Approaching the Finish Line.... Thank God- The Chelsea Transfer Thread

[fernb8]

In honour of Usian Bolt.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21082009/63/city-land-chelsea-starlet.html

http://www.coventrycity-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=459042

Jack Cork loaned to Coventry. Would rather have seen him land at a Prem side tbh.

[Rman3349]

In honour of Usian Bolt.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21082009/63/city-land-chelsea-starlet.html

http://www.coventrycity-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=459042

Jack Cork loaned to Coventry. Would rather have seen him land at a Prem side tbh.

Ya this is a disappointment for me. He's proven his ability to play well in the Championship.

[fernb8]

Oh come on Fern, you make it sound as if all I do is complain. I do my share of both ranting and positive feedback , but all people want to do is focus is on my rants. Its not like I've been complaining about some phantom issues, its been legitimate issues. Mainly our transfer dealings/transfer policy. Mostly about the Pirlo saga, which thankfully we didnt go through on, and our failure so far to bring in not so much a marquee player, but more so, that creative special player type that even Ancelotti earlier this summer mentioned we needed. The type of player that can create and finish for those games where we struggled last season to score when opponents parked the bus. And I'm sure we will be in those situations this season as well. And what do you mean, i havent talked about other players, I've talked about other players that i would like to see all summer. And yesterday in my post I said, now that we failed on Aguero, that I hoped the club had some other transfer targets in mind. I just dont want to see a repeat of last summer where all we did was focus on Robinho and had no back up plan or other targets. My last few posts have focused more on Aguero cause imo, he would have been the perfect choice for us. He's young, can create, can finish, can play in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3.

As for the salary demands, everyone mentions that. But we never even had a bid accepted, so how can we know what he would or wouldnt accept? Those stories could be rubbish for all we know. By the way, does anyone even know how much he makes at Madrid. I find it hard to believe that we couldnt offer him a huge pay increase over what he makes now and still pay him less than JT & Lamps.

Well I'm not gonna slit my wrists either, but in the end i thought we did ok, and though there's still another week, we have failed so far fill an important need
.


You are missing the point. As I said please provide me with a list of viable players who will fill this "important need". That is the basis of my original post- its all good and well shouting at the rain but why not provide some solutions instead of complaints.

Can we afford a marquee player in this current market as Claudio laid out a pretty good point or do we smash our wage structure in the plan for glory as we did with Sheva and Ballack which in hindsight led to massive internal problems for the club.

If we avoid a marquee player and sign a secondary or developmental player will he want to come to the club when he may not be a guaranteed starter or get a significant amount of playing time. Its great that Kirsten can list the entire German Youth set up but would those lads

- be good enough to compete for a spot within the club

- be willing to come here to compete in the first place

once again until someone provides a realistic list of solutions I dont see how anything has changed.

[Dear_Claudio]

Haven't seen the Transfer Thread so quiet in a long time. Ancelotti isn't going to spur any additional activity in this thread:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5508429,00.html

[Lamps>Gerrard]

I'm pretty fine with the squad we have now....sure Aguero or someone super duper good like that would've been cool, but we have a good squad with some good depth.

[fernb8]

has been said before but sometimes transfer windows are about who you dont lose as much as who you add during the time period.

Personally if all stays the same I would give this transfer period a solid B, leaning towards a B+.

We addressed three key areas of need.

We got a reserve goalie who is also younger and English and has experience in this League.

We added depth at both left back and left wing with a talented player who looks to have a bright future.

We added youth and depth up front with another talented, young English player.

We added another young player who may be able to assist in bringing down the average age of our CMs and may be one for the future with Lamps, Ballack, Deco and Belletti all over 30.

All were added for approximately 20 mil, which according tptb is in line with balancing the books. I do think we could have added one more but it was not to be and I believe we did well addressing our needs and considering our direct rivals did not splurge a great deal and/or make a large amount of additions to date we most likely are on par if not slightly ahead of the them.

As for the boring part of the window- we signed Mikel to long term contract, resigned Drogba for 3 more years and sorted out the future of Terry. A new deal for Ash is all but done according to reports and one is allegedly in the works for Joe Cole as well. We seem to have settled down Carvahlo and Bos in regards to departures and kept hold of Deco, although I am still not sure on that move. We got rid of Pizza for a reported 4 mil and although we still have Sheva, I believe we made some good moves loaning out Sinclair, DiSanto and Mancienne for Prem experience.

I know there is a lenghty list of player we should have brought and I will leave that for another day but considering the following players were supposed to leave this summer according to the media

Cech
A. Cole
Carvahlo
Alex
Boswinga
Ferriera
Manicenne
Mikel
Malouda
Kalou
Joe Cole
Deco
Sheva
Anelka
JT
Ballack

I would say that keeping them and getting shot of Minerio and Pizza was not that bad after all.

[Lamps>Gerrard]

If Sheva was gone, I'd have considered it to be be far more successful.

I think we can all also appreciate the fact our youngsters are getting a real go at other teams.

[fernb8]

If Sheva was gone, I'd have considered it to be be far more successful.

I think we can all also appreciate the fact our youngsters are getting a real go at other teams.

agreed on both points, but perhaps there is some logic to keeping him with the ACN

stretching I know, but I am trying for yas

personally I wouldnt mind seeing DiSanto return for Jan and then loaning him back out again before the end of the Jan window.

either way I think we did relatively well this window. Hindsight of course being 20/20.

[Dear_Claudio]

This was a post I made the other day when it was reported Sheva will stay at Chelsea:
I think it's a matter of Sheva being absolutely unwilling to drop £60-80k per week. I think his contract is up next summer so he'll be willing to collect millions of pounds (maybe a trophy or three) at his age for doing nothing... staying quite fresh for his final couple years in the game. Can't say I wouldn't do the same:D
Just don't think any club that would want Sheva could afford anywhere near his wages.

[Andy Fox]

Ray Wilkins was at Charlton today having a look at Jonjo Shelvey.

[Blue Celery]

Ray Wilkins was at Charlton today having a look at Jonjo Shelvey.

So was Wenger. But...you know. Wasn't about the football.

[Dear_Claudio]

Ray Wilkins was at Charlton today having a look at Jonjo Shelvey.
But but but... we already had a bid accepted for him and he downright rejected crappy Chelsea. Err... or was that media bullshit:rolleyes:

So was Wenger. But...you know. Wasn't about the football.
Ba-zing!

[addicted2chelsea]

Jonjo Shelvey would be pretty neat.

But would probs end up rotting in the reserves.

[lobomojo]

Kalou offered deal to stay, Agent says will wait and see

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11668_5508875,00.html

Like Kalou and his effort but can't be bothered either way.

[yasik19]

Still think we can use 1 more player.

[Master_Chief123]

I still wouldn't mind even two more players, and to be honest I'm not going to be surprised if later on in the season we get caught out and we say that in January or next summer, some huge overhauls are going to have to be made.
That is what happened last season.

I mean, same squad last season that was lacking in that attacking aspect, whats really so different now? We still don't have that bit of unpredictibility, a player who creates magic, and pace in the attack, especially with wingers(well lets see about Zhirkov).

Honestly I won't be surprised if this diamond is caught out eventually when teams find we haven't got enough width and block the fullbacks from bombing forward. We will then pretty much only attack through the middle, or the left side which is where Malouda/Zhirkov will probably be. Hopefully Ancelotti is smarter in Scolari in this aspect and he can actually ADJUST the team, but if we go back to the 4-3-3 it'll all depend on a mercurial Malouda and Anelka, as well as a maybe fit Joe Cole and new signing Zhirkov.

I'm not calling for absolute superstars, but more options off the bench. Right now, our attackers are pretty predictable. Players like Suarez and Obasi who aren't the BEST in their position but very, very good. There's nothing wrong with taking risks with signings, especially when they're young. People were saying Valencia isn't good enough for us and United go and pick him up as a starting right winger, and I think he'll do well for them. He's not fantastic but a good solid winger with pace and dribbling that'll trouble defences, and he can also score a goal here and there.

A player like Aguero would be fantastic, sure, but what we really need is better options off the bench than, say, Deco.

I'm not saying this season is going to be awful or anything but to be honest we've had the same problem for a few seasons now, haven't REALLY solved it or really worked to solve it, and its all down to the manager really. Our midfield and defence is great, its just the wingers and strikers we need to look at.

I know this has been forgotten with our good start to the season and all, but as soon as we hit a downturn in form(which I'm sure will happen, even if its minor) these issues will suddenly become very noticeable. Hiddink made us forget about it all for a while but I still think work should be done.

[Dear_Claudio]

+rep, great post, though I don't agree that we need to add players without first seeing how Zhirkov does.

Although we can switch to the 4-3-3 very easily*, I wonder if Ancelotti will have the balls to do it. After all, it is the formation we have used for 5 years and he seems to want to impose his own brand on the team.

* = Looking at today's XI:

Mikel
Ballack, Lampard
Anelka----------Malouda
Drogba


Once Joey and Zhirkov are fit our bench will be menacing.

[Chelsea8-0Manu]

http://www.tribalfootball.com/chelsea-plan-late-bid-trump-man-utd-aguero-273761

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/08/24/1458578/sergio-agueros-speculated-switch-from-atletico-madrid-to-chelsea-

I know for a fact that these aren't true but I feel like getting neg repped.

Or I am going to get banned for posting articles from goal.com and tribal football.

[fernb8]

http://www.tribalfootball.com/chelsea-plan-late-bid-trump-man-utd-aguero-273761

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/08/24/1458578/sergio-agueros-speculated-switch-from-atletico-madrid-to-chelsea-

I know for a fact that these aren't true but I feel like getting neg repped.

Or I am going to get banned for posting articles from goal.com and tribal football.

and you are back with a bang

:D

[Rman3349]

http://www.tribalfootball.com/chelsea-plan-late-bid-trump-man-utd-aguero-273761

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2009/08/24/1458578/sergio-agueros-speculated-switch-from-atletico-madrid-to-chelsea-

I know for a fact that these aren't true but I feel like getting neg repped.

Or I am going to get banned for posting articles from goal.com and tribal football.

You certainly treading into dangerous water :D

Welcome back