All quiet on the transfer front.

Chelseas' transfer effort is like watching a duck swim, smooth above the water line but paddling like crazy below.
As often with us, we seem to be lagging behind, with a couple of expected departures, but some difficulty selling the Zappacostas, Drinkwaters, Berkleys' , Abraham, Batshuayi etc, and zero exceptional incoming as yet.
Man U with Sancho and now Varane looking likely, will have strengthened, our targets, especially Haarland and Rice, look very difficult to achieve.Need to smarten up and secure Rudiger and Christensen as well.
Marina must have nerves of steel, she was brilliant at pushing till the last minute to get Havertz and Werner, so really looking forward to seeing who our new players turn out to be this time.

 

Am starting to get a bit nervous to be honest.
We have traditionally done well in seasons where we have wrapped up our transfer business early, leaving it late leads to panic buys and "settle" buys.
I think Haaland is a pipe dream. I question Dortmunds logic in turning down £135m for a player just to keep him for one season and sell him for £60m the next summer, but hey, its up to them. The nails were put in that coffin when they sold Sancho to United. No way they were ever going to let both of them go in the same summer.
And Rice, well, we have heard nothing.
Plus, as you put CP, we have not shed any of our dead wood either. If we go in to this season with no goal scorer and a bloated squad full of dead wood, then best we can hope for is top 4 and a trophy again. Not that that is terrible, but I was hoping for a title push this season.

 

I'm sure the Club is well aware we need 3 top whack imports to improve the squad, up front , mid and defender, so can only assume they're onto it. If we don't sort out Rudi and Christensen that would be a big set back, though I haven't seen signs either are leaving, maybe just agitating for yet more money, which is the norm these days. We are also losing too many youth players as well, something I was concerned about previously. Then again Broja looks like he might get a gig, possibly Conner G as well, so trust Audi and Marina are on top of things. They usually are.

 

Two official offers for Lukaku (£83 mil plus Alonso the latest one,) been rejected so far.

 

I can't imagine Lukaku would want to leave Inter after last season and I doubt Inter would want to sell him. Why don't you bid for Kane?

 

Can't imagine Levy would ever allow Kane to come to Chelsea, but he'd be a great player to have that's for sure.
Lukaku is showing signs of being swayed, perhaps by the salary on offer, but Haarland is the best buy of the three due to his age , at least in my opinion.
Still can't believe his Team are prepared to lose him in less than a year for about 80mill less than they'd get now. Still think there's a chance he might be in Blue this season, but who knows??

 

Inter are skint

 

I’d rather we waited for Haaland next season than spend £80m on Lukaku. We’ve given him a shot and he’s also had a fair go at 2 other prem teams.

We’ve got strikers and Lukaku will be a waste.

 

Lukaku clearly has a better goals to games ratio at Inter (1goal every 1.5 games) his ratio in EPL (1 goal every 2.25 games)

 

Lukaku it is then.

 

He changed his tune quite quickly since he said he wouldn't follow Conte before the Euros. Maybe just didn't want to go to Spurs

 

Lukaku is a better player now than he was at Chelsea, and he's a big, tough sod to boot. I think he'd be really good with us now. Haarland though looks a cut above . If we don't get him this year, imagine how many would be after him next when he's price is what, 65 mill ?? His wage demands then would destroy harmony in any team he goes to, apart from Barca who pay Messi the earth. So we wait and will eventually see what evolves. Bloody frustrating though.

 

I'd rather us waited a year and go for Haaland. I rate Lukaku, and he will definitely improve our goal scoring stats, but if signing him means we dont go for Haaland next year, I am willing to skip on Lukaku. Haaland is a player who could be a 10 year investment. We'll get three years max out of Lukaku at the top level and for £100m? I'd want at least 5 years + of top level playing for that much.
There will be lots of competition for Haaland next summer because of his contract clause, but we could still go for him.
In short, im all for signing Lukaku, as long as it doesnt mean not going for Haaland next season.

 

Agree completely. Imagine having both of them next season !!!
I am not convinced though that Lukaku is worth anything like 100 mill, Quids or Euros !
if we get him by adding Zappacosta, Emerson or Alonso, and less cash, it's much better for us. We need to lose some of our "dead wood", blimey we've still got Bakayoko, Barkley, Baba Rhaman, that's well over half a million a week we're paying out.

 

£97.5 mil seems to be the agreed amount. No players involved.

 

So what exactly are you paying for?

 

Oh well it's not my money, but seems about 20mill too much given his age.
If we do buy him , I really hope he breaks the strikers curse and does the business for us. We seem to be having a lot of trouble selling off our "surplus to requirements" players, Time to address the asking prices and move some of them on???

 

A big bloke with a penchant for scoring goals. Hope that clears it up for you.

 

thought you'd see the funny side, given you said no players were involved. indeed

 

I’m very concerned about this buy. I think it will seriously jeopardise our plan for Haaland next year unless a deal has already been struck.
It’s far too much for a player twice proven he couldn’t cut it for us. I hope I’m wrong though.