[Kristof Terreur] - Real Madrid are treating the Courtois - Hazard transfers as two separate cases. Courtois to Real will be done for a fee around €40m, but a deal can only be closed when Chelsea have found a new goalkeeper.

Be very careful with Donnarumma, Raiola is a fucking bitch.

For a goalkeeper coming off WC as the best GK in the tournament, it's definitely a massive bargain for RM but what can you do when there's only one year left on contract and the fact that he's basically whoring himself out to Madrid. His reason for that is well documented but that narrows down his option to only Real Madrid with Atletico already having Oblak, and that severely lowers his price because there's no one else you can sell to.

Oblak's buyout clause is 100M Euros, problem is you have to pay it in a lump sum to buyout his contract. Way around it is typically offering the same amount as a bid, which is paid in installments like most transfers and that's assuming Atletico would accept it. Clubs who are adamant about not selling are generally offered a price even above the clause to incentivize the club to accept the bid.

Perhaps Chelsea should have tried for a cash plus Courtois bid for Oblak first imo, which is much better than selling Courtois on a cheap and settling for whichever substandard keeper you will be in for. Oblak is the only keeper in the world who can go toe to toe with De Gea imo as much as it pains me to say.

Everton bought him for 30M and that was pre Neymar and pre WC, 50-60M sounds about right. That's just the market these days.

Sarri's choice, Higuain had the best season of his career under him.

Antonio Conte to sue Chelsea after delayed exit (Matt Hughes)

Antonio Conte is taking legal action against Chelsea, including the claim that he deserves to be compensated for loss of future earnings and the damage to his career caused by the club’s delay in sacking him.

The Italian is angry that Chelsea did not confirm his dismissal until last week — 55 days after he led them to victory in the FA Cup final — a delay that his lawyers will argue cost him the opportunity to gain employment elsewhere this summer.

Conte is demanding compensation on top of the £9 million salary that he is entitled to receive for the final year of his contract.

He had been resigned to leaving Chelsea since January as a result of the collapse in his relationship with the board at Stamford Bridge because of disagreements over transfer policy, but Conte is unhappy with the way his departure was managed.

After not hearing from the club for several weeks at the end of last season, the 48-year-old was summoned back to London a fortnight ago to begin pre-season training, taking charge of the players for four days before being sacked in a brief meeting with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck last Thursday.

The club waited 24 hours before confirming Conte’s departure last Friday and appointed his successor Maurizio Sarri the following day.

Conte released a statement through the League Managers Association this week, in which he thanked all his “friends” at Chelsea for their support and wished them success in the future, a move which often signifies that severance terms have been agreed between a club and their outgoing manager, but that is not the case in this instance. The former Italy coach remains furious at the way he has been treated and while he used his statement to thank Chelsea’s “players and staff” there was no mention of the board nor of Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner.

Conte’s legal team will argue that Chelsea have cost their client a year of his career, as all the top management jobs in Europe have been filled. Real Madrid are understood to have sounded out Conte after Zinédine Zidane left in May, while the Italy job was also available earlier in the summer. He did not pursue either option, though, and will claim he was committed to Chelsea.

For their part, Chelsea have threatened to withhold the final year of his contract due to alleged irregular conduct and repeated criticism of his employers during his second season at Stamford Bridge.

Sarri is close to signing Daniele Rugani from Juventus. Chelsea have been told by the Italian club to increase their offer for the central defender to about £40 million. His arrival would make it more likely that Gary Cahill, Kurt Zouma and Matt Miazga will leave. AC Milan have expressed an interest in the Chelsea striker Álvaro Morata, and could offer Gianluigi Donnarumma, their 19-year-old goalkeeper, as part of a deal.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/an...-exit-g2ssbn9m8

source the sun, enough said.

who's more crazy? barca for making that bid or chelsea for rejecting that bid?

Chelsea want Antonio Conte to pay for Diego Costa text (Matt Hughes)

Chelsea will attempt to withhold a portion of the £9 million owed to Antonio Conte in severance pay on the grounds that his infamous text message to Diego Costa 12 months ago, adversely affected his transfer value and cost the club millions of pounds.

The Times revealed yesterday that Conte is taking legal action against his former club after being sacked last week. The Italian is claiming that the delay in resolving his future cost him the chance to take lucrative jobs elsewhere this summer, while Chelsea have yet to sign off the severance package that has formed a standard part of their managerial contracts for several years.

Chelsea will argue through their legal team that Conte’s actions in telling Costa that he was not wanted last summer, cost the club millions in lost transfer revenue and therefore amount to misconduct. Conte sent Costa a text message last June which included the words: “Hi Diego, Thank you, but you are not in my plans,” after the player had asked the manager for permission to return late for pre-season training.

Costa never played for Chelsea again after going AWOL and spending the summer in Brazil before eventually joining Atletico Madrid last September, although he was unable to play for the Spanish club until January because of their transfer embargo. Atletico paid £57.2 million for Costa, but Chelsea claimed that they would have received far more for the forward without Conte’s message leading to him effectively going on strike.

Conte’s view is that his message was inconsequential, as Costa had already been told by the club that he would be sold last summer having asked for a transfer on three previous occasions. The former Italy coach also claims he was provoked by Costa, who had responded curtly to a previous text from the head coach asking all his players to do some fitness training on their own during the close season. Costa, 29, had also been fined by the club and banned from training for two days by Conte the previous summer having said that he did not want to play for him.

Conte has not spoken since being sacked by Chelsea nine days ago other than a statement issued through the League Managers Association in which he thanked his “friends” at the club for their help during two seasons at Stamford Bridge.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/ch...-text-c05w2tj2s

The Chinese club never wanted to sell him in the first place. He was probably one of the few high profile signings from Europe who actually gave a shit and put in some effort so he's appreciated a lot more there.

Barca triggered his release clause and Paulinho wanted to return to Europe to boost his World Cup chances. Now that the World Cup is over, he's happy to return to China to continue raking in the cash when it's reported that the Chinese doubled his salary from before to tempt him to return.

Liverpool's world record fee for Alisson might not last long if this goes through.

Because Vecino is another former Sarri player, he was very good under Sarri a couple years ago.

Sarri loves signing former players because it takes awhile to adapt to Sarrismo. Sarri signed Hysaj and Zielinski when he got to Napoli. Now signed Jorginho and linked with Rugani, Higuain, Vecino, Reina etc.

Maurizio Sarri confirmed after tonight's friendly against Arsenal that Callum Hudson-Odoi will be a member of his squad for the forthcoming campaign.

The 17-year-old produced another excellent performance showcasing his speed, skill and vision, and Sarri spoke about him after the 1-1 draw.

'He will stay with us for all the season,' Sarri said. 'He is a very young player. We have to wait. In the future he will be a very, very strong player.'

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2018/8/1/...rsenal-friendly

But the fans didn't want him either.

[Matt Law] Exclusive: Courtois goes AWOL to try to force Chelsea exit.

[Matt Law] After not showing up at Wembley during the Community Shield, Courtois has not come to training today when Sarri hoped to talk to him about the situation, and he has not explained why.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/0...sea-exit-going/

Matt Law is very reliable for Chelsea, this is huge.

The irony, and guess who Chelsea are playing tomorrow?

As we’ve covered here many times, when Brazilian footballers attend ESPN’s show Resenha, they don’t really act as if they were in a regular interview.

In a more relaxed chat, they tell funny stories, and don’t mind saying things they wouldn’t say when speaking to the European press.

An episode with Willian has been aired on Sunday, and was probably recorded much earlier, as the player has been in London and even played for Chelsea at the weekend.

One of the questions asked by presenter André Plihal was about Willian’s future at Chelsea, and the player has confirmed he’s going nowhere: “I’m very happy at Chelsea and I intend to stay at the club. I also like to live in London, incredible city, family is also adapted, so I intend to continue at Chelsea.”

Then Willian was asked about the chance to work under Maurizio Sarri, who’s the most attacking manager he’s seen at the club: “I hope he’s not the same as Conte (laughs). I’m joking, I think Conte was a manager, for me, particularly, very difficult to work with. His philosophy, his logistics, to manage there, is very complicated.”

“I’ve had some games that you don’t understand, you’re playing very well and are taken out, you don’t understand, twice I headed out of the game and went straight to the dressing room. So it was a bit difficult working with him. But in life we learn from that too.”

Then he also told some funny stories from José Mourinho’s time at the club.

“We were losing 2-0 and Azpilicueta… Azpilicueta is the player who wants to show that he is strong. Sometimes he takes a push, you have to fall, right? But he doesn’t, wants to show he’s strong, wants to stand.

“Inside the box, that ball that the defender arrives a bit delayed, he touches the ball, the defender touches him, if he falls, penalty.

“He did not fall and crossed wrong. Mourinho on the bench: “F*** off, man. This is a penalty, man. F***ing dumb Azpi.”

“And in that same game, Falcao came in. Falcao came in, I came in, Ramires came in. We ended up tying this game 2-2. And in a play in a counter-attack, Falcao kind of messed up, made a wrong move. I was not on the bench, but the people on the bench said he said ‘F***, the guy isn’t playing shit and still muddles it!”

http://sportwitness.co.uk/willian-tells-br...nho-f-off-rant/

Apparently Navas wants to stay even if Courtois arrives. He wants to fight for his spot or at least get Champions League games.

Apart from Butland which is looking the most realistic at the moment, Chelsea are also freshly linked with Kepa.

He had a 20 million Euros release clause in January but extended his contract and increased to 80 million Euros now. Madrid was touted to make a move for him in January but Zidane decided against it to keep faith with Navas. Perhaps Chelsea should have had the foresight to move for Kepa then when it was pretty obvious Courtois was going to run his contract down to force a move. Kepa won't be sold for anything less than his release clause either because of Athletic Bilbao's transfer policy.