Summer Transfer Thread 2018

Tombstone said:
Dont think I've ever heard of him, is he worth 71m?
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Can't say I've watched him much but he's quite well thought of. Whether he's worth £71m is open for debate but I've just been reading that he had all but signed for Real in January for £17m but Zidane blocked the deal, wanting to stick with Navas instead.

I'd guess given what we paid on Alisson and the position Chelsea find themselves in, Chelsea are being quoted stupid money for 2nd rate keepers like Butland and Schmeichel so decided that if they have to pay huge money then they may as well pay a bit more and sign the best one available to them.
 
trouble is the market has now been set for keepers seen as being top keepers with the Alisson move to Liverpool, Alisson is a good keeper but I am not sure he is worth what was paid.
 
Sounds like no Boateng, he’s staying at Bayern.

Alderweireld still possible for around £40m.

I think Pogba and Raiola are possibly trying to get rid of Mourinho, he’s left it too late for Pogba to realistically be allowed to leave (I’d rather Mourinho went).

Courtois signing for Real Madrid, £35m, not bad... means they won’t want De Gea at least.
 
Yeah that’s a good point. Mourinho won’t last the season, he’ll mentally implode and get himself sacked, and I’ll celebrate the day. I just hope we can keep Martial and Pogba until then
 
BBC are now reporting that Kepa has paid the £71m release clause in his contract. Things are getting a bit ridiculous. I know at some point you are paying for potential but how many world class keepers have there been in the last 10 years. Spending the money that Liverpool and Chelsea have on keepers is such a gamble. I can't imagine that they would get anything like what they have paid if they turn out to be duds.
 
fez said:
BBC are now reporting that Kepa has paid the £71m release clause in his contract. Things are getting a bit ridiculous. I know at some point you are paying for potential but how many world class keepers have there been in the last 10 years. Spending the money that Liverpool and Chelsea have on keepers is such a gamble. I can't imagine that they would get anything like what they have paid if they turn out to be duds.
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It's a gamble, but so is not spending the money.

Chelsea are loosing their first choice keeper (who was one of their best players last season) with less than a week until the transfer window closes.

Liverpool have had persistent goal keeping issues for a number of seasons now, and it's become an impediment to progress.

There aren't that many decent keepers at clubs who would be willing to sell to either team. Sometime you just have to pay the money to stand any chance of success.
 
fez said:
BBC are now reporting that Kepa has paid the £71m release clause in his contract. Things are getting a bit ridiculous. I know at some point you are paying for potential but how many world class keepers have there been in the last 10 years. Spending the money that Liverpool and Chelsea have on keepers is such a gamble. I can't imagine that they would get anything like what they have paid if they turn out to be duds.
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I seem to say this every summer but you have to put these fees into perspective. With greater money in football year on year, fees have and always will continue to rise but the Neymar transfer really was a game changer and the moment he moved to PSG fees went up another ~30%. 3 years ago you signed Darmian, a proven international fullback for £13m. This summer you've signed Dalot, who's barely kicked a ball for near £20m. I said as much towards the end of last summer that if Barca had offered £100m odd for Coutinho at the start of last summer then we'd have sold him but the moment Neymar left that fee kept rising and rising. You cannot look at fees in isolation and while football club revenues keep rising, transfer fees will too.

I don't want to comment too much on Kepa because I don't know much about him but Alisson isn't just potential - he's widely regarding as being one of the best keepers in Europe last season and even when he first signed for Roma and was on the bench, he was still getting picked ahead of Ederson for Brazil purely on the basis of what he'd shown playing in the Brazilian league. £60m odd is still a lot of money and it's a gamble but relatively speaking it's no more expensive than £20m odd on De Gea 7 years ago and considerably cheaper than what Buffon cost 17 years ago.

edit: a quick point on the Kepa deal though. Clubs typically stagger fees for players, with the guaranteed part of the fee often paid over a few years. Assuming this deal has been done by activating his clause the official way then Chelsea will have had to pay the entire amount in one go which is a lot cash.
 
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I think £60 odd million for Alisson is one thing, but the Kepa money is another thing entirely. Alisson has just played the whole WC for Brazil, keeping Ederson - one of the prem's best keepers - on the bench. Plus he's played in the CL for Roma. Kepa has got one international cap for Spain, spent the WC on the bench, and I believe has only played a few games in the Europa League.

They could both turn out to be two of the world's best goalkeepers but I would much rather have Alisson of the two. Chelsea are taking a big gamble on Kepa, they've really been forced into spending over the odds because of Courtois' refusal to stay and the lack of what they consider top level alternatives.
 
As above I don't know too much about Kepa but looking from the outside it does look like Chelsea have backed themself into a corner and been faced with a choice £70m on Kepa, who you assume they feel is the best available keeper to them, or paying not much less on somebody like Schmeichel, Pickford or Butland. The fact that he was available for sub £20m just 7 months ago only highlights the importance of clubs having a proper strategy in the transfer market - Chelsea would have known for sometime that Courtois was leaving and by dragging things out this long it's going to have cost them far more than had they been more proactive in identifying and signing their replacement first.

I'm not sure it's fair to judge him on international appearances though. Just because he can't get in the Spain team ahead of De Gea doesn't mean he's not as good as another keeper playing for another country. That said, I've read that he's Spain's 3rd choice keeper behind Reina too.
 
Surely with Kovacic coming in for the year (I dunno if there's a buy option or not) that Chelsea's midfield is looking mighty fine. Jorginho,Kante,Kovacic and keeping hold of Hazard. Yes the keeper is a huge gamble, but they've done well elsewhere. Especially to keep hold of Hazard, I was sure he was off.
 
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