18 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

I would rather have Bertrand.

Sandro is the second best left back in the world.

17 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

Sandro is the second best left back in the world.

Whose the best? Just curious..

10 minutes ago, Jackbuchanan said:

Whose the best? Just curious..

Ashley Cole

15 minutes ago, Jackbuchanan said:

Whose the best? Just curious..

Marcelo

33 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

Sandro is the second best left back in the world.

is he really that good? i have only seen him in the champs league so don't follow him regularly. alaba and marcelo have got to be top 2. 

1 minute ago, enigma said:

is he really that good? i have only seen him in the champs league so don't follow him regularly. alaba and marcelo have got to be top 2. 

Alaba has fallen off in the last year or so since Pep decided to play him in midfield. He's still a very good player.

Head to the Juve forums and see how highly they rate him.

 

18 minutes ago, Jackbuchanan said:

Whose the best? Just curious..

Marcelo, easily.

15 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

So your idea is to offer LESS? and that will make them not be seen as pushover?

Nope

So why don't we just go for Mendy? They have a Point not wanting to sell a top player without having his replacement 

For some reason it seems like we haven't been interested in Mendy. Maybe Conte doesn't like something about him. Not quite sure. Either way, getting arguably the best LB in the world wouldn't hurt.

Nah thats not accurate, Juve have a fairly high wage bill. Only the top 5 (Excluding Tottenham) in England pay more. Its around 180 million pounds iirc, while ours is in the 250 range

Fair enough, I was going to say top 8 but that's without looking at the numbers. Still, for a club of Juve's size, it just shows you how wide the margin is between the PL and Serie A financially.

If your going to spend stupid money on a fullback I would rather spend it on the right side. Alonso looked alot better than Moses.

No idea why we're bidding for him. He's not going to leave there after the season they've had and Juve aren't going to sell him. 

This is another case of us trying to buy a player too late. If we were making a move we should have been in when he left Porto.

I think a left back is probably needed. Alonso has been great but we don't really have cover like we do for Moses on the other side.

I've been a big fan of Faozi Ghoulam from Napoli for a long time. He's got a year left on his contract and would probably be my pick. There are plenty of options if we wanted to go English also. I'd be open to getting Bertrand back. We never should have let him leave in the first place. 

If your going to spend stupid money on a fullback I would rather spend it on the right side. Alonso looked alot better than Moses.

There's no RB/RWB in world football who's worth spending stupid money on at the moment. All the good ones will be relatively cheap (for this market) in the £25m-£30m range.

No idea why we're bidding for him. He's not going to leave there after the season they've had and Juve aren't going to sell him. 

This is another case of us trying to buy a player too late. If we were making a move we should have been in when he left Porto.

I think a left back is probably needed. Alonso has been great but we don't really have cover like we do for Moses on the other side.

I've been a big fan of Faozi Ghoulam from Napoli for a long time. He's got a year left on his contract and would probably be my pick. There are plenty of options if we wanted to go English also. I'd be open to getting Bertrand back. We never should have let him leave in the first place. 

When you have a chance to get a player like Sandro, you don't settle for Bertrand. I thought it was a nothing rumour at first but evidently, our interest was real and the bid was made. Of course it was rejected, but Marotta's comments about the bid sound an awful lot like someone who's left the window open for the player to say if he wants to leave or not. They probably rejected the bid to show that they'd like to keep him but wouldn't be against him leaving still. It's up to Sandro now to ask for the move.

 

Well you're making an assumption we have a chance at Sandro. I'm suggesting we don't. There is no incentive beyond cash for him to leave and I'd imagine he will get a nice upgrade from Juventus shortly. 

Bertrand is better than people give him credit for. He'd do fine just as Alonso, another unheralded player, has.

26 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

There's no RB/RWB in world football who's worth spending stupid money on at the moment. All the good ones will be relatively cheap (for this market) in the £25m-£30m range.

Personally I wouldn't spend 60m on a left back. I would rather be spending the money on attacking players like Sanchez, Rodriguez etc. That's the point though I would spend 30m upgrading a position were it is more needed. Alonso had a good season, has a cracking left foot and puts in good crosses.

Personally I wouldn't spend 60m on a left back. I would rather be spending the money on attacking players like Sanchez, Rodriguez etc. That's the point though I would spend 30m upgrading a position were it is more needed. Alonso had a good season, has a cracking left foot and puts in good crosses.

I think our finances are strong enough to both spend 60m on a LB and 60m on a Sanchez/Rodriguez, believe it or not. We haven't spent heavily in quite a while. I'm sure we can handle a £200m+ summer.

7 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

If your going to spend stupid money on a fullback I would rather spend it on the right side. Alonso looked alot better than Moses.

......Dave

4 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Well you're making an assumption we have a chance at Sandro. I'm suggesting we don't. There is no incentive beyond cash for him to leave and I'd imagine he will get a nice upgrade from Juventus shortly. 

Bertrand is better than people give him credit for. He'd do fine just as Alonso, another unheralded player, has.

 

You're making it sound like he'll be going to China. He'll be making a move from one top European club to another, playing in one of the best and most competitive leagues in the world, while making much more money in the process. I'm not saying Sandro will join Chelsea, but I don't see how it's a downgrade for him.

38 minutes ago, DonAntonio said:

......Dave

Not a fan of Dave the Wing back AT ALL. His biggest weakness as a right or left back is his offensive output at wingback it will be even more evident imo. But looking at our rumoured targets and the amounts of CBs we have been linked to even with Christensen coming back, you got to wonder if this isnt Contes plan. At least that side would be fairly locked down defensively

Not a fan of Dave at wing back either. He's no Ashley Cole. His offensive output is nowhere near the quality we'd need in that position.

53 minutes ago, abramovich said:

 

You're making it sound like he'll be going to China. He'll be making a move from one top European club to another, playing in one of the best and most competitive leagues in the world, while making much more money in the process. I'm not saying Sandro will join Chelsea, but I don't see how it's a downgrade for him.

I have a different view. For me it's like saying we're going to sign David Alaba or Jordi Alba. Juve are a top club who've made the final in Europe twice in the last five years and win their league for fun. Irrespective of our status I'd imagine it'd be hard to see him leave.

In any case this deal won't be happening as Juve have rejected our bid. I think we should be looking at someone who offers competition for Alonso not necessarily an upgrade as he had a great year.

A Ghoulam or Bertrand would be perfect. 

Ashley Cole at his peak would have been a monster at wing back role. He's pretty good at scoring.

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

I have a different view. For me it's like saying we're going to sign David Alaba or Jordi Alba. Juve are a top club who've made the final in Europe twice in the last five years and win their league for fun. Irrespective of our status I'd imagine it'd be hard to see him leave.

In any case this deal won't be happening as Juve have rejected our bid. I think we should be looking at someone who offers competition for Alonso not necessarily an upgrade as he had a great year.

A Ghoulam or Bertrand would be perfect. 

Them rejecting our bid doesn't mean there's no chance of signing him. Serie A wages are no match to those at the top PL clubs and money talks. Of course, it may end up with Sandro squeezig a better contract out of Juve while professing his undying love for them, but our negotiators must have known something before they made a bid for him, at least his camp probably let it be known that the player is willing to leave if the right offer comes along.

“Chelsea made a very big offer for Alex Sandro,” Marotta admitted, speaking to Corriere della Sera.

“We said no, but today players are masters of their own destiny.”

That to me sounds like the line to appease the fans while giving the player a chance to push through the deal. He could have just said no and added that Sandro isn't for sale at any price, but he didn't do it.

As for Alonso, he did have a very good season, but he's no world class player and never will be. Conte's system relies heavily on wingbacks and like any other position, if you have a shot at landing a better player, you go for it. This is a very competitive transfer market with crazy numbers flying around, so if you have to overpay, at least you should overpay for top talent.

Don't know much about Ghoulam, but dealing with De Laurentis is a nightmare. Bertrand is solid, but just like Alonso, he's good, not great, and never will be.

Edited June 18, 20179 yr by abramovich

Fair enough. Happy to disagree on that point.

Ghoulam has a year left on his contract makes it harder for ADL to negotiate.

4 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Ashley Cole at his peak would have been a monster at wing back role. He's pretty good at scoring.

I must be in the minority then that felt Cole wasn't that good going forward. Cole biggest strength was his defensive capabilities especially one vs one. Belletti was one of the best attacking fullbacks we had but he was just a bit old and shocking defensively when we had him.