Seems to be a done deal, Romano just confirmed it on Twitter - 5M loan deal with an option to buy next summer.

We do have a terrific depth now.

18 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Whether thar I Saul anymore or not we will soon find out, sounds like this one is happening and Atletico will buckle and allow the deal to go through with an option to buy not a mandatory one, saving a pile on Saul's wages and getting an impressive loan fee as compensation (15mill euros)

Looks like I was right about this and unfortunately right on Kounde too...

Just now, axman2526 said:

Looks like I was right about this and unfortunately right on Kounde too...

It's a shame really as it seems Kounde really wanted to join.

Great signing. Saul is a premium player. Hopefully he can reignite his halted career under us. Tuchel has that effect on player. 

Kovacic started with us on this same path. 

Welcome to Chelsea Niguez! 

4 minutes ago, evissy said:

Great signing. Saul is a premium player. Hopefully he can reignite his halted career under us. Tuchel has that effect on player. 

Kovacic started with us on this same path. 

Welcome to Chelsea Niguez! 

He was, he has not been since his kidney removal. I have serious doubts about him but let's see. 

We also tried to get Falcao and Pato going again, that did not work.

Anyways done deal:

 

 

BREAKING NEWS

Chelsea and Atletico Madrid have agreed a deal for Saul Niguez, according to Sky Sports News sources in Spain.

Edited August 31, 20214 yr by axman2526

Saúl to Chelsea, HERE WE GO! Agreement reached for €5m loan from Atletico Madrid. Personal terms agreed. Saúl will be in London soon to sign the contract. 🔵🤝 #CFC #DeadlineDay

Final details and the deal will be announced. Difficult deal but finally set to be completed.

7 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

It's a shame really as it seems Kounde really wanted to join.

Given we have heard what happened with the deal from Monchi it really was poor on our part. Should cough up the extra for the release clause as Tinos sale covers it basically anyway andas you said, desperate to join.

Maybe he will now remember how we messed around and dropped the ball on him.

Edited August 31, 20214 yr by axman2526

Ampadu off on loan to Venezia, wonder if that was waiting until the Saul deal was done.

2 minutes ago, mad_mac said:

Ampadu off on loan to Venezia, wonder if that was waiting until the Saul deal was done.

I just posted on that in the Kounde thread. Why let the defender go on loan when we signed a midfielder? Survey that should have been RLC?

Has anyone seen a Saul kit on the official website yet?

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

I just posted on that in the Kounde thread. Why let the defender go on loan when we signed a midfielder? Survey that should have been RLC?

yeah, unless we have just paid the release clause for Kounde it doesn't make as much sense.

Glad to see this deal go through. Saul gives depth along with Kante/Jorginho/Kovacic. If Kante stays injured it will be tough to rely on Jorginho and Kovacic every match. I do not think RLC can help with his horrible luck with injuries.

in hindsight keeping Gallagher or Gilmour might have helped but what’s done is done.

Depth wise this was a deal a lot of ua felt needed to be done. Good job on Marina, the board and Tuchel's side (convincing him he would get play time). I'm hoping this will be similar to the kovacic deal, it works out well for everybody involved and in a year we can evaluate whether this is the right fit. All in all a good window, I wouldn't be surprised if we did still manage to close the Jules deal but it would require compromise from both sides.

1 minute ago, mad_mac said:

yeah, unless we have just paid the release clause for Kounde it doesn't make as much sense.

No chance we did.

Edited August 31, 20214 yr by LongtimerLurker

Very happy with this signing.

€4M is a very very reasonable gamble.

 

Thanks god for that. We just needed another CM. Was absolutely crucial. A good one we have too. It is just very risky and not helping ourselves to rely on Kovacic, Jorginho and Kante as our only 3 out and out CM in the squad. Man City have KDB, Rodri, Fernandinho, Gundogan as natural CM who can play that role. Kante on other hand is injury prone which means we sometimes are relying on only two natural CM. We are competing for PL, UCL, Fifa Club World Cup, FA Cup, Carabao Cup. We need the depth. Especially after loaning out Gallagher and Gilmour, you would think it is a no brainer.

Very good transfer window but still annoyed it seems we will not be buying Kounde this summer. We have sold more than we have bought and for a 22 year old who is one of the best CB in Europe and is as accomplished as a CB you can get, you would think we would pay that little bit extra for him, especially now we have the money for Zouma. Who knows next year if Kounde even will join us. He would be also good for playing that LCB role as well as well as anyhwere else in backline. If we got Kounde, it would make it a perfect window as it means where we have sold, we have also bought replacements too.

I mean if a late deal can happen for Kounde as it happened with Saul, then great. Very happy with the squad depth but just irritated we havent stumped up that extra cash for one of the best CB in Europe currently who is only 22 years of age and will only get better.

I read a story about him. Doesn't seem his kidney problem would be a problem. A true fighter and he is completely healthy with one kidney. 

Excellent news. One signing changed it from thin in midfield too terrific depth so that's great.

Think Saul will surprise a lot of people and Tuchel will bring the best out of him again

1 minute ago, evissy said:

I read a story about him. Doesn't seem his kidney problem would be a problem. A true fighter and he is completely healthy with one kidney. 

 

1 minute ago, Sindre said:

Excellent news. One signing changed it from thin in midfield too terrific depth so that's great.

Think Saul will surprise a lot of people and Tuchel will bring the best out of him again

Hopefully you are both right but it begs the question why let him go then? He is one of their own, an Atletico boy and they are not even getting big money, it is just a loan. So why let him go?

3 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

 

Hopefully you are both right but it begs the question why let him go then? He is one of their own, an Atletico boy and they are not even getting big money, it is just a loan. So why let him go?

They love us so much. Remember them giving all that money back for us for Morata. They're also let us use Diego Costa for Championship purposes. A nice club that Atletico. 

Saul will be a good addition to our super-thin midfield. He is also a very experienced player albeit only being 26.

4 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

 

Hopefully you are both right but it begs the question why let him go then? He is one of their own, an Atletico boy and they are not even getting big money, it is just a loan. So why let him go?

He fell out of favour at Madrid the last year or so. Remains to be seen if he can regain his old form. However the loan fee presents a low risk. I think the previous sticking point was that Madrid wanted a requirement to buy at the end of the loan. Now we have an option to buy which seems like a much better bet in case he doesn't work out.

5 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

 

Hopefully you are both right but it begs the question why let him go then? He is one of their own, an Atletico boy and they are not even getting big money, it is just a loan. So why let him go?

Surplus. They have 6 CM for 2 positions and La Liga is skint from covid. They can't afford burning a hole in their pocket from Saul's salary and they can't sell him off because his release clause is something absurd like 100m or something