7 minutes ago, dkw said:

How do you know that? 

Apologies, not a media reported concrete bid made to any club for any player. Lots of unsubtantiated straws of rumours that we are all clutching at but nothing of any substance actually reported.

2 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Apologies, not a media reported concrete bid made to any club for any player. Lots of unsubtantiated straws of rumours that we are all clutching at but nothing of any substance actually reported.

remember when that one dude from Sky Sports came out with that rumor of Chelsea signing an unknown defender or something to that effect? no substance whatsoever, but people were ready to run with it

22 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Matt Law from the Tele (who now seems to be the only journo with club sourced info since Simon Johnson and Dom Fifield moved to The Athletic) reporting we're still interesting in Cavani but "watching" the Piatek situation in case Cavani only wants to go to Atletico. Not pursuing a Jovic loan at the moment. Given that Cavani's Mum and Dad said he wants to go to Atletico last week seems a bit strange that we're not actively looking at alternatives.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/27/chelsea-monitoringkrzysztof-piatek-edinson-cavani-move-appears/

I think its a load of old tosh though. The same small band of "available" players with media savvy agents and the same clutch of needy clubs Cherlsea need a striker, Man U need a striker, Arsenal need a defence, West Ham need a prayer!

Just now, WhiteWall said:

I think its a load of old tosh though. The same small band of "available" players with media savvy agents and the same clutch of needy clubs Cherlsea need a striker, Man U need a striker, Arsenal need a defence, West Ham need a prayer!

If we are looking at players available on loan Jovic may be available apparently, and I would think he is probably one of the better options. His confidence is probably low right now but that could change in a new team.

In all honesty it’s been a crap window. Should have had targets lined up in November with biz done first week of January. Things have never been the same since Emanalo left. We used to bring in genuine stars all the time now we are down to last minute panic buys or over the hill short term loans. 

And somehow Spurs have agreed a deal for Steven Bergwijn (a winger) for £25m. 
They are going to pip us for 4th place aren’t they?

1 hour ago, ozboy said:

In all honesty it’s been a crap window. Should have had targets lined up in November with biz done first week of January. Things have never been the same since Emanalo left. We used to bring in genuine stars all the time now we are down to last minute panic buys or over the hill short term loans. 

Seems Frank is going to find out what his predecessors all ready knew and why many left.......the Board are incompetent when it comes to transfer dealings.  With only a couple of days to go with absolutely no whisper of anyone coming, or even going for that matter, this window, given the time we have had to prepare has been a complete and utter shambles.........unless there is an 11th hour masterstroke......which I highly doubt.

I'd rather sign no one than some of the players we've been linked with. We have Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek back from injury very soon and Hudson-Odoi is looking sharper with each appearance. The last thing I want is to panic buy another Drinkwater or Zappacosta (I don't think he's that bad but a waste of 20-30million when will have James and Lamptey in the reserves!).

Who is realistically going to sell their star player midway through the season? Hardly anyone. So then we're left with average players to sign in January which is exactly what we don't want. 

Yes, we all want to sign a world class striker/attacker this month but I'm not going to slam the board for not making it happen in January. 

On 26/01/2020 at 23:00, Spiller86 said:

Yeah wouldn't bother me if Bats left. I think the only risk is that preferably you want strikers who can play together. That's our challenge at the moment. Ideally we need to find a modern Anelka or Gudjohnsen who can play around Tammy as the man leading the line. Sadly no one comes to mind!

Anelka = Werner 

Could play wide off Abraham 

Gudjohnson = Jovic

Could play behind Abraham instead of mount

Neither are available now though unfortunately.

 

 

Few rumors around Pedro going. Maybe we are working hard to shift him along with Giroud.

Hopefully an 11th hour loan/sale of Batman too.

38 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Few rumors around Pedro going. Maybe we are working hard to shift him along with Giroud.

Hopefully an 11th hour loan/sale of Batman too.

Selling some of the fringe squad players is one thing but we could do with some replacements if that is the case.

14 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Selling some of the fringe squad players is one thing but we could do with some replacements if that is the case.

No argument there. I would be fine with Anjorin and Broja stepping up to replace them if we cannot sign anyone decent though.

6 hours ago, ducavis said:

And somehow Spurs have agreed a deal for Steven Bergwijn (a winger) for £25m. 
They are going to pip us for 4th place aren’t they?

He will hardly improve them, they need to replace Harry Kane and Eriksen as well. 

Giroud could be moving soon if any substance in this:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7938993/Napoli-sign-forward-Matteo-Politano-18-month-loan-deal-Inter-Milan.html

Hakim Ziyech looks to be a target now as well.

30 minutes ago, Malcolm9 said:

He will hardly improve them, they need to replace Harry Kane and Eriksen as well. 

 

Lo Celso replaces Eriksen. Signed permanently today, for £35m, which is a great bit of business.

Although we defintely need improvements, I'd rather not panic sign some useless players again. I'd much prefer we loan someone, if we can get anyone decent, that way it's only 6 months if it doesn't work out, and if it does, we can look at buying them.

Piatek seems to be available. Not sure what's gone wrong at Milan for him, but he was highly rated last season, so a 6 month loan with an option to buy if he does well could be a good deal. Could send Batshayui the other way perhaps.

39 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

Lo Celso replaces Eriksen. Signed permanently today, for £35m, which is a great bit of business.

I haven't been overly impressed with Lo Celso this season. Certainly I don't think he stands up to Eriksen at his best.

51 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Hakim Ziyech looks to be a target now as well.

Yes I saw that too, looks talented yet nothing from more mainstream sources.

 

Interesting that Matt Law said we have other options lined up. I wonder who they are? I find it really hard to believe we’ll go a whole window without signing anyone. 

29 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I haven't been overly impressed with Lo Celso this season. Certainly I don't think he stands up to Eriksen at his best.

 

Lo Celso is getting better. It's a case of adapting. He's got serious potential in my opinion but I agree, Eriksen has been a top player for Tottenham but we mustn't forget he needed time to adapt too.

I keep reading people mentioning how they're prepared to stay put and wait for the summer because there's no value to be had in January, the transfer fees quoted are overly inflated, because clubs know we're a bit desperate, no point in signing new players just for the sake of signing, etc etc and I happen to agree with most of it.

But the way I see it, each and every club's strategy and actions should be judged based on their needs, capabilities and circumstances they operate under. Liverpool and Man City, for example, don't have to sign anybody urgently, they're well stacked as it is, and can wait till summer to conduct their business. We aren't. On top of losing our best player and not being able to sign new players in the summer, we're still suffering from terrible transfer business of the last few years, where we spent a fortune on misfits, quite a few of them are so poor, they're currently out on loan because we have no use for them in the squad.

What happened to our scouting, by the way? When was the last time we've uncovered a relatively unknown player for a modest fee who became an integral part of the team? Who was the genius who decided that wasting £300m on a collection of Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Kepa, Morata, Batshuayi, Barkley, Emerson and Giroud was a good strategy? Who scouted Michy and didn't notice that he is sh*t at everything except shooting from inside the box? Or that Drinkwater is a midtable level footballer? Who dug up Zappacosta in the dying hours of summer of 2017, the same window when City bought Walker, Mendy and Danilo? Who is the expert who felt Bakayoko is worth 40m and is the player we should go after at Monaco when he was literally the least technically  gifted player on that team? Who thought it was the risk worth taking to splash the world record fee for a goalkeeper on you-know-who? 

I know there are no guarantees but don't you think we've had way too many misses in the recent years than we did hits? Our shocking transfer business in the last three years or so is bigger reason for our current struggles than the transfer ban or even loss of Hazard. The board repeatedly failed to back the managers and by extension failed the supporters.

I'm positive there are players out there that can upgrade our team and they can be had, and they're not necessarily the names we keep reading on the internet. Whether it's doable with the current team running the show, I'm not so sure. I'm sure Marina is a tough negotiator when it comes to fees and contracts but she isn't the one identifying and scouting potential targets, or at least I hope she isn't. I'm still holdIng out hope that they can get somebody in but if they fail to get Frank some help by the time Saturday comes, I'll be very disappointed, but not surprised.

Edited January 28, 20206 yr by abramovich

7 minutes ago, abramovich said:

I keep reading people mentioning how they're prepared to stay put and wait for the summer because there's no value to be had in January, overly transfer fees because clubs know we're a bit desperate, no point in signing new players just for the sake of signing, etc and I happen to agree with most of it.

But the way I see it, each and every club's strategy and actions should be judged based on their needs, capabilities and circumstances they operate under. Liverpool and Man City, for example, don't have to sign anybody urgently, they're well stacked as it is, and can wait till summer to conduct their business. We aren't. On top of losing our best player and not being able to sign new players in the summer, we're still suffering from terrible transfer business of the last few years, where we spent a fortune on misdits, quite a few of them are so poor, they're currently out on loan because we have no use for them in the squad.

What happened to our scouting, by the way? When was the last time we've uncovered a relatively unknown player for a modest fee who became an integral part of the team? Who was the genius who decided that wasting £300m on a collection of Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Kepa, Morata, Batshuayi, Barkley, Emerson and Giroud was a good strategy? Who scouted Michy and didn't notice that he is sh*t at everything except shooting from inside the box? Or that Drinkwater is a midtable level footballer? Who dug up Zappacosta in the dying hours of summer of 2017, the same window when City bought Walker, Mendy and Danilo? Who is the expert who felt Bakayoko is worth 40m and is the player we should go after at Monaco when he was literally the least technically  gifted player on that team? Who thought it was the risk worth taking to splash the world record fee for a goalkeeper on you-know-who? 

I know there are no guarantees but don't you think we've had way too many misses in the recent years than we did hits? Our shocking transfer business in the last three years or so is bigger reason for our current struggles than the transfer ban or even loss of Hazard. The board repeatedly failed to back the managers and by extension failed the supporters.

I'm positive there are players out there that can upgrade our team and they can be had, and they're not necessarily the names we keep reading on the internet. Whether it's doable with the current team running the show, I'm not so sure. I'm sure Marina is a tough negotiator when it comes to fees and contracts but she isn't the one identifying and scouting potential targets, at least I hope she isn't. I'm still holdIng out hope that they can get somebody in but if they fail to get Frank some help by the time Saturday comes, I'll be very disappointed, but not surprised.

Had a quick look back to reasonable signings, Fabregas in 2014, Willian in 2013, Oscar in 2012 there are not many.

The only one that stands out for me is Azpi in 2012 for £7m as a good signing.

The others we either paid the market rate (Fab and Willian £30m+) or bought poorly.

Marco Van Ginkel might have been one except for injury.

 

Yeah I agree. Probably from 2015 onwards, our transfers has been quite poor. The summer of Morata, Baka and Drinkwater stands out as particularly poor. 
 

Although at the time, I didn’t hear too many fans complain about Mortata...but it’s just unfortunate that it didn’t work out.