Solitude20

I disagree with that, why should we look at players who didn’t succeed after moving from the Bundesliga and come up with a generalization for all players who happened to play there first? There are many other players who came from there and turned out to be huge success: De Bruyne, Haaland, Son, Kombany, Gundogan, Firmino, etc. On the othet hand, we might find players such as Mane who played worse at Bundesliga. He scored seven goals in 25 league games. Or what about Hazard who flopped at La Liga after a legendary display at the EPL. Does that mean Spanish teams shouldn’t consider EPL players? There are many players who flop after a transfer for many different reasons, and so I don’t think it is logical to single out their original league as a primary reason by cherry picking players who happened to have failed here for various reasons.

Even if top 5 qualify for UCL next season, it will be more difficult than getting 4th last season IMO. Chelsea and Liverpool will most likely bounce back with their new signings/coach, and they won’t collapse like they did last season. Arsenal isn’t fucking around either, them getting 2nd last season wasn’t a one season thing. City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, and Arsenal all have amazing coaches and elite squads. In order to increase our odds to qualify next season, we have to sign at least one or two top targets/1st team players and one decent backup. IMO, our coach is on the same level as those in the other top 5 clubs, but we need upgrades in a few positions to at least have a squad that is objectively in the same level as the others. RW, LW, and LB all need a 1st team upgrade, as they are clearly our weakest points IMO when it comes to creating scoring opportunities (here I assumed ASM to be injured for at least a few critical games). Of course, we won’t be able to do all of them in this window, so I am hoping for at least one of them to be done.

Yet you didn’t raise those concerns when we spent their money on those record transfer fees. Honestly I don’t get it, how can you have no issues with spending their cash to reach where we are today, enjoying their success managing the club so far, looking forward to their future investments, and getting excited by the transformation of the club under their ownership, but if their national team plays at SJP, it suddenly becomes a step too far and only then would their human rights record matter. I don’t get it honestly. To me, it’s all the same. You either accept all of it or none if it. I wouldn’t go and happily accept those links that directly benefit the club and draw a line against the links that don’t.

If they are going to play as an attacking midfielder, then I wouldn’t mind if we get either (Maddison or Szo). But if we are going to play them as wingers/wide midfielder, I definitely think Szo is the better option here . He’s more explosive and a better dribbler, and those traits are crucial for a winger who’s supposed to penetrate a low block.

And some of you were panicking and thinking PIF is supporting Chelsea over us

I mean nobody had even heard about our interest in Tonali up until a couple of days ago. Just like with Bruno, the deal came out of nowhere and at the very late stages. Love that.

Dan Ashworth scouting.

Yeah, he is reeeeeally injury prone. No way he would play a full season with us if we sign him.

Wait for that 1st Botman goal finally.

Assist. Both of our U21 boys got an assist today.

Yeah, he can play on both wings and that would make him a versatile backup. He is pretty much an improved Murphy.

Seria A teams can’t even fill up their stadiums, and I am talking about the top teams in the league. It is not our fault if they can’t generate revenue from TV viewership or ticket sales.

Feeling a bit nostalgic, eh?

Poor Anderson. In that case, he has to be loaned out.

Still missing the “Here We Go” so 8/10

One good thing about this transfer is how early everything seems to be wrapping up. It means he won’t miss the August games, nor will he miss the pre-season. Isak was an example of how quickly a player gets injured if he was suddenly thrown into our system without a proper pre-season. Other players like Bruno increased their playtime gradually when they joined.

I see the confusion here comes from the fact that people understand those terms differently. I think they refer to a holding midfielder, a midfielder who stays deep when the entire team moves up when we have the ball. I saw a good tactics video in youtube a while back that explains this very well(can’t find it now). The idea is to have at least 3 players at the back when we have possession in order to protect against a sudden counterattack, as having only two players at the back can leave us vulnerable. So if you are playing with 4 at the back, those three would be the 2 central defenders and a holding midfielder. In case you are playing with 3 at the back, those 3 defenders will stay at the back and there will be no need for a holding midfielder. Our tactic last season was unique in the sense that Burn pretty much played as a 3rd center back rather than a traditional left back (and Botman was in center), this pretty much allowed Bruno to move up and not stick to the holding role. I don’t know how our tactic will look like next season if we bring in a more traditional leftback. Then, a holding midfielder would be necessary. Interestingly, Tonali played that role when he was at Brescia. He was a regista, and he was usually considered the next Pirlo. However his role changed when he moved to Milan. Let’s see what Eddie has in mind.

I read some folks in social media say we are overpaying for him. I went back to Milan fans comments at the early stages when it was just a rumor and for 50m, they all said this bid is too pathetic and too low for one of the best midfielders in Seria A, and they would reply with a pic of their left nut, now we increase it by 20m and we see others say we are overpaying? He just turned 23 last month, and Eddie will make him a world class midfielder. This reminds me of 2012 when Verratti chose the PSG project over staying at Seria A, and he ended up as one of their legends.

So we have both Tonali and Gordon playing this U21 Euros. Gordon needs some playtime since he hasn’t played much last season, but I believe we need Tonali to rest well before the pre-season kicks off.

That thread literally explained the opposite

So has it become mathematically impossible for us to be in pot 3 yet?

Again, we are talking past each other. If 80m for Maguire is normal to you, I think 30m isn’t much for Koilibaly even after a bad season, a lot of Chelsea players had a bad season anyway. He was still very good with Napoli just a year ago. A European club would’ve easily paid that for him. The issue was his salary as I agree though he would’ve got a lower salary in another European club. But again the salary he’s getting at Saudi isn’t astronomical, just like it wasn’t 12 months ago. I repeat, my point isn’t about how profitable this deal is for Chelsea. It’s about “breaking the game” type of comments.

I think you too are misunderstanding my point, or perhaps we are talking about different points of view. It’s been said in the past view pages here and in other platforms that those deals are killing the game. It’s been portrayed as something out of the ordinary. My reply was against those claims since nobody raised those points 12 months ago or when Maguire or Lukaku deals took place. I am not talking about how profitable this deal is for Chelsea. Remember, it’s about claiming such deals are astronomical and breaking the game, and I am saying it is not. It has been the norm. I mean, with the salaries CR7 or Benzema are getting, Koulibali’s salary is peanuts. Koulibali will sit on the bench for Chelsea, and clearly they want to get rid of him. So other teams will play hardball to get a better deal for them since they have the advantage in negotiating. His fees aren’t high, his salary is. He is still good enough to have a starting roles for many European clubs. Now that Saudi clubs come and offer him the same salary and the playtime that he wants, so it is a win win.

True, but I am guessing elite clubs won’t give him the playtime he wants yet. He would be a 1st choice player for Ajax at 18 year old.

Even Arsenal is bailing out Chelsea? /s