Hanzen

Completely agree! He should be getting most cup games as well as the must-win Europe League matches. In addition it would be great to see him coming on from the bench in PL. Perhabs som starts against the weaker sides.

Don't really see this happening either. I'm starting to think that the club will hold on to both Pedro an Willian instead of looking for new, young prospects.

Doubt it as well, but well. But he would complete the - possibly - best three-man midfield in the world if he was to come. I think we'll end up with Vecino. Bakayoko will go on loan and Drinkwater will be sold. I've also seen somewhere that he is a fan of Real Madrid - and I would really like not to be going through another Courtois-Hazard thing wih them...

Spot on.

Exactly. The question is whether Barkley can step up and fill that gap himself.

It's not that I don't agree, but the point might be that Vecino could turn out to be just as good as SMS - without costing us something like £100M. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have SMS at the club - but economically it just don't make sense to pay what Lazio are demanding. I'm not saying that Vecino is a worldbeater, but Sarri knows him and his style of play. He does seem a bit like both Bakayoko, Barkley and RLC - but ultimately we have to put trust in our manager. As to the Bakayoko and/or Drinkwater transfer situation. Both have been rumoured away for some time, with Bakayoko seemingly turning down loan deals at both Milano clubs. Sevilla have long been mentioned as a follower of him - and with N'Zonzi on the verge of leaving, they could be in for a loan deal as well. Personally I believe that Baka want's to stay here and fight for his chance rather than going away on loan after 12 months at the club. Drinkwater seems morre determined to leave, wwith a lot of the bottom-half PL-clubs mentioned as possible destinations, according to the media. But I agree with the context. We should stop buying lotto coupons and start focussing o buying a few young talents, or proven world class players.

Completely agree! However, everything we get to read is purely on a rumour basis. There's no telling wheter that £50-60M price range was ever really true. You could argue that Juve knew Sarri had an eye for him, but then again Chelsea doesn't REALLY need a new striker, with four strikers in the club. It would seem highly unlikely that we would even consider him at that price - especially if Milan can get him for one season for around a third of the price - with no direct obligation to buy afterwards. It does seem to be a part of another deal - the swap deal between Caldara and Bonucci. Could make sense if they get Higuain for a lower price due to that deal. Hard to know.

So, according to Sky in Italy, Higuain has accepted a loan deal at AC Milan. Talk about potentially dodging a bullet!

Alonso was the same type of signing - and he enjoyed a lot of succes. Sarris knows Vecino from earlier in his coaching career. You'd assume he knows what he's doing. He seems like the cheaper version of SMS. However, I do agree that we are in need of a new winger. Personally I hope that we sell either Willian or Pedro and Drinkwater.

He's technically gifted. Decent physique as well. Only saw about 5-6 Inter games last season, and he wasn't exactly the one that caught my eye - but he could turn out to be a brilliant signing in Sarri's system. Sky are reporting it as well. Disappointingly, this must mean that the Sergej rumours were false. Drinkwater must be on the move. Maybe Bakayoko as well.

I agree with the Pedro/Willian situation. As I said, I doubt that many of the above will happen. I don’t agree with the valuation of the players. Drinkwater is a proven PL-midfielder that played a vital part in a league winning Leicester side. Furthermore he’s homegrown. Perhaps 30M is a bit too high, but 20-25M is definately realistic. Giroud is a still a great striker, and a starter for the French national team. No way he’ll go for just 10M. Bakayoko is difficult. Still young, and a season on loan could be brilliant for him. If he’s sold, I recon we get like 25-30M at least.

Getting rid of Drinkwater, Pedro, Kalas, Willian, Giroud and Bakayoko for SMS, Pulisic and Martial would still be decent IMO. It might set us back two or three players, but with our current squad width that wouldn't necessarily be negative. I believe we can get something like this for the lot: Drinkwater £25-30M Pedro £15-20M Kalas £5-10M Willian £65-75M Giroud £15-20M Bakayoko £30-40M Total: £155M + With just 11 days left it seems rather unlikely that we'll get all of the above sold. We seem reluctant to sell Willian - and Iactually rate Bakayoko, despite his massive errorr against Inter along with his bad performances last year. A few looks set to go on loan as well, but IF (and this is a big if) we manage to get rid of just some of the above mentioned players, I genuinly belive that we'll be able to fit in at least to big money transfers. We're probably looking a something like £80-100M for SMS, and rumour has it that Pulisic will be available for around £65M. Potentially Michy could be used as makeweight for this deal - though Dortmund have already bought Plea as their primary striker for next season. Martial seems unlikely as well, but with the Willian-to-United rumour still going on, along with Mou's constant media-stunts regarding - among others - Martial, and his newborn child, he could potentially come in. Indeed, it's a major long shot, but my god, it would be lovely with three young talents of that caliber.

Personally I’d wait with Zouma. Still young - and oh my, how I loved him at Chelsea before his injury. It’s hard to tell weither he’ll ever be the same or not - but I’d definately give him the chance - even if it would cost him another year on loan. I’d love to see both Tammy Abraham and Zouma at a club like Fulham or Palace for a year on loan. This way they could stay in London - close to the club, and play for teams, that have been playing some good football lately. If we do lose Courtois - which we probably will... The most recent rumours are about Schmeichel, Hart, Pickford, Butland and Donnarumma. Schmeichel could be a straight swap with Danny Drinkwater perhaps - which could be profitable for us. However, I really hope that it’ll end up with either Donnarumma or maybe even Oblak. One has huge potential, while the roger was perhaps the bedt keeper in the world last season. In terms of our our defensive outgoings, I hope to see Cahill leave the club. Sure, Cahill is our captain and he may be vital for some of our younger players, bur he’s just not good enough. Too many simpel mistakes. He’s also getting old - and if we could get anywhere between 5-10M, I think we should sell - even to Manchester United. Thomas Kalas enjoyed a great spell with Fulham last year - and will realisticly not be getting playing time here. He could make us something like 10-15M. He seems destined to leave as well. I hope we keep Luiz. He seems extremely important for the stadig and players, and on form, there aren’t many better. His blunders and playing style is just too risky to start the major games. But maybe Sarri will know how to use him. IMO Zappacosta should go. There’s no two ways about it. But then again... Rumour has it that he and Morata are best pals. A sale could influence Morata badly - and I genuinly hope we give him another chance. I don’t want to sell Batsman or Giroud either. Giroud is extremely dangerous in the area, not to mention a great build up station. Batsman has got so much potential - and I’m afraid he could end up being another KDB or Lukaku. I love Willian - but if Barcelona or Man Utd are prepared to pay something like 50-60M for him, I do believe we should sell. Our other winger, Pedro, however, is someone that I’d happily let go for around 10-15M. I’m just afraid that the club isn’t going to sell him. Moses... Well, if Willian and/or Pedro gers sold, he might be the only real right winger in the club. Plus he could be a backup for Dave at RB. I’d keep him. I don’t think we should sell Cesc unless someone turns up with a bid of at least 20-30M. He’s getting older and slower - yeah, but he has got so much routine. A manager like Sarri could be just perfect for Cesc. Same goes for Bakayoko. A lot of people doubt him - and with a fair enough reason. He wasn’t good last season. But! He did show some of his potential at times - and I really wonder if the knee injury plus the high expectations affected him last year. A new coach as well as about a year of getting used to the culture could be good for him. I’d wait and see. Don’t forget that Baka was brilliant for Monaco while playing under Jardim, in a three-man midfield, that played attacking football. At last... Haz. I really don’t hope he’s leaving. When I watched him on his debut I instantly fell in love with Chelsea again. He brought something new - and something different. Now he’s the leader of the team - and for that reason, I hope he’s not going. Sadly, it looks like we might say goodbye to him - and hello to around 150M instead. I know what I’d prefer any day of the week.

No doubler that Belotti is younger - amd hungrer. But he’s simply not Chelsea material. Since last summer’s rumours regarding Belotti I’ve been begging for us to not get him. Sure, he had a brilliant season two years ago, but if you look at him playing for whole games - and not just on YouTube, you’ll notice how much of shoot-and-pray player he is. He kinda just smashes the ball towards goal. It’s not as if he’s clinical. He’s physical, sure - but so is Morata, Batsman and Giroud. This does not mean, however, that I want fat, almost 31-year-old Argentine from Juve either. Personally I believe that we should stick with the ones we’ve got. Maybe get rid of one and give Tammy a chance. If we HAD to buy someone, it would either have to be a Lewandowski or some rapid young guy, like Martial - or some Barzilian/Argentinian youngster - like we did with Oscar.

Or could it simple be due to the fact that we were going for Jorginho instead?

According to Sky Sports, Jean Seri have landed in London this morning.

I never said we shouldn't have ANY usable backups. As well I simply stated that this was another way of improving from option B or C - instead of just buying option A and B+C. I've had the same thought (about Romans VISA and the entire management situation). Hopefully there's more clarity about it all before monday.

Partly. We bought Kanté, Fabregas and Diego Costa for around £30M each which proves that it's still possible to make great deals. I get where you're going about the fact that we shouldn't be a club that are afraid of spending - because we'll end up missing out on key players, like with Lukaku last summer. I agree with that - 100 %. But what's different with this scenario is the fact that it all could've been avoided. I'm not saying that it would be the right solution to keep Conte (I genuinely do not believe that would be ideal), but as a business I can realte to the thoughts of the board. £20M simply isn't peanuts. A such amount could save the economy for most clubs outside of the top 5 leagues for years. Even most PL teams are yet to by players for that kind of money. To look at it from a different perspective - what if the club wasn't spending £20M on letting a manager go and recruiting a new one? Then we could buy a £40-50M player instead of a £20-30M player - for money we would have had 'extra' really. But yeah - instead of buying players like Drinkwater, Zappacosta, etc. the club could have just bought one great player. A player, that could've improved our starting XI. That's another way of improving solution C or B. And I do believe we should consider the cost of keeping a manager like Conte. In the end that could turn out even worse than just paying what it takes to get what you want.

Haha! Yeah, I see your point. I never really understood that transfer to be honest. Alright, he's fast, has great stamina and can deliver a decent cross from time to time. But he just doesn't look like a real Chelsea wingback to me. He don't seem like a player that would ever be expected to be the first choice nor a fan-favorite. About the crossing percentage - that was primarily due to Belotti winning almost every single duel in the area last season. - Fair enough, the crosses weren't bad - and Zappa does have a great technique when striking the ball - but still. The credit has to go to Belotti for improving that stat. Sure, we needed some backup for Moses - but did the backup-plan have to cost €25M? Really it looked like the board was thinking something like: "Well, he's italian and he can run - maybe Conte will like him then?" I mean, there are so many other young right backs, that the club could have gone for... Mukiele, Odriozola, Maffeo, Eder Militao, Elvedi, Calabria - or even our very own D. Sterling. Every single one is under 23 y/o. Either of the above would have been a way better investment in my opinion. Well, stats will never tell the full story. Not for Zappacosta - and probably not for Alisson either. But if the transfer goes through, I genuinely hope that he'll prove all the doubters wrong.

That's probably the most spot-on thesis I've read for a long time. I completely agree.

That's a tough one. The right midfielder can control and run the game, while the right keeper kan save a game (or points, as a minimum).

Agreed, though it really isn't peanuts. We're talking about releasing Conte along with his 9 staffmembers. The value of these contracts over 12 months is possibly more than £10M. Furthermore, we'd have to pay Napoli for Sarri. To summarize: We could end up paying something like £20M for getting rid of a brilliant (although defensive) manager, who has an amazing record and lots of trophies to his name. In exchange we'd get a manager with an attacking approach with a rather doubtful record in regards of trophies. That's not peanuts, but the value of a possible high quality player. I'm not saying I don't get the point, because really I agree, but as well I understand the situation from the clubs view. These things take time. Hopefully it'll all get sorted soon.

The Sun writes that Chelsea would be ready to consider a swap deal for Martial and Willian. Personally, I'd love to see a player like Martial at the club - even at the cost of Willian. Doubt it'll happen though.

Don't get why everyone is so hyped about Pavard. I've watched a lot of Bundesliga games last season, and Pavard was decent - and primarily played CB. It was a bit of a chok that he was chosen for the final squad, but looking at the options he'd seem like a natural choice for France. He's intelligent, but really does not have the ideal attributes for a right back. He's not very fast - his offensive runs and attacking positioning could easily be better. He doesn't seem like a strong fella either. He scored a great goal - good for him. Great technique and control of the ball - but that doesn't mean you're worth £40M. Even Bayern - who've seemingly been after him for months (as a CB option) - refuses to pay the what Stuttgart demands at the moment. Rumour has it that he'll be available for a cut price next summer. Pavard sort of reminds me of Rugani in a way. He's a bit younger, but covers several positions in the back line - just like Rugani. And just like the issue with Rugani, we already have three other players, with the exact same attributes: AC, Dave and Rüdiger, who can cover both the central defense, as well as the right back.

Still... He was some years younger, not to mention some kilograms lighter. Wanting to see less of A.M. is a bit harsh. He didn't perform after december, and was injured for a period as well. He did look pretty homesick at times, and with a baby on the way I'd say it's understandable. He didn't look sharp nor happy. However, he looks set to get back with the squad and start fresh, and I'd take a happy - and on form - Morata over a 30+ y/o Higuain any day of the week. Exactly my point. And why get Higuain - which will push Batsman and Giroud further behind as the options? You'd assume that IF the club decides to go for him, it'll be to make him a starter. With Morata, Bats and Giroud you have three brilliant strikers with different attributes. Don't see a need for Higuain.