Including Azpi into any deal is insane. He is our backbone.

7 hours ago, lchk said:

Definitely.  Also the fee mooted is in excess of 60 million pounds.  I cannot see the Board sanctioning any deal exceeding the club's transfer record or even 40 million pounds for that matter.  The only exception to that rule that I can think of is a replacement striker for Costa.

Well we have made offers for him for that much so we must be willing to pay also offered that much for VVD we have money this year to spend it seems, if we get Sandro a top CB, bakayoko and add in a tasty RF we are certainly CL contenders we may not win it but we will be a force 

Edited June 25, 20179 yr by DonAntonio

Quality player but not worth that kind of money especially since we have alonso

11 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

Quality player but not worth that kind of money especially since we have alonso

Have to disagree, we should go for WC talents when the opportunity arises. Had we not go in for him, there will be a chance for other teams to go in for him. This is the same situation with Ashley and Bridge/Del Horno

Edited June 25, 20179 yr by Deino

Just now, Deino said:

Have to disagree, we should go for WC talents when the opportunity arises. Had we not go in for him, there will be a chance for other teams to go in for him. This is the same situation with Ashley and Bridge

he is talented but for that price it makes absolutely no sense. 60 million. i dont think conte will ever pay that much for a wing back, especially when we have a quality one like alonso. Its not like alonso messed up last year and we need an upgrade. We just need someone to compete with him and make him better, wud rather spend that kind of money in defence or upfront. 60nM for van dijk no probs witrh me on that front but not on a wingback

2 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

he is talented but for that price it makes absolutely no sense. 60 million. i dont think conte will ever pay that much for a wing back, especially when we have a quality one like alonso. Its not like alonso messed up last year and we need an upgrade. We just need someone to compete with him and make him better, wud rather spend that kind of money in defence or upfront. 60nM for van dijk no probs witrh me on that front but not on a wingback

You will change your mind when you see how good Sandro is. Also, the improvement Hazard will have because of him.

3 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

he is talented but for that price it makes absolutely no sense. 60 million. i dont think conte will ever pay that much for a wing back, especially when we have a quality one like alonso. Its not like alonso messed up last year and we need an upgrade. We just need someone to compete with him and make him better, wud rather spend that kind of money in defence or upfront. 60nM for van dijk no probs witrh me on that front but not on a wingback

But we are spending that sort of money on defence and upfront too. Does that mean you'd rather buy 2 60m+ Forward or 2 60m+ CB?. Plus, buying A. Sandro now would have secured the LWB spot for 5 - 6yrs something we used to have with Ashley

1 minute ago, JMaher94 said:

You will change your mind when you see how good Sandro is. Also, the improvement Hazard will have because of him.

I know he is good. I just dont see the point of throwing useless money in a position we are covered for when we have more important positions to figure out. Like CB MIDfield and striker. I dont mind 60 M on all 3 positions coz we need upgrades on cahill matic and a striker on Costas level .

5 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

he is talented but for that price it makes absolutely no sense. 60 million. i dont think conte will ever pay that much for a wing back, especially when we have a quality one like alonso. Its not like alonso messed up last year and we need an upgrade. We just need someone to compete with him and make him better, wud rather spend that kind of money in defence or upfront. 60nM for van dijk no probs witrh me on that front but not on a wingback

I keep referring back to this example: Would you say no to buying Sanchez for our RF spot just because Pedro (and Willian) performed well for us last year? You don't say no to elite talent. It's what wins you the CL. Our midfield wasn't weak when we bought Ballack. Neither was our defense weak when we bought Ashley Cole. I can go on and on. Barca didn't really need to buy Suarez, by your logic. They had Sanchez after all. But you don't say no to the chance to sign a Suarez. Won them a CL immediately. 

Just now, Don Conte said:

I know he is good. I just dont see the point of throwing useless money in a position we are covered for when we have more important positions to figure out. Like CB MIDfield and striker. I dont mind 60 M on all 3 positions coz we need upgrades on cahill matic and a striker on Costas level .

Sandro himself will take the massive workload off of Hazard which Alonso doesn't do. Defenders will no longer be able to triple mark Hazard when they have Sandro gunning down the left with him. Alonso is a good defender but he's not a great one, he will be exposed in the Champions League in my honest opinion. Sandro is an elite left back and when you have the option to buy world class players, that's exactly what you should do in order to be a big club.

 

1 minute ago, Deino said:

But we are spending that sort of money on defence and upfront too. Does that mean you'd rather buy 2 60m+ Forward or 2 60m+ CB?. Plus, buying A. Sandro now would have secured the LWB spot for 5 - 6yrs something we used to have with Ashley

My issue is the price not the player. I am not worried coz i know Conte is smarter than that. Its like last season when Napoli were asking for 55M for kouilabily. What did Conte do . He said f**k that bought luiz.. I am sure we will get a quality wing back for deent price

1 minute ago, Don Conte said:

I know he is good. I just dont see the point of throwing useless money in a position we are covered for when we have more important positions to figure out. Like CB MIDfield and striker. I dont mind 60 M on all 3 positions coz we need upgrades on cahill matic and a striker on Costas level .

We aren't covered at LWB. With the signing of Sandro, NOW we're covered. And who says signing Sandro means we won't spend at CB (VVD/Bonucci), midfield (Bakayoko) and striker (Lukaku)? If the club is pursuing all these deals at the same time, it's clearly because we can comfortably afford it all. So why are you complaining?

Just now, Don Conte said:

My issue is the price not the player. I am not worried coz i know Conte is smarter than that. Its like last season when Napoli were asking for 55M for kouilabily. What did Conte do . He said f**k that bought luiz.. I am sure we will get a quality wing back for deent price

Conte isn't the one negotiating transfers mate. And we did offer what Napoli were asking for Koulibaly eventually but we offered it too late and so they rejected it again because we didn't give them enough time to find a replacement before the window closed. And so we went with Luiz on deadline day. Let's not rewrite history here.

1 minute ago, Don Conte said:

My issue is the price not the player. I am not worried coz i know Conte is smarter than that. Its like last season when Napoli were asking for 55M for kouilabily. What did Conte do . He said f**k that bought luiz.. I am sure we will get a quality wing back for deent price

But what's the point in buying somebody like Bertrand for say 25m when he's not going to improve us in the slightest?

Koulibaly and Luiz are different because neither are world class.

6 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

I keep referring back to this example: Would you say no to buying Sanchez for our RF spot just because Pedro (and Willian) performed well for us last year? You don't say no to elite talent. It's what wins you the CL. Our midfield wasn't weak when we bought Ballack. Neither was our defense weak when we bought Ashley Cole. I can go on and on. Barca didn't really need to buy Suarez, by your logic. They had Sanchez after all. But you don't say no to the chance to sign a Suarez. Won them a CL immediately. 

Obviously not. My issue is the position. Cole wasnt bought for 60 million, ballack was free

Just now, Don Conte said:

Obviously not. My issue is the position. Cole wasnt bought for 60 million, ballack was free

Ballack had a sign on bonus too. Cole cost us 5 million and one of our best defenders in Gallas. 

If you keep worrying about price tags in situations like this, you'll never be comfortable with us signing another world class player again. 

You need to wake up and realise that the market has changed drastically. 60m is the new 30m, for all intents and purposes. I think with that in mind, you can reassess your views.

3 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

My issue is the price not the player. I am not worried coz i know Conte is smarter than that. Its like last season when Napoli were asking for 55M for kouilabily. What did Conte do . He said f**k that bought luiz.. I am sure we will get a quality wing back for deent price

Did you not see the way we went with the transfer last year? We played around like children trying to lower the price and then went in for 60m anyway except it was far too late. Conte switched to Luiz because otherwise there are no one there available. Heck, just because Luiz was a successful bargain doesn't mean he was our first choice or 2nd choice.

You are now even starting to contradict yourself. If we didn't need A. Sandro for a position that we desperately need more cover then surely we shouldn't even look for a CB when we have multiple options for that role. We have Luiz, Cahill, Azpi, Christensen, Zouma and Ake so we are sufficiently covered already. Why are we going for a 60m+ CB? Because there is a chance to upgrade and you never say no to better talent

1 minute ago, Barrettinator said:

Ballack had a sign on bonus too. Cole cost us 5 million and one of our best defenders in Gallas. 

If you keep worrying about price tags in situations like this, you'll never be comfortable with us signing another world class player again. 

You need to wake up and realise that the market has changed drastically. 60m is the new 30m, for all intents and purposes. I think with that in mind, you can reassess your views.

For the last time.My issue is not with the price. it is the position. 60 million for a wingback REALLY.  Its not like Alonso is trash like wayne bridge

2 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

For the last time.My issue is not with the price. it is the position. 60 million for a wingback REALLY.  Its not like Alonso is trash like wayne bridge

Last season, we suffered when the wingbacks were nullified/unavailable and now we are in for someone who would improve that position and quite possibly become the best in the world in that position, you say no? Are you Wenger?

Just now, Don Conte said:

For the last time.My issue is not with the price. it is the position. 60 million for a wingback REALLY.  Its not like Alonso is trash like wayne bridge

You JUST said the opposite minutes ago.....

11 minutes ago, Don Conte said:

My issue is the price not the player. I am not worried coz i know Conte is smarter than that. Its like last season when Napoli were asking for 55M for kouilabily. What did Conte do . He said f**k that bought luiz.. I am sure we will get a quality wing back for deent price

Pick a point and stick to it mate. Is your issue the price, the position or the player???

60m for the second best LB in the world, yes. How much do you think Madrid would let Marcelo go for in this market (hypothetically speaking)? Or Bayern and Alaba? 

And since when is Wayne Bridge trash? He was a very serviceable full back, not sure where you're getting that from. Let's not act like Alonso is some titan. Alonso is a good player. No more, no less. We need more than "good players" to win the CL. Especially when he's supposed to be playing behind Hazard and cleaning up after Hazard. As has been said above, teams would never be able to put 3 players on Hazard with a player like Sandro overlapping. If you don't want that, then I'm sorry you feel that way. Roman's not complaining about the money so why are you? Is it coming out of your pocket?

There were points in games that I saw teams double marking A. Sandro. If Hazard and Sandro were on the same side, would that mean congestion on our left side of the field or would that mean more free kicks from the left? Or both?

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

There were points in games that I saw teams double marking A. Sandro. If Hazard and Sandro were on the same side, would that mean congestion on our left side of the field or would that mean more free kicks from the left? Or both?

The real master stroke would be for us to then add Sanchez at RF. An congestion on the left wing and the ball will be swung quickly to the right for the kill in open space.

Short of that though, I still think it'll give our right wing a lot of freedom to do damage. And if opposing teams decide to go man to man on Sandro/Hazard, we all know the quality of both players and what they can do. 

That Herrera man marking on Hazard would never have been successful if Hazard had an outlet like Sandro supporting him.

If Lukaku does as well as costa we may well be a threat in the champs league. Maybe we need a bit more down the right but I think with Sandro and maybe bakyoko being upgrades, fab stays, we will have the beating of an ageing juve and an ageing bayern.

Have to beat citeh and Spurs as well of course and mourinho always does well in season two.

56 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

You JUST said the opposite minutes ago.....

Pick a point and stick to it mate. Is your issue the price, the position or the player???

60m for the second best LB in the world, yes. How much do you think Madrid would let Marcelo go for in this market (hypothetically speaking)? Or Bayern and Alaba? 

And since when is Wayne Bridge trash? He was a very serviceable full back, not sure where you're getting that from. Let's not act like Alonso is some titan. Alonso is a good player. No more, no less. We need more than "good players" to win the CL. Especially when he's supposed to be playing behind Hazard and cleaning up after Hazard. As has been said above, teams would never be able to put 3 players on Hazard with a player like Sandro overlapping. If you don't want that, then I'm sorry you feel that way. Roman's not complaining about the money so why are you? Is it coming out of your pocket?

I am not complaining. and i am not worried bcoz i know conte wont spend 60 million on a wingback same way he wont spend 55million on koullibally who was overpriced. My issue is the price for the position. 60m for a wingback is pretty laughable. it is obviouslly just a transfer rumor bcoz there is nothing going on . 

1 hour ago, Deino said:

Did you not see the way we went with the transfer last year? We played around like children trying to lower the price and then went in for 60m anyway except it was far too late. Conte switched to Luiz because otherwise there are no one there available. Heck, just because Luiz was a successful bargain doesn't mean he was our first choice or 2nd choice.

You are now even starting to contradict yourself. If we didn't need A. Sandro for a position that we desperately need more cover then surely we shouldn't even look for a CB when we have multiple options for that role. We have Luiz, Cahill, Azpi, Christensen, Zouma and Ake so we are sufficiently covered already. Why are we going for a 60m+ CB? Because there is a chance to upgrade and you never say no to better talent

60 M for a wing back. Dream on . I can guaantee sandro isnt coming, and if he is it definitely isnt 60 M.  Wud rather give that crazy amount to the gunners for sanchez rather than spend that on a wingback. There is even no guarantee he will adapt to the premiership. I am glad conte isnt one for throwing money for the ske of it.