6 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Giroud a reliable finisher? Okay. His strength lies in his hold up play which Sarri’s style doesn’t require.

Look that might be slight hyperbole. But he scored big goals for us last year and is certainly more reliable than Morata. 

In my view teams will sit deep against us to combat the Sarriball approach. Giroud could be important to unlocking those defences. 

49 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

You do realise RLC is just back from a break after the world cup and came on as a late sub? 

But yeah Ramsey would have made two assists and scored a brace...

Place is mental 

I'm not suggesting RLC needs to come on and bag two assists and score a brace... in that particular situation just a simple percentage pass to give Tammy a chance would have sufficed. A break shouldn't matter, if he had quality he wouldn't even need to be fit.

Edited August 1, 20187 yr by the special one

Apparently we've offered £30m plus Drinkwater for Zaha... which has been turned down.

The market is ridiculous. £60m for inconsistent wingers like Zaha and Mahrez while Barça are quietly picking up Malcolm for just over half that?

At this rate we would be better placed to keep giving CH-O a run out, if Zaha is £60m then he's got to be worth at least £65m [emoji23]

8 hours ago, TheFunkeyGibbon said:

Apparently we've offered £30m plus Drinkwater for Zaha... which has been turned down.

The market is ridiculous. £60m for inconsistent wingers like Zaha and Mahrez while Barça are quietly picking up Malcolm for just over half that?

At this rate we would be better placed to keep giving CH-O a run out, if Zaha is £60m then he's got to be worth at least £65m

To be fair Zaha has been tearing opponents apart for CP and Ivory Coast. He's pacy, strong and extremely unpredictable. Not that hard to see whay they won't allow him to leave for peanuts. Furthermore, it's only £60M if CP values DD at £30M, which it seriously doubt they do. I believe we have to offer something like £45M + DD for them to even consider the offer.

16 minutes ago, Hanzen said:

To be fair Zaha has been tearing opponents apart for CP and Ivory Coast. He's pacy, strong and extremely unpredictable. Not that hard to see whay they won't allow him to leave for peanuts. Furthermore, it's only £60M if CP values DD at £30M, which it seriously doubt they do. I believe we have to offer something like £45M + DD for them to even consider the offer.

Palace would want a striker if we were serious about Zaha so expect that would need to be Giroud.

I think Zaha could do well for Sarri though not sure how we would shape up in a front three, 

 

33 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Palace would want a striker if we were serious about Zaha so expect that would need to be Giroud.

I think Zaha could do well for Sarri though not sure how we would shape up in a front three, 

 

Good point. Though it would be lethal with a front three with Haz, Martial, Zaha. Pace and unpredictability all over the line. but yeah, that would probably cost us Morata, Giroud, Willian and DD.

Giroud is a great second option to have, even for possession football, and he's got good techniques. Selling him for a tiny profit makes little sense, add another 20M to buy a slightly better upgrade? Zaha is probably pretty annoyed the new kid gets 170k and he's still on about 1/2 of that.

Too late for any business from us now in my opinion, besides a potential Courtois replacement. (right now i think he is staying, too)

We haven't even shifted any of the supposed certaintees to go.

 

Took us god knows how long to sort Sarri and then take Jorginho.  I would be quite confident that we wont do anything this final week.  Unless we are quietly moving ahead with a couple deals behind the scenes.

Clubs should not have voted for the earlier closure of the window tbh, i get why they did, but i think they made it worse for themselves, plus the deadline is 5pm

Definitely think from next summer though we absolutely need a Sporting director/DOF to take negotiations away from Marina

Edited August 2, 20187 yr by RickUK

Can’t get my head round why we still haven’t appointed a Sporting Director.

Could still see a martial / Willian swap happen to be honest.

7 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

Could still see a martial / Willian swap happen to be honest.

I think it is still possible as well. Mourinho will become more and more desperate to offload Martial the closer it gets to transfer deadline day

34 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

Could still see a martial / Willian swap happen to be honest.

I think we would have to  move morata on, and also sign a right winger to make it happen. 

I don't see it all coming together in 7 days.

Hope the swap deal happens, but I think it’s more likely that Bernard joins on a free and we sign Vecino, with a couple players leaving.

23 hours ago, the special one said:

Ramsey wouldn't have f**ked up a simple through ball in a promising 3 v 2 situation like RLC did tonight.

Because he would be, as was, injured. I don't think RLC is going to make it with us but i am also not sure that Ramsey is the answer.

I'd be happy with Martial/Zaha in for Morata/Willian(or possibly Giroud instead of Morata, even is Alvaro looks shot)

Edited August 2, 20187 yr by BordeauxBlue

Only possibility of a Zaha deal involves RLC, of that I would be absolutely certain.  And i dont think RLC gets into our side this season

Zaha adds nothing we don't already have. He is a poor man's Hazard and will block the progress of CHO. He primarily plays on the left and given his style would be much less effective on the right.

He'd be an enormous waste of money.

2 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Zaha adds nothing we don't already have. He is a poor man's Hazard and will block the progress of CHO. He primarily plays on the left and given his style would be much less effective on the right.

He'd be an enormous waste of money.

He's a different player, Hazard uses trickery and great dribbling, Zaha uses pace and body strength both tend to shoot on the angle. Fair point about CHO yet do we do know what type of striker Sarri likes?

The only one I have seen mentioned is Higuaín who does not score many with his head, more running onto passes.

1 hour ago, RickUK said:

Only possibility of a Zaha deal involves RLC, of that I would be absolutely certain.  And i dont think RLC gets into our side this season

Or any season for that matter.

 

Palace just added 2 midfield options so doubt they want drinkwater. 

I see it more likely as this, Roy would still want ruben but we wont sell him. So a loan, and a dark horse exchange here of Cahill. Now I know that seems unlikely but if Gary can get a 3 year deal at palace where he is on one year deals here and may be restricted to the bench a move and staying in London may appeal. We have too many at the back anyways and they get a leader. Or if they don't want him another one sarri may be willing to let go is Zouma. Either way 15mill of the fee for Cahill, 25mill for zouma and say 5mill loan fee for ruben. Then just a matter of if we are willing to pay the difference palace want.

Same time if willian pisses the club off and if we get Zaha I can see us just selling him to United and going with hazard, pedro, zaha and cho.

3 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

He's a different player, Hazard uses trickery and great dribbling, Zaha uses pace and body strength both tend to shoot on the angle. Fair point about CHO yet do we do know what type of striker Sarri likes?

The only one I have seen mentioned is Higuaín who does not score many with his head, more running onto passes.

More a point about where they play. Both do their best work in the left channel. Same issue I have with the Martial signing. 

Our striker in my view is largely about one touch finishing. Both Higuain and Mertens excelled in that area. To combat our style teams will mostly sit deep and make us play around them. What will be needed is someone who can make a pocket of space and finish the chance they get. Zaha isn't that player in my view.

7 hours ago, RickUK said:

Only possibility of a Zaha deal involves RLC, of that I would be absolutely certain.  And i dont think RLC gets into our side this season

Or Drinkwater/Cahill which I'd be more than happy with.

 

They are aiming to sign Meyer on £180k a week so they my be forced to sell Zaha

Edited August 3, 20187 yr by PedroMendez

Zaha would be disappointing. 

He dribbles with eyes closed, while team mates are screaming for the ball. I can't imagine he is a player you would enjoy playing with. 

Maybe he wouldn't try to do it all by himself, if he were surrounded by better players. I don't think he has shown enough ability to take that chance, especially for a club record fee. 

He would be an interesting option, but he would definitely not be an improvement.

6 minutes ago, big blue said:

Zaha would be disappointing. 

He dribbles with eyes closed, while team mates are screaming for the ball. I can't imagine he is a player you would enjoy playing with. 

Maybe he wouldn't try to do it all by himself, if he were surrounded by better players. I don't think he has shown enough ability to take that chance, especially for a club record fee. 

He would be an interesting option, but he would definitely not be an improvement.

I think over the course of a season, he would give you more than either Willian or Pedro. But if one or both of them are staying and with the emergence of Hudson-Odoi, I really don't want anything to hamper his delevlopment, as I can see an exciting season ahead for him but not if he slips down the pecking order.

 

For me I fail to see any significant difference between Zaha and Moses, in what either would bring to the team. This need for homegrown "talent" is really quite worrying as it highlights the amount of dross that gets bigged up by the media in this country.

Aaron Ramsey, Jack Grealish, Wilfred Zaha......really, seriously!