42 minutes ago, charierre said:

I think that Roman pumping 247m into the club from his own pocket shows he is still interested in us. This though of course is unsustainable, couple that with the losses in the last financial year and it is clear we have to become more prudent with our finances. No use spunking money away on players who aren't going to improve the squad though as @Sindre has pointed out 3 strikers have moved on that would have been an improvement on Bats and Giroud, how achievable were they we aren't privy to and in the case of Haaland the transfer apparently was very complicated. It is though of course a gamble with our Champions League position, achieve it and we will no doubt sign big in the summer. Without it though a large chunk of the Hazard money might be required to sustain our already bloated wage bill.

There is an excellent video on youtube on our finances and the reason we need Champions League.

 

There is no real scouting done by the club, if the best the club could think of is to sign an injured 32 year old from Napoli that is known as a club that doesn't let anyone to go for a realistic price it's clear that the club is clueless when it comes to finding new transfer targets.

We are lucky that Tammy turned into a good player, lucky, and we are also lucky that Lampard has overachieved so far in the league!

The club used to know how to identify good talented players in January, now we are simply clueless, there is no chance that there is nobody out there good enough. If we depend so much on playing in the Champions League then the club just threw the dice by not signing anyone during this window. 

10 hours ago, bisright1 said:

We still replaced him though. We knew he was going and chose to replace him with hazard. You literally can’t say we never had a chance to replace him when we signed an up and coming left side wide player from a top team for 60m!
 

this point we never had a chance to replace hazard is bull. We did. We chose pulisic. Everyone knew hazard was going a year ago. Who else would we have got? 

Ah please don't place Hazard and Pulisic in the same sentence. The very fact we paid 60m for him is even worse.

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by Spiller86

9 hours ago, abramovich said:

Even if Pulisic's January deal was the direct replacement for Hazard, it's still a downgrade, which is in line with all the criticism the club has come under regarding their recent transfer business. Plus, you assume Pulisic came to replace the Belgian, but that may not have been the case, we may have followed him for a long time and him being a US team captain and the most marketable American player may have been the actual reason for the signing. The club had no idea at the time that they'll be banned from signing new players in the summer, they were hoping to get new signings in while the appeal is being considered as it was the case with other clubs in the past so FIFA's verdict that put a stop to those plans came as a shock. So we sold Hazard because we had to but were unable to bring anybody in during the summer window.

And even if directly replacing a player of Hazard's quality was impossible anyway, being able to strengthen the squad in the summer would still go a long way of compensating his departure, if those signings upgraded the team, so adding quality in other areas could have soften the blow of losing Eden.

Fair. 

I just think the club knew we were being banned from transfers. They assumed it would be one window. They knew hazard was leaving. They went and got Pulisic. 

He's probably the best player we could have signed with the expected money hazard would bring in. 

I don't get why people are freaking out. There was no good value this window. No one signed anyone of note in England, bar united for Bruno Fernandes who can't be that good if they got him.

Personally I'd have gambled on Piatek. But something wasn't right with him clearly. 

If we can sort out just a BIT of consistency, we will finish 4th and we can go into the summer with clear targets and actually spend money. 

4 hours ago, Argo said:

I don't think any potential deal is solely dependant on us qualifying for the CL, not even Sancho.

 

Any player looking to join a club primarily because that club earned a CL spot THAT season is pretty short sighted.

Some good/great teams missed the CL one year or another. Not ALL good/great teams are guaranteed CL every year (well......except for  Bayern, Barca, Madrid, PSG and a few others).

Spuds, ManU and Arsenal are looking likely to miss CL next season.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

There is no real scouting done by the club, if the best the club could think of is to sign an injured 32 year old from Napoli that is known as a club that doesn't let anyone to go for a realistic price it's clear that the club is clueless when it comes to finding new transfer targets.

We are lucky that Tammy turned into a good player, lucky, and we are also lucky that Lampard has overachieved so far in the league!

The club used to know how to identify good talented players in January, now we are simply clueless, there is no chance that there is nobody out there good enough. If we depend so much on playing in the Champions League then the club just threw the dice by not signing anyone during this window. 

Agree with it all. Since Emenealo left our signings mostly have being poor. What is Cech supposed to do? Who is helping Lampard to identify the right players? I have no clue who decides our transfers.

1 hour ago, Spiller86 said:

Ah please don't place Hazard and Pulisic in the same sentence. The very fact we paid 60m for him is even worse.

 

Perhaps, you rather have Pepe?

we certainly seem to have lost our way in using the transfer market effectively - maybe Frank has a plan, I hope he has, but as others have written our scouting seems to lag behind others' by some distance

 

Fair. 
I just think the club knew we were being banned from transfers. They assumed it would be one window. They knew hazard was leaving. They went and got Pulisic. 
He's probably the best player we could have signed with the expected money hazard would bring in. 
I don't get why people are freaking out. There was no good value this window. No one signed anyone of note in England, bar united for Bruno Fernandes who can't be that good if they got him.
Personally I'd have gambled on Piatek. But something wasn't right with him clearly. 
If we can sort out just a BIT of consistency, we will finish 4th and we can go into the summer with clear targets and actually spend money. 

I feel like this is the truth of it. January is rarely a good time to buy and I for one am glad we didn't just make panic buys and instead focused on what we have and effectively planned for the future.

58 minutes ago, haviet1 said:

Perhaps, you rather have Pepe?

I was about Fekir who went to Betis for half the fee and is having a great year.

6 hours ago, JM7 said:

So are we saying that Cech doesn’t “appear” to be doing a good job then?

To be honest with you I have no f**king clue who is even behind the scenes apart from the usual, like Marina and Buck. 

So we flunked in the january window, but we clearly need a LB with a left foot, a dominant Midfield footballer (Ballackesque) alongside Kova, and an equal to, not a backup Striker... get on it Chelsea!

1 hour ago, Ballack & Blu said:

So we flunked in the january window, but we clearly need a LB with a left foot, a dominant Midfield footballer (Ballackesque) alongside Kova, and an equal to, not a backup Striker... get on it Chelsea!

I would say we need a better striker, Tammy has done ok until December yet his game is not well-rounded enough for a top striker. He has been found out for me, he is virtually marked out of games.

See him being on the bench once we get a top striker. 

And who's that top striker that we can get? I think Tammy has done great for what we expected, I don't think he's been found out, simply he can't score all Chelsea goals. We need goals from the wings and midfield to be competitive.

Also, to those not trusting Frank's work, we are lately much, much better at defending set pieces, and today we scored twice from set pieces. So he's working behind scenes with the team. Give him a break, we are doing great this season for what we expected, and there are some improvements. We are raw at the Bridge and need to work more the defensive phase of the game, but let's all get behind the team, coach and club, and stop pointing that Rodgers or Flopp would do it better.

2 hours ago, RMH said:

And who's that top striker that we can get? I think Tammy has done great for what we expected, I don't think he's been found out, simply he can't score all Chelsea goals. We need goals from the wings and midfield to be competitive.

Also, to those not trusting Frank's work, we are lately much, much better at defending set pieces, and today we scored twice from set pieces. So he's working behind scenes with the team. Give him a break, we are doing great this season for what we expected, and there are some improvements. We are raw at the Bridge and need to work more the defensive phase of the game, but let's all get behind the team, coach and club, and stop pointing that Rodgers or Flopp would do it better.

Dean Smith at Villa said Tammy should be scoring more in the Championship last season, he fails to get on the end of good crosses and he fails often with good headed chances too.

I don't think he is polished enough to put chances away and am not sure he ever will be.

I am not knocking him as a person, he has a great attitude and some great attributes yet don't see him being at the top for long.

Of course he is our best option until the end of the season yet we will need to aim for higher, IMO.

5 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Dean Smith at Villa said Tammy should be scoring more in the Championship last season, he fails to get on the end of good crosses and he fails often with good headed chances too.

I don't think he is polished enough to put chances away and am not sure he ever will be.

I am not knocking him as a person, he has a great attitude and some great attributes yet don't see him being at the top for long.

Of course he is our best option until the end of the season yet we will need to aim for higher, IMO.

I’m inclined to agree. He reminds me a bit of a colt that’s outgrown its strength 

12 hours ago, Ewell CFC said:

I’m inclined to agree. He reminds me a bit of a colt that’s outgrown its strength 

He does look like he'd benefit from adding a bit of muscle to his frame . It's possible he could be a late developer physically, and hasn't filled out yet I suppose ...

17 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

He does look like he'd benefit from adding a bit of muscle to his frame . It's possible he could be a late developer physically, and hasn't filled out yet I suppose ...

If the reports are true, Frank will have a 150 million warchest for the new season window, approximately the same as he was supposed to have for the jan window just finished, wtf bollocks is this about then..

To get what we need is going to cost more than 150 mill.

13 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

If the reports are true, Frank will have a 150 million warchest for the new season window, approximately the same as he was supposed to have for the jan window just finished, wtf bollocks is this about then..

To get what we need is going to cost more than 150 mill.

Agree it is not much, think they expect Frank to use the youngsters and supplement with a 2-3 new players.

At this moment looking grim, expect with Kepa a huge loss unless he can turn his season around and am not sure who else we will sell that will add to the budget, Jorginho, Kante.....??

Personally think we need a new keeper, left back, box to box midfielder and a new striker, don't think £150m will deliver that.

37 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Agree it is not much, think they expect Frank to use the youngsters and supplement with a 2-3 new players.

At this moment looking grim, expect with Kepa a huge loss unless he can turn his season around and am not sure who else we will sell that will add to the budget, Jorginho, Kante.....??

Personally think we need a new keeper, left back, box to box midfielder and a new striker, don't think £150m will deliver that.

So based on "reports" from the media who got pretty much everything wrong during the last window you have decided that its looking grim. The negativity on this forum now is beyond ridiculous, desperate;y believing anything negative in the media while ignoring anything positive. 

Edited February 6, 20206 yr by dkw

55 minutes ago, dkw said:

So based on "reports" from the media who got pretty much everything wrong during the last window you have decided that its looking grim. The negativity on this forum now is beyond ridiculous, desperate;y believing anything negative in the media while ignoring anything positive. 

I try to be objective, I still think we will finish fourth yet will also need to strengthen in the next window and think we will need more than £150m so will need to sell.

I don't see that being negative just an objective opinion.

This is how it might go in the summer

Frank £150m cash reserve

Outs:		Ins:
Pedro - free		Ben Clark - £35m
Willian - free		Zaha - free
Giroud - free		Dembele - £35m
Alonso - £8m		Nick Pope - £40m
Kepa - £15m		Box to Box m/f - £50m who?
Christensen - £40m		Total £160m
Jorginho - £40m
Azpi - £8m
Total £111m		Remaining cash reserve £101m

Edited February 6, 20206 yr by Strider6003

Only 15M for Kepa? Loan?

6 minutes ago, haviet1 said:

Only 15M for Kepa? Loan?

If we don't play him, his value will plummet IMO

I just hope we sign Sancho, someone that is a real LB (props to Azpili that is having a good season though) and a striker.

Those 3 signings could cost more than 150m but that is the bare minimum that the squad needs for sure.

Having 3 wingers for next season (CHO,Pulisic,Sancho) is very risky so maybe the club should buyback Boga for maybe less than 15m just so that the squad has enough depth for all the competitions, unless Mount plays wide as well when needed.