Premier League leaders Chelsea have submitted a €25m offer for Serie A side Atalanta’s midfielder Franck Kessié, according to our colleagues at France Football.

Antoino Conte wants to add the 20 year old box-to-box man to his squad next month, with the Blues making a big offer early.

 

 

yes please

Who?!?

I know Youtube is useless on an absolute scale. But on a relative scale (since all players appear better than they are) it's still useful to compare players, with my rationale being that, if a player is really talented, there will be more impressive highlights that are comparable to the likes of players that I know for a fact are good. 

When you look up Kessie, there is some pretty impressive stuff. Especially when you consider his age. 

I've never watched him play though, so I am really not in the position to say anything beyond that.

Edit: And btw thanks for sharing @havelschayeshavelschayeshavelschayeshavelschayes

Edited December 27, 20169 yr by PythonLu

A few opinions from fans of his

45 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

A few opinions from fans of his

 

Lots of talk about his age being off, hahaha! 

I guess because he is such a good player? ;) That would be good!

Edited December 27, 20169 yr by PythonLu

I didn't realise he was a centre mid. I've only ever seen him play as a defender for Ivory Coast.

A replacement for an outbound Zouma perhaps?

34 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I didn't realise he was a centre mid. I've only ever seen him play as a defender for Ivory Coast.

he started out as a defender but has gradually been moved up the pitch due to his fantastic fitness levels and penchant for getting into good goal scoring positions and finishing them off.

whether or not kessie will come (or will be good enough), i think he's the sort of player profile we should be looking for. the level of athleticism top flight football is demanding is increasing and will only increase, and kessie is definitely in this mould.

only saw him play a couple of times this season and was very impressed

he's a yaya-essien type mould, to put it in football manager term he's a wonderkid, has massively improved this season and showed huge potential, still a bit raw though

a guy on chelsea reddit knows a lot about him https://www.reddit.com/r/chelseafc/comments/5kl6vx/according_to_francefootball_chelsea_bid_for_kessié/

What happened to the other guy we were lined with in Serie A? Diawara was it from Bologna?.

27 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

What happened to the other guy we were lined with in Serie A? Diawara was it from Bologna?.

He went to Napoli.

The kid is 19, Chalouba is 22? or 23? if we really bring this kid in what is it the end for any of the border line center mids we have, and i include barker in that as well who i think is a superb player 

Some updates:

The Guardian published something today, claiming that our bid was rejected. They back it up with some quotes by his agent. Whilst it's true that his agent admits that we are "very interested", he neither mentions a rejection nor the suggested asking price of €40m.

Quote

Atalanta have rejected a €25m offer from Chelsea for Franck Kessié, with the Ivorian midfielder’s agent claiming there is also interest from several other Premier League sides [...].

"We have a lot of interest from the Premier League – Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal. I cannot say at this stage how much he will cost but we are talking about one of the best young players in the world. But for us the most important thing is that the technical project is the right one for him. Franck is very young so we have to be very careful about his development."

"Chelsea are very interested and it is a great club but we must take our time to consider all the options. Now we are in January so he has to play at the African Cup of Nations for Ivory Coast so I am not going to rush anything."

Having said that, it wouldn't be entirely over the top to ask €40m for a talented player these days. Maybe it was a mistake to sell Oscar before having a replacement ready. Obviously, clubs will now try and exploit this gap we have created, even though it's just a depth problem for now.

We're certainly not the kind of club that is known to overpay for players. In fact, contrary to the word on the streets, we are the only top club in Europe that's taking cash-flow seriously. But still, if there's truth to it, it's a case of how much do we want him? We're certainly able to get him for €40m. It's a lot, but not too much for CFC. If he turns out to be as talented as Hazard or Robben, we'll be saying it was a bargain.

Edited December 28, 20169 yr by PythonLu
typos

I'd rather we sign 20-year-old Joseph Minala

I'd rather we sign 20-year-old Joseph Minala

20? I thought that was Roger Milla [emoji12]

1 hour ago, Amputechture said:

I'd rather we sign 20-year-old Joseph Minala

Is it a normal thing or does it only happen to African footballers that they look older?

2 hours ago, PythonLu said:

We're certainly not the kind of club that is known to overpay for players.

 

16 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

 

Great collage ;)

But I think it's fair to say that Shevchenko and Crespo Veron are the very reasons the club/Abramovich became more money conscious. 

As for Torres, at that time 50m didn't seem like too much. I think everyone agreed that it was a reasonable amount for someone many considered the best striker in the Premier League. Mind that overpaying is not the same as paying a lot. For example, 100m for Messi is not overpaying. 

Edited December 28, 20169 yr by PythonLu

That's Veron dude.

We didn't overpay for King Crespo.

Sean Wright-Phillips has just messaged me to say don't forget about him!

Those signings were before Mr Emenalo. 

Do we really need him when we have Chalobah, Baker, Pasalic, RLC ?

4 hours ago, PythonLu said:

Is it a normal thing or does it only happen to African footballers that they look older?

Because a lot of them do fake their ages and it is the unfortunate truth. That is the only reason I am not excited by Kessie. Not for one minute do I believe he is 19 years of age. There are players from Africa in particular who fake their ages by huge younger years.

2 minutes ago, STATS said:

Because a lot of them do fake their ages and it is the unfortunate truth. That is the only reason I am not excited by Kessie. Not for one minute do I believe he is 19 years of age. There are players from Africa in particular who fake their ages by huge younger years.

So how do we know? Maybe make him pass a lie detector test with three Russian speaking fellas?

 

 

4 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

Those signings were before Mr Emenalo. 

Ah, that takes me back to a more innocent time, when we used to blame Peter Kenyon for anything and everything.

Just to think, we could have had Sven and Ronaldinho...

7 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

 

All three players were flops, but all of those signings were "worth" their fee, on paper, the day we signed them. Overpaying, is spending 30m on an unproven Andy Carroll or Memphis Depay or whatever the hell Man City paid for John Stones. 

The reality is that we have rarely paid for players above their market value. In recent times the closest I can think of are perhaps Willian and Oscar, who we paid above a fair price for given their transfer situations. Shaun Wright-Phillips is perhaps a better example where you can conclusively say his performance was down to the simple fact he wasn't as at the level required.

I can think of a few examples where we have overpaid and it still worked out. Hazard, Essien, Duff, Ferreira...and Frank Lampard.