by hot prospects, does that mean according to the sun or the mirror? i.e. sh*t sources not worth their salt.

20 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Eh? Why would they have no interest in joining us over any other top club?

Well you've heard of, or read about, the same events in previous transfer windows, as I have. If you have a different interpretation those situations, that's fair enough but my opinion is firmly as I stated.

Edited November 30, 20178 yr by OhForAGreavsie

12 hours ago, Nibs said:

Not a chance Conte would put up with that lazy f**ker for 2 great performances a season.

Will happily take Sanchez though......................

 

He worked well for Jose. 

I would actually take him, him, Hazard and Morata would be mesmeric vs the lesser sides then he can sit out the big games while we go 352, we would get all his perks that way.

12 hours ago, CFCholland said:

Oh God no not ozil, where would he fit into this squad? Not a chance in my opinion.

He'd rotate with Fabregas and has license to roam like he does with Germany.

1 hour ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Well you've heard of, or read about, the same events in previous transfer windows, as I have. If you have a different interpretation those situations, that's fair enough but my opinion is firmly as I stated.

Im not sure what situations you're referring to tbh. 

41 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Im not sure what situations you're referring to tbh. 

Three main categories into which more than a few Chelsea transfer targets fit. These examples are by no means a complete list: -

Players who would be tempted by our status and financial power, but who are simply not excited enough about joining us to kick up enough of a stink to force a move. Luca Modric, John Stones, Kalidou Koulibali, Sandro, Bonouci, Vidal, Naingolan. 

Players who string Chelsea along, not in an effort to find a good agreement with The Blues, but simply as a bargaining tool in their contract negotiations with other clubs. Too many to mention.

Players who outright state, boast indeed, that they turned Chelsea down. Neymar, Ousmane Dembele, now of Barcaloana (in 2015), Danilo claimed he chose City despite Chelsea offering him more money, Mendy told Monaco he would not move to Chelsea but that he could not resist City. Kyle Walker, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Van Djik reportedly wants Liverpool not Chelsea, an agent in the press last week says, as others have before, that he advises his players not to join Chelsea, even Guardiola rejected us multiple times.

People reading this can certainly remember other names, probably many other names, who fit on this list.

On 10/21/2017 at 03:40, startedwithglenn said:

I wonder if those who were ridiculing the suggestion of Raheem Sterling as a target in the summer are willing to digest some humble pie yet?

 

On 10/21/2017 at 11:27, RIP Mourinho said:

Still wouldn't take him in our team. He's a product of the service he receives at City. Wouldn't get that here.

*cough*

15 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Three main categories into which more than a few Chelsea transfer targets fit. These examples are by no means a complete list: -

Players who would be tempted by our status and financial power, but who are simply not excited enough about joining us to kick up enough of a stink to force a move. Luca Modric, John Stones, Kalidou Koulibali, Sandro, Bonouci, Vidal, Naingolan. 

Players who string Chelsea along, not in an effort to find a good agreement with The Blues, but simply as a bargaining tool in their contract negotiations with other clubs. Too many to mention.

Players who outright state, boast indeed, that they turned Chelsea down. Neymar, Ousmane Dembele, now of Barcaloana (in 2015), Danilo claimed he chose City despite Chelsea offering him more money, Mendy told Monaco he would not move to Chelsea but that he could not resist City. Kyle Walker, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Van Djik reportedly wants Liverpool not Chelsea, an agent in the press last week says, as others have before, that he advises his players not to join Chelsea, even Guardiola rejected us multiple times.

People reading this can certainly remember other names, probably many other names, who fit on this list.

That still doesn't tell me why they have no interest in joining us but yea all of the above are true and actually happened. I think the first two happen to a lot of clubs we just dont notice it because we're not tuned in to all of the transfer rumblings at Inter or Dortmund.

Since Bentake was mentioned as a possibility for us, I'm going to say Rondon from WBA wouldn't be a bad choice, if we are  considering Bentake. Hopefully we aren't on for another central defender, unless Conte finds a formation to play 5 of them at once.

5 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Since Bentake was mentioned as a possibility for us, I'm going to say Rondon from WBA wouldn't be a bad choice, if we are  considering Bentake. Hopefully we aren't on for another central defender, unless Conte finds a formation to play 5 of them at once.

Blimey, Bentake has gone well off the boil but even he looks prolific when compared to Rondon!

Wouldn't touch either with a barge pole.

I think Charlie Austin might be good as a back up striker, not as good link up play as Morata I suspect yet probably as good as Costa at linking up.

We want to be one of the best teams in the world. Players like Benteke, Rondon, Austin, etc... are bottom half of the table strikers. If we want to be up there with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, etc... we should be aiming much higher.

Like 200m Icardi? I'm sure that's feasible 

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

We want to be one of the best teams in the world. Players like Benteke, Rondon, Austin, etc... are bottom half of the table strikers. If we want to be up there with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, PSG, City, etc... we should be aiming much higher.

Zeta, I don't think you can keep those players happy on the bench, didn't Morata say some thing like he considered Tottenham yet they had Harry Kane.

10 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Zeta, I don't think you can keep those players happy on the bench, didn't Morata say some thing like he considered Tottenham yet they had Harry Kane.

I'd rather have an unhappy but quality player on the bench, than an average player just happy to be there. 

If theyre unhappy, we can move them on and bring in someone else. 

I'm not saying we need another player as good or as expensive as morata, but id be happier with Hazard or pedro up top for us than Rondon or Austin. 

I'm not even sure we need an out and out striker, I think a versatile forward that could play with hazard and morata, ir lead the line themselves, would be much more useful.

 

 

28 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Zeta, I don't think you can keep those players happy on the bench, didn't Morata say some thing like he considered Tottenham yet they had Harry Kane.

Has to be a higher level of player we can keep happy than Benteke or Austin though.

2 hours ago, big blue said:

I'd rather have an unhappy but quality player on the bench, than an average player just happy to be there. 

If theyre unhappy, we can move them on and bring in someone else. 

I'm not saying we need another player as good or as expensive as morata, but id be happier with Hazard or pedro up top for us than Rondon or Austin. 

I'm not even sure we need an out and out striker, I think a versatile forward that could play with hazard and morata, ir lead the line themselves, would be much more useful.

 

 

we need to be looking at our youth system and loan players to be filling out squad places, because spending so much money on players is hard to do any more. not every big club has a squad or bench full of world class players as it's unsustainable. pasalic, loftus-cheek, abraham are players who may need to be in our squad/on our bench to fill out the squad. 

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

Has to be a higher level of player we can keep happy than Benteke or Austin though.

wouldn't mind someone like mario gomez. experienced, but also a quality striker. 

I'd have Austin over Benteke all day, even with his injury record.

Get Tammy back.

Not sure Tammy is ready though why we didn't do more to keep Solanke is a mystery to me.

3 hours ago, enigma said:

we need to be looking at our youth system and loan players to be filling out squad places, because spending so much money on players is hard to do any more. not every big club has a squad or bench full of world class players as it's unsustainable. pasalic, loftus-cheek, abraham are players who may need to be in our squad/on our bench to fill out the squad. 

I totally agree you can't have a squad full of world class players, and I wasn't suggesting anything like that in the post you quoted. 

The squad we have at the moment is already supplemented by players from the reserve setup. There is still space in the squad to add 1 or 2 more quality players, if we don't add quality, how do we improve? 

It would be great to see loftus cheek, and abraham come back and make a significant impact. Unlikely but great. 

Some fans seem to worry about having too many top class players, because we can't keep them happy, I just don't get that. No player should be happy to sit on the bench. 

 

 

49 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Not sure Tammy is ready though why we didn't do more to keep Solanke is a mystery to me.

Likely because he wanted it now looking at players like Dembele and Mbappe and we weren't prepared to give him that role.

It's fair enough if nobody sees eye to eye. Just a shame he chose the dippers.

On 30/11/2017 at 18:06, TheChelseaBlues said:

That still doesn't tell me why they have no interest in joining us but yea all of the above are true and actually happened. I think the first two happen to a lot of clubs we just dont notice it because we're not tuned in to all of the transfer rumblings at Inter or Dortmund.

Sorry, I misunderstood the point you were making.

I’d say it’s bound to be a number of factors rather than one.

Our reputation for playing dour football must be in there somewhere as, I think, must be the fact that, win or lose we are regularly outplayed in the high profile games. We could talk about unpopularity due to events like the Paris metro, the Eva incident, the nonsense of the pitch in that second encounter with Barca, the JT/Anton Ferdinand incident and others. We could talk about the perceived instability of the club. When all is said and done however, I just don’t think top players rate us. They just don’t see us as a superior football team. Those potential recruits with good alternative options generally take them. 

Edited December 2, 20178 yr by OhForAGreavsie

21 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Sorry, I misunderstood the point you were making.

I’d say it’s bound to be a number of factors rather than one.

Our reputation for playing dour football must be in there somewhere as, I think, must be the fact that, win or lose we are regularly outplayed in the high profile games. We could talk about unpopularity due to events like the Paris metro, the Eva incident, the nonsense of the pitch in that second encounter with Barca, the JT/Anton Ferdinand incident and others. We could talk about the perceived instability of the club. When all is said and done however, I just don’t think top players rate us. They just don’t see us as a superior football team. Those potential recruits with good alternative options generally take them. 

We're defo not highest in the pecking order but I doubt footballers nowadays care much about the on field stuff enough to not play here. 

Nowadays I think they want to play for certain coaches and having both Pep and Jose pick off our targets this summer was a problem. I think there's some truth that players don't see us as prestigious as some others but in the end who knows why certain players won't come here or if the were even interested in the first place. I think we're pretty easily the top destination in London

On 30/11/2017 at 16:07, startedwithglenn said:

 

*cough*

Point still stands. Raheem wouldn't get those opportunities at Chelsea. Would just be another Willian.