Socrates

Apparently Papy Djilobodgi is Senegalese for John Stones and we've been after him all Summer. Now we finally have our man, Emenalo deserves all the credit.

According to French Football Weekly: “In his 31 appearances last season he picked up 11 yellow cards and Nantes conceded 29 goals when he was on the pitch - and just nine clean sheets. “No one saw this move coming - no one in France quite believes it. “It would be the most bizarre transfer of the century...but French paper 20 minutes is reporting that FC Nantes defender Papy Djilobodji is having a medical at Chelsea.” http://frenchfootballweekly.com/2015/08/31/ligue-1-transfer-deadline-day/

I'd say it takes two to be led down a garden path. The one who's doing the leading and the idiot who allows himself to be led.

We were robbed. They knew how desperate we were and trebled the price. It happens.

This can't be You mean like when it all turns out to have been a bad dream? We really are signing John Stones and Pogba and not Papy Jellybodgejob. Thank God for that.

Cobham, April 2015. Jose: Get me a centre-back and a central midfielder. Michael Emenalo: I'm on it, boss. Four months later... Cobham, August 31, 2015 Jose: Well? Michael Emenalo: I got you Papy Djilobodji. Jose: You're fired.

2.5m euros they were asking! I hope we haggled over that price! Don't think he's worth more than 1.5m personally.

I so want to start a thread for Papy Djilibodji.

Ah, yes. Pappy Djilobodji. The first name on everyone's lips. Jose will be pleased.

True. But there's talk of taxes of a further €20m. So we're in effect talking about €70m for a kid who's never played in the Premier League. That's why Man United backed out of the deal. Not saying we're not desperate enough to do it. We might well be in full panic mode right now...

But Stones has experience playing in the Premier League and would count as homegrown. I'm not saying that Stones is necessarily a better player, as I've not seen enough of either to judge, but there's probably a good reason why we were after Stones and not Laporte.

Have to say that Juve took us to the cleaners on the Pogba negotiations. Got us to hand them Cuadrado on a plate for a season then led us on a merry dance over Pogba eventually raising the fee to a ludicrous level. Marina and the Board, got well and truly out manoeuvred. They likely never intended to sell us Pogba at any price. Instead we got distracted from more realistic targets and gave them a player for nothing. Pretty amateur stuff.

How does possibly signing Stones and/or Pogba next Summer help the current problem in defence and central midfield? Jose clearly identified a centre back and midfielder as his needs for the current season so it would be negligent of the Board to have no contingencies in place. Rumours of us scrabbling around trying to sign anyone and his grandmother are already surfacing. I mean, Marquinos with two days left of the window? Seriously?

Remember the days when we would just pay what it took? Lampard, Essien, Drogba. We put the money down and wrapped up the deals. People said we overpaid to get them. It doesn't look like that now. When did we start this haggling nonsense? It's not as if we can't afford it or that anyone takes FFP seriously anymore.

After watching Willian’s shooting prowess today I'd be inclined to give them Willian and Ramires and a truck load of cash.

Soon there'll be no-one left to panic buy. How did it come to this?

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/601704/-?

Must've been Ivanovic as Jose said he has given the player every chance to improve before considering dropping him. No way is Jose going to drop Hazard. We have enough problems as it is without dropping our one truly world class player - even if he's not hit peak form yet.

Ivanovic can play centre-back in the same way he plays right-back. He can fill the space on the team sheet but in reality it's probably best that we don't play him there at all. I don't even think he'll cause less trouble in the middle. He's still too slow and he's useless when one on one. I'd rather we spent 15m on a player who can actually do a job when required. That shouldn't mean we can't go for Stones next year. Neither Terry or Cahill look like world beaters at the moment and I'm not sure Zouma is the answer.

Painful to see we still have Azpi playing left-back when it was only ever supposed to be a temporary measure. And a centre-back playing right-back when that experiment has run its course. And to two slowing centre-backs with only an enthusiastic kid in Zouma for cover. We still don't have a solution to a midfield without Lampard or a partner for Matic. We still can't get behind defences and are crazily over dependant on Hazard to do everything: to beat everyone, to assist and to score and to defend as well. No wonder he looks fed up. Stones and Pogba would be a start. And it shows we know where part of the problem is. Thing is we might end up with neither by the looks of things and we don't appear to have any contingency plans. That would be complacent bordering on negligent.

How many goals do we have to concede down the right before Jose realises that Ivanovic is a liability? Does Jose not know these matches are taped and opposition managers have access to them? And what the hell is going on with our midfield? We might as well stick a couple of traffic cones in the middle of the pitch for the opposition to run past. If not Stones and Pogba then I hope we have a couple of decent alternatives lined up. Or Jose might have to do the unthinkable and drop Ivanovic, play Azpi on the right and give some younger players a start. Hell might freeze over first.

Couple things could be going on. Firstly, we might be trying to force John Stones' hand into pushing harder for a move. Secondly, we really do need a back up in case the Stones' deal doesn't happen. Also we don't want to splash out say 35m on Laporte because we're going to come back for Stones next Summer. So Abdennour at 15m might be seen as a decent back-up solution. As for whether he's any good, I've never seen him play so have absolutely no idea.

Tancredi Palmeri has his say:

Demanding it is one thing. Doesn't mean we'll offer it to him. Also demanding excessive money, if reports are true, is another way of politely telling us he's not interested. If he wants to come to Chelsea then being offered the same wages as Hazard is hardly a disincentive. It's up to him really.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3214552/Chelsea-John-Stones-Jose-Mourinho-turns-attention-15m-Monaco-defender-Aymen-Abdennour.html