Just now, pacquiao said:

Well you were saying if Mbappe doesn't deliver we would have no one else to score a lot of goals, without acknowledging we will very likely sign 2 strikers in the summer if Costa leaves.

.....which is not implying that there won't be a 2nd striker. But how good will the 2nd striker be? There's a reason they're called 2nd strikers.

5 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

We're definitely not on par with Juve, not yet. They're a much, much better team right now. They have strength in every position on the pitch while we still have weaknesses. Their defense is by far the best in Europe and their midfield pairings are extremely solid, while we still have to deal with a weakness in Matic. We're not too far off the elite but we're not there yet. We wouldn't have won the CL this season for example and I think Juve will win it this year and complete their treble.

I agree with you that we are not on par with Juve just yet, however with one or two additional signings on top of a replacement for Costa, I believe we won't be far behind them.

I cannot however agree with your assessment of Mbappe. Just because he didn't score against Juve in one match, (who probably have the best defensive record in football at the moment) does not mean he isn't good enough for us. He's scored against pretty much all he's come up against for crying out loud!

8 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

.....which is not implying that there won't be a 2nd striker. But how good will the 2nd striker be? There's a reason they're called 2nd strikers.

But both would be starters, that's the point I'm making, if we sign Mbappe he would very likely play in Pedro's position and someone like Morata would be our main striker.

Just now, pacquiao said:

But both would be starters, that's the point I'm making, if we sign Mbappe he would very likely play in Pedro's position and someone like Morata would be our main striker.

We're not starting 2 strikers together for an entire season. Not when we're playing 3 at the back and Hazard has to play. Unless you're trying to stick Hazard at LWB or something crazy like that. You have to consider factors like that.

6 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

We're not starting 2 strikers together for an entire season. Not when we're playing 3 at the back and Hazard has to play. Unless you're trying to stick Hazard at LWB or something crazy like that. You have to consider factors like that.

No it would be like this

Mbappe - Hazard

Morata

it would still be a 3-4-3, Mbappe basically plays that role for Monaco, Falcao just stays central and Mbappe always drifts out wide.

Edited May 6, 20179 yr by pacquiao

1 minute ago, pacquiao said:

No it would be like this

Mbappe - Hazard

Morata

it would still be a 3-4-3, Mbappe basically plays that role for Monaco, Falcao just stays central and Mbappe always drifts out wide.

Well thank God you're not the manager then 

1 minute ago, Barrettinator said:

Well thank God you're not the manager then 

I would say the same about you! 

Just now, xXRuufioXx said:

I would say the same about you! 

I'm pretty sure Conte's decisions over the summer will look more like what I've said. Time will tell. 

4 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Well thank God you're not the manager then 

Okay. I can tell you know what you're talking about. 

Edited May 6, 20179 yr by pacquiao

I actually think this is close to the last chance for the current juve team. It's getting old at the back.

He keeps impressing me everytime I see him play, two superb assist so far against Lille to secure the ligue 1 title for Monaco. He did alot of positive things against Juventus as well when Monaco struggled. For me his pace, linkup play and vision/intelligence would benefit us more then Lukaku and Costas attributes. Should Costa leave for 75mil-80mil, we might as well go for a slightly more expensive Mbappe, rather then Lukaku.

Problem is every other top club want him.

He's out our reach imo 

10 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Problem is every other top club want him.

He's out our reach imo 

That depends if Real Madrid is after him or not. Barcelona, Bayern and Juventus already have world class strikers. The rest of the clubs we can compete with, he supports our club so thats something.

Edited May 14, 20179 yr by comtrend

6 hours ago, comtrend said:

That depends if Real Madrid is after him or not. Barcelona, Bayern and Juventus already have world class strikers. The rest of the clubs we can compete with, he supports our club so thats something.

1. There's no proof that he supports Chelsea. Watching Chelsea (like he watches Juve, Madrid, etc) means nothing in that sense.

2. Madrid are after him. So as @Chelsbear said, he's in fact out of our reach.

If Mbappe can do what he did this season in a much tougher league on a consistent basis then he's well worth the hype. But for now, 100m on him is ridiculous

Reports in France that Batshuayi wants to go on loan to Monaco and Monaco are very interested in signing him, hopefully this could lead to us signing Mbappe...

Edited May 25, 20179 yr by pacquiao

7 minutes ago, pacquiao said:

Reports in France that Batshuayi wants to go on loan to Monaco and Monaco are very interested in signing him, hopefully this could lead to us signing Mbappe...

More likely a deal involving the Monaco Midfielder we have been linked to for months 

Mbappe isn't going anywhere this summer and chances of us signing him even next year is probably like 5%. I don't get why some like to cling on to hope of unrealistic transfers only to get unnecessary disappointment.

You lot do realise Chelsea are clearing the way for Tammy Abraham and have refused to sign any other young strikers because of that, right? In other words, even if we realistically had a good chance of signing this lad, the club has taken a stance that means we'll pass on that opportunity to instead integrate Abraham after his loan spell with Brighton/Newcastle next season.

2 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

Mbappe isn't going anywhere this summer and chances of us signing him even next year is probably like 5%. I don't get why some like to cling on to hope of unrealistic transfers only to get unnecessary disappointment.

You lot do realise Chelsea are clearing the way for Tammy Abraham and have refused to sign any other young strikers because of that, right? In other words, even if we realistically had a good chance of signing this lad, the club has taken a stance that means we'll pass on that opportunity to instead integrate Abraham after his loan spell with Brighton/Newcastle next season.

The club took that stance 4 years ago because we already had solanke and abraham in the youth set up. From a 1st team point of view I doubt that we would pass up on mbappe in the hope abraham can do something no other player has managed for 20 years. 

I'm not saying that mbappe is coming here, I think it's nigh on impossible aswell, but I doubt very much it has anything to do with abraham given how we tend to operate regarding youth development. 

 

Edited May 25, 20179 yr by big blue

1 minute ago, big blue said:

The club took that stance 2 years ago because we already had solanke and abraham in the youth set up. From a 1st team point of view I doubt that we would pass up on mbappe in the hope abraham can do something no other player has managed for 20 years. 

I'm not saying that mbappe is coming here, I think it's nigh on impossible aswell, but I doubt very much it has anything to do with abraham given how we tend to operate regarding youth development. 

 

According to Matt Law, we passed up on Gabigol because of Abraham and Abraham is rated very highly by Chelsea. Since not signing Mbappe isn't the end of the world, it's a believable stance imo.

8 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

According to Matt Law, we passed up on Gabigol because of Abraham and Abraham is rated very highly by Chelsea. Since not signing Mbappe isn't the end of the world, it's a believable stance imo.

Fair enough. I can't see it personally, bearing in mind we have never took that stance before. I'd love to see abraham in the 1st team. I just don't think if mbappe was offered to us this summer at a reasonable price, We would turn it down specifically because of abraham. 

Just now, big blue said:

Fair enough. I can't see it personally, bearing in mind we have never took that stance before. I'd love to see abraham in the 1st team. I just don't think if mbappe was offered to us this summer at a reasonable price, We would turn it down specifically because of abraham. 

Key to that is "at a reasonable price". Monaco are going to fleece 100m off whoever ends up buying him. 

4 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Key to that is "at a reasonable price". Monaco are going to fleece 100m off whoever ends up buying him. 

That's why I agree there is no chance of him coming here. I didn't think anyone would bite this summer, but having seen real just throw £40m on a 16 year old with 17 minutes under his belt, anything is possible. 

No sniggering at the back now....

According to French paper L'Equipe, Arsenal have made a colossal attempt to sign Monaco striker Kylian Mbappe for €100 million.

The report also claims that Arsenal have made Mbappé their primary target for the summer, but should that fail to materialise, Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette is the back-up plan

Edited June 1, 20179 yr by Chelsbear

On May 25, 2017 at 22:26, Barrettinator said:

According to Matt Law, we passed up on Gabigol because of Abraham and Abraham is rated very highly by Chelsea. Since not signing Mbappe isn't the end of the world, it's a believable stance imo.

If Mbappe becomes available to us we must pounce, i have high hopes for Tammy but imagine if we said no to Hazard to focus on Kakuta.