Just wondering how much you guys feel we'd need to spend in transfer fees* to get this side up to competing for major honours against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and the two Manchester clubs.

Choose whatever you feel is the best option from above.

* I realise that transfer fees is not a complete picture of spending, but it's a handy simplification for these purposes.

Edited February 29, 201214 yr by Guest

I voted for £150-200 million, with included Chelsea tax. Our biggest problem is that the type of players we need (wingers, creative midfielders and strikers) really don't come cheap. Obviously if we go out and sign potential stars then the cost would come down but I think we'll continue to travel the signing established players route.

Hopefully we'll be able to offset some of the cost by selling some of our "deadwood", but I don't imagine we'll get a great deal of money for some and we'll end up loaning out a few no doubt.

Ive selected 100 - 150, which doesnt include any money recouped from player sales - but does include the huge amount we're gonna give to AVB to do one, and bring in a new manager.

If wages and agents fees are built into the budget its a minimum £100-150m

50-100 Million

Approx 35 million on Hazard or similar player

12-18m on a right back

20-25 Million on a forward

The problem is that just these 3 players could sort a lot of the issue's out assuming our team is fully fit. It is difficult to buy anyone just to be a squad player but we will have to as I think it is the players who are just squad players more than starting 11 that will be moved on the most, like bosingwa, Ferreira, Malouda, Kalou etc (not saying whether I agree or not)

Edited February 29, 201214 yr by Martin_plumb

FFP rules?

i kno its impossible to give a exact figure because it depends on turnover etc.. but surely someone knows whether we could spend 50 million or 5 million this summer?

Over £100m. We're nowhere near in danger of being disqualified from the CL on financial grounds when you actually examine how the UEFA evaluation works.

So thats a Torres, Shevchenko and a Lukaku

or Hulk + some other goat

Are we talking net spend here? I think we'll be selling a few players in the summer too, therefore I'd vote in the 50-100 million range.

Over £100m. We're nowhere near in danger of being disqualified from the CL on financial grounds when you actually examine how the UEFA evaluation works.

Without being overly cynical...we gotta qualify for CL first....

Without being overly cynical...we gotta qualify for CL first....

I agree, I fear we're destined for 5th. Still, we're gonna win it so it doesn't really matter ;-)

I think it is hard to say because we could do some really clever scouting and get an amazing player on the cheap or we could blow 40 million on a Modric for example.

Modric,Hazard (Hulk),Higuain,Perreira = 100-150 mil

I think it depends on how wily we are in the transfer market. If you look at Newcastle for example they've made some tremendous signings on the cheap, players like Tiote, Cabaye and Demba Ba (in particular) could all do a good job here, and didn't cost £10m between them.

We've also seen some massively talented players move to other clubs in Europe for relatively little.

I think we need to seriously strengthen our squad, and even our first team in certain areas. How much we'll be willing to spend in doing that, I don't know...

i've calculated it to be exactly £56,729,623.67 + tax

The concept of needing to spend the kinds of sums suggested is ridiculous. If people would put aside this idiotic obsession with us being too old, and buy a decent right back (there's one available for free this summer) and perhaps two decent players we could win the league for 20 or 30m let alone 40m.

As it is we will probably buy Hazard or Hulk or someone ridiculous for a sh*tload, address none of the real issues, and waste a lot for not much.

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by Spiller86

I think there's a big difference between being able to beat the Manchester clubs to the league and being able to beat the Spanish clubs to the Champions League.

To win the league next year, we could probably do it with 1 signing, maybe 2. That sounds ridiculous looking at recent performances but I don't think we're exactly far off. A team next year of:

Cech

Ivan - Luiz - Terry - Cole

Ramires - Essien

Studge - Mata - Signing

Torres

Is going to be right up there. We'd have Lampard to cover Mata (I'm assuming Josh will need and get another loan), we'd have Romeu and Meireles to cover Ramires and Essien they'd also change it tactically to a more stable line up defensively. We'd have defensive cover in Bosingwa, Bertrand and Cahill. We'd possibly have Kalou and Malouda to cover the wings but they could be gone. We'd have Lukaku to cover Torres and maybe Drogba but I doubt he'll still be here. That is a strong side with strong cover.

So a signing for the left along the lines of Hazard, Goetze or whoever else would have us ready to compete in the league for me.

Then there's upgrades on positions. We can improve in a few areas there, full back we can improve and up front we can improve. We'd need to in order to compete in the Champions League, but for the Premiership I don't think we'd have to. Really though, competing with Real and Barcelona is out of reach financially. In my view to compete with them we'd need to make some truly outrageous signings.

A right back on the level of Maicon or Lahm.

A left back on the level of... well I can't think of one.

A couple of wide players on the levels of Hazard, Lucas, Neymar, Goetze.

A striker, possibly Cavani

Even then, we'd still not be able to keep the ball well enough because Ramires and Essien aren't good enough passers, we'd have to play Romeu in there and we'd need a signing like Banega and that still probably wouldn't be enough...

To win the league, we could do it with one good signing, to be on the level of Barcelona and Real, we'd need 7 and would still probably fall short.

Well you desperately need a left winger and a striker to replace Torres. Those don't come cheap.

You need a lot more squad depth, too. Just imagine if Mata and Sturridge got injured.

I believe we need something near 2 trillion dollars...

No...No....that won't do it

I think we need a fuking deep lying playmaker, some1 who never lose the ball and 80% of the time pass it forward, hi MODRIC.How is a midfield with Ramires and Essien is going to please RA or AVB i just dont see it.

Edited March 1, 201214 yr by Rami

Isn't De Rossi available on a free this summer? If he is we can't let City have a free pop at him. I don't know where I heard that tidbit but its stuck in my head.

Isn't De Rossi available on a free this summer? If he is we can't let City have a free pop at him. I don't know where I heard that tidbit but its stuck in my head.

have a feeling that he may have recently signed a new contract at roma. To realistically compete for CL and prem again i think we would have to drop 100mil. That would also mean losing all faith in our youngsters which would be awful. If we do the right thing and stick with AVB we have to give him money to bring in the players to suit his systems

We don't have to go crazy! Bayern just signed a top player for £10m. Mata wasn't a bank breaker and he's the best player we've had here in years. We just saw Robben single handedly rip England to pieces and he could be available on the cheap, considering Bayern are fed up with him and just bought said new player for his position. Say what you will about his injuries, but he's only second to Ronaldo and Messi in ability and could shred the PL up for us like he did back in the day.

Hulk for ridiculous money should be out of the question. I wouldn't even look at Hazard because the hype train has gone into overdrive. I've wished for years that we would be more prudent in our spending and several clubs have proven this strategy in practice. Bayern and United are good examples. They spend reasonable money on great players, or reasonable money on players with potential to be great. The unsung heroes of the transfer market should be our targets, like Lavezzi a few years ago. Silva is spoken of in the same regard as Xavi and Iniesta now, he went to City for nothing in comparison. If we tried to buy Iniesta today you'd be talking about £80m. We will occasionally hit duds, but we will also reap rewards. Big spending also has its risks, and the risks cost a lot more. Would you rather spend £50m on Fernando Torres or £8m on Bebe?

£13, 3 buttons a lenth of string and a sweet....