According to reports,  Chelsea has made an opening offer for Southampton striker Graziano Pelle. 

 

The 30-year-old striker has one year remaining on his contract at St Mary’s and he is still yet to sign an extension. According to Dailymail,  Chelsea is considering a £12million swoop for the Italian but Southampton are holding on for £16m.

 

Pelle scored two goals at Euro 2016 for Italy, where the Italians reached the quarter-finals. But unfortunately he missed a penalty in the sudden death shoot-out against Germany.

 

Last season, Pelle scored 14 goals and made seven assists in all competitions for the Saints. 

For cheap an okay backup striker. Knows Conte. I'm okay with this.

Not a bad back up striker. Never gonna set the world alight but could easily come off the bench to earn us a few points. His last chance to play for a big club probably.

He turns 31 in a couple of weeks. Would we really pay that sort of money to offer only a 1 year deal?

I'd take him over Remy all day long.

had we not buy Batshuayi, linked with Pelle would be really disappointing. let's not kid ourselves, he is a so so striker

however, now that we have Batshuayi, and Costa (apparently) sets to stay, i'm okay with the idea of buying him

If conte wants him then it sounds good to me. Already established in the pl.

Not for me.

Whatever Conte wants is good enough for me.

I think he would be fantastic depth.

I'd take Remy over him all day long.

Personally I don't want to get anywhere near Pelle, especially for 16M. However, if Pelle is what Conte wants, I hope the board get behind him. We have seen it all before, manager didn't get the players he wanted, not getting the results, and we get linked to Rafa again.

I'd take Remy over him all day long.

Why? How can people still rate Remy? Cant win a header, terrible with his back against the goal, cant link up play and he is ALWAYS injured. Im not saying Pelle is world class or anything, but he is great with his back against the goal, wins a ton of headers, is excellent at shielding the ball and linking up play. Remy has done f**k all since he got here and the only thing he is good at is finding new ways to pull a muscle.

And Pelle is also a good finisher. A nightmare for defenders to handle. Pelle all day long for me.

Why? How can people still rate Remy? Cant win a header, terrible with his back against the goal, cant link up play and he is ALWAYS injured. Im not saying Pelle is world class or anything, but he is great with his back against the goal, wins a ton of headers, is excellent at shielding the ball and linking up play. Remy has done f**k all since he got here and the only thing he is good at is finding new ways to pull a muscle.

 

To be fair Remy was a good impact sub when he first got to the club. He was never going to be more than that.

He turns 31 in a couple of weeks. Would we really pay that sort of money to offer only a 1 year deal?

Considering the fact that we can get Berahino or Ighalo for the almost the same price!

Considering the fact that we can get Berahino or Ighalo for the almost the same price!

 

Seeing as Watford just rejected a £37.5m bid for Ighalo i doubt we could.

16mill does seem a bit on the high side for a soon 31 year old who has one year left on his current deal.

I think Pellè is a very talented striker, and I think he a player with a skillset which our squad is currently lacking. I think he would dovetail well with both Costa, and (admittedly based on the little I have seen of him) Batshuayi.

 

That said, his goalscoring form tends to be somewhat patchy. While at his best he is excellent, he does have a tendency to go on long runs without scoring or really playing that well. This largely depends on how many strikers Conte intends to play, but if Pellè is signed as a reserve this could be a problem. Over the course of a 38-game season he will give you a decent return, but I don't know if he is a striker we could depend upon to suddenly enter the team and start scoring. On paper he is probably as talented a third-choice striker as we could hope for, but we might do better to look elsewhere, especially considering he will be more in demand after a good showing at the Euros.

 

Regarding the price, I know that Southampton have just lost Mané, but they still have a good amount of depth at centre forward with Charlie Austin and Shane Long. Jay Rodriguez is also a very good player when he isn't injured. If Conte wants him badly enough, I think he would be attainable; I would suggest perhaps offering one of our youngsters in a position in which Southampton are lacking as a makeweight to keep the price down - maybe van Ginkel? They have already lost their starting centre midfielders in consecutive summers.

Must just be me, but I really don't rate pelle. I think it's these sort of signings which block youth players being given a chance.

Costa, batshuayi, traore, and solanke/Abraham would be fine next season, especially as we aren't playing in Europe.

If Costa leaves then we need to replace with someone as as good as we can get, and not a journeyman Italian that has been very hot and cold in English football, and who is only going to decline in the future.

Must just be me, but I really don't rate pelle. I think it's these sort of signings which block youth players being given a chance.

Costa, batshuayi, traore, and solanke/Abraham would be fine next season, especially as we aren't playing in Europe.

If Costa leaves then we need to replace with someone as as good as we can get, and not a journeyman Italian that has been very hot and cold in English football, and who is only going to decline in the future.

I'm the same really.

He's a big target man and maybe we lack that but I wouldn't want Traore to get less game time or chances because we get Pelle.

I also wonder if we are still actively looking at Morata?

I'm the same really.

He's a big target man and maybe we lack that but I wouldn't want Traore to get less game time or chances because we get Pelle.

I also wonder if we are still actively looking at Morata?

If we are still in for morata, it must mean either Costa is going, or we are going with 2 strikers next season.

Can't see us having Costa, morata, and batshuayi and only starting 1 of them.

I'd quite like to see us play 2 strikers tbh. I think 442 is getting some good results again, which is maybe down to a whole generation of defenders used to only having 1 striker to mark.

Not sure whether fabregas can play in a 2 man midfield though!

I'm not sure how much there is to this rumour.  Costa has said he is staying, Batsman has been added, Conte likes to play two up front...so I could see it making some sense; however, I think it's a lazy piece, and it falls into the same vein as nearly every one of our current players being linked with Jose.

 

I'd rather wait and see what happens when Conte gets a chance to see all of his new players in person.

 

Traore gave an excellent rate of return when played.  And Tammy started sniffing around the first team.  So, I'd like to think they will be our back up strikers to Costa and the Bat

Think Traores showed enough last season to be a good third choice. Don't see we need Pelle, far more pressing g problems to sort out. Kante and another central defender should be priorities followed by a competitor for baba. Don't see Ivan being acceptable as right full back any more so only Dave in that position right now.

Not for £16m for a 31 year old with a year to go on his contract.

Especially when we have talented youth players waiting in the wings.

Traore done well when he came in last year, I don't see why he can't be 3rd choice irrelevant of what formation we play.

We don't have Europe next year so that takes a big weight off the squad in terms of matches.