Silva 'hopeful' over Zouma situation

Interesting... wonder who he has in mind?

Nice.

No good just buying bodies though, imo we need more quality than quantity, I'd like to see us strengthen our attack (as most blues would), we may need replacement for Gana and Gomes in CM, especially if Schneiderlin, McCarthy and Besic are moved on, but after that I cant see much else.

RB seems a position being branded about, but I'd only like this done if we were to buy a top top RB as Coleman is no mug, and JJ and Holgate should be backup more so than another Martina style back up player.

Dont get me wrong, we can clearly always strengthen, but unless we spend big then we cant get a lot better than we already have, going from 8th to 4th (and staying there) is done with a huge increase in quality.

It would be a monumental loss to a defence that had finally started to look really solid for once if we fail to add Zouma, I believe this was a bigger priority than Gomes even.

For me Zouma is the closest thing we've had since Distin was here to be being that beast, a man mountain of pace and athletism.

Mina, until he proves he can actually stay fit for more than two weeks, the jury is out and I've never been convinced about Holgate, physicality or temperament wise to deal with the Premier League.

My abiding memory of Holgate is him being totally bullied out of the game in last seasons 3-1 home loss to West Ham.

As for Zouma I hope it either gets done soon or that we move on. CB pairings take a time to build and if its not going to be Zouma then we need pre-season to start trying out Keane and Mina or Keane and whoever the Zouma alternative is.

Surely Lampard has a good idea of his abilities. Shouldn't take that long to work out.

If it's not to be Zouma then I really think it needs to be someone with a bit of acceleration to make up for Keane/Mina. Mario Hermoso at Espanyol could be good, not the tallest but very quick, very good on the ball and an excellent defender.

As for the 3 more players I expect to see a RW, a ST and maybe a RB or another CM.

Dream for me is:
Zouma
Malcom/Neres
Rafael Leao/Moise Kean
Ibrahim Sangare

Holgate can drop his shoulder and pass a lovely ball into midfield though.

At best we can maybe strike a deal to sign him when the ban is lifted in Jan or next June. If that's the case we may get a quality loan centre-back in for the season.

I might be wrong here, but there's nothing (I believe) stopping Chelski doing a deal with another club under the proviso that it might be ripped up if that ruling goes against them?

As I said I might be wrong though.

Mina BIG?
Keane is OK but he needs to play with a better centre back to cover for his weaknesses ie lack of pace, strength and positioning.

Another 3 or 4 to strengthen.. Sounds promising. Hopefully it's additions and not to replace Gana, Ric, Digne etc.

Where we competed against and often lost to the likes of Newcastle we are now doing the same in competition with the top six

That sounds like curtains for us then. Can't imagine Zouma is going to beg to leave Chelsea.

I think Brands/Silva need to start putting plan b into action. I wonder who is next on the list?

I just cant see this happening before the start of the season and just hope we have a plan B which is not Mina, Holgate and Keane.

We need a different plan for CB now. If we can bring in a top quality CB and striker, and retain Gueye, we can be very hopeful for the season ahead. I'm not sure if that will be possible whilst we still hang on to deadwood like Bolasie and McCarthy (no offence intended for McCarthy fans, but we have Gomes, Gueye, Delph, Schneiderlina and Davies ahead of him). Wasting so much money without a plan in the pre-Silva post-Martinez years may cost us this window. It will be a shame if so because United, Arsenal, and Chelsea sides in transition look vulnerable. Let's hope that the final weeks of the window brings better news and that Gueye is still an Everton player by the time it all kicks off again.