Summer transfer window

[Fk_Pitt]

How does your clubs transfer period look?

I’ll start. eden Hazard is going to Madrid. That’s been the worst kept secret in football. Chelsea is asking for 115M. Now the kicker...we are under a ban and can’t replace him. But if Chelsea appeals, and can sign players, they are rumored to be looking at Barcelona flop Philippe Coutinho. WTF??? To boot, Barcelona is asking for 150M for him. What makes them think that a flop like him would command that kind of fee? Is it because he has a few years left on a contract? Seems odd that a top 5 in world player like Hazard would command significantly less than Coutinho (Hazard is entering last year of contract).

 

[mike412]

I don’t think Barca will get anything close to $150 Million for him, but one of the reasons he flopped at Barca is that he was played out of position. He is not a LW: doesn’t have the pace; doesn’t have a scorer’s innate ability to find spaces in the defense. If he returns to the attacking MF role he played for Liverpool, he can be a success.

I have reached the sad conclusion that Barca won’t right the ship as long as Bartomeau is in charge. He is keeping Valverde. He wants to make a big transfer market splash to take clues minds off the disastrous end of the season. But, to do that he also has to make a lot of sales. Some, like Coutinho and Rakatic, won’t bother me. Others, like Dembele and Umtiti, would be potentially disastrous. Dembele provides the pace the team badly needs up front. They need to get him with a personal trainer to work on his fitness, not dump him. Umtiti, when heathy, was their best CB. He is far superior to Lenglet. But if they sign DeLigt, the belief is they almost certainly will sell him.

Bartomeu’s position is shaky. He is not supported by the whole Board. He needs to make a splash this Summer and neither he nor his hand-chosen sporting director really know what the team needs.

 

[pitt90seven]

crystal palace - not a front-runner like you weirdos.

wan-bissaka is worth every penny of 65M. we'll hold out for it. united are a crap organization and you have to overpay. zaha doesn't fit right now anywhere in the top 6 (i think he's perfect with klopp but there's just no space). if anything, chelsea should have paid the pulisic money for zaha - he's infinitely better and can play on either wing.

i think the chelsea ban will get lifted but well see. would love for us to sign the batman as he was a great for us.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

crystal palace - not a front-runner like you weirdos.

wan-bissaka is worth every penny of 65M. we'll hold out for it. united are a crap organization and you have to overpay. zaha doesn't fit right now anywhere in the top 6 (i think he's perfect with klopp but there's just no space). if anything, chelsea should have paid the pulisic money for zaha - he's infinitely better and can play on either wing.

i think the chelsea ban will get lifted but well see. would love for us to sign the batman as he was a great for us.

Ha! I became a Chelsea fan organically, I will spare everyone the details, but in many ways I wish I weren’t a Chelsea fan. It can be very frustrating at times. Then again, they have been the most successful club in england during my time as a fan so it can’t be too bad. I could have picked Arsenal instead!!!

The ban appeal won’t be heard by the court until august. So this summer transfer window is shot for Chelsea. At best, the 2nd window will get lifted and Chelsea would be able to make moves in January. I don’t understand the intricacies of it, but some say clubs like Barcelona and others have been found guilty of similar violations and were let off after appeal and even allowed to sign players during the appeal, while it seems this isn’t the case with Chelsea and that there are different standards. In my opinion, let’s let the young kids play under Lampard (he will be hired in the next 48 hours) and take the money not being spent this summer and make a couple key acquisitions next summer once you see what your needs are. But it’s a tough time to not be able to sign players when it’s a summer you lose Eden Hazard and have no way to fill his loss.

Btw, you want Michy??? Please take him. Lol.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

crystal palace - not a front-runner like you weirdos.

wan-bissaka is worth every penny of 65M. we'll hold out for it. united are a crap organization and you have to overpay. zaha doesn't fit right now anywhere in the top 6 (i think he's perfect with klopp but there's just no space). if anything, chelsea should have paid the pulisic money for zaha - he's infinitely better and can play on either wing.

i think the chelsea ban will get lifted but well see. would love for us to sign the batman as he was a great for us.

You’re the first Palace fan that I “met”. I think that’s cool. I root for them when they aren’t playing Chelsea. Zaha would be a good chelsea player. There’s always been rumors of interest the last couple of years...but definitely nothing happening this year due to the ban.

On thing that annoys me about Chelsea are the fans. But I’m beginning to think that it is an English thing and there’s just a cultural difference in how fans support their clubs. But the Chelsea fans are too impatient. I hope Pulisic gets time to flourish without meeting too much criticism from the fans. He’s still nowhere near his prime. He’s only 21. This club puts too much pressure on everyone, from the fans toward the players and from the owner toward the Manager.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

The ban appeal won’t be heard by the court until august. So this summer transfer window is shot for Chelsea. At best, the 2nd window will get lifted and Chelsea would be able to make moves in January. I don’t understand the intricacies of it, but some say clubs like Barcelona and others have been found guilty of similar violations and were let off after appeal and even allowed to sign players during the appeal, while it seems this isn’t the case with Chelsea and that there are different standards.

I believe that what has happened is that Chelsea asked FIFA to delay the ban until the appeal was heard and FIFA said no, which is highly unusual. However, Chelsea had the chance to ask the CAS to stay the beginning of the transfer ban until the case was fully decided, and so far they have not asked. I have seen speculation (and obviously nothing more than speculation) that what Chelsea is hoping is that they end up getting the ban reduced to one window, and since they aren't asking for a stay right now it would be this current window. So after that they will be free and clear.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

I believe that what has happened is that Chelsea asked FIFA to delay the ban until the appeal was heard and FIFA said no, which is highly unusual. However, Chelsea had the chance to ask the CAS to stay the beginning of the transfer ban until the case was fully decided, and so far they have not asked. I have seen speculation (and obviously nothing more than speculation) that what Chelsea is hoping is that they end up getting the ban reduced to one window, and since they aren't asking for a stay right now it would be this current window. So after that they will be free and clear.

That’s my understanding too.

 

[mike412]

I became a Barca fan by a fluke. I was a summer clerk at Arnold and Porter, a big DC law firm, in 1974. The World Cup wasn’t on American TV back then. One of the firm’s messengers, a very cute woman, told me that she had heard I had played soccer in college (was on the squad would be more accurate than played, Bemis didn’t cut anyone who showed up for practice every day). She said she had a roommate who worked at the BBC and she invited me to join her on Sunday to watch the World Cup at the BBC studio in DC. She had played soccer in high school.

She was very cute and I told her I would go but only if she let me buy her dinner afterward to thank her for the invitation. I was more interested in her than the match, but the match turned out to be the round of 16 match between Holland and Chile. I watched Cruyff play and I was hooked. I had never seen anything like him. I found out that Ajax had intended to sell him to Real Madrid in 1973, but he refused to play for a team supported by Franco. So, they sold him to Barca. I started following Barca right after the World Cup and never have stopped.

They weren’t on TV back then so I could only follow the scores. After I moved to LA, someone told me their games were on TV in Tijuana. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive, but I drove there the next Sunday. It happened to be an El Clasico at the Camp Nou. Cruyff now was the coach. Gary Lineker, in the only season he played for Barca, scored a hat trick and Barca won 3-1. That match totally hooked me. The fact that Barca played the same style as Holland really clinched it. I would drive to Tijuana whenever they had an important match. I did that for 25-plus years before BEIN sports started showing their matches on cable.

I’ve gotten to see some truly great players over the years: Cruyff, Koeman, Rijkard just to name the Dutchmen; Stoichkov, who along with Alan Shearer is the greatest true striker I have ever seen; Ronaldinho and the Brazilian Ronaldo; Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and the great teams coached by Pep; and, of course, Messi, from his debut at 17 to now.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

That’s my understanding too.

You probably saw, but Chelsea is trying to bring back Mateo Kovacic full time. They think they can get around the transfer ban because he was there on loan last year so he technically was already a registered player there.

I wonder if FIFA is going to buy that logic?

 

[Fk_Pitt]

You probably saw, but Chelsea is trying to bring back Mateo Kovacic full time. They think they can get around the transfer ban because he was there on loan last year so he technically was already a registered player there.

I wonder if FIFA is going to buy that logic?

It’s a done deal and was made official. They had the option to make it permanent before the ban so I guess it’s a legal workaround. I’m not a fan of the move but I guess they felt the need to sign him being that they can’t add anyone the next two windows. They have Mason Mount who you may know is a youth academy player that may be ready for first team duties. He was loaned to Lampards Derby County team last season and did very well. Plus they also have Danny Drinkwater who was good enough to win the premier league at Leicester but not good enough to play one match for Sarri this past year at Chelsea. I read that they may need Drinkwater to fulfill some kind of “homegrown” quota needed for their Champions League roster.

But they must know what they are doing and feel they need Kovacic. I’m just a dumb American. Lol.

Their center mids are Kante, Barkley, loftus Cheek (whose Achilles injury may be the reason Kovacic was signed), Kovacic, bakayoko, Jorginho, Drinkwater, Mount.