Boricua Blue

But a combination of laziness, business and other things meant i've only got around to it now. How long you were holding back to this notion that when you publish your numbers, all will be clarified? Emenalo, Granovskaia and Co. are absolute is s^&*t. Numbers are not needed, this is not commodity trading. The only thing these people have going for them is Roman's madness and pockets. The sad part is that Emenalo could be a terrific youth development director, but instead he is failing miserably as Club director and dragging us fans down with him along with the other clowns in the board.

I hate sounding like an apologist for Alonso but his errors are been exaggeratedly blamed by the press and knee jerk reactors as leading to the goal. I think the goals were due to good luck on LC and piss ass poor goal keeping. Begovic is to blame, not Alonso. I cannot believe he is getting flack for closing in on the second goal after the poor clearance.

I think you are missing some aspects of my post. Hull City is a prime candidate for relegation as they just got promoted and I heard they have injury problems among other issues. They are just a name I threw out there to name a club in the lower tier of the league. It is up to Chelsea to make sure that they are picking destinations that make sense for the players. To do that they need to reduce the number of players on loan to be able to focus on the development of the marquee prospects. Perhaps Chelsea can use their financial power to incentivize teams with financial issues to give time to our loanees in return for additional financial concessions and future access to our pool of young players. Also they should ensure callback provisions kick in if playing time is not achieved.

^You must not know Lewis Baker that well. But anyway, I assure you he is better than some playing in the PL. And like I said, maybe the premier or maybe La Liga where Musonda has excelled. Another Vitesse loan seems redundant.

Some very good points from this whole thread. I believe that our sheer quantity of youth players to manage is just too hard to be dealt with efficiently. Every single player requires a negotiation with one or more clubs to get him in the right track. So is it possible to optimize each player career? My guess is no, and yet we persist for the detriment of the player career and the club too. I think the whole system needs to be streamlined in some way. Sheer number is not getting it done as this talent needs to be nurtured rather than bet on. I would like for the Club to negotiate more youth sales with buy back clauses and longer loans with callback options that make sense for both clubs involved. The club should identify the very best talent that we have and draw a more clear path to success. For example, send Kennedy to Santos for 2 years. They are famous for developing talent and we are working a partnership with them from what I read. Kennedy has the tools, he needs playing time and polishing and in his case this might be the best option. Lewis Baker to Vitesse? Bad move. He is too close too breaking out. He should be in a better league maybe even in the premier league. A loan to a team like Hull City could have given him a platform to show his readiness. And so on.

So Maksimovic goes to Napoli for loan of 5MM EUR with 20MM EUR mandatory buy at end of year. That is 21MM GBP. IDK, but this could come back to haunt Chelsea.

This is not good. 32MM GBP for a 29yr old unreliable CB is not the direction this team should be going. Too much money for a short term solution with very little chance of re-selling at a marginal lost. So sad how the team keeps making the same mistakes. I would have rather take a chance at bringing in Maksimovic who is younger, cheaper and shares very similar traits, plus upside. I am in disbelief.

IDK if I am off but I thought Oscar was fantastic today. He showed a lot of energy and was key to a lot of ball recovery with his defensive presence while contributing to the ofense with good passing and good work on the link-ups. The last goal sequence was started by him with a lovely pass to Michy right before getting trucked. I think he might at the very least turned Cesc into a part-timer.

If this is a panic buy then at least is one that allows us to address 3 areas of need: LB , CB depth and left footed players in defense. I hope it goes thru to be honest, 17MM in this year's market is not a terrible amount to pay as the downside is to sell him on if it does not workout and he still relatively young.

Sad...Maybe the best signing would be someone to replace who we have making decisions.

I am not sure what you mean. But anyway, I think Napoli sounds like they are ridiculous to deal with, that I agree with. End of day though, will they blink?

Maybe is wishful thinking on my part but could this attempts also be smokescreens to make our real targets come down in price? Maybe despite what Conte so publicly speaks about (lack of defenders) is not what he truly wants if he thinks he can gamble with the defenders he has at his disposal (including the young guys Tomori and Clarke-Salter). Who knows what Chelsea wants at this point because the attack is not looking that great either. Maybe a double dip of James and Ric Rodriguez is what we want. Or maybe we just trying to drive up Cuadrado's price so we sell him at better terms with the pretest we want funds to buy players.

Getting Ricardo Rodriguez should be the least we oughta do. Ivanovic needs to be a back-up CB. Getting a CB would be nice but I do not think Kouli at 55mm+ is a good piece of business looking into the future. I trust our pipeline of good CB like Christensen, Tomori and Clarke-Salter. Hopefully the club stays patient. Is not a win PL or bust year. If we want a little push, maybe take a chance on Lindelof who can play across the back 4. But my point is, we need to replace Ivanovic or we never going to beat the elite teams. On the positive side, loved seen Michy score and continue making a difference. He is so far proving to be a great investment.

there we go

I rather see Victor Moses than Pedro

Is like watching Series A right now.

Kante on the prowl!

Ivanovic scaring me.

I think given that they are saying they don't want to sell and we are the ones pushing then if we make the £53mm is not neccesarily a fair price but a figure that should make us walkaway if not accepted. And considering PSG paid £50mm for David Luiz I would not be too devastated. Personally, I dont even think we will bid that amount let alone £60mm.

You need to let fans who care be fans who care.

I believe he has or had a release clause of 29mm EUR or GBP. Even if it is GBP this guy is worth it. I have wanted him for a long time as I was so impressed with his skillset when I saw him play for Switzerland. I don't understand why we have not pounced on him but at the same time not surprised considering our recent history. I think he has great size, world-class offensive skills and would basically become a play-maker from the back with his long range passing ad crossing skills. I want this guy at Chelsea really bad!

£60 is too much and I actually doubt we are all of a sudden pay that much. I think no more than £53 is a fair price and if they don't accept then we should look elsewhere ( Maksikovic, Kone, Lindelof all good enough). I rather spend £60 on Ricardo Rodriguez and Maksimovic.

I have mixed feelings about Koulibaly because of the prospect of eventually having Christensen and Zouma available. Perhaps Maksimovic at a lesser price is a smarter decision.Then take the rest of the 50GBP and get Ricardo Rodriguez. .

That scenario would suck because it's too late now. Teams are most likely set in their plans and will probably not sell unless we shell out an outrageous amount of funds. At this point we might as well hope that our present group can step up and to get some help from our young guys, Aina, Chalobah, Tomori and Clarke-Salter. Last year after the John Stones fiasco we got Papy and Hector. Teams now have no time to find replacements if they sell.

Naaah, thats about average for him.