As I’m sure you ALL saw, cfcnewspage put out quite a significant update on Erling Haaland yesterday, but not really significant in terms of what is happening, but more in terms of the small details.
If you didn’t see it, here it is..
He got some stick for the bit about agent fees, so he clarified that later on..
Now, on his reliability, I’m not here to try and convince anyone, but as you all know he writes updates for this site based on his own info, so I do trust what he gets.
Anyone who has been following his Instagram page over recent months will see that more often than not he gets it right (nobody can be 100%, that is impossible). To me, he has proven with his early team news, injury news, Cobham news, and transfer news, that we should probably at least listen to what he reports.
There’s been a lot of negativity and doubt on Twitter since his report, which is totally fine (imagine my shock - arguments, abuse, and negativity on Twitter, that NEVER happens). Some people spend far too much time on that app and take everything far too seriously, but that’s for another day.
Anyways, I’ve had people asking me to clarify what cfcnewspage said, or if I believe it etc.
I trust what he says, I’ve had no reason as of now, to doubt it. That is the first thing I’ll say.
Secondly, the update is pretty much what we have seen over the last few weeks being reported anyway and it is the last update that I’ve been given on it a few weeks ago, just with a lot more details.
He isn’t saying Erling Haaland WILL sign for Chelsea, he is just, in a nutshell, saying that Chelsea are preparing an offer, which we all already knew, no? Even the likes of Jan Aage Fjortoft, who is close with Haaland’s father, has said this. So get off with your ‘fake news’ on that one, it’s clearly legit. Why no offer yet? There probably has been, it’s just probably been in silence, and in the form of a verbal proposal rather than an official offer.
That was the last I got told when I asked about the situation weeks ago, and when I asked recently from the same reliable source, he actually told me he believes that Romelu Lukaku is more likely than Haaland right now because he doesn’t think Dortmund will accept any offers from Chelsea unless it’s over £150m straight up fee, which will be very VERY tough, but perhaps not impossible.
All the noise around Lukaku is obviously that he is staying at Inter Milan, but even still we know Chelsea have been having positive talks behind the scenes with his agent, so that is why I’m never ruling that one out. The reliable Matt Law of The Telegraph has also said pretty much the same thing on Lukaku, so he is clearly having the same feeling there.
However, IF Chelsea do make this offer to Dortmund for Haaland, there is a chance they accept, purely due to the fact that they will lose him for half that amount next summer, so again, this is certainly still a do-able deal.
BOTH are being worked on, and believe me, there will be more strikers with the foundations being laid on as well just in case.
No matter what you might hear out there, Chelsea DO do their deals in as much silence as possible, but things DO also get leaked, and quite often it is the insiders that get it, as they are the hardest to control.
Not one Journalist knew about Chelsea selling Marc Guehi to Crystal Palace until the day he had his medical there, just think about that. You think that deal wasn’t being worked on for at least a few weeks before that? Then more fool you. It was kept under wraps successfully.
And finally, one thing about ‘offers’. Just because you are hearing that Chelsea are preparing or making an offer - said offer does not always mean an official offer, more often than not it will be a proposal on the table to test the waters, try and gauge whether a deal is do-able or not. A club can make a verbal proposal without it being an official offer, it’s totally normal.
Remember Sky Germany reporting Chelsea made an offer for Haaland a week or so ago? That was soon debunked that it wasn’t an offer, which it probably wasn’t, but there was clearly some sort of proposal being put to Dortmund that they got wind off, it wasn’t plucked from nowhere!
I’ve been struggling to get any further details on Haaland right now, now I don’t know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but in my experience (Pulisic, Ziyech, etc), it could well be a good thing.
As I’ve always said, the stars have been aligning for this for weeks now, and there are a lot of things that have been said/gone on that might point towards something is really going on here.
Simon Phillips
Excellent insights Simon !!! It's as honest as can be. If some people are still complaining even with this level of forthright talk, they probably complain about a lot of things anyway ! As we sometimes say to people who tend to go overboard with their obsession in sports rumors and gossip: "get a life" ! LOL !!!
Excellent precis. Most business deals are proposals/verbals/MOUs with many versions on cash and instalments etc (eg Man Utd fee structure for Sacho) and if agreed by selling party then a formal offer follows with lawyers. Why can't fans understand this?