We buy Sterling and Pogba and that's well over 100m in transfer fee's alone (that's without add ons and agents fees), Then you add wages into it and you prob looking at not far off from 200m if you look at we spending 500m to knock down the bridge and rebuild a new ground etc, Then spending that sort of money on players is just pure crazy. When looking at the business as a whole we can no longer justify big money signing unless they are well established and proven talents. Yes we can take risks (Hazzard for example) but they have to be sensible ones, 32m for Hazzard was a much more sensible risk then 49m for Sterling. In the past we would have gone for 49m option now we are more sensible thankfully

Sterling is far too expensive.

An initial cash outlay of £50,000,000 and then a contract worth £200,000 per week over 5 years.

In total, that's £102,000,000 on one player.

How can he possibly earn that back for them?

He has a lot of baggage, is now enemy #1 with the UK media, LFC fans and probably lots of others. His finishing is also worse than Torres on a bad day.

So much money is wasted in the current transfer window so far. Rodgers has gone crazy as usual (out of a job by xmas), United are spending half a billion but forgetting that players need to gel. The only good signings were Cech and our new reserve keeper.

Who in their right mind is going to pay £32m for Benteke? Apart from 10 games last season where he did alright, he was useless.

Chelsea have (allegedly) had a £20m bid for John Stones rejected. Everton are reported to want £30m upwards for the young CB.
He's a fine young prospect, but again it looks like silly money because he happens to be English. We have Kalas and Christensen who have again been loaned out. They may be a level below Stones at present, but not so far behind to justify such a massive outlay on another "prospect"..in my opinion.
We should hijack the United deal for Nicolas Otamendi if we're prepared to spend big money, he would strengthen our back four immediately.

Yeah, leave him alone. Go for Ottamendi instead, good plan.

Unless of course your lot are interested in taking an attacking, right sided, midfield player ?
Salah ? Cuadrado ? Moses ?

Speaking of Moses it's interesting he's in our US tour squad. You'd think if we were actively looking to offload him we would have left him back at home. Maybe Mark Hughes was right in suggesting he might be about to get a second chance with us? Obviously he's not going to come back and improve our first XI but does he have any future as a squad player? I'd sooner have him than Cuadrado or Salah, although that's really not saying a lot.

Yes, same as you I think Moses is probably better suited to the EPL than Salah or Cuadrado. He's had a bit of a raw deal with us really, he didn't do a lot wrong before being loaned out to Liverpool..which just didn't work out for him.
Jose tried to bring him back in January, but (perhaps understandably) he didn't want to leave Stoke. But it does look as if Mourinho might be willing to give him another chance.

Looks like Luis is heading back to Atletico.

Yep, best thing for him really if that happens. It was a signing I was never that enthusiastic about. He did an ok job as a back-up, but for the amount paid and the age he was at you'd expect Azpi to have had more competition for that left-back spot.

Sadly they are more then a level behind Stone. They have not played anywhere near the amount of Football needed. He has played in competitive games. He has been training at a premiership level he has taken part in training in England's first team, He a ready made premiership player at the moment they are not even ready made championship players. While I fully expect them to become Premiership players they are just not there yet.

While Stone would be expensive he is game ready from day one. If needed he could play against City and we would not have to worry so much and since he is English he would retain his value even if he either didn't perform well or get that much game time,

Nicolas Otamendi would be a great signing but if Utd are after him there is no point in going for him. He would be one of their top targets while for us he would just be one of our targets they would just outbid us or offer him more wages.

That's where I'd disagree. I don't think Stones is ready to step straight into Chelsea's back four. From what I've seen, he still has a lot to learn. I know you could say the same about Zouma, but at £12m he represented a far more realistic investment, so we could afford to wait.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against taking a chance on Stones. He has all the attributes to become a terrific defender in a couple of years, but he's not there yet. If we are going to spend £30m+ on a central defender, I'd want the finished article.
I know Man Utd were happy to pay £30m for Luke Shaw, but I didn't think that was particularly good business either.

I don't think we should be looking for the finished article. We just need someone who is mentally and physically ready to play premiership football until our youth players are ready. We buy him now for 30m and no matter what due to his age and nationality he will still be worth 15-20 million at the very least. You can teach someone the technical points needed to play Chelsea's game but you can not teach the mental and physical points you only gain them from playing the game at a competitive level. Was not one of the City games watched by some ridiculous number of countries last season? That alone brings different pressure and to go from the level that our youth team members have played to that level is a massive leap but it's more easy when you have played premier League football before. Experience is vital even the smallest amount is going to make a massive diffence

From a technical point he might have a lot to learn but he knows what it takes to play in the premiership and from a mental point he is way ahead of our other options. Jose can train a player to do certain things but experience is something nobody can teach. We have had so many talented youths over the last few years but they lacked the mental strength not to play for us but to play in this league.

As he is young and English it's not really a 30m gamble it's more of a 12m-15m one. Unless he suffers a major injury he retains most of his value due to the English Tax no matter what he does. A foreign player comes in and gets little game time or plays badly or acts like a idiot and his value goes down that's not the case with a English talent (in fact acting like a idiot is pretty standard). It's 30m with a 15m money back guarantee


Until some of the youth are ready we need players not a million years ahead of them as that will hinder them we just need experienced players who can do a job.

Yes, it's a good argument in favour of going for a player like Stones. As you say, he will hold his value given the scarcity of homegrown talent, particularly in his position.
I just find it difficult to accept that we have will now have to get used to overpaying for English youngsters when there are foreign imports who are probably ready and able to step straight into the team. Will it actually improve English football and the national team ? I have my doubts.
But rules are rules I suppose, and it's only going to get worse if Greg Dyke's new proposals are accepted..have they been accepted, or are they still open for discussion ?

I have little or no interest in international football nowadays (due to FIFA and to a lesser extent the FA are not fit for purpose) that I not really bothered if we improve the national team. I just want to see Chelsea perform the best they can on and off the pitch. If we can get league experienced players in for a couple of seasons while the best of our youth prospects gets the experience needed while at the same make sensible buys and sales then we are going in the right direction.

I don't see either the English tax going any time soon or us having to pay that little bit more for players (it even happened in Bate's time) so we might as well accept it but at the same time use it in the most sensible way.

The league is becoming more and more like a business, We cannot continue to be bankrolled by Roman so we need to conduct our transfers like a business, If we can buy a asset cheap build it up for a few years and sell it for twice the price we should, If we have a space in our portfolio for a asset but only as a short term thing and we can buy one and then sell it for a reasonable loss while we work on its replacement then we should.

The transfer system is crazy but its part of the game, So lets use the craziness to our advantage. Not just to bring players in but also to help us bring players though the ranks (and use the loan system)

I am concerned about Jose's comments to the Observer, about the team not needing surgery and then adding the team will need to be better than they were last season.
The first choice 11 were pushed to their limit, especially Hazard, who was run into the ground covering for the Oscar and Mo doing jack shit.
I see no scope for any improvement with this team. With this team we have no serious chance of winning the CL and can now expect a full sesson of the scrappy functional football that we saw for the second half of the season. it's very dissapointing to see so little ambition or attempts at real progress.

Well you can only buy the players who would improve the team and within your budget.
Pogba is clearly out of our range and when the likes of Sterling and Benteke go for such inflated sums the transfer market is not easy.

Even if we could afford him i wouldn't go for Pogba!
Number one priority is someone in midfield who can actually do some damage by creating and scoring. As things stand we are a broken leg away from being a team that will struggle to finish 4th.
With no serious money being made from selling this year It does look like the purse strings are being really tightened, so i cannot blame Jose for that. Us keeping mediocre, mid- table standard Moses, says an awful lot about our situation.

Yes, I agree. Of the players who have changed hands so far, is there anyone we should have gone in for in a big way ? Sterling was vastly over-priced, without even thinking about his temperament and attitude. Schweinsteiger would have been great for a few big games, but United could offer him more guaranteed football.
Benteke ?..no thanks, not at half the price Liverpool are paying. Schneiderlin is the only player I think we could have looked at signing. He would have been an upgrade on Ramires or Mikel and a solid back-up for Matic. But there again, he'll probably be assured of more games for United.
Anyway, the window is still open for a while yet, and if we know anything about Mourinho it's that he always has a trick or two up his sleeve.

I don't think you need too much adding to your squad in all honesty.

Arsenal haven't done much apart from a goalie which imo wasn't as much of a priority as replacements to other areas of the team such as a forward for instance.

City have signed Stering which could go either way. The main players in that team are Aguero, Silva and Kompany. Toure is hot and cold these days and I can't say the rest of the team excites me whatsoever.

We are having to spend big now to make up for the no value in the market years brought on imo by the owners clipping Fergie's transfer kitty. Now he is gone they have no choice but to spend, as well as seeing the debt coming down over the years. I think if we bring in a decent centre half and a forward we could be in business.

Liverpool have sold two big players for them and now appear to be signing anything and everything. But then you never know, this year could be their year.

The same "mo" that would walk into any other pl team?

Quite incredible really.

How do we know Moses is staying. Still along way to go.
I doubt he will be anywhere near the first team.

If you look back at our games, creating chances is rarely a problem. We've often created 20+ chances against mediocre opposition and struggled to convert more than one of them. With our present system we do need another natural goalscorer to bring more balance to the attacking midfield trio.
The problem is finding such a player. We have been linked with a few who might provide the answer, and of course there's Caudrado, who Mourinho stil thinks (at least publicly) might come good.
Moses is a useful back-up with homegrown status. But if you look back over his CV, he was an outstanding young player and appeared to have a glittering future. I think he may be better than a lot of people think.

Moses and Salah are both better players than we think they are.

I think you're probably right. Football is so unpredictable, and a player's career is so short. A lot is about being in the right place, at the right time, and grabbing your chances.
Leaving aside the truly great players, among the rest the difference between success and comparitve failure is probably pretty slender.

I still think Salah wasn't given a fair shot. Same could be said for Cuadardo, but Salah looked better than he ever has for us. With the lack of signings I think I'd keep them both right now.