Hanzen

I mean, when you put it like that it does look mad 😂 On the other hand, Matos, Hutchinson and Moreira where all free transfers. Seems likelt that they're investments that will simply go into the development squad or on loan with an ambition to sell them on in the future. CHO/Ziyech are being sold by the looks of it. Anjorin might as well, while a loan is still an option - just as Vale seems to go out on loan. I can't imagine Jackson or Nkunku being played as wingers. This leaves us with Mudryk, Madueke and Sterling as out-and-out wingers. Pulisic is gone. Ziyech is pretty much gone. We've only really replaced them with Mudryk and Madueke. At the same time we've said goodbye to Mount, Felix and Havertz in the offensive positions. Nkunku and Jackson can't cover all of them IMO...

It probably will be financially motivated, yes. However, the possibility of sporting succes is always the aim I'd hope. Naturally the club will hope he develops to a first team regular - but otherwise we'd potentially be looking at getting a solid return on the investment. It's not exactly as if we've seen loads of Brazilian players fall through. IIRC the list only includes Piazon, Wallace and Nathan as players that never really had the level - meaning that we also got three somewhat succesful transfers in Alex, Kenedy and Oscar when looking a young players coming directly from Brazil. I know... Kenedy might be a stretch. But he actually did quite well at first despite playing LB - and across several clubs he did manage to play +110 games across La Liga and PL while contributing to 20 goals on the way. Not really that bad IMO. Could potentially have been a squad player for us - not the worst investment though. Oscar and Alex (Alex was bought at 22 y/o) both had great careers. For me it's been 50-50 with our investments fra Brazil - but Angelo and Andrey Santos (and potentially Matheus Franca, if the rumours are true) does indeed look like interesting young talents. If we manage to snap up three potential top players for a combined £40-45m that'd be decent piece of business. We're not taking the biggest talents; ie. Vinicius Juniour, Rodrygo, Endrick and Vitor Roque - but those guys also had transfer fees in the range of £35-75m each. For me this one seems interesting - and Ligue 1 could be a good level to test some of them at.

Agreed - but anymore really is the important addition here. When those players were in their prime, the market was different. What I mean is that these players are gamechangers. Not sure Caicedo is. Is he a huge talent in his preferred position and role; yes! - Is he good at football? Yes. He also was when Brighton bought him for £5M a year or so ago. The point I'm trying to make is that the playing style makes pretty much all of their players look amazing. This improves value massively. He does look great - but so did Fabricio Diaz in the U20 WC for Uruguay. I'd imagine a scenario of us buying Caicedo for £90M (add-ons incl.) and Brighton replacing him with a young talent from South America like F. Diaz for <£15M - and the latter performing better due to their system.

Agree - not at all worth the reported £80m. However, who is? (Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo, Hazard, Lewandowski, De Bruyne... yes.) These are players with a clear unique skillset and talent. That's something you'd be willing to pay an extraordinary amount for. Caicedo is unique. But his role just isn't somwthing you'd normally be paying that much money He is an exciting young prospect for the box-to-box or ball winning midfield role. But I'd imagine that you could easily replace him with similar players that'd tick of the exact same boxes if they had his role in Brighton. That being said... Example Bissouma also looked amazing when playing for Brighton. Despite injuries and so, he was still mediocre at Spurs. It really goes to show that some players are only as good as a system allows them to be. Brighton has build up a great structure and playing style through years of trusting Potter and De Zerbi. A system that ensures all players know their exact role while in possession and off; more specificly in pressing patterns and transitioning off the ball. Even Solly March and Joel Veltman looks like brilliant players due to their system. Those are players that few top clubs would consider though. Our main issue seems to be inconsistant tactics, organizational strategies and so on. We're starting to work towards something with our new directors, but there's a massive mountain to climb still. It seems that the directors at the club are seeing nothing but the right boxes being ticked off for Caicedo. - Furthermore, he'd somewhat be an ideal fit for Enzos game. But for £80m we'd be able to find loads of other interesting players that could potentially do the same. Still, something in me really want this one to go through.

It seems to end up at a total package of €20m. Can’t help but feeling like it should have been more; knowing his power and drive when he broke through. Never really the same after the injury though and after all it’s probably hard to justify us demanding more.

He pretty much sounds like a true copy of Zakaria 😄

It's blows my mind that Brighton want more than £60m for a guy they bought for pretty much nothing just over a year ago. I mean, he's like a field-to-field midfielder ffs 🙄

Exactly this. If we were to pay the release clause of €120m it would be in one installment. Enzo would basically have to inform the Portuguese League Board and Pedro Proenca about his desire to payout his clause and then transfer €120m (delivered by Chelsea, obviously) to the Portuguese League, who'd then have to send the fee to Benfica. By offering more - let's say €150m - we'd potentially be off with something in the region of €10m every six months over 7,5 years. That's indeed a fee we'd easily be able to write of on the books given the size of both our current and future revenue streams.

Agreed. It seems that Xavi want more additions to the squad (Alonso, Azpi and Bernardo Silva) and due to the current economic climate - not to mention the lack of outgoing transfers - Barcelona are now starting to offer several players pretty much for nothing just to free up liquidity. Assuming that the rumours about them offering Aubameyang, Depay and De Jong indeed seems likely, especially given that these are players that will either deliver fundsto get Bernardo Silva, or free up some cash to get Alonso and Azpi in and registered for free - as it'll all ascend into a higher unity. If I had to pick two of the three it would be Depay and and De Jong. If we then were able to somehow stop the transfer of Cucurella and instead get Gvardiol, Fofana and Mæhle, I'd feel that we've somehow managed to turn a quite weird transfer window into one of the most exciting ones in a very long time.

Most people that has played FM will definately know Scamacca. I've seen quite a few Serie A games over the past seasons, though not with Sassuolo or Genoa specifically. He's kind of target man type like Tammy Abraham (tall and with quite decent ball control, red.) with a bit better technique in his finishing and a bit more strength as well. Couldn't have imagined us going for him really as he - like you've mentioned - was somewhat unknown or average until last season. In 20-21 he only played 26 games for Genoa while being subbed on or off pretty much every game. That was his breakthrough season even - and he was already 22 (21) y/o at that time. As far as I've read it wasn't exactly him turning these clubs down, but Sassuolo as West Ham were willing to meet their valuation. PSG wouldn't do that while Inter got Lukaku and had to decide whether or not to go for Dybala instead at the time. That led to rumours saying AC Milan was indeed in pole position to sign him, but from what I know they too felt that €40-50M was way too much and instead tried out for a loan deal with an option to buy. _____ Oh well, back to our real issue; the CB/RWB position. Not really that big of a fan of Pavard - he kind of reminds me a bit of Christensen physically and technically. The latter is obviously a good thing. However, there are plenty of exciting Bundesliga CB's to go for IMO. Tapsoba, Upamecano and Mavropanos have already been mentioned, and these aren't even the ones I'd go for primarily. Gvardiol is. Young, fast and strong. Left footed. Knows how to play in both a 3-line and 4-line at the back. Furhtermore there's Lacroix and Ndicka who'd fit in decently IMO. Looking away from the Bundesliga I'd probably go for Pau Torres. What I'm struggling to see is he logic in us paying £70M+ for a defender like Fofana, as most rumours now are pointing towards. He's young and he knows the league. Starter for Leicester. I know. He's also just lost around 10 months due to a broken leg - something that will affect most players ability going forward. That injury is a massive red flag in my book. With him just signing a new contract during this period, I'm really finding it hard to see us doing a great deal here. We once bought a player - some relatively famous Spanish striker from Liverpool who had recently returned from a serious knee injury. An injury that saw him delivering his worst goal return for Liverpool and Spain in a long time - which was shortly before us smashing our transfer record to sign him. - Needless to say, he was never the same for us or any of the clubs afterwards. Fofana isn't neccesarily the same case - but young players being hit by serious injuries is such a massive risk. RLC, CHO and Zouma are other examples of players who had the world at their feet before picking up long term injuries. In flashes I've seen alle three showing some of the potential and level they showed before, but never consistantly.

Seems like it. Would be ideal as he can play both RCB and RWB, but I'm really finding it hard to see us hijacking this deal. French player being targeted by the biggest club in France - that's quite tough competition. However, I'd be more happy with either Kimpembe/Gvardiol/Mukiele than Kounde/Aké. Could potentially be that we'll get neither of the above.

Agreed. He's a CB - and potentially a LB. Never a wingback. If we're able to get him for a decent price it'd make sense as he can cover several positions. - IMO a decent price, however, is a lower than what we sold him to Bournemouth for. I don't see him as a starter for us, meaning that he'd probably take over the role Sarr has at the moment. With this in mind, I really do hope that the rumours* about Koulibaly is true - and that we're going for him. He's played in both 4 and 5-man defensive lineups on the left centerhalf, and though he's just turned 31 he'll likely have quite a few good years in him. If he's €35M as the rumours are saying, then I can't see us going for Aké unless he's like $10-15M, which I highly doubt. The links between Koulibaly and Chelsea has been quiet in the past weeks though. Looks like Juve want's him to replace De Ligt. Should this be the case, then I genuinly hope we're asking about the situation for Kimpembe and/or Gvardiol before turning our focus to Aké. *Rumours that he can leave for around €35M.

I really do see him as a very ideal transfer. At 27 he should be entering his prime - and though his finishing could be better, he has a brilliant sense of finding the right spaces, while having staggering pace and dribbling ability. Futhermore, he's English and from London - and he's a proven winner. If we can get him for €40-50M I'd take it all day long.

Some big claims here... As far as I remember there were quite a few clubs that wanted Pulisic - hence the reason we ended up paying too much for him. Furthermore, buying him in February probably didn't help the case. You have to remember that he was only 20 years old, American (commercial value in a massive market) while being captain at the NT as well as playing regularly since his debut at just 17 on both teams. His number for Dortmund - when looking only a G/A - wasn't special, even though he was young. I agree on that part. However, he had the most successful dribbles in the league two years in a row, and he was primarily benched by the to younger players after being signed by Chelsea. In the NT he made his debut at the U17 being only 14 years old if I remember correct ... scoring 20 goals in 34 games. For the NT (excluding friendlies) he has playes 37 games, scoring 17 times and making 10 assists. At the time of the transfer he had only played 16 games for the NT, scoring 7 goals and delivering 7 assists. Now... did we overpay? Probably. But his market value was indeed high. There are still several articles posted online with pretty consistent rumours saying that Dortmund only would let him leave in the summer of 2018 for around €70m. We bought him half a year later - just after the January window. Looking at his statistics for us, he's played 115 games while averaging ~60 minutes per game. Had he played 90 minuted per game, it would equal 78 full games (yes, I'm well aware that it's like this for all players given our rotational habits). He has scored 25 goals and made 19 assists. 44 goal contributions in 115 games for a winger is hardly THAT terrible. Even more so, 44 goal contributions in gametime equal to 78 full games, that a decent output. I'm, not really so pro Pulisic as it may seem, but what I hope is seeing the Pulisic we saw under the pandemic. Explosive, quick thinking and effective. He's only 23 and has been quite prone to injuries as well. But other than that, yeah. We definately have a history of overpaying for the wrong players.

I really hope we don't go in for Rice... Especially not for the £60-80M as some are mentioning. He's good, sure. But surely we'd be able to get more from that kind of investment in this climate. I was actually feeling like we had the best transfer window in more than ten years before the Mendy and Rice rumours became more serious. Even with Mendy - who IMO looks like a pretty mediocre GK - the window has still been great. I'd hoped for Kepa to grow some f**king "*"*" and start performing, but unfortunately it seems we're never going to see that. Don't think Mendy is the answer even though Big Pete was the ones to scout and recommend him to Marina, according to most rumours. However, with us using something like £100M for a pretty unkown 27-year-old GK from France and a CDM from a expected relegation-battling team, I'll actually be rather dissapointed. I know, he was a Blue in his young days, and most of our young players know him - especially Mount. He's young, has some decent leadership skills and is probably the first name on the team sheet for WHU. But still. £100M for that and a 27-year-old French GK? That's kind of the same as what players like Sancho would cost. I know - not a CB, but I genuinely believe that we'd get players like Donnarumma and Upamecano for the same total amount as Mendy/Rice. I know which pairing I'd prefer.

Really agree here. If Leicester want £60M for Chilwell, I'd definately look elsewhere. But maybe Lamps and the coaching and/or analytics-staff sees something that we can't. It seems that there are several other potential players to go for in that position. To name a few - though it may not be given that all are on the market... José Gaya, Alex Grimaldo, Alex Telles and Nicolas Tagliafico. - Furthermore, just by looking at Transfermarkt for young LBs, these guys seems to be interesting candidates: Owen Wijndal, AZ Alkmaar (20) 24 Apps 1 Goal 7 Assists Luca Pellegrini, Cagliari (Owned by Juventus) (21) 23 Apps 0 Goals 6 Assists Rayan Aït Nouri, Angers SCO (19) 17 Apps 0 Goals 3 Assists I know. All of the above are pretty much offensive stats, but still. There are so many players, that can - probably - be acquired for way less than Chilwell. Personally if had to choose between all of the above, I'd go for Gaya. Got no idea if he's available or even want the transfer, but I've really liked him the few times I've been watching Valencia play over the last years.

As to your first post - I agree 100 % There's a bit moneyball to it, and obviously there's someone going under the rader, that would potentially be a complete gem to get our hands on. - In some way I belive that's what we did with Marcos Alonso. Instead of going for expensive well-known names we went for a guy that Conte wanted. Someone that has later been looked at as one of the best wingbacks in the world. Could Dunk be another case? Maybe. But I doubt it. My point wasn't even if someone would like to swap or buy Christensen - but more the that FL and the coaching staff knows they've got their hands on a brilliant footballer, who simply lacks some recklessness and leadership. I believe Rüdiger has that, but the pairing of the two seems two go wrong nonetheless. Perhaps they're failing to communicate and organize their defensive roles, but something's wrong. Still, my point is - and thisis pure speculation... If your're FL, and you've got four centre backs - all decent, but none whom are really world class. Would you go out and buy another one, that isn't really better than the rest? Especially with the FFP limitations? A case could be made that next season we'd be better off. But this isn't a sprint - it's a marathon. And what I believe FL and the board are doing is looking at the long game. How do we secure our team for years to come? Is it by trusting the ones we've got, and then adding another high quality defender in the coming years when one becomes available - or is it by buying Dunk, and maybe ending up with a slightly better defence in the next couple of years - but still being significantly behind teams like City and Liverpool overall? What I'd look in to instead is someone like Romagnoli or Ruben Dias. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? More than taking a change with Dunk IMO. For now I suppose we have to trust Christensen in the remaining games of the season. He was decent against Villa, but tonight he'll be tested - not so much on physicality (luckily for him), but more on keeping his focus at all times.

To be fair I think most people that watched the UCL or at least had som interest in football would have known about Fernandinho. After all they did splash out a pretty high amount of money for him as well. - It goes both ways though. They also bought Fernando from Shakhtar. He wasn't exactly succesful. If we were to go for a guy like Lewis Dunk, it would have to be at a max. price of £10-20M. What he offers is - as you say - experience, leadership and that rough edge. But is he a better footballer, and more intelligent than a guy like Christensen? Does he have the same potential? The same age? - No. What I like doing is turning the table around. Would Brihgton want a guy like Christensen? Hell yeah. Would they be willing to pay £20-40M+ for him - given that he'd want a transfer to them? I've got no doubt. With this in mind, why would Lampard want to switch out a young, intelligent player from our own ranks with someone that's older, and has experience, but isn't really a better fotoballer? I believe we're waiting until the right defender becomes available - instead of spending anywhere between £15-40M on another decent squad player like we've done countless times. We've got plenty of those already. One thing I do miss about Mourinho was the fact that he made sure we went for a few - though expensive - quality players. Diego Costa, Fabregas, etc. Those guys was key to us winning the title. I like the transfers we've done so far - and I'm really excited about the possible Havertz transfer. But a guy like Dunk shouldn't even be linked to Chelsea IMO. It reminds me of a few years back when we we're linked to Crouch and Barnes. hat was around the same time when we bought Drinkwater, Zappacosta, Emerson and so on.

Firstly, I agree with almost everything here. Though, as I know some have mentioned, I genuinely believe that the scoreline was massively misleading. Therefore, yes. I'm dissapointed with the result. A lot even. But I don't think our performance was that bad. Sure - we need some kind of solution for the team to get re-positioned when our first-pressure fails. Which it did a lot yesterday - giving United plenty of spance in the center of the field to drive the ball forward. But hopefully that'll get sorted by SFL and the staff. The penalty, as highlighted, was just bad on so many levels. First AC make some half-hearted tackle, making the ball bounce back to a United-attacker, who Zouma then decides to taking down with slower and more clumpsy movement than ever. This happens shortly after Zouma had given away a major chance to Martial, by passing the ball directly to in our penalty area. Bad, bad defending. Their second goal came after - in my opinion - a foul on Tammy. However, it probably was a fifty-fifty decision, which the ref choose to rule in favour of the defender. Sadly the counter ended up with a birlliant cross, hitting the man Azpi had to cover on his shin and going in. Tough luck - but that's part of the game i guess. 90 seconds later both Azpi and AC were sleeping massively, giving Rashford time and space to score on a simple though ball. Perhaps the only goal, that United should recieve credit for. Simple and effective. As the ref then decided not tostop the play after a potential head injury for Zouma, most of our players got caught off guard, given United an easy counter-possibility, where the shot (of course) got deflected and went in. Just our day. So yeah - well beaten, but also extremely unlucky. Both with some of the decisions that the referee made, and also with our finishing. That's us losing by margins - small margins even - which somehow ended up with a 4-0 loss. I've seen us drop easy games we shouldn't have done before - but not in a long time by these kinds of margins. Could have easily ended with a win for us, had things gone just slightly different. I have plenty of believe in the squad after last nights performance. I mean, well. We're not going to win a lot of titles this year, but I can live with that. As long as we get control of our pressure play across the field, as well as our defense. And as you say - with more of our even better players coming back from injury, things could turn soon enough.

Don't really think so. Pogba is 1,91 meters tall - Ndombele is 1,80 or so. Though I'd partly agree, if you're referring til their physical presence on the field. Ndombele is a lot better defensively as well - a lot more disciplined... and he knows how to carry the ball through the middle. The best comparison to Pogba is that they're both from France IMO.

Touché!

Could see us ending up anywhere between 4-8 - but not lower than that. As some have pointed out we are about to get loads of talent back in the first team. Imagine... Just imagine if Bakayoko for some reason goes back and delivers. Futhermore we've got Zouma coming home, Reece James, Tammy Abraham and even Batshuayi. Though I have got serious doubts regarding Pulisic, I somewhat hope that he proves everyone wrong. Hopefully both CHO and RLC will come back even stronger. There's plenty of talent. If SFL becomes our next manager, we already know he'll be going for a 4-3-3 formation - just as we have been playing for the entire season. Most of our players should be comfortable with this formation. I mean, look at our possible squad - and back-up squad with all players fit GK: Kepa RB: Azpi CB: Rudiger CB: Luiz LB: Alonso CM: Bakayoko CDM: Kanté CM: RLC RW: Willian LW: CHO ST: Giroud ... plus our back-up squad: GK: Willy RB: James CB: Zouma CB: Christensen LB: Emerson CM: Barkley CDM: Ampadu (If Jorginho is sold) CM: Mount RW: Pulisic LW: Pedro ST: Tammy/Bats That's still a clear top 6 squad IMO. Even our back-ups should be able to produce something like a 10th finish. How many of the other PL-clubs would want either Zouma or Christensen in their defense? How many would like Barkley, Mount, Tammy, Pedro or Pulisic in their starting XI? I would assume pretty much everyone except the other top six clubs. And even some of those might want one or more of them. ... a side note. Read that someone thought Spurs succes was depending on Kanes ankle. Partly agree . He is crucial to their succes. But another- quite underrated player - is Eriksen. He is the one that binds everything together. Think it'll be a massive loss for them if he's leaving. Lo Celso and Ndombele are to quite different players, and I can't see them directly filling the Eriksen-gap, should he leave. Son and Kane are still brilliant though - and if Dele starts performing again, Spurs could be dangerous. Doubt they'll challenge Liverpool or City though.

Don't forget Rodrygo and Militao. A brilliant summer for Real so far... and yesterday Pogba was out saying he'd be ready for a new challenge - not to mention Eriksen doing the same a week back. Don't think they'll go for both - but one of them will surely end up there.

Exactly. I've read rumours from €75M to €150M over the past 12 months. Most recently it was €100M and in the past weeks it has been €130M. Now it seems that we are telling them to pay up around €140-150M for his services. And I bet that we're going to get it - which obviously is what he's worth as well.

Haha - probably, yeah. The difference between him and Sarri is, IMO, that Ten Hag offer a more direct style of football. Not just moving the ball from side to side for the sake of it. What I fear with Lamps is that our fans in the beginning will give him a long leash due to his history at the club - but then they'll turn on him in time if results and/or playing style isn't going anywhere. And I would be so sad to see his legacy partly ruined due to taking charge of Chelsea too early. As well, I think you're right about Tomori and JCS. Sadly... Tomori has been brilliant this year. Perhaps Chalobah has a better chance than the two - though he'll probably be loaned out.