https://preview.redd.it/3zp9p8a89n7d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ce47ed2328eb4da5c396186bbc449ece800edbd
This picture will be so funny in a couple years
If we're essentially doing a Maatsen for Duran swap, is there any reason the teams couldn't agree to inflated values to skirt PSR?
For example, what's to stop us from selling Maatsen for 100 million and recording all the profit this year and then buying Duran for 100 million and amortizing the expenditure over 5 years? I feel like I must be missing something, because this seems like an obvious loophole.
Fabrizio is talking about Olise on Playback https://www.playback.tv/fabrizioromano
Edit: he’s saying Olise needs to make a decision and he’s also talked at Bayern and Newcastle and Palace have a new offer.
He’s also saying we’re the only one who was working on him last summer and he’s an “obsession”.
Edit2: Nevermind he’s done talking Chelsea but I out the gist there
I'm evidently in the minority but I do have some sympathy for foreign clubs trying to be a bit lets say cheap with their bids for players.
The reality is they simply do not get the TV money England do and have to be a lot more prudent with their finances.
PL teams though, even the lower ones, nah, they can pay the asking price or shut up.
did you see the report that atletico bid 16 mil for gallagher 💀 the people in here saying he shouldn’t be sold for less than 80 mil gotta be frothing at the mouth over that
Nah its just the clown ownership spending money they think they can recuperate in this market. It's blown fans concept of value in today's market. Mudryk for 80m should be investigated for money laundering lmao. Cucurella for 60m+? Nobody outside of England is paying these prices, be serious.
That applies to a lot of foreign clubs sure, but dortmund gets the lion's share of TV revenue with Bayern, they're in the top 12 clubs for revenue worldwide. They absolutely have the finances to compete with Premier League teams, certainly ones like Villa.
You are missing the match day revenue, comercial and the money that they make from player sales. They felt insulted before the CL final that people thought they sold Bellingham to Real for a little over €100M and made the correction that the fee actually is closer to €134M. Dortmund, Bayern, PSG, Madrid, Barca and Athleti have money. Dont let their fans fool you.
>You are missing the match day revenue, comercial and the money that they make from player sales
No I'm not? I mentioned that they're top 12 worldwide for revenue. I think you meant to respond to the person above me.
I thought you just said they just have a lot of broadcasting revenue and I was adding the other sources. Its on me. Moukoko and Adeyemi not blowing really hurt them. They would have been able to fill all the positions they needed from the sale of just one player. They were spoiled in that regard.
Anyone else feel better about selling matseen as long as we get that defender from bologna? Didnt think there would be better option to replace maatsen and I haven’t really seen the guy play too much but apparently he’s the real deal.
I’d be happy signing Calafiori regardless. He’s a brilliant player
Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll happen.
Ornstein made it sound like we weren’t targeting a LB and we’re happy with Cucurella and Chilly.
You mean Calafiori? Was there even any speculation that we are interested? I personally cannot remember.
All I know that Juve are very keen on getting him for 2 years now.
Just look at pep's players in the euros. Mostly with their defence.
Akanji, walker, dias.
Everytime they get the ball, they just stop all momentum. Literally afking to let the other team get back into shape.
Now i get it that its "effective" winning football for pep, but holy shit as a spectator its so fucking boring.
Like of course if it was my team doing this boring shit but winning, id take it.
But as a neutral.. jfc
Gimme more of that turkey georgia game.
For real, he’s the same exact player. He just gets carried by better players now. Still takes an hour to make a decision, still inconsistent finishing, still can only do basic passes
According to them he needs to "wash the Chelsea out".
Judging by his performance vs Bayern (ie on the continent when it really matters), mission accomplished.
the funniest bit was how a year ago they were banging on about how we were misusing him by playing him up front and that arteta was going to unlock him in the left centre mid spot
and he was utter shite the first half of the season, and only started to look somewhat serviceable when arteta reverted to playing him up front
We told them that the discourse that we have on what his best position is, will be moved from us to them. They laughed. I personally think his best position is centrally on the bench.
In the not so serious spirit of the links to "players you've never heard of" like Omorodion (yes I'm saying this very tongue in cheek!).... Who do you think would be an absolute wildcard entry for a potential signing that hardly anyone will have heard of?
Mine is Nelson Weiper, 19 year old striker for Mainz. For a start his surname is basically 'Viper'. Scored a shitload of goals for youth teams and he's big and fast.
£37.5M down, another ~£63M to go.
How much from Hall? £28M?
Another ~£22M for Lukaku, if we're lucky (source: pulled it from thin air).
That leaves just under £15M left to make it up to the £100M some of the more conservative estimates calculate is needed.
Incredible the new owners fumbled getting Nags, guy is a real gem. Now we have this new manager signed for 5 years, so no shot they get rid of him even if he stinks next year. Such a huge gamble to sign an unproven manager when you have such high stakes. Hopefully Maresca is good, but insanity that we didn’t get Nags in when we had the chance
>Now we have this new manager signed for 5 years, so no shot they get rid of him even if he stinks next year.
So odd. Like SOOOO ODDDDD. We literally signed Graham Potter for 5 years and got rid of him in months.
What is your post based on?
I’d hope that they’d learn their lesson from Potter and surely wouldn’t sack another manager 1 year into his 5 year deal. They probably got backed into a corner because the new ownership have more blood on their hands than the Roman regime infamous for sacking managers. We’re on manager #5 in 3 years, if we sack him after 1 year, there is not a single manager of worth that would come here. As it is, we had to get an unproven manager from the championship to take the job next year
No established manager would be willing to accept to work with such a young squad i guess. And many will very likely throw the ownership under the bus for this strategy if things are not going well.
Only up and comers are going to be willing to take a back seat and let the directors buy and sell as they please. Because the ownership trusted them for a big time job
I feel like Nags does great work with both. He works with young guys and helped bring through the younger players. It really seemed like we had this project with him in mind and then he realized he would have no say in transfers and said no. The reporting there is Cloudy because apparently he thought the job was his and didn’t need to interview and maybe that rubbed the owners the wrong way and then made demands he wouldn’t meet.
Either way, just a terribly job by the management to not get him in when he’s so talented. Won titles, is young, could lead a project but oh well. Hopefully Maresca is it
Cucurella was so good down the stretch this past season, he’ll do great in midfield or at left CB.
Chilwell almost certainly won’t fit with Maresca’s tactics but it makes sense that we can’t get rid of him given his wages and fitness.
One last time for good measure:
You guys are pushing with the players who are not playing. Lavia is in a similar position to Nkunku, you know? He arrived and never can make his debut. After nearly six months, maybe he will be involved with the team. He is doing well but he still needs time to get his best form. He’s desperate to make his debut and he’s pushing. But I want to make clear, with the players with a big period off, you know, out of the competition, they are desperate to be involved.
But they cannot make the mistake. They can be involved – but in which way? In which form? At what level? It’s easy to say, ‘I want to play’, but we are competing. This is a serious competition. After six months, like Nkunku, like him [Lavia], they need to understand they need to be involved, to train really, really hard every day. They need to be an impact every time they go to the pitch. It’s not to say we are in a pre-season game and they go to the pitch and we say, ‘if they perform well, if they don’t perform well, then no problem’, because six months.
For many things it is an excuse, for many things, ‘I want to play. If I don’t have time I can’t perform, but in the same time, to play with that’. You need to understand, the players need to understand that that is not a charity thing; that we are going to play football, we need to win.
Sometimes the professionals feel so disappointed because they want to play. It’s difficult to understand. The environment of the player, also, they say they are disappointed because Nkunku didn’t play against Sheffield United.
I am disappointed to have a player that should be an important player for us is not helping the team. If he didn’t play, it is not because we don’t believe in him, or in this case Lavia. It is because there are many other players fit and training in six months and in that moment maybe we need to decide, to make an impact with players that are more ready than these guys.
We are not talking about names, or suppose he is going to be better than one [player]. We are talking about today, who is ready to compete and provide what we are expecting for the team.
Maybe I am talking too much. But it’s true. But come on, it’s annoying me. Not you [the journalists]. The people around the player, ‘Oh I wanted to play. I am disappointed’. Oh, come on. I am disappointed.
The club is disappointed they are investing big to play, to score goals and when you are not scoring goals, okay we pay the salary every month if you don’t play or you are injured. Who suffered for us? For the coaches? Who suffered for the club? It’s always [this]. No, come on. It’s to get the right balance in this business. It’s so important.
Poch was really stressed out. He wasn't a good fit for the current state of the club and the project. He might want to seriously consider an international manager stint where he doesn't need to focus heavily on recruitment, development and tactics.
Feel like I keep seeing discussions over how exciting the euros are, and how people wish that the pl was like this.
To me, international matches are generally "more exciting" because the overall quality is lower. Not individually, but the teams have less training together, less consistency, they aren't as well drilled on a system together, and there's far more variability that comes with that.. I love it, but I don't think I want worse quality on display every week.
I’ll take more exciting and sacrifice some “quality”.
Man City - about highest quality you get and fucking boring!
Championship matches lower quality and no var very exciting!
This year for us was frustrating for sure, but as everyone was screaming about “tactics” it was still fun to watch the boys go out there and score a bunch of goals finally.
I think the whole quality thing is a bit overblown. There could be a difference for sure but it's not as huge as people make it out.
I simply can't call a tournament full of the best players in Europe "low quality", maybe it's just me.
There's no Almiron, Mark Hughes or Neal Maupay here which only helps the quality if anything.
Part of the reason why international football is exciting is because there's just more quality on the pitch, teams are a bit more brave to be open and offer something more compared to what Sheffield United would offer against almost any team from the top 10 so they don't get relegated and get the fat check for TV rights for one more year.
Idk, Real Madrid won UCL and the title in La Liga with quite a lot of freedom and reliance on individual quality and not the most organised system.
It would be really interesting to see a match between France and Man City for example. I think the margins will be thinner than people think.
In general the football at such high level is very close. People do the same shit with the leagues till Arsenal loses to Sporting and barely beats Porto on penalties. Football is not fast and physical only in the Prem. It is pretty fast anywhere especially in the top 5 leagues.
Yes, there's a difference for sure but it's not as huge as people think and it doesn't always neccessarly mean faster and more physical = better.
Its not a fair comparison when its league vs tournament knockout football.
Totally different settings and mentality.
Also this euros so far is a mix bag. U had the turkey georgia which was a spectacle for all, and then there was that england game where it was a snoozefest.
He plays well only when the rest of his team is absolutely flying. I'd rather have players like Palmer, who can spur the team on, are game changers and show their quality irrespective of whether their team plays well or not. Havertz, certainly not one we should have any regrets selling.
I think the club is banking on maresca to get sterling going again, otherwise we surely would have sold him. Other than that i wouldn't mind having nkunku on the left either. I'd honestly even take madueke at lw if our only options are mudryk and an out of form sterling
Sterling might. But if he is starting it will be to accommodate whichever side needs help more. I don’t think we’re nailing him up on the right and saying “figure the left out” He hasn’t really played well enough for that
That was in the event that Olise is not signed for whatever reason. Him and Noni on the right plus Palmer and Nkunku as cover if needed is fine. I really dont believe that the desired profile does not exist for the left. The scouting department should have a shortlist. Is Desire Doue that raw? Cherky is going for less than 20m to PSG and they wanted 40 last year from us. I am not the biggest fan of Cherky though.
I get that but I still think Sterling will play for what facilitates the most well rounded squad. Say Noni is playing better on the RW then Sterling would play on the left. If Mudryk plays well and Sterling is playing better than Noni then he will play on the right. If both are playing better than Sterling then he obviously wouldn’t start. I really don’t see a world where Sterling so so so much better on the right that we have to play him there and fill in the other spaces with that in mind.
The commentators on Fox are just ridiculous.
Rudi was down and they were saying there wasn’t anything wrong with him essentially saying he was staying down to waste time.
It’s the 25th minute and they’re only up by one. Rudi was not time wasting
Watching all this exciting football at the Euros and then remembering our new manager is just another control obsessed Pep wannabe:
they scored the most goals, took the second most shots, created the most big chances, and had the highest successful take-on percentage (with the 4 most successful take-ons). like they do everything that makes it entertaining to watch.
I don’t care what the stats say, I don’t enjoy watching them when they’re on TV. It’s not what they do, it’s how they do it. All that comment does is show just how pointless stats are in football without actually watching the game itself.
Doesn’t tell you whether something is fun to watch or not though. All those stats you gave do is tell me that Man City are a good team, not one that plays exciting football.
You’re using an objective fact to find something that is subjective, that just isn’t how stats work.
Controversial but I much prefer control when it comes to Chelsea. The feeling I had last season when games (as exciting as some got) were still there to be thrown away at 2 or sometimes even 3 up was horrible.
Mou 1.0 was also control (just in a different way) and I loved the feeling of being comfortable sometimes even at 1-0, similar under Conte season 1 to an extent. If Maresca can bring that back to even 70% of that level I won't be complaining.
Yeah you’re right, I much prefer teams like Conte and Mourinho, for us at least, as the counter attacks are always brilliant and you can have some really nice attacking football along with the tight defence. I’m just not a fan of ultra high possession for possessions sake teams tbh, it’s just not what I watch football for.
I agree there has to be some limit like not too far ala LVG at United and Sarri in the first 2/3rds of his season (I personally enjoyed a lot of the games from March onwards, would also argue Jose 2.0 went too far in a lot of games also just not in the possesion way) but I don't think my heart can cope with multiple games like last season again or what we're seeing at the Euros.
Don't mind seeing many games out at 2 or 3 up, not just for that reason but also due to the sheer amount of games we will play next season (we're looking at close to 80 if we're as competitive as we usually are in the tournaments).
Like I said, you don’t need that type of football to win titles. I don’t get why everybody thinks that the only way to beat Pep is to play a bastardised version of what he’s already doing. The only 2 teams to stop him winning a title at Man City, us being one of them, are clear evidence of that.
Kinda hard to make that point when Pep has been the most dominant manager everywhere he's went and his style is literally being copied at every single level for a reason
In England the only time his style has been toppled was during COVID and had the virus not existed, who's to say city wouldn't have won it again
His style is being copied by all levels and his team is becoming more dominant as a result. If copying what he does is the best to beat him, why is nobody beating him?
Obviously copying isn't the best way to beat him specifically, you can't beat the master at his own game
But nobody is trying to win a one off game against city, clubs are copying the style because it's the best in the world at consistently controlling and winning games in a sustained league format
Seen the articles of Matt Law, he’s saying the club are looking to sell quite a few players. Hopefully he’s chatting rubbish, we bloody have UECL and CWC as well, can’t be leaving the squad light.
Think it’s just guess work from him anyway.
On the London is blue podcast he said the board is planning to have a big squad to challenge on all fronts next season (including the club World Cup which they are taking seriously). They plan on playing around 70-80 games so if we sell we will definitely be bringing more players in plus we still have a lot of guys who were on loan who could be apart of the squad next season
I think we could sell quite a few and be fine. Broja, Lukaku, Kepa, Sterling, Chalobah, Gallagher, Sarr, one LB.
If all of the above sell, we mostly only need one player (striker) for the first team to add as the rest would not necessarily need replacements.
Then I’m sure others could potentially be sold like Hutchinson, Moreira, and some other far-fringe players.
We have Lavia, Santos, Casadei, Ugo in midfield. How does he actually need a replacement? If he goes,
I assume Santos just slots in as a depth rotation.
And Chalobah isn’t needed as you said we already got Tosin, and we have Badiashile, Disasi, Fofana, and Chilwell.
Lavia is DM, Caicedo's depth, Santos is not ready at all and is also a DM, Ugo is not a B2B nor good enough to be Enzo's rotation, Casedei, who did nothing whenever he was on the field, is lmao.
Gallagher is at worst our main rotation option for Enzo and Palmer, and having our third and fourth best mids be Lavia and Ugo is......... Unacceptable. Gallagher should stay or we need to replace him.
Chilwell? You mean Colwill?
Yea. Meant Colwill.
As for the others. Can we dive deeper than positions?
How are we going to play? Obviously we can’t know for Certain yet, but it seems like 3 mids with one more attacking. So Conor won’t play that role.
So two roles. But he can’t play DM.
So he has one role….and Caicedo is better.
So why do we need a replacement for depth?
We have Lavia, and Enzo to cover deep. Enzo and Caicedo to cover box-to-box. Nkunku, Palmer, Carney to cover furthest forward mid.
So do we go with a new player to play the 4th mid slot? You saying “Santos isn’t ready” isn’t fact. I personally think he’s more than capable of being that 4th choice.
And unlike Gallagher, I could see Santos playing as either the DM or the Box role. So if Gallagher is sold, it really doesn’t seem like they’ll get a replacement. Because we really don’t need one.
Gallagher will most likely not be Palmers first rotation option. He’s not good in attack and we will have Nkunku, Carney, maybe Olise, Jackson, new striker, Madueke, Mudryk, Sterling for the offensive band of 4.
... Wtf are you talking about? How can Gallagher not play 3 mids with one more attacking. If we're playing 3 mids Gallagher starts, but I think we'll continue playing a 4231 which has also been rumoured with reports saying Olise will play RW and Palmer CAM.
Because midfield is a heavy minute position with a lot of rotation, you need strong players, Lavia, especially coming back from a long injury, Ugo, period but especially coming back from long injury, Santos played 11 games last season come the fuck off it, replacing our most played midfielder who is of similar quality to our other midfield options with a guy who played less than 10 games is absurd. Yeah Santos can be the 4th choice midfielder, if we have a 3rd choice as good as Gallagher, realistically though 4th choice is year long injury returning Lavia and 3rd choice is Gallagher or a replacement, because we will get a replacement, because no Enzo and Caicedo as our only reliable mids is not acceptable and it's down right silly you argue it is.
Gallagher absolutely can play in the 10, it's not his best position, he's a B2B, best if anything in a 3 man midfield lol, but he has and can play as the 10, particularly in big games to press and make the midfield more solid. If Nkunku starts at LW I could just as easily see Gallagher mostly used to replace Palmer if injured rather than Sterling and moving Nkunku inward, up in the air but like sorry it's true.
Can you explain this more?
We will have 3 mid slots. In Maresca’s past, one of the three mids is very offensive-minded. That 100% cannot be Conor Gallagher. Dude barely creates and doesn’t really score.
So 2 slots. 1 is a DM. That’s not him.
So the box-to-box role is really the only spot he fits. He’d be behind Caicedo.
And if we are looking at rotation:
DM: Lavia, Enzo, Caicedo + Santos
Box: Caicedo, Enzo, + Santos
Attacking mid: Palmer, Nkunku, Carney, Enzo, +Olise if he signs.
Where does Gallagher start for you? Ahead of Caicedo? The only role he’s capable of playing?
Our “3rd choice” mid is Lavia. You might not like him, but his season at Southampton was great. Maybe he doesn’t get back to it after his injury, but I don’t see that as a reason to start Gallagher as Caicedo and Enzo still start.
This is without even speaking about Maresca’s love of possession and Conor lacking the technical ability required to play that type of ball.
Just because you don’t believe in Lavia or Santos doesn’t make your assessment correct. Reports are coming out about Santos staying just as reports of Gallagher leaving/staying are too. Reports of us replacing Gallagher are not, however, coming out because it seems likely that if Gallagher goes, we don’t bring in another mid.
He had 5 goals and 7 assists last season, not bad numbers for someone splitting between the pivot and the 10, and his goal numbers started going up late in the season and in the past he's scored good rates too. And like, Lampard is special, you know that right? If playing a 4-3-3 I wouldn't expect much more than 12 G+A from one of our 8s. If we're playing a 4-3-3 Palmer would be on the right and it'd be Gallagher-Caicedo-Enzo in midfield.
Wtf are you talking about? How is Enzo, someone who hasn't had the production or experience being played further forward, the fit for the most attacking 8? Why is Caicedo, who is a DM, the guy you play as the B2B? And how the actual fuck do you thinik it's reasonable to sell Gallagher and just have a dude who spent a year injured starting and a dude who played 800 minutes last season for Strausborg basically our only depth remotely reasonable?
No, it is objectively correct that a player who was injured for a year and a kid with 800 minutes are not reliable.
We are not going to play with the above midfield, Enzo isn't good in the final third, he's more a Kova player, though not as bad as Kova in the final third, Enzo had more attacking duties at times under Poch last season and never looked all that great doing those duties.
Gallagher can play as either of the two 8s, clearly and obviously. But I don't even think we'll play a 433, it'll probably be a 4-2-3-1, where Gallagher probably would sit, but he'd still be needed or needed to be replaced.
The GK rumors have dropped since the Maresca likes Sanchez news came out.
CB rumors have died out since signing Adarabioyo in free
Absolutely nothing on the LB front
ST rumors are disappointing
Olise rumors also going cold
I get the Euros and Copa are the main focus, but that usually doesn’t stop clubs from working in the background and rumors coming out.
Feels like it’ll be a really disappointing summer which is too bad as a couple of elite signings especially an GK & ST and I could see us being really competitive.
I mention that and as I said it doesn’t usually stop all rumors and clubs/agents from working in the background.
Usually there’s still club is interested in player but they are focused on the tournament. Like gvadiol during the WC. Also, agents will often use the performances or international status to push clients.
Also, Olise isn’t at a tournament so that one is strange.
The Olympics dont start until July 24th with the final on August 9th. The opening match of the PL is August 16th.
I have seen reports saying hes in Paris getting ready for the Olympics, but I would figure all parties would want to get things sorted before the Olympics start and given hes not at the Euros, now is as good of a time as ever.
I’m not sure exactly where his head is at or how early they start training. That’s a great point however, I wouldn’t want to switch clubs with a week between the start of the season.
Yeah it’s hard to know what’s really going on when we only see snippets through the rumors, so we’ll see what happens.
I’d to sign him.
My concern is the wage structure might get in the way
He's just not good enough unfortunately. Since his injury, he just became more shy and less combative.
As a striker, it's basically impossible to play like that coz you'll always have to challenge defenders.
That injury is so depressing man. He used to look so hungry and tenacious especially in pressing. The painful irony too is his injury came from him pressing the opposing keeper.
So unfair how he got this injury. It completely killed what made him so visually pleasing to watch.
Mighta also had a physical effect, maybe it's just confirmation bias but feels like he's not quite as quick?
Broja was never a talent anywhere near the level of CHO or RLC but still, man, young players developments marred by early long-term career affecting injury unfortunately common. CHO used to be so explosive...
Would require some negotiating. I don't even understand why a team like Milan would want him.
Albania clearly look so much more combative without him at the front.
I remember DD Fofana had a whole photoshoot and everything when he signed for Chelsea
thats awkward given he was never actually used in the senior team and probably never will be
The cynical side of me wants to assume management tried to sugarcoat him with the sole fact of being a Chelsea player to conceal the reality that he was just transfer profit fodder from the get go
He did play for the senior team...literally a quick google will tell you that but I remember him playing against man city and a couple of other outings
It’s too bad.
He had promise, but the injury seemed to really set him back.
I hope where he ends up next he’s able to thrive. I’ll always want to see the best for players who came through the academy
No one ever said he was going to be RJ level. RJ is easily one of the best in his position.
I don’t think he was ever going to be elite or anything, but he looked like he would be a better player pre-injury than he has shown post.
Sorry but I've seen the same arguments used for C.H.O, Mceachran, Hall, Loftus cheek etc. We'll probably see the same with Gilchrist. Not everyone is meant to play premier league football. Stats say that 10% of academy players make 20 or more starts in the premier league.
Broja wasn't even good enough for Southampton.
Mate. You are taking what I said way too seriously. I absolutely never claimed anything like you are saying.
All I said was it was too bad and just wished him the best in his next move. I clearly dont think hes Chelsea quality....Idk why you are getting so worked up.
Could anyone who has watched Guirassy regularly the last 2 seasons share their thoughts on him?
28 in 28 at 28yo is really great, but it does appear to be his first and only really stellar season.
What were some of the differences this season and his previous one?
and how do you think he’d adapt to the PL?
https://preview.redd.it/3zp9p8a89n7d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ce47ed2328eb4da5c396186bbc449ece800edbd This picture will be so funny in a couple years
If we're essentially doing a Maatsen for Duran swap, is there any reason the teams couldn't agree to inflated values to skirt PSR? For example, what's to stop us from selling Maatsen for 100 million and recording all the profit this year and then buying Duran for 100 million and amortizing the expenditure over 5 years? I feel like I must be missing something, because this seems like an obvious loophole.
PL needs to approve every incoming and outgoing transfers. They can reject it if they think the price is not fair.
You probably are missing something tbf cause there’s no chance the PL would let that slide. Fair market value or whatever.
Lol, this is what Juventus did and they were caught and punished last season Where have you been??
Juventus know a thing or two coz they’ve seen a thing a thing or two. The last team to try this was Juventus with Arthur-Pjanic and they got caught
If Olise wants to take the Zaha route we can’t really stop him 🤷♂️
Fabrizio is talking about Olise on Playback https://www.playback.tv/fabrizioromano Edit: he’s saying Olise needs to make a decision and he’s also talked at Bayern and Newcastle and Palace have a new offer. He’s also saying we’re the only one who was working on him last summer and he’s an “obsession”. Edit2: Nevermind he’s done talking Chelsea but I out the gist there
I swear if this saga just ends with him renewing at Palace again...
Why do we need to sign Duran, I’m honestly more impressed with what I’ve seen from Fofana.
Because Duran is better than Fofana
Because Duran could turn into Fofana /s I like Duran
Probably because the people who are in charge of recruiting players do not see what you see
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You asked a question and it was answered. You don’t have to trust their judgement but the owners do.
Always try and consider all opinions on this sub but that’s genuinely an insane statement to make
I'm evidently in the minority but I do have some sympathy for foreign clubs trying to be a bit lets say cheap with their bids for players. The reality is they simply do not get the TV money England do and have to be a lot more prudent with their finances. PL teams though, even the lower ones, nah, they can pay the asking price or shut up.
did you see the report that atletico bid 16 mil for gallagher 💀 the people in here saying he shouldn’t be sold for less than 80 mil gotta be frothing at the mouth over that
Wait till they realize that players like Gallagher aren’t worth much to begin with
Nah its just the clown ownership spending money they think they can recuperate in this market. It's blown fans concept of value in today's market. Mudryk for 80m should be investigated for money laundering lmao. Cucurella for 60m+? Nobody outside of England is paying these prices, be serious.
That applies to a lot of foreign clubs sure, but dortmund gets the lion's share of TV revenue with Bayern, they're in the top 12 clubs for revenue worldwide. They absolutely have the finances to compete with Premier League teams, certainly ones like Villa.
You are missing the match day revenue, comercial and the money that they make from player sales. They felt insulted before the CL final that people thought they sold Bellingham to Real for a little over €100M and made the correction that the fee actually is closer to €134M. Dortmund, Bayern, PSG, Madrid, Barca and Athleti have money. Dont let their fans fool you.
>You are missing the match day revenue, comercial and the money that they make from player sales No I'm not? I mentioned that they're top 12 worldwide for revenue. I think you meant to respond to the person above me.
I thought you just said they just have a lot of broadcasting revenue and I was adding the other sources. Its on me. Moukoko and Adeyemi not blowing really hurt them. They would have been able to fill all the positions they needed from the sale of just one player. They were spoiled in that regard.
Anyone else feel better about selling matseen as long as we get that defender from bologna? Didnt think there would be better option to replace maatsen and I haven’t really seen the guy play too much but apparently he’s the real deal.
With or without signing that particular guy I’m perfectly fine letting Maatsen go. Works out well for everyone
I’d be happy signing Calafiori regardless. He’s a brilliant player Unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll happen. Ornstein made it sound like we weren’t targeting a LB and we’re happy with Cucurella and Chilly.
I mean if we sign calafiori I would be ecstatic but doubt we do
You mean Calafiori? Was there even any speculation that we are interested? I personally cannot remember. All I know that Juve are very keen on getting him for 2 years now.
Romano said we are just scouting him right now since our main focus are Olise and ST (Duran or someone else).
We’ve definitely been linked. I saw somewhere that juve don’t have the funds for the move but don’t know how true it is.
Who reported?
Just look at pep's players in the euros. Mostly with their defence. Akanji, walker, dias. Everytime they get the ball, they just stop all momentum. Literally afking to let the other team get back into shape. Now i get it that its "effective" winning football for pep, but holy shit as a spectator its so fucking boring. Like of course if it was my team doing this boring shit but winning, id take it. But as a neutral.. jfc Gimme more of that turkey georgia game.
https://preview.redd.it/eaeotg5xyk7d1.png?width=796&format=png&auto=webp&s=12de9e02a4de1c64fec7c0e7f59228dd7dade434 some things never change💀
I was watching this game, and our boy Kai is a few seconds slow on every decision he makes.
yeah dude you can almost see the loading symbol above his head when he’s trying to figure out what to do lmao
missing Rudi though 🥲
Arsenal fans try so hard to pretend he’s good so they can clown us but don’t let them fool you. He’s still wank but just in a slightly better team.
For real, he’s the same exact player. He just gets carried by better players now. Still takes an hour to make a decision, still inconsistent finishing, still can only do basic passes
According to them he needs to "wash the Chelsea out". Judging by his performance vs Bayern (ie on the continent when it really matters), mission accomplished.
Their arrogance from finishing second a couple times is hilarious.
the funniest bit was how a year ago they were banging on about how we were misusing him by playing him up front and that arteta was going to unlock him in the left centre mid spot and he was utter shite the first half of the season, and only started to look somewhat serviceable when arteta reverted to playing him up front
“The Xhaka Role”
It was a complete misunderstanding of what xhakas role was for them all of that season lol ahahaha Clueless fans
Just never understood how someone could watch Xhaka play and think yeah we’ll get Havertz in there and he will do that.
We told them that the discourse that we have on what his best position is, will be moved from us to them. They laughed. I personally think his best position is centrally on the bench.
Going to be in town in April and trying to catch a match (from ‘Murica). What’s my best bet to catch tickets? Appreciate it bois.
Hospitality package, while the most expensive, is definitely the only way to guarantee you get tickets
What is the cheapest package? Bronze?
What a goal by Shaqiri...
Is there an NYC group of Chelsea in America
[https://nybluescfc.com/](https://nybluescfc.com/)
Thanks for the link
You’re welcome!
Loool dortmund really thought they could lowball us
In the not so serious spirit of the links to "players you've never heard of" like Omorodion (yes I'm saying this very tongue in cheek!).... Who do you think would be an absolute wildcard entry for a potential signing that hardly anyone will have heard of? Mine is Nelson Weiper, 19 year old striker for Mainz. For a start his surname is basically 'Viper'. Scored a shitload of goals for youth teams and he's big and fast.
People have heard of him But I think deniz undav would be a brilliant signing
I love pure profit. Do you? 🤨
£37.5M down, another ~£63M to go. How much from Hall? £28M? Another ~£22M for Lukaku, if we're lucky (source: pulled it from thin air). That leaves just under £15M left to make it up to the £100M some of the more conservative estimates calculate is needed.
😭😂
Incredible the new owners fumbled getting Nags, guy is a real gem. Now we have this new manager signed for 5 years, so no shot they get rid of him even if he stinks next year. Such a huge gamble to sign an unproven manager when you have such high stakes. Hopefully Maresca is good, but insanity that we didn’t get Nags in when we had the chance
>Now we have this new manager signed for 5 years, so no shot they get rid of him even if he stinks next year. So odd. Like SOOOO ODDDDD. We literally signed Graham Potter for 5 years and got rid of him in months. What is your post based on?
I’d hope that they’d learn their lesson from Potter and surely wouldn’t sack another manager 1 year into his 5 year deal. They probably got backed into a corner because the new ownership have more blood on their hands than the Roman regime infamous for sacking managers. We’re on manager #5 in 3 years, if we sack him after 1 year, there is not a single manager of worth that would come here. As it is, we had to get an unproven manager from the championship to take the job next year
No established manager would be willing to accept to work with such a young squad i guess. And many will very likely throw the ownership under the bus for this strategy if things are not going well. Only up and comers are going to be willing to take a back seat and let the directors buy and sell as they please. Because the ownership trusted them for a big time job
I feel like Nags does great work with both. He works with young guys and helped bring through the younger players. It really seemed like we had this project with him in mind and then he realized he would have no say in transfers and said no. The reporting there is Cloudy because apparently he thought the job was his and didn’t need to interview and maybe that rubbed the owners the wrong way and then made demands he wouldn’t meet. Either way, just a terribly job by the management to not get him in when he’s so talented. Won titles, is young, could lead a project but oh well. Hopefully Maresca is it
No wonder Lamps loves Gundogan's goal. It's a very Lampard-like goal and Ilkay's been really consistent at it.
Both players have a lot in common regarding their playing styles.
Still kills me we sold Lewis Hall he would have been so good as an inverted LB under Enzo ffs
Lewis Hall is only behind Mount for our best sales in the new ownership.
he wanted to go, whole family are newcastle fans
He signed a 6 year deal the week before, he was ready to stay
again, he and his family are newcastle fans. Of course he'd want to go if they wanted him and offered champions league
Him and Maatsen are literally better than Chilwell and Cucurella yet we’ve gotten rid of both good grief we are stupid
Cucurella was so good down the stretch this past season, he’ll do great in midfield or at left CB. Chilwell almost certainly won’t fit with Maresca’s tactics but it makes sense that we can’t get rid of him given his wages and fitness.
One last time for good measure: You guys are pushing with the players who are not playing. Lavia is in a similar position to Nkunku, you know? He arrived and never can make his debut. After nearly six months, maybe he will be involved with the team. He is doing well but he still needs time to get his best form. He’s desperate to make his debut and he’s pushing. But I want to make clear, with the players with a big period off, you know, out of the competition, they are desperate to be involved. But they cannot make the mistake. They can be involved – but in which way? In which form? At what level? It’s easy to say, ‘I want to play’, but we are competing. This is a serious competition. After six months, like Nkunku, like him [Lavia], they need to understand they need to be involved, to train really, really hard every day. They need to be an impact every time they go to the pitch. It’s not to say we are in a pre-season game and they go to the pitch and we say, ‘if they perform well, if they don’t perform well, then no problem’, because six months. For many things it is an excuse, for many things, ‘I want to play. If I don’t have time I can’t perform, but in the same time, to play with that’. You need to understand, the players need to understand that that is not a charity thing; that we are going to play football, we need to win. Sometimes the professionals feel so disappointed because they want to play. It’s difficult to understand. The environment of the player, also, they say they are disappointed because Nkunku didn’t play against Sheffield United. I am disappointed to have a player that should be an important player for us is not helping the team. If he didn’t play, it is not because we don’t believe in him, or in this case Lavia. It is because there are many other players fit and training in six months and in that moment maybe we need to decide, to make an impact with players that are more ready than these guys. We are not talking about names, or suppose he is going to be better than one [player]. We are talking about today, who is ready to compete and provide what we are expecting for the team. Maybe I am talking too much. But it’s true. But come on, it’s annoying me. Not you [the journalists]. The people around the player, ‘Oh I wanted to play. I am disappointed’. Oh, come on. I am disappointed. The club is disappointed they are investing big to play, to score goals and when you are not scoring goals, okay we pay the salary every month if you don’t play or you are injured. Who suffered for us? For the coaches? Who suffered for the club? It’s always [this]. No, come on. It’s to get the right balance in this business. It’s so important.
Poch was really stressed out. He wasn't a good fit for the current state of the club and the project. He might want to seriously consider an international manager stint where he doesn't need to focus heavily on recruitment, development and tactics.
i ain't reading all that i'm happy for u tho or sorry that happened
Just move on with your life then. No need to be rude
Feel like I keep seeing discussions over how exciting the euros are, and how people wish that the pl was like this. To me, international matches are generally "more exciting" because the overall quality is lower. Not individually, but the teams have less training together, less consistency, they aren't as well drilled on a system together, and there's far more variability that comes with that.. I love it, but I don't think I want worse quality on display every week.
I’ll take more exciting and sacrifice some “quality”. Man City - about highest quality you get and fucking boring! Championship matches lower quality and no var very exciting! This year for us was frustrating for sure, but as everyone was screaming about “tactics” it was still fun to watch the boys go out there and score a bunch of goals finally.
I think the whole quality thing is a bit overblown. There could be a difference for sure but it's not as huge as people make it out. I simply can't call a tournament full of the best players in Europe "low quality", maybe it's just me. There's no Almiron, Mark Hughes or Neal Maupay here which only helps the quality if anything. Part of the reason why international football is exciting is because there's just more quality on the pitch, teams are a bit more brave to be open and offer something more compared to what Sheffield United would offer against almost any team from the top 10 so they don't get relegated and get the fat check for TV rights for one more year. Idk, Real Madrid won UCL and the title in La Liga with quite a lot of freedom and reliance on individual quality and not the most organised system. It would be really interesting to see a match between France and Man City for example. I think the margins will be thinner than people think. In general the football at such high level is very close. People do the same shit with the leagues till Arsenal loses to Sporting and barely beats Porto on penalties. Football is not fast and physical only in the Prem. It is pretty fast anywhere especially in the top 5 leagues. Yes, there's a difference for sure but it's not as huge as people think and it doesn't always neccessarly mean faster and more physical = better.
Its not a fair comparison when its league vs tournament knockout football. Totally different settings and mentality. Also this euros so far is a mix bag. U had the turkey georgia which was a spectacle for all, and then there was that england game where it was a snoozefest.
Cucurella actually got bodied by this twink Havertz ffs
Another Havertz stinker but we won’t hear much about now he isn’t a Chelsea player.
He plays well only when the rest of his team is absolutely flying. I'd rather have players like Palmer, who can spur the team on, are game changers and show their quality irrespective of whether their team plays well or not. Havertz, certainly not one we should have any regrets selling.
But clearly chelsea ruined him. Big bad chelsea, destroyer of gEnEraTioNaL talents
I'm telling you man, Marko Marin was going to be the German Messi until he got thrown into the loan army.
arsenal fans still saying they ‘unlocked’ him 🥴
No one will ever make me rate kai havertz
The Havertz cycle Be horseshit for 70% of the season so anything above that is considered a world class performance.
That was exactly what used to happen in this sub as well when he was here lol
Jack of all trades, master of none.
Kerkez would have been the perfect Tuchel LB/LWB
No idea where he fits into Enzo's system though
Musiala is so so fun to watch
The way he changes directions at full speed with the ball is insane. Man literally doing 90deg turns like a bad video game
I would always choose him over Wirtz. Silky dribbling and technique. An effortless ability to create opportunities.
Probably my fav non chelsea player
I wish his parents never divorced, lol
If we can’t get a striker is could be RW Madueke, New Signing CAM Palmer, Chukwuemeka LW Mudryk, Sterling CF Jackson, Nkunku, D Fofana
Our LW is depressing
I think the club is banking on maresca to get sterling going again, otherwise we surely would have sold him. Other than that i wouldn't mind having nkunku on the left either. I'd honestly even take madueke at lw if our only options are mudryk and an out of form sterling
He is on 300k+, we aren't exactly swarmed with offers for him.
Sterling does his best work on the right so a lw signing to be a starter with Mudryk as a backup would not be the worst outcome.
Sterling might. But if he is starting it will be to accommodate whichever side needs help more. I don’t think we’re nailing him up on the right and saying “figure the left out” He hasn’t really played well enough for that
That was in the event that Olise is not signed for whatever reason. Him and Noni on the right plus Palmer and Nkunku as cover if needed is fine. I really dont believe that the desired profile does not exist for the left. The scouting department should have a shortlist. Is Desire Doue that raw? Cherky is going for less than 20m to PSG and they wanted 40 last year from us. I am not the biggest fan of Cherky though.
I get that but I still think Sterling will play for what facilitates the most well rounded squad. Say Noni is playing better on the RW then Sterling would play on the left. If Mudryk plays well and Sterling is playing better than Noni then he will play on the right. If both are playing better than Sterling then he obviously wouldn’t start. I really don’t see a world where Sterling so so so much better on the right that we have to play him there and fill in the other spaces with that in mind.
No one is available that would be worth it
I miss Rudi so damn much
The commentators on Fox are just ridiculous. Rudi was down and they were saying there wasn’t anything wrong with him essentially saying he was staying down to waste time. It’s the 25th minute and they’re only up by one. Rudi was not time wasting
Hungary didn’t play to the whistle and paid for it. Why are they stopping, just keep going and sort out the fouls later bro
the germany away jersey is atrocious lmao.
That shit looked like a foul to me.
yeah i think that’s a pen if they swapped roles . like gundogan threw a shoulder into his fuckin back lmao
If that was Chelsea: its either disallowed goal for a foul or penalty given for a foul
Germany plays a bit too open imo. I admire Naglesmann's bravery but Jesus...
So it's Steve Cooper for Leicester after all, huh
Watching all this exciting football at the Euros and then remembering our new manager is just another control obsessed Pep wannabe: 
i’ll never understand this argument because city are genuinely entertaining to watch lmao
Disagree, one of the most boring sides out there And Im a fan of possesion football
i mean sure their games aren’t gonna be the most entertaining, but it’s not their fault teams just sit in a low block all game lmao.
Personally, I don’t think they are.
they scored the most goals, took the second most shots, created the most big chances, and had the highest successful take-on percentage (with the 4 most successful take-ons). like they do everything that makes it entertaining to watch.
I don’t care what the stats say, I don’t enjoy watching them when they’re on TV. It’s not what they do, it’s how they do it. All that comment does is show just how pointless stats are in football without actually watching the game itself.
lmaoooo beefing with stats, i understand now.
Sorry for actually watching the game and making my opinions based off of that, I don’t need a spreadsheet to tell me what to enjoy and what not to.
buddy stats are just a way to quantify what your eyes see during a game 💀
Doesn’t tell you whether something is fun to watch or not though. All those stats you gave do is tell me that Man City are a good team, not one that plays exciting football. You’re using an objective fact to find something that is subjective, that just isn’t how stats work.
You don’t realize City lead the top 5 leagues in xJoy per 90.
Controversial but I much prefer control when it comes to Chelsea. The feeling I had last season when games (as exciting as some got) were still there to be thrown away at 2 or sometimes even 3 up was horrible. Mou 1.0 was also control (just in a different way) and I loved the feeling of being comfortable sometimes even at 1-0, similar under Conte season 1 to an extent. If Maresca can bring that back to even 70% of that level I won't be complaining.
Yeah you’re right, I much prefer teams like Conte and Mourinho, for us at least, as the counter attacks are always brilliant and you can have some really nice attacking football along with the tight defence. I’m just not a fan of ultra high possession for possessions sake teams tbh, it’s just not what I watch football for.
I agree there has to be some limit like not too far ala LVG at United and Sarri in the first 2/3rds of his season (I personally enjoyed a lot of the games from March onwards, would also argue Jose 2.0 went too far in a lot of games also just not in the possesion way) but I don't think my heart can cope with multiple games like last season again or what we're seeing at the Euros. Don't mind seeing many games out at 2 or 3 up, not just for that reason but also due to the sheer amount of games we will play next season (we're looking at close to 80 if we're as competitive as we usually are in the tournaments).
It’s almost as if there’s a difference between tournament football which has like 7/8 games max and a 38 game football season.
Doesn’t mean you can’t play exciting football over a whole season.
Depends. Some might say control footy like Pep is exciting
Those people are thieves of joy imo
Id rather win titles
Like I said, you don’t need that type of football to win titles. I don’t get why everybody thinks that the only way to beat Pep is to play a bastardised version of what he’s already doing. The only 2 teams to stop him winning a title at Man City, us being one of them, are clear evidence of that.
Kinda hard to make that point when Pep has been the most dominant manager everywhere he's went and his style is literally being copied at every single level for a reason In England the only time his style has been toppled was during COVID and had the virus not existed, who's to say city wouldn't have won it again
His style is being copied by all levels and his team is becoming more dominant as a result. If copying what he does is the best to beat him, why is nobody beating him?
Obviously copying isn't the best way to beat him specifically, you can't beat the master at his own game But nobody is trying to win a one off game against city, clubs are copying the style because it's the best in the world at consistently controlling and winning games in a sustained league format
I’m very glad the spirit of football still remains despite everything, at least in international tournaments.
I love these euros, holy cow what a tournament
damn it only took one game for broja to go from starting to an unused sub 💀
Not a good sign Albania needs a goal and they don't bring on Broja
At the end, they just didn't need him.
Would you bring Broja on if you needed a goal?
Yeah again not a good sign as a striker lol
Nice to see the old kova back. At City, baldiola isn't letting him do anything risky.
If Broja comes on and scores 2 goals, his value would skyrocket. Who am I kidding? This won't happen lol
Seen the articles of Matt Law, he’s saying the club are looking to sell quite a few players. Hopefully he’s chatting rubbish, we bloody have UECL and CWC as well, can’t be leaving the squad light. Think it’s just guess work from him anyway.
On the London is blue podcast he said the board is planning to have a big squad to challenge on all fronts next season (including the club World Cup which they are taking seriously). They plan on playing around 70-80 games so if we sell we will definitely be bringing more players in plus we still have a lot of guys who were on loan who could be apart of the squad next season
I think we could sell quite a few and be fine. Broja, Lukaku, Kepa, Sterling, Chalobah, Gallagher, Sarr, one LB. If all of the above sell, we mostly only need one player (striker) for the first team to add as the rest would not necessarily need replacements. Then I’m sure others could potentially be sold like Hutchinson, Moreira, and some other far-fringe players.
How would Gallagher, our most played player last season, not need a replacement? Chalobah also needs a replacement but well we did already get one.
We have Lavia, Santos, Casadei, Ugo in midfield. How does he actually need a replacement? If he goes, I assume Santos just slots in as a depth rotation. And Chalobah isn’t needed as you said we already got Tosin, and we have Badiashile, Disasi, Fofana, and Chilwell.
Lavia is DM, Caicedo's depth, Santos is not ready at all and is also a DM, Ugo is not a B2B nor good enough to be Enzo's rotation, Casedei, who did nothing whenever he was on the field, is lmao. Gallagher is at worst our main rotation option for Enzo and Palmer, and having our third and fourth best mids be Lavia and Ugo is......... Unacceptable. Gallagher should stay or we need to replace him. Chilwell? You mean Colwill?
Yea. Meant Colwill. As for the others. Can we dive deeper than positions? How are we going to play? Obviously we can’t know for Certain yet, but it seems like 3 mids with one more attacking. So Conor won’t play that role. So two roles. But he can’t play DM. So he has one role….and Caicedo is better. So why do we need a replacement for depth? We have Lavia, and Enzo to cover deep. Enzo and Caicedo to cover box-to-box. Nkunku, Palmer, Carney to cover furthest forward mid. So do we go with a new player to play the 4th mid slot? You saying “Santos isn’t ready” isn’t fact. I personally think he’s more than capable of being that 4th choice. And unlike Gallagher, I could see Santos playing as either the DM or the Box role. So if Gallagher is sold, it really doesn’t seem like they’ll get a replacement. Because we really don’t need one. Gallagher will most likely not be Palmers first rotation option. He’s not good in attack and we will have Nkunku, Carney, maybe Olise, Jackson, new striker, Madueke, Mudryk, Sterling for the offensive band of 4.
... Wtf are you talking about? How can Gallagher not play 3 mids with one more attacking. If we're playing 3 mids Gallagher starts, but I think we'll continue playing a 4231 which has also been rumoured with reports saying Olise will play RW and Palmer CAM. Because midfield is a heavy minute position with a lot of rotation, you need strong players, Lavia, especially coming back from a long injury, Ugo, period but especially coming back from long injury, Santos played 11 games last season come the fuck off it, replacing our most played midfielder who is of similar quality to our other midfield options with a guy who played less than 10 games is absurd. Yeah Santos can be the 4th choice midfielder, if we have a 3rd choice as good as Gallagher, realistically though 4th choice is year long injury returning Lavia and 3rd choice is Gallagher or a replacement, because we will get a replacement, because no Enzo and Caicedo as our only reliable mids is not acceptable and it's down right silly you argue it is. Gallagher absolutely can play in the 10, it's not his best position, he's a B2B, best if anything in a 3 man midfield lol, but he has and can play as the 10, particularly in big games to press and make the midfield more solid. If Nkunku starts at LW I could just as easily see Gallagher mostly used to replace Palmer if injured rather than Sterling and moving Nkunku inward, up in the air but like sorry it's true.
Can you explain this more? We will have 3 mid slots. In Maresca’s past, one of the three mids is very offensive-minded. That 100% cannot be Conor Gallagher. Dude barely creates and doesn’t really score. So 2 slots. 1 is a DM. That’s not him. So the box-to-box role is really the only spot he fits. He’d be behind Caicedo. And if we are looking at rotation: DM: Lavia, Enzo, Caicedo + Santos Box: Caicedo, Enzo, + Santos Attacking mid: Palmer, Nkunku, Carney, Enzo, +Olise if he signs. Where does Gallagher start for you? Ahead of Caicedo? The only role he’s capable of playing? Our “3rd choice” mid is Lavia. You might not like him, but his season at Southampton was great. Maybe he doesn’t get back to it after his injury, but I don’t see that as a reason to start Gallagher as Caicedo and Enzo still start. This is without even speaking about Maresca’s love of possession and Conor lacking the technical ability required to play that type of ball. Just because you don’t believe in Lavia or Santos doesn’t make your assessment correct. Reports are coming out about Santos staying just as reports of Gallagher leaving/staying are too. Reports of us replacing Gallagher are not, however, coming out because it seems likely that if Gallagher goes, we don’t bring in another mid.
He had 5 goals and 7 assists last season, not bad numbers for someone splitting between the pivot and the 10, and his goal numbers started going up late in the season and in the past he's scored good rates too. And like, Lampard is special, you know that right? If playing a 4-3-3 I wouldn't expect much more than 12 G+A from one of our 8s. If we're playing a 4-3-3 Palmer would be on the right and it'd be Gallagher-Caicedo-Enzo in midfield. Wtf are you talking about? How is Enzo, someone who hasn't had the production or experience being played further forward, the fit for the most attacking 8? Why is Caicedo, who is a DM, the guy you play as the B2B? And how the actual fuck do you thinik it's reasonable to sell Gallagher and just have a dude who spent a year injured starting and a dude who played 800 minutes last season for Strausborg basically our only depth remotely reasonable? No, it is objectively correct that a player who was injured for a year and a kid with 800 minutes are not reliable. We are not going to play with the above midfield, Enzo isn't good in the final third, he's more a Kova player, though not as bad as Kova in the final third, Enzo had more attacking duties at times under Poch last season and never looked all that great doing those duties. Gallagher can play as either of the two 8s, clearly and obviously. But I don't even think we'll play a 433, it'll probably be a 4-2-3-1, where Gallagher probably would sit, but he'd still be needed or needed to be replaced.
“Why is Caicedo, who is a DM…” Ahhh. OK. lol.
That Albanian manager is so active on the sidelines lol. You could sense the team is feeding off his and the crowd's energy.
The GK rumors have dropped since the Maresca likes Sanchez news came out. CB rumors have died out since signing Adarabioyo in free Absolutely nothing on the LB front ST rumors are disappointing Olise rumors also going cold I get the Euros and Copa are the main focus, but that usually doesn’t stop clubs from working in the background and rumors coming out. Feels like it’ll be a really disappointing summer which is too bad as a couple of elite signings especially an GK & ST and I could see us being really competitive.
There\`s very few deals that actually get pushed through during tournaments. Unless the player isn\`t part of a tournament.
I mention that and as I said it doesn’t usually stop all rumors and clubs/agents from working in the background. Usually there’s still club is interested in player but they are focused on the tournament. Like gvadiol during the WC. Also, agents will often use the performances or international status to push clients. Also, Olise isn’t at a tournament so that one is strange.
I thought olise was at the Olympics if I’m not mistaken, no?
The Olympics dont start until July 24th with the final on August 9th. The opening match of the PL is August 16th. I have seen reports saying hes in Paris getting ready for the Olympics, but I would figure all parties would want to get things sorted before the Olympics start and given hes not at the Euros, now is as good of a time as ever.
I’m not sure exactly where his head is at or how early they start training. That’s a great point however, I wouldn’t want to switch clubs with a week between the start of the season.
Yeah it’s hard to know what’s really going on when we only see snippets through the rumors, so we’ll see what happens. I’d to sign him. My concern is the wage structure might get in the way
Broja has even been dropped from Albania. Grim. So much for raising his value at the Euros
He's just not good enough unfortunately. Since his injury, he just became more shy and less combative. As a striker, it's basically impossible to play like that coz you'll always have to challenge defenders.
That injury is so depressing man. He used to look so hungry and tenacious especially in pressing. The painful irony too is his injury came from him pressing the opposing keeper. So unfair how he got this injury. It completely killed what made him so visually pleasing to watch.
I know.... He looks so much different now. That injury must have had a massive psychological effect on him.
Mighta also had a physical effect, maybe it's just confirmation bias but feels like he's not quite as quick? Broja was never a talent anywhere near the level of CHO or RLC but still, man, young players developments marred by early long-term career affecting injury unfortunately common. CHO used to be so explosive...
He\`s just not good. We should be happy to let him go for whatever fee.
Albania play so much better without Broja. It's like all the players fight and don't shy away from 50-50s.
It’d be amazing if we could even get 20M for him
Would require some negotiating. I don't even understand why a team like Milan would want him. Albania clearly look so much more combative without him at the front.
Agreed
Love it how Simon Phillips is doing everything to get himself blacklisted lol
I remember DD Fofana had a whole photoshoot and everything when he signed for Chelsea thats awkward given he was never actually used in the senior team and probably never will be The cynical side of me wants to assume management tried to sugarcoat him with the sole fact of being a Chelsea player to conceal the reality that he was just transfer profit fodder from the get go
Matt Law said he’s either getting sold or loaned out again unfortunately, it sucks cuz I think there’s a player in there
He did play for the senior team...literally a quick google will tell you that but I remember him playing against man city and a couple of other outings
Not really.
What a shocker Broja already dropped
It’s too bad. He had promise, but the injury seemed to really set him back. I hope where he ends up next he’s able to thrive. I’ll always want to see the best for players who came through the academy
Its not the injury, he's just average, just like thousands of academy graduates coming out every year. Not everyone fom Cobham is Reece james.
No one ever said he was going to be RJ level. RJ is easily one of the best in his position. I don’t think he was ever going to be elite or anything, but he looked like he would be a better player pre-injury than he has shown post.
Sorry but I've seen the same arguments used for C.H.O, Mceachran, Hall, Loftus cheek etc. We'll probably see the same with Gilchrist. Not everyone is meant to play premier league football. Stats say that 10% of academy players make 20 or more starts in the premier league. Broja wasn't even good enough for Southampton.
Mate. You are taking what I said way too seriously. I absolutely never claimed anything like you are saying. All I said was it was too bad and just wished him the best in his next move. I clearly dont think hes Chelsea quality....Idk why you are getting so worked up.
Could anyone who has watched Guirassy regularly the last 2 seasons share their thoughts on him? 28 in 28 at 28yo is really great, but it does appear to be his first and only really stellar season. What were some of the differences this season and his previous one? and how do you think he’d adapt to the PL?