Summer Transfer Window 2022

[gunnar hendershow]

Well Jamie Vardy won't be one of those Leicester players going anywhere before the end of the month, signed a contract extension through 2024.

[Baddar]

1 hour ago, damhausen said:

Well Jamie Vardy won't be one of those Leicester players going anywhere before the end of the month, signed a contract extension through 2024.

And he's absolutely delighted.

[Hobo]

not sure who thought "Jamie Vardy looking miserable and splaying" was the photo op they needed. It sure is a choice

[gunnar hendershow]

Ok Jamie say "Coleen Rooney"

[Baddar]

Nicolas Pepe might be heading to Nice on loan.

[Naitch]

19 hours ago, stokeriño said:

That's what people say, but it's not like we're peppering the box with crosses or passes towards a striker's position (Havertz's miss from James' cross last week being the obvious outlier).

Maybe if a striker literally bullied his way through like some angry Costa/Drogba hybrid, he could make up for our general lack of chance-creation. But that would be an awkward way to hide the broader problem.

I'd quite like us to sign Mitrovic or Toney. Both have proven themselves at mid/low table PL clubs and should only improve their goal tallies in a better side. Pukki was another example of that but I think he's a bit too old to be worth it now, certainly more valuable to Norwich than he would be to Chelsea anyway.

[Baddar]

Newcastle are signing Joao Pedro from Watford. 

[Adam]

Bye then, kid.

I really like Gordon but he isn't worth that amount of money in any realm. The problem is that Everton can easily solve their squad problems by spending that money on 3 good players in the right areas, but will they? With a week left of the window and our horrendous recent history of recruitment, I highly doubt it.

[Kyle]

If we don't let Gordon go for that money, I'll cry. I've got a soft spot for him, but Christ, he is not worth that amount of money, even with the English tax. Get him gone, get a replacement for Richarlison in.

[Colly]

Hilarious if thinks a move to Chelsea will boost his World Cup chances, though presumably that's his "let's just say it moved me" line. Hope it goes through though, might boost the chances of the various Newcastle links to Pulisic/CHO etc. Might be Digne/Targett all over again.

[stokeriño]

None of this is going to end well for him (or Chelsea, by extension). I feel like I'm watching a car crash in slow motion.

[gunnar hendershow]

Everton can surely buy him back for a third of that price in 18 months.

[Kyle]

If it works out anything like our last Chelsea-bound transfer, we'll be linked with him incessantly season after season every window after he leaves.

[Baddar]

Talking of Chelsea, the latest rejected Fofana bid is £70m + add ons.

[DavidMarrio]

I'd be snapping their hands of for 60mil for Anthony Gordon who from when I've seen him has looked alright but not like he's going to be a world beater or anything? 

With that money you could get two/three bodies in for the squad.

It's just a weird move from Chelsea's part. Is it purely a "we need more English people in" or is it a well we might move out one or two in the near future. 

[Colly]

Someone's got to replace Danny Drinkwater I guess.

[stokeriño]

From all appearance, someone in the new administration at Chelsea has decided that Potential is something they want to invest substantial money in. My suspicion is that it's not very smart money, but that's where we are.

Before getting to Gordon or Fofana, I'm first drawn to the likes of Chukwuemeka or Casadei, recently bought for around £15m each. For whatever their qualities, it's unlikely that at the moment they'd be anything more than an emergency backup in Chelsea's midfield this season (*thinks ruefully of Kante's injury*), and probably one or both will get loaned this year. 

You might think this is standard fare for Chelsea's patented Loan Army, but actually you have to go all the way back to 2015 to find the last time Chelsea spent actual money on players who weren't intended as Starters or Immediate Back-ups when they arrived - back when they'd toss £4m at Michael Hector, or Matt Miazga, or Nathan, and maybe they'd appear for 3 minutes in the League Cup before packing their bags never to be heard from again. The idea of paying real money for prospects in the hope they got good was very much The Early Years of the Loan Army. After many, many, many complete flops, the model transitioned away from that. Spending real money on 'potential' was done away with, and new additions to the Loan Army were primarily academy products, not speculative purchases. Expensive players only ended up in the Loan Army after they'd been bought for the first team, had their shot, failed, and (unsurprisingly) were difficult to sell.

So that's already a shift (backwards?) in mentality when it comes to investing in youth. Not the most reassuring.

Then you come to the likes of Gordon and Fofana - neither actually bought yet, but supposedly being pursued with price tags of £60m or more. They are admittedly a step above Chukwuemeka and Casadei if only because they're 21 years old, not 18 or 19, and you could argue they have more of the fabled *Premier League Experience* to embellish them (...one whole meaningful season of it...). It is nonetheless their Potential that is clearly the bulk of their perceived value.

If you compare it to recent Chelsea 'first-team' signings, where 'proven' players would get nearly as much money spunked on them and then be abject failures, perhaps you can see why someone who has a hard-on for P O T E N T I A L would be convinced that spending as much on these youngsters is no worse. Theoretical re-sell value and all that jazz.

For me, I have no faith for Chelsea to deliver on any player's potential. We literally only lucked into a couple of them when a combination of the Transfer Ban and Frank Lampard's willingness to not give a fuck enabled Mason Mount, Reece James, etc. to make a lasting impact on the first team. Perhaps that will change under the new owners, but I think they've stumbled into their first transfer window eager to Do Something and are being overly rash because of it.

Could be worse. They could have plugged for Ronaldo.

[Szumi]

Spending £60m on a player who isn't even worth half that "because he's British"when CHO is, at worst, right around the same level of ability, is madness.

However I hope Chelsea do it just so Christian Pulisic can get away from Tuchel, who seemingly has no clue how to get the best out of any attackers in the Premier League.

[Naitch]

I'd much rather keep CHO but would equally see him loaned out to another PL side without anyone needing to replace him. We're already loaded up on wingers, adding an overpriced youngster with a single season of first-team football under his belt is just unnecessary.

At least with Fofana, he'd be filling a much needed role in the squad and would have had two seasons in the PL without his serious injury last year.

[The Lusophone]

1 hour ago, Szumi - A Polack said:

Spending £60m on a player who isn't even worth half that "because he's British"when CHO is, at worst, right around the same level of ability, is madness.

However I hope Chelsea do it just so Christian Pulisic can get away from Tuchel, who seemingly has no clue how to get the best out of any attackers in the Premier League.

Also they don't even need British players for registration purposes, they've got at least 11 or 12.