Official: Christopher Nkunku to join Chelsea on 6 Year Contract

[JaneB]

Nkunku to join Chelsea | News | Official Site | Chelsea Football Club (chelseafc.com)

Another false dawn?  Really hope not.

[Sleeping Dave]

Welcome! Hopefully not as a direct replacement for Mount. If so, he’ll have rather large boots to fill. 

[exiledblue]

Welcome, hope he doesnt turn our another Werner who also arrived with good stas.

Surprised this is news today as i thought this was agreed in January.

[thevelourfog]

Fingers very much burned by recent acquisitions from the Bundesliga and ... Well, almost every attacking player signed in the last decade! But on paper and in the little I've seen, he looks excellent and this seems a steal. Rooting for you, Nkunku!

[Bob Singleton]

1 minute ago, exiledblue said:

Welcome, hope he doesnt turn our another Werner who also arrived with good stas.

Surprised this is news today as i thought this was agreed in January.

It's "news" today because it's the first time that all three parties (Leipzig, Chelsea and Nkunku) have officially announced the deal.
Until now it was the worst kept 'secret' in football, but bar a few senior figures at Leipzig saying he was Chelsea bound, nothing was official.

[xceleryx]

Good signing and I think he'll do better than some of our other Bundesliga acquisitions. He's a far more dynamic type of player in comparison to some of the others and I see him slotting in nicely just in behind a striker. Will add some flair, speed and creativity in that final third, plus makes quick and calculated decisions. 

Looking forward to seeing what he does under Poch moving forward.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

I'm confident to say we have ourselves a quality player here that will probably be able to win us games out of nothing, based on what I have read. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Seems like a good signing, from what I’ve seen of him he look a very good player… but as others have said, we’ve seen good players from the German league before and it’s not always worked out.

[Bert19]

Good news! Welcome Christopher! 

Quite excited about this one - hope he will be a big success here. 

[Michael Tucker]

I think that he is an excellent signing. A really good player, and just the sort we need. Well done people!

[Bert19]

What do we reckon then? Will he be wearing the #10 next season? 

[Bob Singleton]

32 minutes ago, Bert19 said:

What do we reckon then? Will he be wearing the #10 next season? 

He seems to favour 18 (currently Broja's number). It was his number at Leipzig and it was the number he requested (but didn't always get) when he got selected for the national squad.

[Bert19]

20 minutes ago, Bob Singleton said:

He seems to favour 18 (currently Broja's number). It was his number at Leipzig and it was the number he requested (but didn't always get) when he got selected for the national squad.

Seems like he could have his choice this summer - #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 all likely to be available! Not sure he's a #9 though - more suited to the 10 I reckon.

 

[Bob Singleton]

1 minute ago, Bert19 said:

Seems like he could have his choice this summer - #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 all likely to be available! Not sure he's a #9 though - more suited to the 10 I reckon.

 

It also depends on his ego, too. Hazard eventually got 10 (from 17) and wore it well. Then Willian asked for 10 when Hazard left and wore it well. Then when he left, Pulisic asked for and got 10 without ever once deserving it. But his ego required him to have it. Let's wait and see what Nkunku goes with.

[Ham]

Sky Sports News reporting on our updated spend today following the Nkunku deal being announced even though they already included his fee in the last window.   Also they've gone with all of the fees after add-ons for added effect.  

Our sports journalists are truly shit. 

[Sleeping Dave]

20 minutes ago, Ham said:

Sky Sports News reporting on our updated spend today following the Nkunku deal being announced even though they already included his fee in the last window.   Also they've gone with all of the fees after add-ons for added effect.  

Our sports journalists are truly shit. 

I read an article which called for an independent inquiry because of the gross overprice the Saudis are paying for Koulibaly (£25m). 

That’s his remaining book value so I’m not sure how it can be deemed as excessive? As long as the club is receiving BV or close to it there is no way they can be punished. 

FYI, I think City have been responsible for shady transfer dealings for a long time, where they’ve sold players for a lot more than expected (so think they reimburse the buying club through associated companies). 

[Ham]

3 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

I read an article which called for an independent inquiry because of the gross overprice the Saudis are paying for Koulibaly (£25m). 

That’s his remaining book value so I’m not sure how it can be deemed as excessive? As long as the club is receiving BV or close to it there is no way they can be punished. 

FYI, I think City have been responsible for shady transfer dealings for a long time, where they’ve sold players for a lot more than expected (so think they reimburse the buying club through associated companies). 

Yeah I saw the suggested transfer fees and none of them appeared OTT. 

On the contrary, I thought we could have asked more for Mendy and Ziyech. 

[Mark Kelly]

26 minutes ago, Ham said:

Yeah I saw the suggested transfer fees and none of them appeared OTT. 

On the contrary, I thought we could have asked more for Mendy and Ziyech. 

They're Arabs not idiots. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

4 hours ago, Ham said:

Sky Sports News reporting on our updated spend today following the Nkunku deal being announced even though they already included his fee in the last window.   Also they've gone with all of the fees after add-ons for added effect.  

Our sports journalists are truly shit. 

Activists, not journalists. 

[Thiago97]

Delighted we have signed him and been able to confirm this deal. My expectations are very high with Nkunku, I believe we have signed one of the most talented forwards in European football here. I watched him on 6-7 occassions last season, mostly in the CL and he stood out as arguably the best player on the pitch in most of these games.

Given a period of time to settle in and acclimatise to the PL, I think we will have one of the most feared and versatile forwards in the league. Fast forward to May next season and I fully expect  he will be Chelsea player of the season and £52 million will look a bargain.

Personally, he is comfortably our most exciting signing for probably around 5-6 seasons.

[RDCW]

7 minutes ago, Thiago97 said:

Delighted we have signed him and been able to confirm this deal. My expectations are very high with Nkunku, I believe we have signed one of the most talented forwards in European football here. I watched him on 6-7 occassions last season, mostly in the CL and he stood out as arguably the best player on the pitch in most of these games.

Given a period of time to settle in and acclimatise to the PL, I think we will have one of the most feared and versatile forwards in the league. Fast forward to May next season and I fully expect  he will be Chelsea player of the season and £52 million will look a bargain.

Personally, he is comfortably our most exciting signing for probably around 5-6 seasons.

High praise indeed! I look forward to seeing him in blue.

[chara]

7 hours ago, Thiago97 said:

Delighted we have signed him and been able to confirm this deal. My expectations are very high with Nkunku, I believe we have signed one of the most talented forwards in European football here. I watched him on 6-7 occassions last season, mostly in the CL and he stood out as arguably the best player on the pitch in most of these games.

Given a period of time to settle in and acclimatise to the PL, I think we will have one of the most feared and versatile forwards in the league. Fast forward to May next season and I fully expect  he will be Chelsea player of the season and £52 million will look a bargain.

Personally, he is comfortably our most exciting signing for probably around 5-6 seasons.

Thanks for the very positive heads up based on watching him play rather than the often misleading cursed "highlights" reels.

The rub for me is the highlighted part above....how long is long enough?...KK.."needs time to adjust"...(experienced player)... and on...DD wasn't an instant full blooded success but his progression was there to be seen...others not so much! Diego?....from the start got stuck in and did the job from day one.

Every player is different and I hope the lad will be seen to settle in the EPL quickly ....

[kev61]

11 hours ago, chara said:

Thanks for the very positive heads up based on watching him play rather than the often misleading cursed "highlights" reels.

The rub for me is the highlighted part above....how long is long enough?...KK.."needs time to adjust"...(experienced player)... and on...DD wasn't an instant full blooded success but his progression was there to be seen...others not so much! Diego?....from the start got stuck in and did the job from day one.

Every player is different and I hope the lad will be seen to settle in the EPL quickly ....

Every time I've watched him play(mostly highlights) he looks in a different class(I rarely say that).

My enthusiasm  is tempered by the fact we have signed so many duds with potential in the past at a huge cost.

In my defense I had never watched most of the duds before they signed.

He could start like Mudryk but I have faith in both.

[xceleryx]

12 hours ago, chara said:

Thanks for the very positive heads up based on watching him play rather than the often misleading cursed "highlights" reels.

The rub for me is the highlighted part above....how long is long enough?...KK.."needs time to adjust"...(experienced player)... and on...DD wasn't an instant full blooded success but his progression was there to be seen...others not so much! Diego?....from the start got stuck in and did the job from day one.

Every player is different and I hope the lad will be seen to settle in the EPL quickly ....

I don't think there's a blanket rule for all.  Age, experience, role in the side, talent, potential, and alike all play a factor in the sort of time you give a player to settle.  In saying that, I do think you have to give a player in most cases a full season of leeway. We've seen it time and time again that a player doesn't quite hit the high notes in their first season, more so if arriving from a different league, but manage to find their feet in their second year and kick on. There's exceptions to this of course, but that's generally always been my rule of thumb. 

For example I'd have had no issues giving Koulibaly a second season, I thought he was looking a lot better in the second half of last season and had some really strong performances. Had he been on less money I believe he'd have been retained, so understand why we've moved him on as quickly as we have. Someone like Cucurella, another that's divided options, I think needs a second season after a difficult transition here - on and off the pitch. There is a good player in there, maybe not a top tier option, but certainly good enough to play an important enough role. 

Bringing this back around to Nkunku, one other aspect I like about him is the fact he looks built for the Premier League. He's not some lightweight attacker that's going to need to come to terms with the physicality of the league, he's played in France prior which is also a physical league in its own way and then obviously a more open Bundesliga. I can see him settling in quicker than some of the others, but also happy to still give him that leeway if needed. 

Edited June 22, 2023 by xceleryx

[ROTG]

I would be interested to know who sold Nkunku the club, as it seems Poch has never spoken to him.

I wonder if the word project was mentioned to him?