I don't doubt that Conor is our number one target and for us to be pursuing him, he must have given some sort of indication that he would be open to it.

However, I just can't see it happening at all.

Firstly, £40m as mooted at on here is astronomical, even with England tax, for a player who has only had one decent season with us. If you consider that just this window Jesus was £45m, Phillips £43m, Lewandowski £40m, Chiesa £36m, Bissouma £26m and Zinchenko £30m - all seasoned pro's that have won things or proven themselves at international level for multiple years. for a club of our size, it's too much money and he'd have to be closer to £20-25m.

If he does become available, you'd have to think that there will be clubs that come in for him that are much more capable of helping him meet his ambitions. Teams like Dortmund etc. who could offer European football.

If the 90min article is true, then the fact he turned down West Ham must be for one of two reasons, he doesn't want to go out on loan again or he's been told he will get the opportunity he wants at Chelsea. He'd have been perfect for West Ham with Rice and Soucek behind him and they are a club on the up. If they come back with a permanent offer then you'd think he'd pick that over us.

As much as he loved his time here, it's clear he's ambitious as demostrated by his desire to fight for his place at Chelsea. You'd have to assume that would then play a part in his next move.

If a loan is the only option, I'd rather not have him as we'll only be in this situation again next year. I also don't think he and Eze can play in the same team without massively compromising one if not both of their strengths in asking them to contribute more defensively. I'd rather we try to improve our own player in Eze if a loan is the only option and then bring in someone more aligned to our needs like Berge or Gilmour etc.

It's a dangerous tactic from the club if they are holding out for him later in the window as the risk is that another club comes in that can offer more than us, like European football etc. as much as I'd love him back, I think the needs of the overall team would be better served by using the budget on 2-3 more players than all on him and neglect the other areas of the pitch we so desperately need additions in.

Very much agree with all of that. Especially the Connor vs Eze.

Unless we can sign Connor, which wont happen. We need to compliment the players we have. Eze is hugely talented we need to get hte best out of him.

Surely he is just as likely to get what he is owed whilst playing for another club as he is continuing to run up debts at Barca

I am at a complete loss to understand the whole Barca situation -
They publicly declare that they cant pay their players, sell Messi to recoup losses & get him off the books (along with other players) they dont live up to their contracts with existing players (this De Jong being owned £ Millions & how many more are there) they cant register new players because of their financial situation yet they continue to buy players like Raphina from Leeds who even said he preferred to go to Barcelona rather than Chelsea when Chelsea are a club who can actually afford to make good on their financial commitments - the whole thing seems ridiculous

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It's worse than that. Barcelona have sold something like 35% of their future TV earning for a lump sum now to try and dig themselves out of this mess. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Edited by Badger11 (11 Aug 2022 8.26am)

One more point

I am at a complete loss to understand the whole Barca situation -
They publicly declare that they cant pay their players, sell Messi to recoup losses & get him off the books (along with other players) they dont live up to their contracts with existing players (this De Jong being owned £ Millions & how many more are there) they cant register new players because of their financial situation yet they continue to buy players like Raphina from Leeds who even said he preferred to go to Barcelona rather than Chelsea when Chelsea are a club who can actually afford to make good on their financial commitments - the whole thing seems ridiculous