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flecky76

Chelsea dirty tricks campaign?

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The so called big clubs, in particular the Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, often use dirty tricks to secure their transfers. This is well known in Spain.

Think the transfer of Ronaldo to RM. a few years ago. That particular transfer spanned more than just one summer. They tried to unsettle the player sufficiently until Man Utd buckled.

Also think Cesc Fabregas. Exactly the same with Barca, for quite a few summers until they eventually got their man.

Barca are now doing exactly the same with Bale, and listening to the comments from Spanish experts like Gualliame Ballague and Graham Hunter, it''s clear that in order to secure these transfers, the buying clubs want the payer to hand in a transfer request and display his upset via the media that his current club is blocking his move, blah blah blah. All this to force and engineer the move away.

Interestingly with Bale, his concience does not make him willing to do this, despite being very keen on the move, which is why there appears to now be a stalling with his own move to RM.

These are just high profile examples but my understanding is that that there have been many others been going on for quite sometime. Think also Modric to RM, Henry and Mascherano to Barca.

Why do the buying clubs adopt this tactic? Well firstly the buying club is interested in a player from a club where only a very large fee would persuade that selling club into doing business. In other words, that club does not need the money and do not need to sell, so only what could be considered as a very handsome fee for that player would be acceptable.

In that scenario, the buying club then gets onto the player and tells him to send out these negative messages. The crux is that a player who no longer wants to be at his club, displaying frustration and worse case scenario, opts to ''go on strike'', will command a significantly lesser fee than one who is more than happy where he is.

Now bringing this back to Ruddy, Norwich and Chelsea, I''m thinking something similar could be going on here. A so called perfectly happy player where he is at present, though PERHAPS a player that WOULD indeed be keen on such a move. Not because he wants to get away from Norwich - no, not at all. But the chance to play in the Champions League and top PL matches? I''m sorry guys, but he''s GOT to be interested in that.

On the outside however, you would think that, while he might expect to be on the bench for a significant period, remembering that Chelsea played over 60 games last season compared to around Norwich''s 42. However, withis, you might expect any incomin backup keeper to see game time in perhaps around 25 games, which could still be enough for him to guarantee his England position. Do well and impress in these games and he could even be challenging Cech very soon on an even more regular basis. However, how likely and realistic is it that this 25 game target for any incoming backup keeper could be met?

Interestingly however, is that Chelsea also own one of Europe''s highest rated young keepers in Thibaut Cortois, who they are loaning to Atletico Madrid for about the 3rd consecutive season. Now, if the want a highly rated keeper to challenge Cech, why don''t they just call him back? For me, the reason why they don''t suggests to me that they don''t see Cech being left out too often. Cortois will demand regular first team football.

For the record, backup keepers over recent seasons for Chelsea were Ross Turnbull (former England youth player, 7 appearances in 4 years) and Hilario (20 appearances in 7 years). This doesn''t suggest Cech will be rotated. One big reason why Cortois won''t be recalled, as they simply cannot guarantee him the games.

Therefore, if they aren''t willing to bring back Cortois, they then still want a back-up keeper, without wishing to play him that often - Chelsea recent history does not suggest differently.

So, will they really be prepared to pay high price for just a backup keeper (and £12m tops would indeed be that for a keeper)? If they wanted a new keeper to seriously challenge Cech, then they probably would opt to meet the top price. But this is where I think their dirty tricks come in, as it''s my belief that they are trying get the player on the cheap - probably no more than £7m.

Read between the lines; SSN are onto this. Saying that the player wants out. Have they been fed information from Chelsea from with inside the club? Of course. If not, they would be doing their research and contacting Norwich also. They haven''t, as they are clearly onside with Chelsea here and trying to keep them sweet.

Look closely at McNally''s comments. "I haven''t been in talks with clubs about anyone leaving".

This suggest wholeheartedly that Chelsea cannot be arsed to do this ''the proper way'' and go direct to our CEO. No, Chelsea and Mourinho won''t give a monkeys about that. They''ll just want the player as cheap as possible.

And that means using a dirty tricks campaign via the media. I fully expect that next step to be put into Ruddy''s court. Will Chelsea make him speak out to force that move through, whether publically or privately?

If he doesn''t speak out, I severely doubt this transfer will go through, as otherwise that would leave Chelsea having to pay top whack, which I don''t think they want to do.

Who knows, there may have already been discussions between Ruddy and McNally, we just don''t know. Niether do we know what is included in Ruddys contract. Is there a top club release clause? Is there a minimum fee release? Who knows.

But for me, Ruddy strikes me more as a Bale. He has a concience and for that, I see it very difficult for him to want to rock the boat in order to force through a move. He has nothing to warrant such action towards Norwich.

But the next move will be interesting here on so many levels.

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Nice piece. Just to add that I don''t think this kind of skulduggery is solely practised by the clubs at the top of the football food chain! I suspect it goes on most of the way down, although I am sure we have never behaved in such a reprehensible fashion...

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Good analysis of buying (attacking) club tactics. Selling club (defending) tactics in this case is a repeated politician''s straight bat endeavouring (a la McNally tweets) to force the buyer into holding (or trying to hold) formal talks (at the sellers framework price), knowing that this will be avoided as far as possible by the buyer. The defender also in effect then de-facto "challenges" the player to break silence, whilst also dragging the affair out for as long as possible, hoping that attacker will explore other avenues or come up with an unrefusable bid.

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Of course there have been dirty tricks. Suddenly the media are all saying the same - a bid of £5m was made and turned down, now Chelsea are coming back with a bigger offer. The agent or the Chelsea publicity team have been working overtime, and misleading. There have been no bids, and in this I believe McN and CH. Of course there could have been informal approaches, to try to discover what the minimum will be necessary to get Ruddy''s signature.

 

Any and all of the big teams use this, and also a statement from the manager, "I am targeting XXXXX", which reinforces the whole thing. It can only work for the top teams which are attractive because of the possibility of European football. There is no way that CR could do it currently, except possibly to lower league players, offering a first step into the Premiership.

 

I think that this one reason why we never quite know which players we are evaluating, until everything is signed and sealed. The other reason is that we do not wish to alert competitors. The selling clubs, of course, want competition to drive up prices, and most rapid leaks come from their end. It is to the credit of some with whom we have dealt that they have respected confidentiality.

 

I''m afraid that clubs where most players want to go, for medals, Europe and high pay, will usually get their man at a discount, because the player has become excited and unsettled. It''s a dog eat dog world out there and almost anything goes. I think that our chances of keeping Ruddy are very small, as our chances of  getting £10m. It was also hinted that Chelsea are thinking of perhaps £5m with add-ons or £2m, depending on appearances, etc. To find a replacement of similar value, we would have use our own capital to supplement the up-front fee, in effect making them a loan. We might or might not get the add-ons!

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[quote user="Salopian"]I think that our chances of keeping Ruddy are very small, as our chances of  getting £10m. It was also hinted that Chelsea are thinking of perhaps £5m with add-ons or £2m, depending on appearances, etc. [/quote]Not sure I agree with this Salopian. Already this window we''ve seen Mignolet go for £11m, Ruddy is of similar quality, has a long contract, is English, and is wanted by a club that has more money than sense. These factors would suggest that Ruddy''s value is £11m minimum.I expect that the move will not go through unless Ruddy kicks up a fuss, and if he does, I fully trust McNally to make sure we get the right price.

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Excellent analysis Salopian. It think that ''dirty tricks'' have certainly been used by Chelsea. The press might have gone for the rumoured interest approach as a speculation, but they would not have made up the £5m ''bid'', and here''s the clever bit, ''that was knocked back by Norwich''. I also believe CH and McNally when they say no bid has been received for any player, so Chelsea are clearly spreading lies to unsettle Ruddy, who was meant to pop up and say that City are being unreasonable for asking too high a price (like Toivonen did after Fulham''s £2m offer). I think it will come down to whether Ruddy is willing to join in on the ''dirty tricks'' campaign or not. I don''t think he will, but only time will tell.

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Nah.

No way is Ruddy good enough to warrant such attention from Chelsea when they have a great number 1 already.

There only tactic with us will be throw money at us. We won''t refuse anything over 8m and Ruddy won''t be begging to go on the bench.... unless he fancies the high pay

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