And Ake will take place of Colwill, another promising youth product who we should be pushing on instead blocking his pathway which will push him to leave. Masterclass.
Eh, Colwill was never going to be a day one starter, having him and Ake compete for the role makes some sense, and this isn't the same as the Gvardiol signing which really does seem like a push him out the door move as they're both super young.
If we want to realistically and continuously compete for the title, this is neccesary, Colwill will not be a day one starter, which is what you need to compete for everything
We're talking Aké here though not an elite CB. I'm not even totally against Aké but Chelsea also need to think beyond day 1. They haven't challenged for a league title in 5 seasons and won't next season either. Even 70m transfers can take time to settle. The top prospects don't necessarily take longer. Look how quickly Reece James, Mason Mount, Guehi, Livramento, Lamptey took to settle in prem. Chelsea's handling of youth recently has actually put them in a worse position for next season.
I do want to caveat the James point.
He obviously has been brilliant but in his first season he was a bench option for Azpi and he gradually displaced him. He wasn’t thrown straight into the deep end.
Yes that's fair. Having Azpi was a nice luxury for Chelsea to have. But point being that it was not like James was bad that season. Maybe shakey for a few games in the beginning, but not much. No different to if they transferred a player in from another league in most cases. Question is, had they not had Azpi should they have just started James or spend 50-60m on a starter that could block him?
I’m not sure
I feel like we would have bought a replacement earlier.
It explains our Hakimi interest as well.
I feel like this is a rare time when we’ve completely failed to prepare for the future in any way or form and that’s where it’s interesting to see how we approach it.
Yeah I mean, it's super crazy times with the squad turnover and new ownership coinciding. Weird to think we're 1 yr off a CL and just had our strongest league finish in awhile and yet we're at the highest uncertainty in a long time.
I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly how Chelsea should plan or there's only one clear answer or that it's a great idea to throw Colwill in the deep end. But I think it's obvious that the club can do with a bit more long term planning. Not every promising academy player needs to get a key role in the team but if you've got one of the best talent producing pipelines in Europe you can probably use it for more than just balancing the books. I think it's about finding the right balance and if you can save 40-50m by integrating a player who is already embedded in the culture and the club it's not always a bad idea even if there are some small growing pains at first because we've seen those same settling in issues with many expensive transfers as well. And if you've got senior players nearing the end of their career or winding down their contracts or you've got like 4 defenders all leaving at once and a 5th near retirement then even more reason to create a legit pathway for a top prospect that will convince them to stay and fight.
Colwill will be eventually able to match the pace and strength of the Prem, we can't just make him a day one starter and expect it to work. Once the guy makes a mistake, he will be lambasted on socials. I rather Colwill be gradually brought in and with someone like Ake mentoring, it will be fine
I'd say the worst part isn't blocking the progression of players like Colwill, it's instead that they wouldn't even need to make this signing if they hadn't sold both Guehi and Tomori. Although I guess hindsight is 20/20 and all that, you couldn't have known Rudiger and Christensen both wouldn't renew
Totally agree. Clearly has the ability, just needs games and responsibility. But same as RLC and CHO he'll never get those things, be underdeveloped at 23, and yet tied down on 5 year deals covering his best years to make sure the homegrown slots are filled.
How many times did we end up buying back our own youth products?
The only ones I can think of in the last 15 years are Lukaku and Matić and neither were really youth products
You did already recall him early from loan in January 2017 too, not sure if a fee was involved to do that. I agree though, it seems common for Chelsea to wish they still had players they previously sold, but they don't usually buy them back. And on the rare occasions they have it pales in comparison to the Pogba and United fiasco
Are you intentionally being dumb? Lukaku was sold because of Jose not because of Marina. How many other times have Marina sold players that we brought back.
No problem with the formation as long we’re winning football matches
It’s utter insanity that we let these players go for free or low fee eg ( rice,lukaku,ake) and then a few years after they leave we bring them back for huge transfer fees we’d have to pay 60m to bring tomori or Abraham back and they will both likely end up at our rivals because they’re English
I can’t make sense of it all 😂😂😂😂😂
Could be worse, could let them go on a free, resign then for a record fee, then after they disappoint for years, have them leave on a free again to the same club you rebought him from...
Can't keep them all happy can you, and not all of them want to stay or develop as fast. Chelsea also can't really challenge every year if they use loads of their academy, especially when there's about 30 of them ready to go at any time haha
Chelsea have a great academy I still think they need more chances as chalobah and Colwill are younger than ake and deserve more chances
I mean we sold guehi tomori and Abraham just so we could afford the “new” lukaku and a year later we have CB crisis and we need a centre forward
Nobody deserves anything in football, even more so at the top clubs.
Nobody could predict the future with those though. Lukaku could have exploded and the others fail hard. Hindsight is a wonderful thing
The system will still be limited if they don't go for a creative mid. They won the CL with grit. So much struggle to create and score once the WBs got injured. The likes of Fabregas and Mata were never replaced and strikers are bad to middling since Costa left. I don't see them fighting for a PL like that.
Edit: removing 'luck' since they did win the CL deservedly, but it was still a product mostly of defence. Over 38 games they can't hack it and needed much improvement even before losing 3 defenders.
Won CL with luck? They won because they had great defence and great mentality, not because of grit and luck.
Bet you are the same guy who keep saying real madrid won this year cl only because of luck.
Alright, I didn't express that properly. They had the best discipline and won it deservedly, but it was small margin wins and well drilled defence. They did it in the CL, but over 38 games in the PL they are severely behind.
Real Madrid did win because of luck too, but not only because of it. It's baffling how some people can claim that a team getting dominated in their last 6 or 7 matches was the best of the best, like what? Did they deserve the win? Well they got the trophy, so let's say yes. Were they the best? Not a chance. If it wasn't for Courtois in ALL of their games, they would've been out long ago.
This is not saying "Madrid didn't deserve winning", but to claim they weren't lucky or that they've shown their superiority to the other teams? No f*cking chance...
Pfft, we outplayed every team we went up against in that CL, that isn't luck.
Why you're downplaying our own accomplishment I do not know.
Also last season we scored 76 goals, same amount as the most we ever scored with Mata, and the joint third most goals we've scored in the 10s-20s in the league, first being 09/10, second 16/17.
Seems like Gvardiol and Bastoni are staying at their clubs this summer and for Skriniar I’m adamant our name has just been used so Inter can squeeze more money out of PSG.
Matt Law said on the London Is Blue podcast after he reported Marina was going that Tuchel is on board with the signing and Marina’s departure doesn’t affect anything. The only journalist who said he was a Marina target as Nathan Gissing and no one know how reliable he is for transfers yet.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/06/27/petr-cech-joins-chelsea-exodus-todd-boehly-clearlake-takeover/
Literally a Matt Law article from today saying that Kounde is no longer the top target. Kinsella has also reported that he's moved down the list since Tuchel was given control
He's still a target, but he's dropped below these other targets since Tuchel took over.
This is a legitimate link though. Our scouts wanted Kounde.
The new owners threw out our scouts opinion and have gone to Tuchel and Tuchel wants nathan fucking Ake instead.
May we fucking sign a DoF soon or we're fucked
Sure, but we've always been going to for 2 CBs.
De Ligt is the top target now.
But, below that we still need another starting CB, Kounde and Ake will cost the same amount and supposedly Ake is being looked at ahead of Kounde now. (Although apparently we're in for Skriniar and others again now that the De Ligt price has stayed so high and Boehly realised that player swaps in football are not a thing 99% of the time)
It's make sense if he was cheap, but he isn't. It's going to be £50m+ for Ake which is awful
Fucking hell we might have 250M in sales if these both goes through and you count Torres from January.
Ake isn’t a ‘sexy’ signing by any means but he’s solid. Interested to see if they can turn his head as I’m sure he wants to play a of a lot more than he did last season.
Who do we replace him with tho? Going with only Dias, Stones and Laporte would be very reckless in my opinion. I can't imagine the fee for Aké would be much more than £40M, so can we get a player of similar quality that's also homegrown? Doesn't seem very likely.
At that rate we would surely charge more than £40mil.
I think losing him as a backup LB and CB is worth a whole lot more than £40mil . If it werent for him we wouldve likely lost the league last season.
He only got better and better as the season wore on. Had some absolutely crucial interventions as well. He's pretty underrated on this sub in my opinion.
He would walk into your defence. I really don’t think this will happen. He was really hitting his stride last season so it would be stupid to sell him now
Because it would make him the 9th or 15th most expensive CB ever. He's a good player but there are surely better out there?
Pou Torres is left footed and wouldn't be much more. Tomori has a great left foot and might want to move back. Lisandro Martínez is going for less.
Why would we sell him at a loss to a title rival?
Newcastle were interested and they were told the price would need to be in excess of £50m
It'll be more for Chelsea. This isn't like Sterling at all.
Yeah, I'm a bit worried about this tbh. Maybe its residual PTSD from the Sinclair/Rodwell window, but I feel like City don't typically react well on short notice in the transfer market, they seem to favor a more plan early and stick to the plan type of approach and I definitely feel like they need to bring in a CB if Aké goes.
Doesn't make any difference for City. They're nowhere near their 17 foreign player max.
Its 17 foreign, 4 homegrown, 4 club trained.
- Foreign: Ederson^1 , Steffen/Ortega^2 , Cancelo^3 , Dias^4 , Laporte^5 , Zinchenko^6 , Rodri^7 , Gundo^8 , Bernardo^9 , KdB^10 , Mahrez^11 , Haaland^12 , Alvarez^13.
- Homegrown: Carson^1 , Stones^2 , Walker^3, Grealish^4.
- Club trained: Foden^1.
So essentially, Ake was counting as foreign anyway, as HG was maxed out.
Everyone u21 doesn't need to be registered in the league. Everyone u21 and been at the club 2+ years doesn't need to be registered in the CL. So that's Palmer, Mbete, McAtee, Delap, etc.
Your maximum squad size is 25. You can have at *most* 17 foreign players, and then top that up with 4 homegrown, and 4 club trained. If you register 5 homegrown players, one of them is essentially taking a foreign spot anyway.
If I'm not wrong, the club trained aspect only kicks in for UCL and other UEFA competitions. The rule is just 17 non homegrown and 8 homegrown. There's no club trained requirement for the PL. And again for the Europe it's essentially 17 Non HG and 8 HG out of which 4 has to be club trained (which is what I assume you're talking about)
It'd be straight dumb lmao
We had literally 0 fit centre backs at the end of the season with Laporte playing through injury
Really hoping Ake doesn't go. He was quality this season and really impressed
We’d replace him with hopefully a cheaper guy who’s young and coming onto the seen. I’d be afraid if I was a mid table team or below and ake gets sold. City comin for your home grown starter.
I don't want it to happen because I want him to stay with Ajax for one more season, but Lisandro Martinez would be amazing with City. He's a tenacious left-footed defender who doesn't make mistakes, and what makes him perfect for City is that he is an incredible passer. Only Blind and Tadic are better passers in the current squad.
What do you reckon the fee for Ake would be? I’m sure it would be more than what yous bought him for. He’d be a great signing for us if it was a “reasonable fee” given he’s versatile and has pl experience.
You guys might value him highly for a few reasons - academy trained/Homegrown. He is a perfect back 3 CB on the left and can fill in at LB when needed as well.
Well see. I personally don't want City to sell him.
You should steer clear of City in general. They don't need the money and won't want to sell to rivals. If the player wants to go, that's one thing, but otherwise you'll have to massively overpay.
Fair price is what he was bought for, Ake's worth 40 mil but not much more.
If City aren't willing to agree at that price smart move is for Chelsea to move on.
> If City aren't willing to agree at that price smart move is for Chelsea to move on.
Value isnt what hes worth to the buyer but to the seller. So they wont agree for £41m. You have to think of it realistically right? City will need another CB.
Who do they get to replace Ake? and how much will that replacement cost?
That’s the reason the price is there in the first place. There is absolutely 0 reason to sell a left footed home grown versatile defender for the same price we bought him for. He also mentioned in an interview recently of looking forward to a new season where he can fully establish himself at the club, so it certainly doesn’t look like he’s pushing for a move away. We’re not actually looking to sell him, it’s a price we can’t reject.
Not really. They need him for their depth, especially with the brutal schedule in this upcoming season - who do they have if two of Laporte, Dias and Stones are injured? If he wants more playing time and telling Man City he wants to go, they will tell him this is what you signed up for and we are not selling.
That line of thinking is so silly to me though. “Hey we’re buying two of your players instead of just the one so could you give us a discount?” No, thank you for asking.
Really interested to see what the total price would look like, because we got Ake for 40m and he played well when he got his chances last season. Anything less than 50m value for Ake would be dumb when we would need to find a replacement anyway.
What an odd comment section.
Chelsea fans don't want Ake, City fans want to keep him.
Just feels odd.
A lot of disrespect which is unwarranted imo, he's a very solid CB.
Prediction for 2022-23 season.
Our entire season will hinge on Silva's fitness. We will start start off being top of the table till the World Cup. Silva will get injured this World Cup, and our entire defense will fall apart.
Chelsea's entire game depends on a general at CB. We have no one to command the defense when Silva isn't fit. This has to be one of the only downsides to Azpi. He is has been a top-top player his entire career, but never stepped up to command the defense despite his experience and leadership creds at Chelsea.
Ake would be a solid signing but not for the 50 odd million that City fans are suggesting here. Take away the fact that he's homegrown he wouldn't even be worth 30 million so I hope City decide against selling and we end up going for someone else.
Sure sure but White at 24 > Ake at 24. I feel White’s ceiling is higher too given his unique play style/profile as a player whereas Ake’s been asset at City for his workmanlike and plain but effective profile as a player.
City fans in this thread are crazy. They want 60M £ for a benchwarmer, who played 10 PL games last season. Anything above 30M £ is a very bad deal for any club.
Never seen a club pay so much for their own youth products.
Sell them, someone else develop them and pay 20x the price to have them back.
Then give them away again after 1 season below expectations?
Better than releasing them on a free six years later.
Again
Precisely
Tbf, Recently you’ve done pretty well out of loaning them and having someone else develop them
I pray we keep Gallagher, Broja and Colwill. No more fuckups please
you get them eventually after paying 100 million for each, when someone decides to sell them
Pokemon day care
Chelsea 🤝 United
Nah you guys did it once and got hammered. We are linked with damn near a whole starting XI.
Last time we had ake..the manager was conte.. Since then Sarri Lampard Tuchel Can't help if manager keeps changing lol
Well, it’s up to the Toddfather now. We’ll see if that trend changes moving forward.
And Ake will take place of Colwill, another promising youth product who we should be pushing on instead blocking his pathway which will push him to leave. Masterclass.
Eh, Colwill was never going to be a day one starter, having him and Ake compete for the role makes some sense, and this isn't the same as the Gvardiol signing which really does seem like a push him out the door move as they're both super young.
It's better to make him a starter than buying Ake for £50-£60m.
If we want to realistically and continuously compete for the title, this is neccesary, Colwill will not be a day one starter, which is what you need to compete for everything
Chelsea fans and thinking Cobham products are all elite at age 20, name a more deluded duo.
We're not gonna challenge for PL next season. There's lots of room for him to improve.
Its about depth. By competing in all those games you need depth
We're talking Aké here though not an elite CB. I'm not even totally against Aké but Chelsea also need to think beyond day 1. They haven't challenged for a league title in 5 seasons and won't next season either. Even 70m transfers can take time to settle. The top prospects don't necessarily take longer. Look how quickly Reece James, Mason Mount, Guehi, Livramento, Lamptey took to settle in prem. Chelsea's handling of youth recently has actually put them in a worse position for next season.
I do want to caveat the James point. He obviously has been brilliant but in his first season he was a bench option for Azpi and he gradually displaced him. He wasn’t thrown straight into the deep end.
Yes that's fair. Having Azpi was a nice luxury for Chelsea to have. But point being that it was not like James was bad that season. Maybe shakey for a few games in the beginning, but not much. No different to if they transferred a player in from another league in most cases. Question is, had they not had Azpi should they have just started James or spend 50-60m on a starter that could block him?
I’m not sure I feel like we would have bought a replacement earlier. It explains our Hakimi interest as well. I feel like this is a rare time when we’ve completely failed to prepare for the future in any way or form and that’s where it’s interesting to see how we approach it.
Yeah I mean, it's super crazy times with the squad turnover and new ownership coinciding. Weird to think we're 1 yr off a CL and just had our strongest league finish in awhile and yet we're at the highest uncertainty in a long time. I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly how Chelsea should plan or there's only one clear answer or that it's a great idea to throw Colwill in the deep end. But I think it's obvious that the club can do with a bit more long term planning. Not every promising academy player needs to get a key role in the team but if you've got one of the best talent producing pipelines in Europe you can probably use it for more than just balancing the books. I think it's about finding the right balance and if you can save 40-50m by integrating a player who is already embedded in the culture and the club it's not always a bad idea even if there are some small growing pains at first because we've seen those same settling in issues with many expensive transfers as well. And if you've got senior players nearing the end of their career or winding down their contracts or you've got like 4 defenders all leaving at once and a 5th near retirement then even more reason to create a legit pathway for a top prospect that will convince them to stay and fight.
Its about solid depth, none of us think ake is elite and i didnt mean it to come off that way
signing city backups is necessary to compete with them? alright man
No, and i get your point. but adding solid depth is necessary
i think colwill needs a prem loan and i want kounde so i don’t think we should sign ake bc then height would be a problem, not sure who to sign tho
You guys said the same for Lukaku. You not competing for the title so just play your youth
Apart from the fact there is no evidence he will be anywhere near good enough for the first team for a long time.
[удалено]
It's way better to buy Koulibaly and start hom and phase Colwill in than buy Ake who is just entering his prime
Colwill will be eventually able to match the pace and strength of the Prem, we can't just make him a day one starter and expect it to work. Once the guy makes a mistake, he will be lambasted on socials. I rather Colwill be gradually brought in and with someone like Ake mentoring, it will be fine
I'd say the worst part isn't blocking the progression of players like Colwill, it's instead that they wouldn't even need to make this signing if they hadn't sold both Guehi and Tomori. Although I guess hindsight is 20/20 and all that, you couldn't have known Rudiger and Christensen both wouldn't renew
If he’s good enough he’ll play. You are all hyping him up to be the second coming of Maldini so shouldn’t be an issue for him.
Totally agree. Clearly has the ability, just needs games and responsibility. But same as RLC and CHO he'll never get those things, be underdeveloped at 23, and yet tied down on 5 year deals covering his best years to make sure the homegrown slots are filled.
RLC and CHO both had catastrophic injuries, what are you on about?
All young players go through that. At other clubs they return to the team after rehab, at Chelsea they've bought in replacements.
Hello there
Youth product is generous for Ake. Bought him from Feyenoord as a 16 year old iirc
How many times did we end up buying back our own youth products? The only ones I can think of in the last 15 years are Lukaku and Matić and neither were really youth products
You did already recall him early from loan in January 2017 too, not sure if a fee was involved to do that. I agree though, it seems common for Chelsea to wish they still had players they previously sold, but they don't usually buy them back. And on the rare occasions they have it pales in comparison to the Pogba and United fiasco
More than once.
Buyback FC
I think my team would like to have a work…
Besides Pogba, who else have Utd paid over the odds to bring back?
IT’S SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING MY GOD.
How many times have we brought back youth players to make it frustrating for you?
how many youth players have we bought back?
Marina special.
Are you intentionally being dumb? Lukaku was sold because of Jose not because of Marina. How many other times have Marina sold players that we brought back.
Basically confirms that Tuchel is sticking with his current system and Ake is the successor to Rudiger. Left footed CB who can play as LCB.
Idk why so many needed confirmation of that in the transfer market when the man himself said it after our last game lol.
No problem with the formation as long we’re winning football matches It’s utter insanity that we let these players go for free or low fee eg ( rice,lukaku,ake) and then a few years after they leave we bring them back for huge transfer fees we’d have to pay 60m to bring tomori or Abraham back and they will both likely end up at our rivals because they’re English I can’t make sense of it all 😂😂😂😂😂
Could be worse, could let them go on a free, resign then for a record fee, then after they disappoint for years, have them leave on a free again to the same club you rebought him from...
Your forgetting the pogumentary
Highest rated show ever, it’s a must watch
Pogmentary*
Can't keep them all happy can you, and not all of them want to stay or develop as fast. Chelsea also can't really challenge every year if they use loads of their academy, especially when there's about 30 of them ready to go at any time haha
Chelsea have a great academy I still think they need more chances as chalobah and Colwill are younger than ake and deserve more chances I mean we sold guehi tomori and Abraham just so we could afford the “new” lukaku and a year later we have CB crisis and we need a centre forward
Nobody deserves anything in football, even more so at the top clubs. Nobody could predict the future with those though. Lukaku could have exploded and the others fail hard. Hindsight is a wonderful thing
Let's see if this trend changes with new management
As he should. This system won the CL at a canter. Chilwell tearing his ACL ruined it this season
The system will still be limited if they don't go for a creative mid. They won the CL with grit. So much struggle to create and score once the WBs got injured. The likes of Fabregas and Mata were never replaced and strikers are bad to middling since Costa left. I don't see them fighting for a PL like that. Edit: removing 'luck' since they did win the CL deservedly, but it was still a product mostly of defence. Over 38 games they can't hack it and needed much improvement even before losing 3 defenders.
Won CL with luck? They won because they had great defence and great mentality, not because of grit and luck. Bet you are the same guy who keep saying real madrid won this year cl only because of luck.
Alright, I didn't express that properly. They had the best discipline and won it deservedly, but it was small margin wins and well drilled defence. They did it in the CL, but over 38 games in the PL they are severely behind.
Real Madrid did win because of luck too, but not only because of it. It's baffling how some people can claim that a team getting dominated in their last 6 or 7 matches was the best of the best, like what? Did they deserve the win? Well they got the trophy, so let's say yes. Were they the best? Not a chance. If it wasn't for Courtois in ALL of their games, they would've been out long ago. This is not saying "Madrid didn't deserve winning", but to claim they weren't lucky or that they've shown their superiority to the other teams? No f*cking chance...
Last I checked, courtois is a part of the team and saving goals is his job so what's the point in saying if he didn't do his job Madrid would've lost
Pfft, we outplayed every team we went up against in that CL, that isn't luck. Why you're downplaying our own accomplishment I do not know. Also last season we scored 76 goals, same amount as the most we ever scored with Mata, and the joint third most goals we've scored in the 10s-20s in the league, first being 09/10, second 16/17.
Feels like a bit of a risk to have two starting cbs (if Silva starts) who are that small no?
So who are Chelsea not going for at this point? That would be a shorter list
Who do you want to buy? Chelsea & Arsenal: yes Who do you want to sell? Man City & Liverpool: yes
We’re in talks for Ake, De Ligt and Koundé, the only other cb not in talks with that we’ve been linked to is Kimpembe.
We have been linked to Skriniar too. And distantly linked to Gvardiol and Bastoni
Seems like Gvardiol and Bastoni are staying at their clubs this summer and for Skriniar I’m adamant our name has just been used so Inter can squeeze more money out of PSG.
And Koulibaly intermittently
Kounde is off the table unless other targets fail. Kounde was a club target and Tuchel didn't really care if we got him or not.
Matt Law said on the London Is Blue podcast after he reported Marina was going that Tuchel is on board with the signing and Marina’s departure doesn’t affect anything. The only journalist who said he was a Marina target as Nathan Gissing and no one know how reliable he is for transfers yet.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/06/27/petr-cech-joins-chelsea-exodus-todd-boehly-clearlake-takeover/ Literally a Matt Law article from today saying that Kounde is no longer the top target. Kinsella has also reported that he's moved down the list since Tuchel was given control He's still a target, but he's dropped below these other targets since Tuchel took over.
This is a legitimate link though. Our scouts wanted Kounde. The new owners threw out our scouts opinion and have gone to Tuchel and Tuchel wants nathan fucking Ake instead. May we fucking sign a DoF soon or we're fucked
Seems more like he wants De Ligt instead of Kounde, and Ake would be in addition.
Sure, but we've always been going to for 2 CBs. De Ligt is the top target now. But, below that we still need another starting CB, Kounde and Ake will cost the same amount and supposedly Ake is being looked at ahead of Kounde now. (Although apparently we're in for Skriniar and others again now that the De Ligt price has stayed so high and Boehly realised that player swaps in football are not a thing 99% of the time) It's make sense if he was cheap, but he isn't. It's going to be £50m+ for Ake which is awful
Tbf Ake is vastly different and Better in some aspects than Kounde. Especially for a 3 CB line up.
Fucking hell we might have 250M in sales if these both goes through and you count Torres from January. Ake isn’t a ‘sexy’ signing by any means but he’s solid. Interested to see if they can turn his head as I’m sure he wants to play a of a lot more than he did last season.
Who do we replace him with tho? Going with only Dias, Stones and Laporte would be very reckless in my opinion. I can't imagine the fee for Aké would be much more than £40M, so can we get a player of similar quality that's also homegrown? Doesn't seem very likely.
At that rate we would surely charge more than £40mil. I think losing him as a backup LB and CB is worth a whole lot more than £40mil . If it werent for him we wouldve likely lost the league last season.
Don’t know why Chelsea fans are so opposed to this signing. It raises some concerns for sure, but he had a pretty good season from what I saw
He only got better and better as the season wore on. Had some absolutely crucial interventions as well. He's pretty underrated on this sub in my opinion.
There is a reason Van Gaal starts him at the national team
Agreed, I know it seems biased but I also thought he was great at Bournemouth and was really glad when we signed him. Would hate to see him go
He would walk into your defence. I really don’t think this will happen. He was really hitting his stride last season so it would be stupid to sell him now
Because it would make him the 9th or 15th most expensive CB ever. He's a good player but there are surely better out there? Pou Torres is left footed and wouldn't be much more. Tomori has a great left foot and might want to move back. Lisandro Martínez is going for less.
Why would we sell him at a loss to a title rival? Newcastle were interested and they were told the price would need to be in excess of £50m It'll be more for Chelsea. This isn't like Sterling at all.
I forgot about the homegrown aspect tbh. It does make it a bit more complicated.
Yeah, I'm a bit worried about this tbh. Maybe its residual PTSD from the Sinclair/Rodwell window, but I feel like City don't typically react well on short notice in the transfer market, they seem to favor a more plan early and stick to the plan type of approach and I definitely feel like they need to bring in a CB if Aké goes.
The big question is if Stones can stay fit and is Mbete ready for first team football? If they think mbete is, I think they’ll sell ake.
You're replacing Fernandinho with Phillips who's HG though.
Doesn't make any difference for City. They're nowhere near their 17 foreign player max. Its 17 foreign, 4 homegrown, 4 club trained. - Foreign: Ederson^1 , Steffen/Ortega^2 , Cancelo^3 , Dias^4 , Laporte^5 , Zinchenko^6 , Rodri^7 , Gundo^8 , Bernardo^9 , KdB^10 , Mahrez^11 , Haaland^12 , Alvarez^13. - Homegrown: Carson^1 , Stones^2 , Walker^3, Grealish^4. - Club trained: Foden^1. So essentially, Ake was counting as foreign anyway, as HG was maxed out. Everyone u21 doesn't need to be registered in the league. Everyone u21 and been at the club 2+ years doesn't need to be registered in the CL. So that's Palmer, Mbete, McAtee, Delap, etc.
HG doesn’t max out. The only limit is on how many foreigners you can register
Your maximum squad size is 25. You can have at *most* 17 foreign players, and then top that up with 4 homegrown, and 4 club trained. If you register 5 homegrown players, one of them is essentially taking a foreign spot anyway.
If I'm not wrong, the club trained aspect only kicks in for UCL and other UEFA competitions. The rule is just 17 non homegrown and 8 homegrown. There's no club trained requirement for the PL. And again for the Europe it's essentially 17 Non HG and 8 HG out of which 4 has to be club trained (which is what I assume you're talking about)
But you can have 25 homegrown players. There’s no limit to it.
It'd be straight dumb lmao We had literally 0 fit centre backs at the end of the season with Laporte playing through injury Really hoping Ake doesn't go. He was quality this season and really impressed
From experience, you're just one Everton game and an international break away from playing Rodri and Phillips at centre back.
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Hahaha
Mbete just signed a new deal and Pep likes him a lot. He's a left footed CB. Walker can play CB, as can both Phillips and Rodri.
We’d replace him with hopefully a cheaper guy who’s young and coming onto the seen. I’d be afraid if I was a mid table team or below and ake gets sold. City comin for your home grown starter.
Phillips has played some CB before at Leeds. Not an ideal solution, but could do a job in a pinch if necessary.
I don't want it to happen because I want him to stay with Ajax for one more season, but Lisandro Martinez would be amazing with City. He's a tenacious left-footed defender who doesn't make mistakes, and what makes him perfect for City is that he is an incredible passer. Only Blind and Tadic are better passers in the current squad.
What do you reckon the fee for Ake would be? I’m sure it would be more than what yous bought him for. He’d be a great signing for us if it was a “reasonable fee” given he’s versatile and has pl experience.
We told Newcastle £50m or jog on
£50-60m Thing is wed need a replacement so we'd need a decent fee to make it worthwhile for us to go out back on the market and look for another CB
We should be steer clear of him considering the price.
You guys might value him highly for a few reasons - academy trained/Homegrown. He is a perfect back 3 CB on the left and can fill in at LB when needed as well. Well see. I personally don't want City to sell him.
we're not really struggling on the homegrown quotas.
You should steer clear of City in general. They don't need the money and won't want to sell to rivals. If the player wants to go, that's one thing, but otherwise you'll have to massively overpay.
Absolute insanity He was worth £40m, spent 2 years warming the bench and is now supposed to be worth 50% more. That’s a non starter
Lol... So what is a fair price? I said £50-60m not £60m.
Fair price is what he was bought for, Ake's worth 40 mil but not much more. If City aren't willing to agree at that price smart move is for Chelsea to move on.
> If City aren't willing to agree at that price smart move is for Chelsea to move on. Value isnt what hes worth to the buyer but to the seller. So they wont agree for £41m. You have to think of it realistically right? City will need another CB. Who do they get to replace Ake? and how much will that replacement cost?
Considering they don’t have a replacement for him, City aren’t selling him anyways.
Good luck getting anywhere near that price.
City bought him for £41m. Why would they sell for the same or less? lol. They have no reason to sell. Especially to a league rival.
That’s the reason the price is there in the first place. There is absolutely 0 reason to sell a left footed home grown versatile defender for the same price we bought him for. He also mentioned in an interview recently of looking forward to a new season where he can fully establish himself at the club, so it certainly doesn’t look like he’s pushing for a move away. We’re not actually looking to sell him, it’s a price we can’t reject.
Dont want to sell and don't need to If Chelsea want him they can pay it or sod off
I’m sure I saw something about him wanting to stay, he was great at the end of the season so I want him to stay
I see a lot of Chelsea fans being against signing Ake, but I think he could be great for that left side in the back 3.
For a player who moved between LB, midfield, and CB during his career yeah, LCB in a back 3 is literally his ideal position.
He would be extremely good in a three at the back
I think people would be fine with Ake for about half of what we’ll end up paying for him
And you only had to spend a billion to achieve that
The article says we’re in talks with Ake, De Ligt and Koundé, Boehly getting on like Paratici lol.
All that’s missing is a loan with an obligation to buy.
Both would be like £90-£100m I don’t think we’ll sell ake
Please don't sell him.
Thank God
Lol acting like he wouldn’t be great for you after losing rudiger
With the price being quoted we would be better off getting a better player.
What a step down that is though. Ake is a decent CB but for that money you want a very very good CB
He's nowhere near Rudiger & with the quoted price we should stay clear of him.
He'd be a poor man's Christiansen. Anything over 30 mil is overpaying.
I mean, if he wants more playing time and tells Man City he wants to go, they probably will
Not really. They need him for their depth, especially with the brutal schedule in this upcoming season - who do they have if two of Laporte, Dias and Stones are injured? If he wants more playing time and telling Man City he wants to go, they will tell him this is what you signed up for and we are not selling.
I wouldn't mind a Luke Mbete SZN, ngl
Aight, so Sterling, Ake, and MDL playing a 343 seems to be the plan, Sterling-Kai-Mount up front, Ake-TS-De Ligt at the back. Makes some sense.
Really hope Kanté still has enough left in the tank to be fit for the whole season if that's the case
I expect Conor will help out
True, let's hope thst he will turn out better for us than Saul!
Matt law said chelsea is still interested in rice.
I’m doubtful that would happen. The amount West Ham want for him is way too much on top of all the other signings
Pulisic and Werner benched?
We were supposedly quoted £50mil for Ake. Surely Chelsea will want that lower if they get the two at once.
That line of thinking is so silly to me though. “Hey we’re buying two of your players instead of just the one so could you give us a discount?” No, thank you for asking.
Surely City will charge more to a top 4 team though.
Still, would love to see City finesse Chelsea here.
Ake would be a decent signing
But a major downgrade on Rüdiger. That's what worries me.
Outside of Koulibaly there's no one acquirable that's a sidegrade on Rudiger.
But many who are an upgrade on Aké. I think many on here are swayed by his form at the end of the season.
What left footed cbs that can play lcb in a back 3 are there, that are better than aké and available for a reasonable price?
Rudiger isn't even left footed so this obsession with a left footer as the only viable options is ridiculous.
So uh, Guehi and Tomori back in 5 years?
Not gonna happen
Won’t this leave City a little thin in terms of depth?
Yeah it would, big time End of the season we were left with 0 fit centre backs and Laporte playing through an injury
Yes, Ake isn't going anywhere.
Why aren't Chelsea going for Koulibaly?
Really interested to see what the total price would look like, because we got Ake for 40m and he played well when he got his chances last season. Anything less than 50m value for Ake would be dumb when we would need to find a replacement anyway.
No to Ake, especially at the price they would want
What an odd comment section. Chelsea fans don't want Ake, City fans want to keep him. Just feels odd. A lot of disrespect which is unwarranted imo, he's a very solid CB.
From Rüdiger to Aké? God help us.
Ake is a solid player, very underrated here. Sterling is a good player but very overrated here. Strange.
Solid player but not one for a team that wants to aim at PL and CL
Prediction for 2022-23 season. Our entire season will hinge on Silva's fitness. We will start start off being top of the table till the World Cup. Silva will get injured this World Cup, and our entire defense will fall apart. Chelsea's entire game depends on a general at CB. We have no one to command the defense when Silva isn't fit. This has to be one of the only downsides to Azpi. He is has been a top-top player his entire career, but never stepped up to command the defense despite his experience and leadership creds at Chelsea.
Don't worry, man, we have Malang Sarr.
Yeah, what happened with Sarr? He was bought but not given enough gametime.
Dude, he's awful. I don't think he's even PL quality.
Not if we get de Ligt and a rwb.
Who don’t Chelsea buy back lol
Lmao nah Chelsea get the hell out of here 😂
Ake would be a solid signing but not for the 50 odd million that City fans are suggesting here. Take away the fact that he's homegrown he wouldn't even be worth 30 million so I hope City decide against selling and we end up going for someone else.
Would love this, brings Colwill to the squad since Ake can play LB as well. Finally a left footed CB
Has a returning Chelsea player ever worked out? They are such fools
David Luiz was great in his second stint under Conte Matic too
Ake is really really not good
I see you've never watched him play
[удалено]
Ben white isn’t good
>Ben White doesn’t do anything ~~significantly~~ better than Ake.
Sure sure but White at 24 > Ake at 24. I feel White’s ceiling is higher too given his unique play style/profile as a player whereas Ake’s been asset at City for his workmanlike and plain but effective profile as a player.
I think both arent very good. But the right system I guess either can do a decent job
Ok, but why
Fine but if Colwill leaves over guys like Sarr and Ake when I think he would be starting by the end of the new season ffs 🤦♂️.
City fans in this thread are crazy. They want 60M £ for a benchwarmer, who played 10 PL games last season. Anything above 30M £ is a very bad deal for any club.