Rudiger. Done.
Bakayoko. Almost done?
Now what?
For me, we could do with another two at least. Wing back cover and a forward. In fact, now Chalobah is gone and RLC out on loan, we could do with another midfielder. If Christensen stays, and I hope he does, we should be ok defensively. But does Azpi, Rudiger and Luiz scream world class, or Champions League winning? I know we won the league last year but surely we need an upgrade. A truly world class player to compliment what we have.
If Bayern can get James on loan for two years and Juve can get Douglas Costa for a year on loan then surely we can do these sorts of deals. It would also be nice for us to spend more than 35m on a player. Being financially sufficient and successful is lovely but let’s splash out eh? Let’s have a quick look at some stories doing the round.
Pierre Aubameyang
Likelihood – 4
Wonderful player. Plays for an in vogue team. We need a striker. A world class one. He fits perfectly. But after the early rumours that he was being offered to ourselves, it seems to have gone quiet. The rumours are now that he is off to China. Auba himself has been quoted as wanting one more big payday and you’d have a to think a player such as himself would want to play for a genuine top club before his career is out. I have mentioned this before but Milan let him go for free. Free. In spite of all their good work this summer, they let an 80m pound worth striker leave for free. Not that we can talk….
Danilo
Likelihood – 6
This one came out of the left field a few days back. The ex-Porto right back was supposed to be the next big thing at Real Madrid but it never quite worked out that way. Carvajal has done well to hang onto his place and is integral to the Champions League winners staying just that. Danilo is by no means a bad player, far from that he’s actually potentially world class, he’s just had an unsuccessful run at the biggest club in the world. A move to Chelsea would be great for him, able to play at wing back without worrying too much about what’s directly behind him, with the amazing Azpi filling in at RCB. At 25m and with Real having no real need for him, it’s a deal that suits both parties. Let’s get it done, especially now the Alex Sandro deal seems dead in the water.
A quick word on our outgoings. Can we stop selling players please? At least until we have replacements. We always needed a centre midfielder this summer but before we’ve managed to get one over the line we have let RLC go out on loan and sold Chalobah. This leaves us with Kante, Cesc and Matic of which one of these want to go and one was on the bench for a lot of last season, despite his quality. This is quite frankly ridiculous. We are almost going into next season with a weaker squad than the one that started last. Zouma is rumoured to be going to Stoke on loan, Batshuayi clearly isn’t wanted. Costa neither. At this rate, if we don’t sort something, we’re going to be left with less than 20 players and a serious lack of depth.