Barrettinator

He's definitely going. Don't give yourself false hope.

I think the fact that only Milan were in for him this summer should tell you a lot but oh well.

No mate. Alonso/Rodriguez is nowhere near Sandro/Alonso. Not even close. Rodriguez is a solid LB. That's it. He's not world class. You need world class to win the CL. When team apart from us have you seen win the CL in the past 10 years with sh*t/average/decent/very good full backs? Just go on a memory trip and you'll see what I mean. It's an absolute important position and even more important for us now that we deploy them as wing backs. We may not even retain the title next year with Alonso and Moses starting every game for us.

Secretly hoping Baker steps up in pre-season and Conte is impressed enough to make him fill the role Tolisso would have filled. I think Baker is a similar player.

We announced new deals in the summer of 2006 before the Adidas deal kicked in though. Didn't Ballack sign in a sweater or something? Shevy signed in something similar too, might have been a suit. Can't remember Cole's. It's possible the new kit deal is a factor but I don't think the club will deliberately hold up any deal because of a kit. Players sign in normal clothes all the time.

Would you say no to signing Sanchez in favour of starting Pedro and signing some young forward for cheap? Barcelona could have signed some young Spanish player but when they got the chance to sign Suarez, they jumped at it. Right now they're trying to sign Verratti too and he definitely won't be cheap. This whole mentality of trying to be economists even though the club is financially healthy enough to handle a big splash every other summer is actually puzzling. How is Sandro for 55m a rip off? You think he'd have come for 30 million or something? Have you seen today's market? They're quoting 100 odd mil for Lukaku. LUKAKU FFS! Have you seen the prices being slapped on players everywhere? Players like Van Dijk, Mbappe and Belotti have ridiculous price tags after 1 good season. Sandro has been great since his Porto days (along with Danilo back then) and has finally made the leap from great to world class. And he's 26. We get a good 6-8 years out of him. How's that being ripped off?

If we're actually making bids for Sandro (which we clearly are) then it's obvious we can afford him along with our other targets even at that price. So why are you complaining? Never seen so many fans say no to world class talent before.

In Conte's words, cold hard decision but necessary.

Pedro has had a fantastic season for us. If we got a chance to sign Sanchez to play in that position would you say we sign some up and coming forward rather than a world class player just to massage Pedro's ego? I'm sure he knows he'll absolutely sit on the bench for a Sanchez type. You say it like Alonso is some important superstar. We basically increased the profile of his career 10 fold by signing him. You're actually sending the wrong message to the best players on the team like Hazard, Courtois and Cesc by NOT signing the best players you can to help win the CL.

Nah I wouldn't wait for him either. I'd give Aina a chance, f**k that.

Might as well give Aina a chance if we're thinking like this.

Why the f**k are we being linked with him? I'd be shocked if this ever materializes.

You have to understand though that a lot of the frustrations with Marina and co aren't invalid. Especially after the terrible 2015 summer. And when you consider the recent trend we've had of pissing about the summer after winning a title (2010, 2015), it seems like the board have developed a habit of complacency post title wins. It would be utterly stupid to repeat the same mistake this summer. I do understand that they're not just sitting on their arses all day and that they're working to get certain deals done. I just hope we do it the right way this time. A Koulibaly/Stones repeat would be terrible for us and would waste our time. I've had knee jerk reactions this summer already (after City signed Silva) but I've decided to cut the board some slack. If by July 1st, we still don't have any real targets nailed then I think it'll be time to panic again.

Thing is, when you get the chance to buy a world class player in a position where your player isn't world class, you don't turn down that chance. Alonso is never going to make it into the Spain squad anyway so he doesn't exactly have world cup hopes. I'm sure he'll be fine with earning what he's earning at Chelsea plus playing 25-30 games a season. I think he'll be content tbh.

£55m in today's market is pretty much £30m in 2014. It's a bargain for a player of his quality, to be quite honest. It's amazing that we're even able to get him. For his age and quality, there should be no reason for Juve to sell. But I think it's easier for them to do so because they can take that money and throw it right at Monaco for Mendy. We all have to accept that the market has changed. Look at the prices that were being quoted for Van Dijk ffs. Look at the prices being quoted for Mbappe and Belotti after ONE season of breaking through. Insane. But it's today's market.

Even if he couldn't cross at LB, playing out of position shouldn't stop certain natural attacking runs you make as a full back and certain passes. Truth is, he's just not cut out for it offensively. You can't rely on him in that department. Years ago I said he should be given time to add that to his game. He's 27 now so that's never going to happen. He is who he is and if he gets even better as a player, it will likely be defensively. Of course I'm happy to be proven wrong about all of this but I just don't fancy him there at all.

The problem with the picture you're painting is: 1. Why wait WEEKS between bids? During that whole period you're losing valuable time in the window. 2. Why table an offer that's only marginally better like you're Wenger penny pinching? You know very well there are only a handful of players on world football that Chelsea can't afford (the Ronaldos and Messis and Neymars). 3. Luiz himself has confirmed that CFC only made an inquiry and subsequent offer about him on deadline day. So no, they didn't have Luiz planned as a backup option the whole time. He was a last minute thought that just happened to work out in our favour. PSG could have told us to f**k off if Emery(sp?) wanted to keep Luiz.

Not a fan of Dave at wing back either. He's no Ashley Cole. His offensive output is nowhere near the quality we'd need in that position.

Looks rather bland to me tbh.

We're not lighting the CL on fire with Moses starting at RWB, that's for sure.

A little extreme, yes, but it's essentially what we did with Napoli and Koulibaly last summer. According to them, by the time we tabled the right offer, it was days before deadline day and they didn't have enough time to find a replacement. This is a player we started chasing in July of that summer. Pretty silly negotiation imo. The respect angle is important because selling clubs always want to save face for their fans. They want to look like they got the best deal for all parties involved and weren't mugged off. You have to respect that factor while taking advantage of the fact that they're open to selling.

I think our finances are strong enough to both spend 60m on a LB and 60m on a Sanchez/Rodriguez, believe it or not. We haven't spent heavily in quite a while. I'm sure we can handle a £200m+ summer.

When you have a chance to get a player like Sandro, you don't settle for Bertrand. I thought it was a nothing rumour at first but evidently, our interest was real and the bid was made. Of course it was rejected, but Marotta's comments about the bid sound an awful lot like someone who's left the window open for the player to say if he wants to leave or not. They probably rejected the bid to show that they'd like to keep him but wouldn't be against him leaving still. It's up to Sandro now to ask for the move.

There's no RB/RWB in world football who's worth spending stupid money on at the moment. All the good ones will be relatively cheap (for this market) in the £25m-£30m range.

Fair enough. I'm indifferent on Beasley. He works for the Sun after all. But whether that's his fabricated reporting or he's actually reporting what Jose told him, imo it does not reflect the reality of the situation.