Vesper

Yacht trips, equity, Apple TV income and sunbeds: How clubs convince players to sign for them https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6499780/2025/07/18/transfers-players-yachts-equity-how-clubs-convince/ It’s not just about a few quid and a nice car anymore. Inter Miami had to get creative two years ago when trying to sign Lionel Messi as his Paris Saint-Germain contract was running down, with them unable to compete on a straight financial basis with his suitors from Saudi Arabia. Miami’s courtship of the Argentinian lasted months, and part of their solution to overcome the financial disparity was to offer him equity in the MLS club, which will activate after he leaves them. In an unprecedented move, the deal also included extra income through some of the North American league’s commercial partners, specifically money from MLS Season Pass subscriptions on Apple TV, plus agreements for compensation from Adidas and Fanatics. This summer, we are shaping up to have the most lucrative English transfer window ever. More than £1billion has been spent on 218 new players already, according to Transfermarkt.com, and the deadline isn’t until September 1. Transfers are bigger business and more competitive than ever, but what methods do clubs employ to ensure that the player they want comes to them? And how have those processes changed over time? “The higher up the chain you go, the more outlandish the demands get,” an agent with Premier League players on his client roster, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, told The Athletic. “It can be something very specific — like helping to bring their pet into the country if they’re moving from overseas to England — or something fairly normal, like a corporate box for their family and friends in the stadium, which is a pretty common stipulation. “The vast majority of the time, it’s the player instigating these perks, and it’s always better to bring them up early in my experience, especially if it’s really important to them. You don’t want to be throwing extras at a club when negotiations are close to being finalised because that can risk annoying the buying club when a deal might be in the balance.” Building relationships with prospective signings over time can be crucial to getting a deal over the line. It’s not uncommon for sporting directors to check in with players they hope to sign, or have tried to get, sending ‘well done’ messages if they have performed well in a particular game, for example, and striking up rapport and familiarity. That effort in laying the foundations can provide an advantage over rival clubs who might drop in at the last minute during a transfer window with an opportunistic bid. An ownership stake, or profiting from a club’s success, is becoming more common among the football superrich. It hasn’t always been this way. The late 1980s were a simpler, less extravagant time, when a humble sunbed was a key aspect of transfer negotiations. At least that’s according to Paul Gascoigne, who said that Tottenham Hotspur buying one for his sister, and a house for his parents, led him to turn down Alex Ferguson and Manchester United to join the London club from Newcastle United. This was in 1988, when England’s version of Diego Maradona had just been voted young player of the year by his fellow professionals in the English league. He was two years away from becoming one of the best players in the world, via his performance at the 1990 World Cup (Gascoigne was also fourth in the Ballon d’Or voting in the latter year). United were still a few seasons away from starting their two-decades-plus dominance of English football, but Gascoigne had agreed to join them… until the intervention of Tottenham’s then chairman, Irving Scholar. Messi will receive equity in the club after his time as a Miami player is over (Jeff Dean/Getty Images) “When Spurs offered my family a house and they (United) wouldn’t match it, I wanted to look after my mum and dad,” Gascoigne later said. “They offered my sister a sunbed — a sunbed in the contract — which she got. “It was probably my sister’s sunbed they (United) couldn’t afford. She should have got a spray tan and I would have a few more medals.” It was one of English football’s Sliding Doors moments. Gascoigne would surely not only have won multiple medals at Old Trafford, but under Ferguson, or even just away from the bright lights of London, his career and personal health may not have waned so dramatically. Ferguson said Gascoigne was the one player in his long managerial career he wished he had been able to sign. “I think he was the best English player since Bobby Charlton,” Ferguson said in 2021. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get him. I think, looking back now, he made a big mistake. He recognised it himself years later, but we had (other) Geordies in the camp; Bobby Charlton, Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, even Gary Pallister from Middlesbrough, we had people there who would have taken care of him. “He had agreed to sign, and then Tottenham changed his mind by buying his mother and father a house. Martin Edwards (United’s chairman at the time) was not that type.” Persuading a player to join your club almost always involves financial matters, but from time to time, the odd football connoisseur will be blown away by good old-fashioned research. Brentford defender Kristoffer Ajer had multiple options when leaving Scotland’s Celtic in 2021, but he picked the west London side partly because they’d watched him play more than 100 times, partly because they told him he needed to improve his game. “They said that they had been to 123 games of Celtic’s and provided feedback on which ones (his performances) were green and approved, and which ones were red and unacceptable,” Ajer told TV 2 from his Norwegian homeland. “They analyse everything. “What I liked about this club compared to the others was that they said there were a lot of exciting things about me they were interested in, but also that I had to improve a lot.” There are some contract clauses that clubs would never dream of coming up with were they not instigated by the player. Arsenal, for example, agreed that Dennis Bergkamp wouldn’t have to fly to away European matches when he joined them from Italy’s Inter due to his fear of flying, even if it cost him plenty of money during negotiations, as the Dutch forward later revealed in his autobiography. “In talks with Arsenal, if I said ‘a million’, they automatically deducted a hundred grand ‘because you don’t fly’, and I accepted that,” Bergkamp said. If all else fails, roll out the super-yacht, which is exactly what Chelsea’s then-owner, Roman Abramovich, did when trying to lure Luka Modric across London from Spurs in 2011. Modric was open to the idea of leaving Tottenham and Abramovich pulled out all the stops, as the player recalled in his autobiography: “First, Vanja (Modric’s wife) and I took a private jet from Zadar (Modric’s hometown in Croatia) to Cannes (a resort in the south of France), where my management team were waiting. Then, a van with tinted-glass windows took us to Nice, some 30km (18 miles) away. There, we were picked up by Roman Abramovich’s security, who put us on a speedboat and took us to the Chelsea owner’s yacht. Abramovich invited Modric onto his yacht (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images) “It was quick and well organised; just as we made ourselves comfortable on one of the luxury decks, Abramovich showed up. “During our meeting, he left an impression of a relaxed, somewhat mysterious person. He wasn’t beating around the bush and said, ‘We know you are a quality player. I’d like you to sign for Chelsea’. I had come to his yacht to talk, so it was evident I wished the same. We finished our drinks and, after 20 minutes or so, Abramovich and his wife discreetly retreated to their quarters. As he said goodbye, he suggested we relax and have a swim, but we thanked him and left. Within 90 minutes, we were back on the coast of Nice.” Some decent target courting, but Abramovich hadn’t reckoned on a curveball — Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, who staunchly rebuffed Chelsea’s subsequent attempts to buy Modric, who instead moved to Real Madrid a year later. Chelsea did get one deal over the line around five years before that didn’t involve a super-yacht, namely Mikel John Obi, after a tug-of-war with Manchester United and Norwegian selling club Lyn that involved lawsuits, forged signatures, allegations of kidnapping, FIFA and police enquiries, and, ultimately, a suspended prison sentence handed down by an Oslo court to a senior official at Lyn. Oh, and Roy Keane acting as a bodyguard in training. Revisited by The Athletic’s Dominic Fifield and Simon Johnson in 2021, it has to be read to be believed. The advent of Google Maps (or whatever your digital mapping service of choice is) may have helped prevent some far-fetched transfers from going through. In the 1990s, mercurial Colombian striker Faustino Asprilla was supposedly hoodwinked that Newcastle was near London when the Premier League side, managed by Kevin Keegan, were trying to sign him from Parma in Italy. (It’s actually over 250 miles/400km away — a five-hour drive.) Newcastle’s then chairman Freddy Shepherd said some years later: “We went over to Parma and Keegan got there before us, he was sat there persuading him to come. When we got there, myself, (and fellow directors) Freddie Fletcher and Douglas Hall were there and the deal was done. We shook hands. Then Asprilla’s agent said, ‘He just wants to know which part of London Newcastle is in?’. “We said, ‘What?’. We said, ‘Just tell him it isn’t far!’. Tino couldn’t speak good English at the time, but every transfer had a story behind it. There was always something.” Newcastle were asked how far they were from London by Asprilla’s agent (Bradley Ormesher/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) Like Asprilla, signing Netherlands international Bryan Roy from Italy’s Foggia was a real coup for Nottingham Forest in 1994. Again, some scratchy geography may have played a part in getting the deal done, as Forest’s manager at the time, Frank Clark, later recalled. “Bryan was playing in the 1994 World Cup (in the United States). I got there and was told I couldn’t see him as the manager wouldn’t let him out of the camp,” Clark told the Forest-themed Garibaldi Red podcast. “I was told I could watch him play and travel on the coach with all the officials because his agent’s father was chairman of the Dutch FA. “I got on this coach and was told to get to the back and sit with the players’ wives. I ended up sitting next to Bryan’s wife, which was handy. She was a budding actress, so she wanted to know how far London was from Nottingham. I thought this could be a key question, so I told her it wasn’t far — 40 minutes on a train (it’s actually more than twice that) or 30 minutes flying. “Bryan was hopeless on the night, but we went through with the deal.” The sport may have irrevocably changed in the years since, but that doesn’t mean a few old-fashioned tactics don’t remain key to encouraging a player to sign for your club. A simple but compelling phone call seems to do the trick for Ange Postecoglou, whose powers of persuasion have been cited by a number of players as an important reason why they joined the Australian manager’s teams. As The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare wrote last year: “At Celtic, new signings waxing lyrical about their conversations with Postecoglou became so commonplace that there was a running joke that the head coach could have an alternative career in recruitment if he ever had enough of football.” Radu Dragusin and Timo Werner both mentioned a chat with Postecoglou as being a reason behind joining Spurs after he moved to them from Celtic in 2023. Postecoglou said at the time: “With any player I’ve signed, it’s just a conversation about what I believe and my thoughts on them as players, where I see them fitting in. And trying to create a picture in their heads about what they’ll encounter when they get here.” Messi with his Apple money, that’s a world away from reality for the vast majority of football players. To many, it all comes down to the same basic principles that we all look for when changing our job. “Money and family are still the most important thing in any deal,” the same agent quoted earlier told The Athletic. “And that’s true for most walks of life. That — and feeling wanted. It’s pretty simple.”

nonzinoo10 Dear Chelsea Football Club, I want to thank you for the Last 3 or so years. To every staff member that helped me along this journey, thank you. To my teammates thank you for everything, I leave with only love and admiration for you guys. We achieved so much this season and I honestly wish you guys nothing but the best. To Enzo Maresca, it was a privilege to play under you, thank you for trying to better me as a player and as a person. Lastly thank you to every single Chelsea fan. Thank you for the love, the praise and also the criticism, I appreciate it all. I leave here with nothing but fond memories. Love NM11. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMQLJUtoI8n/

Arsenal's Next Signing Leaked: Cristhian Mosquera Set to Join as Fifth Summer Signing - Arsenal's next signing appears to have been leaked online, following the arrival of Noni Madueke at the Emirates. - The 23-year-old winger's move from Chelsea was confirmed on Friday, making him the fourth purchase by Mikel Arteta this summer. - More spending is expected on the red side of North London, with Viktor Gyokeres believed to be high on the list of priorities. - Images of Cristhian Mosquera, a Valencia defender, in an Arsenal training top have emerged online, suggesting he may be the fifth man to join the club this summer. - Mosquera, 21, has become a breakout star for Valencia over the last couple of seasons and is set to compete with the likes of William Saliba and Gabriel at the heart of Arteta's defense next season. - It was reported earlier in the week that Mosquera was flying to the UK to undergo a medical at the club, with a fee of around £17 million being agreed with Valencia. - Mosquera played once during Spain's 2024 Olympic triumph.

Man City confirm signing of teenager Sverre Nypan https://www.aol.com/man-city-confirm-signing-teenager-170021904.html Manchester City have completed the signing of Norwegian teenager Sverre Nypan for £12.5m. The midfielder, who has signed a five-year deal at the Etihad Stadium, said he was proud to follow in the footsteps of Erling Haaland by joining City. Nypan becomes City’s fifth summer signing after Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Marcus Bettinelli, with a combined cost of over £120m. City’s plan is to send the 18-year-old out on loan but, if no deal is agreed when their players return to training after the break they were given following the Club World Cup, he will work with Pep Guardiola and the senior squad. “I am incredibly happy and proud to have joined Manchester City,” said Nypan. “It’s a dream for any young footballer to become part of this club and to join such a group of world class talent. “I am still very young with a lot to learn but the chance to be coached by Pep Guardiola, the best manager in the world, will only help me to become a better player. “There is already a special connection between Norway and Manchester City through Erling Haaland and Oscar Bobb, and I am very proud to have become the latest Norwegian player to have joined the club.” Director of football Hugo Viana said Nypan, who became Rosenborg’s youngest ever player when he debuted at 15, had been scouted by City for a while. “Sverre is an exciting young player that the Club has been monitoring for quite some time now,” he added. “We feel that he already has numerous standout qualities but that at only 18 years of age, he is only going to continue to improve. “We believe he will be an important asset for Manchester City in the years to come and we will support him every step of the way in his development.”

Quenda also plays LWB/LB/RMF and RW

Fabrizio Romano: MAN UTD: MBEUMO + NEW STRIKER! XAVI SIMONS BLITZ, LUIS DIAZ ATTACK, GYOKERES…

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/arsenal-not-completed-52m-noni-32081572 snip So why has the deal not been confirmed? Up until last weekend, Madueke was with the Chelsea squad on duty at the Club World Cup in the United States of America. The 23-year-old came off the bench in the Blues' semi-final win over Fluminense on Tuesday, July 8. With talks progressing over the deal to take him to Arsenal, however, Madueke left Chelsea's Club World Cup campaign prior to the final in New Jersey that the Blues won by defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0. It is because of that Club World Cup journey, however, that is the reason why Madueke has not been confirmed. While the formalities of the deal may have been completed already, Madueke has not officially signed, having been allowed to go on holiday because of his participation in the Club World Cup. FIFA guidelines state that players should have at least three consecutive weeks of holiday after the end of a season and Madueke is currently enjoying that break. Arsenal allowed Madueke that extended time off, not expecting him to be on the plane for the start of the club's pre-season tour of Asia. Madueke has only had one week off so far and another two weeks would see him miss the tour entirely. It may be some time before the deal is officially announced.

Chelsea’s positional fluidity stifled PSG, providing Maresca with a blueprint for next season https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6492813/2025/07/18/how-Chelsea-stifled-psg-maresca-blueprint-next-season/ Not many teams keep a clean sheet against Paris Saint-Germain. In a long, quadruple-winning 2024-25 season, Luis Enrique’s side had failed to score on just five occasions before the Club World Cup final, but each of those shut-outs were qualitatively different from the blueprint that Enzo Maresca laid out for Chelsea on Sunday. “The message was quite clear. We won the game in the first 10 minutes,” Maresca told reporters after the 3-0 victory. “The message before the game was, ‘Let them understand we are here to win the game’. It set the tone of the game.” It was a statement that would not be out of place in a Sunday league dressing room, with players imploring their team-mates to “let them know you are there early” as an act of hostility. But Chelsea’s aggression out of possession was a crucial factor in their victory as they snapped into challenges and got tight to their Parisian opponents, particularly in the first half. What You Should Read Next How Chelsea won the Club World Cup: Big bonuses, training-ground deals and ‘scary’ Palmer The inside story of Chelsea's unlikely triumph in New Jersey that was 329 days in the making PSG’s fluid positional rotations have the capacity to twist anyone’s blood, as so many of Europe’s elite sides have found out in recent months. Luis Enrique’s side can pull your defensive shape apart to create space with their movement. However, space does not score goals. Chelsea’s adaptable defensive performance matched the fluidity that PSG looked to implement in possession. They were aggressive with it, but it was clear that every action they did off the ball, they performed with conviction. This was clear from the opening exchanges, when Trevoh Chalobah tracked midfielder Fabian Ruiz’s run across the pitch to receive the ball. By shutting the passing option off at source, Fabian was unable to gain possession as PSG continued to circulate the ball elsewhere. Chelsea were not entirely man-for-man across the pitch, but it was crucial that their centre-backs tracked their runners all the way when they were getting touch-tight to their markers — even if it meant being in unnatural positions at times. Below, you can see Ousmane Dembele dropping as far as left-back to find a pocket of space, but Chalobah follows him all the way to force him into a simple pass, while Chelsea briefly shuffle across to form a temporary back three. There were countless other examples, with Chalobah’s centre-back partner Levi Colwill doing exactly the same in stepping out from the defensive line to stop any danger before it grew — dovetailing excellently with midfielder Moises Caicedo, who would drop into Chelsea’s back line to plug any gaps opened by his team-mate. This was even more prominent with an example later in the first half, where you would be forgiven for thinking that it was Colwill who was playing as Chelsea’s defensive midfielder and Caicedo as left centre-back, based on this image. With the threat that PSG are known to pose in wide areas, similar communication was needed on the flanks. Wingers tracking their runners is a tale as old as time, but the extent to which Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto shut down the space and stuck to their jobs will have pleased Maresca as much as any of the three goals his team scored. With barely four minutes on the clock, Cucurella pushes high to track Desire Doue’s run, dropping deep. As Marquinhos winds up to play the ball over the top, the Chelsea player deepest is Neto — who has followed Achraf Hakimi’s run back to his own penalty area, nodding down the long ball for Robert Sanchez to collect. Such was Neto’s desire to get back defensively, that Chelsea formed a back five at times to block the space. The image below shows the outcome of a strong first 20 minutes out of possession, with no PSG player properly inside Chelsea’s compact block as they look to circulate the ball once more. It was not exactly beautiful football at times — with Chelsea comfortable playing the percentage game by whacking it upfield and starting again in the first half — but it was no less effective. It required plenty of communication, lots of pointing and a fair share of shuttle runs, but Chelsea laid the foundation for their performance in the opening stages, just as Maresca declared. In fairness, their out-of-possession approach was equally as impressive in their semi-final clash with Fluminense, but that was based more on high pressing from the midfield and forward line. What You Should Read Next How Chelsea’s clever out-of-possession approach blunted Fluminense’s attack Enzo Maresca's side reached the Club World Cup final after their effective pressing in a 4-3-3 shape left their opponents with no answer With the fluidity of PSG’s movement, Chelsea were unable to use defensive triggers in the same way to start a coherent press across the whole team. Instead, they opted to embrace the chaos with their front-footed one-v-one battles. As much as anything, Maresca can use Chelsea’s Club World Cup final victory as a platform to show how much he can adapt tactically and curate a game plan to beat any side in European football. Such flexibility was the order of the day across the whole tournament, with Maresca using this summer to establish new ideas and strengthen the buy-in he has within the squad. Will they use an identical tactic next season in similar, high-profile games? That remains to be seen, but the defensive discipline that Chelsea showed is what they can carry into the new campaign. “For me, the biggest achievement this season is that exactly one year ago, no one was talking about Chelsea for football (reasons), but talking about the big squad, big money,” Maresca said on the Friday before the final. “Now, no one is talking about this, but they are talking about the way we play, and the way we win games. This is personally the biggest achievement of this season.” With two trophies won in less than two months, you can understand why there is now greater focus on the club’s on-pitch matters.

and on the short bus here

Xavis is a right footer Kendry is a lefty

we paid £107m for him so 200 per cent (ie double) would be £214m (€247.5m) that extra £14m could buy at least one Brasilian 15yo who could come here in 2028 and be loaned out for 3 years, LOLOLOLOL

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cj4ekq5g5yyo

Fichajes bollocks, beware: According to Spanish outlet Fichajes, the Argentine is ‘very popular’ amongst Real Madrid management and they are ‘convinced that he would be a key player in dominating the midfield in the coming years.” They also state that the thinking is Fernandez could be the successor to Toni Kroos after the German retired last year. However, to prise him away from Chelsea is expected to cost a significant amount with the publication suggesting the London club would not let him go for anything less than €130m. Chelsea paid Benfica £106.8m in 2023, making him the club’s most expensive signing. To raise that money, Madrid are reportedly willing to let Eduardo Camavinga, Rodrygo and Fran García leave this summer, a trio they hope could raise €150m in transfer fees.

correct, but he is effective at LW as well, at least when I have seen him play

Ice cold in the Caribbean: Palmer's first trip to St Kitts https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/videos/c3r90wyj7z3o Chelsea and England star Cole Palmer visits the Caribbean island of St Kitts - where his paternal grandfather was born - for the first time. WATCH: Cole Palmer- Made in St Kitts on BBC iPlayer READ MORE: Cole Palmer given hero's reception on St Kitts visit https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cew0q4dd8rgo Cole Palmer was given a hero's welcome on Monday when he arrived in St Kitts for the first time, fresh from playing a starring role in Chelsea beating Paris St-Germain to win the Club World Cup in the United States. The Caribbean island is the birthplace of his grandfather, Sterry, and Palmer wears the flag of St Kitts and Nevis - alongside the England flag - on his football boots to honour his family's roots. Deputy prime minister Geoffrey Hanley and tourism minister Marsha T Henderson greeted the 23-year-old and his family at the airport alongside traditional Masquerade performers. Palmer said: "Landing in St Kitts off the back of winning the Club World Cup felt really special. It's where my grandad's love for football started. The island is beautiful and really chilled. I can't wait to explore the mountains, rainforest and sea - and to try out the food." Terrance Drew, St Kitts' prime minister, added: "Cole Palmer's visit to St Kitts and Nevis is a powerful reminder of the strength and pride of our diaspora. "His presence and mentorship will inspire the next generation to believe that global success is possible, no matter where you come from. We are proud to welcome him home and deeply grateful for his commitment to our young people and to the development of sports in our federation." Henderson said: "The Palmers already have a special connection to the island and that will only grow as they spend time exploring our lush rainforests, picturesque mountains and stunning waters, and savouring our rich culture and cuisine."

almost everytime I watched him play at Bayerns he was shit almost as bad as Upamecano other than Tah (and only on a free) I do not rate anyof their CBs

fake pic

fake pic here is the real one

oh HELL NO

Chelsea https://thedailybriefing.io/i/168546403/Chelsea Nicolas Jackson has emerged as a top target for Aston Villa, with his former manager Unai Emery keen to work with him again. (Dharmesh Sheth, Sky Sports) Chelsea left-back Ben Chilwell is expected to become a top priority transfer target for newly-promoted Leeds United this summer. (Football Insider) Chelsea are eyeing Kim Min-jae from Bayern Munich this summer, with some talk of a possible swap deal between the two clubs becoming a serious option. (Tuttomercatoweb) Morgan Rogers to Chelsea could be one to watch as he’s now reportedly their top target for the rest of the summer, though Aston Villa want as much as £80m to let him go. (Sun)

the big issue with Wissa is he turns 29yo in 6 and a half weeks, on September 3rd, so no truly long term future there, once you get past the next 3 seasons or so, his resale value will drop like a rock

Ajax sold Jurriën Timber, a very similar player to Hato (Timber is right footed and plays RB and CB, Hato is left footed and plays LB and CB) to Arse for £34 million + £4.5m in add-ons (£38.5m in toto), so £40m to £50m, (split the difference and say £45m) is a fair price. £60m is fucking extortion as that is a full £21.5m MORE for Hato than Timber. £50m is the absolute max we should go.

Chelsea are champions of the world. So what happens next? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6497531/2025/07/17/Chelsea-cwc-title-transfers-stadium-ownership/ Chelsea are champions of the world. That may sound strange, even to many fans, at the end of a season in which Enzo Maresca’s team finished fourth in the Premier League and lifted UEFA’s third-tier club competition, the Conference League. But there can be no diminishing the emphatic manner of their 3-0 victory over recently-crowned European champions Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Chelsea were deserving winners of Gianni Infantino’s inaugural expanded FIFA Club World Cup, netting $114.6m (£84.5m) in prize money in the process. That triumph, and that financial windfall, opens up a world of possibilities. It also raises a number of questions about what happens next at Chelsea — questions that The Athletic will attempt to answer. What will they do with the cash? Firstly, the players and coaching staff will all receive a sizeable bonus equivalent to that which would have been awarded had Chelsea won the Champions League. This is all in keeping with Chelsea’s policy of handing out incentivised contracts rewarding success. The sudden injection of extra revenue has made no difference to Chelsea’s transfer plans, though. They are already happy with the business done so far this summer in adding three players to their attack in Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens. More arrivals could be made, but they will be dependent upon player departures. That is the main focus for the time being — the plan is to smooth more exits than incomings before the end of the window. The club have a number of squad members who are not part of their long-term plans and are also looking to go elsewhere. Those on the list include Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Joao Felix, Renato Veiga, Armando Broja, Lesley Ugochukwu and Axel Disasi. Among many possible remaining transfer targets are Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho and Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers. They have also made an enquiry for Ajax defender Jorrel Hato. Simon Johnson Delap has made a favourable first impression at Chelsea (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images) How will this affect pre-season? The price of playing a full month of competitive football in the United States is that Chelsea will not have a normal full pre-season. Those who competed at the tournament have now been given three weeks off, which means they will not return to the training ground at Cobham until the first week of August. Estevao Willian, who agreed to join from Palmeiras last year, and Gittens (who signed from Borussia Dortmund) may report earlier, given their teams were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. It is customary these days for footballers to do their own training while away on vacation to stay in shape, but it is obviously not the same as working together with the entire group. Chelsea saw the Club World Cup as part of their pre-season preparations. It is one of the reasons they wanted to secure Delap, Joao Pedro and Gittens early so they could start to integrate with their new team-mates. Maresca also worked on new tactics and systems during the competition with next season in mind. But Chelsea have just two friendlies, against Bayer Leverkusen and Milan, before their opening Premier League game versus Crystal Palace. There are players who have been training at Cobham for 10 days now, but they are returning loanees who are expected to be sold. Simon Johnson Estevao Willian speaks with his future club-mates after Palmeiras’ 2-1 defeat by Chelsea (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images) Are the owners now getting along? Todd Boehly has been the only one to break the public silence on Chelsea’s ownership dynamic since his tensions with majority shareholders Clearlake Capital spilled out last September, giving semi-regular interviews at various business conferences and, most recently, a short exclusive conversation with talkSPORT. But even then, what he did not say was as illuminating as the words he chose. “I think the form that you’ve seen is everything we hoped when we were putting this together with (co-sporting directors) Laurence (Stewart) and Paul (Winstanley),” Boehly told talkSPORT. “Behdad (Eghbali) and I couldn’t be more grateful for the success that they’ve had, and for all Chelsea fans everywhere. We’re just so thrilled, and thank you for sticking with us. We’re really excited about what the future holds.” Boehly did not shed any light on the health of his relationship with Clearlake co-founder Eghbali, the state of which was a prompt for both parties to explore options to buy out the other last year and was detailed by The Athletic. It was a surprise to see Boehly walking out alongside United States President Donald Trump as Chelsea’s representative in the Club World Cup medal ceremony on Sunday, given that it is Eghbali who remains the most actively engaged owner in the club’s daily operations and the most visible member of ownership at most games. The relationship is described by sources with knowledge of the situation as professional, but the issues that arose last year have not gone away. While Chelsea are functioning successfully within the status quo, it is hard to escape the conclusion that something has to give as the club seek to navigate big decisions ahead — chiefly how best to proceed with a stadium plan. Liam Twomey FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Trump, Boehly and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi at MetLife Stadium (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) What is happening with the stadium? Gaining clarity on when — and where — Chelsea might be playing in a new stadium would be an even bigger milestone for the club than winning the Club World Cup. As detailed by The Athletic in March, a stand-by-stand renovation of Stamford Bridge has been discounted due to the costs and disruption involved in such a process, as well as the limited ability to improve match-day experience or capacity. That leaves only two options: demolishing Chelsea’s historic home and building an entirely new arena on the site, or acquiring the large plot of land that formerly housed the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and building there. Staying and redeveloping Stamford Bridge to the specifications that Clearlake and Boehly are looking for is exceptionally complicated, to the point of potentially being unfeasible. It would be logistically far easier to build a modern super-stadium on the much larger Earls Court site, but that land must be purchased from property developer Delancey, Transport for London (TfL), the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF) and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). That is unlikely to be simple, or cheap, and then there is the fact that any permanent move away from Stamford Bridge would require 76 per cent approval in a vote of Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), the supporter group that owns the freehold to the club’s current home. Roman Abramovich failed to clear that dauntingly high bar when attempting to buy the freehold in 2011. An aerial view of Stamford Bridge in 2000, showing Earls Court Exhibition Centre, top (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images) Chelsea are currently caught between two unenviable stadium options, and are trying to strike a balance between thorough due diligence and a sense of urgency to avoid the club falling behind the Premier League rivals who can boast bigger, newer stadiums. In the meantime, Delancey’s own big plans for the Earls Court land are moving forward: a decision on planning approval for their sprawling proposed mixed-use development that would include 4,000 new homes is expected from LBHF and RBKC at the end of July. Liam Twomey What You Should Read Next Chelsea and Stamford Bridge: Should Boehly-Clearlake stick or twist? Whatever decision Chelsea make on their stadium will be expensive and difficult, but it will also define the Boehly-Clearlake ownership How close are they to securing a front-of-shirt sponsor? Chelsea are talking to up to 10 major brands and are looking at signing a long-term deal worth £60million a year. They feel in a strong position to generate such a sum for a number of reasons. It clearly helps that Chelsea are back in the Champions League and have also just won the Club World Cup. But the club believes firms will also want to be associated with the youngest team in the Premier League, a side crammed with exciting players like Cole Palmer, Estevao and Moises Caicedo. Chelsea have the potential to be one of the best sides for several seasons and being the only club without a front-of-shirt sponsor right now means they do not face competition from rival clubs. They have received bids over the past 12 months that were for much lower sums and/or for a short length of time. A conscious decision was made to wait in case their argument for a greater price improved courtesy of a return to the Champions League. That decision appears to have paid off. There is confidence a new partnership will be agreed. Simon Johnson Chelsea won the Club World Cup without a front-of-shirt sponsor (Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Can they win the Premier League next season? The question has certainly been asked outside Stamford Bridge in the immediate aftermath of the team lifting the Club World Cup. But, internally, no one is getting carried away by such talk or overexcited by their achievements over the last few months. Chelsea won the UEFA Conference League and qualified for the Champions League for the first time under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium via a fourth-place Premier League finish. The overriding message, though, is to stay humble. There is a recognition that a number of leading clubs — including defending champions Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal — are doing good business during the transfer window. The competition is only going to be stronger next term. The only expectation for next season is to qualify for the Champions League via a top four/five finish again and to go on good runs in the cup competitions they are involved in — the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Simon Johnson Will they defend their Club World Cup trophy in four years’ time? FIFA are yet to adopt a definitive position on whether winning the Club World Cup guarantees entry into the next edition of the tournament. That is not hugely surprising, given how hastily this summer’s inaugural expanded competition was arranged in the U.S.. The answer may depend on where football’s governing body looks to for precedent. World Cup winners have not been given automatic passage into the next edition of the tournament since France in 2002, but winning UEFA’s flagship Champions League grants qualification for the league phase of the following season’s competition. As things stand, there is no mechanism for Chelsea to be certain that they will be Club World Cup participants in 2029. But as FIFA demonstrated with a convenient interpretation of their entry criteria to ensure the presence of Lionel Messi and Inter Miami at this summer’s tournament, the entry rules of such a new competition are not fixed. Messi competing at this year’s tournament with Inter Miami (Alex Grimm/Getty Images) It is possible that, by 2029, the Club World Cup may feature even more clubs. It is also possible that Chelsea could render this particular conversation moot by winning the Champions League at some point in the next four years, or by qualifying on merit via another means. In any case, you can be confident that Chelsea will lobby to be included again as defending champions — they would be foolish not to. Liam Twomey