6 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

Don't entirely disagree with your observations, but as I said in another post tapping up through back channels and via agents goes on all the time, so even if during the summer we were banned from buying players, surely to God some one in the scouting staff would have been busy and get the scouting teams out there putting together a list of players and agents to go after behind the scenes which includes going down to the lower leagues and other countries to get your hands dirty so to speak.  You know the 7 'P's.   I also understand that even our rivals are struggling and perhaps identified the same 'usual suspect' players, so perhaps every one is looking in the wrong place?  

I still have a hard time believing that there were no players across the planet (ignoring the usual suspects) of Cavani etc, that were not available...so nothing in any clubs in any of the top leagues in South America? North America? Africa? EU? Russia? Japan? Korea? etc not one player, whether a LB, CB, CF or an attacking midfielder, that could not have been had that would have improved our squad that would not have been asking for stupid money.  Clearly Frank was pissed, and I don't blame him.  

Unless the board is going to shock us in the summer with high profile signings, and getting shot of the deadwood (and who knows how many players are out on loan that will never see the first team) the days of believing we are and continue to be a top 6 club are dwindling, Sheff Utd and Wolves are worthy contenders and if Carlo sorts Everton out they could well be pushing for top 4 / 6 next year also..where does that leave us.   

I just think overall it was a poor effort in January by the board given our precarious CL position and current form. 

And I don't totally disagree with yours, but given the lack of any transfer of note across most of the European leagues, it would appear that either it isn't just our board but every other club's board as well, or there just aren't any decent, top-level players moving at this window.

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Anyone know what our scouting department actually consists of ? How many scouts have we got ? Who manages them ?

Or maybe we just rely on agents to bring us players ... ?

What's the 7th "P" btw .. I am familiar with 6 !

If scouts were going to work I guess these days they would need a sizeable travel allowance given the pool of talent through Europe and the Americas.

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Anyone know what our scouting department actually consists of ? How many scouts have we got ? Who manages them ?

Or maybe we just rely on agents to bring us players ... ?

 

 

What's the 7th "P" btw .. I am familiar with 6 !

It is the "secret society" that Chelsea has become that drives everyone mad.   We all feel uninformed all of the time, save for Frank's presser on a Friday which, given the person always sitting next to him, is probably sanitised!  I know a lot of people will say that we have no real right to know what goes on behind the scenes, but the Club do not do themselves any favours with the stone-wall silence. I don't know who heads up the scouting network, presumably since Emanalo's exit, how many we have, what areas of the World are they based and scouting in?  It is the same with recruitment,  it cannot possibly be Marina doing it, we MUST have someone with a football background who identifies the signings (subject to price of course). Or is it simply up to Frank to let the Board/committee/recruiter know who he would like and leave it up to them.

Summing up, the Scouts binging in the youngsters are clearly doing their job, and we will know come June whether the person with the responsibility of bringing in the big names, really is up to the job (whoever they are)

21 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

Not getting at you mate, just something to  hang a general observation on.  You do have to pay for quality, but you can only buy quality if players of quality are

a) available 

b) want to come to us/England and

c) aren't being whored out at stupid money like Mertens.

I've not seen a top-class striker mentioned in here or the media other than by Fantasy Football experts with little or no grasp on reality.

Someone above has listed the possible strikers and the reasons why they were not realistic targets, but that isn't enough for all those wise forum members who have deep  and personal in-depth knowledge of the boards of both our club and every other possible selling club, who know better.

I honestly don't know who people think we should have bought, let alone who would have wanted to transfer this January and who would have improved us.

Well there is Erling Haaland who has score 7 goals in his first 3 games for Dortmund and he only cost £18 million, but I agree there's no one else during this window we can say we missed out on.  

People say Frank is frustrated, but I'm sure everyone involved at the club is similarly frustrated.  It was a frustrating window for every team wanting to do business.  I'm just glad we didn't end up with another Zappayoko. 

Just now, DarkMata said:

Well there is Erling Haaland who has score 7 goals in his first 3 games for Dortmund and he only cost £18 million

Well this is a bit of a misrepresentation is it not?

(in euros)

20 million to his old club

15 million to his agent

10 million to his dad

 

 

26 minutes ago, Stim said:

Well this is a bit of a misrepresentation is it not?

(in euros)

20 million to his old club

15 million to his agent

10 million to his dad

 

 

I don't know much about the overall cost, madness to think an agent is getting a similar amount to the actual transfer fee.  I still think it's a great transfer.  Dortmund will make a tidy profit on him in a couple of years, as they usually do.  We should have probably signed up some of them Dortmund scouts before we buy any players.

14 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

I don't know much about the overall cost, madness to think an agent is getting a similar amount to the actual transfer fee.  I still think it's a great transfer.  Dortmund will make a tidy profit on him in a couple of years, as they usually do.  We should have probably signed up some of them Dortmund scouts before we buy any players.

And rumors are his agent gets a percentage of future transfer fees as well lol

4 hours ago, coombsie said:

It is the "secret society" that Chelsea has become that drives everyone mad.   We all feel uninformed all of the time, save for Frank's presser on a Friday which, given the person always sitting next to him, is probably sanitised!  I know a lot of people will say that we have no real right to know what goes on behind the scenes, but the Club do not do themselves any favours with the stone-wall silence. I don't know who heads up the scouting network, presumably since Emanalo's exit, how many we have, what areas of the World are they based and scouting in?  It is the same with recruitment,  it cannot possibly be Marina doing it, we MUST have someone with a football background who identifies the signings (subject to price of course). Or is it simply up to Frank to let the Board/committee/recruiter know who he would like and leave it up to them.

Summing up, the Scouts binging in the youngsters are clearly doing their job, and we will know come June whether the person with the responsibility of bringing in the big names, really is up to the job (whoever they are)

I think it's still Piet de Visser but age is surely catching up to him nowadays. He can't be scouting the new upcomers like he used to anymore

We should've gone all out and fought Dortmund for Haaland. The boy is big, strong, fast and has a striker's instinct I haven't seen in a young guy since Wayne Rooney back when he burst onto the scene as a 19yr old.

6 hours ago, DarkMata said:

I don't know much about the overall cost, madness to think an agent is getting a similar amount to the actual transfer fee.  I still think it's a great transfer.  Dortmund will make a tidy profit on him in a couple of years, as they usually do.  We should have probably signed up some of them Dortmund scouts before we buy any players.

When his agent is Mino Raiola then it's totally believeable if not understandable. I know we've tried to steer clear of him historically so that may be why we didn't go for Haaland.

Frankly the best thing that could happen to football is a severe check on agents, their fees and their behaviour. That would go sooo much further than FFP at controlling the spiralling costs. Not to mention the sordid way that players are constantly moved around for profit.

1 minute ago, Spiller86 said:

When his agent is Mino Raiola then it's totally believeable if not understandable. I know we've tried to steer clear of him historically so that may be why we didn't go for Haaland.

Frankly the best thing that could happen to football is a severe check on agents, their fees and their behaviour. That would go sooo much further than FFP at controlling the spiralling costs. Not to mention the sordid way that players are constantly moved around for profit.

There was an excellent article written by Martin Samuel about agents for these big players. He was saying it is not in their interest to sell Haaland to a big club. Why would he? He can move him to Dortmund, get a good fee and then move him on again to a bigger club when the time suits - therefore him getting 2 transfer fees rather than 1. 
 

Makes complete sense. Theres no way that Dortmund were the only club interested. It was all manufactured by Mina Raiola. 

8 minutes ago, JM7 said:

There was an excellent article written by Martin Samuel about agents for these big players. He was saying it is not in their interest to sell Haaland to a big club. Why would he? He can move him to Dortmund, get a good fee and then move him on again to a bigger club when the time suits - therefore him getting 2 transfer fees rather than 1. 
 

Makes complete sense. Theres no way that Dortmund were the only club interested. It was all manufactured by Mina Raiola. 

It's pretty much known that raiola engineered this move and there was no chance he was coming to England, people seem to forget that we can't just click our fingers and sign a player anymore, we're just not that club now. 

3 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Frankly the best thing that could happen to football is a severe check on agents, their fees and their behaviour. That would go sooo much further than FFP at controlling the spiralling costs. Not to mention the sordid way that players are constantly moved around for profit.

I've never understood why the clubs all pony up and pay agents ?  If the player wants to use an agent,  why are the agent's fees not being borne by the player ?

Surely if they all got together and said "we're not doing this any more" then it all goes away ?

9 hours ago, dkw said:

It's pretty much known that raiola engineered this move and there was no chance he was coming to England, people seem to forget that we can't just click our fingers and sign a player anymore, we're just not that club now. 

And in haalands case, those negotiations were all done before we knew if we were even allowed to buy anyone. Pretty tough negotiation position when you have to end every sentence with...... if we are allowed to

12 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I've never understood why the clubs all pony up and pay agents ?  If the player wants to use an agent,  why are the agent's fees not being borne by the player ?

Surely if they all got together and said "we're not doing this any more" then it all goes away ?

It's a bit like FFP. Only works if all clubs play by the rules. No doubt City and PSG would be very happy to pay Raiola huge fees.

3 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

It's a bit like FFP. Only works if all clubs play by the rules. No doubt City and PSG would be very happy to pay Raiola huge fees.

I guess Northern hemisphere teams will be at a disadvantage re climate as more players want La Dolce Vita and have to pay more.

So you can see even if adopted there will be some imbalances and makes me think about an analogy with the London weighting salaries that used to be in the public sector.

 

On 04/02/2020 at 19:34, Spiller86 said:

When his agent is Mino Raiola then it's totally believeable if not understandable. I know we've tried to steer clear of him historically so that may be why we didn't go for Haaland.

Frankly the best thing that could happen to football is a severe check on agents, their fees and their behaviour. That would go sooo much further than FFP at controlling the spiralling costs. Not to mention the sordid way that players are constantly moved around for profit.

The massive agent fees were probably started by the clubs trying to gain an advantage against other competing clubs, now we're in a situation where if you're not willing to pay the agents fees you're going to lose out to someone who will.  Look at all the shenanigans surrounding Neymars transfers,  it now seems to be the norm for players Dads to get paid.  Whats next paying the Mums too!  

I agree we need to clamp down on agents fees, It must be a day of negotiations max, so I'd say £10 per transfer.

I miss this massive c**t

 

Chelsea among clubs keeping tabs on Wigan's left back Antonee Robinson after failed AC Milan transfer.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-among-clubs-keeping-tabs-21459993

 

7 hours ago, abramovich said:

Chelsea among clubs keeping tabs on Wigan's left back Antonee Robinson after failed AC Milan transfer.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-among-clubs-keeping-tabs-21459993

 

Good. We seem to have a good relationship with Wigan and it seemed to work for liverpool signing a left back from an average Championship team.

5 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Good. We seem to have a good relationship with Wigan and it seemed to work for liverpool signing a left back from an average Championship team.

Very athletic American - though he did grow up in England and would be home grown. Would add to our pace but to be honest I haven’t seen him play outside of USMNT games. He’s had a few good showings there.

Looking good, but can't really judge ability based on a youtube clip. 

Lautaro Martinez in some news as our target for the summer. He's amazing, if we can get him it would be the best signing. I don't believe it's going to be possible though.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

Lautaro Martinez in some news as our target for the summer. He's amazing, if we can get him it would be the best signing. I don't believe it's going to be possible though.

Also linked to Barca and others. Smells of an agent planting seeds to get a contract upgrade. 

Inter actually have an incredible squad. They are genuine Serie A and Champions League contenders under Conte next season. No way you leave them to join us in the middle of a rebuild.

14 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Also linked to Barca and others. Smells of an agent planting seeds to get a contract upgrade. 

Inter actually have an incredible squad. They are genuine Serie A and Champions League contenders under Conte next season. No way you leave them to join us in the middle of a rebuild.

£££££