OhForAGreavsie

As my post said, you accurately described him that's being low waged.

So the rumours concerning both of these two turnout to have been accurate. I know nothing about Bartel and have never knowingly seen her play. I don't even know what style of midfielder she is but I assume she must be highly rated. Even with Jesse Fleming having departed in January, and Melly Leupolz leaving last month, this addition still might mean more departures. We have four midfielders remaining from last season's squad, and two more due to return from loans. On top of that we have James and Macario both of whom are probably best operating as AMs. That's eight players and Bartel makes nine. Too many to be vying for three places in the XI.

What a crazy upside down world we live in where an 18 year old earning two million pounds a year can be accurately described as low waged. Poor lad

No new front of shirt sponsor yet. I'm guessing that, unlike last season, they are reluctant to release the new kit without the sponsor's name on the front. Not for any preference of BlueCo's I would think, but because sponsors surely feel that maximizing the number of people acting as walking billboards promoting them, the better. I know I bought four shirts last summer, all for my granddaughter, and I moved to get them quickly before the sponsor was added. I know lots of people also did that so it could well have added up to an unacceptably high percentage of sponsor-free shirts moving through the world. I suppose it makes sense for the club to try to give their new sponsor a better deal by trying to avoid that happening again.

I have always felt that Lucy is a brilliant footballer, and have been among her biggest defenders whenever she has come in for criticism in an England shirt. I 'blamed' her for our loss to Barca in the 2023 Champions League semi-final. A genius level reading of the situation, and a perfectly timed step up, caught Sam Kerr marginally offside which lead to Guro's equaliser being ruled out at Stamford Bridge. That was ultimately the difference between the sides. So I bow to no one in my admiration of Lucy Bronze, but... I'm not excited about this move. I think the time has passed. This looks like a very short term move aimed specifically at making a stronger challenge in the Champions League. Fair enough, but if we could prize Ona Batlle away from Barca that would be a much more exciting and forward-looking move. Of course there is absolutely zero possibility Barca would let her go, but I'd like us to be planning for the next four or five seasons when recruit, not just the next one. In any case it was mainly inaccurate refereeing decisions that cost us the semi-final against Barcelona in the season just ended. Bad decisions and unfortunate injuries. Even then we gave Barcelona absolutely everything they could handle in that tie. I prefer more solid future planning and the confidence that that would help us give Barca a run for their money anytime, anywhere.

If Arsenal are willing and able to match our financial package to Calafiori, and I don't see why they wouldn't be, then they have a lot of advantages over us regarding competing at the highest levels immediately. The only thing I see as a potential recruiting advantage for us is that he is likely to have a harder time earning minutes at Arsenal than with us. They have a much more settled, and more successful, CB partnership then we do. For good measure they also have good cover at left back. He can't realistically expect to be an automatic first choice at the Emirates, but such unexpectation would be reasonable if he moved to Stamford Bridge.

I like this signing. KDH seems to me to have useful attributes to bring to our squad. Now we'll have the chance to see just how useful.

Well I have no ambition for Chelsea ever to win the Europa League again. I hope that in the upcoming season we will qualify for both the Europa League, by winning the Conference League, and the Champions League, by finishing in the top four. After that may we be a Champions League club forever and ever. Amen 🙂

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And if he does have one I hope he's going to need it. 🙂 (Just joking, Spurs games matter too much to me. I would miss those games if Spurs got relegated. 17th every year for Spurs would suit me just fine )

So Golding's fee covers 5/6 of the first year's amortisation of the KDH transfer. If another youngster does well enough to earn a £5m move this time next year that will basically be two payments down and three to go on KDH. As long as the outgoing kids are accepting these transfers for the right reasons, and are not players we should be retaining as likely or potential future first-teamers, I'm ok with this. I do wonder what Neil bath makes of it all however.

Someone from Olise's 'team' has apparently denied that money was the issue. Reportedly they say the player simply preferred Bayern.

They've become a part of a multi-club system. Michele Kang, a wealthy American business woman, owns Washington Spirit of the NWSL. She first added Lyon Women to her 'portfolio' and then London City vowing to take them to the WSL and to make them competitive. There are all sorts of rumours about who she might sign, including Viv Miedema and Fran Kirby.

We'll see how the season develops. Perhaps Lavia in the side will give Enzo the freedom to unleash his A game but I'm yet to be fully convinced by him. If our Argentine fails to make our top XI once Maresca has the team playing the way he wants it to, I won't be totally shocked.

If it turns out that he stays in the Premier League I'll be gutted. I put in what I thought was a stupidly large bid for Palmer in my fantasy league but found myself massively outbid by a manager who spalshed almost 40% of his entire budget to get Cole. When Olise came up I was therefore determined to get him so I bid 75% above his market value. Then came the bad news that he was going so I had to sell at a massive loss to avoid losing all the money I spent on him. Now this. Come on Bayern pay up.

She wasn't a regular while on loan at Paris so I doubt there is a contract on offer for her there either. Wonder if London City Lionesses might be interested with their new found riches?

I had a report that said it was a free transfer but with add-ons.

Other reports giving Arsenal's share as 10 to 15% of the final figure including any add-ons achieved.

As we write Leicester are trying to find a way to demand Chelsea pay more for KDH than the figure they had agreed with Brighton.

My own opinion on Connor is unchanged since I formed it when he was a youth team player but I have to admit that he has done much better than I thought he would when I said back then that I did not think he was Chelsea level. (Mind you our level has dropped a fair bit since then.) There is no way KDH can match Connor's love for the club but if he is, in effect, to replace Connor in the squad he will have to offer huge effort, energy, and commitment. After that we'll see.

KDH may, or may not, turn out to be any more effective than Sidwell but it's clear from just the eye test that he is far more talented than our former player was.

To be fair I'm not a fan either, that's mainly based on games I watched him play for the 21s.

I expect he'll be good at Milan, but after that we'll see.

Makes sense.

Ramano claimed last night that Mamardashvili will be available this window. Assuming that's true, he will presumably prefer a Champions League club if he can find one that; suits him, needs a keeper, and is able to spend on one. Maybe we could convince him that our Champions League absence is just temporary, and remind him, that if he joined, he'd be playing in the club world cup next summer.