Can he score goals from midfield? Jorginho and Kante won't be the best of goal scoring partnerships to be fair. We need goals from midfield, so if Kovacic can provide that then great. 

3 minutes ago, enigma said:

Can he score goals from midfield? Jorginho and Kante won't be the best of goal scoring partnerships to be fair. We need goals from midfield, so if Kovacic can provide that then great. 

Don’t expect 20 goals from him, he’s more of a Modric type player. He’ll open up defences with his dribbling and precise passing.

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

So who do you think goes?

RLC and Bakayoko?

I could see a club taking RLC on loan for the season but who's going to go anywhere near Bakayoko, he's looking a busted flush.

There was a rumour that Seville were interested in taking him on loan but that's all gone quite. 

I agree that it was interesting that Drinkwater made the bench over others at the weekend though, could be that Sarri sees him as able to cover for Kante or Jorginho and his versatility is counting in his favour whereas RLC probably only covers the attacking midfield option that Bakley and Fabregas might be competing for?

Milan, Sevilla etc a club just needing numbers.  Loan deal IMO.

 

I may be wrong and just reading too much into Sunday's decision, but whichever leaves ultimately does not surprise me

2 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Don’t expect 20 goals from him, he’s more of a Modric type player. He’ll open up defences with his dribbling and precise passing.

Not exactly what we need is it. I think it's better that Loftus-Cheek and Barkley battle for that no.8 spot. I am not sure dropping RLC and Barkley for Kovacic (a player who will be on loan and maybe not even become a purchase for us) would be in any way a good idea. He's a nice name to have on the books for a season, but that's all it will be. It's just short termism. 

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by enigma

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

Not exactly what we need is it. I think it's better that Loftus-Cheek and Barkley battle for that no.8 spot. I am not sure dropping RLC and Barkley for Kovacic (a player who will be on loan and maybe not even become a purchase for us) would be in any way a good idea. He's a nice name to have on the books for a season, but that's all it will be. It's just short termism. 

I disagree, even if it’s just a loan he will make a massive difference. He’s five times better than RLC and Barkley.

Plus if we’re lucky, there may be an option to purchase next summer! 

He has a release clause last I checked.

If everything goes well we can acquire his services next summer.

10 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

He has a release clause last I checked.

If everything goes well we can acquire his services next summer.

I believe it's 50 million euros, but could be wrong.

Edit: Just had a browse online and I think it's actually 300 million euros.

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by DannyVblue

15 minutes ago, enigma said:

Not exactly what we need is it. I think it's better that Loftus-Cheek and Barkley battle for that no.8 spot. I am not sure dropping RLC and Barkley for Kovacic (a player who will be on loan and maybe not even become a purchase for us) would be in any way a good idea. He's a nice name to have on the books for a season, but that's all it will be. It's just short termism. 

Playing inferior players will ruin us long term. We need to compete to retain our best players. We can compete with guys like Kovacic, not RLC and Barkley.

20 minutes ago, enigma said:

Not exactly what we need is it. I think it's better that Loftus-Cheek and Barkley battle for that no.8 spot. I am not sure dropping RLC and Barkley for Kovacic (a player who will be on loan and maybe not even become a purchase for us) would be in any way a good idea. He's a nice name to have on the books for a season, but that's all it will be. It's just short termism. 

If we sort out the midfield and dominate games that alone would mean more goals.

With such an attacking system we should be looking at 15 from Eden and whoever our forward is. Whoever starts out of Pedro or Willy should be capable of 10 and the main two forward subs should get atleast 10 between them. Barkley you would think would chip in with a cheeky 5.

So that's 50-55 roughly, the main worry would be if we could get 10-20 out of the rest.

Just Alonso on his own should be able to get us 5 - 10 goals. Then there’s also David Luiz.

It shouldn’t be hard to get 10-20 goals just from the defence.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

It's not really home grown players we need to worry about, it's the non homegrown players. We don't actually need 8 home grown players, but we can't have any more than 17 non homegrown players. If we wanted to, we could fill up the other 8 spots with players under the age of 21.

Green, Cahill, Fabregas, Moses, Drinkwater, Loftus-Cheek, Barkley and Christensen are our 8 home grown players at the moment, with Ampadu and Hudson-Odoi taking two under 21 spots. We are fine with our home grown spots even if we ditch Drinkwater.

Spot on ...

Our 17 are Courtois, Caballero, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Zappacosta, Alonso, Palmieri, Jorginho, Bakayoko, Kante, Pedro, Willian, Hazard, Giroud, Morata, Batshuayi, so for every additional player we sign from overseas one of these 17 has to leave or go on loan.

Can see Bats and Postman Pat going...maybe Alonso too...

2 minutes ago, doctorblue said:

Can see Bats and Postman Pat going...maybe Alonso too...

You're a very witty f**ker with your zanny nicknames for  our players, aren't you?  Are you SURE that you aren't one of the Monty Python team?  Or Robin Williams reincarnated?  Or the remaining Chuckle brother? ( I suppose he'll just be called a chuckle,  now)

1 hour ago, Argo said:

If we sort out the midfield and dominate games that alone would mean more goals.

With such an attacking system we should be looking at 15 from Eden and whoever our forward is. Whoever starts out of Pedro or Willy should be capable of 10 and the main two forward subs should get atleast 10 between them. Barkley you would think would chip in with a cheeky 5.

So that's 50-55 roughly, the main worry would be if we could get 10-20 out of the rest.

I think having 2 top playmakers in midfield will allow hazard and willian to make more runs in behind, instead of dropping deep to start attacks. 

I would still like another scorer aswell, but if we can sort the midfield department out this summer, I will be happy. 

 

I like him, but if it’s a loan with no option to buy, no thanks Madrid, you can sod off. 

No option to buy apparently. 

 

 

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by enigma

At the end of the day, we could have brought in an inferior CM and people would have moaned we did so. At least we sell Courtois and get a good CM on a free for a season. We pay around £35-40m for Kepa. It's not too shabby. At least we won't have to contend with Bakayoko being the only other option on the bench to use. 

7 minutes ago, enigma said:

No option to buy apparently. 

 

 

So Real Madrid get Tibo and we get the opportunity to develop one of their players and return him to them, what are we, their Vitesse? No buy option, no thanks.  

Chelsea needs a technical midfielder for sure.

11 minutes ago, enigma said:

No option to buy apparently. 

 

 

Plenty others saying it is with an option to buy. 

1 minute ago, Floyd25 said:

So Real Madrid get Tibo and we get the opportunity to develop one of their players and return him to them, what are we, their Vitesse? No buy option, no thanks.  

Here’s another way to look at it.

He has a brilliant season at Chelsea, built a rapport with the fans, loved Chelsea in general. Pushes for a permanent move and we sign him for a decent fee next summer.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

Plenty others saying it is with an option to buy. 

Depends on the source tbh. I don't really know who is 100% legit and who isn't. COPE are tier 2 and say no option to buy, but like you say, others have said the opposite. I guess we'll know by Thursday what the deal is. I did think there may be an agreement between the clubs if he gets game time here and does well, maybe Real could be willing to sell to us if he wants the move himself. 

One way to look at it. Would people have preferred another average midfielder or somebody who has, by many accounts, the potential to become a world class player? Some people will never be happy anyway. 

I don't doubt his ability, i'm just concerned about the lack of goals and assists from midfield. I wouldn't be against him coming here though, just not as excited as others, because i don't think he will give us anything we don't already have in the starting 11. He would probably play the more advanced role of the 3 midfielders, i guess we just need to hope he can be good from that position.

8 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Here’s another way to look at it.

He has a brilliant season at Chelsea, built a rapport with the fans, loved Chelsea in general. Pushes for a permanent move and we sign him for a decent fee next summer.

I hope you’re right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Madrid demanded a silly fee for him and given how we now operate, we’ll try to pinch him for less and the deal will go down the drain.