Don't know what anyone was expecting really. Given our recent history of faffing around and then making panic buys, and the shortened transfer window this year, it's remarkable we've even signed a single player. I don't expect any others to come in now.

Manchester City dont need to spend much this window since their squad is already stacked with quality and have depth, which is not the case for us. So comparing our transfer activity to theirs this summer is deceiving. We need another winger/attacking player maybe two. Maybe a cover/backup for Kante. That's it really but we haven't addressed the deadwood in the team yet with 10 days left. 

I like transfers on deadline day, along as its not the likes of Zappacosta and Drinkwater. I don't think our squad is bad.

Edited July 30, 20187 yr by jack_super_class

43 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

If there was genuine interest from Roman to sell the club, sacking Conte and hiring Sarri just seems strange to me. 

Why go through all that hassle and deal with compensation pay outs when you're only going to hand over the club to someone else? 

I've not seen anyone credible speculate about a possible sale of the club, last one I saw was from The Secret Footballer (Dave Kitson) who isn't creditable at all. 

I can't see it myself right now. 

You wouldn't hear any 'credible' rumours even if it was true. When Roman bought Chelsea we didn't hear anything until it happened, completely out of the Blue.

If you want some maybe 'credible' evidence, then look no further than the new stadium plans being shelved.

We are waiting for Courtois , Willian and Hazard to tell us exactly what they want before we do any transfers. Hazard will likely to stay, but he'd probably have a say about Courtois and Willian's next destination. Courtois will screw us over one last time, seriously I bet he will say things like he's focused on the new season, or wait 30/8 to tell us he's ready to go. Willian deserves to have his opinions heard, again we are putting everything on hold for these players. We shouldn't have dealt with Juventus at all, obviously we haven't learnt from the last couple of years. Supposedly we had formal talks with them, now we know they only interested to sell us a CB they didn't want, for some 35M, f* them!

Courtois I suspect will see out his contract. We can't get a good enough replacement right now, he wont down tools as he will want madrid to sign him next year.

If willian leaves then we need a replacement. But we aren't under any great pressure to sell and he will work as hard as he always has.

We seem to be in the market for another midfielder, but we don't really need one. 

I'm quite happy with our window, we've added to the squad with jorginho. Morata / bats are good enough. We've also added to our squad with RLC and a fit again Barkley. 

Our squad as it stands is good enough for top 3.

18 minutes ago, coco said:

You wouldn't hear any 'credible' rumours even if it was true. When Roman bought Chelsea we didn't hear anything until it happened, completely out of the Blue.

If you want some maybe 'credible' evidence, then look no further than the new stadium plans being shelved.

I viewed the stadium rebuilding being put on hold as a reaction to Roman not getting his visa renewed. 

I know I wouldn't want to invest £1bn into something if I was being told I couldn't actually enjoy it. 

6 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I know I wouldn't want to invest £1bn into something if I was being told I couldn't actually enjoy it. 

Then you would possibly be tempted to sell ?

1 hour ago, zes said:

Manchester City dont need to spend much this window since their squad is already stacked with quality and have depth, which is not the case for us. So comparing our transfer activity to theirs this summer is deceiving. We need another winger/attacking player maybe two. Maybe a cover/backup for Kante. That's it really but we haven't addressed the deadwood in the team yet with 10 days left. 

As you say there isn't much to do in terms of buying unless a first team player leaves I.e. swap Willian for Martial, Morata for Higuain, Courtois for ... maybe Pickford Or Reina. 

But we have an absolutely massive list of players that really need shipping (1Rb,  2CBs, 2CMs, 1St and atleast another 15 members of the loan army) although I suppose we can send people abroad after the window shuts.

Lots to do in not much time hopefully we are an upgrade on either Willian or Pedro and I wouldn't mind an upgrade on Morata but that doesn't look likely.

From reading the various rumours that are out there I see the 3 linked to leave as such:

Little to no chance hazard is going. Our price is too high for real and Barca, eden wont force the issue so he will end up staying. Now that is not to say he will sign a new deal. If he really fancies a switch I reckon he will put contract talks on hold till he sees how we do with sarri. Knowing with 1 year left next summer his price drops so more likely to get a move then if he still wants it.

Tibo I think goes. We are not in business of losing good players for free. I think our emergancy backup is butland. Not ideal, not as good as tibo nor has the distribution sarri wants but would offer resale value. Or we just accept a loss of 9mill and bring in Reina. Either way I don't believe we will let go of 30-35mill and let tibo run down his deal.

Willian is one we are 50/50 on imo. Happy to keep him, not determined enough to do so to turn down silly money. Is up to United or whoever to make that offer, and Jose may just push them in to doing so.

2 hours ago, zes said:

Manchester City dont need to spend much this window since their squad is already stacked with quality and have depth, which is not the case for us.

Actually, it appears to be exactly that the case for us. the quality is in there, this group became champions twice in 3 years. So it's all about the depth and let's catch a glimpse on the bench:

Caballero, Moses(to Dave), Alonso(to Emerson), Christensen, Cahill(assuming Luiz and Rudiger starters), Fabregas(to Jorginho), RLC(to Barkley or the opposite), Pedro, CHO, Bats or Morata(to Giroud or any variation). I don't count Drinkwater, Bakayoko + 1 or 2 possible new players.

Looks pretty good depth.

2 hours ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

Actually, it appears to be exactly that the case for us. the quality is in there, this group became champions twice in 3 years. So it's all about the depth and let's catch a glimpse on the bench:

Caballero, Moses(to Dave), Alonso(to Emerson), Christensen, Cahill(assuming Luiz and Rudiger starters), Fabregas(to Jorginho), RLC(to Barkley or the opposite), Pedro, CHO, Bats or Morata(to Giroud or any variation). I don't count Drinkwater, Bakayoko + 1 or 2 possible new players.

Looks pretty good depth.

The highlighted are a big no to me. The others in the list I agree with though I think a RW and a ST are important to upgrade (CHO plays on the left so Pedro has no back up) and all of our strikers are far from convincing. I think Bats could do well.  We also saw Zappacosta play RB last two games he can rotate with Azpi

Edited July 30, 20187 yr by zes

35 minutes ago, zes said:

The highlighted are a big no to me. The others in the list I agree with though I think a RW and a ST are important to upgrade (CHO plays on the left so Pedro has no back up) and all of our strikers are far from convincing. I think Bats could do well.  We also saw Zappacosta play RB last two games he can rotate with Azpi

I would prefer Moses over Zappacosta. Zappacosta has done nothing in his time with us that suggests he is anything other than mid table player at best. Moses at least has his moments and is actually quite decent defensively. Also, if we are chasing a win, Moses would be a good weapon to bring off the bench. He may not have great end product, but his attacking instincts are much better than Zappacosta's and he could be an extra player to add to the attack if needed. I think Azpilicueta and Moses are good enough, even Rudiger can play there so i think we are covered in that area. I would rather we sold Zappacosta and put the money towards a RW.

16 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I would prefer Moses over Zappacosta. Zappacosta has done nothing in his time with us that suggests he is anything other than mid table player at best. Moses at least has his moments and is actually quite decent defensively. Also, if we are chasing a win, Moses would be a good weapon to bring off the bench. He may not have great end product, but his attacking instincts are much better than Zappacosta's and he could be an extra player to add to the attack if needed. I think Azpilicueta and Moses are good enough, even Rudiger can play there so i think we are covered in that area. I would rather we sold Zappacosta and put the money towards a RW.

100% agree with this. I noticed that Sarri brought Moses on at RW last game, which worries me and makes me believe Zappacosta will be kept as backup to Azpi ffs.

We have only signed 1 player, Jorginho and that is only because Sarri became the new manager.

The club that came in back to the top 4 is Liverpool and they have signed Alisson, Keita, Fabinho and Shaqiri.

But our club thinks that because we overperformed once with Conte and won the league that all we needed really was really another italian manager!

It took Spuds 20 something years to win at the Bridge and now they will be getting easy points from us, that's the one thing that will make me sad...

To top if off, Courtois is once again going to stay even if he isn't interested at all because for him this is just easy money and then he will leave us next summer, for free, as his last fu to everyone at the club.

Total failure to realise that we don't have a stable defense and a proper striker for the whole season.

 

It pains me that quite a few people say we have only signed one player so far. Once again proof it's not easy being Green.

Surely that has been posted before?!

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

It pains me that quite a few people say we have only signed one player so far. Once again proof it's not easy being Green.

Surely that has been posted before?!

I don't even count Green as an improvement to the first team it's like we will ever feel a difference...sure it's not easy being him or anyone for that matter but that's not the point of my frustration post lol 

I am certain that getting transfer business done early is the best way and was how we operated in the early years. In recent years, ever since Jose’s second coming up our transfer business has been crap. We’ve sold the wrong players and bought the wrong ones. To some extent I can find an excuse this season because of the Sarri situation, but you don’t get any extra points in the table fir having a good excuse. 

The team obviously needs strengthening. We didn’t score near enough goals last season, have the worst striker lineup in the top six, including arsenal although theirs are lacking as well. We also need a goal scoring midfielder. None of the current midfielders have a respectable goal scoring record for any club. I guess Alonso is the closest. 

Neither willian, nor Pedro can reliably get the business done and Pedro is well past his best. So we do need more. 

 

If we don't sell anyone do we really need more players? I mean Ampadu impressed me last season big time, CHO has been very impressive in the pre-season. I say give some of our talented youth the chance. Our backline is solid apart from maybe the LB position. Midfield has two very classy players in the form of Kanté and Jorginho, Barkley has been looking up in the pre-season as well. The only real signing we still need is a striker who is just a killer in front of goal. We have enough class on the wings with Hazard, Willian, CHO. Besides don't forget a lot comes down to playing style and tactics. Last season these were sh*te for a lot of players. I really believe lots of players will get a serious boost from Sarri's playing style and will be completely unrecognizable in comparison to last season. 

Thanks Juventus for wasting 2 weeks of our time, we will do it again next season, I bet. The GK rumours have gone dead in the past 2 days, I think Courotois may just play out the next 12 months, which I think it's going to end badly since he's already set for Madrid. We need players giving 100%, not someone who's already packed up and called the cab.

3 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

The GK rumours have gone dead in the past 2 days,

I've read that Chelsea has inquired about Jack Butland's price but Stoke's asking price was higher then we were going to offer. 

Pickford is apparently our preferred choice but it's unlikely Everton would sell. 

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I don't even count Green as an improvement to the first team it's like we will ever feel a difference...sure it's not easy being him or anyone for that matter but that's not the point of my frustration post lol 

You're frustrated? Imagine how Rob Green would feel, not even getting mentioned by you as a new signing, poor guy 

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

You're frustrated? Imagine how Rob Green would feel, not even getting mentioned by you as a new signing, poor guy 

Looking at his bank account might help him to get over it.

On 30/07/2018 at 11:51, Zeta said:

Don't know what anyone was expecting really. Given our recent history of faffing around and then making panic buys, and the shortened transfer window this year, it's remarkable we've even signed a single player. I don't expect any others to come in now.

yes i think we will stick with what we have now.  Won't do much in 1 week

I used to follow the few previous windows very intensively. Tapped "Chelsea rumours" to google search ten times a day only to find new (and interesting rumours almost every day and getting disappointed when the signings didn't happen. I haven't bothered to following this window very closely.

I don't think we will make any more signings this window. On the other hand I don't think we will sell anyone either. Were does that leave us? I think we are even a bit stronger than last season: We have signed Jorginho, a very good signing. We have a couple of youngesters (Ampady, CHO) looking much readier to PL than last year. And  I think last season we had a squad strong enough to be in the top four, we just somehow lacked to will. We have a new manageri who has done great things in developing the players he has had. So I'm not that worried about the coming season.