Smalling is available
£50 million and not a penny less...
Kai Havertz
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£50 million and not a penny less...
When transfer muppets on twitter start tracking flights, it's probably time to tap out of the fun and let the muppet veterans take over.
Sancho is a different player all-together and it's not a bad thing in the case of Havertz, they play different positions.
The thing with midfielders is, as they age they can offer different things, Wingers are a little harder after the age of around 32-33 in general, a top CM can go on until late 30s.
Havertz has a huge future, its arguable to getting a De Bruyne type player at the age of 21. Chelsea have done some really really good business this summer.
United have VDB, Pogba, Bruno so the midfield is already good for United which is why Sancho is a better target for United.
Any team would love to have Havertz and Sancho in the team obviously, I wouldn't take one over the other, both brilliant players.
Reports saying he had his medical on sunday. Surely an offical announcement isnt too far away ?
Chelsea fans must be giddy and excited for the new season.
Their attacking front consisting of Pulisic - Havertz - Ziyech looks devastating on paper.
Their attacking front consisting of Pulisic - Havertz - Ziyech looks devastating on paper.
*werner
Yeah but not until i see havertz holding the shirt. But yeah exciting times. Just want a keeper over the line.
Makes sense to make the big announcement a few hours before the Germany-Spain match tomorrow to maximise its impact.
That is one plausible explanation if it isn’t announced today.
Yeah Werner on top. Ridiculous. German efficiency?
That attack rivals even the best teams in the league.
Announcement could be late today or early Thursday so he avoids having to go into 14 days quarantine when he joins up.
Looks like Rennes GK Edouard Mendy’s signing is also moving along smoothly. More like competition for Kepa than guaranteed starter. 9/10 window for me so far.
Looks like Rennes GK Edouard Mendy’s signing is also moving along smoothly. More like competition for Kepa than guaranteed starter. 9/10 window for me so far.
Yet another signing. For big money.
All exciting for Chelsea fans, but pressure is firmly on Lampard now. He's been backed 5x as much as the next PL manager.
IMO he has to win the league (maybe you can argue 2nd if Messi joins city, but the race will have to go until May and be a photo finish), anything less with this backing and squad is an "epic fail"
I'm sure Chelsea fans will know Abramovich better than me, but he's ruthless. He's sacked managers before for not winning the league. And 99% of them won't have been half as backed as this. If he doesn't win the league now, i'm sure Roman will find someone who be believes can. The squad is beyond good enough, the manager needs to do his job.
Other managers need to be saying this too. Fergie would have done in a heartbeat. Put pressure on because with that backing, he doesn't deserve an easy ride.
All exciting for Chelsea fans, but pressure is firmly on Lampard now. He's been backed 5x as much as the next PL manager.
IMO he has to win the league (maybe you can argue 2nd if Messi joins city, but the race will have to go until May and be a photo finish), anything less with this backing and squad is an "epic fail"
I'm sure Chelsea fans will know Abramovich better than me, but he's ruthless. He's sacked managers before for not winning the league. And 99% of them won't have been half as backed as this. If he doesn't win the league now, i'm sure Roman will find someone who be believes can. The squad is beyond good enough, the manager needs to do his job.
Other managers need to be saying this too. Fergie would have done in a heartbeat. Put pressure on because with that backing, he doesn't deserve an easy ride.
Since Lampard has been at Chelsea, he has spent (according to Transfermarkt) £129 million. If we assume Havertz signs for £100 million, that's £229 million.
In the same time (also according to Transfermarkt), OIe has spent £192 million. If we assume Van Der Beek signs for £30 million, that's £222 million.
Not much of a difference and both clubs might buy more.
"Been backed 5x as much as the next PL manager" is a ridiculous thing to say, especially from a Man United fan, whose manager has been backed just as much!
I’m sure you know and I know they are talking about this one window, as a whole, it’s similar.
Our fans can't stop crying about us not spending money completely ignoring the fact that only City spent more than us in the last decade.
Even if he is, Man United spent £192 million last season. That's pretty damn close the the backing Frank has had this season.
Some short memories around here when it suits people.
Nah, not in a league with City and Liverpool at the level they're at. I'm expecting 3rd or just maybe potentially 2nd if one of the other two stumble. Title challenge expectation should be the season after, especially as we've added so many 1st team players in a single window.
Roman isn't as ruthless with managers as he used to be. It's been different since Mourinho's second term, and Frank is a special situation too being probably the biggest legend the club has had.
Why does he need to go into quarantine?
Does the UK have a quarantine rule for everybody that enters the country?
Erm... hiddink half a season
Conte.. won league in first season and sacked next year
Sarri... one season
Hiddink was interim manager twice, Never got sacked. He lasted half a season because he came in halfway through the season!
Conte was sacked for taking the team from 1st to 5th and going mental.
Sarri - Juventus paid us £5 million quid for his services and he wanted to go home to be closer to his elderly parents, not sacked by any stretch of the imagination.
This window.
If you finished 6th/7th last season and spent that money, I wouldn't expect an immediate title push.
You finished 4th, level on points with Utd in 3rd. We were the two best teams after the Liverpool/city dominance in recent years. And now you have then been backed to the moon.
Argue all you like, if you think Roman has given Lampard that money just to sneak into the top 4 again then you are in for a nasty surprise when the pressure piles on. Chelsea will either have to win the title or push it very, very close.
I'll say the same if United sign 5/6 new players of similar quality.
So you're saying Ole should have been fired after spending close to £200m last season to scrap top 4, 31points off 1st place?
You seem totally okey with the clear lack of ambition from the United hierarchy in that case.
Football doesn't always work like that though. It's not easy just throwing 5-6 new guys into a team and expect them to properly challenge other teams who have been operating at the peak of their powers for 2-3 years. Liverpool's first team, man for man, is still better than ours, and they have one of the world's elite managers and a settled team who have been in the zone as one of the top European teams for 3 years, and if City add Messi and Koulibaly to a team that has already finished 15 and 22 points ahead of us in the last seasons, then it will a mammoth effort just to get close to them this season. The season after though, then we're having a different conversation and most of what you said could be aptly applied then.
Obviously, if Chelsea just sneak into top 4 this season, then it most likely have been a poor season, but there is a world of difference between finishing 3rd with 10+ point gap to the winners and barely scraping into 4th with a 25+ point gap to the top.
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Liverpool finished 30 points ahead of us. THIRTY!
Cutting into that chasm and being competetive with them is the aim. But expecting us to finish above them is ridiculous. No chance Frank is sacked if we get close but don't win the title.
Cutting into that chasm and being competetive with them is the aim. But expecting us to finish above them is ridiculous. No chance Frank is sacked if we get close but don't win the title.
There's a pretty sizable space between "sneaking into top 4" and "win the title or it's an epic fail". That's where expectations will rightly be.
33 points*
Re-read the second line and try again
I think everybody will be closer to them this year. Last season was a freak occurence.
With the squad you have now though you'd be expecting a comfortable 3rd place finish challenging the top 2 IMO. A quality attack in Pulisic, Werner, Havertz, Ziyech with Mount/CHO/Abraham/Giroud as rotation.
Ok i'll rephrase
If you don't put up a title challenge it will be a fail.
Just watch this space. Lampard won't be Chelsea manager in 12 months if Chelsea aren't either Champions or came very close to becoming champions.
The last 3 title winners got 98 points, 99 points and 100 points.
The gap between 1st and 4th was about the same in all of them.
This all a bit confusing on here.
On one hand, getting 5 first teamers in one window is supposed to be detrimental for us, create unrest in the dressing room, hurt the feelings of Tammy, Mount and co, require a long time for them to gel and adapt and won't help our defensive issues.
One the other hand, getting 5 first steamers in one window means pressure is on Lampard to win the league, he'll be a failure if he doesn't, we'll have to catch up on two of the best title winning sides in PL history with 97+ points haul in just the two previous seasons, beat them to the title or Lampard should get the sack.
I mean I'm just confused right now.
On one hand, getting 5 first teamers in one window is supposed to be detrimental for us, create unrest in the dressing room, hurt the feelings of Tammy, Mount and co, require a long time for them to gel and adapt and won't help our defensive issues.
One the other hand, getting 5 first steamers in one window means pressure is on Lampard to win the league, he'll be a failure if he doesn't, we'll have to catch up on two of the best title winning sides in PL history with 97+ points haul in just the two previous seasons, beat them to the title or Lampard should get the sack.
I mean I'm just confused right now.
Comfortable top 4 finish has to be the aim and expectation. I think (once United add Sancho) that Chelsea and United will have equally good teams so picking between the two will be impossible at this point in time.
Last season Chelsea got 66 points with a goal difference of +15. What will they be aiming for this year? 80 points (with a much better GD)? They're certainly investing in a team that wants to win titles.
People are going on about how we've spent roughly the same in the past year but are forgetting that we haven't come close to a title in 7 years. Chelsea have two in that time, one being as recent as 2017. We're obviously coming from different points in terms of the respective squads development.
People are going on about how we've spent roughly the same in the past year but are forgetting that we haven't come close to a title in 7 years. Chelsea have two in that time, one being as recent as 2017. We're obviously coming from different points in terms of the respective squads development.
You'll be surprised to hear that different people have different opinions!
You can also pick other extreme example. Last season Chelsea fans were "Lampard didn't sign anyone (even though he added few players to the squad), so how can anyone expect him to finish in top 4". This season Chelsea have addressed almost all their weak position and also added few very good players, chelsea fans are "how can we expect Lampard to integrate so many players without problems".
It's easy to pick extreme examples.
It's been extensively reported that Chelsea are in the midst of a 3 year plan with Lampard and that this is what has been presented to our newly recruited players - year 1 the aim was to secure CL football, year 2 to cement a place in the top 4 comfortably and ideally make a cup run, and year 3 is when we'd hope to genuinely compete for the top honours.
As long as those benchmarks are met, it's extremely unlikely Lampard is going to be sacked. No rational Chelsea fan is expecting us to win the league and there's every indication the board don't think so either.
And why should, according to you, spending £200m = title win or gets the sack......only be applicable to this season? Did you hold Ole to similar standards last season?
I guess we'll have to wait and see. If Lampard gets sacked before Ole for failing to win the PL next season, it'll be a pretty telling indication of where both club's priorities lie.
Only Alonso, Azpilicueta, Kante, and Batshuayi played significantly on that 16-17 team and are still at the club. I think you'd be hard pressed to say that's put us ahead of the curve significantly.
Even if that is the plan, I stick to what I said.
Come back in 12 months, i'll admit if I was wrong. I just won't be.
Like i said, which i don't think you even managed to successfully read on the second attempt, if you'd finished 6th last season then I wouldn't expect a title challenge. That's why I didn't hold Ole to similar standards last season.
I also said i think he'll get the sack if he doesn't push it to the wire. For me, it's a massive fail if he doesn't win the league now.
Another major (most important!) factor which you and @duffer aren't understanding - I didn't just mean because of the money spent. Aside from GK, he's got a first team quality player in every position that he wanted to strengthen. Even Silva on the free is a reason they should title challenge and he cost nothing.
United haven't addressed all their weak spots one single summer since 2012. This season for example it's evidently clear they need another forward and another CB. Will they get both? Not a chance. United just don't get the job done in that regard. They'll spend big on one player but then leave holes where we most need players. Lampard has had all his holes filled by Abramovich in every sense.
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I think we would have to have a meltdown of Mourinho proportions and Frank losing the dressing room for him to be in danger of the sack this season. And he doesn't have the abrasive, confrontational personality to clash with players.
Unless we are sitting midtable and looking hopeless on the pitch he's safe.
Unless we are sitting midtable and looking hopeless on the pitch he's safe.
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