There's suggestions that the bottom is about to fall out of the Saudi Pro League So we may need to revise down one or two potential transfer fees...
FFP Raid Watch The Torygraph claim that we are lining up a £25m bid to sign Trevor Chalobah Presumably before June 30th, for some strange reason...
If we are raiding Chelsea, of all the players supposedly for sale, the only one that really interests me is Ian Maatsen as competition for Udogie (he can also fill in at LCB and DM when needed, very versatile player). He looked the bees knees at Coventry and was a key component in Burnley's promotion last year. I haven't followed his development since he returned to the blue scum but he is rapid, strong and comfortable on the ball. Not amazing at crossing but our system doesn't rely on that so much. Release clause of £35m is within range for us.
Yeah it's unlikely, I was just saying out of the half a dozen players they're supposedly trying to sell, he's the only one who interests me..
barely played for us. I can't say i really know much about him personally but i would bite your hand off at 25m let alone 35m.
Sounds like Ange and the hierarchy have already formed their plans for the summer window judging by some of Ange’s comments and is very happy with supposed plans. Nice to know the club is now operating with what seems to be an aligned view between manager and hierarchy. Regardless of how some managers have performed or acted in recent years, there’s always seemingly been a feeling that they’ve not had the full support or trust from those at the top and that just never helps, this goes back to Poch’s final years, so it’s reassuring now that the club seem prepared to properly back a manager, not just with funds as funds haven’t even been too much of an issue in recent years but being on the same wavelength of ideas and philosophy has definitely felt conflicted. Ange also says he wants stuff done early too so that he has as many new players in for pre-season as possible, seems like we should be expecting quite a bit of movement in attack especially, Ally Gold’s even spoken of how Lange has been collecting data on lots of forwards across multiple divisions in order to find the right fits. Hopefully a defensive midfielder and a couple full backs are in that plan as well though. I’m intrigued to see what we get done, both ins and outs, we could really do with a big window, last summer was quite impressive, need to build on that to really kick on.
Last summer was a pretty decent window. VDV's arrival alone makes it one of my favourites in many years. In terms of incomings, the only glaringly obvious mistake was not trying harder to replace Kane, although even that could be pushed back with an argument that we were hoping for European football next season (and we got it), which tends to widen the net and attract a higher calibre of player. The biggest problem without question was our inability to shift players out. We already had a backlog of players who clearly had no future at the club a year ago. Fast forward a season and that list has only gotten longer, with the likes of Hojbjerg, Davies, Richarlison and Bissouma added to it. Ally Gold listed around a dozen players who could leave this summer and he's probably right, but with most of Europe broke I can't see how we can shift more than a handful, and those will be players who it'll actually hurt to lose, like Davies.
I’ve been really happy with Vicario too. Very good debut season for him, taking over from a legendary keeper was a huge challenge and he’s done well so far. Davies is definitely the one that I think most fans will miss. I’d add Hojbjerg to a degree too but Davies’ longevity with the club makes it one that’ll likely tug on the sentimental heartstrings. Ultimately if we’re going “all in” on Ange then players like those just aren’t part of the future. I do think we might see quite a lot depart, whether it ends up being the whole list is hard to say but this is the first time in about 6 years that a manager has started and ended a full season, Ange will have had ample time to see who he wants and doesn’t want and no player on the discard list is going to have a second (or third… or fourth…) chance to impress and stay under a new manager this time so it’s leave or potentially spend their time in the stands. We’re gonna have to take hits on the players, not just because Europe’s broke but because we’re paying ourselves for poor signings, thankfully being well under FFP also allows us to take such hits, as any sales we do make is more or less seen as extra money now and not like most other clubs of needing X amount to cover themselves.
The club is supposed to treat player value like depreciation. So after the N yrs their transfer fee is spread over, they have zero value (ie nobody will pay a penny for them) . Similarly the club should have money set aside to buy the replacement for that player at year N. Given the horror of the 2019 summer window, I would advise the club to start setting aside excess amounts to that sum, to be used to pay off the NDombeles to get out ASAP whenever they arise.
The bottom unexpectedly (note sarcasm) falling out on the Saudi Pro League increases the chance of taking hits on some players Or not clawing back a decent chunk of Ndombele's fee Same difference...
But aren't other clubs also in the position of wanting to offload players? Surely if for example, ManU want to do that they are not only offering players at a major discount in basic fees to what they paid, but also carrying really high wages (which makes their job even harder). If Chelsea want to sell, they also have the problem of possibly being seen as a distressed seller - people on here have shown how they must sell to in order to balance the books, and probably sell some players they don't really want to. Basically my point is that even if we take a hit on some of these transfers, it might be less of a hit than our rivals, plus maybe with a better financial structure we are better able to cope with it. And if we can sustain the loss better than others we still gain relatively to them.
The thing with the Saudi Pro League was it was a one-time cheat code for teams who would otherwise fail to comply with FFP to manage to do so, often by offloading a superannuated high earner for a decent fee and getting their wages off the books And with the bottom falling out, in no small part due to half-empty stadiums being a common sight in spite the money being spent on the names they snagged, that likely means having to take a bath on players or having to pay a chunk of their wages after they join a new club - whereas last summer those players could have been sent to the chop shop and ceased being a financial headache
If it weren’t for the lack of trophies, he’d basically be our Scott Carson, guy’s living the dream. 5 year deal too, club clearly like him, even if it does feel doubtful he’ll play much/ at all.
And now Romano’s saying Werner’s loan is being extended… Was hoping we’d hit the ground running early and have high aims with transfers… first part is checked, second part isn’t.
Another loan? Guessing there will be a loan fee. That’s disappointing and shows lack of ambition imo.
