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@abramovich Conte came to us last year and sure wasn't given his players I suppose but still had two key acquisitions in Kante and Luiz.  This year he has earned the right to pick players and he has...Bakayoko, Rudiger, Morata are all Conte type signings.  The problem is if we are transitioning to get all Conte's players there has to be some hold over.  We rid ourselves of Oscar, Mikel, Matic, Costa, Terry, Cuadrado (who Conte wanted to stay even), demoted Fab, etc.  We have gone on this summer to sell and loan youth players who made the squad last year.  

We are trying to overhaul in one season and I again say it is not feasible.  Chelsea are no longer a club looking to buy up players for any fee.  We need to be sensible about our business now and that is in direct opposition to the way Conte wants to work the transfer market.  If up to me, I'd say sure let's go ahead and buy Sandro for 80m, let's bring in Lukaku for another 80m, don't sell Matic for 40m to a rival, etc.  

 
Selling Matic for 40m is great business, think about it we can now use that for a younger central midfielder!

No idea who we're going for but I'm sure we will get one! The Chelsea board aren't completely clueless, they'll know we can't rely on just 3 midfielders for the whole season considering we will have at least 60 games to play in.

 
Can't help but feel with Matic gone as well, we could have offered some serious minutes to RLC or Chalobah.

 
As others have said surely we must have a replacement lined up makes no sense if not.

Not long now til the season starts and any new signings will have to hit the ground running. 

 
On the surface, a good bit of business considering his decline and the fact we have Bakayoko already.

HOwever, it does make the Chalobah sale a little more puzzling.  With the sale of Matic and Oscar we have about 100M in the "war chest" that i truly hope we use to strengthen the squad 

 
Who we rumoured to be after then? All I've seen is Ross Barkley and The Ox..

Keita from RB Leipzig would be something

 
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Got a lot of criticism last year on here so can't see him changing his form by signing for united. He's looked slow in the middle with Kante so will just have to see how he does. What bothers me is the players in the side from last year that have gone/ going may have been replaced, but Conte stated with chmp lge football we would need a bigger squad. Unless there are deals in the background I think we are short by 3-4 players once the others are fit i.e. Hazard etc.

 
mad_mac said:
On the surface, a good bit of business considering his decline and the fact we have Bakayoko already.

HOwever, it does make the Chalobah sale a little more puzzling.  With the sale of Matic and Oscar we have about 100M in the "war chest" that i truly hope we use to strengthen the squad 
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apparently we've made 200m since january 2017 from player sales. not sure how true that is though. 

 
Richard P said:
Got a lot of criticism last year on here so can't see him changing his form by signing for united. He's looked slow in the middle with Kante so will just have to see how he does. What bothers me is the players in the side from last year that have gone/ going may have been replaced, but Conte stated with chmp lge football we would need a bigger squad. Unless there are deals in the background I think we are short by 3-4 players once the others are fit i.e. Hazard etc.
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That is what we need. 3-4 players. I think we will end up with 2-3 players and probably not the ones Conte would have wanted. Someone young needs to step up I'm afraid.

These days the summer is 50% of the season and how it pans out. Last summer we got Conte. Two summers before that it was Costa and Cesc.

The way Utd has done business they are going to be strong, City as well. We are there with Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Pool in the next tier.
 
evissy said:
That is what we need. 3-4 players. I think we will end up with 2-3 players and probably not the ones Conte would have wanted. Someone young needs to step up I'm afraid.

These days the summer is 50% of the season and how it pans out. Last summer we got Conte. Two summers before that it was Costa and Cesc.

The way Utd has done business they are going to be strong, City as well. We are there with Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Pool in the next tier.
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Agreed. We are definately falling way below our direct rivals in terms of how our squad looks. We have a top first 11 but the rest of the squad is very average in terms of strength and depth. 

United and City have seen their weakness and spent huge on adding to their squad which is what we should be doing. Instead we are selling more than we are bringing in and not replacing that experience and strength. It's actually pretty worrying and is not be shocked if Conte gets pissed off with the way our board are jeopardising our season ahead. We have one of the smallest squads in the league now which is simply ridiculous given our stature and finances.

 
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enigma said:
apparently we've made 200m since january 2017 from player sales. not sure how true that is though. 
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There are all pretty rough, so bear with me.  But I think we've done

Matic 35M

Oscar 52M

Ake 20M

Cuadrado 17M 

Begovic 10M

Traore 9M

Bamford 6M

Atsu 6M

Chaloba 5M

We also are getting about 2.5M for the sale on of Salah

SO that's roughly 35+52+20+17+10+9+6+6+5+2.5= 162.5M

 
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You get the sums wrong:
Matic - 40m.

Oscar - 60m.

Ake - 20m

Cuadrado - 17m3 + 5m. from the loan - 22,3m

Bamford - 10m(inc. bonuses)

Atsu - 6.2m

And the sum is 182.5m

And we also will probably get arround 3m. for Solanke so more then 185m .....

 
Our lack of depth is greatly exaggerated. Bring two wingbacks & a 4th choice CM in & we have a very strong squad. Way stronger than last season. More depth & overall quality, only inferior to City.

All this moaning abut Matic is laughable, a quickly declining player that hasn't hit the heights he had since 2014. Slow & ponderous on the ball, positionally weak, mediocre technically, one-footed, unathletic, extremely inconsistent & terrible against the press. Like Mata & Cech this is a sale we definitely won't regret unlike Filipe Luis & De Bruyne.

Our inability to complete the Alex Sandro deal is the only thing I'm overly worried about. Sandro & Hazard would be by far the most devastating duo in Premier League history. Two World Class players on one flank is almost unfair.

 
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I really think this is a bad decision to let him go. But that's life.

Great player who played a big role in two title wins. Will never forget the night he bossed Toure off the park when he first came back. 

Good luck to him (but not too much).

 
Richard P said:
Got a lot of criticism last year on here so can't see him changing his form by signing for united. He's looked slow in the middle with Kante so will just have to see how he does.
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Mourinho will be happy for him to largely just sit deep which will cover a lot of his deficiencies.

 
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