Rumour Mill

Looks like Hummels is off to Bayern, tbh. I wouldn't mind trying to get Benatia from Bayern if he does move, though.

It's a shame about Kane, but I don't know if he was ever going to be good enough for us.

By the way, everyone is reporting that Nainggolan deal is getting closer to being done. It started from Sky Italia, too.

It depends how muck money we have to spend

The CB area does need some work, but its not as important as sorting out our midfield

Benatia wouldn't cost more than 20m pounds, imo.

We'll get similar money for selling Cuadrado.

Benatia would be great, yea. The only downside is his injury proness that didn't allow him to play much.

And Nainggolan, well, I can get on board with that because I agree that we need to sort out our midfield, but I'm not really fond of the guy. I mean, he was pretty meh whenever I watched Roma this season. However I admit that he picked it up with Spalletti and started racking up great performances. Could have just been the general slump that affected the whole Roma team in the first half of the season.

Roma with Garcia this season was basically Pjanic+10. No one but him performed and they looked like playing football was the biggest chore in the world.

After (and before) Nainggolan was among the best midfielders in Serie A. With Vidal gone he really is the best of his kind in Italy. Only Allan measures up. He would be the perfect player for us but he hates Juve (as a proper Roma player). Ideal Conte midfielder.

Mirror and some outlets in Italy are reporting a fee for Nainggolan has been agreed, while other outlets including Sky Italia are reporting that we're getting closer to agreeing a deal.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-agree-radja-nainggolan-transfer-7841585
http://www.chiesaditotti.com/2016/4/26/11513092/sky-italia-chelsea-close-to-40m-nainggolan-deal?_ga=1.66720174.1291223924.1422916557
http://www.football-italia.net/83455/chelsea-close-nainggolan

Either way, positive news on that front.

I agree with Rincon, he is an ideal Conte midfielder.

London Evening Standard are reporting that we want Michael Hector part of our first team for next season.
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-back-michael-hector-to-play-role-next-season-under-antonio-conte-a3240736.html

In all honesty, it wouldn't be a bad move. He can cover CB, RB and DM, and he is homegrown. So buying a CB, keeping Zouma and either Cahill or Ivanovic, and Hector would be decent depth without much cost.

Cause we didn't torpedo ourselves enough last summer bringing in a bunch of unproven no-names instead of actual quality, let's have a repeat of it this summer!

As a fourth Choice CB, we could do worse.

Benatia, Ivanovic/Cahill, Zouma, Hector would be decent, especially without European football.

In weird news of the day, we've been linked to Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Also, we've been linked to Graziano Pelle, fairly sure I said we'd be linked to him somewhere a few weeks ago

Links or it didn't happen

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-henrikh-mkhitaryan-transfer-chase-7934079

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/antonio-conte-wants-graziano-pelle-at-chelsea-as-arsenal-bid-for-boltons-rob-holding-mondays-top-a3243131.html

Happy?

I'd be ok with Pelle, tbh. He, Costa and Traore would be enough for the CF spots.

Keep Hazard, Willian, Pedro, and Kenedy for the wings, Courtois, Begovic, and Collins for GKs.

Sign a FB, CB and a CM or two and we're done

I meant about you stating the Pelle links would be coming


Was only kidding :p

http://www.goallegacy.net/t39076-the-dawn-of-the-conte-era#1582927

According to Goal, Luiz Gustavo is set to leave Wolfsburg this summer, he'd be a decent Matic replacement, should things go that way.

I'm going back to this thread for all transfer related activity.

Apparently, Sule and Thiago Maia are, and remain long term targets for the club.

Both would be great purchases, especially if anything were to happen to Christensen.

Anyone else want to just throw 50m Euros at BMG for Thorgan Hazard and Mo' Dahoud in Jan?


Looks good to me.

Apparently we've made a bid for Oscar De Marcos according to the Basque media (Being reported by Goal).

If we're switching to 3 at the back, He'd be a decent option for the RWB spot.

Reports in Italy suggest we're still interested in De Vrij.

Looks like Chelsea will go back in for Bonnuci.

Luiz-Bonnuci then?

If we actually get him. Seems we're after a CB regardless.

Perhaps we actually want to switch to 3 at the back, then we'll need another CB.

We've recently been linked to Steven N'Zonzi, who has a 26.5m pound release clause.

He'd be a decent back up for Kante and Matic. Especially if Fabregas is really on the way out.

More reports suggest we're still after Brozovic. He'd be a solid Jan purchase, imo.

Bonnuci, De Vrij ....
I thought Christensen was in our plan
Christensen - Zouma - Luiz

I doubt we're after a CB, tbh.

Zouma getting back to full fitness should squash those rumours.