Any chance Willian is a hedge bet against Pepe?
I wonder if Arteta is still concerned by Pepe, and knows that if he doesn't improve we'll need someone proven (in the PL) in our front line. It would be too much to expect Saka/Martinelli/Nelson to essentially cover two spots (LW and RW) while ensuring teams don't just focus on defending Auba.
I think Willian will primarily be used on the left.
He’ll help our possession game
Gunner89 wrote:Signing Silvestre is a stunt and to an extent Welbeck and Luiz.
These were clearly expendables as is Pedro who's going to Roma and wasn't offered a new deal.
Willian is someone they do want to keep but they are spending 160m on attacking signings (50m werner, 30 Ziyech and 80m Havertz).
It's kinda sad to see the kind of quality Chelsea is signing to improve their squad further and United. Even City is super smart with Ferran Torres signing for just 20m+.
We keep signing used goods from other clubs when in reality we need a much bigger step to catch the clubs who are already quite a distance ahead of us.
We better be saving our ammo for other young and top signings if we are settling for Willian on the wings
Captain wrote:goon wrote:I think it was made clear that Arteta does have an input, and quite a big one. I can't remember where I read/heard that.
I think you need them to be in sync, there's no point signing a player that doesn't fit the profile. You end up with an Emery/Pepe scenario where because he wasn't his choice he ends up on the bench.
edit: here we go -
"I know that the situation that we have at the club and the context that we are in, but the club knows my plan," the Spaniard told Sky Sports.
"In January, the situation was that we had to fill some gaps and give some stability to the squad. Now is the moment to make another step forward and improve the squad and the players that we have."
Quizzed on whether he will have the final say on any deals this summer, Arteta added: "Yes, absolutely.
"We have a very strong group [working on signings] and the communication is really clear, not only with [head of football] Raul [Sanllehi], [managing director] Vinai [Venkatesham], [contract negotiator] Huss [Fahmy] and [technical director] Edu, but also with the ownership about where we want to go.
"The margin for error is very, very small.
"The gap between the two top teams and the rest is really, really big and everybody is trying to catch up. The competition is between six, seven, eight, maybe even nine clubs now to fight for those positions, so we have to be very smart and we have to be very decisive when we make our decisions."
That's all nice and that, but do you actually think Arteta identified Mari as his left footed centrehalf?
There's a company line and there's reality - the two do sometimes cross paths
Identified no (though he may well have given they were both at City). But I also think it’s natural that if you’re trying to find the manager a certain profile of player that he has a say in whether or not he approves. In reality the situation is probably much more fluid.
I think a successful squad build depends on Edu and the head coach working very closely together.
Clrnc wrote:Gunner89 wrote:Signing Silvestre is a stunt and to an extent Welbeck and Luiz.
These were clearly expendables as is Pedro who's going to Roma and wasn't offered a new deal.
Willian is someone they do want to keep but they are spending 160m on attacking signings (50m werner, 30 Ziyech and 80m Havertz).
It's kinda sad to see the kind of quality Chelsea is signing to improve their squad further and United. Even City is super smart with Ferran Torres signing for just 20m+.
We keep signing used goods from other clubs when in reality we need a much bigger step to catch the clubs who are already quite a distance ahead of us.
We better be saving our ammo for other young and top signings if we are settling for Willian on the wings
City sold Sane.
Chelsea has an owner whose interest is beyond the financial side.
Does that mean we can't compete? No, absolutely not. One only needs to look at Liverpool and Spurs who've done better than us (in the league at least) with lesser money.
We run a CL wage budget on europa league money and it's primarily because of Wenger/Gazidis.
Wenger stubbornly refused to let Ozil/Alexis leave while Gazidis & team were terrible in negotiating contracts.
We let players leave on frees or at knockdown prices because of ego.
Thankfully we are becoming smarter.
Wenger would've rejected the Iwobi bid and we would have sold him for 7-8m to Norwich in a few years or on a free after giving a deal beyond his caliber.
Without Cl, we need to operate where we get the maximum from our expendables while getting value from the market.
I'm willing to give Willian a chance because Mikel must be on board with him coming surely. Not too pleased with 3 years
[/Twitter]
Unbelievably bad deal if we end up giving 4 four years
Sounds like a terrible idea. Hope it doesnt happen..
Seems like it's pretty much done. Oh well. ESPN Brasil reporting that we will announce him in the coming days and there's no chance he will play for Chelsea again. 3 year deal +1 year option.
Seriously rather loan Coutinho.
---------------Partey
---Ceballos--------Coutinho
Pepe--------------------------Willian
-----------Aubameyang
Seems like I’m the only one pleased with this signing.
I know my players and especially my wide forwards. He’ll be a great addition for us.
Ray wrote:---------------Partey
---Ceballos--------Coutinho
Pepe--------------------------Willian
-----------Aubameyang
That's actually decent. Would need for Coutinho to work hard. Those 4 AMs can actually hold possession quite well together. So this would probably be a high territory team that would require fast centre backs. So you're probably fine with some combination of 2 of Luiz, Saliba or Mustafi for now.
The one challenge is you would have 3 important players (Ceballos, Coutinho, Willian) who are in the build up and are either on loan or old. Not ideal for squad building
I suppose the idea is that when they leave/fade the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Willock, ESR etc. can potentially step up and take their place.
Agreed however that the line-up above looks decent. We'd play some sexy football and be entertaining at the very least.
With Willian on the left and Pepe on the right we’d have players who attract opponents to them and therefore leave space for others.
Both can cut in and play through balls or shoot well
I wonder if it is Willian and Coutinho we are after, or just one of the two.
Personally think Coutinho and Willian play a little too similarily, and occopy the same space (when Willian starts on the left). Don't want anything to do with Coutinho, coming around to Willian.
3 + 1 years is crazy. Kia has done us up like a kipper if we give him that. The feeling of being chelseas retirement home rankles as well
Willian is a solid pro. He's not a flash player, but he's efficient enough, and will probably also play a role in setting a workrate template for our other forwards
Im struggling to get behind this deal in isolation. Hopefully auba and partey are next
3+1 is mental. I actually can't believe we'd do that.
A 2 year deal I can suck up as the financial reality of our club but 3 years of Willian is unnecessary.
Claudius wrote:Ray wrote:---------------Partey
---Ceballos--------Coutinho
Pepe--------------------------Willian
-----------AubameyangThat's actually decent. Would need for Coutinho to work hard. Those 4 AMs can actually hold possession quite well together. So this would probably be a high territory team that would require fast centre backs. So you're probably fine with some combination of 2 of Luiz, Saliba or Mustafi for now.
The one challenge is you would have 3 important players (Ceballos, Coutinho, Willian) who are in the build up and are either on loan or old. Not ideal for squad building
Also has the look of MC-lite.
Perhaps not as flashy as the likes of LFC, MC, CFC or MU, but no one thought LFC looked the goods initially.
I think this team could push for top4 based upon their PL experience and their experience in general - particularly if they are able to hit the ground running at the start of the season and establish a break on the other contenders. Perhaps more realistically it is capable of winning the UEL against anything that is likely to be 'relegated' from the UCL.
If these players did secure top4/UCL then I'd have little issue with signing the likes of Ceballos and Coutinho, and that would be at an agreed fee as part of the loan deal. If these players are what Arteta wants in order to impliment his style then so be it.
Also just an observation, if we were to also then sign Costa/Gabriel we'd have a very Brazilian flavor/core with 5 players in the senior squad, which would also give us a higher profile to other players from there = sign of things to come?
