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Antonio Rudiger

It really sucks that we are about to lose him. He's had an outstanding season, probably the best of his career, and we will seriously struggle to replace him. There is nobody better in the position he plays right now.

Sorting the next owner out is first priority, but it's an annoying distraction because losing 3 regular starters could seriously hurt our chances of making any progress next season before it even begins.

 
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"Reported" that the deal with Juve is £5.4m a year for 4 years, which is almost the same as he is on now (£5.2m as per Sportrac.com ), so that's got to be a load of bo**ocks surely ?

 
There is a huge gap to be filled now in defence. Toni, Christensen and Azpi out, Thiago Silva soon to be 38. Not only we'll lose a few top defenders, but some huge personalities, too, Toni and Azpi are some of the leaders of that squad. Especially Rudiger whose leadership on the pitch is second to none, first no nonsense defender since JT to throw his head into every tackle not giving a single f**k. And always first into every fight to defend his teammates and club colours.

Hopefully there is one last roll of a dice and the new owners will give him a new deal, I think Toni could play like he is now for at least 3 more seasons.

 
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I would be very surprised if any of these 3 guys signs for some other club before the new owner is confirmed. The statements of all serious candidates have implied they're very keen to start on good terms with the fans, and the photo of Azpi, Rüdiger and Christensen holding up their shirt would be a massive entrance for them. The three of them must be aware of that, and how it fundamentally changes their bargaining position. 

Besides, paying Rüdiger 2XXk/week wouldn't be unreasonable at all. It's a well established narrative that Kanté is our one truly world class player, but I simply don't believe it to be true any more. Rüdiger and Silva have been among the top 5 / top 10 of centre backs for quite a while now, and Rüdiger recently looked no less comfortable in a 4 either. He's an absolute beast and offers attributes no other player on his position does. Really hoping for this to work out in the end

 
I'd be very happy if the new owners retains him. Azpi should be going back to Spain after a glittering career with us, he deserves it. Christensen just doesn't seem like he wants to play for us anymore bar any new negotiation. 

Rudi has a wage issue which is easily fixed if the new owner wants to

 
It’s everywhere that he’s off to Juventus, a shadow of the team it was, poor by us if it’s true, best defender since JT

 
If I was Rudiger I would wait as long as I can. This situation we are in is so unclear. Maybe the new owners come in and give a good impression and Rudi wants to tie himself to the project. 

 
Don't believe the Juve reports. Two months ago he had signed for Madrid and was on £400k a week. All noise, Rudi has all the power why would he rush into a decision now of all times. He and his agent will wait to see how this situation plays out. Supposedly we had actually agreed a deal before all of this war and subsequent ownership problems kicked off. 

Personally I think he stays Christensen and Azpil are off, I think Azpil could still stay but only if he wants to. He's earned the right to that decision and even if he hadn't been such a good servant for the club we don't hold players against their will.

 
Due to the amount of money he personally gets from a free realistically means he's gone.

As long as its abroad I'm resigned to him going.

 
Man I'm really starting to get triggered by Barca, sure you could say they're just doing what any other club would do in their situation, but it still feels underhanded.

Surely when we get the new owners we offer all our defenders at least something good enough to get them to the negotiation table.

Ohhh how I'd love to resign all 3 and take Dembele off them now just for the principle.

Yet the blame has to fall on the board for this, Azpil wanted more than 1 year we only offered the 1, Christensen and Rudi rightly so wanted the kind of money Werner is on and we said no. Where is the logic and now if given the chance I assume the board would give them the deals they want. Not signing Koundé in the summer was such a big mistake. 

I'm not on the Lukaku hate train but surely resigning all the players that helped us win the ucl (the impenetrable backline) plus adding to it (Koundé) was the right decision considering the contract decision. Its so infuriating that we're in this position for clubs like Barca that was washed up 6 months ago to profit from our boards incompetence.

 
LongtimerLurker said:
Man I'm really starting to get triggered by Barca, sure you could say they're just doing what any other club would do in their situation, but it still feels underhanded.

Surely when we get the new owners we offer all our defenders at least something good enough to get them to the negotiation table.

Ohhh how I'd love to resign all 3 and take Dembele off them now just for the principle.

Yet the blame has to fall on the board for this, Azpil wanted more than 1 year we only offered the 1, Christensen and Rudi rightly so wanted the kind of money Werner is on and we said no. Where is the logic and now if given the chance I assume the board would give them the deals they want. Not signing Koundé in the summer was such a big mistake. 

I'm not on the Lukaku hate train but surely resigning all the players that helped us win the ucl (the impenetrable backline) plus adding to it (Koundé) was the right decision considering the contract decision. Its so infuriating that we're in this position for clubs like Barca that was washed up 6 months ago to profit from our boards incompetence.
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You can’t do that though; just because you signed a big money player who is underperforming, you can’t keep renewing contracts at his wages. What next then; do we pay James & Mount at the same rate as Lukaku? Players always move for a multiple of their prior contract, I just think a section of fans are fixated on Lukaku’s, Werner’s & CHO’s wages. We are also paying Chiwell more than 2x his Leicester’s wages.  
 

Personally wouldn’t get worked up about players ending up at Barca as their finances are a mess, the are only attractive to them because they are freebies. Rudiger for example was linked to Bayern, Madrid & PSG earlier in the season, wonder what went wrong there? If he had ended up at any of those teams, that would have had me worried. 

 
By the sounds of things the takeover won't be done until end of April or in to May. I don't expect Toni, Dave or AC, or anyone else out of contract for that matter, to hang about.

Just hope we continue to see their best this season, maybe it will be enough to add the FA Cup to a really good season so far.

 
mojo said:
despicable c**ts
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Not really, it's really good business. I don't blame them and would be praising our board if they managed to pull off something like that. It's the boards fault that we are in this position, they had plenty of time to sort this situation out and they blew it. Since last season there has been speculation that Christensen and Rudiger wouldn't sign extentions and that Azpi was looking to go home for one last hurrah in Spain, that right there should have been the kick up the ass we needed to bring in Kounde. But instead, we waited too long and gave Sevilla no chance to find a replacement, so they said no.

Things are worse than ever now because of what is going on with Roman Abramovich. I won't blame the board for that, nobody expected that to happen, but I do blame them for a lack of foresight when it comes to our defence. At the end of last season, we were looking at losing 4 first team defenders by the end of the next season, that alone should have forced their hand and get the deal for Kounde done as soon as possible. 

Potentially, we could be going into next season with James, Chilwell, Alonso, Chalobah, Sarr, Silva and a bunch of kids. Only 3 of them are good enough for a title challenging team, and one of them is going to need time to get back up to speed after a long period out injured. We will need a back up RB, a new CB or 2 and ideally, Alonso replaced. It's a very tough ask to do all of this in one window, even more so now that we don't even know when we can opporate as normal again. Luckily, we can bring back a player like Levi Colwill, but I am not sure how I feel about have Chalobah, Sarr and Colwill in the team together, no disrespect to any of them, but they are all a big step down from Christensen and especially Rudiger. Even having one of them playing a large chunk of games a season could lose us a lot of points.

 
Scott Harris said:
Not really, it's really good business. I don't blame them and would be praising our board if they managed to pull off something like that. It's the boards fault that we are in this position, they had plenty of time to sort this situation out and they blew it. Since last season there has been speculation that Christensen and Rudiger wouldn't sign extentions and that Azpi was looking to go home for one last hurrah in Spain, that right there should have been the kick up the ass we needed to bring in Kounde. But instead, we waited too long and gave Sevilla no chance to find a replacement, so they said no.

Things are worse than ever now because of what is going on with Roman Abramovich. I won't blame the board for that, nobody expected that to happen, but I do blame them for a lack of foresight when it comes to our defence. At the end of last season, we were looking at losing 4 first team defenders by the end of the next season, that alone should have forced their hand and get the deal for Kounde done as soon as possible. 

Potentially, we could be going into next season with James, Chilwell, Alonso, Chalobah, Sarr, Silva and a bunch of kids. Only 3 of them are good enough for a title challenging team, and one of them is going to need time to get back up to speed after a long period out injured. We will need a back up RB, a new CB or 2 and ideally, Alonso replaced. It's a very tough ask to do all of this in one window, even more so now that we don't even know when we can opporate as normal again. Luckily, we can bring back a player like Levi Colwill, but I am not sure how I feel about have Chalobah, Sarr and Colwill in the team together, no disrespect to any of them, but they are all a big step down from Christensen and especially Rudiger. Even having one of them playing a large chunk of games a season could lose us a lot of points.
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Sometimes a player needs a lot of loans to get up to speed, sometimes only one, like Reece.

Colwill has been compared a lot to Reece, I think he will do a fine job if given a chance.

Cannot also forget that, while they are not defenders, we also have Gallagher and Broja will certainly enhance the squad coming in for free.

Is it a real shame to lose Toni, AC and Dave? Sure is Toni is in top form, AC is looking a proper defender and Dave never let's you down. Just means the new owners need to work with Big Pete and TT to make the right calls in getting replacements in to support Silva.

 
Gutted about the prospect of losing Rudiger, since Tuchel has took over he’s been brilliant and his personality would be sorely missed. I just hope he waits until we get new owners (which according to Fabrizio Romano is what he’s doing) and see what we offer him.

 
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