Transfer Talk Topic

[My Blood Is Blue]

Well well well, Todd Boehly and co., take a bow. As a summer transfer window that would have been impressive, but to get done what they did, in the January window is remarkable and underlines the ambition they have for this club… I love it!

Top young talent signed and if it goes to plan, should help see us through for many years with only the need for the odd ‘topping up’. I think the summer will see us bring in a proper CDM and GK, but other than that I don’t see many gaps.

The long contracts are smart as well and any anger elsewhere is jealousy, that nobody else thought to do it themselves.

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but IF Potter can get these players to gel quickly, top 4 may not actually be over yet and Europa should be the minimum. 

I absolutely love this club!

P.S. So pleased we had this forum up and running to witness the last 24 hours… bring on the match day forum on Friday!

[xceleryx]

4 hours ago, NoblyBobly said:

certainly not pinning my hopes but neither am I consigning him to the trash. Let’s see what happens between now and end of season but as it stands , a goal scoring striker is our top priority. We have a few that might adapt to DM , but none that can regularly hit the back of the net.

The issue is that if we're to maximise Enzo in midfield he needs licence to get into some advanced midfield areas, so it's imperative that we do have a midfield partner that can sit or drop back when required. We've lost the sole person genuinely capable of that in Jorginho, and it's hard to see those remaining plugging that gap effectively short or long term.

Kante isn't the solution with his form, consistency, and impact already having visibly waned over the last 18 months or so. Even if he comes back and is still useful, his whole game revolves around his desire to ball chase. Something Jorginho allowed him to do by staying back. Kovacic is another one that needs that freedom to run, as is Gallagher. This leaves us with Zakaria (for now), but again he isn't really a sitting player either. If the midfield still retains the unbalanced nature it's had for awhile it's going to be just as big of a problem as finding a goal scoring striker. 

[xceleryx]

17 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Well well well, Todd Boehly and co., take a bow. As a summer transfer window that would have been impressive, but to get done what they did, in the January window is remarkable and underlines the ambition they have for this club… I love it!

Top young talent signed and if it goes to plan, should help see us through for many years with only the need for the odd ‘topping up’. I think the summer will see is bring in a proper CDM and GK, but other than that I don’t see many gaps.

The long contracts are smart as well and any anger elsewhere is jealousy, that nobody else thought to do it themselves.

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but IF Potter can get these players to gel quickly, top 4 may not actually be over yet and Europa should be the minimum. 

I absolutely love this club!

P.S. So pleased we had this forum up and running to witness the last 24 hours… bring on the match day forum on Friday!

Definitely a unique January window and likely one we'll never see happen again in the whole of football, at least any time soon. This has really set us up nicely, now it's a bit of a waiting game to see how things gel and pan out. Potter effectively has the next 5 months as sort of an in season pre-season, with hope we can walk into next season ready to go form the beginning. A curious and exciting time to be a Chelsea fan, which seems odd to say considering the nature of how this season has been up until this point.

Next on the list will be to thin the herd a little over the summer, which should trim the wage bill considerably and maybe raise a few quid here and there. Then it's onto strengthening in the couple of the remaining areas you've touched on already. 

 

[Spawton]

Yep, a truly bonkers January window. Eight players in. Around £300m spent. Huge, multi year contracts all round.

On the face of it we look set in a number of positions for years to come. It's incredibly exciting to have all these young players at the club at once. However, the squad is bloated and will be until at least the Summer, when they will presumably be focusing on selling. I wonder if they will try and make Zakaria and/or Felix permanent. I would imagine at least the Felix deal is dependent on money raised anyway.

Mendy, Azpilicueta, Trev, Koulibaly, Pulisic, Ziyech, Havertz, Auba, RLC, Gallagher. I can see any and all of those players leaving permanently. Hutchinson, Hall, D Fofana and/or Broja could leave on loan. There's still the matter of Mason Mount's new contract to sort. We may well end up with a few holes in the squad still to fill. 

Regardless, a squad overhaul was well overdue and we're a hell of a lot closer to doing it successfully than we were prior to this window.

[Holymoly]

8 hours ago, Bob Singleton said:

We'll also need a DCM to replace Jorginho!

When was the last time you saw Jorginho do any defending? 😉

[Holymoly]

9 hours ago, NoblyBobly said:

Considering all the doom and gloom a few weeks back , I feel we now have a spring in our step and our hat is at a jaunty angle. 

It's tricky setting the wooly bunnet you need to wear while the heating's off to save money at a jaunty angle up here in Scotland mate. I'll do my best though. 🥳

[Holymoly]

1 hour ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but IF Potter can get these players to gel quickly, top 4 may not actually be over yet and Europa should be the minimum. 

I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't be upset if we were consigned to the Conference next season as it would mean we were travelling to some new places and also we could have a crack at completing the trophy cabinet. Of course it would be difficult to achieve should we win the CL this season 😉

[Holymoly]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

The issue is that if we're to maximise Enzo in midfield he needs licence to get into some advanced midfield areas, so it's imperative that we do have a midfield partner that can sit or drop back when required. We've lost the sole person genuinely capable of that in Jorginho, and it's hard to see those remaining plugging that gap effectively short or long term.

I never saw Jorginho as an effective DM, easily bypassed, slow, unable to tackle. He was really no more than a training dummy defensively. He was really only a DM in the sense he was the midfielder the defense passed to (and almost immediately passed it back to them). He may be missed as one of the chaps but I feel as a player he will hopefully quickly be forgotten.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

5 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't be upset if we were consigned to the Conference next season as it would mean we were travelling to some new places and also we could have a crack at completing the trophy cabinet. Of course it would be difficult to achieve should we win the CL this season 😉

I love your attitude! Any form of Europe is fine by me too. Both of our EL wins were quite fun. Rival fanbases love lampooning those tournaments, but it's probably because they never get very far in them! 

[Holymoly]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

Definitely a unique January window and likely one we'll never see happen again in the whole of football, at least any time soon.

Absolutely. I just hope it is remembered by us fondly and we are not reminded of it for eternity by the rest of the football world if it all goes horribly tits up in some way, in the same way the Torres transfer was.

[Holymoly]

44 minutes ago, Spawton said:

There's still the matter of Mason Mount's new contract to sort.

I'd like to think that this transfer window will be the catalyst for Mount to set pen to paper on a new deal in order to be part of the new model army. If he continues to hold out then he's not the person I believed him to be throughout his years at the club and it won't be a wrench to see him move on. No player/manager/owner is bigger than the club.

[Mark Kelly]

To put things in perspective , Enzo has cost us £13m more than United paid for Pogba .

I'm confident Enzo will prove a better buy in comparison.

[xceleryx]

1 minute ago, Holymoly said:

I never saw Jorginho as an effective DM, easily bypassed, slow, unable to tackle. He was really no more than a training dummy defensively. He was really only a DM in the sense he was the midfielder the defense passed to (and almost immediately passed it back to them). He may be missed as one of the chaps but I feel as a player he will hopefully quickly be forgotten.

I'm prefacing this with the intentions of this not being personal or rude, but this sort of comment does contain it's share common placed ignorance when it comes to Jorginho. As I commented on a similar post earlier in the transfer thread, I'm going to take that reply and drop it below, as it also covers what you've expressed.

• 88th percentile for tackles
• 76th percentile for tackles won
• 92nd percentile for dribblers tackled
• 88th percentile for contested dribbles
• 78th percentile for passes blocked
• 87th percentile for interceptions made

Just because he's more immobile than some and isn't covering every inch of grass doesn't equate to him being bad defensively. He's not perfect, but he's sure as hell competent enough to hold his own when he isn't being left on an island. He'll have the required partners alongside him at Arsenal that'll help cover those weak points, while what he provides in possession and just in terms of his leadership and experience will be quite beneficial. 

 

[ROTG]

3 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

I'm prefacing this with the intentions of this not being personal or rude, but this sort of comment does contain it's share common placed ignorance when it comes to Jorginho. As I commented on a similar post earlier in the transfer thread, I'm going to take that reply and drop it below, as it also covers what you've expressed.

 

• 88th percentile for tackles
• 76th percentile for tackles won
• 92nd percentile for dribblers tackled
• 88th percentile for contested dribbles
• 78th percentile for passes blocked
• 87th percentile for interceptions made

Just because he's more immobile than some and isn't covering every inch of grass doesn't equate to him being bad defensively. He's not perfect, but he's sure as hell competent enough to hold his own when he isn't being left on an island. He'll have the required partners alongside him at Arsenal that'll help cover those weak points, while what he provides in possession and just in terms of his leadership and experience will be quite beneficial. 

 

One will see.

Arteta has put his faith Jorginho getting them across the line. Also have the other factor that Arteta was Pep's no2 when Chitty was in for him. 

Hopefully Jorginho will fluff his lines, like most ex-chelsea player do at the Arse 

[xceleryx]

11 minutes ago, Holymoly said:

Absolutely. I just hope it is remembered by us fondly and we are not reminded of it for eternity by the rest of the football world if it all goes horribly tits up in some way, in the same way the Torres transfer was.

What we've seen was needed, whether it was done in such a short span of time or spread out over several years, there is always going to be risk involved. 

The silver-lining is that we've not really handed out massive contracts to those we've signed, outside of a couple of the summer signings which were made in a more unique situation. Those we've snapped up in this window have all arrived on low base salaries with potential to earn more should they perform. This not only greatly lowers the risk, but if in the event some of these players don't pan out then we'll have a much easier time moving them on compared to more recent years.

I get the impression some of those claiming we're going to be screwed later down the line have overlooked that we're not paying these guys the world. 

 

 

[xceleryx]

1 minute ago, ROTG said:

One will see.

Arteta has put his faith Jorginho getting them across the line. Also have the other factor that Arteta was Pep's no2 when Chitty was in for him. 

Hopefully Jorginho will fluff his lines, like most ex-chelsea player do at the Arse 

We shall.

I did mention the Arteta connection in another comment (might've been in the Jorginho thread itself). So I expect the boss man will have a clearly defined plan in place for Jorginho. And look, if it doesn't work out then they aren't committed to him long term. Could well be a shewed move on their behalf should he help get them over the line. 

[ROTG]

2 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

I get the impression some of those claiming we're going to be screwed later down the line have overlooked that we're not paying these guys the world. 

One would also suspect squad building was also to do with new sponsorship and ways of earning additional revenue which is required.

I sure TB and his commercial team, can now go to potential new sponsors and say hey look at this team being built and its potential, invest now and join the project.

[RDCW]

17 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

I'm prefacing this with the intentions of this not being personal or rude, but this sort of comment does contain it's share common placed ignorance when it comes to Jorginho. As I commented on a similar post earlier in the transfer thread, I'm going to take that reply and drop it below, as it also covers what you've expressed.

 

• 88th percentile for tackles
• 76th percentile for tackles won
• 92nd percentile for dribblers tackled
• 88th percentile for contested dribbles
• 78th percentile for passes blocked
• 87th percentile for interceptions made

Just because he's more immobile than some and isn't covering every inch of grass doesn't equate to him being bad defensively. He's not perfect, but he's sure as hell competent enough to hold his own when he isn't being left on an island. He'll have the required partners alongside him at Arsenal that'll help cover those weak points, while what he provides in possession and just in terms of his leadership and experience will be quite beneficial. 

 

And I shall repeat my response and Benjamin Disreali's wise observation : lies, damn lies and statistics! We are all perfectly capable of observing empirically Jorghino's multiple shortcomings as a defensive midfielder. 

[xceleryx]

5 minutes ago, ROTG said:

One would also suspect squad building was also to do with new sponsorship and ways of earning additional revenue which is required.

I sure TB and his commercial team, can now go to potential new sponsors and say hey look at this team being built and its potential, invest now and join the project.

Yeah, it's not as if we've gone into this on a blind whim.

Going to be interesting to see the approach of all these other aspects moving forward. We should, at least in theory, be a more exciting and attractive vehicle for sponsors and alike. 

[xceleryx]

2 minutes ago, RDCW said:

And I shall repeat my response and Benjamin Disreali's wise observation : lies, damn lies and statistics! We are all perfectly capable of observing empirically Jorghino's multiple shortcomings as a defensive midfielder. 

Some also believe the world is flat despite the evidence that suggests otherwise. 

[RDCW]

6 hours ago, xceleryx said:

 

Excellent!

[RDCW]

3 minutes ago, xceleryx said:

Some also believe the world is flat despite the evidence that suggests otherwise. 

Yes, but I'm sure you will come to see sense once you have observed the curvature of the earth with your own eyes!

[RDCW]

What a window! The rebuilding of a jaded squad accomplished in double quick time. The problem with eating so many chocolates at once is that you just want more 😄. Where is our world class keeper, midfield enforcer and superstar striker?

[paulw66]

Jorginho has gone - perhaps the squabbling over his pros and cons can go with him?

I get why he divided opinion, and he certainly has / had distinct strengths and weaknesses. 

He moves on with my best, and I think maybe the timing was good for all parties.

[thevelourfog]

When is Enzo being announced, then? Do we have to have a whole day of memes again?