Not quite Marina related but this is a very interesting interview with Michale Elemano. 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/19/michael-emenalo-the-narrative-that-white-is-good-has-to-change

 

God I love this woman, has been a god send when its come to transfers! Thank god we got rid of Emanelo.

Though i do have to admit that she really got shegged with that Kepa deal, but outside of that everything else has been great, both incomings and outgoings.

 

 

30 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

 

I thought they wanted 100m euros which is exactly what we're paying them?

I don't know the details but as long as the deal goes through at under a 100m I'm happy, good job Marina. 

She's amazing this window. Goes to show that when you give her the right targets + the cash, she delivers.

 

1 hour ago, Deino said:

She's amazing this window. Goes to show that when you give her the right targets + the cash, she delivers.

 

How does this one make her amazing? They asked for a price, nobody else was bidding, and we paid the asking price. I love Marina, but I’m not sure this one was anything special.

I thought they wanted 100m euros which is exactly what we're paying them?

Euros and Pounds mixed here. I think we are paying €100m which is what they wanted. We will pay €80m up front and €20m later if Chelsea reach the goals in the contract. It is better than €100m up front.

4 hours ago, HOUCHELFAN said:

How does this one make her amazing? They asked for a price, nobody else was bidding, and we paid the asking price. I love Marina, but I’m not sure this one was anything special.

I agree.

Cuadrado, Kenedy,Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kepa were all Marina signings so lets not get carried away with this narrative that she is the Queen of the transfer market. 

It can be argued that Chelsea have been fortunate in this window because they have a war chest when other teams will be operating in a depressed, Covid-19 effected market. 

Lets see how these players settle in and make a judgement at the end of the season.

26 minutes ago, Andy North said:

I agree.

Cuadrado, Kenedy,Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kepa were all Marina signings so lets not get carried away with this narrative that she is the Queen of the transfer market. 

It can be argued that Chelsea have been fortunate in this window because they have a war chest when other teams will be operating in a depressed, Covid-19 effected market. 

Lets see how these players settle in and make a judgement at the end of the season.

I would guess Granovskaia is about the money, not about the quality of the players she negotiates for. Although I'm not sure how the decision to bid for a player is taken.

14 minutes ago, Valerie said:

I would guess Granovskaia is about the money, not about the quality of the players she negotiates for. Although I'm not sure how the decision to bid for a player is taken.

I suspect there is a bit of a forum and hopefully Frank has some input. I also suspect that Roman has the final say. 

I imagine certain "bargain" players come onto the market like say, Higuaine, Eto, Giroud or Silva, which the board and Marina may approach Frank about. 

Yeah Marina will make the final negotiations.

 

54 minutes ago, Andy North said:

I agree.

Cuadrado, Kenedy,Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kepa were all Marina signings so lets not get carried away with this narrative that she is the Queen of the transfer market. 

It can be argued that Chelsea have been fortunate in this window because they have a war chest when other teams will be operating in a depressed, Covid-19 effected market. 

Lets see how these players settle in and make a judgement at the end of the season.

I`m absolutely certain she didnt choose any of those players, her remit will be to get the players she is told to get. 

23 minutes ago, dkw said:

I`m absolutely certain she didnt choose any of those players, her remit will be to get the players she is told to get. 

I've actually had debates with people who genuinely believe Marina picks and signs targets herself with no other imput.

I've heard/read some mindblowing stuff in my time but that one really takes the cake.

Edited August 25, 20205 yr by Argo

23 minutes ago, Argo said:

I've actually had debates with people who genuinely believe Marina picks and signs targets herself with no other imput.

I've heard/read some mindblowing stuff in my time but that one really takes the cake.

Anyone who believes that is a moron. 

1 hour ago, Andy North said:

Cuadrado, Kenedy,Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kepa were all Marina signings so lets not get carried away with this narrative that she is the Queen of the transfer market. 

Granovskaia doesn't choose transfer targets her job is to negotiate the transfer fee and the way payments are structured and I believe also the player's contract. 

In the case of the Morata signing for example our first choice target was Lukaku but part of the deal to sign him involved agent's fees in the region of £15m. Chelsea were unwilling to pay that because presumably it fell outside of the budget allocated to signing a centre forward that summer. So Granovskaia then negotiates a deal for the second choice target, in this case Morata. 

When it comes to why we signed so many second tier signings in recent years it's open for debate about if our primary targets were unrealistic compared to the budget being allocated for transfer fees. 

The 2017 disaster-class that was Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Zappacosta where we spent £150m+ but signed a load of pants then you question if we would have been better off signing less players but of better quality. However you have to remember that the previous year Conte had been bemoaning the lack of depth in the squad so if the instruction to Granovskaia is that depth is the priority then she is going to negotiate deals on that brief rather than say "get me Lukaku at all costs", even if that then meant there was only money for one other, mid tier priced transfer. 

1 hour ago, Andy North said:

I agree.

Cuadrado, Kenedy,Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kepa were all Marina signings so lets not get carried away with this narrative that she is the Queen of the transfer market. 

It can be argued that Chelsea have been fortunate in this window because they have a war chest when other teams will be operating in a depressed, Covid-19 effected market. 

Lets see how these players settle in and make a judgement at the end of the season.

Thats part of the scare of this window for me... When we signed Bakayoko, Morata, Zappa etc etc all in that 1 window, everyone was excited and hyped up just like they are now at our arrivals... But look how that turned out?

The players we're signing now definitely do look better on paper, but there's still a chance they can't live up to the pricetag and may struggle to adapt in the prem, nothing is guaranteed.

47 minutes ago, driller97 said:

The players we're signing now definitely do look better on paper, but there's still a chance they can't live up to the pricetag and may struggle to adapt in the prem, nothing is guaranteed.

So why bother signing any players, ever? 

They might all turn out to be rubbish. 

12 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

So why bother signing any players, ever? 

They might all turn out to be rubbish. 

Let"s go a step further: let's call curtains on this whole Chelsea FC malarky. Saves money and whining.

50 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

So why bother signing any players, ever? 

They might all turn out to be rubbish. 

Are you dense? A lot of the players we've signed are still fairly young and not used to a league like ours. Not many of our signings have been at the top level for a long time apart from Silva.

Its a big step up and stupid to think they're all going to be instant hits. They do have a much better chance of being successful than the likes of Morata and Drinkwater though just looking at it on paper.

3 minutes ago, driller97 said:

Are you dense? A lot of the players we've signed are still fairly young and not used to a league like ours. Not many of our signings have been at the top level for a long time apart from Silva.

Its a big step up and stupid to think they're all going to be instant hits. They do have a much better chance of being successful than the likes of Morata and Drinkwater though just looking at it on paper.

And it's stupid to think they'll all be a failure, as you seem to think is necessary to repeat ad nauseam about Chillwell. And we (not a noob like you) have been treated to the chopping off at the knees of Pulisic before he even set foot in Cobham. Even now there's a bright light questioning the talent of Havertz based on a YouTube video. Now who is dense?

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

And it's stupid to think they'll all be a failure, as you seem to think is necessary to repeat ad nauseam about Chillwell. And we (not a noob like you) have been treated to the chopping off at the knees of Pulisic before he even set foot in Cobham. Even now there's a bright light questioning the talent of Havertz based on a YouTube video. Now who is dense?

Where dd I say they'll all be a failure? You're just making things up or just losing your memory at your age. I said there's always a chance that they player might not be able to adapt and they could struggle, thats not the same as saying I think they'll all fail.

I never said anything bad about Pulisic, neither did I about Havertz? I have high hopes for them both, but I definitely have more confidence in Pulisic at the moment given that he's been excellent in this league since the lockdown and shown he can hack it, something Havertz hasn't shown yet (but im confident that he will)

35 minutes ago, driller97 said:

Where dd I say they'll all be a failure? You're just making things up or just losing your memory at your age. I said there's always a chance that they player might not be able to adapt and they could struggle, thats not the same as saying I think they'll all fail.

I never said anything bad about Pulisic, neither did I about Havertz? I have high hopes for them both, but I definitely have more confidence in Pulisic at the moment given that he's been excellent in this league since the lockdown and shown he can hack it, something Havertz hasn't shown yet (but im confident that he will)

Where did I say you said anything bad about Pulisic or Havertz? Where did I say you said they'll all be a failure? You must have trouble reading, but bad education is a blight of the lower to middle classes in England, I understand.

47 minutes ago, driller97 said:

Are you dense?

Possibly. 

47 minutes ago, driller97 said:

 A lot of the players we've signed are still fairly young and not used to a league like ours.

At the end of the day, no matter where in the world you play football is about 22 people kicking a ball into a net. There's not much uniquely different about football in the Premier League compared to the Bundesliga. 

49 minutes ago, driller97 said:

 Not many of our signings have been at the top level for a long time apart from Silva.

Timo Werner has more than 250 career appearances, Kai Havertz 150, Ben Chillwell 130. Not exactly inexperienced are they? 

52 minutes ago, driller97 said:

Its a big step up 

Step up to what? Havertz and Werner have Champions League/Europa League experience and have played in title contending/top 4 teams. Chilwell has plenty of experience in one of the more competitive sides in the Premier League outside of the top 6 with 11 international caps already. 

There's plenty of room for those players to improve and develop but it's not like we're buying untested players here. Cristiano Ronaldo had under 50 senior appearances when he signed for Manchester United... Just saying.