Transfer Talk Topic

[kev61]

9 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Mendy needs to be sold, he's awful at ground level and with the emphasis we have regarding playing out from the back he's an absolute liability - as we've seen several times already. 

Kepa has been fine and no real reason to get rid of at present. He may get replaced eventually but for now he's shown enough this season to retain his place. 

What in gods name are you talking about.Kante is finished and Mendy "needs to be sold" all hail celery.

[Michael Tucker]

2 hours ago, kev61 said:

What in gods name are you talking about.Kante is finished and Mendy "needs to be sold" all hail celery.

Kev, calm down mate - the forums are about opinions.

[xceleryx]

3 minutes ago, Michael Tucker said:

Kev, calm down mate - the forums are about opinions.

If you haven't already noticed he's been sniping my posts of late after a bit of a difference of opinion the other week. I'm choosing not to engage so he's wasting his time trying to summon a reaction. 

[ROTG]

4 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Re Rice: I agree with much of this, his ability to also drop back into defence when needed to collect the ball or to cover is also an added bonus to consider. The other big plus he has is his leadership abilities. In a side that's sorely lacking in leadership, especially in the middle of the pitch, having someone like Rice that's vocal and with experience of leading a Premier League side shouldn't go under the radar either. 

I suspect the clubs chances of getting Rice are gone due to the current issues at the club, along with interest from other clubs who can offer european football, knowing WHU will cave in on his hyped valuation or loose him for nothing the following season. 

[Rob B]

8 hours ago, Michael Tucker said:

He's not my long term choice, but surely we have other areas that need improving before GK?

Yeah definitely…. A striker and proper DM should be ahead of a keeper imo, but they’re probably the only two positions, so I could easily see us going out and spending £25m - £30m in the summer.  Especially as it looks likely that Mendy could be off. 

Three incomings and a sh*t tonne of outgoings seems like a plan. 

[exiledblue]

11 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

Firstly I'm going to ignore the word 'realistically'. Nobody could have 'realistically' expected us to buy the number of players that we did in January, nor the cumulative cost of those players. So 'realistically' isn't a word in the current Chelsea lexicon.

Without putting too much thought into it, as I'm waiting for my oven timer to tell me my dinner is ready, my two would be Rice and Osimhen.

Rice because, to use a Droyism, he stands in the right places. He'd be an almost perfect foil for Enzo Fernandes. He'd sit back and let Enzo do what Enzo does best, safe in the knowledge that Rice's reading of the game and his reasonable speed would shut down most attacks. Rice is also decent when it comes to driving out of defence, so when he does break down an attack, he doesn't always have to then search someone to pass to. He has the strength, power, etc to break himself. His passing is more than decent and he has the height to help defend corners/free kicks or cause problems at attacking set pieces. Is he perfect? No. Does he have flaws? Yes. But I think he - or someone similar - would be a very good fit.

Osimhen because he is one of the few genuine young "Number Nines" in the game today. We need someone who can play with their back to the goal. We need someone whose natural instinct is to be in the six-yard box sniffing out and putting away half chances. He's shown that he's a natural finisher.

I'm sure others here will have other ideas. If I sat down and really thought and researched deeper, I could probably come up with several alternatives for both (and we may very well end up with two totally different players come the summer), but as an instant response... Rice and Osimhen.

I agree but a word of caution. Players can look world beaters in Italy, think Lukaku and Tammy, but that doesnt always equate in the Prem. I do agree though Osimhen looks great and depending on how much Naples are trying to screw us for would be worth a shot. Naples are hard businessmen to  deal with, like they dont like selling their assets except for ridiculous amounts.

[xceleryx]

11 minutes ago, ROTG said:

I suspect the clubs chances of getting Rice are gone due to the current issues at the club, along with interest from other clubs who can offer european football, knowing WHU will cave in on his hyped valuation or loose him for nothing the following season. 

You're likely right, but I suppose one never really knows. Maybe we'll pay WH more than any other club and Rice opts to return here, who knows. 

[ROTG]

26 minutes ago, exiledblue said:

I agree but a word of caution. Players can look world beaters in Italy, think Lukaku and Tammy, but that doesnt always equate in the Prem.

Both Lukaku & Tammy have proven themselves goal scorers in the PL with multiple double figure seasons.

TBH - if Milan send him back and there are no other taker the club have to seriously consider bring Lukaku back into the squad, rather than wasting more money on another no9 punt. It will also give the club a season to loan and oversee the development of Forfana2, not forgetting Broja will come back into the fold.

Edited March 2, 2023 by ROTG

[Mark Kelly]

3 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Both Lukaku & Tammy have proven themselves goal scorers in the PL with multiple double figure season.

TBH - if there are no takes the club have to seriously consider bring Lukaku back, rather than wasting more money on another no9 punt. It will also give the club a season to loan and oversee the development of Forfana2, not forgetting Broja will come back into the fold.

Lukaku doesn't want to come back , he wants to play for Inter , what he did was move to us for the wages Inter couldn't compete with and act up until we sent him back and he got to play for his beloved Inter again but on Chelsea wages .

He played us.

 

[ROTG]

1 minute ago, Mark Kelly said:

Lukaku doesn't want to come back , he wants to play for Inter , what he did was move to us for the wages Inter couldn't compete with and act up until we sent him back and he got to play for his beloved Inter again but on Chelsea wages .

He played us.

 

Regardless of you personal opinion "did he kick you dog or something", when fit Lukaku scores goals. Also take into account that the club will probably play maximum of 45 games next season, therefore whoever the coach is will get 7 days per week to coach the squad.

[FrankLampard8]

14 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

Just read that Athletic article @FrankLampard8, thanks.

We, of course, would need to play the mirror image of what Barca do...

Thanks. Yeah i'd be lying if I said it didn't almost blow my brain trying to flip all the roles to the opposite side of the pitch at the end of a long day but hopefully I got there. I'm obviously not saying that we need Xavi or that we should even look to emulate the way Barca play but thought it was a fun thought experiment. I think it shows we both need 1 or 2 key signings but also there are options to get the best out of pretty much all of our key players.

13 hours ago, McCreadie said:

I'm interested to know who everyone would buy for those 2 positions if they were making the decision? 

They have to be the next 2, but (realistically) who?

As everyone has said, Rice is the one for midfield. I really feel like he can be transformative for this team. Him and Enzo would set us up for years to come in the middle of the pitch and look likely to complement each other perfectly. 

Striker isn't so easy and none of the options fill me with much excitement. If Alvarez is available he is a no brainer and I think we have to pursue him in a big way. Otherwise maybe we would be better off looking at the cheaper end of the market and biding our time for someone we think could be a superstar?

[FrankLampard8]

11 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Lukaku doesn't want to come back , he wants to play for Inter , what he did was move to us for the wages Inter couldn't compete with and act up until we sent him back and he got to play for his beloved Inter again but on Chelsea wages .

He played us.

 

Unfortunately for old, Rom. He signed a contract here and if Inter aren't willing to stump up enough readies to buy him or loan him for another season then he won't have much choice in the matter. They are looking increasingly less likely to do that and that is largely of his own making - he hasn't exactly set the world alight since his return and I heard perhaps the Curva Nord have turned on him a little bit again.

4 hours ago, kev61 said:

What in gods name are you talking about.Kante is finished and Mendy "needs to be sold" all hail celery.

For what it's worth, I don't think Celery has ever said Kante is "finished" - what he has said is that we don't really know what he is or will be as he hasn't played in so long. Something I agree with. I also agree that Mendy should and will likely be sold. He is currently being kept out of the side by Kepa who not many rate which says a lot. From memory Mendy's most recent run in the side contained more than one significant errors with the ball at his feet costing us goals. Football is evolving and he doesn't have the skillset to play in a ball dominant team - that's fine, he will likely fetch a decent fee and play for an alright Champion's league club abroad.

[Mark Kelly]

16 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Regardless of you personal opinion "did he kick you dog or something", when fit Lukaku scores goals. Also take into account that the club will probably play maximum of 45 games next season, therefore whoever the coach is will get 7 days per week to coach the squad.

It's not my personal opinion , he stated recently he wants to stay at Inter . 

It's not my money if the club want him back they're free to ruin the next season too.

[Bob Singleton]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

Lukaku doesn't want to come back , he wants to play for Inter , what he did was move to us for the wages Inter couldn't compete with and act up until we sent him back and he got to play for his beloved Inter again but on Chelsea wages .

He played us.

 

It certainly looks that way, doesn't it?

[Mark Kelly]

3 hours ago, ROTG said:

Regardless of you personal opinion "did he kick you dog or something", when fit Lukaku scores goals. Also take into account that the club will probably play maximum of 45 games next season, therefore whoever the coach is will get 7 days per week to coach the squad.

Incidentally , he did try to kick my dog but the dog was two inches to the right of where he wanted him . 

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

It's not my personal opinion

😀

[exiledblue]

12 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Incidentally , he did try to kick my dog but the dog was two inches to the right of where he wanted him . 

and he was too busy pointing for someone else to do it anyway

[Mark Kelly]

4 minutes ago, ROTG said:

😀

I don't want him back is my personal opinion , he doesn't want to come back is his personal opinion. 

my other personal opinion is , if he does come back , we will have another non scoring centre forward on our hands and our season will be dead in the water before it starts with 16 stone of blubber flouncing around like a Primadonna upfront. 

[ROTG]

39 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

I don't want him back is my personal opinion , he doesn't want to come back is his personal opinion. 

my other personal opinion is , if he does come back , we will have another non scoring centre forward on our hands and our season will be dead in the water before it starts with 16 stone of blubber flouncing around like a Primadonna upfront. 

The stats say the opposite

 

Note: The PL figure is not accurate. The 7 goals Lukaku scored were in the 16 PL games he started of which the team lost 1 game

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

Incidentally , he did try to kick my dog but the dog was two inches to the right of where he wanted him . 

At least he knew where the dog was located, even if he missed

[RDCW]

1 hour ago, ROTG said:

At least he knew where the dog was located, even if he missed

If the outcome is that Fido remains unscathed then observational competence is irrelevant.

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, RDCW said:

If the outcome is that Fido remains unscathed then observational competence is irrelevant.

Not sure that true, especially as the current pack do not have a scooby where to find Fido. 
 

BTW - Can’t remember if it was Fido or Kit-I-Kat, during the 70’s a pie and mash shop in Vauxhall got nicked for adding said tinned item to their pies.  The local were howling with rage and had to be restrained on their leashes. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by ROTG

[Blue Moon]

5 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

I don't want him back is my personal opinion , he doesn't want to come back is his personal opinion. 

my other personal opinion is , if he does come back , we will have another non scoring centre forward on our hands and our season will be dead in the water before it starts with 16 stone of blubber flouncing around like a Primadonna upfront. 

Could always put him on the back post ...

[asvaberg]

Anyone fancy we get back the 5 in the squads for tonight's Copa del Ray Semifinal?

Courtois 

Rüdiger 

Alonso 

Christensen 

Hazard 

I have a hunch they would lift our play a few hundred levels and maybe we could score a goal again  🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chara]

2 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

Anyone fancy we get back the 5 in the squads for tonight's Copa del Ray Semifinal?

Courtois 

Rüdiger 

Alonso 

Christensen 

Hazard 

I have a hunch they would lift our play a few hundred levels and maybe we could score a goal again  🙂 🙂

What is this "goal" thing you write of ?