Just watched the Europa League final. Can we hurry up and just pay Saul's buyout clause? There's nothing he can't do on a football field. Best 130m we would have ever spent. 

RAC 1 apparently reporting that Barcelona are shopping Dembele to clubs in Europe at Valverde's request. Sounds like BS even though RAC are very reliable for French football news. If true though, we should jump at that before they even think about changing their minds. 

If someone came in for Zouma how much do you think Chelsea would want for him? Been curious of this for a while as I think he's an excellent defender and would love him at Liverpool lining up next to Van Dijk. 

Also congrats on the FA cup win, very glad you won it!

1 hour ago, jayus20 said:

If someone came in for Zouma how much do you think Chelsea would want for him? Been curious of this for a while as I think he's an excellent defender and would love him at Liverpool lining up next to Van Dijk. 

Also congrats on the FA cup win, very glad you won it!

If Liverpool came I for him, I would hope we would fleece them for big money. If it wasn't a domestic rival I think anything over £25m would be seriously considered.

I'd like to wish you lot luck next week, but the media coverage would be unbearable. 

So il be hoping madrid win. Bitter I know. 

My worst nightmare is Eden Tibo and Willian leaving, and Bakayoko Morata and Pedro staying. And we bring through a few youngsters, only for them to fail because of the state of the rest of the team.

Two - three new players. Keep the cream, mix it with youth, buy quality, not lucky dip.

Work Luiz back in, sell some aging players, work in some youth players, and then buy 2-3 new players, preferably midfield and attacking.

OUT: Willian, Pedro, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Barkley, Morata

IN: Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy, Batshuayi, Zouma, Seri(£35m), Mahrez(£35m), Icardi(£90m), Milinkovic-Savic(£80m)

Edit: So sorry I forgot about David Luiz feels so bad now :(

 

Edited May 20, 20188 yr by Gol15

Out: 

Caballero: Absolutely awful off his line. 

Luiz, Drinkwater, Willian: Undermining attitude.

In:

Candreva (versatile, quality delivery)

Pogba/Naingolan/Mil-Savic (Bakayoko can't be first choice).

Top class CB + Zouma

Top class second striker (someone who can get in behind.. Reus? Mertens?)

Maybe:

Courtois (controversial, but I question his attitude/influence and there are better keepers out there).

Edited May 21, 20188 yr by Pauly

8 hours ago, Gol15 said:

OUT: Willian, Pedro, Fabregas, Drinkwater, Barkley, Morata

IN: Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy, Batshuayi, Zouma, Seri(£35m), Mahrez(£35m), Icardi(£90m), Milinkovic-Savic(£80m)

Edit: So sorry I forgot about David Luiz feels so bad now :(

 

I like the look of that, but £35m for Mahrez isn't even ball park. Probably end bring close to double. 

Also I would rather keep pedro or Willian instead of moses as a winger.

Posted this in another thread but also think it belongs here:

I think what we mustn’t do is just get rid of all our over 30s an?d replace them with youth. It’s very important to keep experienced players around. It’s why at Man U Fergie kept players like Scholes and Giggs around, they can come into a game and through experience can still do a job. With us I wouldn’t be so quick to ship out Cahil and Fabregas for example. They should definitely be replaced but not discarded. Having players like that around other players wil?l learn from them and they will also come in when required putting a bit of pressure on the other players.

 

 

Need a better spine , 4 players. A striker that is up to the job, a goal scoring wide player eg Mahrez or martial or Bailey, a central midfielder like lampard, run, tackle and scores, and a reliable central defender with good distribution (like Luiz was for one season)

I actually don’t think we should brings Martial in as a wide player. I think we should bring him in as a centre forward. Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 live was saying that he isn’t a wide player.

18 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

I actually don’t think we should brings Martial in as a wide player. I think we should bring him in as a centre forward. Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 live was saying that he isn’t a wide player.

If we bring in Sarri i think Martial could be fantastic in Sarris Mertens-role. With Hazard to his left and a new attacker to his right.

Jorginho, martial and Bailey spend big and quickly.

Everywhere else we are okay I think. Utalise the loanees coming back as squad players 

Jorginho has only scored two goals in the last 5 seasons. Doesn’t meet my criterion. 

1 hour ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

I actually don’t think we should brings Martial in as a wide player. I think we should bring him in as a centre forward. Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 live was saying that he isn’t a wide player.

I hear you. 

Easy.

Replace Pedro with Leon Bailey.

Replace Fabregas with Hamsik. (wants out, Sarri may convince him).

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (or SMS as I call him day-to day, yeah, we're friendly) for Drinkwater

Lewandowski for Batshuayi.

Quality LB for Zappacosta, to actually send Moses to the bench instead of being his backup.

Alderweireld for Cahill.

Integrate Ampadu and Hudson Odoi. 

Granted, it would take an absolute fortune to get it done, but that would take us to a whole different level.

GK - Courtois, Caballero.

LB - Emerson and Alonso

RB - NEW GUY and Moses (Azpi to help out, when needed)

CB - Azpi, Alderweireld, Rudiger, Christensen, Luiz 

DM - Kante, Bakayoko, Ampadu

CM - SMS, Hamsik, Barkley

AM/RW/LW - Hazard, Willian, Bailey, Hudson-Odoi

ST - Lewandowski, Morata, Giroud .

 

 

delete

Edited May 22, 20188 yr by MANoWAR

I agree with that a lot, but I think 4 players for three positions (attacking mids / wingers), even if we play with a 3-4-3 / 4-3-3 is too few. Hazard/Bailey/Mahrez then one of our other wingers like Pedro or H-O. Man City are looking to buy Mahrez for   example and looked at Sanchez before he went to  Manchester United, Spurs have Son/Eriksen/Alli/Moura/Lamela and are buying either one of Sessengon or Martial and they deployed 3ATB a lot 

Further, what if Morata leaves? Who's going to be his back-up striker replacement if Lew comes? 

It's quite serious; I can't figure out if our business has been better or worse these past few years. You can argue we've won a few trophies, but now to compete finding  Chelsea  in 5th place while having to spend so much to overhaul this     many areas  makes    nobody  comfortable... 

 

Edited May 22, 20188 yr by MANoWAR

8 minutes ago, MANoWAR said:

I agree with that a lot, but I think 4 players for three positions (attacking mids / wingers), even if we play with a 3-4-3 / 4-3-3 is too few. Hazard/Bailey/Mahrez then one of our other wingers like Pedro or H-O. Man City are looking to buy Mahrez for   example and looked at Sanchez before he went to  Manchester United, Spurs have Son/Eriksen/Alli/Moura/Lamela and are buying either one of Sessengon or Martial and they deployed 3ATB a lot 

Further, what if Morata leaves? Who's going to be his back-up striker replacement if Lew comes? 

It's quite serious; I can't figure out if our business has been better or worse these past few years. You can argue we've won a few trophies, but now to compete finding  Chelsea  in 5th place while having to spend so much to overhaul this     many areas  makes    nobody  comfortable... 

 

Giroud is more than a capable back-up.

Edited May 22, 20188 yr by abramovich

I’d sell both Morata and Michy if we could raise 90-100 million from those two. And spend that money on 1 world-class striker.

Then hopefully we can swap Willian for Martial and raise some money from the likes of Drinkwater and Zappacosta and use it on some players of actual class.

We’ll need to spend a lot of money this summer if we want to compete (and keep Hazard at the club) so hopefully that’s the plan.

4 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Giroud is more than a capable back-up.

One excellent striker and one average striker is a bit limiting, but maybe if we keep Bats as well 

I'm just looking at it from the perspective of the best clubs and what they have.

Looking back, it's just incredible how poor our transfer business has been lately. There's literally not a single player since last summer that made the team better. Giroud may be an exception, since he's a more reliable back-up than Michy, but that's about it. Our first eleven (Costa/Morata, Matic/Bakayoko) got worse and instead of upgrading RB position we bought someone, who's even more average than Moses. Emerson and Barkley are still question marks, but they came in injured and really haven't featured enough to be judged properly. I had some hopes for Drinkwater, given his Leicester connection with Kante but he ultimately failed to make the grade.

Bakayoko, with the exception of the last couple of games looked like a total disaster. Morata started promising but soon his weak mentality got the better of him. Being the focal point of the attack in a very physical league where refs allow far more than he's used to seemed to crash his spirit. Probably the biggest disappointment, both due the price tag and my belief in his ability.

Edited May 22, 20188 yr by abramovich

GK: Courtois / Cabellero

RB: Azpi / Moses

LB: Emerson / Amavi

CB: Cahill / Rudiger / Christensen / D.Luiz

CM: Kante / Bakayoko / RLC / Ampadu / Fabinho / N'Dombele

Wingers: Hazard / Willian / Bailey / CHO

ST: Batshuayi / Martial / Giroud

 

Outgoings: Morata (£50m), Zappacosta (£15m), Alonso (£35m), Pedro (£5m), Fabregas (£5m), MVG (£25m), Barkley (£20m), Drinkwater (£20m) Total - £175m

Coming in: Amavi (£15m), Fabinho (£55m?), N'Dombele (£40m), Bailey (£80m), Martial (£50m) - £240m

Net spend - £65m

 

Courtois

Azpi   Christensen   Rudiger   Emerson

Fabinho

Kante          N'Dombele

Willian         Martial         Hazard

Bench: Caballero / Cahill / Moses / RLC / Bakayoko / Bailey / Batshuayi

 

Keepers are fine and shouldn't waste time swapping them unless we need to.

Defense is largely okay. Offload Zappacosta as i believe Moses is the better of the two and could still play well as a full back. No need for new CB's and sell Alonso as i don't think he'd do well in a flat back 4. Amavi has had a great season and is finally living up to his potential after a few injury set backs. 

Midfield is where the overhaul needs to happen. Kante is the only truly wold class player we have in this position. Fabinho would be expensive but offers a great skill set and is still young. N'dombele looks like he could be the next big thing and we could steal him with all the big clubs looking at Savic. With a good world cup under his belt RLC should feature and Ampadu showed promise in the holding role before his injury. Bakayoko i don't think anyone will be interested in so would keep for another year. Showed promise in big games so hopefully can improve. 

Attack is crucial around keeping Hazard. I would keep Willian but would be more than happy offloading him if it helps with the Martial deal. Martial i would want up top but can cover the wing when need be. Bring in a young winger with world class potential such as Bailey or perhaps Malcom from Bordeaux. Bailey looks the better player but i believe Malcom operates better on the right which is what we need. Instead of replacing Pedro i'd give CHO a chance too. 

Also wouldn't mind that Anderson Talisca bloke to play the Lampard role. Seems to score for fun from the middle of the park. Got height and physicality on his side too, think he's 6 foot +.