Orpington_Blue

You have to be some special sort of Idiot to think that Chelsea will now sell Hazard or Kante without any way of bringing a replacement in.
Also how much money would Madrid get from the sale of a 32 year old Modric that they will be able to convince Chelsea to part with there best two players. It would realistically cost about £125m to buy either of them.
Does merson really think Modric sale will bring in 200m to real? Complete Idiot.

Don't tempt fate. Good chance that next summer this would be Hazard. He is puling the game trick with his contract.

Only if the posters he quoted are actually changing their tune else he is refuting a strawman. He didn't provide the evidence, and I'm too lazy to go look it up.

Yeah the board put themselves in a bad position trusting Courtois and I think heads should roll for such a colossal mistake.
That said, Lafont just went to Fiorentina for 10m and I don't think he is that much worse than Kepa.
I just cant seem to ignore the fact that we could have bought Leon Baily + Lafont for the same money we just spent on Kepa.

Thanks a lot. Hadn't come across this.
70m is a lot better than 100 but still a daft move by the club.

You could easily argue that age 22 Ballack, DeBruyne were in the same position as RLC is. Pogba ofcourse had a quick rise but has since stalled. I see no reason why RLC cant achieve as much success in his career as say Ballack.

As I said, Pogba is a different case sure. Ballack was no where in his career at the age of 22.
Anyway, my reference to DeBruyne was more to make the point of benching (and then losing) a player that could be in out first 11 in a couple of years. Not necessarily meant to be a reference to the quality / potential of RLC.

With top 4 gone (and EL qualification pretty safe) the season is pretty much over aside from the three cup games.
I think it is a great time to play 2-3 youth players in each of the next 7 games and see if we can unearth a gem for next season rather than waste these minuted of the likes of Pedro, Giroud, Fabregas or Drinkwater.
Would also love to see Barkley and Bakayoko given chances to play without any pressure to assess if they are fit for a squad role for next season.
 
What does the shed think will happen in this regard? Will we see Conte (and the squad) just go through the motions or will there be some sensible use of this opportunity?

They are a tier or two above Courtois. But I think most Chelsea fans tend to over-rate him due to him being a Chelsea player.

Out : Courtois, Zappacosta, Luiz, Bakayoko(Loan), Pedro, Hazard
In : Horn/Butland/Pope, De Vrij, Vidal, Pulisic, Baily, Batshuayi
 
One really sticky situation is that there are no gettable quality strikers available this summer. We will surely have to trust Batshuayi more than Conte has done.

As long as its the Saudi crown prince it'd be fine. On second thought the Kuwaitis would do just as well.
 
Knowing our rotten luck though, it would be Ken mofo Bates again.
 

Welcome back from outer space. Its been frozen for last three season. 

They are a tier or two above Courtois. But I think most Chelsea fans tend to over-rate him due to him being a Chelsea player.

They are a tier or two above Courtois. But I think most Chelsea fans tend to over-rate him due to him being a Chelsea player.

They are a tier or two above Courtois. But I think most Chelsea fans tend to over-rate him due to him being a Chelsea player.

Dreaming of Oblak is a bit delusional imo. No way we can afford 70m for a world class goalkeeper like Oblak or Alisson.

And this guy wants to be the highest paid goalkeeper in the world.
Chelsea should dare him to find a new club if he can at anywhere near his current wages, let alone an increase.

Completely agree. He can be a fine player in a dominant team without pressure but that is not how Chelsea squads are built most of the time. We need a Costa like fighter upfront. Its no surprise that the likes of Drogba and Costa (strong characters) did well while those like Torres and Morata struggle.

If we can some how get 40 mil for him, we must take the money and run, this league is to tough for him. His character is just not right for this. The premier league is big boys football and this guy just hasn't got it. If we persist with him next season then it will be another long hard season. A shame as I was hopeful for him.

Don't think this season will be the end of problems with this guy. We either continue to play him and get sub-par performances or we bench him and he starts to throw tantrums.
Bringing him in as the marquee striker might have been a big mistake. Conte should not have been so quick to push Batshuayi down as a clear backup.

I think we should be in the market for an upgrade regardless of him staying or leaving. Cech was so much better than him when at same age.
If not an upgrade, in the very least we should be looking to bring in a serious challenger for the starting spot. It makes no sense to give the goalkeeper a free pass.
If Stoke get relegated, Butland could be available on reasonable money. Would love to see what he can do behind a quality defence.

I think we should be in the market for an upgrade regardless of him staying or leaving. Cech was so much better than him when at same age.
If not an upgrade, in the very least we should be looking to bring in a serious challenger for the starting spot. It makes no sense to give the goalkeeper a free pass.
If Stoke get relegated, Butland could be available on reasonable money. Would love to see what he can do behind a quality defence.

Seems like she has zero football intelligence and is a just a negotatior. Was never going to work well. The sooner the club gets rid of her the better it would be.

Hazard and Pedro capable, arguably more capable than Bats, at playing up front. And January is never far away.

City were not interested in him early on. We should have closed the deal then but the board was faffing around for £2m difference with real.