July 6, 20224 yr 35 minutes ago, Gentian said: Romagnoli is actually free so that would have being an easy transfer. Free transfers appear to be as complicated as any these days, what with the expectations on the player side for a huge agent fee, a huge signing on fee, and astronomical wages ...
July 6, 20224 yr 2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said: Free transfers appear to be as complicated as any these days, what with the expectations on the player side for a huge agent fee, a huge signing on fee, and astronomical wages ... Yes indeed. Personally though i would rather go for Romagnoli than Ake for instance. Also, Dybala is free but rather on astronomical wages and agents fees. There are options in the markets but we just need to finalise some deals.
July 7, 20224 yr Videos of Bohley in Barcelona tonight to meet their officials. He had dinner with them and said it was a wonderful meal. You can call that an exclusive from me.
July 7, 20224 yr 9 minutes ago, JM7 said: Videos of Bohley in Barcelona tonight to meet their officials. He had dinner with them and said it was a wonderful meal. You can call that an exclusive from me. De Jong…..or more likely Azpi and Alonso?
July 7, 20224 yr On 06/07/2022 at 14:35, PhilH930 said: It is not looking promising relative to preseason training or departure for US training camp, but we have to play the long game. I'm sure the changes we are aware of are the tip of the ice berg as Chelsea goes through a massive restructuring. The apparent slow sale (although others say it was completed very quickly) compounds the challenge of the summer. I'm sure they'll bring some players in, and am sure it is massively busy behind the scenes. Beside Buck, Marina, Cech and club culture stories, its been almost too quiet to appease the fans. Just need to play the long game - maybe many of the targets won't pan out this summer. I do think it is imperative we sign two defenders - can't complete in top 6 with the back line we have right now. While ofcourse it's better to get them in early than not I think it's massively exaggerated when it's talked about as some sort of big deal breaker. Ofcourse people will point to the examples of Cesc and Costa but there was also the next title season when 2 of the 3 big signings weren't done until deadline day or 2005 when Essien wasn't in until after the season began. Also there's 2020, Werner and Ziyech in nice and early yet struggled, while Mendy and Silva came in late (AND had the language barrier) yet both seamlessly slotted in like they've been here for years.
July 10, 20224 yr Judging by this transfer window I'm pretty confident that they ain't gonna spend to build us a new stadium.
July 10, 20224 yr 15 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said: Judging by this transfer window I'm pretty confident that they ain't gonna spend to build us a new stadium. Why? 8 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said: Never heard of owners having to travel to other clubs to do deals before ! They meet up all the time. It's good practice to build relationships.
July 10, 20224 yr 22 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said: Never heard of owners having to travel to other clubs to do deals before ! Dont forget Todd is in charge of transfers along with TT and TT is doing his job with the squad, Probably gave Todd a list and its a case of being in the loop and availiable to help when Todd needs be, Could well have a sporting director or whatever before Jan. Clearlake probably wanted their own guy in charge of spending unil they find someone hence Marina's gone offski!
July 10, 20224 yr Given the window is open till September 1 could well be they are happy enough taking their time to make sure they get the signings TT and the club agree upon together. Could also be they wanted more time to get their data based transfer target lists up first and have gone after their "A" targets, succeeding in one case (Sterling) waiting on a second (Ake) and have missed out on others (De Ligt, Raphinha)
July 11, 20224 yr 8 hours ago, axman2526 said: Given the window is open till September 1 could well be they are happy enough taking their time to make sure they get the signings TT and the club agree upon together. Could also be they wanted more time to get their data based transfer target lists up first and have gone after their "A" targets, succeeding in one case (Sterling) waiting on a second (Ake) and have missed out on others (De Ligt, Raphinha) Could be . Maybe Todd being a baseball man hasn't heard of defenders ? That's what we need
July 11, 20224 yr 11 hours ago, bisright1 said: Why? They meet up all the time. It's good practice to build relationships. Because they don't want to spend any money, investors want to make money from our club I didn't know EPL owners met up all the time , must admit it's not something I was aware of. Edited July 11, 20224 yr by The Rising Sun Explanation added
July 11, 20224 yr Boehly's push for value for money might mean for one season we hardly do any business and miss out on top 4. That would suggest next season we would need to splash the cash,the selling clubs would know this too and how many seasons before they change tack? There seems to be no easy answers.
July 11, 20224 yr 1 hour ago, strider6004 said: Boehly's push for value for money might mean for one season we hardly do any business and miss out on top 4. That would suggest next season we would need to splash the cash,the selling clubs would know this too and how many seasons before they change tack? There seems to be no easy answers. Its not just top 4 though is it. Man Utd are a prime example where a slide turns into a slump. Now they struggle for players due to no european football. It is telling when their biggest player with legend status states that he wants to leave because of their unlikelihood to challenge. Restructuring is okay providing you stay close to the summit whilst you do it. Arsenal are on a path back now but i still think Arteta has been incredibly lucky with that in that he seems to have fallen upon success whilst winning with one of the weakest and poorest tactical sides for a long time. Chelsea have had as much of an assist in Arsenal's resurrection as anything that Arteta has been able to do. The cup final in his first year was a prime example where we had them by the short hairs and once again imploded with the Pulisic injury and Azpi getting sent off.
July 11, 20224 yr 8 hours ago, The Rising Sun said: Because they don't want to spend any money, investors want to make money from our club I didn't know EPL owners met up all the time , must admit it's not something I was aware of. EPL owners literally meet all the time, they have regular group meetings. Foreign clubs like Barca tends to be more informal, usually when the clubs play each other. Uniteds owners are in Barca at the moment too. Boehly is spending money though. They just bought sterling, we've officially bid on raphinha, weve been talking to lots of clubs about defenders. We will end up spending 150m this transfer window. Investors wants to make money. One sure fire way to lose money is to run the club for ten years with an out of date stadium. Ever hear the expression spend money to make money?
July 11, 20224 yr 8 hours ago, WhiteWall said: Its not just top 4 though is it. Man Utd are a prime example where a slide turns into a slump. Now they struggle for players due to no european football. It is telling when their biggest player with legend status states that he wants to leave because of their unlikelihood to challenge. Restructuring is okay providing you stay close to the summit whilst you do it. Arsenal are on a path back now but i still think Arteta has been incredibly lucky with that in that he seems to have fallen upon success whilst winning with one of the weakest and poorest tactical sides for a long time. Chelsea have had as much of an assist in Arsenal's resurrection as anything that Arteta has been able to do. The cup final in his first year was a prime example where we had them by the short hairs and once again imploded with the Pulisic injury and Azpi getting sent off. Spurs are on the rise under Conte and Utd have a new manager and then there is City and Liverpool. Assuming we get Sterling yet no good replacements for our defenders we will potentially be weaker.
July 11, 20224 yr 7 minutes ago, strider6004 said: Spurs are on the rise under Conte and Utd have a new manager and then there is City and Liverpool. Assuming we get Sterling yet no good replacements for our defenders we will potentially be weaker. Arsenal have made some shrewd moves and will put a lot of pressure on yet again, Arteta has been given total control over transfers and has an effective system in place with young players, which we saw during their good run up until the back end of the season when they fell off, we might not be so lucky this time around; more concerned about them than United.
July 12, 20224 yr 9 hours ago, Term_X said: Arsenal have made some shrewd moves and will put a lot of pressure on yet again, Arteta has been given total control over transfers and has an effective system in place with young players, which we saw during their good run up until the back end of the season when they fell off, we might not be so lucky this time around; more concerned about them than United. Agree they could be more of threat to us this season.
July 12, 20224 yr 9 hours ago, Term_X said: Arsenal have made some shrewd moves and will put a lot of pressure on yet again, Arteta has been given total control over transfers and has an effective system in place with young players, which we saw during their good run up until the back end of the season when they fell off, we might not be so lucky this time around; more concerned about them than United. It isn’t Arteta though, it’s Edu. We need a Sporting Director badly, we look ridiculous agreeing deals with clubs & getting rejected for other teams by the players.
July 12, 20224 yr 30 minutes ago, ducavis said: It isn’t Arteta though, it’s Edu. We need a Sporting Director badly, we look ridiculous agreeing deals with clubs & getting rejected for other teams by the players. That's not Boehly's fault. The same players that have rejected us would still have rejected us if a sporting director was leading the negotiations.
July 12, 20224 yr 10 hours ago, Term_X said: Arsenal have made some shrewd moves and will put a lot of pressure on yet again, Arteta has been given total control over transfers and has an effective system in place with young players, which we saw during their good run up until the back end of the season when they fell off, we might not be so lucky this time around; more concerned about them than United. Have they though? They have brought in a tiny, lightweight skillful midfielder, a teenage Brazilian and a reserve keeper, not even close to sorting their major problems of a lightweight midfield with no drive or backbone or a solid defence, and a lack of quality at full back. the only positive so far for them is a striker, who should help them but they have not fixed the massive flaws in their squad.
July 12, 20224 yr 18 minutes ago, dkw said: Have they though? They have brought in a tiny, lightweight skillful midfielder, a teenage Brazilian and a reserve keeper, not even close to sorting their major problems of a lightweight midfield with no drive or backbone or a solid defence, and a lack of quality at full back. the only positive so far for them is a striker, who should help them but they have not fixed the massive flaws in their squad. Must admit I was scratching my head a bit as well LOL
July 12, 20224 yr 43 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said: That's not Boehly's fault. The same players that have rejected us would still have rejected us if a sporting director was leading the negotiations. A savvy sporting director won’t have considered any of these players we have been looking at. We are looking at the very top of the market, the only one that would probably have made sense would have been Raphinha. 11 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said: Must admit I was scratching my head a bit as well LOL The lightweight midfielder adds some added creativity in the middle of the park, and depth for Oodegaard. The have brought back Saliba who was brilliant on loan at Marseille and forced himself into the French national team at CB. Bellerin is back from his loan spell to add depth at RB, and Torreira also back from his loan adds some steel in middle of the park. I would argue they probably need another winger, a LB to compete with Tierney and maybe a DM. They have spent a lot of money in the last few windows but it’s been done with a long term view, moderate wages and most of them are young and years away from their peak.
July 12, 20224 yr 3 minutes ago, ducavis said: A savvy sporting director won’t have considered any of these players we have been looking at. We are looking at the very top of the market, the only one that would probably have made sense would have been Raphinha. By all accounts the players we are after are on Tuchel's say so - we would still be attempting to sign the same players if it was being led by a sporting director. I do agree long term we need someone to do that role, but bear in mind the club were already playing catch up due to the sanctions and the takeover not being completed until 31st of May. By that time City had already signed Haaland and I think Liverpool had agreed a deal for that Nunez. If we went for a sporting director straight away, that could have taken another month or so to find the right person for the job, which would have put us further behind in terms of transfers and negotiations. Personally I have no issue with us going in for players at the 'top' of the market. Shows that the club are at least trying to be ambitious. If the player says no then there is not much we can do about that, you win some and you lose some. Where I will get concerned is if we cannot land any of our top targets and eventually settle for B Level signings that don't do anything to improve us. Alot of people on here and Twitter etc seem to think that because we haven't signed anyone before the pre-season tour that we have had automatically had a bad window. Ideally yes we would have made all these signings already but it is not always that simple or realistic. Other clubs that have already strengthened will still sign more players throughout their own pre-seasons. I can't off the top of my head think of a time where a club has had all of their business down before pre-season starts. There is still a long way to go in this window, we have Sterling through the door and Ake seemingly on the way, if we add another 3-4 solid signings on top of that then I think we will have had a good window. Sorry @ducavis I know I have gone off on a bit of a tangent here and alot of this doesn't apply to your original point but it all pretty much blends into the same thing for me!
July 12, 20224 yr Give JT the sporting directors job, he’s Chelsea to the core, knows the game backwards, and will know what’s needed at the club, seems a no brainier?
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