Froggy

Nah. Larne is where I live. Ground is a five minute walk away so I'll probably go to that for the craic.

Milanista in the mud.

This guy couldn't lace Benito Carbone's boots.

Hudson-Odoi to Saudi now picking up speed. That'll be Kouliably, Ziyech, Kante, Mendy and Hudson-Odoi from Chelsea alone.

Nah. Paul Merson was one of the only pundits I can remember that criticised him at the time and he was ridiculed for it. Opposition fans felt he was overrated, which is far enough, but there was a serious lack of quality defenders at the time. People forget City were after Maguire as well, but were smart enough to pull out when the fee was quoted. We were just desperate. The general consensus at the time was that he would make us far better, which he did to be fair. Our defence was in a torrid state.

Mbappe, Coman and Obertan up top.

Maguire was 26, and considered one of the best defenders in English football as well as being homegrown and a seasoned Premier League player. Every time Lukaku has moved for big money it's because he's just off the back of a great season, be that with West Brom, Everton or Inter. Koulibaly is 32, and just had a poor season. It's 100% out of the ordinary for Chelsea to get any sort of decent fee at all. Ordinarily if they wanted rid of Kouliably after last season they'd probably have to terminate him or give him a free transfer because of his wages. Nobody would be paying for him.

Probably play Havertz as a #10. Drop Odegaard a little deeper. They'll have far more protection in midfield as Rice is significantly better than Partey and Xhaka. Jesus Martinelli Havertz Saka Odegaard Rice A very strong, young midfield and forward line.

I think you're massively missing the point here even though TCD has explained it. Koulibaly signed for £33m on 300k a week a year ago, you're right about that. His stock was high. His hasn't had a good season. His stock has dropped a lot. He's a year older. Despite this, Chelsea are now going to recoup almost all of the fee and all of the wages will be off the books. If there was no Saudi Arabia, they would be looking at recouping half the fee if they were lucky and there's not one European club who would pay Kouliably even remotely close to 300k after the season he has had. Comparing Antony/Havertz etc. is silly. They're investments. They're 23/24.

That's a bargain IMO. Kovacic is class.

Yes Romano said that Chelsea rejected Inter's Koulibaly loan offer because they will receive a fee from Saudi Arabia, so I guess we'll see just how much they're going to get.

Anyone else a bit worried about how this is all going? I read last night that PIF have billions of pounds worth of assets managed by Clearlake Capital, who worked with Boehly to buy Chelsea. Now Saudi Arabia are hoovering up Chelsea's unwanted, overpaid talent which will reset them for FFP. Led me down a rabbit hole and didn't realise just how much Qatar/Saudi Arabia etc own in the U.K.

More than likely aye. They have the bargaining power since they have two players that Inter want.

We're being linked now with Onana from our top tier sources and the suspected fee is up to £70m. Still no idea where the £50m fee is coming from for Barella.

We're exploring options to sign Onana. Looks like De Gea could be tempted by Saudi Arabia.

If Rio said it it's almost certainly untrue. Guy is a balloon.

He obviously hasn't a clue, it's just based off reports in Italy and because of a few things that happened on the pitch. Could be true, could be nonsense.

They're trying to get Koulibaly and Lukaku on loan but Chelsea want a permanent sale, so Inter using Onana as leverage for those deals. Don't think Barella will factor into those signings but they probably will need to sell someone. Just can't see them selling their crown jewel for such a small fee.

I have an Inter supporting mate. He said with the loan fee plus transfer fee they paid close to £50m for him three years ago and said even though they're in a bit of financial difficulty he wouldn't expect Barella to go for less than £100m as he has three years on his deal. He said it would be £150m if he had his way. He did say he's a prick and based on a lot of reports in Italy is disliked in the Inter dressing room. He apparently hates Lukaku and has had onfield arguments with him and has reacted poorly to being subbed this season as well, so there could be other factors in play that allow him to leave for a cut price.

This is twenty times bigger than Isak. Barella is one of the best midfielders in the world.

£50m. what's that for, his left leg?

Troy Hawke. He's a laugh.

Nobody has a clue. This will be a world record fee for a sports club and will be NDA'd to the eyeballs. Anyone reporting anything is just guessing.

They take £20-£23m out every season in dividends. They were very kind to only take £11m out when covid had devastated the accounts, but then took £33m out the following year anyway. Over the last 10 years I think the interest works out around £50m a season. They took out another loan over Covid rather than put any money in and we're still paying it as an external debt as well and it has averaged about £35m over the last couple of seasons. They've also paid themselves management fees around £25m from the club accounts and paid themselves director fees worth £55m (12 directors, 6 Glazers) over the last 10 years. They take a lot out of the club. It was looked at extensively by Swiss Ramble last season and in August last year it was estimated that they've cost the club £1.6b since they took over. If we were bought by someone who cleared the debts, we could do a Boehly in the summer, but I don't think the squad needs it. A striker, midfielder, centre back and a goalkeeper would do rightly.