Rumors that Juve is after Piattek (link). Probably fake news, but it is kind of funny.

The Daily Telegraph says Chelsea have not accepted the 18 months loan option. They want 6 month loan and option to buy for 30M, otherwise we can f*ck off.

They also say we were interested in Tomori last season as well, but Lampard didn't want to let him go.

How good is this Tomori kid anyway? If Lampard values him so much, why doesn't he play him?



How good is Thauvin? I've never seen him play, just YouTube clips. Doesn't exactly look that exciting from that.

As I said earlier, I've been lurking around Chelsea twitter, and they are not happy about this and think it could bite them back similar to Salah, De Bruyne and Lukaku. So the seem to rate him rather highly

As for Thauvin, I know as much as you. The nicest thing about him is that he's free. But we're not going to be paying him astronomical wages, so if 5m is his asking price, he won't come eitherway

Looks like Mandzukic is a done deal

Tomori also very close according to Vito Angele, who's pretty accurate

I think if we have an option on him and he does well we should take it. If he becomes a top CB while at Milan, we could literally ask English clubs for any sum for him and they'd pay it. They're idiots when it comes to English players. Look at Maguire

I'm faithful in Mandzukic. He's always stricken me as a very professional player, so the fact he hasn't played at high levels for some time doesn't bother me that much.

Delighted with that one.

Why would we want to sell him if he becomes a top CB? We?re singing for our future defense, not to eventually cash in.

Because selling him for insane money is what will bring us profit. I don't think Tomori is the new Maldini. If we can sell a top defender at a multiple inflated prize, I'm all for it. We can buy ourselves 2-3 addition afterwards.

But anyway, let's not get ahead too quick. We haven't really signed him yet.

Yesh, really funny.

I know we've become a club that goes for young and relatively cheap players, but I don't think we've become a club that sell its top players for profit.

The idea is to create value by becoming competitive with little money spent and a contained wage bill. We're not Udinese.

Agreed ... but is Tomori going to be a "top player"?

What I hope will happen over time is that we will get players that are an improvement over the player covering the same role (rather than good backups). If that happens, we may start selling some of our better players (keeping our best players, of course). That can help fund future addition to the team.

So not the "Atalanta model" but a way to get to the top in a sustainable manner.

Nobody knows. But I don't think we're willing to spend 30M for a player with the "hope" that he will become a top player so we can sell him for three times that price. I think we're buying him because we believe he can become a vital part of our project and he can cover the CB position in the long run, so we won't have to spend any more in that role. This is how I think the club operates nowadays, why it goes after young, promising players.

I understand :-). I also like the fact that it is a "try and buy" situation. As for the player, he is fast (which is something we need) but not all that reliable defensively. This means if he works out we have options, starter level players with different characteristic, so we can pick depending on who we play against. Add Gabbia for coverage (plus maybe Kalulu), and for now we are set, which means we will focus in other areas.

That said, it will be interesting to see how we operate in the long run. Assume we start getting CL money and have made improvements in other roles. Let's say we find another CB, an improvement over current players. I can see us going for that and selling one of our current CBs (hopefully for a profit). Will see ..

Sarcasm?