Chelsea

[Bender]

Originally Posted by Buzzo

Some good players for sure, but this all misses the crucial element of squad building, getting a mixture of the right personalities is as important as bringing in top talent.

Might work for them, but as with Arsenal seems like they need to move things on this season. As with Utd, they seem to be in perma rebuild.

They haven't scouted any of those players it's just a quick season starts in 3 days let's sign 3/4 players quickly..Tuchel is vastly overrated and not very good t developing and improving players

[Irishnev]

https://twitter.com/jburttelegraph/status/1554896870060728320

[baitman]

Originally Posted by Irishnev

https://twitter.com/jburttelegraph/s...96870060728320

the world has gone mad. How can Chelsea even get away with this level of spending

[Bender]

Brighton have said there is no deal between themselves and Chelsea

[Pepe79]

Twitter

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[Irishnev]

Haha

[Sus]

Someone wanted the scoop on Twitter and went early - oops

[Jaco_Pastorious]

Originally Posted by Irishnev

Agree it doesn’t seem to be against a strategy per se but I think they are chasing Edwards or someone like him to get that in place. Those 5 are all good and all make their starting 11

They also look like they are trying to replace a few that into their final 12 months with them.

[Sus]

Chelsea chaotic pre season is screwing with my FPL squad. Not sure how many to bring in, even the likes of James and Mount

Doesn't seem a happy camp from the outside, or least an unhappy manager

[rudedog]

Brighton won’t want the deal announced until they have completed their own transfer business. Otherwise any players value they are interested in will mysteriously start skyrocketing.

[Bender]

Originally Posted by Sus

Chelsea chaotic pre season is screwing with my FPL squad. Not sure how many to bring in, even the likes of James and Mount

Doesn't seem a happy camp from the outside, or least an unhappy manager

I'm staying away from Chelsea players for a while

[Cormack74]

Telegraph reckons they are still intent on going large this summer:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...a-considering/

Chelsea are pushing to take their transfer spending close to a record £300million this summer as they finally step up their pursuit of a number of big-name targets with the Premier League season about to begin.

Talks are to take place with Barcelona over the potential signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and, separately, and more immediately, hijacking Manchester United’s protracted attempts to acquire midfielder Frenkie de Jong for an initial £63million.

At the same time Chelsea are bidding for Wesley Fofana although they are currently falling significantly short of Leicester City’s apparent valuation for the centre-half which is understood to be around £80million.

However despite Leicester’s determination to keep Fofana – they insist he is not for sale - Chelsea are hopeful a compromise can eventually be reached and believe that the 21-year-old Frenchman is keen to join them despite signing a new five-year contract in March.

Sources are even more confident that Chelsea are close to signing Marc Cucurella for a fee of £52.5million even though Brighton continue to claim a final agreement is yet to be reached for the defender who nevertheless handed in a transfer request. Cucurella is also not training with the first-team squad ahead of Brighton’s opening game away to Manchester United on Sunday.

Having already signed Raheem Sterling from City for an initial £47.5million, Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli for £34million and Carney Chukwuemeka for £20million from Aston Villa – which was announced on Thursday - it means that the new Todd Boehly-led regime are prepared to commit close to an astonishing £300million in fees this summer.

That total would greatly surpass Chelsea’s previous record spending in one summer window of £220million in 2020 under Frank Lampard after the transfer ban was lifted under Roman Abramovich’s ownership. Indeed Chelsea could be heading for the highest spend committed by any club in one window although the deals, if they are all completed, will be off-set by a number of departures to, hopefully, vastly bring down the net spend.

Having allowed record signing Romelu Lukaku to return to Inter Milan on loan after an unhappy season at Stamford Bridge Chelsea are willing to listen to offers for Kepa Arrizabalaga, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Michy Batshuayi and Kenedy while they could cash in on Armando Broja and are in advanced talks to sell Levi Colwill to Brighton.

The future of Marcos Alonso is also unclear while Barcelona wanted Cesar Azpilicueta but the 32-year-old Chelsea captain has now signed a new two-year deal after telling the Spanish club he wanted his future sorted before the season began.

Barcelona had asked Azpilicueta to wait a few more days as they try and balance their books given their crippling finances and the £100million they have spent in bringing in Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha and with players they cannot even register because of the financial controls in La Liga.

Chelsea are trying to exploit this by making enquiries about Aubameyang, where the interest is tentative at present, and De Jong while Boehly has already also raised the possibility of swap deals.

There is a feeling that Barcelona might be becoming desperate and while coach Xavi Hernandez would rather keep Aubameyang the club could be willing to listen to offers. The 33-year-old striker joined Barcelona on a free transfer in February after Arsenal, where he was stripped of the captaincy, agreed to terminate his contract but he has a good relationship with Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel having worked with him at Borussia Dortmund.

The frantic activity in the market comes after Tuchel has grown increasingly frustrated with Chelsea’s slowness in their transfer business. Having lost Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen at the start of the window, Tuchel made it clear that he wanted three new defenders although attempts to sign Jules Kounde, who chose Barcelona, and Nathan Ake, who Manchester City decided against selling, failed. Chelsea decided against pushing for another defender, Paris Saint-Germain’s Presnel Kimpembe, and lost out on Leeds United forward Raphinha who was determined to also join Barcelona.

Given Chelsea have also made enquiries for a number of other players – including Inter Milan full-back Denzil Dumfries and Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters – it leaves the club open to the accusation that it has taken something a scatter-gun approach to its transfer business in the first window since the £4.25billion takeover was completed in May. Boehly also held initial talks with Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes about signing the wantaway forward but did not pursue the deal with Tuchel adamant he wanted other players.

However should the club’s new hierarchy – with Boehly taking the role of acting director of football - land the players who have now emerged as their primary targets they will feel vindicated and will argue they have certainly strengthened the squad to mount a title challenge after finishing third last season albeit 19 points adrift of the champions, City, and 18 points behind second-placed Liverpool.

Following Chelsea’s 4-0 thrashing to Arsenal on their pre-season tour to the United States, Tuchel declared that they could not currently compete with the top two and were in “urgent” need of quality players and he has been pushing hard behind-the-scenes for changes to be made. Chelsea are now attempting to deliver.

[Sus]

This approach just seems so scattergun - what's the overarching plan here, and how does signing a 33 year old striker from Barcelona help with that?

Definitely feels like a Championship Manager approach, and one that Edwards, if he joined, would sort out in a hurry

[Sus]

Originally Posted by Bender

I'm staying away from Chelsea players for a while

Fair enough - gone in for James and Mount, as I lack the imagination to come up with alternatives

[Sus]

And 56m quid up front for Cucurella, plus up to 7m in add-ons - that is in an insane fee Brighton have negotiated, even taking into account it might be inflated for the Colvill loan deal going the other way

[Harv]

They're after Aubambambam De Jong and Sesko now too?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Sus

And 56m quid up front for Cucurella, plus up to 7m in add-ons - that is in an insane fee Brighton have negotiated, even taking into account it might be inflated for the Colvill loan deal going the other way

Totally insane, especially given this...

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[Sus]

How does this make sense??? Are they going to play Cucurella as a LCB???

[Bender]

It doesn't make sense at all it's just panic buying

[Bender]

Originally Posted by Sus

Fair enough - gone in for James and Mount, as I lack the imagination to come up with alternatives

[Big Dave]

Seems to me like the new owners are trying to create the impression that they have more money than Abramovich had.

I can't see that it's going to help the team/squad one bit though

[Buzzo]

Confirmed. £55m (up to £62 with add ons) is mad money. Our combined fullback outlay is what? £20m for the 4 of them.

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[Pablo]

I like him. I think he's a tidy player. The fee is madness though and even crazier given they absolutely do not need another LB. Nuts.

Wonder who City will go for now?

[Irishnev]

Ludicrous money on Cucurella and more on Fofana - where are they getting the money. I read they aim to spend 300m - wtf

https://twitter.com/jacobsben/status/1555596220307046403

[Bender]

Mad money

[Jaco_Pastorious]

Originally Posted by Irishnev

Ludicrous money on Cucurella and more on Fofana - where are they getting the money. I read they aim to spend 300m - wtf

https://twitter.com/jacobsben/status...96220307046403

Ah fella, don't you know it is the Hazard money, all million billionty of it

[Bender]

Twitter

[ChesterDave]

70m for Fofana? Christ almighty

[Irishnev]

Originally Posted by ChesterDave

70m for Fofana? Christ almighty

He’s brilliant and I think he is one if the best young CBs in the world…….. but Konate is better and we got him for half that amount

[Sus]

The French have some incredible up and coming CBs, their depth of talent is unreal

[Fivex]

They always seem to

[Liverpool]

Chelsea should have gone all in for Gomez before he signed the new deal

[labourRed]

Originally Posted by Liverpool

Chelsea should have gone all in for Gomez before he signed the new deal

Or after. I'm easy.

[Norbs]

[pondus]

Michael Edwards has turned them down apparently, still says he wants a break from football

[Bender]

Twitter

[red g]

Barca in good business shocker, They got him on a free I think, £30m profit for someone who only played a few months.

[Deano]

Still don't understand how Chelsea. can do so much business, its like sweet shop

[Irishnev]

Originally Posted by Deano

Still don't understand how Chelsea. can do so much business, its like sweet shop

https://twitter.com/swissramble/status/1559064092618498049

[Deano]

I get the FFP element, but they were losing £1m a week under the Russian, how on earth a PE Group can sustain those losses going forward - Its fucking bonkers ?