Squad Status: 2024/25 Season

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, Bison said:

 

Worms. 

[Bison]

8 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Worms. 

Dumb and dumber are desperate to sell so will tank his value in the process. 

[Floyd25]

2 hours ago, Bison said:

 

Ridiculous way to treat him, for a start he has a contract running until 2028 and they’re trying to force him out, going over the coaches head. 

[hallgalley]

From the squad announced this leaves some ideas no  Chalobah but also no Gilchrist Humphrey’s  Casadei , Anjorin  Vale  DD Fofana, Wahington  Dujuan Richard’s and Diego morriera or Omari kellyman

Edited July 22 by hallgalley
Forgot new signing kellyman

[chiswickblue]

I'm expecting Fofana to go down injured in the second training session and an emergency call will go out for Chalobah.

28 players already travelled and the likes of Petrovic, Cucurella, Gallagher, Caicedo, Fernandez (we'll see) and Palmer to join up probably ahead of the Man City game.

About 5-6 of that 28 will be loaned or sold by the end of August and others will be with the 21s.

[Floyd25]

1 hour ago, hallgalley said:

no Gilchrist Humphrey’s  Casadei , Anjorin  Vale  DD Fofana, Wahington  Dujuan Richard’s and Diego morriera or Omari kellyman

Most of those will be on the loan list I’m sure, apart from 3 or 4 who we’ll move on, like Vale, Anjorin, Fofana and maybe Casadei or Humphrey’s. 

[xceleryx]

5 hours ago, Floyd25 said:

Ridiculous way to treat him, for a start he has a contract running until 2028 and they’re trying to force him out, going over the coaches head. 

A contact current ownership gave him.

Personally don't see what the grand fuss over selling Chalobah is, I've yet to see one compelling argument that highlights why he should be kept outside of being an academy product. He's the definition of an average defender with no standout skillset or unique ability beyond arguably his versatility. 

• Average general passer that does an awful job of progressing the ball.
• Terrible in the air for a CB that is 6ft+ - winning less than 50% of his aerial duels across his career.
• A more reactive defending style leading to a below par return in interceptions as he doesn't read play well. 
• Isn't a strong carrier of the ball, which also ties into his unimpressive progressive passing.

Irrespective of what some may think of our other CB options, it's not enough justification to raise Chalobah's stock or paint him as a genuine first choice candidate. 

Solid squad/utility type, but also a dime a dozen type of player that is ultimately not difficult to replace either. 

[Floyd25]

46 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

A contact current ownership gave him.

Personally don't see what the grand fuss over selling Chalobah is, I've yet to see one compelling argument that highlights why he should be kept outside of being an academy product. He's the definition of an average defender with no standout skillset or unique ability beyond arguably his versatility. 

• Average general passer that does an awful job of progressing the ball.
• Terrible in the air for a CB that is 6ft+ - winning less than 50% of his aerial duels across his career.
• A more reactive defending style leading to a below par return in interceptions as he doesn't read play well. 
• Isn't a strong carrier of the ball, which also ties into his unimpressive progressive passing.

Irrespective of what some may think of our other CB options, it's not enough justification to raise Chalobah's stock or paint him as a genuine first choice candidate. 

Solid squad/utility type, but also a dime a dozen type of player that is ultimately not difficult to replace either. 

I know that you’ve never rated him and I respect your opinion on that, I personally think he did a very solid job for us last season when called upon, so not a genuine first choice option? Disagree on that one, the others aren’t any better than him in my opinion. I take your point on him not being dominant enough in the air and look, I’m not 100 percent against selling him if I’m honest, but I do not agree with him being left out of the pre season squad.

Replacing him with Tosin is a like for like switch and not a real upgrade, we needed a top tier centre back to replace Silva and we haven’t done that. 

Edited July 23 by Floyd25

[Sleeping Dave]

14 hours ago, Bison said:

 

 

13 hours ago, Bison said:

Dumb and dumber are desperate to sell so will tank his value in the process. 

They are genuine idiots. I’ll cherish the day when they leave our club. 

5 hours ago, xceleryx said:

A contact current ownership gave him.

Personally don't see what the grand fuss over selling Chalobah is, I've yet to see one compelling argument that highlights why he should be kept outside of being an academy product. He's the definition of an average defender with no standout skillset or unique ability beyond arguably his versatility. 

• Average general passer that does an awful job of progressing the ball.
• Terrible in the air for a CB that is 6ft+ - winning less than 50% of his aerial duels across his career.
• A more reactive defending style leading to a below par return in interceptions as he doesn't read play well. 
• Isn't a strong carrier of the ball, which also ties into his unimpressive progressive passing.

Irrespective of what some may think of our other CB options, it's not enough justification to raise Chalobah's stock or paint him as a genuine first choice candidate. 

Solid squad/utility type, but also a dime a dozen type of player that is ultimately not difficult to replace either. 

He certainly has already proved you wrong. Our best period last season came when Fernandez was out injured and Chalobah came back into the side from his. 

[Sleeping Dave]

15 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

So... Any bets on how the squad will look like the coming season? At this point in time, the following players are on our books and at least theoretically within a chance to grab a squad place for the coming season imo. Maybe some I've missed from the academy that may surprise. 

 

GK (6): Sanchez/Petrovic/Bettinelli/Arrizabalaga/Bergström/Slonina

RB (3): James/Gusto/Gilchrist

LB (4): Chilwell/Cucurella/Veiga/Wiley

CB (7): Colwill/Disasi/Badiashile/Chalobah/Adarabioyo/Fofana/Humphreys

CM (11): Fernandez/Ugochuwku/Chukwuemeka/Dewsbury-Hall/Gallagher/Caicedo/Casadei/Kellyman/Lavia/Santos/Matos

RW (3): Palmer/Madueke/Gabriel

LW (3): Sterling/Mudryk/George

S (7): Jackson/Nkunku/Fofana/Washington/Broja/Guiu/Burstow

Anjorin, Sarr and Lukaku are both listed on the website but are highly unlikely to even have a chance to go to the states. 

That's a whopping 44 players. We are likely to keep maybe 26 to 27 of them. We have also not really bought anyone to properly challenge for a first XI spot so that may also come down the line. The players marked in green are almost 100% certain to be part of the squad. But lots of uncertainty surrounding who is going to make the final cut.

How do you predict the squad to look come september? I feel it is almost impossible to predict... 

Given the squad to the US I think we can discount the players marked in red. Noteworthy that Kellyman who just joined is not taken. Neither is Casadei or Matos. We have quite clearly bought too many young midfielders so even when our three starters from last season are away there aren’t a place for them. 

How are they planning these purchases? Do they even have a plan? 

[Rob B]

6 hours ago, xceleryx said:

A contact current ownership gave him.

Personally don't see what the grand fuss over selling Chalobah is, I've yet to see one compelling argument that highlights why he should be kept outside of being an academy product. He's the definition of an average defender with no standout skillset or unique ability beyond arguably his versatility. 

• Average general passer that does an awful job of progressing the ball.
• Terrible in the air for a CB that is 6ft+ - winning less than 50% of his aerial duels across his career.
• A more reactive defending style leading to a below par return in interceptions as he doesn't read play well. 
• Isn't a strong carrier of the ball, which also ties into his unimpressive progressive passing.

Irrespective of what some may think of our other CB options, it's not enough justification to raise Chalobah's stock or paint him as a genuine first choice candidate. 

Solid squad/utility type, but also a dime a dozen type of player that is ultimately not difficult to replace either. 

I feel like you have missed the point on Chalobah.

You may not particularly rate him (I think he is a very decent squad option for many factors including his versatility, HG status, generally being a good character etc) but the outcry here is that they have seemingly banished an established 25 year old member of the squad from going on tour because they want to sell him. 

These idiots gave him a contract until 2028 just 18 months ago.  Totally disrespectful to treat a player that has never let us down in that way.  He is very evidently happy at the club and willing to fight for his place. 

And whilst we’re at it, £15m on Deivid Washington, £19m on Kellyman,  £15m on Casadei, £12m on Fofana all of whom didn’t travel and it wouldn’t surprise me if Petrovic doesn’t end up joining after his injury either as they have apparently decided he is no longer flavour of the month.  Signing all of these young players is all well and good on paper, but you need to actually have a plan for them - even if the intention is to flip for a profit.

Do not let the signing of Estevao or Paez fool you, we are a fucking circus under this ownership. 

[xceleryx]

5 hours ago, Floyd25 said:

I know that you’ve never rated him and I respect your opinion on that, I personally think he did a very solid job for us last season when called upon, so not a genuine first choice option? Disagree on that one, the others aren’t any better than him in my opinion. I take your point on him not being dominant enough in the air and look, I’m not 100 percent against selling him if I’m honest, but I do not agree with him being left out of the pre season squad.

Replacing him with Tosin is a like for like switch and not a real upgrade, we needed a top tier centre back to replace Silva and we haven’t done that. 

On the contrary though, when he first came through under Tuchel I rated him quite highly and expressed that on the old forum. Where things have changed since is that we've moved away from a back three, where IMO RCB was his best role, and that he's also stagnated with little to no real development being made in his game since. 

As a squad utility type that's 4th or 5th CB and a third choice RB he's got worth, that's not the type of player you should be turning down £35m or so for and can fairly easily be replaced. 

From a talent floor/ceiling  perspective he may be on par, or arguably better, than a Disasi or Badiashile in the eyes of some people, but skillset wise those other two actually provide traits that have greater impacts. Disasi for example is physically more imposing, a better progressive passer, and of course more commanding in the air. You can't look at Trev and really single a part of his game that stands out.

Just because opinion on our other options are split doesn't necessarily make Trev the best default option either. 

[Sleeping Dave]

10 minutes ago, Rob B said:

I feel like you have missed the point on Chalobah.

You may not particularly rate him (I think he is a very decent squad option for many factors including his versatility, HG status, generally being a good character etc) but the outcry here is that they have seemingly banished an established 25 year old member of the squad from going on tour because they want to sell him. 

These idiots gave him a contract until 2028 just 18 months ago.  Totally disrespectful to treat a player that has never let us down in that way.  He is very evidently happy at the club and willing to fight for his place. 

And whilst we’re at it, £15m on Deivid Washington, £19m on Kellyman,  £15m on Casadei, £12m on Fofana all of whom didn’t travel and it wouldn’t surprise me if Petrovic doesn’t end up joining after his injury either as they have apparently decided he is no longer flavour of the month.  Signing all of these young players is all well and good on paper, but you need to actually have a plan for them - even if the intention is to flip for a profit.

Do not let the signing of Estevao or Paez fool you, we are a fucking circus under this ownership. 

Fully agreed on all accounts.

+60m on these players you mention and no plan in place. Very likely we won’t be able to find suitable loans for all of them (Washington case in point last season). 

Building a squad takes planning and a long-term strategy needs to be in place. We don’t seem to do either of those things, instead letting the two clowns just make decisions on a whim. 

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

He certainly has already proved you wrong. Our best period last season came when Fernandez was out injured and Chalobah came back into the side from his. 

Not sure a selectively picked 13 appearances from last season proves me wrong. I see we're also quick to forget just how poor he was the season prior, quite convenient. 

Again, what's he offer that makes him so special individually and to the team? I'm still yet to see any real reasonable case put forward. 

[ROTG]

^^^^^^^^^^

Come on what do the £80m Monaco duo bring to the party?

[xceleryx]

17 minutes ago, Rob B said:

I feel like you have missed the point on Chalobah.

You may not particularly rate him (I think he is a very decent squad option for many factors including his versatility, HG status, generally being a good character etc) but the outcry here is that they have seemingly banished an established 25 year old member of the squad from going on tour because they want to sell him. 

These idiots gave him a contract until 2028 just 18 months ago.  Totally disrespectful to treat a player that has never let us down in that way.  He is very evidently happy at the club and willing to fight for his place. 

And whilst we’re at it, £15m on Deivid Washington, £19m on Kellyman,  £15m on Casadei, £12m on Fofana all of whom didn’t travel and it wouldn’t surprise me if Petrovic doesn’t end up joining after his injury either as they have apparently decided he is no longer flavour of the month.  Signing all of these young players is all well and good on paper, but you need to actually have a plan for them - even if the intention is to flip for a profit.

Do not let the signing of Estevao or Paez fool you, we are a fucking circus under this ownership. 

I'm not missing the point, I do recognise the larger picture here. I just don't see it as justification for why Chalobah should be kept - which is largely what most are suggesting should happen. 

So much uproar about a middle of the road player that's not quite developed as much as we initially liked, offers nothing out of the ordinary, while struggles in some fairly important areas as a CB in a possession focused side within a back four.

Reminds me a little when many threw their toys out over Zouma being sold, Trev is a similar calibre of player.

[ROTG]

^^^^^^^^^^

Come on what do the £80m Monaco duo bring to the party?

I dare you to remove the ignore button for a real debate?

[Sleeping Dave]

15 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Not sure a selectively picked 13 appearances from last season proves me wrong. I see we're also quick to forget just how poor he was the season prior, quite convenient. 

Again, what's he offer that makes him so special individually and to the team? I'm still yet to see any real reasonable case put forward. 

He is no worse than Badiashile, Fofana or Disasi. How much did we waste on those three guys? €165m is the answer. None of them are starting material for us. 

No plan. No strategy. No clue. 

Letting these clowns sell off the academy so they can waste grotesque money  on players who are no better is probably not the best idea. I’m at loss how you can’t see this. 

[Morgs]

I think Rob and Dave sum it up nicely. 

If Clearlake are moving Trev on because they don't rate him, fine. We can argue on his pros and cons all day but I personally think he's a decent if unspectacular centre-half with a high ceiling. Clearlake may or may not agree with that. 

The problem is that moving him on for decent money and then dropping the same or more on a French or Brazilian teenager who isn't as good as Chalobah and don't have the experience he brings, aren't acclimatised to the Prem, settled in the UK, and aren't fully ready for the first team, etc is daft. 

Clearlake will be the first ones to put Maresca under pressure when their big money Latin foetus cannot hack it in the Prem and struggles again, costing us points with a lack of concentration, physicality or whatever. 

I have zero confidence that Dumb & Dumber will replace Chalobah with someone better. If they did, I'd be okay with upgrading him and letting him develop at a different club where he will play every week and he can grow and eventually play for England. He is, whichever way you slice it, unlikely to do that to any great extent at Chelsea. So if we can upgrade him with someone world class who gives us what we need, then fine. But Clearlake won't do that. And that is what bothers me about this. 

Trev is - in my opinion - a better and less limited player than Disasi and makes fewer errors than the injury-prone Badiashile. Fofana is a better player when fit but may never play for us again and if he does he will likely not be the player he was. The only player we have at centre-half that you can reliably say is better in most respects than Trev is, is Colwill and he is less consistent than Trev as well. Adarabioyo is much the same, as far as I can see. So selling him is at best a punt on whoever we replace him with. And given our record lately, you;d be a braver man than me to bet on them getting someone even as good, let alone tangibly better. Depressing indeed. 

I remarked on twitter that it may be time to ask whether Clearlake's SD stooges are getting dodgy backhanders from the small army of agents they have beating a path to the revolving door. Or whether Clearlake part owns a mysterious and highly secretive conglomerate of football agents.... Questions need to be asked. 

Edited July 23 by Morgs

[ROTG]

4 minutes ago, Morgs said:

I think Rob and Dave sum it up nicely. 

If Clearlake are moving Trev on because they don't rate him, fine. We can argue on his pros and cons all day but I personally think he's a decent if unspectacular centre-half with a high ceiling. Clearlake may or may not agree with that. 

The problem is that moving him on for decent money and then dropping the same or more on a French or Brazilian teenager who isn't as good as Chalobah and don't have the experience he brings, aren't acclimatised to the Prem, settled in the UK, and aren't fully ready for the first team, etc is daft. 

Clearlake will be the first ones to put Maresca under pressure when their big money Latin foetus cannot hack it in the Prem and struggles again, costing us points with a lack of concentration, physicality or whatever. 

I have zero confidence that Dumb & Dumber will replace Chalobah with someone better. If they did, I'd be okay with upgrading him and letting him develop at a different club where he will play every week and he can grow and eventually play for England. He is, whichever way you slice it, unlikely to do that to any great extent at Chelsea. So if we can upgrade him with someone world class who gives us what we need, then fine. But Clearlake won't do that. And that is what bothers me about this. 

With the gruesome twosome hiring their yes man, one assumes they now have influence over squad selection.

[Sciatika]

I demand the right to discriminate. Trev is "one of ours". I think that has value. I would prefer to watch him play than some person I don't know brought in to replace him, even if the latter is ahead of him in skills. As much as I hate to say it, a lot of this stuff is about the narrative. Trevoh is still in the middle of his story. I want to see how it turns out. I want to see if he can overcome difficulties and hold aloft trophies won in a Chelsea shirt.

[paulw66]

28 minutes ago, Morgs said:

 

I have zero confidence that Dumb & Dumber will replace Chalobah with someone better

We currently have Badiashile, Colwill, Disasi, Tosin and Fofana. 5 centre backs is arguably too much, depending on fitness.

We wont be buying a replacement at all. 

I must be missing something. TC is a decent player, that's it. Any better and he'd have walked into the England squad that included Lewis Dunk. 

The real proof in the pudding is what level of team comes knocking. 

[Bob Singleton]

Agree with @paulw66

I'm surprised to see some talking about buying another CB.  Tosin is the replacement for Silva (in terms of squad numbers). Any CB we might buy between now and the window closing will be for the development squad/loan army, not as a replacement for Chalobah.

Personally, I'd go so far as to say that we need to sell two CBs, not one. Four CBs for a team notionally playing a back four is enough if one of, say, Bashir Humphreys, Josh Acheampong, Ishe Samuels-Smith or Alfie Gilchrist is available to be called up from the U-21s (though I suspect that for his development, Alfie will now follow a similar route to Levi Colwill with a loan to a decent Championship club followed by a mid-table Premiership club before returning to us should he prove himself good enough)

[xceleryx]

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

He is no worse than Badiashile, Fofana or Disasi. How much did we waste on those three guys? €165m is the answer. None of them are starting material for us. 

No plan. No strategy. No clue. 

Letting these clowns sell off the academy so they can waste grotesque money  on players who are no better is probably not the best idea. I’m at loss how you can’t see this. 

Whether or not you deem the others better or starting material doesn't make Chalobah any more the solution. If I wanted to get picky there's valid arguments to be had that all of Fofana, Badashile and Disasi were signed on the back of higher pedigree performances, skillet, or talent - irrespective if that's gone on to be displayed here.

All fit and firing Chalobah is arguably still at the bottom of the pecking order. 

FFW I'd also happily consider the sales of Badiashile, Fofana and Disasi if the right money was to come along. I'm also, as stated before, happy to keep Chalobah as a squad option. I'm just not pressed if we're looking to sell or if a good offer comes in. He isn't a needle mover, and most are just pissy because he's an academy product over anything else.

[Rob B]

1 hour ago, Bob Singleton said:

Personally, I'd go so far as to say that we need to sell two CBs, not one. Four CBs for a team notionally playing a back four is enough if one of, say, Bashir Humphreys, Josh Acheampong, Ishe Samuels-Smith or Alfie Gilchrist is available to be called up from the U-21s (though I suspect that for his development, Alfie will now follow a similar route to Levi Colwill with a loan to a decent Championship club followed by a mid-table Premiership club before returning to us should he prove himself good enough)

Ordinarily, I’d agree that four should be enough, however when you consider that one of those is Wesley Fofana it would be helluva risky move.

Then factor in the recent injury records of Badiashille and Colwill (and the squad generally I guess) mixed in with European football, I think five is the safest bet for this upcoming season.