27 minutes ago, Socrates said:

It's all well and good saying we are not going to pay over the odds for certain players. But if we had paid the 30m for Luke Shaw and the 45m for John Stones I reckon the Board would be pretty pleased right now at picking up two promising English defenders for the next ten years. 

100%. Shame we are penny pinchers and lost them to our two biggest rivals.

30 million might have seemed like a lot for Shaw two years ago but in todays market its a steal.
Same with 45 million for Stones now, expensive but a couple of years down the line no one is going to lift an eyelid at that price.

 

6 minutes ago, Sindre said:

100%. Shame we are penny pinchers and lost them to our two biggest rivals.

30 million might have seemed like a lot for Shaw two years ago but in todays market its a steal.
Same with 45 million for Stones now, expensive but a couple of years down the line no one is going to lift an eyelid at that price.

 

Agree with Shaw, specially considering we have paid 21 million pounds for Baba and are paying another 20 million pounds for Alonso.

But have to disagree of stones. CHristensen is as good a player as stones, who in all honesty, sometimes looks like a fish out of water. For me, its a bullet dodged.

18 minutes ago, didierforever said:

Agree with Shaw, specially considering we have paid 21 million pounds for Baba and are paying another 20 million pounds for Alonso.

But have to disagree of stones. CHristensen is as good a player as stones, who in all honesty, sometimes looks like a fish out of water. For me, its a bullet dodged.

I think he's excellent unfortunatly. Was a mess under Martinez last season but he can be forgiven for that as Martinez have no idea how to set up a team defensivly.

But yes, time will tell. He has started really well for City this season though. With Sterling and Aguero probably their best player.

Personal view is that we'll probably sign Garay. He wants to leave Zenit and we shouldn't have trouble out bidding Valencia. He covers our issue in defence for this season and gives us the option of playing a three given he regularly plays on the left of a back two (which means JT can play in the middle). 

We will then have Andreas back to replace JT if we need to next season.

It's a tough market and we're not playing at the highest level. Lets just get what we need to make the Top 4 and sort it next season. 

Edited August 30, 20169 yr by Spiller86

5 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Personal view is that we'll probably sign Garay. He wants to leave Zenit and we shouldn't have trouble out bidding Valencia. He covers our issue in defence for this season and gives us the option of playing a three given he regularly plays on the left of a back two (which means JT can play in the middle). 

We will then have Andreas back to replace JT if we need to next season.

It's a tough market and we're not playing at the highest level. Lets just get what we need to make the Top 4 and sort it next season. 

I agree 100%.  I have been saying the same thing for a while now. It will be very difficult with no European football to tempt the top stars, or to strengthen with anywhere near the quality we are rightfully used to.  Therefore we must buy players who can do a job at a reasonable price and go all out to finish in the Top 4, then with Champion's League Football assured, do our business EARLY next summer and bring in the players we need.  The 15/16 Squad suddenly looks decent again and with one or two (strength in depth) acquisitions, we should be ok.  Getting Kurt Zouma fit will be a bonus this season albeit nearer Christmas and bringing Andreas Christensen back from BMG will be like signing a new £50mill defender and I agree that he is better than Stones.

We really do not need too much now, let's let Conte work his obvious magic.

Interesting

 

How much longer can Roman Abramovich tolerate Chelsea’s transfer market failures?

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2016/8/30/12705482/abramovich-chelsea-transfer-window-mismanagement

15 minutes ago, Scott said:

Interesting

 

How much longer can Roman Abramovich tolerate Chelsea’s transfer market failures?

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2016/8/30/12705482/abramovich-chelsea-transfer-window-mismanagement

A VERY interesting read although I don't think that the aluminium comparison quite works. The same question still applies though- Why the hell is Michael Emanalo still at Chelsea Football Club? The Board are derelict in their duty to the Owner if this continues.

4 minutes ago, coombsie said:

A VERY interesting read although I don't think that the aluminium comparison quite works. The same question still applies though- Why the hell is Michael Emanalo still at Chelsea Football Club? The Board are derelict in their duty to the Owner if this continues.

Because those in charge at the club feels hes doing a good job

Looks like we are buying Alonso and are also looking to aquire a emergency CB on loan for the rest of the season. According to Telegraph.

Quite laughable if you ask me. 

Price for Alonso will be 27(!) million euros.

Edited August 30, 20169 yr by Sindre

Alonso all but done.

For all the talk of signing Koulibaly for an exhorbitant fee ... this guy cost Napolii £6.5M in 2014 ... he's had a couple of decent seasons in Serie A and is now a 50-70M Euro player ? Give me a break ...

Any club with a decent scouting network should be able to unearth decent players in any position that dont cost the earth ... that's the bit of the back office that I'd be poking at, that and whoever is reponsible for assembling a balanced squad ... we have 3 goalkeepers, 7 defenders (1 crocked), 13 midfielders and 2 strikers as we stand today ... that's not exactly ideal ...

Chelsea being linked to Luiz now

24 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Chelsea being linked to Luiz now

You can tell that the transfer window is coming to a close, all kinds of rumours are starting up now.

This thread topic is sadly spot on. Market is crazy, we have no CL and we have a new manager who has been assessing the squad STILL I think we have dropped the ball this window. 

I feel we are the middletable club we were last season. 

Cant see this side under Conte finish midtable. Theres zero doubt in my mind we qualify for the CL this year

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

You can tell that the transfer window is coming to a close, all kinds of rumours are starting up now.

Now on sky, he can't defend for s***

2 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

Now on sky, he can't defend for s***

Cant be any truth in that, surly.

I doubt Maria picks the targets but rather handles the negotiating for approved targets.

4 hours ago, Xfaxtor said:

Cant see this side under Conte finish midtable. Theres zero doubt in my mind we qualify for the CL this year

I gotta say I was quite a doom and gloom merchant last season and right after the season.... that's all.

 

 

 

 

 

Jokes..... it's clear to me now Conte is one of the few managers who will actually win his team points they wouldn't get under 99.99%other managers out there.  Be quite surprised if we aren't top 4 barring any significant unforeseeable events.

I still can't understand the doom and gloom transfer attitude. It feels entitled and doesn't seem to take into account how dire our situation was last season. 

The same board who people are decrying as incompetent are the ones who:

• managed to secure a manager of Conte's calibre from a cushy national team job despite no assurances of CL football
• managed to hold on to Eden Hazard and then Diego Costa despite no assurances of CL football
• Signed a promising young striker amidst interest from other teams despite no assurances of CL football
• Signed the most wanted defensive midfielder in the world despite no assurances of CL football
• Funded these purchases despite no assurance of CL football

See a pattern?

Now if we were unable to sign either Batshuayi or Kante, then yes, this thread would be asking a very reasonable question. The fact is at the end of last season this club was no longer at the top table and with Mourinho and Guardiola appointed at Manchester, slid even further down the pecking order. Every thing that has happened this summer window has been a bonus.

If we were in the Champions League then perhaps players like Varane or Manolas or Marquinhos become realistic targets but not now. The only incentive we have at the moment is Conte and money and even they have their limits. To be able to identify targets who are both competent AND willing to sign without playing the Champions' League, particularly with Champions' League clubs being active in the market, narrows the list considerably. People seem to be of the opinion there is an infinite list of suitable players who meet the two above criteria just salivating to move to England and Stamford Bridge. There isn't, and the fanbase needs to get a grip.

There is also the reality, of which i'm sure Conte is aware, that there is a lot to do on the pitch to restore players back to the level they are still capable of playing. The chequebook and the transfer market are not the only ways to win a football game. Last year was an aberration with exceptional circumstances and it does not need to become anything more due to panic.

The board have done excellently this season and have us extremely well-placed for next season when we return to the Champions League.

For those comparing us to Arsenal - they tried to raid Leicester as well. Vardy and Mahrez ended up turning them down and Kante rejected them for us. That is what incompetence looks like.

 

Edited August 31, 20169 yr by SydneyChelsea
And another thing....

13 hours ago, Sindre said:

100%. Shame we are penny pinchers and lost them to our two biggest rivals.

30 million might have seemed like a lot for Shaw two years ago but in todays market its a steal.
Same with 45 million for Stones now, expensive but a couple of years down the line no one is going to lift an eyelid at that price.

 

I still think 30 million is a lot for someone who still has barely even played, considering we had Bertrand who is if not as good, at least almost as good, plus Luis who is clearly a very good player and was purchased for half the price.

Unfortunately both were shunned so that we could continue to play our best defender out of position so that we could play bloody Ivanovic at right back...

14 minutes ago, Jonty said:

I still think 30 million is a lot for someone who still has barely even played, considering we had Bertrand who is if not as good, at least almost as good, plus Luis who is clearly a very good player and was purchased for half the price.

Unfortunately both were shunned so that we could continue to play our best defender out of position so that we could play bloody Ivanovic at right back...

Exactly missing out on Shaw sucked, but if we had kept Bertrand or Luis, no one would care.  

Not sure how serious the Luiz bid is, but I think we will fill in the gap with the signing of Alonso by tomorrow. If I remembered it correctly, we weren't linked with many left backs in the past few months, maybe he was the only viable option. If Zouma is due back soon, we probably have enough central defenders for this season, so we haven't done that badly. People want Football manager style of marquee signings, unfortunately it's pretty difficult. When you get the likes of Palace or WBA throw 20-30M on a player, you know no deal is easy.  We have done well,  compare to the rest of the league( par the 2 Manchester team).

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I still can't understand the doom and gloom transfer attitude. It feels entitled and doesn't seem to take into account how dire our situation was last season. 

The same board who people are decrying as incompetent are the ones who:

• managed to secure a manager of Conte's calibre from a cushy national team job despite no assurances of CL football
• managed to hold on to Eden Hazard and then Diego Costa despite no assurances of CL football
• Signed a promising young striker amidst interest from other teams despite no assurances of CL football
• Signed the most wanted defensive midfielder in the world despite no assurances of CL football
• Funded these purchases despite no assurance of CL football

See a pattern?

Now if we were unable to sign either Batshuayi or Kante, then yes, this thread would be asking a very reasonable question. The fact is at the end of last season this club was no longer at the top table and with Mourinho and Guardiola appointed at Manchester, slid even further down the pecking order. Every thing that has happened this summer window has been a bonus.

If we were in the Champions League then perhaps players like Varane or Manolas or Marquinhos become realistic targets but not now. The only incentive we have at the moment is Conte and money and even they have their limits. To be able to identify targets who are both competent AND willing to sign without playing the Champions' League, particularly with Champions' League clubs being active in the market, narrows the list considerably. People seem to be of the opinion there is an infinite list of suitable players who meet the two above criteria just salivating to move to England and Stamford Bridge. There isn't, and the fanbase needs to get a grip.

There is also the reality, of which i'm sure Conte is aware, that there is a lot to do on the pitch to restore players back to the level they are still capable of playing. The chequebook and the transfer market are not the only ways to win a football game. Last year was an aberration with exceptional circumstances and it does not need to become anything more due to panic.

The board have done excellently this season and have us extremely well-placed for next season when we return to the Champions League.

For those comparing us to Arsenal - they tried to raid Leicester as well. Vardy and Mahrez ended up turning them down and Kante rejected them for us. That is what incompetence looks like.

 

Signing Conte with no CL football makes no difference. Chelsea is a big club, won plenty of trophies and in London. Not many managers would refuse the job and wages of Chelsea.

If Chelsea was going to sell Hazard or Costa who could afford them. Real, Barca and PSG for Hazard, Real and Barca wouldn't buy him till they sell someone. Costa only wants to go to Madrid and Chelsea said no. One season without CL football don't make that much difference to players who are established, big wages etc.

Chelsea beat West Ham and Palace to Michy. There not in the CL. It's a great signing and I want him in the first team but CL football made no difference there.

CL football doesn't seem to matter as much with West Ham and Palace bidding big amounts, Liverpool too. Chelsea make plenty out of the loan deals and Financial Fair play has seem to of been relaxed. City spend way more than they should be.

Chelsea signed the best PL player last year, great signing and will be superb. But how wanted are just rumours.

Its clear Chelsea have needed defenders since last summer. Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic all in 30's. Dave always plays out of position and Zouma is injured and let's all hope he comes back the same player and better.

Regarding defenders Chelsea should of had there targets sorted earlier, made there enquirys and if there's no agreement then move on. Don't let it rumble on for months till the last week then panic buy where clubs can put stupid money on a player. If you can't get your targets early then don't panic buy anyone who isn't going to improve the squad, if you know your targets are not coming then you can just look to improve the squad for the year. Then try again next transfer window.

You have made CL football much more important than it really is, like it's an excuse.

3 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

 

Regarding defenders Chelsea should of had there targets sorted earlier, made there enquirys and if there's no agreement then move on. Don't let it rumble on for months till the last week then panic buy where clubs can put stupid money on a player. If you can't get your targets early then don't panic buy anyone who isn't going to improve the squad, if you know your targets are not coming then you can just look to improve the squad for the year. Then try again next transfer window.

So exactly like the club has done then?