Chelsea are interested in most, if not all, good to great prospects. There are so many factors involved - agents, money, the player, clubs' ambitions, and now - C19. You see with Barca how they are in no position to buy big in the short term. Their Arthur swap with Pjanic basically created a 60m benefit on the balance sheets due to how amortization is applied (for Juve too, though a little less). Barca has spent around 800m on players in the past several years and only 1 or 2 players have cemented a real position on the team. Madrid is Havertz's preferred destination, but I don't see them spending over the odds this year. More likely Munich. United just said they won't overspend, either. As for whether Chelsea NEED Sancho? Well, any club would take a talent like that no matter what you already have. He doesn't play the same position as Jorginho or Abraham and Willian is due to leave. Right now, our wing (Sancho's position) situation is thin. Pulisic is doing great, Willian is likely out the door, Ziyech is kind of a winger, but also given license to wizard however he wants, and Odoi is not really there yet. Personally, I don't think we get him...I'd also rather spend money in defense.
On the Barca note - let's look at what they've spent. It's incredible. Summer 2014, 165m pounds: Suarez, ter Stegen, Rakitic. Good signings! Aside from Suarez being a criminal, these players all contribute. They had a ban in the summer after their treble in 2015. In January they spent 51m on Turan and Aleix Vidal. Summer 2016: 125m on Andre Gomes, Alcacer, Umtiti, Digne, Cillisen, Denis Suarez Summer 2017: 375m (after Neymar left) on Dembele, Coutinho, Paulinho, Semedo, Mina, Deulofeu, Marlon 2018/19: 129m on Malcolm, Lenglet, Arthur, Vidal, Murillo (loan, option) 2019/20: 273m on Griezmann, de Jong, Braithwaite, Neto, Firpo, Emerson, Cucurella.
Barca and their out there transfer management is nothing new honestly. Dmytro Chygrynskiy (25m Euros for a central defender for one season!), their handling of Figo many years ago, Martin Braithwaite (I mean, really), Albertini at 33, and so on. As for us and Sancho, cool if we get him.
Would we? Wingers we have Pulisic, Cho. Then Werner and Ziyach are new but can also play as ST and CAM respectively. That’s 4 players for 2 spots. With 2 players playing multiple spots. Willian isn’t a lock to come back. If he leaves we could easily bring in another option for winger. I wouldn’t call it a priority tho. We should target LB first. And Kai who can play multiple positions.
Mm, BG and company get plenty of opportunities despite older players being in the team. My whole question earlier was in regards to ditching an "older" head for Pjanic, aka getting experience for experience but in a way that suits our playing style better. Not sure where any talk of not giving those guys chances comes from.
July 1 means timo and Hakim will officially become Chelsea players. Seems they will train separately but am sure they'll start getting plenty of time with the squad. Really looking forward to seeing those first photos from the training ground as soon as they are cleared from quarantine (which I believe is still 14 days but may be relaxed for their origin countries shortly)
Chelsea should be excited at the prospect of these players coming but still with Manchester City and Liverpool having such a stranglehold on the league, will Chelsea even be able to win the league at all? I say they are at least a couple more players away
IMO the title continues to be up for grabs. Yes, 'pool ran away with it this season but I see the run away (not the victory) as a fluke of sorts. They needed everyone else to be way worse versus their being all that much better. City's capitulation was shocking, to say the least Our struggles? Predictable.. given our injury crisis, we've over performed. If we didn't go thru that one nightmare stretch of form we'd be a comfortable second right now Then you have Sp*rs, United and Arsenal all cementing themselves as totally ********ing average (ok, knock on wood, it ain't over yet but still...) This is the least competitive season I've observed in my time watching the league. Again, I'm really not trying to discredit Liverpool here (ok just a little bit) but man.. everyone has been awful. Even a large chunk of the games they won, by admission of their own fans, were poorly played yet they got away with it. This is only to say that I would be happy to bet money that there is less than a 15 point spread between next year's winner's and second place. We are going to fight for the title, I'm sure of it.
Yeah I can definitely see Chelsea being more competitive especially for 2020/21 especially with the new additions Chelsea could be a dark horse for Champions League next season
City won it last season and the season before, them struggling isn't a surprise. THe disease of more as Pat Riley once said is still true to this day.
Throughout this season, I've felt that we need a good, promising CB to compete with Tomori for the spot next to Rudi. Zouma and AC are just not up to scratch for this team. Maybe Ampadu could be that guy? Guehi and other youth players seem more than a year away. Don't wanna overreact to one game, but the whole thing is up in the air now I think. Rudi himself can't be considered a locked-in first-teamer. He is just too shaky, and lacks the kind of vocal leadership you would want in that role. Not sure what the deal is with Fik either. I guess he's hurt now but before the lockdown, it seemed like Frank was losing faith in him. What looked like a nice group of 4 players with a good blend of experience and youth with one nailed-down first-teamer is starting to look more and more like a group in need of a complete overhaul. Add to that the horror show going on at LB for us right now, and the somewhere-between-decent-and-shambolic-depending-on-who-you-talk-to stuff from Kepa, and we've got some serious work to do at the back
Earlier in this season, when there was a lot more smoke around him, I think the consensus around here was a polite "thanks but no thanks" and bringing Ake back. Has anyone changed their mind on this? I still feel like its 40m (so they say) for a marginal upgrade at best, but open to being convinced otherwise. The idea of bringing back an old academy hand is appealing
You aren't reacting to one game man. This back line has been sub par for a long time, even in our last title winning season... FFS - I can count the # of clean sheets Conte's Chelsea got in the 2nd half of our title winning season on ONE HAND. ONE HAND. We went on to see some of our worst losses at home and away under both Conte and Sarri. Kepa must see more 1v1s than any keeper I've ever seen at this club. It has BEEN a mess. LB catches flack but are people actually happy with RB? Azpi puts in good shifts but isn't nearly enough. CB is more concerning at this point than anything else. Christensen seems to have lost all the confidence he had under Conte was it? Zouma loooool. Tomori? Is he alive? I'm not sure what you do here. I genuinely thought Kante dropping back would help make them not look as bad but they've all been awful. At this point ******** it - bring Ampadu back, splurge on a center back, spend a nominal amount of money on a vet to hold us over at LB. It was Belletti type players who helped our team get the double back in 09/10, maybe its time the club make a concession or two on the age thing. These young guys are too fragile.
Not sure how much longer Azpi can last, so we'll need cover here, but Reece has been a revelation this season and he should hold down that spot for a while. My thoughts exactly Some smoke around Rice these days. He's been playing CB for them lately, although he gave us a good ol' runaround yesterday from midfield. Not sure about this one but he's another former academy boy and is best friends with Mount (as I'm sure everyone knows since they make a youtube video about it every 5 minutes). Could not agree more
Toby Alderweireld can be had on a free. He would be a good get but I doubt the club targets him as he’s already 31.
I still love me some Ake, not the tallest (but 5'11 not short) and biggest, but seems so cause great hops and first to near any header, also reads danger well and always in motion. Probably could be had at good/better price once Bournemouth go down. KDB talked about what makes a needed CB here above and he has a lot of those attributes. First to a header in our box is sorely lacking, Luiz had that, but so seldom where he needed to be often enough, and one never knew if the header was going in their or our goal. I'd like to see AC and Zouma out*, and two in, Ake and an even more dominant physical presence, to make Rud work for a spot while Tomori and younger learn. * re Zouma out, one can hope: Zouma to PSG rumours https://talksport.com/football/725884/chelsea-kurt-zouma-offered-psg-tottenham-everton/
Following my Insta feed for Chelsea rumors is wild. Chillwell, Alaba, Tagliafico, Telles, Digne, Havertz, Jorginho for de Ligt. I just saw Messi’s Barca contract talks have stalled, so...
Please be true: Moyes wants Barkley reunion David Moyes is set to reignite his interest in Chelsea and England midfielder Ross Barkley. The West Ham boss wants a reunion with the schemer he nurtured at Everton after his progress through the Toffees’ youth teams. Chelsea rejected a move from Moyes to loan Barkley back in January. But Moyes is holding out hope that his former charge could be willing to pursue the regular first-team starts that would put him into Gareth Southgate’s thinking for next year’s European Championships.
lol Barkley is trash and at best squad rotation. He’s playing far far too many minutes for us. If he could sell him for anything close 20-30 million we shouldn’t think twice.
I don't think that he is "trash". That is . . .that is a little harsh. He is as you say a squad player and my guess he is playing more these days because his fitness may well be a factor (he is currently more match fit than RLC). I agree, that we should sell him in the next window, with the return of RLC and the new players coming in.
Centre back - A new Torres? Pau Torres (23) has a release cause of £45m. This news is from the Daily Fail.
“We have a really big financial challenge ahead of us. Even if we wanted the player (Havertz), we could not finance it this year.” Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge So will the player wait.