13 minutes ago, Van Butsen said:

Take this with a massive chunk of salt, but my colleague is a Spaniard from Madrid and his familiy is friends with Florentino.

James will stay
Isco will be loaned but possibly to Malaga, not Tottenham
They have a signing they will announce today, a Uruguayan Striker, so unless we have a Figo 2.0 on the card that would be Cavani?

I'll go back to never speculating if none of that happens, but that's what he said.

 

Cant see madrid signing cavani, when they have morata, and benzema. Maybe it will be one for the future.

The rest looks pretty likely though, however i would a deadline deal for james.

https://mobile.twitter.com/TeleFootball?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

 

Aymen Abdennour. Loan deal?

 

Was good at Monaco but had a bad time at Valencia. 

Today is really ridiculous, now were being linked with Moussa Sissoko. f**k that.

BBC reckon James McCarthy is available from Everton, which is interesting. He's a player I've always rated, and is someone I think would fit into Conte's plans quite well. He's also only 25 (and hugely experienced considering his age), and has the added bonus of being home-grown. Any takers?

30 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

BBC reckon James McCarthy is available from Everton, which is interesting. He's a player I've always rated, and is someone I think would fit into Conte's plans quite well. He's also only 25 (and hugely experienced considering his age), and has the added bonus of being home-grown. Any takers?

I'd be happy if we signed him for the same reason I mentioned in the Sissoko thread. He's no Naingollan but physical and knows when to put his foot in. Alongside Kante/Matic we'd have a midfield capable of competing for top 4 IMO.

Edited August 31, 20169 yr by the special one

6 minutes ago, the special one said:

I'd be happy if we signed him for the same reason I mentioned in the Sissoko thread. He's no Naingollan but physical and knows when to put his foot in. Alongside Kante/Matic we'd have a midfield capable of competing for top 4 IMO.

I think we need someone who can chip in with goals and assists in midfield, James McCarthy does neither of those things and i don't think he is any better than Oscar. Matic and Kante are more than enough for the defensive side of the game, what we need is creativity in there, it's why i want Fabregas to play in front of Oscar.

Edited August 31, 20169 yr by Scott Harris

14 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I think we need someone who can chip in with goals and assists in midfield, James McCarthy does neither of those things. Matic and Kante are more than enough for the defensive side of the game, what we need is creativity in there, it's why i want Fabregas to play in front of Oscar.

Yeah I do agree, we do need goals from midfield and I'm certainly not saying the likes of McCarthy/Sissoko/Brozovic should start ahead of Fabregas/Oscar against mid/lower table opposition. It's just for me against top opposition goals from midfield becomes less of a factor, as Mourinho's record here would suggest in the big games we should be looking to park the bus/nullify our opponent, we can't do that with Cesc (as he said himself on Sky Sports last season he's a defensive liability).

Edited August 31, 20169 yr by the special one

Jason Cundy has apparently been told by Bruce Buck that we'll be getting two players in, presumably that means Alonso plus someone else.

I think McCarthy would be a more natural fit than Matic as the 'second man' in a three-man midfield of Kanté, someone, and Fabregas/Oscar. He's physically good, has a fantastic work rate, and is a tidy enough passer.

He definitely fits the profile of the kind of player Conte wants in his midfield, but I think you are right that a) he wouldn't necessarily start, and b) he doesn't really give us anything we don't already have.

So, that leaves the missing piece to this wonderful window. 

40 odd million. 

Fernando Torres.

Do the deal, board.

Don't disappoint us.

Then we can really start to celebrate. :|

Don't you get bored of whinging and being negative?

hahaha....Don't you get bored of whinging about whinging?

When there's plenty to grumble about, grumble away. I say. :]

4 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

I think McCarthy would be a more natural fit than Matic as the 'second man' in a three-man midfield of Kanté, someone, and Fabregas/Oscar. He's physically good, has a fantastic work rate, and is a tidy enough passer.

He definitely fits the profile of the kind of player Conte wants in his midfield, but I think you are right that a) he wouldn't necessarily start, and b) he doesn't really give us anything we don't already have.

 

My points exactly.  

5 hours ago, dkw said:

Today is really ridiculous, now were being linked with Moussa Sissoko. f**k that.

Moussa Sissoko is a good player. But true, Chelsea does not need player of his kind right now.

Wonder if we will have a surprise signing hoping so, I can't work out why their was a helicopter going to the training ground if it wasn't for Luiz 

I think we should really get a forward in, Bats and costa just might not be enough?

So, are we going into the new season with only two recognized strikers? What's going on?

Miaza off to Espanyol for the season...so SSB must be on his way...

Salter Clark and Colkett off to Bristol Rovers on a season long loan 

I am not happy how this window finished. We started off so well. Now we are bringing players like Alonso in who arent even international players. I love Luiz but how is that moving forward to a solid defence? 

Ricardo Rodriguez should of been the Fullback we brought in. Would of completely sorted our woeful set pieces and corners and can put an awesome ball in the box. At only 23 has champions league and International experience. 

Disappointed in this finish. Kante and Bats had me thinking we were heading in the right direction.

Two recognised Strikers?, where is a contingency plan for injuries, a good window, and no replacement for Remy!!

Two recognised Strikers?, where is a contingency plan for injuries, a good window, and no replacement for Remy!!

Right, can we have a signing that actually strengthens the team now, please? A striker, maybe?

5 minutes ago, Kante Conte said:

Right, can we have a signing that actually strengthens the team now, please? A striker, maybe?

Actually strengthens the team? We got 4 who do that, as for a striker bit surprised we have only 2 since costa is injury prone and conte is known to like 2 up top when feasible, we may get a surprise and get a striker (doubt it now) or we may use hazard as a second striker, pretty sure conte hasn't let it slip his attention, there is obviously a plan. 

Trying to think how we may line up now, I guess most likely is that the formation will just stay the same but we will have a better balanced back 4. But wondering whether we switch to a 3-5-2 or even a 3-4-3. So maybe;

 

----------------Cahill , Terry , Luiz

Dave------------Matic---Kante-------------Alonso

-----Willian--------Costa/Bats----------Hazard

Or

----------------Cahill , Terry , Luiz

Dave------------Matic---Kante-------------Alonso

--------------------Willian/Cesc

-------------Costa/Bats------Hazard

 

To be honest, we have some pretty decent depth now, apart from at CF. So we can line up a bunch of different ways, will be interesting to see how Conte goes from here.