it's not easy to get to the bottom of transfer deals with so much money involved and so many people chasing so few great players. Nevertheless, Chelsea, as usual are linked with everyone, but also as usual, are painfully slow at doing deals. Trying to read between the lines, seems Sarri is not happy with what is going on. Most of his wish list has been rejected by the Board as too old, too expensive or not good enough, and he has been "offered" their alternatives. The Express did a very nice summary of this and Sarris' repeated quote " I know nothing about transfers or contracts so I will concentrate on games" is a dreadful indictment on how we operate and why we are now well behind at least 3 teams we used to beat more than lose to. Here's how our transfer period is going based on what I can figure out. Batsuhayi Not loaned to Monaco, trying to sell. Impasse. Fabregas Gone to Monaco despite Sarri wanting to keep until seasons' end. Luiz Sarri wants to keep, negotiations underway, hopeful. CHO Club has totally stuffed up ( maybe Sarri too) and now desperate to try and keep. Losing battle. Paredes May have signed for PSG under our noses. Barella Looks gone to Inter Zappacosta, No takers at our asking price. Cahill Still here Morata Offered to every team on the planet, no takers due to cost and ludicrous wage demands. Higuan Probably completed Monday Hazard I believe we are planning to be without him next season, which is sensible. Pretty poor strike rate so far, and already Sarri learning that at Chelsea, the manager often fails because the Board doesn't back him. Not looking like anything's changed other than Sarri for Conte, and more possession. Bring on a real Director of Football and let's get some quality back in the Team, ' cause most of our quality is edging towards the 30 year cut off point.
I don’t think we need another midfielder. I don’t see how we can go and spend 30+m for someone to replace Fabregas who was barely playing in the first place. Paying that money for somebody to play in a few cup games essentially. If we can replace Morata with Higuain and get rid of Cahill and Batshuayi I think we’ve done alright.
Higuan at his best, might be a better fit than Morata, but then Morata was no slouch when we paid, what 65 mill and 250Gs a week !!!!!!!!!!!!! He was and is useless without a midfield playmaker. Even Sarri says we need a midfielder, because without RLC we have absolutely no "go forward". Jorghino has not provided a single assist nor scored (apart from a penalty I think) all season. The midfield is our weakest area, has been for 3 years. There are no goals in our midfield when RLC doesn't play apart from a couple from Kante, whose real talents are being wasted. Kovacic is a sound, but no more than that, player with bugger all attack, and our front 3 get little to work with unless Luiz bypasses the "pass backwards, sideways, anywhere" midfield, and makes a long ball to Hazard or Pedro/Willian. Until we get a more creative and powerful midfield, any striker will struggle. Been the same since Lampard and Ballack retired. So we need both a striker and a midfielder, if not two. Both the players we were after in midfield would have been a big step up from Jorghino, who doesn't look imposing enough to run any midfield in the PL to me. And it looks like Marina is struggling for transfers again, so we are not getting in what Sarri wants or needs. Jose and Conte all over again.
