Vesper

I look at him as replacing the woefully dire train wreck that is Malang Sarr (both left footed and both are still pretty young, but here all similarity ends) It is very hard to gauge players in the Turkish league (he plays for one of the giants, Fenerbahçe) it is a great watch (not joking at all, plenty of decent, really skilled players, most of the managers play kamikaze football, at least the the top 10 or so teams do, and the fans are fucking BONKERS) but it's also not anywhere near the big 5 level at all

the CB's we have sold or lost on frees lately Antonio Rüdiger Andreas Christensen Kurt Zouma Fikayo Tomori Marc Guéhi Nathan Aké what we have now, atm Thiago Silva (I know it sounds crazy, BUT we may, MAY have him for one or even 2 more seasons after this coming one, as he says he wants to play at top level until he is 40yo (meaning 2024/25 would be his last), like his idol Maldini. I hope that doesn't count Fluminense for those last two years but it may well. I think Thiago has three years left as at least a part-time (after this coming season) big game player. He missed out on cracking 4000 minutes for topflight competitive club matches by only 23 minutes this past season, which is madness for a 37 year old 3,977 in 2021/22 for Chels alone WELL over 5000 (probably close to 5200 or so, if you count preseason games and Brasil Senior National Team minutes!!!!!) He had 14 games for Brasil, played all 90 minutes in all but two, so 1119 more minutes right there) One of the reasons Thiago is still so youthful is that he never really played truly heavy topflight (or any level) minutes until he was 22yo (which is crazy rare for a Brasilian) other than one season when he was 19, and that was only around 2500 minutes). He had horrific tuberculosis that he missed a lot of his younger career from (and he almost lost parts of his lungs, which would have obviously finished his career). Trevoh Chalobah Levi Colwill (we all better pray to the old gods he steps up) then a huge drop off Ethan Ampadu (not sold on him at CB) Xavier Mbuyamba (needs a loan, but theoretically has immense potential, still only 20) Malang Sarr (shoot me now, bin him ASAP!!)

look at the teams, we have no right losing ANY of those games NUFC away will be the hardest I wager (barring some monster adds for Arse) we owe Arse some serious thrashing

I will go bonkers if Sarr is still here he is the Drinkwater/Bakayoko of defensive backs

‘GOING TO SPURS’: Chelsea TOLD THEY CAN’T SIGN £54M DEFENDER HEADING TO TOTTENHAM https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/06/19/going-to-spurs-Chelsea-told-they-cant-sign-54m-defender-heading-to-tottenham/ Steve Nicol has claimed that Chelsea can’t sign Alessandro Bastoni because the Inter Milan defender is ‘going to Tottenham’ this summer, as he told ESPN. He also said Djed Spence is likely Spuds bound. Conte has finally gotten Levy to spend and back, ffs. That new stadium is giving them so much more revenue 🤬

Gonçalo Inácio is attracting interest from England

is this some 10 year old feud?

The Blues are on it behind the scenes! FC and before you think I am having a laugh

next summer it will be the cat beater who is coming back

New CB: Koundé and Aké two names da fuq? 🥺

some thought we were getting this type of tractor but we ended up with

well, a possible big issue is that PSG wants Milan Škriniar badly so if he goes there we are potentially massively fucked 1. No Škriniar 2. No Bremer (he goes to Inter to replace Škriniar) 3. No Bastoni (not that I am now in want of him in a large way compared to other options) as NO chance Inter sell both of their top two CB's 4. RB Leipzig have priced Gvardiol off the market this summer (they have zero financial need, they are backed by Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull, with around £21 billion in net worth just from Mateschitz alone, and they have absolutely no FFP constraints 5. Kounde is injured, and even if 100% healthy, I do not rate him that highly, although now he may well be really needed simply to take a CB space 6. Nico Schlotterbeck went to Dortmund, ffs, this one gutted me 7. Niklas Süle went to Dortmund as well 8. Maxence Lacroix had a poor season, so disappointed in his regression, I was so hoping he would be Rudiger 2.0 9. Jurrien Timber (likely goes to Manure IF we leaves Ajax, but he is meaning towards staying due to the WC and playing time issues) is far too small (and not remotely as solidly built as the dwarf) A CB pairing of Timber and Kounde would be a disaster in the air in the EPL, especially if we also are rolling with short wingbacks (Alonso may well be gone to Barca, and he should not even be playing that much, if Chilwell is healthy again, but Chilly is not tall at all, 1.78m) 10. Almost zero chance Marquinhos leaves PSG, that was always pretty much a pipe dream anyway 11. Ronald Araújo renewed with Barca (another big miss, but not our fault) 12. Wesley Fofana renewed until 2027 with Leicester, and has said there is zero chance he leaves anytime soon 13. Sven Botman is very likely going to NUFC, or, if they sort out their cash, AC Milan, and tbh, I have cooled on him 14. Stefan de Vrij turns 31yo in around half a year, and is showing age a wee bit, unlike KK who rebounded massively this season, so unless a really good price, it is not a good deal. IF he was 25, 26, 27 then HELL YES 15. José María Giménez is too expensive and far too injury-prone for my taste we are down to just 3 left off my original list of acceptable (and smart buys if price is right) Matthijs de Ligt (by far the best option left on the board, but also by far the hardest pull of the 3) Kalidou Koulibaly (IF a fair price, as he turns 31yo in less than 15 hours, but the Poison Dwarf is a cunt to deal with) Merih Demiral (but he is now almost certainly sold to Atalanta via their buy option (and for only around €20m, ffs), making a transfer even harder (and Spuds are now all into him as well, as are many of the other big boys) here is every other remote possibility I can think of atm many are here are extremely remote possibilities, and other will piss many off (Pau for one, I am sure) Pau Torres (I can hear the NOOOOOOOO's already) Aymeric Laporte left footer (I highly doubt Pep would sell him to us, but he did rebound and had a great league season) Caglar Söyüncü (I am so not sold on him, never was) Presnel Kimpembe left footer (can be rash, and I know he doesn't want to leave PSG, as he is a native Parisian area lad) Edmond Tapsoba (sort of regressed a bit) Evan Ndicka left footer (was superb for Eintracht) Robin Le Normand (very underrated Breton CB who plays in Basque country with Real Sociedad) Manuel Akanji (not sold on him, too soft for my taste) Pierre Kalulu (another small CB, 1.79m, he was really key for AC Milan, and plays a lot at RB, this is a very very long shot) Gonçalo Inácio left footer (only 20yo, and was the best Liga NOS CN, plays for Sporting) Thilo Kehrer (not 100% sold on him, although he would not be a disasterclass buy) Gianluca Mancini (he very likely is soon off this list, as he is renewing at Roma almost for sure, maybe already has, just no announcement) Odilon Kossounou (roll the dice level, young CB) Armel Bella-Kotchap (1.9m, 20yo, possible Rudiger style player down the road. he is not a plug 'n play buy, I rate him) Piero Hincapié left footer (young 20yo Ecuadorian CB with huge upside) Adam Webster (homegrown, big, strong, ok on the ball, not so pacey, very Cahill like IMHO, which is far from shit) Alessio Romagnoli left footer (on a free, BUT he really wants to go back to Lazio and play for the Old Smoker, Lazio is a very trendy team atm for many to go to) Attila Szalai left footer (he looked superb for Hungary, I would not lose my mind if we fail on both de Ligt and KK, but we damn well better also bring in a DAMN good veteran as well) David Carmo left footer (if the Timber deal falls through, Manure are looking at him, he is huge, 1.96m, but real dice roll, plays at Braga) Amos Pieper (likely going to Werder Bremen on a free though, tbh, I was not convinced on him, but Tuchel rated him a lot) Sebastian Walukiewicz (was injured most of last year, I am sure we will not make a move for him this year)

fuck

Leipzig put the kibosh on him for this summer they are talking £80m or so (around 90-100m euros), although could probably get them down to £70m (not sure, they do not need cash at all, they are flush AF) they instantly turned down 60m euros (50m quid back then, now £52m as the pound is weak, but the dollar (hello yank owners) is strong) back last winter window

I can lay out a 'Chels truly in the mud by the start of the 2023/24 season' scenario we have a shit window now: no swap deal with Inter, just a straight Donkeykaku loan (which, IF it also includes NO obligation to buy, is a disasterclass move) lose out on Dembele to PSG fail on all of these (now or next summer): Nkunku, Raphinha, Lewa, Gnabry, Sterling, Jesus, de Ligt, Škriniar, Barella, Gavi, Lautaro, Bernardo Silva, Bremer, Demiral, Frenkie de Jong, Youri Tielemans, Carlos Soler, Koulibaly We ram through the now injured for months and months dwarf buy (and who then is a bust when he finally recovers) (and do little to fuckall in January) next summer we lose Reece to Real Madrid, plus Thiago leaves (bound to happen) we miss out on Rice, Bellingham, Gvardiol, Chiesa, Osimhen, Florian Wirtz, Bowen, Rafael Leão, Theo Hernández, Hakimi, Ndidi

some shady £140, 160K PW shit

Rudiger turns 30 this coming winter, no way would a cub pay 70m to 80m quid for him highest ever fees paid for CB's (look at the ages as well)

the only things we have over Citeh atm are that we have won multiple CL's (they have none) and a world club championship, we have a better academy, and we are in London (as opposed to the shithole Manchester)

£70-80m or so worth of players and we got NOTHING!!!!!!! but, sure, Marina is a genius

you ae slating off WC or really good players because Lukaku was a donkey? smdh Milan Skriniar Alessandro Bastoni (many would bold him, I am off his train, Uwill come back on if he improves over the next season, as he has regressed a lot atm) Stefan de Vrij (if he was on a free (he is not), I would snap him up, as he has 3 good years left and would make a good stopgap filler) Federico Dimarco Marcelo Brozovic Nicolò Barella Denzel Dumfries Robin Gosens Lautaro Martínez

I can see a case for Makélélé, he also is not really an example of what I meant, as he turned 31yo a few months after we bought him, and his age (stupidly for Real as it turned out) was the main reason we got him. Ballack (30yo basically when we bought him, he turned 30 several weeks into the first season here) was sorta similar, and whist he was still a beast, he never came close to his prime Neverkusen and Bayern numbers with us. He certainly was not the best AMF/CMF on the planet (although still absolutely WC, I loved the signing and the player) when we bought him (Makélélé was DEFFO the best DMF on the planet, but it was not a competition for his sig between us and the 2 Spanish big twatters, because, as I stated above, Real stupidly thought him to old to sign a long term extension (massive mistake, it cost them dearly, and to our benefit.)

You forget PSG and Citeh only teams to take in both Barca and Real lately for best (or at least a top 3 best) player and win, once straight off a roster, Barca with Neymar.

Perfect LB for Pep. He will be a monster.

The only 'best in the world at his position when we bought him' player was Ashley Cole. Lampard developed into the best AMF by far on the planet whilst here, he was far from WC when we bought him, and we had another who did the same, but the stupid AF board sold him with no buyback. John Terry maybe had a brief spell where he was the best CB on the planet (that is debatable), but he was an academy player. That's it. We simply cannot compete for the (in their prime) CR7, Messi, Mbappe, Kimmich, Lewa, etc types. It isn't happening anytime soon, if ever. That is totally oki for me. I do not like the Galactico philosophy. We have proven now you can win it all without it. I DO DO DO DO insist that the new super stadium be built ASAP. That IS hurting us with 'non best in planet but still WC' recruiting.

And Tchou to Real, Boubacar Kamara to Villa on a free, plus Rüdiger did not wait, pulled the trigger, and left.