59 minutes ago, SFL82 said:

Why the sarcy reply? We have made great signings, saying I’m surprised we haven't been linked to any championship keepers when there are a few decent keepers there, is just that, a passing observation, we haven’t been linked to many seems what we are looking for is hard to come by,  it’s not a criticism just conversation. 

Didn't mean to offend you, just joking around.  Like you said its a difficult problem to solve with Kepa still hanging around, so I'm pretty sure we've covered all the bases on this one including the Championship.

14 minutes ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

Remember when so many were clamoring for a cb and gk when we were primarily linked with Havertz? Now we have a cb; are close to getting the gk and are apparently pushing pretty hard for Declan Rice... Don't know if any team has made 9 first team transfers -- I guess Sarr isn't directly a first team transfer since he'll go on loan, but I digress. Regardless if we get Rice or not, this window has been absolutely wild. I also don't think it's 9, I think it would be 7.. regardless that number is crazy 

Yes I reckon 7 nailed on new starters if we land Rice as well ...

GK, CB, LB, DM, AM, RW, CF ... Mendy, Silva, Chilwell, Rice, Havertz. Ziyech, Werner.

6 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

You've never seen him play, how can you know he's nothing special? I'll take Cech and Lollichon's view on this one.

That is fair.  I'll shelve my concerns and hope to be proven wrong.

4 hours ago, SFL82 said:

Why the sarcy reply? We have made great signings, saying I’m surprised we haven't been linked to any championship keepers when there are a few decent keepers there, is just that, a passing observation, we haven’t been linked to many seems what we are looking for is hard to come by,  it’s not a criticism just conversation. 

You didn't say linked with. You said "looked at". There's a huge difference. 

We almost certainly have looked at championship keepers. We looked at la liga keepers. Ligue 1. Serie a. Bundesliga. We signed a 17 year old keeper from burton albion last week. 

We're a top tier football club, our scouting team will have looked at all these options. They just decided Mendy was the one. 

5 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

You didn't say linked with. You said "looked at". There's a huge difference. 

We almost certainly have looked at championship keepers. We looked at la liga keepers. Ligue 1. Serie a. Bundesliga. We signed a 17 year old keeper from burton albion last week. 

We're a top tier football club, our scouting team will have looked at all these options. They just decided Mendy was the one. 

If we are looking at someone seriously we get linked to them that’s what journalists do, in looked at I mean shown serious interest in, which you would expect to hear links to, not that we had had a look over their profile, I’m certain we didn’t but why didn’t we go further. 

I know how scouting works, a mate of mine was training with the scouting team at the club. 

 In cobham they have a system where you can pull up any player, anyone ever scouted, see scouting footage, see their stats, that’s how the scouting starts.

Guys like my mate who was going to lower league games, youth games, recording, uploading it to the system, on that system the more senior scouts start to shortlist who they want to take a second look at, then go and see them and put in their report.

From there they will keep reminding their recommendations until there are shortlists of players filtered down from thousands of players we watch every year, we don’t have a few scouts we have hundreds of scouts most of who aren’t even paid. 
 

But when it comes to players going straight into the first team the senior scouts are straight in then and the manager and club will look over those reports and profiles when they are in for someone. 
 

Frank will have looked at hours of footage on Chilwell for example, seen the reports on his play, his strengths and weaknesses and made a decision based on that and even with all that it’s easy to get it wrong as we have seen over the years. 

So I am aware how it works mate, it’s a forum for fun, not for reprimanding word choices, it was a very simple statement wondering why we hadn’t been in for someone like David Raya for example, seems a more logical move.

Again it wasn’t even a criticism just seems a more natural place to bring in someone of mendys profile, a half second keeper to bring out out kepas A game and a half eye on him coming good as number one if Kepa isn’t improving without breaking the bank...

It’s  just a question to see what people think, that’s what we are doing here, try and cheer up a bit mate, next time though issue me 100 lines of I must not ask questions on the forum and I’ll be on my way.  

4 hours ago, mojo said:

Looks like he has a great leap. And a decent set of teeth!!

46 minutes ago, SFL82 said:

If we are looking at someone seriously we get linked to them that’s what journalists do, in looked at I mean shown serious interest in, which you would expect to hear links to, not that we had had a look over their profile, I’m certain we didn’t but why didn’t we go further. 

I know how scouting works, a mate of mine was training with the scouting team at the club. 

 In cobham they have a system where you can pull up any player, anyone ever scouted, see scouting footage, see their stats, that’s how the scouting starts.

Guys like my mate who was going to lower league games, youth games, recording, uploading it to the system, on that system the more senior scouts start to shortlist who they want to take a second look at, then go and see them and put in their report.

From there they will keep reminding their recommendations until there are shortlists of players filtered down from thousands of players we watch every year, we don’t have a few scouts we have hundreds of scouts most of who aren’t even paid. 
 

But when it comes to players going straight into the first team the senior scouts are straight in then and the manager and club will look over those reports and profiles when they are in for someone. 
 

Frank will have looked at hours of footage on Chilwell for example, seen the reports on his play, his strengths and weaknesses and made a decision based on that and even with all that it’s easy to get it wrong as we have seen over the years. 

So I am aware how it works mate, it’s a forum for fun, not for reprimanding word choices, it was a very simple statement wondering why we hadn’t been in for someone like David Raya for example, seems a more logical move.

Again it wasn’t even a criticism just seems a more natural place to bring in someone of mendys profile, a half second keeper to bring out out kepas A game and a half eye on him coming good as number one if Kepa isn’t improving without breaking the bank...

It’s  just a question to see what people think, that’s what we are doing here, try and cheer up a bit mate, next time though issue me 100 lines of I must not ask questions on the forum and I’ll be on my way.  

I'm just pointing out why someone made a sarcy comment. Your original statement made it seem like we hadn't considered the championship. I don't really care but you defended yourself in a pissy way and I'm just highlighting why the "sarcy" comment was made. 

Did the club look at Raya? Probably. 

Is he a more logical choice? Maybe not considering he's only 6 foot 0 and we've ended up going for a keeper who will clearly dominate from corners. 

I'd suggest we were only seriously looking at 3 keepers. Onana oblak and Mendy. There are scores of keepers around europe who one individual might think was better than Mendy. It doesn't mean they are right. 

 

Edited September 10, 20205 yr by bisright1

43 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Looks like he has a great leap. And a decent set of teeth!!

Coincidently that's exactly what I look for in women...

3 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I'm just pointing out why someone made a sarcy comment. Your original statement made it seem like we hadn't considered the championship. I don't really care but you defended yourself in a pissy way and I'm just highlighting why the "sarcy" comment was made. 

Did the club look at Raya? Probably. 

Is he a more logical choice? Maybe not considering he's only 6 foot 0 and we've ended up going for a keeper who will clearly dominate from corners. 

I'd suggest we were only seriously looking at 3 keepers. Onana oblak and Mendy. There are scores of keepers around europe who one individual might think was better than Mendy. It doesn't mean they are right. 

 

Well that’s the point there are scores of keepers so you naturally question, why Mendy, he is 28 no one had heard of him he was playing In the second tier in France, his side got promoted and he then moved to Rennes and has only had 25 appearances for them,  and his stats aren’t brilliant just makes you wonder why him, logical question to ask. 
 

The fact that Cech is said to have recommended him and he is from his old club makes me trust the choice beyond that seems an odd one, and I wonder why the Onana links just dried up.

We will never know exactly what’s going on just discussing trying to understand the logic I’m not saying he is right or wrong I haven’t seen him play but as I said there cant be a much better man for the job of scouting a keeper than Petr would have thought. 

19 minutes ago, SFL82 said:

Well that’s the point there are scores of keepers so you naturally question, why Mendy, he is 28 no one had heard of him he was playing In the second tier in France, his side got promoted and he then moved to Rennes and has only had 25 appearances for them,  and his stats aren’t brilliant just makes you wonder why him, logical question to ask. 

When you say no one had heard of him.

 

 

1 hour ago, kiwi1691 said:

When you say no one had heard of him.

 

 

When I say no one heard of him you would think it’s obvious that I mean the general Chelsea fans and that he wasn’t well known in the media,  not a goalkeeping expert who’s specific job it is to know about him, yes certainly he would have known about him.

The clue is in your very own post “ talks with Tiago silva AND a keeper called Eduardo Mendy from Rennes” they didn’t say and a centre back called Thiago Silva from PSG dud they? Why? Because if they just said his name no one would have known who he was, what his position was or what club he played for....

Edited September 11, 20205 yr by SFL82

Check out the “London is blue” podcast. Matt Law is on there who is close to Chelsea and talks extensively about Mendy and the deal. 

4 hours ago, SFL82 said:

When I say no one heard of him you would think it’s obvious that I mean the general Chelsea fans and that he wasn’t well known in the media,  not a goalkeeping expert who’s specific job it is to know about him, yes certainly he would have known about him.

 

Unlike Brentfords keeper who we all have posters of in our room...

 

4 hours ago, SFL82 said:

When I say no one heard of him you would think it’s obvious that I mean the general Chelsea fans and that he wasn’t well known in the media,  not a goalkeeping expert who’s specific job it is to know about him, yes certainly he would have known about him.

The clue is in your very own post “ talks with Tiago silva AND a keeper called Eduardo Mendy from Rennes” they didn’t say and a centre back called Thiago Silva from PSG dud they? Why? Because if they just said his name no one would have known who he was, what his position was or what club he played for....

I would suggest though that with a few exceptions keepers tend to go under the radar, they arent the poster boys within the team, and unless they have a shocker or pull off something miraculous you dont hear about keepers, hence fans not really knowing them, 

I could name strikers and attacking midfielders from many of the big leagues, however I would be hard pushed to name anyone other than the few superstar keepers 

My dream is that SFL82 and bisright1 will accept their difference of opinion and take it to private messages if they aren’t going to add anything of value to the thread. But then I am a dreamer.

Edited September 11, 20205 yr by Frawdulant
Poor spelling

Still not sure if he's first keeper material, but he's a good replacement for Caballero who's getting old now and could also push for the starting spot.

I think next year we could try going for Oblak from Athletico for a much cheaper price, if we manage to offload Kepa though

A lot of people see him as a good replacement keeper, but not first choice. 

Is this just a gut feeling?

Because he is unknown to most of us?

Because of his statistics?

Or have you guys actually seen him play on several occasions?

As I have no clue what to think about him, not having seen Reims play last season. 
 

I guess I am pretty much happy with any keeper as long I don’t have to see Kepa in goal anymore. So my expectations are low. Never had squeeze my but so many times in a season when seeing a bal getting close to goal. 

1 hour ago, Bonzodog29 said:

I would suggest though that with a few exceptions keepers tend to go under the radar, they arent the poster boys within the team, and unless they have a shocker or pull off something miraculous you dont hear about keepers, hence fans not really knowing them, 

I could name strikers and attacking midfielders from many of the big leagues, however I would be hard pushed to name anyone other than the few superstar keepers 

True enough, that’s a good point, mind you I don’t think I could name a single Rennais  player, keeper or otherwise, as it’s not a league I watch,  after looking though it turns out they finished 3rd in the league so they must be a decent team. 
 

You can also see why they are holding out for more money as well, their number 1 who Eduardo has pushed out is 36, so the fact they have done well In the league, are seemingly happy with Mendy as the keeper and have I think just qualified for the CL (top 3 in France?)you wouldn’t expect them to just give him away. 
 

Also changes my perspective a bit, that they are now a CL team, I assumed Rennais were sort of a mid or lower level team, you think of  Leon, Marseille, Monaco, Nice, Lille  ect when you think of decent french teams outside of PSG, I suppose just because that’s who we see in the CL. 
 

They also only conceded 24 goals last season, maybe they see him as more than just a stop gap of competition for kepa, 30 million is still a decent sum for a keeper. 

Listening the Matt Law on the podcast, he explains the reasoning behind signing Mendy which are:

- Frank wanted a tall goalkeeper to help support the small defence

- Cech and Lillechon have been tracking Mendy for over a year. Lillechon is a big fan

- There’s been no offers or interest for Kepa. Kepa’s people are saying he will stay at Chelsea  

- Kepa is staying and the signing is designed to push Kepa

- There’s no real world class keepers available for a decent price 

- Signing Mendy still allows Chelsea to sign a world class keeper and keep him as second choice. 
 

Have to say, it makes sense and it’s the right move.

Edited September 11, 20205 yr by JM7

This is as good as done. Today, tomorrow official. If twitter is to be believed. 

Based on youtube clips, he claims crosses well but he doesn't really catch shots, he parries them. Needs to work on that 

1 hour ago, Deino said:

Based on youtube clips, he claims crosses well but he doesn't really catch shots, he parries them. Needs to work on that 

I cant think of many (if any) modern keepers who catch shots anymore though, I think the nature of the modern football makes it a better bet to parry and try to reclaim after the initial stop, 

For anyone worried about his age and the fact he hasn't been signed by a big club yet, at 27 years old Keylor Navas was playing for Levante.

Looks like we've got a Here We Go! from Fabrizio

Should be confirmed within the next 24 Hours