Transfer Talk Topic

[Flinkers]

6 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

Not a golfer myself. 

The eyesores tend to be the retro-looking new-builds with wall-to-wall marble favoured by our Russian and middle-eastern friends. Shame so many of the original Tarrant houses have disappeared.

In the late 90s until about 2015 I used to run a garden machinery sales & service business in Hersham and had a lot of clients on StGH (along with Burwood Park, Ashley Park & Weybridge Park where my father lives)

Nearly £13m for this monstrosity! If I had the money, I'd buy it just to knock it down!

 

I’d do the same with Liverpool.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Flinkers
Snipped the picture - once is enough!

[Chelsea_Matt]

5 hours ago, Floyd25 said:

What does everyone make of this? Kepa as first choice again. Anyone seen Anatoliy Trubin play, because I haven’t got a clue. 

We’ve worse problems than GK. Kepa isn’t brilliant but not the worst. If we can’t find a better replacement that’s worth the money I’d give Kepa a go. He’ll be better protected this season too imo. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

8 hours ago, ROTG said:

Dear Mr Door,

You are correct  I use the club as a default, the reason is because it’s pretty obvious there is no clear direction where the Club is going. Each transfer window under the new ownership has been full of diversity with some bizarre signings, ending up with bloated squad that ultimately imploded. 

Now it’s a case of this transfer window in trying to offload all the players on big salaries including selling to top 4 rivals to balance the books, and continuing to pay over the top fees for average players and giving them stupid length contract.

pochettino might be a good coach, but is not a miracle worker. 

should Chelsea sign Jackson, that would be £45m spent on two strikers who were being scouted by Brighton and Bournemouth which is probably their level. On the plus side at least the club are paying Brighton / Bournemouth level wages. 

One can only assume being sustainable is the only model going forward, trophies, Europe  etc. are a thing of the past, along with signing world class players 
 

I am sure it will be the normal transition etc responses from the regulars and Enzo being world class  

Your Sincerely 

Mr Gizmo  😀

Dear Mr Gizmo,

Whilst I appreciate your views as always, one could argue that there is a direction. We are selling off the dead wood and getting them off our wage bill and bringing in some exciting new players.

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to write players off before they have even started - as a fair man I’m sure you’ll agree that everyone deserves a chance - and our support; after all, they’re Chelsea players now. 
 

I’m no accountant but doesn’t long contracts mean values are protected and we can amortise the fees over a longer period?

Whilst I do agree that Todd ‘n’ Eggy did too much too soon, it was from a good place and they have done well to broker a deal with Saudi Arabia to trim the squad down. I’m sure they’ve learned some tough lessons over the last year and while time will tell, I personally feel quietly optimistic that we will improve under Maurice Cappuccino.

With all good wishes. 
 

Yours sincerely,

C_M

[boratsbrother]

19 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

I remember when he took over from Brucie on the Generation game and everyone said he would bomb but he was absolutely brilliant and arguably even better than Bruce was.

I agree!

An established, hugely popular show which was presented brilliantly by a TV legend.  Showbiz acts don't come any harder to follow that that! But as you say, Larry was not only as good as Brucie, for some viewers he was even better.🙂

[Sleeping Dave]

9 hours ago, Rob B said:

Well the change of Managers had a big part to play in this.   Something like 4 managers in 3 seasons, plus the scouting / technical team that would have brought him in.  So  inevitably each change brings a difference of opinion on his best position etc.  

Plus his time here overlapped when we’ve arguably been at our shittest (domestically) with absolutely no continuity of forwards around him (Werner, Lukaku, Ziyech, Sterling, Aubameyang etc) 

And whilst I think it’s a great sale from our perspective, I do think there’s a player there (probably playing off a number 9 arriving late into the box) and I think he’ll do well at Arsenal.  It’s kind of a weird one where it might actually suit all parties 

I don’t necessarily mean that Havertz is shit or that he is a bad player. It was an awful transfer from our point of view because we seemingly had no plan for him. That summer just about ruined the academy project Lampard had so successfully started. I often wonder what would have happened if we had slowly built upon that and kept the academy players instead, just adding one or two top quality players into that mix. 

9 hours ago, martin1905 said:

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!!!!!!!

Some will be aware that I have a friend who used to work at the club. He worked with the kids from under 8's up to, I'm not sure exactly. Anyway he was part of the set up when Mason Mount came through, as a young boy. He became very close to Mason's Dad and is still in contact. He tells me bits, as much right as wrong, although recently he's been very accurate. He no longer works for the club and hasn't for some time.

Anyway, he's telling me that within the next 48 hours, most likely tomorrow the club will offer Mount a new long term contract. With all the outgoings, especially Havertz they only ever wanted to sell him OR Mount, never both, we are in a much better place to offer him the contract he wants. Pochettino is pushing hard to get him to stay and the feeling is that it may well happen.

He's telling me that this is not coming from Mason's Dad who is saying nothing.

Make of it what you will, but at least it's something to think about and discuss. I said the other day that he had told me we were looking at a CM a ST and we're prepared to go big on another AM, apparently that big singing is Mount. He's been convinced that he can play a more central role under Pochettino, albeit starting from the right, on paper, like he used Ericksen/Delle Ali at Tottenham.

Could all be complete bollox and I was reluctant to put it on here as I'm sure many don't believe what I'm saying but thought why not.

I sincerely hope your mate is right! Keeping Mount and him signing a new long term contract would certainly send all the right signals - both to prospective new players but also the current academy players that’s coming through. We have a great academy, now we need to foster a culture where we take care of them. 

6 hours ago, xceleryx said:

The error was the not selling a mid level player like Abraham. Tomori was last in the pecking order at the time of his sale, again not really an error given he's an above average player at best. Livramento hasn't proven much of anything and was behind a player he was unlikely to displace any time soon - who knows how he'll turn out after injury either. Musiala left on his own accord to return to Germany, the club had actually tried to hang onto him at the time. 

All in all the notion of selling these players wasn't necessarily a flawed approach, the issue has come in the way we recruited. Now, it's obviously easier to look back with hindsight and say we shouldn't have sold x and replaced them with y, but by large the general action taken was in attempt to recruit better players - be it in terms of base level talent or higher future potential. And we did do that to a degree.

The real issue, and it was a big problem in the latter years of the Roman era, our signings had no real rhyme or reason. Our footballing style wasn't considered, their tactical profile ignored, player attributes in conjunction with the nature of Premier League football overlooked, and so on. The constant turnover of managers meant it was hard to really have a philosophy in place and blueprint to follow, for too long we operated in a manner of trying to just mesh together players that all had different qualities that didn't necessarily blend well.

While I'm glad we're getting rid of some of those under performers we've signed  the last few years now, not once have I ever felt that we messed up selling those we did either - particularly those who ended up in Serie A over the years that I've gone on to see a bit of since. We still want better than that. 

  

You don’t get it. If you have academy players who can be squad players you keep them instead of spending a lot of money on foreign squad players who aren’t any better. That’s what we’ve been doing - hopefully that’s about to change. I refuse that Boehly and Co are as naive as Roman/Marina seemed to be when it came to the academy. 

2 hours ago, Michael Tucker said:

It isn't. Kepa isn't. And we don't.

Anything else?

Anyone having watched Kepa for the past four seasons and still think he is first choice material hasn’t been watching very carefully. He was average last season and yet is now hailed as someone who’s good enough? Talk about slipping standards at the club. If Kepa is deemed good enough to be first choice then we are truly fucked. 

[boratsbrother]

13 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Dear Mr Gizmo,

Whilst I appreciate your views as always, one could argue that there is a direction. We are selling off the dead wood and getting them off our wage bill and bringing in some exciting new players.

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to write players off before they have even started - as a fair man I’m sure you’ll agree that everyone deserves a chance - and our support; after all, they’re Chelsea players now. 
 

I’m no accountant but doesn’t long contracts mean values are protected and we can amortise the fees over a longer period?

Whilst I do agree that Todd ‘n’ Eggy did too much too soon, it was from a good place and they have done well to broker a deal with Saudi Arabia to trim the squad down. I’m sure they’ve learned some tough lessons over the last year and while time will tell, I personally feel quietly optimistic that we will improve under Maurice Cappuccino.

With all good wishes. 
 

Yours sincerely,

C_M

Agreed!

The peeps at Ckearkake haven't taken this club on just to make us sustainable. TB is a genuine sports fan so at some point in the future he will want to and be aiming to bask in the reflective glory of his team winning big trophies The others are here to make money and they won't make much of that if all they are aiming for is to make us financially sustainable. They want to grow the club and the only serious way they'll do that is by making is successful again.

For years there were some fans  moaning about the club always thinking only about the short-term and now there's moans about the owners thinking more long-term🤕 This massive overhaul might not work out the way the owners and us fans want it to, but at least give it time to start working and give some credit for the owners for finally having the balls to rip it up and start again. If it fails then it gets ripped up again and we go again with another new manager and set of players. 

Furthermore, there's very few real superstar level players these days who would be nailed on to be a success at Chelsea. We ain't getting the likes of a Haaland, Mbappe, Kane, KDB,, so we have to pick from those who are levels below and most of them are at the level of them being hit or miss. We only have to look at Utd to see how difficult it is the rebuild and get back to the top.

 

[Holymoly]

22 hours ago, Sciatika said:

The average age thing is beginning to worry me.

While age can provide experience if you don't have the motivation or team ethic then you end up with something akin to, oh let me think, last season.

If they're good enough they're old enough. Our last true leaders disappeared with Terry, Drogba and Cech. Ever since then we were a disaster waiting to happen. John Terry was 21 when he captained the side. Out with the old, in with the new.

[Holymoly]

14 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Anyone having watched Kepa for the past four seasons and still think he is first choice material hasn’t been watching very carefully. He was average last season and yet is now hailed as someone who’s good enough? Talk about slipping standards at the club. If Kepa is deemed good enough to be first choice then we are truly fucked. 

Mate, seriously, he is good enough for now. If we construct a fully functioning team ahead of him he will be entirely adequate. I honestly believe that the only difference between an average GK and an excellent one is minimal. Also the form of keepers fluctuates from year to year, look at Mendy, deGea, Bosnich, Grobbelaar as extremes. I even remember certain people here calling for Cech to be replaced years before he went to Arsenal. There are better areas of the pitch that we can waste £80m on.

[Thiago97]

49 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

I don’t necessarily mean that Havertz is shit or that he is a bad player. It was an awful transfer from our point of view because we seemingly had no plan for him. That summer just about ruined the academy project Lampard had so successfully started. I often wonder what would have happened if we had slowly built upon that and kept the academy players instead, just adding one or two top quality players into that mix. 

I sincerely hope your mate is right! Keeping Mount and him signing a new long term contract would certainly send all the right signals - both to prospective new players but also the current academy players that’s coming through. We have a great academy, now we need to foster a culture where we take care of them. 

You don’t get it. If you have academy players who can be squad players you keep them instead of spending a lot of money on foreign squad players who aren’t any better. That’s what we’ve been doing - hopefully that’s about to change. I refuse that Boehly and Co are as naive as Roman/Marina seemed to be when it came to the academy. 

Anyone having watched Kepa for the past four seasons and still think he is first choice material hasn’t been watching very carefully. He was average last season and yet is now hailed as someone who’s good enough? Talk about slipping standards at the club. If Kepa is deemed good enough to be first choice then we are truly fucked. 

I tend to agree on Kepa. Whilst GKs often improve with age and experience, I feel he has had more than enough chances now , and we simply have not seen enough improvement from him.

I firmly believe we will regret not bringing in a No1 if we start with Kepa. He makes few direct errors which lead to goals, but the flip side of that is he doesn’t make enough key saves. We still see weak wrists on a regular basis. How many genuine really great games where he has won us points can people think of ? I have one that sticks out in my mind and that was Villa away last season.  The fact that Villa game sticks in my mind , suggests their are not many more available.

If we are not spending big on a keeper, then we need a competent and experienced GK option who can firmly compete with Kepa and is not an obvious No2 .  Maybe Sanchez at Brighton(no longer No1 under De Zerbi) , Szcesny at Juve , Meslier at Leeds ( though form dropped off last season) . I fear Poch will regret putting his faith in Kepa. 

[thevelourfog]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

You don’t get it. If you have academy players who can be squad players you keep them instead of spending a lot of money on foreign squad players who aren’t any better. That’s what we’ve been doing - hopefully that’s about to change. I refuse that Boehly and Co are as naive as Roman/Marina seemed to be when it came to the academy. 

Assuming that's what they want. And we know pretty much as a matter of fact that none of the players you mentioned wanted that kind of role. Tomori was exactly a squad player. Left to be a starter elsewhere. Same of Abraham. Livramento and his dad have spoken publicly about wanting to leave for immediate senior first team football. Musiala didn't even want to stay in this country, had nothing to do with the club.

Part of the issue with developing loads of good players is that they will, early in their career, be good enough to be starting at a lower level* than the one we have been at and aspire to return to. It's not that bad a problem to have in the scheme of things, but it isn't anything like as simple as "stock them up for the squad". 

*Musiala obviously not at a lower level, but then he didn't leave because of a lack of playing time.

Edited June 29, 2023 by thevelourfog

[paulw66]

20 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

Tomori was exactly a squad player.

Was barely that in the first half of 20/21 before he was sold.

The "problem" we have had in the last few years is producing too many academy players who are good enough to play PL football (or equivalent). Can't pick them all, and then criticised when you sell them.

Most of the games last season we had 3 or 4 academy starters, and the noise in the media was only about the money spent, and the academy players sold, despite us almost weekly having more academy players starting than the opposition. 

[Bison]

4 hours ago, Michael Tucker said:

It isn't. Kepa isn't. And we don't.

Anything else?

When Pochettino's job is on the line because he has Kepa in goal I will come back to this post. 

Being unable to offload a player because of their wages doesn't mean you simply keep them as first choice. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 minute ago, Bison said:

When Pochettino's job is on the line because he has Kepa in goal I will come back to this post. 

Being unable to offload a player because of their wages doesn't mean you simply keep them as first choice. 

I don’t think it’ll come to that and Kepa isn’t that bad at all. As I said earlier he’ll also be more protected this time.

[xceleryx]

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

You don’t get it. If you have academy players who can be squad players you keep them instead of spending a lot of money on foreign squad players who aren’t any better. That’s what we’ve been doing - hopefully that’s about to change. I refuse that Boehly and Co are as naive as Roman/Marina seemed to be when it came to the academy. 

I do get it, I just don't necessarily agree that's the approach taken in a lot of cases during that period - even though we've signed some dross and have the benefit of hindsight.

As I sort of eluded towards in my initial response, we wanted more than just "squad players" which is why we purchased "replacements" (if you will), that were either more proven such as Lukaku (and you're free to dislike him, but his overall record as a goalscorer was miles ahead of anything Tammy offered), or players who either looked or we thought offered a higher talent level or ceiling of potential. 

And in some cases we already had players of better quality already on the books, such was the case with players like Tomori, Guehi, and Livramento for example who were down the pecking order.

Some also tend to overlook the fact that academies aren't just there to try and uncover first team players, they're also there to generate income through sales. But yeah, I do get a sense that current ownership are more invested in getting players in earlier and developing them along. We'll see what fruit that goes on to provide in due course I suppose.

Edited June 29, 2023 by xceleryx

[Bison]

2 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

I don’t think it’ll come to that and Kepa isn’t that bad at all. As I said earlier he’ll also be more protected this time.

It's absolutely ridiculous that Kepa's replacement (Mendy) was discarded at the first available opportunity after bad form but this joker has been allowed to continue his career here just because nobody else in world football will touch his contract with a bargepole.

[ROTG]

9 minutes ago, Bison said:

When Pochettino's job is on the line because he has Kepa in goal I will come back to this post. 

Being unable to offload a player because of their wages doesn't mean you simply keep them as first choice. 

Kepa will not be the reason of why Pochettino’s job is on the line. 

[ROTG]

4 minutes ago, Bison said:

It's absolutely ridiculous that Kepa's replacement (Mendy) was discarded at the first available opportunity after bad form but this joker has been allowed to continue his career here just because nobody else in world football will touch his contract with a bargepole.

Mendy went because he wanted a pay rise and contract extension and the club decided he’s was not worth in excess of £100k per week. Like most of the old guard you have been championing for the club to move on. 
 

it’s a funny old game 

[xceleryx]

13 minutes ago, Bison said:

It's absolutely ridiculous that Kepa's replacement (Mendy) was discarded at the first available opportunity after bad form but this joker has been allowed to continue his career here just because nobody else in world football will touch his contract with a bargepole.

Mendy has been putrid since the ACON and when he did get an opportunity back in the side he floundered hard. He then got injured, Kepa stepped in and performed, and the rest is what it is.

The other glaring factor is that Mendy simply isn't the profile of a modern day sweeper keeper that can play with the ball at feet and be trusted. While Kepa isn't an Alisson or Ederson in this area either, he is a damn sight better then Mendy. In a side that strives to play possession football, player higher up the pitch and out from the back, you simply can't have a keeper as limited at ground level as Mendy. Take a look at De Gea's situation as another prime example of this being the case, or when Brighton replaced Matt Ryan the other year. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by xceleryx

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, boratsbrother said:

Agreed!

The peeps at Ckearkake haven't taken this club on just to make us sustainable. TB is a genuine sports fan so at some point in the future he will want to and be aiming to bask in the reflective glory of his team winning big trophies The others are here to make money and they won't make much of that if all they are aiming for is to make us financially sustainable. They want to grow the club and the only serious way they'll do that is by making is successful again.

For years there were some fans  moaning about the club always thinking only about the short-term and now there's moans about the owners thinking more long-term🤕 This massive overhaul might not work out the way the owners and us fans want it to, but at least give it time to start working and give some credit for the owners for finally having the balls to rip it up and start again. If it fails then it gets ripped up again and we go again with another new manager and set of players. 

Furthermore, there's very few real superstar level players these days who would be nailed on to be a success at Chelsea. We ain't getting the likes of a Haaland, Mbappe, Kane, KDB,, so we have to pick from those who are levels below and most of them are at the level of them being hit or miss. We only have to look at Utd to see how difficult it is the rebuild and get back to the top.

 

The club are not willing to pay the wages of top players, therefore the clubs recruitment is limited, with the end result of the club has gone from shopping at Waitrose to shopping at Lidil. 

 

[boratsbrother]

I might be way off the mark on this and Kepa's performances are simply down to him not being all that good, but let's see how he performs if and when we start scoring more goals.

Due to our chronic lack of goals almost all our ganes are going into the final minutes with points still up for grabs. Kepa knows that one mistake from him at anytime in a game puts us in grave danger of dropping points.

Not just Kepa, but all of our players must be playing with a higher level of nerves and tension than they would be if they were in team which scored enough goals to consistently win games without having to be at it for 90mins every game. If players aren't relaxed that will effect their touch on the ball which will obviously lead to misplaced passes etc. Playing with tension will drain them of energy at a faster rate, etc etc etc. The dire lack of goals is having a knock-on effect through the entire team.

Edited June 29, 2023 by boratsbrother

[Sciatika]

10 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

I don't object to it per se (nor the neo-Palladian architecture also much favoured in the gated communities of Surrey and beyond) but there's just too much of it.  We're in the third decade of the 21st century and we're still building stuff  that looks better suited to the 16th and 19th centuries!

Probably because the property designed for the 21st century looks like it was done by a halfwit on Autocad.

[martin1905]

Never understood the hate for Kepa. If you take away the period under Lampard when we were so utterly clueless defensively it was embarrassing he has been absolutely fine. 

We massively overpaid for him, no doubt about that but that's not his fault. I doubt we will ever win the league with him in goal but he's plenty good enough to get us back into the top four, which is what we are aiming for.

Much like the striker situation there really is a lack of top quality goalkeepers, anywhere, and apparently Slonina has impressed so much that the plan is to keep Kepa until he is ready. Pochettino apparently wanted a new GK this summer but has been persuaded by people within the club to wait until he's had a proper chance to  work with Slonina during pre season.

 

[Bob Singleton]

Looks like Ruben will be the next one out of the door...
 

 

[JaneB]

Are we actually going to be able to put a team together next season?

Roll on Saturday when hopefully Poch can tell us what’s what.

[Chelsea_Matt]

5 minutes ago, JaneB said:

Are we actually going to be able to put a team together next season?

Roll on Saturday when hopefully Poch can tell us what’s what.

I think it’ll come together nicely. I’m an optimistic realist. 🧩