Transfer Talk Topic

[chara]

OK..by AVAILABLE I meant on the market NOW, Any club can make an offer for any player but prising away a settled player and one a Club doesn't want to lose takes time and a lot of cash and rarely comes off...usually results in the targeted player using the "interest" to get a wage increase!

[Thiago97]

8 minutes ago, chara said:

OK..by AVAILABLE I meant on the market NOW, Any club can make an offer for any player but prising away a settled player and one a Club doesn't want to lose takes time and a lot of cash and rarely comes off...usually results in the targeted player using the "interest" to get a wage increase!

Same situation applies. There has been plenty of players moving this summer. Some of them would have been useful for Chelsea.

It’s not really worth naming any world class players, cos world class players come with 200k per week plus salaries. We have not handed out a salary like that since the very first handful of signings under this ownership.

They might change this with someone like Osimhen. Personally, I don’t see it though. They could have done this in the last 4 windows and haven’t, so I struggle to see why they will now . 

Edited August 18 by Thiago97

[martin1905]

21 minutes ago, chara said:

OK..by AVAILABLE I meant on the market NOW, Any club can make an offer for any player but prising away a settled player and one a Club doesn't want to lose takes time and a lot of cash and rarely comes off...usually results in the targeted player using the "interest" to get a wage increase!

We could have spent £65m on Dominic Solanke.

We could look at Guehi, last bid Newcastle had turned down was £65m, so God knows how much he will likely end up costing.

Neither of them anywhere near world class though so doesn't answer your question but does give you an insight into the current market, certainly of we want proven premier league players.

I also think, and I'm sure you'd agree as this isn't aimed at you, it might be worth waiting until the window has actually closed before making a final judgement. Probably be worth giving them a little bit of time to settle too, maybe a few games of football but that's not going to happen. Most have made their minds up even though we haven't kicked a ball.

[Thiago97]

6 minutes ago, martin1905 said:

We could have spent £65m on Dominic Solanke.

We could look at Guehi, last bid Newcastle had turned down was £65m, so God knows how much he will likely end up costing.

Neither of them anywhere near world class though so doesn't answer your question but does give you an insight into the current market, certainly of we want proven premier league players.

I also think, and I'm sure you'd agree as this isn't aimed at you, it might be worth waiting until the window has actually closed before making a final judgement. Probably be worth giving them a little bit of time to settle too, maybe a few games of football but that's not going to happen. Most have made their minds up even though we haven't kicked a ball.

I don’t see Solanke as a £65m striker, but he has been brought in to improve them now. He has been clearly identified by their manager as someone to lead the line of their attack and replace what they had with Kane. Whilst it looks expensive, if he chips in with 15 league goals and they make top4, well its job done and he has been worth the outlay . That’s adding players to complement players you already have to improve the team. We haven’t done this , bar possibly Neto.

As for the asking for time to settle etc. I agree completely, shame you didn’t see it that way last season when you wanted the manager out after 3 games. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

Wasn't an opinion, that's why....

He was excellent vs Liverpool opening day (fact). 

And we know he had a hernia injury he'd been carrying for much of the season, which eventually saw him shut down early and getting surgery (fact). 

One match. Well worth the money. He was shit before the injury, shit after and shit in pre-season against Inter. More facts for you - and I’ll respectfully agree to disagree, so let’s move on. 
🙌🏻💯🤷🏻‍♂️

[Sleeping Dave]

1 hour ago, Thiago97 said:

There are plenty of players who have been available, or could be available. Everyone would like world class players ideally, but we don’t necessarily need world class additions. We need experienced players who will improve us and be ready to play 40 games across a season. 
Naming players really isn’t the issue, but naming players creates a full debate about them being good enough or not good enough.  A perfect example, Ivan Toney would make a difference now. Max Kilman would have made a difference now. Guehi is better than we have and would be an improvement. There was GK’s at the euros would be be attainable, that would possible make a difference ( I say possibly cos I don’t know if we need one, not seen Jorgensen)

These are not really a wish list of players, they are players we could have signed instead of spunking another £70m on teenagers we may never see play. 

Imagine owning Guehi only to sell him, spending £250m on new CBs only to realise that Guehi would still be our best CB had he stayed… 

About to do the same mistake with Chalobah. 

It’s madness of the highest order. Also, not pointing fingers towards anyone. We were almost as bad under Roman when it came to this. But it has escalated quickly under Clearlake. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

6 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Imagine owning Guehi only to sell him, spending £250m on new CBs only to realise that Guehi would still be our best CB had he stayed… 

About to do the same mistake with Chalobah. 

It’s madness of the highest order. Also, not pointing fingers towards anyone. We were almost as bad under Roman when it came to this. But it has escalated quickly under Clearlake. 

Agreed. But everyone makes mistakes - we made plenty under Roman; saying that his regime is levels above this clown show imo. Because he admitted he didn’t know much about the game and put people in who did. Now when popular players leave, it’s easy to blame the club but it isn’t always their fault.

However, I do think ClearSnake are clowns and the sooner they go the better.

They can’t even get a proper shirt sponsor. 💀👀🤷🏻‍♂️

[Miguelito07]

I really cant understand why we are after Felix. What we need is a striker - especially after todays match 

[chiswickblue]

As we push Chilwell, Sterling, Chalobah, Gallagher, Broja and Chukwuemeka out of the club, look  at their replacements:

Chilwell - Veiga

Sterling - Felix?

Chalobah - Tosin

Gallagher - KDH

Broja - Guiu

Have we really improved the squad? I don't know where the need to reduce the wage bill comes from, but this is a deliberate downgrade.

[Sleeping Dave]

24 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

As we push Chilwell, Sterling, Chalobah, Gallagher, Broja and Chukwuemeka out of the club, look  at their replacements:

Chilwell - Veiga

Sterling - Felix?

Chalobah - Tosin

Gallagher - KDH

Broja - Guiu

Have we really improved the squad? I don't know where the need to reduce the wage bill comes from, but this is a deliberate downgrade.

Yeah I agree but I’m not surprised. Maresca plays with a limited number of players. I think his thinking is:

GK: Sanchez, Jorgensen, Bettinelli

RB: James, Gusto

CB: Fofana, Colwill, Disasi, Badiashile, Adarabioyo

LB: Cucurella, Veiga

CM: Caicedo, Lavia, Dewsbury-Hall, Chukwuemeka

AM: Fernandez, Palmer, Nkunku, Neto, Madueke, Mudryk, Felix (?)

S: S1, Jackson, Guiu

All of a sudden we look a little light in CM… Not convinced by KDH at all. Fernandez isn’t an option there. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

32 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

As we push Chilwell, Sterling, Chalobah, Gallagher, Broja and Chukwuemeka out of the club, look  at their replacements:

Chilwell - Veiga

Sterling - Felix?

Chalobah - Tosin

Gallagher - KDH

Broja - Guiu

Have we really improved the squad? I don't know where the need to reduce the wage bill comes from, but this is a deliberate downgrade.

Guiu looks an upgrade on Broja, who I think is a donkey. 🫏🎯💯

[Original 21]

Can we please buy Osimhen. Just do what it takes. Sell a hotel to ourselves. I can’t watch another season of Jackson playing upfront. It’ll do my head in.

[Sleeping Dave]

10 hours ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Guiu looks an upgrade on Broja, who I think is a donkey. 🫏🎯💯

Really? In 28 minutes he completed 3 passes and had six touches. 

He has no business even being in the squad. It’s beyond a joke he’s supposed to be our S2. We will be able to count his goals this season on one hand. I’d much prefer Broja over him. Hell I’d take Lukaku over him every day of the week. 

[Sleeping Dave]

12 hours ago, Miguelito07 said:

I really cant understand why we are after Felix. What we need is a striker - especially after todays match 

Agreed. Felix fills no purpose in this squad. Unless we will sell Enzo and Felix is to play winger/CAM. 

But that won’t happen of course. Do we need 7 players for 3 positions behind the striker? Especially when we at the moment have a S2 and S3 supposed to share the burden of a S1? The squad building is laughable. We’ve spent so much money this window and have managed to not address any of our key issues (GK1, CB1 and S1) while decimating squad depth. We’ve actually spent a lot of money to make us worse, pretending to outsmart everyone by pocketing imaginary book profits while seeing quality nosedive. 

How? If this season is another fiasco there’s only one way to point your fingers. Upstairs. 

Edited August 19 by Sleeping Dave

[Chelsea_Matt]

43 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Really? In 28 minutes he completed 3 passes and had six touches. 

He has no business even being in the squad. It’s beyond a joke he’s supposed to be our S2. We will be able to count his goals this season on one hand. I’d much prefer Broja over him. Hell I’d take Lukaku over him every day of the week. 

Looked very good in pre season. I’d have him over both Broja AND Lukaku any day.

Edited August 19 by Michael Tucker
Silliness

[Blue Kratos]

1 hour ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Really? In 28 minutes he completed 3 passes and had six touches. 

He has no business even being in the squad. It’s beyond a joke he’s supposed to be our S2. We will be able to count his goals this season on one hand. I’d much prefer Broja over him. Hell I’d take Lukaku over him every day of the week. 

If we can pull off a deal for a striker then I would loan him to a team in the championship, hopefully one that will give him game time.

At 18 he's a pup and not ready for the pressure of playing for this club.

[Leo]

We NEED a competent striker before the window closes. Surely the board aren't blind to this.

[Holymoly]

Ignoring the financial aspect for now but I would prefer to see Gallagher stay and cash in on Fernandez. At the moment it would have a positive impact on midfield.

We've needed a striker for years and for some reason we've been opted for the pick and mix approach instead of shopping at Harrods. The chances of that working has been proven time after time.

[Sleeping Dave]

1 hour ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Looked very good in pre season. I’d have him over both Broja AND Lukaku any day.

He didn't look good in pre-season. He runs. Well ok. To be a Premier League attacker you need more. He might be a good player in a few years time. But to have him in the squad is madness. Apparently paying him £100k/week. He is so out of his depth it's painful to watch. 

Who makes these calls? How are they still employed? 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I would do a better job at building our squad. I'd also be a lot cheaper than the dimwits currently paid to do it. 

[Morgs]

Morning all. 

I didn't sleep very well last night, I've got a dodgy tummy this morning and I'm grumpy af. 

Some thoughts and observations about yesterday while I wait for my Berocca to dissolve. 

ChiswickBlue has it right above. In pure quality terms, KDH is a significant downgrade on Gallagher. Veiga is a downgrade on a (fully fit) Chillwell. Jorgensen is (from what we can see on YouTube) a downgrade on Petrovic (and so is Sanchez). Adarabioyo is a downgrade on Silva.  Felix is a downgrade on Sterling as well, and that's saying something. 

So you could argue, 140m and a lot of d*cking around and a huge amount of upheaval later, this summer has produced just two upgrades on last season's deeply flawed squad (Guiu for Broja and Neto for Mudryk), and five downgrades. And of the two upgrades, one is a permanently-injured risk and the other is an 18 year old kid.  It has been a wildly, exasperatingly poor summer and that is putting it politely. 

I used to think that a bad transfer window was when we didn't buy anyone, but this summer has taught me that there are worse things than not buying players. 

Watching the game yesterday, there were a few positives but I cannot fathom how the sporting directors are watching that and the risible stream of twittery that was the pointless pre-season we had, and STILL think Sanchez is the keeper to take us forward, or that we don't need a proper striker. That both these issues were what fatally undermined us last season and eventually did for Poch, is not lost on me but somehow the club don't agree. Imagine your only job at the club is to see things like that and miss them utterly. It is akin to landing an airliner without putting the undercarriage down; ignoring the various warnings from the flight management systems, the Master Caution lights and horns, your own instincts from your training and the increasingly impassioned pleas from the co-pilot and you still put her down on the concrete on her belly, ripping the engines off and tearing the cabin open in a flash of fire and clouds of smoke. 

An excuse used in the past is that "we want to get the right profile, the right name and do not want to buy for buying's sake" to justify not addressing gaping holes in the squad but it would be fatuous in the extreme for Clearlake to start claiming that now, wouldn't it? 

It undermines the positives, to see the errors Sanchez keeps making. A better keeper keeps out both goals yesterday. Lavia and Caicedo seem already to have a better partnership and understanding than Caicedo ever enjoyed with Enzo last season and this is positive, a meaningful improvement on last season... but all a bit pointless when you have a dodgy keeper who is still costing you goals. Seeing Lavia and Caicedo work so well together should be a really big thing for us given how we have struggled in the base of the midfield in the last few years. 

City were poor but didn't need to go up any gears to dismiss us and I think had we nicked a point we would have had to count ourselves uncharacteristically very fortunate. Taylor didn't have a bad game and got both penalty calls right to my mind, and whining about him does us no favours because it misses the point.  

Of the new boys, Neto isn't fully fit yet by the looks of it and his final ball is very.... Chelsea. Veiga is a big lump who looks clumsy and ill-suited to the high tempo of the Prem, and I am getting alarmingly familiar Drinkwater vibes from Dewsbury-Hall, who is a nothing player. I am not sure what he does. He's no Conor Gallagher, that is for sure. 

Of the old faces, Colwill's slightly dodgy form continues but he does at least seem to have a decent partnership with Fofana who I thought was excellent yesterday. Big Wes has an edge to him, like a more elegant, more languid French version of Rudiger. Takes no prisoners, dominant physically, with that little Gallic smirk. I enjoyed him putting Haaland in his place yesterday. Not many centre-halves can do that. Let's hope he stays fit. 

Jackson I thought played ok, made two mistakes but on another day he slots that chance and stays onside for his other goal. I'm increasingly convinced, as I have stated on here a few times, that he is an Henry type left winger who likes to cut inside and that if we ever do manage to sign a decent striker then he will play on the left side. He is a huge upgrade to Mudryk there and I think playing Neto on the right to push Palmer in at 10 would be to everyone's advantage. Palmer looks like he needs a couple more weeks off. Good player but I think pushing him out to the wing and having him swap over five times a game isn't going to help him. Last season it was mainly that if Palmer had a tough game so did we, and this I forsee will be very much the case this season. I worry that he'll start getting the Eden treatment where teams realise he's the only real threat so double up on him and kick him out of the game. As reliant as we were on the magical Belgian back in the day, so too we are over-reliant on Palmer now. 

Gusto remains one of our few genuinely world class players and was excellent again last night against the effervescent Doku (why didn't we sign him instead of Mudryk????)  who was eveywhere yesterday and would have given lesser players a real torrid time. Gusto will not have many tougher games and tougher opponents this season than Doku yesterday. Handled him very well. Class act. James doesnt get back in the side with Gusto on this form, in my opinion. 

A few words on Enzo. His lack of mobility has always been an issue but the nasty little digs, the whinging, the appealing for everything and the holding onto the ball waiting for contact to go down in the box is not nice to see and he had a bad game yesterday. He's obviously a good player but I am not sure at what. Decent passer. But too slow, not physical enough, doesn't score goals and seems to be a miserable racist. So there's that. I think someone like Chukwuemeka would offer a lot more than him playing in front of Lavia and Caicedo, as would Santos (although he has gone on loan). For now Enzo needs to work hard, get his head down and his form back and stop getting involved in silly little battles like the one he indulged in with Haaland yesterday. It was embarrassing at times - just wind your neck in and play football, ffs. 

 

[Sleeping Dave]

Of all the ridiculous stuff that went down yesterday, having Enzo man-marking Haaland at corners was a laugh. 

I mean, what? How can anyone think that is a proper way of marking the deadliest striker in world football? 

[Chelsea_Matt]

6 minutes ago, Morgs said:

Morning all. 

I didn't sleep very well last night, I've got a dodgy tummy this morning and I'm grumpy af. 

Some thoughts and observations about yesterday while I wait for my Berocca to dissolve. 

ChiswickBlue has it right above. In pure quality terms, KDH is a significant downgrade on Gallagher. Veiga is a downgrade on a (fully fit) Chillwell. Jorgensen is (from what we can see on YouTube) a downgrade on Petrovic (and so is Sanchez). Adarabioyo is a downgrade on Silva.  Felix is a downgrade on Sterling as well, and that's saying something. 

So you could argue, 140m and a lot of d*cking around and a huge amount of upheaval later, this summer has produced just two upgrades on last season's deeply flawed squad (Guiu for Broja and Neto for Mudryk), and five downgrades. And of the two upgrades, one is a permanently-injured risk and the other is an 18 year old kid.  It has been a wildly, exasperatingly poor summer and that is putting it politely. 

I used to think that a bad transfer window was when we didn't buy anyone, but this summer has taught me that there are worse things than not buying players. 

Watching the game yesterday, there were a few positives but I cannot fathom how the sporting directors are watching that and the risible stream of twittery that was the pointless pre-season we had, and STILL think Sanchez is the keeper to take us forward, or that we don't need a proper striker. That both these issues were what fatally undermined us last season and eventually did for Poch, is not lost on me but somehow the club don't agree. Imagine your only job at the club is to see things like that and miss them utterly. It is akin to landing an airliner without putting the undercarriage down; ignoring the various warnings from the flight management systems, the Master Caution lights and horns, your own instincts from your training and the increasingly impassioned pleas from the co-pilot and you still put her down on the concrete on her belly, ripping the engines off and tearing the cabin open in a flash of fire and clouds of smoke. 

An excuse used in the past is that "we want to get the right profile, the right name and do not want to buy for buying's sake" to justify not addressing gaping holes in the squad but it would be fatuous in the extreme for Clearlake to start claiming that now, wouldn't it? 

It undermines the positives, to see the errors Sanchez keeps making. A better keeper keeps out both goals yesterday. Lavia and Caicedo seem already to have a better partnership and understanding than Caicedo ever enjoyed with Enzo last season and this is positive, a meaningful improvement on last season... but all a bit pointless when you have a dodgy keeper who is still costing you goals. Seeing Lavia and Caicedo work so well together should be a really big thing for us given how we have struggled in the base of the midfield in the last few years. 

City were poor but didn't need to go up any gears to dismiss us and I think had we nicked a point we would have had to count ourselves uncharacteristically very fortunate. Taylor didn't have a bad game and got both penalty calls right to my mind, and whining about him does us no favours because it misses the point.  

Of the new boys, Neto isn't fully fit yet by the looks of it and his final ball is very.... Chelsea. Veiga is a big lump who looks clumsy and ill-suited to the high tempo of the Prem, and I am getting alarmingly familiar Drinkwater vibes from Dewsbury-Hall, who is a nothing player. I am not sure what he does. He's no Conor Gallagher, that is for sure. 

Of the old faces, Colwill's slightly dodgy form continues but he does at least seem to have a decent partnership with Fofana who I thought was excellent yesterday. Big Wes has an edge to him, like a more elegant, more languid French version of Rudiger. Takes no prisoners, dominant physically, with that little Gallic smirk. I enjoyed him putting Haaland in his place yesterday. Not many centre-halves can do that. Let's hope he stays fit. 

Jackson I thought played ok, made two mistakes but on another day he slots that chance and stays onside for his other goal. I'm increasingly convinced, as I have stated on here a few times, that he is an Henry type left winger who likes to cut inside and that if we ever do manage to sign a decent striker then he will play on the left side. He is a huge upgrade to Mudryk there and I think playing Neto on the right to push Palmer in at 10 would be to everyone's advantage. Palmer looks like he needs a couple more weeks off. Good player but I think pushing him out to the wing and having him swap over five times a game isn't going to help him. Last season it was mainly that if Palmer had a tough game so did we, and this I forsee will be very much the case this season. I worry that he'll start getting the Eden treatment where teams realise he's the only real threat so double up on him and kick him out of the game. As reliant as we were on the magical Belgian back in the day, so too we are over-reliant on Palmer now. 

Gusto remains one of our few genuinely world class players and was excellent again last night against the effervescent Doku (why didn't we sign him instead of Mudryk????)  who was eveywhere yesterday and would have given lesser players a real torrid time. Gusto will not have many tougher games and tougher opponents this season than Doku yesterday. Handled him very well. Class act. James doesnt get back in the side with Gusto on this form, in my opinion. 

A few words on Enzo. His lack of mobility has always been an issue but the nasty little digs, the whinging, the appealing for everything and the holding onto the ball waiting for contact to go down in the box is not nice to see and he had a bad game yesterday. He's obviously a good player but I am not sure at what. Decent passer. But too slow, not physical enough, doesn't score goals and seems to be a miserable racist. So there's that. I think someone like Chukwuemeka would offer a lot more than him playing in front of Lavia and Caicedo, as would Santos (although he has gone on loan). For now Enzo needs to work hard, get his head down and his form back and stop getting involved in silly little battles like the one he indulged in with Haaland yesterday. It was embarrassing at times - just wind your neck in and play football, ffs. 

 

I wonder if your coffee has cooled after typing that. Hope you’re feeling better soon, Morgerino. 🩶🎯🩶

[Morgs]

1 minute ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

I wonder if your coffee has cooled after typing that. Hope you’re feeling better soon, Morgerino. 🩶🎯🩶

Cheers Matt.

[Bert19]

4 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Of all the ridiculous stuff that went down yesterday, having Enzo man-marking Haaland at corners was a laugh. 

I mean, what? How can anyone think that is a proper way of marking the deadliest striker in world football? 

I think this is symptomatic of where we are as a team & club though.  Inexperienced players and everything is about doing stuff within a system and not taking responsibility yourself. 

Imagine JT, Desailly, Carvalho being willing to hand Haaland over to a 5ft 10 CM on corners without a very specific instruction and reasoning from the Manager (e.g Makelele marking Crouch and the CBs cleaning up the knockdowns).  It just wouldn't have happened. If anything, they'd have been bollocking each other for not being on him like glue. 

But that's where we are.  The one thing I wonder is that if Fofana is fit, whether he's the character that decides he will take charge of that backline? He seems more confident and assertive than the rest and is clearly aggressive on the pitch.  If anyone can do it, he strikes me as the most likely. 

Colwill couldn't celebrate his first Chelsea goal because it was against Brighton - so I think that rules him out of the loud, aggressive leader role tbh. Gusto might bring that with time, but he's young and I think needs the "Go and stand there and stick with him" treatment for a while yet and Cucurella seems like he'll talk but is a joiner-in rather than the leader.  And Sanchez is just a waste of space full stop.  

So I think it'll be down to Wes and Lavia to be the vocal ones tbh. 

[paulw66]

I honestly think if we get Osimhen done, it will make a world of difference.

We haven't replaced Diego Costa (2018) and we haven't seriously challenged since then.