Barrettinator

Certainly would be our tallest defender right away. I guess I'll have to come to terms with the fact that we may lose Christensen.

Hazard hattrick would be nice.

If you "flop" at Madrid it doesn't mean you're a bad player either. Makelele, Sneijder, Van der Vaart, etc. They have a longer history of such players than us.

Everton needed a PL proven striker and Lukaku was that. Juventus and Roma had seen Cuadrado and Salah perform very well in Serie A and outside of England respectively. For Juventus, it wasn't a debate. For Roma, it was worth a punt. Worth noting that they both took both players on loan too to test the waters and not an outright purchase. Not sure how or why you ignore all of these factors when making arguments. On Monaco, I'm speaking based on the trend in recent years of how they've done business. You're speaking based on what you think they should be doing. I'd go out on a limb and say my point has more basis than yours, but aye, I could be wrong. Cheers!

What has Batshuayi done since joining Chelsea that makes him worth more than 10m? Tammy Abraham has a higher stock than him at the moment.

They're doing fine financially because of this model. Why should they make a compromise now just to appease Chelsea for no reason (when we couldn't even do them the favour of taking Falcao of their hands when they wanted us to) instead of taking more money from Madrid or someone else? Wake up, my friend. And no, Everton wouldn't :lol: Michy has looked poor overall when he has played. Why on earth would they take him? :lol: They didn't even take Lukaku on loan until they saw him perform well for West Brom. They're not some tinpot club. They're the best club outside the top 6. Are you even putting anything in perspective?

And on that note, there are plenty of strikers of Batshuayi's talent level out there they can get and for cheap too. So why shouldn't they grab as much cash as possible and get a Batshuayi type for 10m somewhere else?

Because they need the money to balance their books? Their stadium is an 18k seater stadium if I'm not mistaken and they're hardly a global merchandise machine raking in money worldwide, neither is there an abundance of TV money flowing into Ligue 1. Plus ever since their owner's disastrous divorce settlement, they've reverted to this model. Selling to balance the books and turn a profit. They really don't need Batshuayi mate. Even Everton wouldn't take Batshuayi + cash for Lukaku.

Seems like you haven't noticed their current model. They're taking after Porto's model of finding raw talent, grooming the talent and selling for a hefty fee. They could have taken your advice and gone for some experienced striker rather than a young inexperienced lad after they sold Martial to United but what did they do? They went for Mbappe. Falcao is already the main striker on the team. They can afford to have an inexperienced lad playing alongside him. Monaco aren't that concerned with winning trophies even though they would like to. For the umpteenth time, Batshuayi isn't going to be in any sort of player + cash deal for Mbappe because Monaco aren't that stupid and they don't care about having "experience" as much as you think. They're one of the youngest teams in Europe across the board and are in the CL semi final still. Won't be surprised if they sign Dembele from Celtics next.

Mbappe is head and shoulders the best talent on the team. That's like saying Madrid will make more money selling Kroos, Modric, Bale, Isco and Marcelo so they wouldn't mind taking a player + cash deal for Ronaldo. Doesn't work like that. In fact, if they sell Mbappe and maybe one other player, they'll have enough money sitting in the bank to tell all other clubs interested in their other players to pay higher fees or f**k off.

And there's no reason Monaco would accept Batshuayi instead of more money and developing another budding young talent. It's that simple.

Exactly. They don't need Batshuayi. They'll grab as much cash they can from the highest bidder and line up the next relatively unknown talent to groom him into stardom for sale again within 2-3 years. They're already preparing to sign Anderlecht's Yuri Tielemans as replacement for Bakayoko.

When I say position of power, it's not in the sense that they're not going to sell at all. It's that they're going to get the highest possible fee they can get for him because the best clubs in the world WANT this kid asap. And I'm sure they wouldn't mind enjoying his services for another season. They're hardly knocking on everyone's door looking for beggars. You also need to realize that player + cash deals rarely happen these days. When was the last significant player plus cash deal you can remember? Last significant one I remember personally is 25m + Matic to Benfica for Luiz 6 years ago. You're fantasizing about a type of deal that doesn't happen often and with a player who's hardly a world beater. Won't happen mate.

"One of the best strikers in Ligue 1" who hasn't even done as well as Falcao is doing this season in Ligue 1. Or Balotelli. Or 18 year old Mbappe. And you're referring to 15/16 which at this point in the year is almost 2 seasons ago. I'm afraid you're overrating Michy here. What happens if Madrid throws in Morata + 70m?

You make a good point re: Rooney. It was a ridiculous amount United paid at the time but it looked less ridiculous considering they had broken the transfer record for Rio a few years prior. Still, it puts the Mbappe saga into perspective. And on the second point, that's exactly what I've been trying to tell @pacquiao. Monaco are in a position of power here. Batshuayi + 60m would be a stupid deal for them to accept, especially considering how much Mitchy's stock has dropped since joining us (not that he was a serial world beater in the first place anyway).

Again, good offer in YOUR eyes. Such a deal would never happen.

It's a good offer in your eyes because you're obviously a Chelsea fan. If I'm Monaco, that's an offer I'd throw out the window within 30 seconds. Batshuayi is hardly a Morata who's sitting on our bench but deserves to start for us. Very raw player who hasn't got his sh*t together yet. He's not worth the 30m we paid for him but that's another story. There are other replacements Monaco can get that would fit better and do better for them.

And what reason would they have to accept such an offer? Batshuayi is hardly some world beater and Monaco aren't that desperate to sell Mbappe. They know they can spark a bidding war and get a hefty fee. Years ago, we picked Solanke and Abraham ahead of Mbappe. It's time we stuck with that decision and gave Abraham a chance instead of shelling out world record fees for his age mate. Mbappe would probably also be in the Championship with some team on loan right now if we'd picked him instead. I think Chelsea fans need to forget about Mbappe. We're not getting him. On Morata, it sure looks more likely than ever. Hopefully, Madrid can let us have him for 50m. They'll probably want to make us happy ahead of a possible future business dealing (i.e Hazard) so it could happen.

We're not going to buy him, neither would we even bid for him so that's out of the question. We're going for a striker who can lead us to a CL next season, which Mbappe is still too young for, in terms of responsibilities. And no one spends that kind of amount just for a back up striker. So there you go. Zlatan, a 35 year old, scored 17 in 28 in the league (28 in all comps, iirc) with a sh*t United team who were clearly much worse than what he had at PSG. You have to put things into context. Yes, the level of competition in Ligue 1 is not as high as the PL but still, this "PL proven" argument doesn't work as well as it used to some 10 years ago. A lot of foreign players have ripped that argument to shreds. Purely as a player who's only 18, there's still a big chance that Mbappe could turn out to be an average striker by 24 but most signs are pointing towards him being the real deal right now.

I wouldn't want us to spend 120 odd million euros on an 18 year old kid. Which is what they're asking for, per Di Marzio. We're already about to do enough head scratching business spending 70m+ on Lukaku.

Mate, Falcao is by no means a sh*t striker. He flopped at Chelsea and United because he hadn't fully recovered from his injury and such injuries generally require a good run of games to get back to the level you were pre-injury and neither United nor Chelsea could afford the number of games he needed for any of that. Saying "in the same league Falcao scores for fun" as a way to diminish Mbappe's achievements is quite naive tbh. It's clear to anyone who's been watching Falcao this season that he's just now getting back to being pre-injury Falcao, even though he's still not fully there yet. Falcao has scored and performed well in the CL as well. Does that make the CL a tinpot competition too? Didn't 35 year old Zlatan also come from that same league to compete for a golden boot here? Scored for fun in France and would have scored even more than he did here if it wasn't clear that old age was catching up to him, considering the amount of absolute sitters he missed this season. He could have had 25 league goals if he wasn't 35 years old. And that's in England. Mbappe is clearly a serious talent even as young as he is, just as it was clear to everyone that 16 year old Rooney was the real deal. There are some instincts and intangibles that go along with ability that this kid possesses and you don't often see them in footballers. They're usually found in great players. He's going to be a great striker, there's no question about that. EDIT: One more thing; everyone knows Balotelli's problem is hardly his talent. It's his attitude. If he had the attitude of a Drogba/Eto'o/Henry, he'd have gone on to absolutely destroy teams week in week out. As much as he underwhelmed in England, he also underwhelmed in Italy for AC Milan and his career was in the toilet because of his own attitude. He has gotten a bit of it back together playing for Nice and that's why he's scoring now. Got nothing to do with the league. Not sure why you're attacking Ligue 1. It's the same league that gave us Hazard, Azpilicueta and a certain Drogba.

Football has gone mad

That he had a Chelsea trial some time ago doesn't necessarily make him a Chelsea fan. He watches Chelsea a lot but also watches Juventus and Madrid a lot according to his father. So there's really no proof he's a Chelsea fan mate. Meanwhile, Ronaldo has converted a lot of kids into Madrid fans.

West Ham are perennial game raisers when it comes to playing Spurs though so I wouldn't count them out. They could force a draw against Spurs, even though I don't think they'll win.

Great article. I hope Conte continues to forge his own path while still being in line with "Chelseaness". Might end up being an even better fit than Mourinho 1.0 for us. http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/features/2017/5/2/15516654/antonio-conte-chelseaness-we-are-the-chelsea-and-we-are-the-best