Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 28,853]

2 minutes ago, lucio said:

Should have signed boga for peanuts just in case this happened 

I think Boga, at this exact point in time, is a better player than CHO.

I have no idea why we do not snap him up for (like you said) peanuts

he is a fucking weapon

[Vesper 28,853]

9 minutes ago, coolhead23 said:

Seems like we will have Kepa for the the weekend game as well ... 

dog help us

[coolhead23 1,146]

Just now, Vesper said:

dog help us

Well it would only be Marina now

[Vesper 28,853]

Four centre-backs, only one place alongside Silva – so who will leave Chelsea?

https://theathletic.com/2065068/2020/09/15/chelsea-thiago-silva-kurt-zouma-andreas-christensen-fikayo-tomori-antonio-rudiger/

The arrival of Thiago Silva to Chelsea has given coach Frank Lampard a bit of a quandary: which centre-back does he let go to keep the balance and morale of the squad healthy?

As expected, Silva was not in the first XI for the opening 3-1 win away to Brighton & Hove Albion, having only begun training with his new team-mates over the weekend. But it is pretty clear the former Paris Saint-Germain captain will be a regular once fully fit, potentially from this Sunday when Liverpool are the visitors to west London. You don’t acquire a player of his ilk to leave on the sidelines.

Lampard suggested as much during an interview with NBC. “Thiago will bring us the experience of playing in winning teams and what it takes to win,” the Chelsea coach said. “I hope that he can lead from the back in terms of how he holds himself, can communicate with others around him because we have some younger players in and around him. Hopefully that will address some of those defensive problems.”

Against Brighton, Lampard went with a pairing of Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen. Both enjoyed positive performances, the former even getting on the scoresheet, and the coach described their displays as “terrific”.

But memories of last season when Chelsea conceded 54 goals — the worst record in the top half of the table — are still fresh. Silva has been brought in to make sure that record significantly improves.

Chelsea have five first-team centre-backs on their books and four of those are going to be essentially fighting over one position more often than not. Playing with a back three is a possibility of course, yet unlikely to be a regular occurrence.

The situation looked straightforward a week ago when it emerged Everton were in talks about signing Fikayo Tomori on a season-long loan. The England international was pretty keen to go to get regular first-team football and that desire may have increased after being left out of the matchday squad for the trip to Brighton.

However, as The Athletic revealed — and Lampard would go on to confirm in his pre-match press conference — Tomori could still be part of his plans this season and a final decision hasn’t been made.

Tomori was in a similar situation on the eve of the last campaign. He was set to go to Everton on loan only to be promoted to the senior ranks following David Luiz’s departure to Arsenal.

Should history repeat itself, that automatically triggers the question, who is being lined up to leave instead? The fixture list is going to be intense over the next eight months, but managers don’t like to have too many individuals around the camp not getting many minutes and the players themselves don’t particularly relish the prospect either.

If Tomori is kept on, then one has to wonder what lies in store for Antonio Rudiger, Christensen and Zouma. Despite those last two names featuring on Monday night, there is a case for any one of the trio to make way.

Chelsea have spent more than £200 million on new players and will attempt to balance the books before the window closes on October 5 by selling personnel.

With his deal expiring in 2023 and still young at 25, Zouma is believed to have been a candidate to be sold for several months simply because of the fee he could command. However, he started more games for Chelsea in the Premier League (25) than any other centre-back during Lampard’s first year at the helm and was trusted at Brighton from the outset, so it would be a surprise if he departs now.

Readers have raised the prospect that Rudiger and Christensen are particularly in jeopardy. Both have reached the significant stage of having two years left on their contract, the time when clubs most like to sell to avoid an asset depreciating in value. Just to add to the intrigue, it is understood Chelsea haven’t begun talks over an extension with either of them.

The duo struggled for consistency in 2019-20. Rudiger wasn’t helped by seeing the start to his campaign delayed by a knee injury and then suffering a groin problem on his first game back, while Christensen went two months without an appearance at club level due to a hamstring strain.

Rudiger’s reaction to being named on the bench is uncertain. But sources at the club insist he is not going anywhere, is happy at Stamford Bridge and remains relaxed about when any negotiations over his future begin.

So that means bad news for Christensen, right? That doesn’t appear to be the case either. Christensen is also content at Chelsea and is ready to fight for his place. Indeed, insiders at Stamford Bridge suggest he is enjoying working under Lampard and is excited at the prospect of playing with Silva should the opportunity arise. There is certainly no desire to leave even though clubs in Europe have been in contact.

With the transfer deadline three weeks away, neither Rudiger or Christensen have been given an indication by the club that they may have to seek pastures new.

At present, it still seems the most likely move is for Tomori to leave on loan after starting on just three occasions in 2020.

Or could all five be kept on? Silva turns 36 on September 22 and there have to be doubts over whether he can handle the pace and physicality of England’s top division every week.

For now, it appears Lampard is keeping his options open. “As we saw last year it (the defensive pairing) changed a lot,” he said. “Some of that you don’t always want because you want a consistency in who you pick, but you also have to have competition at the same time.

“The challenge to the players at the back is: can you show with your training and the way you play that you deserve to be there and give a consistent performance which means I don’t change it? Then the challenge goes to those who want to get into the team.

“That’s how you generate an uplift in levels among the squad now, when you’re bringing in players that hopefully bring the general level up as opposed to anyone taking it as a negative and thinking ‘that’s me done’. Everyone has to rise and fight for their place in the team.”

[Nero 1,838]

21 minutes ago, coolhead23 said:

Seems like we will have Kepa for the the weekend game as well ... 

[Unionjack 7,531]

Cant we please just buy another and shift one on? I wouldn't mind , honest!

[ahmedou 128]

16 hours ago, Jason said:

FFS! If I see another fella create a Mendy thread at this point, am gonna kick the fella's arse out of here... 

FFS! If I see a Kepa thread at this point, am gonna kick the fella's arse out of here...

[Vesper 28,853]

West Ham determined to keep Rice and add full-backs

https://theathletic.com/2062767/2020/09/14/ornstein-danny-rose-tottenham-west-ham-alex-morgan/

It was a disappointing start to the new season for West Ham as they were beaten at home by Newcastle, while speculation continues to mount over the future of midfielder Declan Rice.

Rice has been heavily linked with a transfer to Chelsea and their manager Frank Lampard is a firm admirer of the 21-year-old England international, whose contract runs until 2024. As my colleagues at The Athletic Simon Johnson and Liam Twomey have reported, Lampard is known to be keen on converting Rice into a centre-back, although there are reservations among some at Stamford Bridge over the potential cost of re-signing a player Chelsea saw fit to release from their academy at the age of 14.

The stance of West Ham’s hierarchy is that Rice is not for sale under any circumstances and although they are aware of Chelsea’s advances, sources close to club insist a move away from the London Stadium will not happen in this transfer window.

Following the controversial sale of youth product Grady Diangana to West Bromwich Albion, West Ham are planning to invest, and the primary focus is their defence, with targets under consideration at centre-back and both full-back positions.

Among their left-back options are said to be Chelsea’s Emerson Palmieri and Arsenal’s Sead Kolasinac, while it is thought that Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Mykola Matviyenko is another of interest.

[Vesper 28,853]

Who can blame Declan Rice if he wants to play for a better team than West Ham?

https://theathletic.com/2049640/2020/09/15/declan-rice-leave-west-ham-chelsea/

If you can forgive my lapse in judgment, I must confess I was a little slow in fully appreciating the talents of Declan Rice and understanding why there were so many people in football adamant he had all the attributes to go right to the top of his profession.

It took a while to grasp why Rice was seen as special enough to make the FA go to strenuous efforts to persuade him to abandon the Republic of Ireland, for whom he had three senior caps, and switch allegiances to the England national team.

When he started being linked with the Premier League’s elite clubs, I have to be honest and say I struggled for a while to see the attraction. Rice looked a tidy player who was neat on the ball and had plenty of potential. He was obviously a talented footballer, but did he have that little bit extra to make it to the next level?

Even when Pep Guardiola showered him with praise a couple of years ago, I wanted to see more before deciding whether it was just Pep throwing in a few easy compliments, as he sometimes does, or whether he truly meant it.

Then West Ham played at Manchester City last February, putting Rice in direct opposition to Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva and various other category-A footballers, and suddenly it became a lot easier to join all the dots.

West Ham lost 2-0 and, if you were to look through the recent history of these two clubs, nobody ought to have been surprised. They have played one another 21 times in the past decade, West Ham have won two, drawn two and lost 17. The aggregate score is 57-13 in City’s favour and I still remember one occasion in Manchester, coming towards the end of the 2010-11 season, when the result felt like such a formality that nobody from West Ham’s board even bothered to turn up.

What did it say about West Ham that the seats reserved for their directors went empty? Or that nobody apparently rang ahead to let City know they would not be attending the pre-match meal in the boardroom? The table was set, the cutlery laid, the welcome speeches prepared. But City’s directors dined alone.

David Sullivan, West Ham’s co-owner, had publicly questioned the team’s commitment a few weeks before. Yet here was a game — and it was a big game for West Ham — when he and his colleagues stayed away. They lost 2-1 and were relegated two weeks later.

After last season’s game, they were in trouble again. Yet Rice was exceptional. Even when on a pitch with some of the best midfielders in the world, he stood out. His mobility, his maturity, his reading of the game.

It was a mismatch, of course. De Bruyne scored one. Rodri got the other and completed more passes, 178, in a single match than any other player has managed since the Premier League started collecting such data in 2003. West Ham’s entire team completed 169 and looked exactly what they were: a team third from bottom of the league.

Yet, however one-sided it was, Rice never stopped showing for the ball. He played with authority and distinction. He had that little bit extra. Rice might not have had as much of the ball as he would have liked but, when he was in possession of it, he always played the right pass. He was quick to the ball, strong in the tackle and showed the kind of leadership skills that made you want to check he had just turned 21 a month earlier. He seemed affronted by the common assumption that it should be an automatic home win.

It is not too often you will see an opposition midfielder stand out this way at the Etihad Stadium, particularly when it comes to the teams in the relegation places. It felt reminiscent of seeing a young Roy Keane in the Nottingham Forest side that was relegated in Brian Clough’s final season — a footballer with so many different attributes, playing in what was ultimately a failing team.

Keane left for Manchester United after that 1992-93 season in a £3.75 million deal, a British record transfer for the time, and West Ham supporters should probably not be too surprised that Rice is being coveted by another of the clubs with authentic aspirations of challenging for the major trophies.

Chelsea want him, in short, to follow the same route that Frank Lampard took in 2001, when he was a young up-and-coming player at West Ham. That didn’t turn out too badly for Lampard — three Premier League titles, one Champions League winner’s medal, four FA Cups, one Europa League, two League Cups and over 100 England caps — and Rice could probably be forgiven if he, too, is thinking there might be greater adventures to be had away from West Ham.

Will it happen? Their manager David Moyes said recently it would cost “Bank of England money” for West Ham to sell their best player. Yet that might not automatically rule out Roman Abramovich, given the wealth of Chelsea’s owner. So the latest information from West Ham is that Rice is not available at any price. In this transfer window, anyway.

The alternative would be a spectacular own-goal for them at a time when they already seem hell-bent on trying to edge out Newcastle United as the most chaotic, grumpy, rancorous, divisive, baffling club in England’s top division. Outside the ground, there were more protests against the board before Saturday’s season-opening 2-0 loss to Newcastle. The fanbase never seems too far away from open mutiny and, plainly, one of their lingering grievances is the club’s previous when it comes to selling the better players that roll off their own production line.

Traditionally, West Ham have done business with the more powerful clubs. Paul Ince went to Manchester United, Michael Carrick to Tottenham Hotspur, Joe Cole followed Lampard to Chelsea and so on.

Now, though, the dynamic has changed. West Ham can be picked off by anybody, it seems. In Grady Diangana’s case, West Bromwich Albion. And, though Diangana might not be quite as talented as Carrick, Cole or Ince, his team-mates clearly rated him highly, judging by Mark Noble’s tweet about being “gutted, angry and sad” to see him go. Noble was speaking as the club captain, as a West Ham fan, and as the voice of the dressing room, and it struck a chord because of everything the club’s top brass had promised when they moved from Upton Park to their new stadium four years ago.

They had told us it would establish West Ham as serious challengers. They had promised it would help to attract a better quality of player and that, in turn, they could start thinking more like a big club, just as their supporters had wanted them to be. In January 2015, Sullivan was asked what he wanted from the next five years. “I’d like to see us win the Premier League and then the Champions League,” he replied. “Yes, I know it is unlikely but, again, not impossible.” It is fair to say it hasn’t quite gone as he would have hoped.

The knock-on effect for Rice is that, PR-wise, there will be uproar if West Ham let him go, too. It would leave Moyes’ team looking even more fragile, deepen the sense of anxiety around the club and create even more bad feeling towards Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady. Not even West Ham would risk that… would they?

Yet the saddest thing, perhaps, if you are a follower of West Ham is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to conjure up any plausible argument that Rice should want to stay.

This is his fourth season in West Ham’s first team and in the previous three, they have finished 13th, 10th and 16th. Their win percentage in that time is 30.4 and there have been 16 occasions in the league when they have lost by a three-, four- or five-goal margin. They are ordinary, at best.

As for the knockout competitions, it hasn’t got any better for Rice than a Carabao Cup quarter-final in his first season as a first-team player. Arsenal knocked them out with a 1-0 victory at the Emirates. Last season it was Oxford United, of League One, who walloped them 4-0 in the third round. FA Cup? West Ham have been eliminated by teams from lower divisions in each of the last three years — Wigan Athletic, AFC Wimbledon and West Brom.

Could anyone be surprised if Rice has started to think he could do better?

Even ignoring the fact Chelsea could multiply his current salary several times over, could anyone possibly blame him if he had concluded that, yes, that would be a good move? Or, to put it another way, that it would be madness to stay at West Ham when he could play for a club with real ambition, as opposed to one in a period of drift?

Just look at their transfer business, for starters. Chelsea, who beat Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 in their opening game on Monday night, have splurged around £200 million so far in this window. Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr have all arrived, but they’re not finished yet. Edouard Mendy, the Rennes goalkeeper, is likely to follow and replace Kepa Arrizabalaga, who failed to convince again last night. Abramovich had a period when he no longer seemed quite so enthused about keeping Chelsea at the forefront of English football. That phase has clearly passed.

West Ham, in stark contrast, are the only top-division club not to recruit anyone before the start of the new season. They appear to be in a permanent state of conflict. It hasn’t been a happy football club since the move to the new stadium, or even since they announced they were leaving Upton Park, and the likelihood is that this is going to be another season grubbing around for points in the lower reaches of the division, possibly in another battle against relegation.

It is a mess and, difficult as it might be for the club’s supporters, who can blame Rice if he decides in the end that he would rather play for a club that doesn’t have the rest of the Premier League rubbernecking in its direction?

[Vesper 28,853]

'It's my club, my home': Jack Grealish signs new five-year Aston Villa contract

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/sep/15/jack-grealish-signs-new-five-year-aston-villa-contract

[Special Juan 27,429]

Just the announcement left for Mendy, it's all done.

[Pizy 18,368]

5 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Just the announcement left for Mendy, it's all done.

Let us pray he's between the sticks this weekend, then. Because if Kepa is in net Salah & Mané will be taking speculative long shots all over the place and probably scoring. Not to mention TAA getting an automatic goal if Liverpool win a free kick near the edge of our box.

[BXL70 396]

^

8 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Just the announcement left for Mendy, it's all done.

^^ hopefully so. Because we cannot continue with Kepa if we want to challenge for trophies. 

[Jase 43,479]

Doesn't Mendy have to quarantine for 2 weeks? 

Or is there some sort of sporting exemption that we can get here? 

[Special Juan 27,429]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Doesn't Mendy have to quarantine for 2 weeks? 

Or is there some sort of sporting exemption that we can get here? 

He was in a bio-secure bubble at Rennes and has to apply to be exempt.

Same happened with Kai Havertz.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,481]

Somebody should start a Mendy thread.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Somebody should start a Mendy thread.

[ahmedou 128]