All Activity

No doubt. But despite all the chaos and the shit show that is our ownership and their woeful transfer/managerial policies, had Palmer been better we’d be talking about this season as another “building block” campaign where we could then attack the summer window to challenge next year. We’ve had great overall seasons from several of our top players. If Palmer had been one of them we’d be way up the table and sitting pretty. I had a lot of sympathy for him early in the season about carrying the injury. But my sympathy completely ran out months ago. He is being selfish by not getting surgery months ago because he’s desperate to go to the WC.

Chelsea have announced the biggest pre-tax loss in Premier League history. The £262m deficit for 2024-25 eclipses the £179.5m lost by Manchester City in 2011. Wooo making history!! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm2k3jdylp1o

As bad as Palmers form has been… let’s not make excuses for this diabolical ownership. Plamer has been playing with a groin injury and it’s clearly effecting his confidence not being able to perform the way he could before. He has every right to be disappointed with how the club is being ran. It’s a joke and not what these players were promised.

Palmer has been atrocious for pretty much the entire season so he should really be “frustrated and disillusioned” with himself just as much as he is with the club. If he was playing at his best level from a year or two ago we’d comfortably be finishing 2nd or 3rd and looking forward to an enjoyable summer. Still, under literally no circumstance would I sell him this summer and ESPECIALLY not to another PL club.

Marc Cucurella has spoken to The Athletic in a damning interview which highlights everything frustrated and angry Chelsea fans have been saying for months and years about this Chelsea project under BlueCo. The pressure is now coming not just from Chelsea fans, but Chelsea star players are now publicly coming out to criticize the Blue Co Chelsea project. CUCURELLA HAS DESTROYED THE Chelsea PROJECT 😱 Marc Cucurella interview: Chelsea have ‘paid the price’ for inexperience and why he wouldn’t have let Maresca go https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7157593/2026/03/31/Chelsea-marc-cucurella-exclusive-interview-maresca/ https://archive.li/aFFcf It is a sunny afternoon at Las Rozas, the Spanish FA’s headquarters northwest of Madrid, before their friendly against Serbia last Friday. Spain’s training session has just finished. A handful of Luis de la Fuente’s players, including Martin Zubimendi, Pedri and goalkeeper David Raya, are sunbathing on the pitch while chatting. Others, such as Crystal Palace’s Yeremy Pino and Osasuna’s national-team debutant Victor Munoz, work on shooting drills. The 2024 European champions’ camp is a happy place. That is in large part thanks to head coach De la Fuente’s obsession with creating a strong bond among his players and prioritising dressing-room chemistry — with Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella being key to creating that harmony. “Coming to the national team is a breath of fresh air for everyone,” Cucurella tells The Athletic in an exclusive interview, conducted before a 3-0 win against Serbia in Villarreal. “Sometimes it feels like the games we have to play are not even the most important thing — you just want to spend time with these people. We have created such strong relationships that the week passes by before you can even realise.” For Cucurella, though, there is an added need to reset with Spain. Chelsea’s recent form has been difficult for the 27-year-old to process — with Liam Rosenior’s side having won only four of their past 12 games, while losing six times. They have been beaten in each of their past four, including by a three-goal margin in both legs of their Champions League round of 16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain. “Sometimes, if you’re in good form, an international break can kill your momentum a bit,” Cucurella says. “But this one will do us (Chelsea) well at club level.” Marc Cucurella says Chelsea ‘lacked experience’ in their defeat over two legs to Paris Saint-GermainRobin Jones/Getty Images Getting outclassed by PSG — they suffered an 8-2 aggregate defeat to Luis Enrique’s reigning European champions — was the one that really stung. “We lacked experience,” Cucurella says. “For a lot of players, it was the first time playing a match of that calibre, and we paid the price. “You can always make a mistake, but we should have handled it better. There was a return game to play, and if you keep a cool head, you go back to London with a 3-2 defeat (the score with five minutes left of normal time in the first leg) and anything can happen. We made a mistake, tried to attack without a clear structure and then PSG took the chance and proved they have that cutting edge.” Cucurella is a respected voice in the Chelsea dressing room. This is his fourth season with them, joining from Brighton & Hove Albion after the May 2022 takeover by Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Capital consortium. It puts him in a privileged position to assess the state of the BlueCo project. There is little optimism around the west London club at present — with the woe over their Champions League exit compounded by Enzo Fernandez casting doubt on his Chelsea future after that PSG defeat. Cucurella does not want to speak about his team-mate’s situation but chooses instead to focus on what happened in that tie. “Results like that are always hard to take,” Cucurella says. “You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level. “I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction — signing young players and looking to the future. But, for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged. “We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more. Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that. “You need time as well, and I know the young players are the ones that will have the experience in the future. But you need to find the balance between both worlds.” On top of all that, there has been this season’s managerial drama: with Enzo Maresca going from overseeing a Club World Cup final victory in July to being out of a job within six months, before Rosenior’s arrival as his replacement in January. Cucurella defends the job done so far by the former Strasbourg coach. “Liam is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters,” he says. “He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don’t have the time to train them. “We train on (playing in) competitive games, because we play every three days and that leaves you with no time to work on the training ground. In this context, it is normal that your plans sometimes don’t work out, and then we go through difficult moments. “With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him (Chelsea won only once in six warm-up friendlies, losing three), there were doubts. You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time. “Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with (Mikel) Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards.” Cucurella says he would not have chosen for Enzo Maresca to leaveDarren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images Maresca’s exit just after New Year was a turning point in the BlueCo project, but also in the Chelsea dressing room. Cucurella says the Italian was “the most important” of the six permanent managers he has worked under at Stamford Bridge. “We knew what Maresca wanted from us,” he says. “Winning a title like the Club World Cup (beating PSG 3-0 in the final) also helps, strengthens the bond, and you create great relationships during the celebrations. When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you’d die for him. “The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision. To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season… “The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker (former under-21s coach Calum McFarlane) first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is.” The Chelsea squad have had to look for new ways to stay focused and united — and one of those has been their now-infamous pre-match huddle in the centre circle. Cucurella says it was an idea from the backroom staff, intended to project the idea of a strong team. “It is a thing that all the players decided to do before the games, following the advice from a coach,” he says. “We have a coach in the backroom staff that helps us to be better from the mental side, too. As we lack profiles of experienced players, he gives us tips to project the image of a better team.” On referee Paul Tierney finding himself in the centre of their pre-match huddle before the recent game against Newcastle United, Cucurella says: “I prefer not to speak. To me, it was a lack of respect. He could have come and told us, ‘Look, you cannot do that for this reason’. But instead, he came and stayed in the middle. I don’t want to speak more about it, honestly. I did not understand it. I believed he wanted to have his moment.” Cucurella’s frustration with the situation at Chelsea reflects a player who has gone from a misfit at Stamford Bridge to a crucial part of the club’s long-term future — last summer, he signed a contract extension until 2028. A similar thing has happened with the national team. Cucurella made the squad for the 2024 European Championship due to injuries to other left-backs, with Valencia’s Jose Luis Gaya and Alejandro Balde of Barcelona both sidelined. In a matter of weeks, he went from an emergency call-up to being among De la Fuente’s starting players, and then became one of the biggest names in a victorious campaign in Germany. He is now the undisputed first-choice in his position ahead of this summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Cucurella became one of the icons of Spain’s Euro 2024 winCatherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images “It’s been so nice to live this process,” Cucurella says. “I am thrilled to be in every single squad list. It is not easy to be here — the talent we have is unreal — and seeing this path, arriving as a prospect and now being a trusted part of the team, makes me feel proud.” He is brutally honest when asked if Spain are favourites to win this year’s World Cup, where they will face Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and tournament debutants Cape Verde in the group stage. “Yes, I think so,” he replies. “We have earned the right to have people believe in us. We were a bit overlooked at the last Euros. The team is full of hope for the World Cup now. De la Fuente tells us to stay true to ourselves, to trust in our abilities and keep working on the basics that made us European champions.” He sees England as one of their toughest rivals and values the work done by their new head coach Thomas Tuchel, his first Chelsea manager: “They have always had a great squad, and now Tuchel will give them a bit of a better tactical structure. We have seen the good work he did at PSG and Chelsea. England will be a team to keep a close eye on. “There’s a lot of talent at the World Cup. The players I don’t like to defend against? I would say the likes of (England forward and Chelsea team-mate) Cole Palmer, Michael Olise or Ousmane Dembele (both of France). Those have been some of the toughest attackers I’ve had to face. Jeremie Frimpong (Liverpool’s Netherlands full-back), too. He is so quick! “Everyone speaks so highly of what it means to be at a World Cup. I just can’t wait to be part of one.”

Nicolò Tresoldi Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Tresoldi later settled with his family in Gubbio, where he started playing both football and tennis before choosing to focus on the former sport. After being offered trials at several high-profile Italian clubs, in 2017 Tresoldi moved with his family to Hanover, Germany, where he proceeded to join the youth sector of Hannover 96. Having impressed during his stints for the under-17 and under-19 teams, on 5 January 2022 the striker signed his first professional contract with the club, with the deal set to be officially activated on the player's eighteenth birthday. After featuring for Hannover's reserve team towards the end of the 2021–22 season, Tresoldi made his professional debut for Hannover 96 in the 2. Bundesliga on 15 July 2022, against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, coming on as a substitute for Maximilian Beier in the 88th minute; the match eventually ended in a 1–2 away loss for his side. On 7 June 2025, Tresoldi joined Belgian Pro League side Club Brugge by signing a contract until 2029. International career Thanks to his dual citizenship, Tresoldi can choose to represent either Italy, Argentina, Germany in international matches. On 25 October 2022, he made his debut for the German under-19 national team in a 0–1 friendly match loss against Spain. Personal life Tresoldi was born in Italy to an Italian father and an Argentine mother of Italian descent (originally from Bergamo). His father Emanuele Tresoldi was also a footballer. He is fluent in four languages: Italian, German, English and Spanish.

Cole Palmer 'increasingly disillusioned' with life at Chelsea and 'primed to leave this summer' Unfortunately a good source for Manchester football news https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/cole-palmer-increasingly-disillusioned Once again, a good source is reporting what I have been reporting on here for a long time now, only backing up the bad news. Now, I want to say before we get into this article, that Chelsea have ZERO intentions of letting Cole Palmer leave anytime soon and hold ALL the cards here. But also, as I’ve been saying in other articles, will they really want to keep any player if said player comes to them and asks to leave the club? Palmer has NOT done this as of right now, but he’s certainly been unhappy at Chelsea for quite some time now - more on that from my at the bottom of this article. Let’s get into what has been reported first. Samuel Luckhurst is unfortunately a very good source of football news when it comes to anything Manchester related. So even though he writes for The Sun, you cannot simply just ignore what he has reported on Palmer over the weekend. People tried to do that with the Enzo Fernandez stuff, and look where that’s gone/going…. Luckhurst writes: “Palmer is increasingly disillusioned with life at Chelsea and primed to leave this summer. “Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are all interested in the £150million-rated England star. “Palmer is understood to be frustrated by a change in Chelsea’s tactics which he feels have denied him space on the pitch. “And he misses playing with striker Nicolas Jackson, who is on a season-long loan at Bayern Munich. “Failing to secure a spot in Europe’s top club competition would surely further damage the club’s hopes of holding on to boyhood United fan Palmer. “Chelsea consider Palmer to be an ‘untouchable’ and he is under contract at Stamford Bridge until 2033. “Palmer is unsettled in London and hankering for a return to his hometown of Manchester. “He would be open to joining the Reds, although United’s priority positions this summer are midfield and the left-hand side. “United director of football Jason Wilcox was the academy head at City when Palmer was breaking through. “Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada, previously the chief operating officer at City, will oversee recruitment at United again this summer.” Now, I’ve heard nothing at all on the missing Jackson stuff. I find that bit a little odd. And I know Palmer was frustrated with his lack of freedom under Enzo Maresca, but I’ve not heard anything under Liam Rosenior. Not saying those bits are untrue, just not something I can confirm. What I have heard and have reported for some time now is that Palmer misses Manchester and would be much happier if he was living back there. I was always told to watch out for a move to United, and not back to City. I’d be shocked if Palmer went anywhere else IF he was to leave Chelsea. But the problems here is whether United will even go for him, can they even afford him, and what chances have they got getting him out of Chelsea? Personally, I don’t think Palmer will leave this summer. I do think Fernandez will go, but Palmer leaving, despite his desires to, is just too unrealistic I think. At least for now. Palmer is certainly not acting up, causing any issues, and he’s putting in 100% effort still and certainly not downing any tools. But he misses his family, he doesn’t do much in London other than train and then just go to his living accommodation. He’s been homesick for many reasons. Then add to that the on field and off field frustrations he’s been going through, his own frustrations with his form and injury issues, and the Chelsea project being so turmoil, he’s just not happy at the club right now. I’d be VERY surprised if he ended up going abroad by the way, unless he uprooted his whole family! Hard to call how this will go, but I just think it’s impossible for him to leave this summer at least, for many reasons.

As I reported earlier in my sourced article, Adam Wharton has become Chelsea’s No.1 target in midfield for…View the full article

Did I say that they were ungrateful? I've mentioned in a number of posts that it was inevitable that these guys would eventually leave for La Liga. Hopefully we can convince Estevao to stick around for 2+ seasons as I'd love to see him evolve like Hazard did. We'll be lucky to finish as the 6th best PL club this season and with the fixtures coming up, there's every chance we slide to 7th/8th. You can't expect Enzo, Cucu to be here for 6-7 years and not challenge for silverware, they also have ambitions. We haven't been a serious club since the UK forced Roman to sell.

Whats that got to do with anything 🤣 Mata was twice POTY two seasons prior to being sold then he asked to leave due to a lack of minutes in an international tournament season, not like the club were desperate to offload him. Oscar again was out the team with Conte, China offer came in and the money was crazy. And what because football players live in London they should be grateful? Are they not allowed to have ambition & want to win trophies? 😂

Exactly!!! Plus they'll be replaced with players who are either young or just cheap!! And are cheap for a reason.

When Mata and Oscar were sold, it didn't make a big difference to our squad. Selling Enzo and Cucurella now means we will go from 6th best in the league to 10th, 11th

THE Chelsea SITUATION IS GETTING SO MUCH WORSE…

💥🔵Real Madrid consider Enzo Fernandez’s signing IMPOSSIBLE this summer. He would cost over €100M, and Real Madrid will absolutely NOT pay that. (@JorgeCPicon) I see them offering players!! Real is playing its usual game again. That's how they always drive down the transfer fee!! 🚫🔵Chelsea have ZERO intention of selling Cole Palmer, amid genuine interest from Manchester United ❌ (@FrazFletcher) 💨⏳️10 years after his arrival at the club, Pep Guardiola could leave Manchester City in the summer, according to a report from @lequipe. Former Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca is the chosen successor. 🗯🔵Arsenal and Chelsea are preparing to rival Liverpool for the signing of Arda Guler this summer, if Real Madrid open the door to his departure, which is a concrete possibility. Arsenal and Chelsea have made their interest clear to all parties. The Premier League duo are eager to be kept informed of any developments and are ready to act if Madrid signal a willingness to negotiate. (@Graeme Bailey)

yes there is a lot of noise in the last months because of him

People are naive if they think he is gone because of this interview, they planned to sell him a long time ago, big salary, didn't extend last year when he got a wage bump.

he's gone and I cant blame him at least I hope we get 60M for him

💥🔵Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella is FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid’s top target for the left-back position. (@AS)

He’s not going to say shit. He’s a company man through and through. He’s never going to say anything remotely controversial and especially not related to the people who handed him his job.

I'd rather get Camavinga and cash for Enzo instead of Wharton.

Cucu landing the facts! Fuck BlueCo, BlueCo OUT!

🗯🔵It looks like the midfield targets for the summer have been finalized. Valentin Barco and Adam Wharton.

funny situation all around. owners didnt want to help maresca, he leaves, in comes an absolute clown for a manager, players dont respect him and dont give a shit, making the owners lose a lot of money and the players are now threataning to leave. i wonder if the board realizes that they made a huge mistake sacking maresca...probably not.

I said the same thing like Enzo and Cucu, Maresca was doing a good job, he just need it to be back up but these guys don't care. Hence the whole situation and sadly the good players that we have are figuring that out. It's abandon ship from here on.

Rosenior’s next presser should be interesting. I’m guessing not too many questions about Port Vale