In the Sunday Times today is the following: CHELSEA believe they have won the race to sign Luke Shaw, Southamptonâs 17-year-old left-back and Englandâs most coveted young footballer. Shaw, from the same Saints production line as Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott, is expected to cost upwards of £10m and sign for the Europa League winners alongside the German international Andre Schürrle and the Brazilian prodigy Wallace in a busy transfer summer at Stamford Bridge. While substantial funds are likely to be kept back for an incoming manager â with Jose Mourinho hoping to be confirmed in the job early this week â Chelsea are pressing ahead with securing long-term targets on their scouting list. Mourinhoâs return would no doubt appeal to Shaw, who supported Chelsea as a youngster. His dazzling first season in the Premier League is attracting rival interest from Tottenham and Arsenal but there is confidence at Chelsea that they will get their man. Securing Shaw, who can sign a senior contract when he turns 18 in July, would be a coup but Southampton are determined to hang on to him after confirming their stay in the top flight. One way around any impasse would be to lend the player back to the South Coast club for a season or more. It is the last sentence that made me see red. The gist of that is "Chelsea buy him cheap now while he is young and then let Saints continue to develop him but they gain any increase in value of the player as a result". Cheeky buggers. In a few years Shaw is going to be worth £25 to £30 million and if Chelsea want him that is the price they should pay now.
They couldn't even get past a NC frown. Fat chance of signing Luke. And hasn't Ashley just signed a new £225,000 a week deal to maybe keep his place at LB? Saying that, I'll be happy when we get the picture of LS & NC ~& the watch of dreams.
Once he turns 18 we are in a much stronger position. I know for a fact that he personally was interest in a man utd move to work under fertile before he retired (around 1 month ago), now he is retiring this season I was hopeful he would stay here until he is 23-24. Leaving now does nothing for him. He won't start games at clubs like Utd or Chelsea right now. He is going to here though and money wise he will get offered the same a top 4 would offer. Arsenal is the only side that might offer him some sort of game time, but that said they have gibbs and monreal so would he really? Just need to add to this team now so we can push on and try to compete with these clubs our guys are being linked with.
We will have to put up with this speculation till he actually signs, its annoying, but he is hot property. Thank the lord for Cortese, just imagine how unpleasant the next couple of months would be without him........
I know Luke is a Chelsea fan but you'd think a quick word with Jack Cork about how good they are at progressing young players would put an end to this. At least Wenger the child snatcher may actually play him! Just used to the tone of these articles I'm afraid. Until we win a major trophy and / or finish in the top 4 it'll continue.
Ashley Cole has signed a new contract and they have Ryan Bertrand who is an England U21 player and has been in the first team, so i can't see why Chelsea would be in for Shaw. These transfer rumours and gossip are not going to go away as our players performances this season have elevated their worth and status.
Whilst your logic is right and makes a lot of sense, this is Chelsea we are talking about, they just sign players who are good because they can. They really don't seem to think about squad balance, just look at how many good attacking midfielders they have. Also Cole is what 33 now? Probably looking for a LB as a long term replacement, unless they really rate Bertrand and think he is that player
Sorry just posted this on another thread....... I'm starting to believe that there may be something in this. If we really are in for Gamez it is hard to believe he would play 2nd fiddle to Shaw, he's been playing Champions League football. In the short term Gamez would be an upgrade on Shaw I would have thought. Luke is only young and it's easy to see how his head could have been turned by Chelsea. edit: I forgot Gamez is a RB
I have a feeling Shaw will go. He doesn't strike me as the brightest button in the box and could be tempted by the big bucks. He is quality, but if he did want to go, I'd take Bertrand and £15m, if the worst happened.
Yeah I can see him going as well, not as likely as him staying but definitely a possibility. He's a good player and should be immense in the future but I don't think selling Shaw for 15+ million would be any great loss. There's a chance he will be like Bale but if he goes to Chelsea this early I doubt we will be seeing him scoring against us for a while. Of course if he stays his value will exceed 15 mil pretty quickly but there isn't much point in forcing him to stay, indeed we can't because he hasn't signed a contract. We have Targett coming through who I would expect to be pretty handy if his reputation is any indication
If Luke wants to go-and that will depend to some extent on who he has advising him-then there's not a lot we can do about it. But at least we hav a chairman who can make chelsea suffer throughout any negotiation
We have to remember our love for Luke is heightened by the fact that fox is our only other LB and he has been poor at times. Provided we have a quality replacement in it wouldn't be the same loss as when oxo left- he showed game changing flashes of genius (albeit in L1). If he wants to play in the reserves then go out on loan at cheese rather than get 1st team football every week what can we do about it?
i think he will sign the contract at 18, then leave the year after. If i was playing for Huddersfield and was hot property and Southampton came in for me with mega bucks i would go! But i think Cortese will make him stay this year as a re payment to the club. Shaw will be amazing he is gonna go sooner or later! As long as we get decent money, you know it is going right back into the squad. So it wont hurt as much as losing bale for a penny and a forecast
Yes I agree. I also think this is an area where one of the real strengths of Cortese shine through. 1] If anyone can persuade Shaw that his bread is better buttered at Saints, Cortese can. 2] If he's determined to go, I almost pity the negotiator who has the face Nicola over the terms and price, because he'll leave St Mary's with his club in serious hock. Of course, we could be wrong and Shaw might sign for 6 or so years and we have the LB position covered until he's 23-24. Then he might even re-sign. Who knows..?
If he has any sense at all, he will see that others left way too early and stay til he is 20, and decide then what to do. If he wants to go, he will go at the end of the day.
It's not going to happen. Luke knows perfectly well that he won't get any games there. It's blindingly obvious to anyone that he won't get in ahead of Cole. He wouldn't go from playing PL football every week to playing maybe a couple of cup games a season. Also there's the fact that Cortese will demand a fee that no sane man would pay for him.
Its great that we have gone back to talking about Nicola screwing over other clubs over transfers, rather than fretting about him leaving the club!
