OhForAGreavsie

Chelsea's end for the League Cup Final vs Arsenal sold out quickly, so Blues fans switched to buying seats in the main stand. That is now also sold out, bar two or three seats. Tickets are still available in the Arthur Wait Stand however. Tickets: https://tickets.cpfc.co.uk/en-GB/categories/womens leaguecup

So far it's looking to me like Noni will be an exciting backup here, rather than a starter. Not enough variety in his M.O. to consistently hurt defences familiar with what he wants to do. I like him a lot (on the right) but when FFP permits, I can see the manager wanting an alternative.

Well he wasn't anyway.

We could time the sale so it moves into the following FFP season at a cost of 67.8 but it's still the same problem.

The thing which most encourages me about Andrey is the level of excitement he's being reported to have created among Chelsea technical and recruitment staff*. They will have seen more of him than we have, certainly way more than I have, so their opinion must be based on more information. Based only on my assessment Andrey wouldn't be here, but he is so I have to put my hopes in the club's judgement. *Of course, it could be that the reports are part of Chelsea's PR to get Andrey's work permit application approved.

The news is a week old now but, Sam Kerr became the first CFCW player to win the club's Goal of The Month poll. CFCW players have notched the best goal several times previously but have never won the vote. Most fans seem to think only about the men's team. Sam's win had to have been helped by the fact that CFCM didn't score many goals in January. 🙂 https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/kerr-strike-wins-goal-of-the-month

First time the women have played well for a while. Let's hope they are gearing up for the business end of the season. The next few games are mouth watering; Arsenal in The FA Cup and the League Cup Final, Lyon twice in the Champions League quarter-final, and both Manchester clubs, currently second placed United at home and currently third placed City away. Upcoming Fixtures: Sun 26 Feb 2023: vs Arsenal, FA Round 5, Home (Kingsmeadow) Sun 05 Mar 2023: vs Arsenal, League Cup Final, Neutral (Selhurst Park) Wed 08 Mar 2023: vs West Ham, WSL, Home (Kingsmeadow) Sun 12 Mar 2023 vs Man Utd, WSL, Home (Kingsmeadow) Wed 22 Mar 2023 vs Lyon, Champions League Qtr Final, Away (Groupama Stadium) Sun 26 Mar 2023 vs Man City, WSL, Away (City Football Academy) Thu 30 Mar 2023 vs Lyon, Champions League Qtr Final, Home (Stamford Bridge) Plus, if we beat Arsenal in round five, there will be an FA Cup Qtr final tie between the Man Utd and Lyon games. League Cup final tickets here, other tickets (when on sale) here.

Would have been 😞

None of us doubt that if we sell Rom it will be at a loss. The club will understand this, and can reconcile itself to it. The problem is FFP. Amortisation of transfer fees allows some wins as we've seen, but it can also turn into a trap. When a player is sold, all of his remaining amortised value counts against FFP for the season during which he is sold. Rom signed a 5 year deal and, for simplicity sake, let's say he cost €100m, This would make his FFP 'cost' €20m a season so, come summer, we will have accounted for 2 x €20m of that fee. If we sell him in the next window we would need to get at least €60m or else we make an FFP loss on him. I'm sure that this trap is why we have sometimes kept players on the books and sent them out on loan long after it was clear they would never play for CFC again.

That's a relief. 🙂

It does impact on their transfer spending since the amount they can spend while remaining within FFP is a function of their turnover. If their turnover has been artificially inflated, then this spending ceiling has also been inflated. Now, as to whether or not their actual spending might have breached FFP had their turnover been restricted, I don't know. The one is certainly linked with the other however.

I visit Bluemoon once in a while. At the time many there simply refused to understand the difference between charges being found to be time barred, and their club actually being found not guilty. I didn't know that about the judges' links.

Let's be selfish here for a second. Unless we have completely wasted our money this January, Europa League qualification is very possible. If City were now to face a significant points deduction, all of a sudden the chance of a Champions League place comes into the realm of possibility.

I believe that FFP assessment periods are already changing from this year. This change predates anything inspired by our behaviour during the last two Windows. Yes, you must be right. It would be against the law, certainly in the UK, for UEFA to attempt to restrict the length of player contracts. They can though change the rules regarding FFP amortisation of transfer fees, and that is what they are doing.

How can the rules be broken 'legally'? Actions are either within the rules, and therefore legal, or beyond the rules, and therefore illegal. We did absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever. Not even close. We are well within the rules as they stand.

Summed up by the phrase I keep repeating; Mason nearly always nearly gets it right. In the end though, there are no prizes for nearly getting it right.

OK, it was the, "it's ripping apart the spine of the team leaving them both out", line which gave me that impression.

Will the real Sham please sing up. 🙂

If I've written my post in such a way as to allow it to be understood I would choose to leave both Enzo and Badi out then I should have worded it differently. Under no circumstances would I consider that. My priority additions to the CL list are Mudryck and Badiashile. Thereafter I would select Ezno, leaving Felix off the list. If, however, the situation you speculated about was in force, and it was contractually necessary to select Felix, then I would choose to omit Enzo instead. In all cases three of the four make the squad, and two of the three are Badiashile and Mudryck.

My reasoning is I take my chances against BVB, then put faith in getting Kante back to reduce the loss of Enzo to a small degree at least. It's clearly a massive risk, and a million kilometres away from where we'd want to be, but the limitations force hard decisions. I agree with all you say, but this is the risk I would choose to take.

I think, if used correctly, Mudryck offers something unique within this squad, so I would certainly want him in the CL list. As for the cost of Felix, I'd treat it as a nil item. Unless there are specific clauses we will probably never learn about, his fee and wages have to be paid whether he features in the CL or not, so that shouldn't be a consideration when selecting the squad. Ditto Mudryck costs. This part of your comment is seven words too long.

I don't rule out Europa league qualification. Should be possible.

That's possible I'm sure but, if so, then M&M or Enzo had to be sacrificed. This would have been Enzo for me but I know virtually no one will agree with me about that. 🙂

Leaving Benoit out was a ludicrous decision which can't help but hurt us. He should have been selected ahead of Felix in my view. He should definitely have been in ahead of one of the new boys for sure.