Transfer Talk Topic

[Chelsea_Matt]

8 minutes ago, east lower said:

I’m pleased you’re pleased, I just hope we’re all not disappointed!!

Age isn’t necessarily the issue, it’s about being a leader, being strong, being a man and a leader of men, and if you can identify just one of those in this squad that’s 50% of a John Terry I’d be surprised.

The owners and the management team have so much wrong with them, not difficult where to begin a breakdown of how they can fix things.

I can’t criticise the volume of the spending but I will and rightly so, criticise how they’ve spent it. The latter is pretty shameful actually and on a human level, they are lamentable.

 

Perfectly summed up. 🙌🏻🎯💀

[east lower]

10 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Perfectly summed up. 🙌🏻🎯💀

And that’s with four beers and a slightly wobbly head 🥴

[Bison]

2 hours ago, Original 21 said:

Well the Board look like they’re getting their man…

Having to buy players we don't need or want to facilitate sales. Twice now in the same window. What a truly bizarre way to run a football club. There are supporters who will make excuses for this.

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, east lower said:

I’m pleased you’re pleased, I just hope we’re all not disappointed!!

Age isn’t necessarily the issue, it’s about being a leader, being strong, being a man and a leader of men, and if you can identify just one of those in this squad that’s 50% of a John Terry I’d be surprised.

The owners and the management team have so much wrong with them, it’s difficult where to begin a breakdown of how they can fix things.

I can’t criticise the volume of the spending but I will and rightly so, criticise how they’ve spent it. The latter is pretty shameful actually and on a human level, they are lamentable.

 

The reason I bought up the age is the potential this squad has to grow both in terms of ability and mentality.  Not all leaders are naturally born that way, I don't think anyone would have suggested Azpilicueta would go on to be a great captain 10 years ago.

Take Enzo for example, moves to Europe at  21 and within 6 months wins the world cup and gets a huge transfer. Started well, struggled the next season and then the whole song thing. His career has hardly started yet he's played in 3 different countries, won the world cup, the copa America, the league in Portugal and Argentina plus experienced a tough time here both on and off the pitch. 

The point is,  as I'm sure most won't have me talking about Enzo being a future captain, this team will evolve and that growth will include players maturing and changing mentally.  Both good and bad. There has been a plan, some may not like it, some may not like how some of the money has been spent but the plan is there. We have spent an absolute fortune assembling this squad, it's still one or two short but it's more or less there now, especially with the new manager. He's the first proper coach this squad will have had. Is he good enough? Only time will tell but he's exactly what they need. A tactician who will drill the fuck out of them on the training pitch. Mould them into a team with way of playing, a system and a plan.

It's maybe going to take a bit of time, certainly we will get better with time but we have literally built a whole new squad, from scratch and have only just finished putting it together and adding the manager. No ones going to want to hear this but next season, is really the beginning and it won't be for another year or two, at least before we can really start to make a judgement. 

It's ironic that we looked at City, for a long time with envy how they had built their team, the way they structured the whole club and waited patiently for Pep. They were the blueprint that we have followed, the blueprint for success both in the short term but more importantly creating a stable organisation for continued success going forward.

After years of haphazardly buying players and constantly changing managers the path and plan are clear to see. Sure we could have spent the money differently,  we could have spent the same amount of money on half, much less than half, the number of players and almost certainly achieved success in the short term. But were would that has left us in 5 years time? We may have won the league once or twice but we have seen first hand how it's far more important to build a structure and change the whole mentality of the club for sustained success.  

[east lower]

36 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

The reason I bought up the age is the potential this squad has to grow both in terms of ability and mentality.  Not all leaders are naturally born that way, I don't think anyone would have suggested Azpilicueta would go on to be a great captain 10 years ago.

Take Enzo for example, moves to Europe at  21 and within 6 months wins the world cup and gets a huge transfer. Started well, struggled the next season and then the whole song thing. His career has hardly started yet he's played in 3 different countries, won the world cup, the copa America, the league in Portugal and Argentina plus experienced a tough time here both on and off the pitch. 

The point is,  as I'm sure most won't have me talking about Enzo being a future captain, this team will evolve and that growth will include players maturing and changing mentally.  Both good and bad. There has been a plan, some may not like it, some may not like how some of the money has been spent but the plan is there. We have spent an absolute fortune assembling this squad, it's still one or two short but it's more or less there now, especially with the new manager. He's the first proper coach this squad will have had. Is he good enough? Only time will tell but he's exactly what they need. A tactician who will drill the fuck out of them on the training pitch. Mould them into a team with way of playing, a system and a plan.

It's maybe going to take a bit of time, certainly we will get better with time but we have literally built a whole new squad, from scratch and have only just finished putting it together and adding the manager. No ones going to want to hear this but next season, is really the beginning and it won't be for another year or two, at least before we can really start to make a judgement. 

It's ironic that we looked at City, for a long time with envy how they had built their team, the way they structured the whole club and waited patiently for Pep. They were the blueprint that we have followed, the blueprint for success both in the short term but more importantly creating a stable organisation for continued success going forward.

After years of haphazardly buying players and constantly changing managers the path and plan are clear to see. Sure we could have spent the money differently,  we could have spent the same amount of money on half, much less than half, the number of players and almost certainly achieved success in the short term. But were would that has left us in 5 years time? We may have won the league once or twice but we have seen first hand how it's far more important to build a structure and change the whole mentality of the club for sustained success.  

Like I said it’s great you are happy and optimistic.

I, on the flip side of that coin am extremely apprehensive as regards these owners, their cronies and their supposed strategy. If you or any of the people believing there are substantial positives, could provide substantial evidence of us moving forward over the two and a bit seasons of this current ownerships tenure, I’d be more willing to have a more positive outlook.

And we won 5 PL titles, not 1 or 2. 2 x CL’s, 2 x Europa Leagues, FA and League Cups a plenty, World Club Championship. A great deal better than scraping into a newly made up losers European competition.

From World and European Champions to celebrating 6th in the league - They’ve done a fantastic job in turning us into a laughing stock, whilst doing their level best to destroy any semblance of soul and identity we have.

Enzo Fernandez as Captain of our club and team, god f*****g help us!! Not fit to lick the boots of our past great Captains and shows how low the standards are now set.

Edited August 17 by east lower

[Chelsea_Matt]

43 minutes ago, Bison said:

Having to buy players we don't need or want to facilitate sales. Twice now in the same window. What a truly bizarre way to run a football club. There are supporters who will make excuses for this.

I wouldn’t even mind so much if it was a proper DM, a real leader. But it isn’t. It’s a luxury player not suited to the PL, just like Fernandez and Mudryk. 🤡🌎 💩 

[east lower]

46 minutes ago, Bison said:

Having to buy players we don't need or want to facilitate sales. Twice now in the same window. What a truly bizarre way to run a football club. There are supporters who will make excuses for this.

You don’t have too look too far to find them.

[Original 21]

51 minutes ago, Bison said:

Having to buy players we don't need or want to facilitate sales. Twice now in the same window. What a truly bizarre way to run a football club. There are supporters who will make excuses for this.

Yep. I have no idea what’s going on at the club. In the past we could assume transfers were about adding to the quality of the squad. It might not always work out but the intention was there. But with this Board transfers are about accounting tricks and players are moved in and out of the club like they’re assets on a balance sheet. The new season is started and we still don’t have a proven keeper, first choice CB or proper centre forward. Even though we’ve spent a small fortune and still haven’t finished by the look of it. It’s just bizarre. 

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, east lower said:

Like I said it’s great you are happy and optimistic.

I, on the flip side of that coin am extremely apprehensive as regards these owners, their cronies and their supposed strategy. If you or any of the people believing there are substantial positives, could provide substantial evidence of us moving forward over the two and a bit seasons of this current ownerships tenure, I’d be more willing to have a more positive outlook.

We haven't moved forwards, that much is pretty obvious but the whole point is that we took a decision to completely restructure the club. It would have been very easy to just continue doing what we had done previous and probably enjoyed some short term success but how long was that even possible in the new world of PSR/FFP?

We have completely rebuilt the entire squad in two years. It was never about short term success so we were always going to have to go backwards to move forwards. 

1 hour ago, east lower said:

And we won 5 PL titles, not 1 or 2. 2 x CL’s, 2 x Europa Leagues, FA and League Cups a plenty, World Club Championship. A great deal better than scraping into a newly made up losers European competition.

And I'm, much like you, one of the fortune ones that got to experience all of that, first hand and that period of my life, supporting this club will never be bettered. I said so at the time of the takeover that I would rather get relegated with Roman in charge than ever see us change hands, that's how much I love the man. But our hand was forced, unfortunately .

There's always been talk that we should have been even more successful than we were, it's not something I particularly subscribe too. The success we had was phenomenal and long lived. Could we have been more dominant? Possibly but at what cost. What would we, as match going fans, had to give up for more dominance? Jose coming back and winning the league again certainly wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't change that for the world.

What can't be disputed though is that it had been a long time since we were challenging for the league and with the new financial rules, who knows if we would have got anywhere near it in the foreseeable. 

1 hour ago, east lower said:

From World and European Champions to celebrating 6th in the league - They’ve done a fantastic job in turning us into a laughing stock, whilst doing their level best to destroy any semblance of soul and identity we have.

Again, I think it was inevitable we were going to go backwards, to go forwards. For all the talk of how badly the new owners have done, the time to judge isn't now. You don't completely rebuild the squad, with the profile of player we have and expect instant success. We will only ever know if their plan has worked, in time. 

We are only a laughing stock if you listen to the people laughing.

1 hour ago, east lower said:

Enzo Fernandez as Captain of our club and team, god f*****g help us!! Not fit to lick the boots of our past great Captains and shows how low the standards are now set.

I used him as an example of how many might not see him as Captain material now but gave some reasons as to why he could become one. Maybe as he learns from his mistakes and he becomes a different person. From a footballing point of view he's played in 3 countries, won 2 league titles, a Copa America and the World Cup. By the age of 23. He's already got a lot of football and life experience and whatever anyone thinks of him, he must be doing something right. Perhaps that experience and his continued growth as a player and a person will turn him into a leader. If not him maybe others in the squad.

The point is we just don't know if there are any leaders in this squad and don't they say something like 'today's learners are tomorrow's leaders'? 

As ive said, we are only just getting started yet most of this squad has been written off, laughed at by the aounds of it, by a lot of people. Lets hope that its true and he that laughs last laughs loudest.

 

 

 

Edited August 17 by martin1905

[east lower]

Just now, martin1905 said:

We haven't moved forwards, that much is pretty obvious but the whole point is that we took a decision,  as a club, to completely restructure the club. It would have been very easy to just continue doing what we had done previous and probably enjoyed some short term success but how long was that even possible in the new world of PSR/FFP?

We have completely rebuilt the entire squad in two years. It was never about short term success so we were always going to have to go backwards to kove forwards. 

And I'm, much like you, one of the fortune ones that got to experience all of that, first hand and that period of my life, supporting this club will never be bettered. I said so at the time of the takeover that I would rather get relegated with Roman in charge than ever see us change hands, that's how much I love the man. But our hand was forced, unfortunately .

There's always been talk that we should have been even more successful than we were, it's not something I particularly subscribe too. The success we has was phenomenal and long lived. Could we have been more dominant? Possibly but at what cost. What would we, as match going fans, had to give up for more dominance? Jose coming back and winning league Tottenham again certainly wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't change that for the world.

What can't be disputed though is that it had been a long time since we were challenging for the league and with the new financial rules, who knows if we would have got anywhere near it in the foreseeable. 

Again, I think it was inevitable we were going to go backwards, to go forwards. For all the talk of how badly the new owners have done, the time to judge isn't now. You don't completely rebuild the squad, with the profile of player we have and expect instant success. We will only ever know if their plan has worked, in time. 

We are only a laughing stock if you listen to the people laughing.

I used him as an example of how many might not see him as Captain material now but gave some reasons as to why he could become one. Maybe as he learns from his mistakes and he becomes a different person. From a footballing point of view he's played in 3 countries, won 2 league titles, a Copa America and the World Cup. By the age of 23. He's already got a lot of football and life experience and whatever anyone thinks of him, he must be doing something right. Perhaps that experience and his continued growth as a player and a person will turn him into a leader. If not him maybe others in the squad.

The point is we just don't know if there are any leaders in this squad and don't they say something like 'today's learners are tomorrow's leaders'? 

As ive said, we are only just getting started yet most of this squad has been written off, laughed at by the aounds of it, by a lot of people. Lets hope that its true and he that laugh last laughs loudest.

 

 

 

No, we didn’t choose this strategy. We didn’t choose these owners. The UK Government and Opposition Parties did. We didn’t get a say at all.

There was no need for a ‘rip it up and start again’ approach. That’s down to the owners and very much flawed it was. There was no footballing need to sack Tuchel, no need to appoint a relative nobody and then a serial loser.

Our own fans think we’re a joke of a club, there’s plenty of info out there to support that view. You could see that John Terry/Dennis Wise/Frank Lampard were leaders the moment they stood on a football pitch, still looking around for ours now. Words are cheap, actions and behaviours tell the truth.

There’s very little that I can enthuse about as regards our club right now. One or two individuals but their brightness will dull with time. 

We are so far gone that the best hope we have is that this mob who own us get a golden ticket offer and ride off west back into their stop/start data-led world of sport they understand and we find some professionals who can turn this s**t-show around.

I truly applaud your enthusiasm, I just think it’s wasted emotion whilst we are owned and ran by this lot.
 

[martin1905]

Romano saying Joao Felix is done for around £34-38m.

Never been any doubt how talented he is but not sure the move to Athletico was ever right for him and he's cleary stagnated. He could potentially flourish playing with similar, technically gifted players. He's never really been in a set up that suits him so maybe we'll get the best out of him. 

Wouldn't actually be too surprised to see him, at times, play as a 9 with Palmer, Nkunku and Neto behind him in a very fluid front 4.

 

 

[martin1905]

Caicedo Enzo

Palmer Nkunku Neto

Felix

Not strong enough both physically and mentally, unbalanced, too many injury concerns, not suited to the league, too slow etc etc.

Say what you like and you may be right but there's some serious quality there.

[martin1905]

Curious if people are still against his signing at the rumoured fee.

Forget Conor for a second, just in context of this transfer, surely for the rumored fee there can't be too many unhappy?

[Bert19]

2 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

Curious if people are still against his signing at the rumoured fee.

Forget Conor for a second, just in context of this transfer, surely for the rumored fee there can't be too many unhappy?

We need a proper no.9 and not another AM. Particularly an AM that consistently underwhelms & we have all seen underwhelm first-hand. 

I’m not sure many of us can actually understand why you are so excited by this? It’s yet another transfer in that is way down the pecking order of what we actually need. 
 

I think most of us would have a lot more excitement if this was Oblak coming in as Conor goes out. Mainly because it would vaguely look like we’re addressing a problem area for us. 

[Original 21]

12 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

Romano saying Joao Felix is done for around £34-38m…

Wouldn't actually be too surprised to see him, at times, play as a 9 with Palmer, Nkunku and Neto behind him in a very fluid front 4.

 

 

Well we’ve done well to get the price down to less than 40m euros and on reduced wages. Atletico must be very keen to be rid of him. Almost as much as we are to get rid of Conor. 

I really hope we don’t see him as a false no. 9. I’m a bit sick of seeing us faffing about without a proper centre forward. As long as we’re still in the market for a striker I’m interested to see how Felix, Neto, Nkunku and Palmer all fit in. And how soon, I assume, we can offload Sterling, Madueke and Mudryk. 

[east lower]

14 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

Caicedo Enzo

Palmer Nkunku Neto

Felix

Not strong enough both physically and mentally, unbalanced, too many injury concerns, not suited to the league, too slow etc etc.

Say what you like and you may be right but there's some serious quality there.

Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Makelele

Anelka, Drogba 

Draw your own conclusions and comparisons.

[Original 21]

I missed the story that PSG are set to return for Osimhen after PSG striker Goncalo Ramos broke his ankle yesterday and is out for several months. 

It would add to the air of farce at the club if we end up with Joao Felix and no striker after all these shenanigans. 

[Ham]

7 minutes ago, Original 21 said:

I missed the story that PSG are set to return for Osimhen after PSG striker Goncalo Ramos broke his ankle yesterday and is out for several months. 

It would add to the air of farce at the club if we end up with Joao Felix and no striker after all these shenanigans. 

I'm not convinced we were ever really in with a chance because he's apparently on record as saying he wants PSG.  

[martin1905]

1 hour ago, east lower said:

Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Makelele

Anelka, Drogba 

Draw your own conclusions and comparisons.

Doesn't compare, but then there's not 6 players in the world today that would.

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, martin1905 said:

Curious if people are still against his signing at the rumoured fee.

Forget Conor for a second, just in context of this transfer, surely for the rumored fee there can't be too many unhappy?

Not unhappy, just don't see the general sense in it purely because I don't think we really need a Felix type. I'd rather a more traditional CF that offers us something different, opposed to a hybrid winger, attacking midfielder, forward that has, despite underlying talent, failed to reach the heights many expected. 

Still think we're overpaying even at the claimed fee, and I'll be curious to see what his wage actually is. Don't really need to be picking up another overpaid immovable player.

That said, will support him if he does indeed arrive. 

[martin1905]

2 hours ago, Bert19 said:

We need a proper no.9 and not another AM. Particularly an AM that consistently underwhelms & we have all seen underwhelm first-hand. 

We may well get another ST. Still best part of two weeks until the window closes. If Felix is that ST we have been looking for then I'd be pretty underwhelmd by this signing and although I've said we could see him play there I doubt that will be his main position.

Personally I think we do need another AM, in terms of quality. We can debate his ability all day, I rate him pretty highly, don't think he was that bad when he was here and you have to take into account how bad the entire team was that season. It's not like he was shocking whilst every one else was playing out of their skins. 

Whatever people think of him he's clearly an upgrade on Mudryk, the chelsea version of Sterling, Broja and Madueke.

2 hours ago, Bert19 said:

I’m not sure many of us can actually understand why you are so excited by this? It’s yet another transfer in that is way down the pecking order of what we actually need. 

I'm not particularly excited.  Just not anti every decision the club makes. 

We've added Neto, KDH and Felix to our AM options so as a whole we are miles better off than last season yet it appears everything we do is wrong. It's a massive upgrade in an area of the pitch that is going to be absolutely crucial to how we want to play.

2 hours ago, Bert19 said:

I think most of us would have a lot more excitement if this was Oblak coming in as Conor goes out. Mainly because it would vaguely look like we’re addressing a problem area for us. 

Which is very easy to say, just pick out a players name and assume it's anything but a pipe dream.

[Bison]

11 hours ago, east lower said:

You don’t have too look too far to find them.

Quite a coalition on here who will make every excuse for the destruction being caused. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

9 hours ago, martin1905 said:

Caicedo Enzo

Palmer Nkunku Neto

Felix

Not strong enough both physically and mentally, unbalanced, too many injury concerns, not suited to the league, too slow etc etc.

Say what you like and you may be right but there's some serious quality there.

You saw as we all did how dreadful Caicedo looked with Fernandez. The latter gets injured, Conor comes in and suddenly Caicedo looks a different player. 🙌🏻💯👀

[Rob B]

6 hours ago, martin1905 said:

We've added Neto, KDH and Felix to our AM options so as a whole we are miles better off than last season yet it appears everything we do is wrong. It's a massive upgrade in an area of the pitch that is going to be absolutely crucial to how we want to play.

On paper, I absolutely agree with you.

However I’m cautiously reserving judgement to see what happens in reality.  We know Neto has spent more time injured over the last 3 years than time playing so is he going to be an actual option for us?  He is the game changer signing this summer,  but if he’s not around,  you’ve swapped Gallagher for KDH which is a downgrade and added Felix who I like, but might not get into our best XI.  

At that point, we’ve spent best part of £130m for Neto to be in the physio room and KDH / Felix to be playing Thursday football against Micky Mouse FC. 

I’d have been much more comfortable giving those minutes to Mudryk, George or Chukwuemeka and spending that money on a world class GK and a CB.

I still think there’s a deal to be done with Napoli for Osimhen in the last week of the window and at least at that point we would have strengthened 1 of the big 3 positions we needed to.  

[Chelsea_Matt]

17 minutes ago, Rob B said:

On paper, I absolutely agree with you.

However I’m cautiously reserving judgement to see what happens in reality.  We know Neto has spent more time injured over the last 3 years than time playing so is he going to be an actual option for us?  He is the game changer signing this summer,  but if he’s not around,  you’ve swapped Gallagher for KDH which is a downgrade and added Felix who I like, but might not get into our best XI.  

At that point, we’ve spent best part of £130m for Neto to be in the physio room and KDH / Felix to be playing Thursday football against Micky Mouse FC. 

I’d have been much more comfortable giving those minutes to Mudryk, George or Chukwuemeka and spending that money on a world class GK and a CB.

I still think there’s a deal to be done with Napoli for Osimhen in the last week of the window and at least at that point we would have strengthened 1 of the big 3 positions we needed to.  

I don’t think talent is the issue for the most part. My issue is that IMO 90% of them are physically and mentally weak - and couldn’t give a flying fig about playing for Chelsea. 

There’s an interview with Maresca on the CFC app where - surprise surprise - he’s basically saying there’s no spirit. That in one pre-season game one of our players was kicked badly and no one defended him. 

Since the takeover we’ve seen zero team sprint - only when we’re winning. IMO.

Sorry not sorry. IMO 90% of them are utterly dislikable mercenaries. And that’s why I don’t feel any connection anymore. 

And that’s what happens with this model of running a club. IMO.

👀 🤷🏻‍♂️💀

Edited August 18 by Chelsea_Matt