Re: The Official Winter Transfer Thread

[iNFINITY9910]

Maybe on his PS3!

[Nedved]

50 million for higgy is not a joke, but fart

[Shed]

José Mourinho: Chelsea have made no bid for Gonzalo Higuain:
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says the club have not made an offer for Napoli forward Gonzalo Higuain, and wouldn't be able to sign him even if they did want him
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9099804/jose-mourinho-says-gonzalo-higuain-is-a-player-chelsea-will-not-be-able-to-sign

"Nothing is true. He is a player that I know we cannot get."

"He moved from Real Madrid to Napoli six months ago and he's doing very well, he's adapting very well to Italy."

"Napoli is a club which normally doesn't sell. In the last years, they sold one player a year, when they felt it was not possible to keep them."

"They want to win the Scudetto, they want to win the Europa League. I don't believe they're interested in selling Higuain."

"Why should we be interested in someone we believe it is impossible to get?"

[Nedved]

He is not saying he doesn't want him.

[Kick]

Well said, Jose.

[Kick]

Inter have finally rejected Chelsea bid for Guarin, according to The Times.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/premierleague/article3965606.ece

Should we bid 15m pounds, not 13m like the times reported. The deal is likely to be completed.

[Kick]

Chelsea have reportedly entered talks with St Ettienne over Zouma. Apparently we'd let him stay at his Ligue 1 club for the remainder of the season.

We are not the only club interested, mind.

[Shed]

Inter have finally rejected Chelsea bid for Guarin, according to The Times.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/premierleague/article3965606.ece

Should we bid 15m pounds, not 13m like the times reported. The deal is likely to be completed.

NO. We should be thanking our luck they didn't accept the 13m and have done with it.

[Kick]

Let's face it, if we don't sign Matic (rumours seem dead in the water about him, not sure what happened there) We'll get The sensation.

15m is actually some decent business for him imo. I think we offered 13 just to test Inter, 2m is very little to us so I can't see us not increasing the offer. Especially if we cannot sign Matic.

[Shed]

As I said before, signing players who aren't good enough is worse than not signing anyone at all.

[Kick]

Yes as Raul Meireles and Ba were terrible signings.

Look, as long as he steers clear of injuries, we won't have a problem moving him on later on just like how easy it was to sell Meireles, or how Ba is constantly linked with a move away. Guarin will be sellable when we're finished with him.

It's not the worst deal in the world and frankly, I'd rather buy Guarin, have him do an ok job and be able to sell him than buy Matic, have him flop like Torres and find it impossible to sell him.

I would prefer Matic to come and do well though. Just saying it's a cautious signing which is ok in my books.

[Shed]

Your 2 examples illustrate my point exactly. 2 stop-gap, short-term whole-pluggers that temporarily papered over cracks (and barely even that), one of whom is long gone and the other of whom has one foot out of the door as we speak. Neither contributed much at all and neither certainly were of any value whatsoever to the club's long-term standing. The latter is what we're [finally] focusing on now, and Guarin just ain't it.

[Kick]

Perhaps thats all we want? We're without MVG this season, and our midfield needs something, perhaps we cannot get what we actually want this Jan so we're buying a short term stop-gap?

With Essien possible to leave, we'll literally have 3 CM's, signing Guarin is a start.

With Lampard possibly playing his last season, we could have 5 CM's next season which would be plenty depth + quality:
Ramires,
Mikel,
Guarin,
Van Ginkel,
New top class CM.

[Shed]

Chelsea mull Luke Shaw swap deal that would see Blues left-back Ryan Bertrand join Southampton:
The Blues could use out-of-favour Ryan Bertrand as a makeweight to land Saints left-back Luke Shaw as their long-term successor to Ashley Cole next summer
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-transfer-news-blues-mull-2989460

[Kick]

I don't like that idea, I'd rather send Ash the other way, otherwise we'd be left with PVA and Shaw.

Bertrand is a decent back up, I'd like to keep him.

[Shed]

They couldn't afford even half Ash's wages

[Kick]

But I want to keep Berty

[Shed]

He'll know he can go elsewhere and get first-team football. What's to keep him rooted to the bench for what would essentially be the majority of his career?

[Kick]

His love for this club

[Shed]

The proof of which is....?

[Kick]

The fact he doesn't complain and seems happy here

[Shed]

Doubtful

[Kick]

What is your evidence?

[Shed]

A.) He's likely always been operating under the assumption that all this time is being spent lying in wait for Cole to retire, at which point he'd step into his shoes. Signing who would clearly be a long-term successor to Cole would assure he will never be a first-teamer or anything more at Chelsea than he is now.

B.) He was actually getting games every once in a while before. Mourinho is now playing a left-back over him in his own position, further limiting his already scarce opportunities.

[Kick]

I doubt he is of the opinion that he will be handed the LB spot, everyone on the team knows they have to work for their spot, he should be no different.

[Shed]

He will have been assuming the spot is his once Cole retires or leaves. That's been increasingly proven to be quite obviously not the case for the better part of a year now. Can't be happy about it.

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