Summer transfer thread

[Steveo]

Dont you believe that players really want to work with Jurgen.
Seems odd to think that Roman is so great that he can override the desire to play for klopp.

Also that summer the spent 3 big transfers on Kepa, Pulsiic and Jorginho.
The claims you make dont really fit with the historical record as I see it.

I don’t really think Roman is great at all, just great for Chelsea football club. Great compared to Henry. As fans we are selfish - I wish we had him as our owner.

Most don’t like him simply cause he is Russian - they know almost nothing about him - everything they have heard has been politicised - they still think he made all his money in oil.

He has been great for the rent boys - Genuinely football mad and willing to blow his wedge on the best players he can find.

That summer was so untypical Chelsea - Pulisic - prodigy - Jorginho middling player and Kepa mahusively over priced cause of Alisson and the Neymar distorted market.

Not very Chelsea to my eye

[CCTV]

I hold a rock solid view.

You either invest your own sodding cash into the club or you fuck off.

You don’t run it like a fucking business because a football club is much much more than that.

That is for Yanks who don’t know the game and only want to profit.

Well that outlook would suggest you want very rich individuals to own the club, spend vast fortunes on players fees and wages and raise inflation within the game far far beyond where it is now. Or where it has been raised to date with PSG, Chelsea and City.

Imo the clubs are raising enough money in the pl, 13-14 of the richest clubs in Europe are pl sides.
There is enough growth in further future revenue for clubs to be run like businesses.

The ESL would have afforded the top clubs the ability to compete with PSG, Chelsea & City in terms of top quality squad depth.
Without it the big clubs of European football will struggle on to compete with these owners.
Of course had ffp actually been enforced and not abolished effectively by CAS, maybe the ESL wouldn't have been necessary.

[CCTV]

Coutinho was touted to Barca long before any mention of a Virgil to us.

And Roman has been out of the game for nigh on 3 years until last summer dude. Last summer back with a bang - and they are Champions of Europe

.Please read about his status.

Post a link, most of the speculation about Roman from what I've seen was no more than Political theatre.
Doubt he was worried at all about his status.

Spending last summer, close enough to spending in summer 2018.

The champions league victory isnt really too consistent with recent European standings, or premier league finishes.

But that's the nice thing about football, you can just jump out and win big titles.
A perfect fortuitous storm for them.

[Steveo]

Well they have had a few perfect fortuitous storms. More than any other club since Roman rocked up.

The man had to change citizenship CC. He is now Israeli. He wasn’t allowed into the country. He was unseen at Cobham - I live a mile away. Without giving too much away - I can promise you it was serious.

In 10 years time he will likely have a very different back story to the Russian bogeyman fabricated for western comsumption

[CCTV]

Well they have ahead a few perfect fortuitous storms. More than any other club since Roman rocked up.

Every time they've made a european final they have sacked their manager mid season.
So that is a bit lucky imo.
You can win the CL without having the best side, so theres always scope for an outsider to win a CL.

Though there is a lot to be said for their strategy of sacking managers as soon as they under deliver.

[Taksin]

Be interested to hear your thoughts on what I have cited.

If we did replace Lovren - please feel free to inform us all who this phantom is... Or how the summer of 2019 was a good time to stand still, OR again on how we acted so swiftly in January....and so well Taksin - so unerringly well.

Fourth choice was Fabino. That’s what I thought at the time and I had no reason to think Klopp wasn’t happy with that situation. That’s Van Dijk plus three. We later had an injury crisis in that position, by anyone’s standards.

January was an emergency purchase. They were clearly trying to wait until the summer to buy a top centre back. And by they I mean FSG and Klopp.

In the end they did well getting Kabak on loan as it meant they weren’t pressured into overspending on a big name and could do their business tidily in the summer. They have now done that business and it looks like clever planning to me. Your abject cynicism towards Konate is another sign of your willingness to let your hatred of FSG cloud your judgement.

Any sane person would be excited about his joining. Nothing is guaranteed, and we have to hope it works out, but many fans elsewhere, including at United as I showed the other day, are looking on in admiration of our squad building. They see it as more evidence of how well the club is being run.

Your gloating about how we were in such a difficult spot in January is a bit nasty really. Obviously things were far from ideal. But things had already been badly affected by those key injuries by the time the transfer window opened. You want it to be ineptitude but you make no room for bad luck even. That’s a bad indictment of your own character that you’d kick someone when they’re down, even if you do want them out. It isn’t fair.

[Nineteenx]

I'll give my take on Steveo's FSG agenda and their dealings as a whole

Keita was player Jurgen desperately wanted, he picked up and injury, then went to Afcon and played injured, then suffered niggling injury after niggling injury as often happens to player who play when carrying an injury - Can't blame FSG for any of that

The summer of 2019, practically everyone here except me wanted to give players who we should have been moving on and bringing players in for who could play the system far better and contribute a lot more new contracts and more time because they actually did something in a couple of games. Jurgen wanted to keep the group together because he believed the harmony in that group was important to pushing on and winning the league title - So most of the fans and the manager didn't want any signings in the summer of 2019 - Can't blame FSG for that

In the summer of 2020 most people wanted a more creative midfielder and another forward and cover and competition for Robbo and Lovren moved on a additional commanding CB brought in - We got the more creative midfielder, the wrong type in my opinion, Thiago's come good after adapting his game significantly after missing a huge chunk of the season through being lamped by Richarlieson, I personally felt we needed a De Paul type more attacking CM before bringing in a player of Thiago's abilities, but Thiago was who Jurgen and 'the committee' wanted. Jota has been a class addition, Tsimikas was brought in to cover Robbo.

Not bringing in an additional top class CB to replace Lovren was on FSG, nobody could have forseen what was going to happen to Virgil, Matip and Gomez though, it was annoying that we were pissing around in the bargain basement at the very end of the January transfer window, but we waited for Virgil and it looks like Konate was another CB Jurgen really wanted and was prepared to wait for, so, although annoying, I can't really point the finger at FSG too much on that, waiting for Virgil and not moving for another CB when we couldn't get him when we initially needed him served us incredibly well

I think the biggest error was not shipping out Origi and Shaqiri when their stock was as high as it will ever be following the Champions League win, but most fans supported that, for me there isn't any place for sentimentality in top level football, you need a squad of top quality players and ones who are consistently fit and available to play games and make regular significant contributions and can play the system the manager wants, not the entire squad, but 3 forward positions, you should have at least 4 top class forwards minimum, in our system, 2 top class controllers, 2 top class DMs (one of the controllers also needs to be able to play DM with our DMs injury records) 2 top class more attacking CMs, preferably one more direct attacking and one more passing attacking like Thiago for different opposition and situations, quality cover for both full backs and at least 3 top quality commanding CBs and at least 2 good quality CBs for cover

Most of what people moan about can be traced back to the decision to keep players who should have been moved on in the summer of 2019, the panda=emic put a massive hole in our finances and then meant we couldn't get anywhere like the fees we would otherwise have commanded for those players and others

Sentimentality and the pandemic are both more responsible for our lack of as much activity as some would have liked than FSG are

[Steveo]

FSG are a joke 19. Showed their hand and they will be gone within 2 years.

To say Klopp didn’t want players in summer 2019 is beyond wide of the mark - go and watch Klopp’s simplistic interview about bills.

He was livid

[Steveo]

And Taksin talking about Fabinho as 4th choice..? What 4th choice - I assume Marko counts as a whole number does he?

Really ? I can’t play 1 game in 3 Joel - take it easy - Matip?

Delusion.

Stop defending profiteers - people who don’t care a hoot for the sport - the city or the fans.

Enough. They can be tolerated - IF they back the manager. It’s that or sod off.

[Taksin]

I don’t really think Roman is great at all, just great for Chelsea football club. Great compared to Henry. As fans we are selfish - I wish we had him as our owner.

And here we have it.
When we first had this argument a few years ago I asked which club you thought was being better run. You said Tottenham at the time.
I said ‘apart from Chelsea and Man City’, assuming that was an ethical barrier that should never be crossed. But it seems it can be crossed.
We may actually just as well get the Saudis in and you’d be happier.

That’s fine if that’s how you make your ethical judgements. But I’m out.