Transfer Talk Topic

[Willian Dollar Baby]

16 hours ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Crespo. What a player. I loved Gaz too. But Crespo was something else. 

Absolutely loved Crespo. His movement around the penalty box was the best I've ever seen at the Bridge. A world class finisher with a great record here even if it was all too brief.

20 premier league goals in just 33 starts (16 sub apps) and key in the title win in 2006. I have many fond memories from his time here:

• Vs West Ham 2006 - Going 1-0 down with 10 men and proceeding to win 4-1 with Crespo and Drogba running riot as a front two.

• Vs Liverpool 2006 - A cracking volley at home to Liverpool in a 2-0 win

• Vs Arsenal 2003 - A 30 yard curler at Highbury in his first season here

• vs Wigan 2005 - His unforgettable last minute wonder strike to break Wigan hearts in their first premier league game. 

Now we've developed a well deserved reputation for signing big name strikers past their sell buy date: Shevchenko, Torres, Falcao, Pato, Higuain and  Aubameyang off the top of my head.

To my annoyance, I've heard Crespo being included in that bracket many times from non-Chelsea fans who love to call him a flop. On the flip side I've not heard a bad word about him from a Chelsea supporter. It's a personal mission of mine to re-educate any of the miss- informed who like to lump him in with the above mentioned and players like Adrian Mutu.

It's also often forgotten he scored two great goals in the 3-3 champions league final vs the scousers, on loan from Chelsea to one of the Milan clubs. A certain other on-loan Chelsea striker wasn't quite able to replicate that performance on Saturday.

He's since spoken about his regrets of not being able to stick around here longer. His wife at the time suffered from two miscarriages and was a key reason why he returned to Italy.  He was once the most expensive transfer of all time when signed by Lazio for around £36million in 2000, which was an insane amount of money at the time!

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37529252/argentina-legend-hernan-crespo-spent-too-little-chelsea

Edited June 12, 2023 by Willian Dollar Baby

[Backbiter]

^^ I also remember a fantastic goal at the MHL end against Liverpool that was wrongly ruled out for offside. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any footage of it.

[Chelsea_Matt]

14 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

^^ I also remember a fantastic goal at the MHL end against Liverpool that was wrongly ruled out for offside. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any footage of it.

Wasn’t there one against Fulham, a wonderful controlled half-volley?

[Max Fowler]

57 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Onana is medicore and such a lateral move to Kepa that spending any money on him would be incredibly daft. The only area he's an improvement in is on the ball and collecting crosses - which is a marginal improvement at best. Kepa more or less is equal in all other metrics, if not has him beat. 

There's just not enough improvement there.

Apparently Poch is a big fan. That's good enough for me.

Or Poch is the problem...

[xceleryx]

19 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Apparently Poch is a big fan. That's good enough for me.

Or Poch is the problem...

If Poch was a big fan of drinking milk and orange juice together would that also be good enough for you?

I've no issues with getting a keeper in, but that keeper has to be better than Kepa to where they raise the level. Onana ain't that, and if we're stupid enough for spend £40m on him then we deserve to have nothing good ever again.

[Bones]

2 hours ago, Max Fowler said:

I agree on the above - despite the giggling schoolchidren on here, Mendy was without question among the best keepers in the world (probably the best on form) when we won the CL. 

However - his distribution is so bad that IMO it's now unworkable at the top level. I partly blame Tuchel for not acknowledging this earlier and actually think Potter made the right decision bringing Kepa in. 

It's impossible to escape pressure and build from the back if your GK cannot make simple passes and throws and cracks under pressure. And keeping the ball is often the best defence - as Tuchel said. So bring in Onana I say!

That's true, wasn't an issue winning all those cups though! And his was to Chilly was sublime 🙂

Anyway, agreed that overall his distribution is not the best and it appears that's the current flavour of the month!

[Bones]

32 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

If Poch was a big fan of drinking milk and orange juice together would that also be good enough for you?

I've no issues with getting a keeper in, but that keeper has to be better than Kepa to where they raise the level. Onana ain't that, and if we're stupid enough for spend £40m on him then we deserve to have nothing good ever again.

At least we'd have a good chant... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CGsw6h60k


On a serious note, he doesn't want to leave and if he ends up anywhere where he's not happy... it's Lukaku story again. I'd rather take a player who is 100% committed to playing for us.

 

[Bert19]

2 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Onana is medicore and such a lateral move to Kepa that spending any money on him would be incredibly daft. The only area he's an improvement in is on the ball and collecting crosses - which is a marginal improvement at best. Kepa more or less is equal in all other metrics, if not has him beat. 

There's just not enough improvement there.

What's your view on Mike Maignan? He seems like a safer, calmer set of hands from what i've seen. 

[Willian Dollar Baby]

It really is silly season. We should see if they would like Cucurella chucked in for free. 

 

[Bob Singleton]

14 minutes ago, Bones said:

[SNIP]
On a serious note, he doesn't want to leave and if he ends up anywhere where he's not happy... it's Lukaku story again. I'd rather take a player who is 100% committed to playing for us.

[SNIP]

Remember how you felt when you saw/heard Lukaku's interview about wanting to go back to Inter?
Personally, I have no problem with Onana - who only joined Inter last summer - saying he's happy at his current club (whilst covering himself with the caveat that he knows the club need to sell some players, and should one be him...)

[ROTG]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

If Poch was a big fan of drinking milk and orange juice together would that also be good enough for you?

I've no issues with getting a keeper in, but that keeper has to be better than Kepa to where they raise the level. Onana ain't that, and if we're stupid enough for spend £40m on him then we deserve to have nothing good ever again.

I am sure on the old forum when the club were looking at keepers there were many who said keep clear of him and mentioning 4 or 5 keepers ahead of him including mendy 

Now he seems to be the best thing since Mothers Pride sliced bread. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by ROTG

[xceleryx]

32 minutes ago, Bert19 said:

What's your view on Mike Maignan? He seems like a safer, calmer set of hands from what i've seen. 

Probably doesn't provide as much on the ball compared to what we get from Kepa now, in fact Kepa's probably better as a sweeper type, and he had a bit of a down season in terms of save percentages compared to last season, but he's a big physical presence that offers bit of everything. He's also quite dominate in the air, gets down quick for a bigger keeper, and does well to parry balls away from danger. 

[Max Fowler]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

If Poch was a big fan of drinking milk and orange juice together would that also be good enough for you?

I've no issues with getting a keeper in, but that keeper has to be better than Kepa to where they raise the level. Onana ain't that, and if we're stupid enough for spend £40m on him then we deserve to have nothing good ever again.

I mean - I don't particularly think Poch is the right man for the job, but given he's here I think we should back him with the players he wants. Onana might well fit into Poch's system perfectly, and as he's generally regarded as a top level manager and you are named after a marshland plant, I would probably trust his judgement more than yours.

[xceleryx]

25 minutes ago, ROTG said:

I am sure on the old forum when the club were looking at keepers there were many who said keep clear of him and mentioning 4 or 5 keepers ahead of him including mendy 

Now he seems to be the best thing since Mothers Pride sliced bread. 

I was likely one of those also, he's never really convinced as anything more than just ~okay~.

Then again, I've felt similar on Mendy also. 

I think the darth of high quality keepers currently, plus the emphasis placed on building from the back - now needing to be both quick off their line and comfortable with the ball at feet under pressure, has further narrowed the pool of options. Onana looks great if you just take into account his ground game and distribution, but the goalkeeping side of things really is no better than what we get from Kepa.

[Max Fowler]

2 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Onana looks great if you just take into account his ground game and distribution, but the goalkeeping side of things really is no better than what we get from Kepa.

You might now him better than I, but from the final he looked to have a better mentality and presence than Kepa. He's also a bit taller - and if you say he has better ground game and distribution and equal shot-stopping, seems like an upgrade no?

[Original 21]

56 minutes ago, Willian Dollar Baby said:

It really is silly season. We should see if they would like Cucurella chucked in for free. 

 

They seem to be buying up Moslem players in the twilight of their careers. We’ve got Kante, Koulibaly and Ziyech, we need to get off the books. Todd Boehly had a meeting last week in Saudi Arabia. Might be wishful thinking but they’d be doing us a big favour. 

[xceleryx]

Just now, Max Fowler said:

I mean - I don't particularly think Poch is the right man for the job, but given he's here I think we should back him with the players he wants. Onana might well fit into Poch's system perfectly, and as he's generally regarded as a top level manager and you are named after a marshland plant, I would probably trust his judgement more than yours.

I mean - there's nothing wrong with backing the manager with the players they want, but that doesn't have to mean every player either. Much less one that's a lateral move from what we've already got at the cost of a quote £40m. 

Given me the name of a marshland plant any day of the week, beats sharing the name of a line sniffing scouser. 😅

[Max Fowler]

7 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

I mean - there's nothing wrong with backing the manager with the players they want, but that doesn't have to mean every player either. Much less one that's a lateral move from what we've already got at the cost of a quote £40m. 

Given me the name of a marshland plant any day of the week, beats sharing the name of a line sniffing scouser. 😅

Onana had better save percentages last year than Kepa in both the league (72.6% vs 71.4%) and CL (80.7% vs 77.8%).

So much for a guy that can't save!

[xceleryx]

3 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

You might now him better than I, but from the final he looked to have a better mentality and presence than Kepa. He's also a bit taller - and if you say he has better ground game and distribution and equal shot-stopping, seems like an upgrade no?

Not a £40m upgrade to where we become a significantly better side with him in goal. 

[Mark Kelly]

4 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Onana had better save percentages last year than Kepa in both the league (72.6% vs 71.4%) and CL (80.7% vs 77.8%).

So much for a guy that can't save!

Those are very marginal gains for a £40m plus investment ( reports I've seen say they want more than £50m)

Edited June 12, 2023 by Mark Kelly

[xceleryx]

Just now, Max Fowler said:

Onana had better save percentages last year than Kepa in both the league (72.6% vs 71.4%) and CL (80.7% vs 77.8%).

So much for a guy that can't save!

Where did I say he couldn't make saves? 

Not sure where you're getting those league numbers from but fbref has them at 73.3% for Kepa, and 73.5% for Onana. With Kepa facing around 40 more shots on target. 

Either way, the point is that for £40m we really should be seeing more upside on what we have across the board. Not to more or less have a Kepa equiv as a shot stopper, with better passing and better, although still bang average, cross collection. 

[Max Fowler]

6 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Where did I say he couldn't make saves? 

Not sure where you're getting those league numbers from but fbref has them at 73.3% for Kepa, and 73.5% for Onana. With Kepa facing around 40 more shots on target. 

Either way, the point is that for £40m we really should be seeing more upside on what we have across the board. Not to more or less have a Kepa equiv as a shot stopper, with better passing and better, although still bang average, cross collection. 

 

(others were saying so)

[ROTG]

32 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

You might now him better than I, but from the final he looked to have a better mentality and presence than Kepa. He's also a bit taller - and if you say he has better ground game and distribution and equal shot-stopping, seems like an upgrade no?

If the club does buy omana, the club would have forked out the same amount of money as kepa on two keeper trying to get an upgrade.  

Quite bizarre 

[Mark Kelly]

23 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

 

(others were saying so)

Wasn't that slap bang in the middle of his crisis of confidence ? There was a time where if he faced a shot it would go in but he's improved massively / got his mojo back now

[Max Fowler]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Wasn't that slap bang in the middle of his crisis of confidence ? There was a time where if he faced a shot it would go in but he's improved massively / got his mojo back now

Yeah I'm reaching a bit going back to 19/20.

At times Kepa looked the real deal last season, but at others he reminded of his faults.

IMO there's no way we can challenge for the title again with Kepa in goal.

Looks like this conversation is moot and Poch has been listening to me!