in talks with chelsea according to guardian and dimarzio, as batshuayi's replacement if he gets out on loan

not sure at first but checked his stats 6 goals in 13 starts playing for dogsh*t swansea is actually quite decent, i'll trust conte's judgement if this happens

 

Someone who is evidently happy to sit on the bench as Costa's understudy and pick up a cheque. Barring a Costa injury he'll get no minutes and we'll probably sell in the summer, if Michy is off on loan I'd rather see someone like Solanke promoted or stick with playing Hazard/Pedro at false nine when necessary. Not the man we need in my opinion.

Worked with Conte at Juventus, so if true Antonio is obviously looking for someone who he has more confidence in.

Makes the decision to sign Michy for £33m and loan out Traore an odd one. 

He did very well for Conte during Contes last season at Juventus.

Would be no surprise if he's a Chelsea-player soon. Wouldn't be against it as he would give us something different. Great in the air.

Spending 33 million on Michy seems like a waste though. 

Strange. If we are giving minutes to strikers then let it be ones we are going to use next season. Llorente is dwindling down to the final days at the top level and isn't going to improve.

 

Would be a very decent backup to Costa, I'd be happy to see him here. Can see this being a 6 month stint, but it could easily be longer. 

Pleased if a Batshauyi loan goes ahead too, clearly a lot of potential there but he's in desperate need of minutes & exposure to the physicality of the league. Might not yet be good enough to lead the line for Chelsea, as appears to be Conte's opinion, but a half-season run elsewhere could do wonders.

The big question mark has to be the £32M fee and 80K wages. It's an awful lot on a propsect, I haven't seen any of him before his time at Chelsea, but I'd hoped he'd be arriving ready to start games. Sometimes think we're too quick to just bring in flavour of the week youngsters from other leagues who aren't 'quite there', and then appear lost as to what to do with them if they don't set the world alight after one or two 20 minute cameos. 

If Batshuayi does go out on loan and we bring in Llorente to replace him, i will be very disappointed. Llorente has been poor at the top level for some time now, i would much rather see Batshuayi play. At least with Batshuayi you have someone who can improve as he career progresses, but Llorente isn't going to get any better. He's also pretty anonymous for Swansea, you wouldn't even know he is playing at times.

I disagree Scott, I think hes ideal to bring into our squad as cover for Costa if Conte doesn't trust Batshuayi, he will suit our style of play more than Swansea`s which seems to be leave him massively isolated then smash in a cross as he`s covered by several defenders. I think he could turn out to be a very good short term signing.

The bit I'm struggling to understand with this rumour is the contract length. Fernando is 31-years-old and signed a two year deal when he signed for Swansea. We don't offer contracts longer than a year to players over 30 so what sort of contract would he be on if he were to join on January. Would Fernando want to give up a year's worth of job security to sign a six month deal with us? 

1 hour ago, dkw said:

I disagree Scott, I think hes ideal to bring into our squad as cover for Costa if Conte doesn't trust Batshuayi, he will suit our style of play more than Swansea`s which seems to be leave him massively isolated then smash in a cross as he`s covered by several defenders. I think he could turn out to be a very good short term signing.

I think he's ideal for the next 4 1/2 months

Would prefer we go for Mandzukic or Dzeko but not against signing Llorente, Batshuayi of course hope he makes it here but he seems better suited when paired up with another CF (4-4-2, 4-2-4, 3-4-1-2, etc)

Edited January 6, 20179 yr by the special one

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

If Batshuayi does go out on loan and we bring in Llorente to replace him, i will be very disappointed. Llorente has been poor at the top level for some time now, i would much rather see Batshuayi play. At least with Batshuayi you have someone who can improve as he career progresses, but Llorente isn't going to get any better. He's also pretty anonymous for Swansea, you wouldn't even know he is playing at times.

I think you're being a bit harsh on Llorente, and given Swansea's form for much of this season you can argue a case there's been very little service for him to work with.

For whomever our backup is for the next 6 months, appearances are going to minimal. We're as well having an experienced impact option, capable of offering something different on the occasion needed, and Llorente fits that bill.

nd Batshuayi should get more PL minutes on loan than he would here right now, which should benefit us in the long run. I say 'should', because this is hypothetical, but its the way that makes most sense to me.

 

 Depending on the fee and the length of contract he could be a decent back-up option. Llorente is big, strong, very good in the air, capable of holding up the ball and has a solid goals-to-games ratio keeping in mind that he's playing for such a weak side like Swansea.

Plus, Conte worked with him before and knows him so I trust his judgment.

If he came in and Michy stayed, could be we're set to see 3-5-2 utilised in the second half of the season...

according to sky italy it'll be a straight swap, llorente to chelsea and bats to swansea on loan

looks like this one's happening

 

What?

If true, what a strange signing Batshyaui was.

17 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

If he came in and Michy stayed, could be we're set to see 3-5-2 utilised in the second half of the season...

Exactly what I was thinking.

Especially against certain teams like Liverpool at Anfield later this month for example. He is going to pair Costa and Llorente up with Llorente as the target man for long balls from Luiz and the defence to get around their ultra pressing without having to play through midfield who is prone to losing the ball in those kinds of circumstances.

Llorente is a great target man and also a good goal scorer and with Diego Costa having to be both in our toughest games as of now i think getting Fernando in could be very valuable.

We play something which isn't a million miles away from a 3-5-2 now. While on paper we have three forwards, Hazard and Costa are by far the two who play the highest up the pitch, whereas Pedro/Willian tend to be a lot deeper. It's far more focused on attacking the flanks than a more conventional 3-5-2 which has three outright central midfielders.

In the 3-5-2 many seem to be suggesting (i.e. with two 'traditional' centre forwards in Costa and Llorente) where would Hazard play? I don't mind it as an alternative option to our usual system, or perhaps when we're looking to close out a game, but I'd be very wary of going into any game without our key attacking player. I think, assuming this is true (and it has been widely reported), that Llorente would be signed as pure backup to Costa, essentially a direct replacement for Batshuayi's role in the squad.

 

With this deal, is the idea that we simply trade loans or that we loan them Batshuayi and sign Llorente permanently? If so, how exactly do Swansea benefit here? In the former scenario, is it that both sides rate the other's striker as the better player? That seems unlikely, and if not, why on earth would Swansea risk losing one of their very few attacking options? In the latter scenario, it seems like both teams would be making very short-sighted decisions. Swansea would be permanently sacrificing one of their few [sort of] effective attackers in the hope that Batshuayi could help them stay up (ultimately leaving them back at square one in the summer), and we'd be stuck with a 30+-year-old striker on our books for the foreseeable future. What does that then mean next season for Tammy Abraham? For Solanke? Even for Batshuayi himself?

The only way I can see this making sense is if it is a loan swap, in which both sides are in agreement that Batshuayi is right now the superior striker. Swansea would then get a new starter who is better than what they currently have (and in a problem position for them), and we would be able to ensure that one of our underutilised youth prospects is guaranteed a lot more game time. It concerns me though, it would mean that we would knowingly be downgrading our attacking options in the short-term, when we are already quite limited in that department, and when we are in a fairly close title race. I am somewhat heartened to know that Conte has worked with him in the past, it suggests he knows what he's getting and he knows what he wants, and I have confidence that he knows what he's doing.

I have to say I'd be a lot less skeptical about this if we were signing Llorente from five years ago... Then again, he's from Pamplona, maybe he's a Hemingway fan.

His name is FERNANDO javier llorente TORRES...... 

Wouldn't be against signing Llorente as a back-up to Costa, but I'm curious as to why Michy isn't rated by the coaching staff considering we forked out a reported 33m in the summer to sign him.  

What's he doing wrong, or what standards isn't he satisfying to prompt barely any game time?

Great, another Torres is back!

Hopefully this rumour is a load of old tosh.

I'd rather have Pato FFS.

Think it's clear conte doesn't think batman is ready so we need another.

My guess is hazard is carrying a groin injury based on the Spurs game further emphasizing need for cover.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/10722493/chelsea-and-swansea-could-swap-fernando-llorente-and-michy160batshuayi-sky-sources

Just WTF? I know Conte is excellent at getting the best out of so called average players but to me, this makes no sense. I would take Batshuayi over Llorente all day. Llorente is washed up now and is not the striker he used to once be. Would be a really strange move. Really would be a harsh move on Batshuayi too. To treat him like that.