5 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

This is the thing City supporters want to keep Ake because he's an ideal backup option.  He's a good player who's willing to sit on the bench, but not too good as to upset the first team.  Its not an easy position to fill, and he's perfect for the role.  We need a first team defender not a backup option that's why City supporters not wanting to lose Ake isn't necessarily an indication he's good enough to be starting for us.  I predict no Man City supporter would like Ake starting most games this season ahead of Dias and Laporte.  

If this does end up happening I just hope he will excel in a back 3.

Is all we can hope for. We are not spending 50mill plus for a bench player imo. He will be a starter most games, possibly as a left back if we go back 4, or a DM if Colwill fulfills his promise.

We managed to negotiate a lower fee + no add ons for the Sterling deal. (Boehly looking to be a god in negotiations vs Marina)

Wouldn't put it past us negotiating a lesser fee for Ake. 

 

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

If City are looking at players like Gvardiol to replace Ake. Why aren't we looking at him, instead of Ake?

Every top club is looking at Gvardiol, that's not the point. The player knows that. The thing is we can't afford to wait forever how the markets unfolds and have to fix our defense at least partially at some point. We are in no position like City, Pool, Madrid (or Barca) that can make players wait patiently / refuse to sign the first decent deal offered. And as far as I understand: it's not like Chelsea pay the highest wages either.

Also, nobody knows for certain that we don't sign him later this window as well.

Gvardiol is an example.

Bremer is linked to Juve in case DeLigt leaves, Koulibaly as well but in his case we all know that Napoli just as easily eventually decides not to sell him like they did numerous transfer windows before.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

There are some good defenders out there you could get to improve your first 11, and move Stones and Laporte to backups though.

Seems an Ideal opportunity for you to dump an injury prone back up for a good fee and either sign experience in Koulibaly, youthful yet experienced in De ligt or Kounde, potentially a big asset in Bremer or Gvardiol. Lots of good quality out there.

Sure, I understand that there are "better" players out there than Ake that we could go and sign - but we've got 3 CB's (Dias/Stones/Laporte) who've been great for us and deserve starting places as it is, we don't need a top quality 4th choice CB, just one who is good enough to step up in times of need and likely in cup games.

 

If we sold Ake and went and signed a Kounde/Gvardiol/De Ligt they'll be expecting plenty of game time, but at the expense of who? And then if they do displace a Stones/Laporte, then I'd expect whoever they displace to then want to leave next season and it continues the roundabout. I don't see it being possible to keep 4 top quality CB's happy at a club, I think 3 and a third slightly more flexible option like Ake is about as good as it gets (which is why I'm happy in this area as things stand!).

3 hours ago, Zeta said:

If City are looking at players like Gvardiol to replace Ake. Why aren't we looking at him, instead of Ake?

Because (hopefully) we're commiting to Colwill as our young defender who is Reece 2019 levels of next to safe bet.

 

 

Ethan Ampadu is better than Ake.  AND he would not cost us FORTY million quid.  Ampadu in the squad would be like a new signing imho.

Edited July 12, 20224 yr by TheCeleryKing

On 11/07/2022 at 16:23, Nick05 said:

There's a reason why we haven't challenged for the league in half a decade whilst they have won 4 out of 5 titles and finished 2nd when they didn't. A decade of largely incoherent and wasteful transfer strategy won't transform in a few months.

Definately agree. Our transfer strategy is abysmal at the best of times. The saddest part of all is we actually have one of the best academies going and we just get rid of them all. No way Tomori and Guehi arent good enough to play for us. Colwill looked great last year and we arent even giving him an opportunity. Instead we are getting Ake who wasent great at Man City and Kimpembe who is a useless hot headed defender. I watch a lot of PSG and he is awful at the top level. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. With 4 defenders plus Sarr potentially, what happens to Chalabah as well.

I definitely would have given Colwill a chance ahead of Ake, to save us 40m and spend that elsewhere. 
 

I can’t get my head around it. I thought we learnt from selling Guehi and Tomori. Frustrating.

Chelsea are working to sign both Nathan Aké and Presnel Kimpembé after Kalidou Koulibaly. Negotiations in progress for both with Man City and Paris Saint-Germain. 🚨🔵 #CFC

Koulibaly will sign soon, Kimpembé and Aké are Tuchel priorities as de Ligt is close to join Bayern.

1 minute ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea are working to sign both Nathan Aké and Presnel Kimpembé after Kalidou Koulibaly. Negotiations in progress for both with Man City and Paris Saint-Germain. 🚨🔵 #CFC

Koulibaly will sign soon, Kimpembé and Aké are Tuchel priorities as de Ligt is close to join Bayern.

For left centre back, that would only leave us with Koulibably, Ake, Kimpembe, Colwill and Sarr .... I think we might have to target at least a couple more ...

As our recruitment of left backs has demonstrated, (Chilwell, Alonso, Emerson, Kenedy, Maatsen, Rahman, Castillo) you can never have enough left-sided defenders :-) 

5 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

For left centre back, that would only leave us with Koulibably, Ake, Kimpembe, Colwill and Sarr .... I think we might have to target at least a couple more ...

As our recruitment of left backs has demonstrated, (Chilwell, Alonso, Emerson, Kenedy, Maatsen, Rahman, Castillo) you can never have enough left-sided defenders 🙂

And del horns 

1 minute ago, ozboy said:

And del horns 

If you mean Asier Del Horno, he left in 2006 !

The ones I listed are still at the club !

11 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you mean Asier Del Horno, he left in 2006 !

The ones I listed are still at the club !

I did. Apologies for iPad misspelling. 

48 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea are working to sign both Nathan Aké and Presnel Kimpembé after Kalidou Koulibaly. Negotiations in progress for both with Man City and Paris Saint-Germain. 🚨🔵 #CFC

Koulibaly will sign soon, Kimpembé and Aké are Tuchel priorities as de Ligt is close to join Bayern.

6 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you mean Asier Del Horno, he left in 2006 !

The ones I listed are still at the club !

But his surname lives on forever! 

9 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I definitely would have given Colwill a chance ahead of Ake, to save us 40m and spend that elsewhere. 
 

I can’t get my head around it. I thought we learnt from selling Guehi and Tomori. Frustrating.

So far, there are only rumours going about and nothing definite has been arranged. Why is everybody getting their knickers in a twist over a few academy players and predictingTuchel's downfall over rumours? 

I don’t want Ake. Nothing against him but for the price (£40-45m), it’s too expensive to be essentially be a squad player. He won’t get in ahead of Koulibaly 

Some of the comments about Ake here would make you think we're signing him from league 1. Is he the best defender in the world? Probably not. But he's a decent enough defender to improve our squad in comparison to an error-prone Andreas and an ageing azpi. He's also bound to improve under Tuchel and other experienced defenders like Thiago and Koulibaly. 

If we are truly signing Ake and Coulibaly, I honestly don't know what we need Kipembe for. Ake as a LCB , LB , LWB and DM in a pinch is versatility itself. If we want to sign anyone else that can play that position, why not Xinchenko who can also play LB, as well as midfield. worse case scenario is to buy Ake and Coulibaly and retain Colwill as back up. Sarr on the other hand needs to go. He is not Chelsea quality at all

#Chelsea have agreed a deal in principle to sign Nathan Ake for around £45M but are waiting for City to sign a replacement before they give Ake the green light to leave.

[via @NizaarKinsella]
 

Uh-oh

2 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Some of the comments about Ake here would make you think we're signing him from league 1. Is he the best defender in the world? Probably not. But he's a decent enough defender to improve our squad in comparison to an error-prone Andreas and an ageing azpi. He's also bound to improve under Tuchel and other experienced defenders like Thiago and Koulibaly. 

I don't think he is better than Christensen though, same goes for Azpi. It's a move that could see somebody like Colwill forcing a transfer out of the club, a player who has a much higher ceiling. If we sell Colwill, I wouldn't be surprised if one of City or Liverpool go and sign him 2 seasons later. With Silva (38) and Koulibaly (31) on our books, it would be around the time we would be looking for an upgrade ourselves, something we wouldn't need to do if we keep Colwill. 

I fully expect Colwill to be a better player than Ake is now in the next 24 months and it would really piss me off if he is snapped up by one of our rivals. 

I know we get accused of short term thinking a lot, but this would be one of the worst cases of it to date.

Ben Jacobs stated Colwill never asked for a permanent move, just for some clarity. 

If push comes to shove and Tuchel doesn't trust him yet, ideally he can tell Colwill your future lies with the club once Silva calls it a day. 

City are going to use the money from selling Ake to buy Kounde.

 

 

10 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

City are going to use the money from selling Ake to buy Kounde.

 

 

I must admit if we are willing to offload Azpi but need a repalcement first then Kounde certainly fits the bill, even if it was a Marina deal. Buying another left sided defender does seem a bit strange and will leave us light on the right if Azpi does go.

 

Christensen recalled when he and Ake were told to play with microphones.

"Ats 16 years old I arrived at Chelsea. I could quickly feel an increased pressure, it was more serious," said AC.

"I remember Ake and I were asked to play with microphones because the coach did not think we communicated enough as centre-backs.

"There were trainings where the coach shouted at us that he could not hear anything. He shouted at us if the microphones might be broken."