Vesper

I have accepted this outcome for months. Yes, it will be brutal indeed, but sometimes when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. The main things that have gutted me are the injuries to CHO, RLC, and Reece James. THOSE were never in my calculations for the last 12 months. Other than those, the rest has been pretty much a foregone conclusion when we fucked up last summer's and then January's transfer windows and did NOT liquidate deadwood (and I mean ruthlessly liquidate), did NOT sell Eden for around to £200m (including add-ons, and replace as best we could) and failed at most all other transfers saving for Kepa (that was a given when we fucked up yet gain and did not sell Cuntois in summer 2017, and replace, plus when Oblak and Alisson both turned us down before Kepa was purchased) and also Jorginho (and Jorginho was purely and only purchases as it was the only way Sarri would come and Napoli did not want him anymore due to style/formational change under Ancelotti) My myriad number of posts on this overarching subject serve as a historical record of the validity of my future-forward laying out of all this happening (minus those 3 injuries of course). It has been a 2 year in the making slow-motion trainwreck, and the level of powerlessness to do anything to affect the real, temporal world that is Chels FC has been a source of great frustration for me. The only positive is that I have long-since resigned myself that this was indeed the wretched path upon which we would be cumulatively forced to trod upon moving forward, and the 3rd place finish and EL trophy were quite pleasant surprises.

It is a puppet board stacked with SIBNEFT mafia, so the only way to 'sack' the person responsible is to buy it away from Abramovich. He refuses to sell to a Brit (due to the UK government refusing him visa renewal) so Jim Ratcliffe is not an option anymore. My main fear is IF he sells us, it will be to a Saudi head-chopper royal, especially Mr Bone-Saw himself, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud. MBS and multiple other members of that barbarous, medieval, murderous, radical clan are sniffing around the EPL and other big leagues looking to purchase clubs. I cannot morally countenance such a sale, it will put my life-long allegiance to the club on life support. The other nightmarish possibility is that Russia foolishly tries to get involved in the yank's presidential election again (Trump is idiotically once again saying there is nothing wrong with a foreign government (ie. Russia) 'helping' him win). At that point, the level of simmering tensions may very well boil completely over, and a post-Brexit UK, tied even more so to the US (much due to a new trade deal/security linkage), may try and seize us (as a punitive measure against Putin and his oligarchic money men). if the level of sanctions are drastically upped. Abramovich is already under global scrutiny from the American and UK (especially post-Skripal, the main public reason given for his visa renewal being rejected) governments. Report: UK to target Russian-Israeli billionaire Abramovich over Kremlin ties https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-uk-to-target-russian-israeli-billionaire-abramovich-over-kremlin-ties/ Has Anyone Seen Roman Abramovich? The Last Days of Londongrad https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-09-25/has-anyone-seen-roman-abramovich-the-last-days-of-londongrad Is Abramovich at last paying the price for being too close to Putin? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/21/is-abramovich-paying-price-for-being-too-close-to-putin Roman Abramovich was deemed potential 'security threat' by Swiss police https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45641867 Roman Abramovich on list of six Russian oligarchs targeted by UK intelligence over links to Putin https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/07/romanabramovich-list-six-russian-oligarchs-targeted-uk-intelligence/ US names Russian oligarchs in 'Putin list' but imposes no new sanctions https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/29/politics/trump-russia-sanctions/index.html

It doesn't work like that, unfortunately

I have seen him blow past (both dribbling and then without the ball on a counter) all of these Ligue 1 speedsters Bouna Sarr of Marseille (a RB who switched sides), LB Ghislain Konan of Stade Reims AMF Denis Bouanga of Nimes LB Ferland Mendy of Lyon RW Gelson Martins of Monaco AMF Wahbi Khazri of Saint-Étienne CB Benoît Badiashile of Monaco (Monaco has an insane amount of pacey players, but they are so raw,so so so young) LW François Kamano of Bordeaux LW Keagan Dolly of Montpellier CB Marquinhos of PSG LB Fodé Ballo-Touré of Monaco RB Youssouf Sabaly of Bordeaux those are all VERY pacey players he is almost can keep pace with Mbappe, (not quite, as no one in football atm that I have seen atm is close to being faster) t Mbappe has another gear no one playing topflight footie has

fatal assumption, lolol Brown's Bottom tis but one of hundreds of dodgy examples

You left out the true dagger in my little blue heart If Bayern grab Nicolas Pepe (which truly makes sense for them a he is a Robben clone in terms of being a hyper-fast inverted left-footed right winger EQUALS ME

Our board, summed up in 31 seconds

Marina can double their salaries, add 5 years to their contracts! a 36yo Drinkwater tugging in £240K a week to sit in the stands will be a grand sight!!!

also, the pound is getting smashed v the euro this month €50m the first week of May was only around £41.8m (at BtB internal straight wire FOREX rates), at the rate it is going it will soon cost over £45m fucking Brexit, grrrrrrrrr (well, unless you are long v the euro/GBP cross, lololol)

yep, 13 goals, 5 assist as a part timer is not 'bang average' a 22yo Pedro would be the whip to help replace Eden, he was a fucking baller at Barca and is a serial winner In his career. 8 double digit goal seasons ,2 of them over 20 (almost 3, had 19 one year) , 4 double digit assist seasons (almost 6, had nine twice), he accounted for 25 goals in 16/17 (in only 2/3rds of a full seasons minutes too), when we last won the league, 18 goals produced last year, 2009-10 he did one of the rarest things in football, double digit goals as a LW (12) AND double digit goals as a RW, (11) both in the SAME SEASON, plus the next year scored 20 as a RW, and had double digit assists as a RW as well, 35 total goals produced 26 major club and international trophies 6 league titles, 3 CL's, 3 UEFA Super Cups, 2 FIFA World Club Championships a World Cup and a European Championship BALLER and a super class act, never drama, busts his ass even at 31 and having won it all

yes we can do that 100% guaranteed super risky IF it is a £45m to £125m player, especially for a full year. these are my targets IF we rolled that billy big bollocks level of dice CB José Giménez, Ibrahima Konaté, Rúben Dias LB Alex Telles,, Ben Chilwell, Junior Firpo RB Wan-Bissaka, Lukas Klostermann, Achraf Hakimi MF Saúl Ñíguez, Tanguy Ndombélé, Houssem Aouar, Giovani Lo Celso, Corentin Tolisso LW Hirving Lozano, Wilfried Zaha RW Nicolas Pepe, David Neres CF Timo Werner, Iñaki Williams (I love Icardi, but Wanda is insane, she is fucking kilig his career, hard pass unless he dumps that psycho bish) hopefully some of them are still available in 2020 (and I am sure some new ones will pop up)

He was really good in most all the games I saw him play this past season

To a point I agree, but take Taylor-Crossdale for instance. London born, been with us since age 8. 43 goals from 2016 to 2018 at junior level. Now off to Germany. The 2 that piss me off even more are Bulka and Juan Familio-Castillo, a great young LB who we could have loaned out to Vitesse (he is Dutch, an Ajax product) or Rangers, or even some Ligue 1 squad for a couple years and perhaps ended up with a diamond.

Really pissed seeing how many academy players are leaving on frees. It looks like they come here (Juan Familia-Castillo admitted this) just to get the superior training against the best youth, then bail and go to other teams to get playing time. I think it is like 8 who are leaving this summer on wound-down contracts. Bulka is going to PSG, Taylor-Crossdale is going to Hoffenheim, etc etc.

4th place, and zero trophies. Typical spuds trying to polish a turd.

We never officially asked for the ban to be frozen. These Spanish rags are as reliable as a junkie is with the rent.

Not if they are gay, lololol.

£8.85m is a steal for him. He really has developed into a decent fullback. Can play either side too (although is better on the right). I would take him over Zappacosta at that price all day, if I were building a small team.

Chelsea have second thoughts over permanent Matteo Kovacic deal https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea/chelsea-have-second-thoughts-over-permanent-matteo-kovacic-deal-a4163206.html

Real can sod off, plus Kepa is Basque and they hate Madrid, he turned them down before.

Bakayoko is streets ahead of Alonso in pace.

I saw Marcotti saying this on video stream he is 10000000% full of shit he isn't even aware that we did NOT request a freeze

Sorry, nope I see none on the team, and a shit tonne of fucked up negotiations