkley probably still do have a market owing to the English premium but outside of that, and possibly Emerson and Zouma who are on a reasonable wages for their ability, it is going to tough. Further, with the restrictions on loan players over 22, that further hampers us as we are restricted to 6 players out I believe. 

As for Jorgi, as you say Juve are his only destination but Sarri is on thin ice. If they go out to Lyon, I reckon it is curtains for him. Then, even if he somehow pulls off a run to the final or something, Juve are already overloaded at CM with some crazy earners themselves and they have just got Melo. 

Imo, we are in a tough spot when it comes to selling the dregs as even if we go crazily low on fees as most of the players are not getting their wages that they get here.

An example of this is Frazier. He is currently on a free after his contract at Bournemouth expires and was expecting £100k a week as there is no fee. Palace are saying £55k and that is it. 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[shrenshah 186]

9 hours ago, coolhead23 said:

Decent Analysis on Onana 

Had the same concern on his decision making ability and not sold on him being a ball playing goalie. Biggest issue from this video is that he parries the ball in such a way that it remains in dangerous play. However i do feel he is a solid upgrade at the cost he is available 

Better way to judge will be to see all the goals conceded by Ajax and whether Onana could have prevented them or was at fault in them

[shrenshah 186]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Cannot allow a buyback clause if we buy him. We are not a club who develops players for others. We make other clubs develop players for us

[kellzfresh 7,227]

On 04/08/2020 at 5:21 PM, NikkiCFC said:

 

Wow, he's better in almost every category. And signing him for 25mil will leave so much space for other players.... This is a no brainer really 

[Vesper 28,307]

Bennacer interview: the player Arsenal let go who is making Milan midfield tick

https://theathletic.com/1970663/2020/08/04/bennacer-exclusive-ac-milan-arsenal-pirlo/

When AC Milan gave Andrea Pirlo a Cartier pen as a leaving present, he was told: “For goodness sake, don’t use it to sign for Juventus.”

After 10 years at the club, the coolest footballer in history twirled it around his fingers, affronted by the lavish gift. Still in shock, il Maestro didn’t listen and soon afterwards was pictured leaning over a thick contract booklet, poised to scribble his name on a piece of paper bearing a Juventus letterhead.

“I’ll never say which pen I used,” he winked in his biography.

Since then, the director’s chair otherwise known as the role of regista in the lexicon of calcio has been every bit as cursed at Milan as the wearer of their No 9 jersey in the wake of Pippo Inzaghi’s 2012 retirement. It has passed from player to player without anyone making it his own in a convincing manner. Dutch duo Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong were demolition men, not architects like Pirlo. As for Riccardo Montolivo and Lucas Biglia, the pair of them suffered with injury not to mention a close association with the team’s decline.

The standard Pirlo set remains outlandishly high, unmatchable perhaps. But almost a decade after he hopped on the Frecciarossa train from Milano Centrale to Torino Porta Nuova, Milan now have a player willing to take on the mantle and step into his boots. “I like everything about this role, because you’re at the heart of everything,” Ismael Bennacer tells The Athletic. An ECG would show Milan pulsing to the 22-year-old’s beat — his team’s play murmuring, fluttering and racing depending on the tempo of his passing.

“It’s my second year playing in Italy as a regista,” the former Arsenal Under-23s midfielder explains, “I’m still working at it. I think I’m improving. I’m definitely learning a lot.” Bennacer comes across as studious. He pays close attention to other players with the same vocation operating at elite clubs across Europe. “I watch a lot of (Paris Saint-Germain’s) Marco Verratti,” he says, “and Thiago Alcantara (of Bayern Munich) too. Thiago’s so, so good.”

Magnets to the ball and, as such, the pressing game of their opponent, deep-lying playmakers figure as the centre of gravity for their team and the match in general. Harass them. Force them into mistakes. Stop them and you shut down their team, or so the thinking goes. The role invites a lot of pressure and requires great responsibility. “I have to give the ball away as little as possible,” Bennacer says. “Zero. To do that, I have to be concentrated whenever I get the ball. I’ve always got to be in the zone. I have to read the game. I need to look first and look early. I do all that already but I have got to get even better at it.”

Listening to him make those observations, it’s hard not to think about Verratti, whose nickname il Gufetto — “Little Owl” — really captures the image of him swivelling his head around to check the passing options available to him. The diminutive Italian compares the role to that of a tight-rope walker who, on account of modern football’s trend of splitting centre-backs, can’t always rely on a safety net being there to catch a mistake.

In true Verratti style, Bennacer picked up 14 yellow cards in Serie A this season, a figure “bettered” only by Roma’s aggressive centre-back Gianluca Mancini. The need for greater care in his game was starkest early in the campaign, when he gave away a couple of penalties in a 3-1 home defeat to Fiorentina. However, don’t labour under the misapprehension he is some kind of Algerian Paul Scholes, leaping into challenges with poor timing. On the contrary, the reason Milan coach Stefano Pioli rates Bennacer as a “complete” midfielder is precisely because of his rare ability as a filter and ball-winner.

Deep-lying playmakers tend to be thought of as passers and passers alone, and while it’s true the metrics from StatsBomb show Bennacer has the highest xG build-up at Milan and makes more open play passes per 90 than anyone else at the club, the interdiction and hustle he brings are every bit as important to the balance of the team. He interprets his role as “defending, getting on the ball, helping the team impose itself on our opponents and putting a shift in”.

Milan signed Bennacer last August for a reported €16 million on the back of a second season at Empoli in which he made the most recoveries in Serie A. This season, only Lazio’s Lucas Leiva has averaged more tackles and interceptions per 90 among players in the same position and Bennacer is up there with Atalanta’s energetic Swiss international Remo Freuler for pressure regains and counter pressures. In essence, he carries the water and serves out the champagne simultaneously.

“Even though I’m not playing high up the pitch, I could do to be more decisive,” Bennacer admits, aware that one goal all league season is not enough for a midfielder playing 31 games for a club with the ambitions of Milan. Bennacer isn’t blessed with the free-kick-taking ability of Pirlo or contemporaries in his position such as Miralem Pjanic. He doesn’t have to be though. At Milan, he can leave that stuff to Hakan Calhanoglu or Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Taken under Ibrahimovic’s wing since the Swede rejoined the club as a free agent in January, Bennacer claims to have benefited from working in his orbit, although the switch to a two-man tandem in midfield over the winter has enabled him to flourish too. “I feel a little bit freer,” he says. Ibrahimovic has, to some extent, taken the attention and pressure away from Milan’s young players, which has, in turn, allowed them to grow and come into their own. The level of competition has risen at the Milanello training ground as well. “He demands perfection,” Bennacer says. “Always. You can’t make mistakes when Zlatan’s around. He makes you a better player. That’s how we all think about it anyway.”

The 38-year-old ended the season on a high, and Milan’s record since he jetted in from Los Angeles via his homeland is the second-best in the league behind only Atalanta. A goal in the weekend’s season finale against Cagliari made Ibrahimovic the oldest player to ever hit double figures in Serie A (to go with his five assists) and optimism around him being at San Siro again next season is percolating as contract talks intensify.

“When he asks for the ball, I don’t pass it to him, otherwise he’ll have more touches than me,” Bennacer jokes, displaying some of the pluck Ibrahimovic has brought out of his team-mates. “I’m kidding. When you’ve got a player like him on the pitch, you look to get him the ball as quickly as possible even if there’s another solution on. We’re on the same wavelength. I get the ball to him so he can then do what he wants. I look for him a lot.”

As Bennacer heads off on a brief vacation before Milan reconvene for the Europa League qualifiers in September, he has a chance to look over his shoulder and reflect on how far he has come over the last 12 months. Initially, Bennacer was supposed to follow his coach Aurelio Andreazzoli to Genoa after Empoli suffered what felt like an unjust relegation last summer.

Milan were waiting in the wings, however, having been impressed by his poise on Empoli’s visit to San Siro. How players handle the pressure at the Meazza is a valuable indicator of a player’s suitability for both Milan clubs. All too often the bright lights can be overwhelming, but Bennacer is unfazed. “It’s demanding but I like it. I like the crowds, the pressure.”

While playing in front of 75,000 as he did in the Derby della Madonnina is far from a walk in the Parco Sempione, the French-born midfielder got a taste of what it’s like to have a heavy burden of expectation on his shoulders at last summer’s Africa Cup of Nations. “It was the sweetest moment of my career,” Bennacer smiles. Relatively new to the Algeria set-up, he took the team by the scruff of the neck and was named Player of the Tournament as they lifted the trophy, beating team-mate Riyad Mahrez and other big names including Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Kalidou Koulibaly to that honour.

Watching video of Algeria’s triumphant return from Egypt last July, the crowds are the first thing that strike you. They are gloriously pre-pandemic. Raucous celebrations, honking horns, the smell of cordite from let-off flares. “We hadn’t won the Cup of Nations in 29 years,” Bennacer says. “It was only the second time too. There were five million people on the streets. The population of Algiers, the capital, is three million, but there were five million people on the streets. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

Tracking Bennacer’s ascent, one wonders if there are any regrets at Arsenal, like there have been watching Serge Gnabry thrive in Germany, where the winger leapt from Werder Bremen via Hoffenheim to Bayern Munich. Allowed to go to Empoli in 2017 for just €900,000, Bennacer insists he holds no grudges against his English club. “I had three years left on my deal,” he says, “but I wanted to play and besides, they weren’t against my sale, so I left.”

Arsenal didn’t want to stand in the way of someone who is remembered at London Colney as a reliable professional. His size wasn’t determined a barrier to the first team either, given other players of similar height, such as Santi Cazorla, have managed to establish themselves at the Emirates over the years.

Figuratively, Bennacer has grown in stature since departing England.

Presumably, he didn’t receive a Cartier pen the way Pirlo did as a leaving gift but watching this young and vibrant Milan side, his signature is all over it.

[Vesper 28,307]

24 minutes ago, kellzfresh said:

Wow, he's better in almost every category. And signing him for 25mil will leave so much space for other players.... This is a no brainer really 

same size too, basically

and I saw he was £18m or so

[kellzfresh 7,227]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

same size too, basically

and I say he was £18m or so

Wow he looks smaller, I didn't even know that. We need to drop the chillwell interest