Vesper

Unless he renews, that option is gone. We either sell him and CHO and cannot replace them for a year, or we keep and let them walk on a frees in summer 2020. Same for Willian. Those 3, Luiz walking thsi summer and will Higs be allowed to renew his loan are the 5 massive questions atm. Plus do we recall some or all of Happy, Bats, Bakayoko, etc

From your lips to dog's ears!

I have been warning of an utter lack of future forward thinking since I joined here. Now we will truly pay the price. I HATE reactivity as opposed to a pro-active stance. One does NOT have to be a footie professional to have seen this trainwreck well in advance. Not just the bans either.

Yes! THIS YEAR. Obviously we are vastly superior. My entire comparison was based off ifs. Next year ifs. Lolol.

Thats the main reason, plus, ffs, do NOT want Pepe in EPL unless he is wearing Chels Blue. Pepe at Manure terrifies me. At Shitty too as they can then slot Bernardo Silva back to MF to replace the soon 34yo David Silva. Spuds or Arse and Pepe would be a nightmare too. Toss him into Wolves and our discussion on them is even more tilted in my favour. And to really think out of the box, place him as RW and Richarlson as LW and add a decent striker (say Haller or Plea) to Everton, add in some back 4 upgrades, and even they are now a much larger threat to our depleted, non-restocked squad. Especially if they get a better manager.

Do a position by position breakdown IF all that I posited happened. GK is advantage to us but Patricio is hardly chopped liver. A WC CB for them negates Rudiger and their other 3 are far from shit. Jonny and Doherty are more than serviceable fullbacks, Doherty has had many monster EPL games. DH DMF Neves trumps Jorginho all day long in my book. João Felix at AMF has global superstar potential. Granted he would be only 19, 20, but if he takes off in EPL he rockets past Barkley and RLC. Kante does beat out their other MFers, but it is not by near the distance it would be if he was back to old position. They have 4 decent MFers there besides Neves. Wingers, if we lose Eden and CHO, its basically a draw, especially if Pulisic is a flop. Jota, Traore, Costa, and Cavaleiro are hardly shit and potentially better than a truly ageing Willian and Pedro. Felix can also play winger too, and secondary striker. CF, especially if they add a decent 2nd striker and we do not have Higs is a big win for them. Jiminez has been great this year. So, on paper, IF those stipulations were reality, it's far closer than one would think. I was not freaked out when we lost to them. Probably the only 'upset' we had where I didn't go cray cray.

Yes, it is a terrible gamble, just tossing it out as an option. I would not personally do it. I am starting to think we have to keep Eden and CHO and just eat the loss if they dont renew. I never thought I would say these words, but I SO SO hope Bayern gets Pepe.

Lot's of ifs in this BUT IF Wolves keep all their top players now, and somehow pull off João Felix, plus maybe grab a 2nd good striker and a truly WC CB And IF We do say fuck it and sell Eden and CHO, and especially if we cannot renew Higs loan.... Wolves are deffo a better team on paper next year than we are.

I see so many Alonso fanboys/fangirls repeatedly say how shit Emerson is on defence and how vastly superior Alonso is defensively. All I can say is, 'Pass the crack pipe.'

Hopefully CAS reduces ban to only one window. That we WILL know by the time January 2020 winter window opens. We also still CAN buy players this summer, we will just have to loan them right back until summer 2020 (or January 2020 if CAS reduces the ban to one window.) This is ALL on Roman and his shitty puppet board. They best step the fuck and do whatever it takes to sort this shit they got us into. I think we should just keep CHO and Eden and eat the massive losses. Call it Abramovich's cost of doing business in an illegal manner. If he doesn't like it, SELL THE CLUB.

Looks like we might have a good shot at keeping Higs: http://m.tuttosport.com/news/calcio/calciomercato/2019/02/23-53732080/higuain_non_torna_alla_juve_il_chelsea_se_lo_tiene

Now THAT makes sense. He is a pure left-footed RWer. As close to Robben as one can get atm. IF Bayern get him, it makes ZERO sense for them to buy CHO, as they will then already have four potentially WC wingers already. Coman at LW Pepe at RW Gnabry at both Alphonso Davies at both Also, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said recently that Robben is 100% gone, but they may offer Ribery one final year. That makes FIVE wingers in front of CHO. IF Bayern buys Pepe, I cannot see them buying CHO as well, unless they sell one of those 4, and I cannot see that happening. Coman is a beast, Gnabry is great this year, and Davies is 18yo with just as high potential as CHO, plus is left-footed yet plays either wing. Add in my number one RW target, Pepe, and even Ribery, that is a monster set of wingers without CHO.

I have been screaming for the club to be sold, for a huge number of reasons, and yes, I agree that the board are puppets of Abramovich, but they still are shit. Also they HAVE lost hundreds of millions in transfer valuations, and that is cemeneted in if we have Willian, Hazard and CHO walk on frees in summer 2020. Just those 3 alone had concrete offers since last summer of £280m en toto. Hazard £175m from Real (we said £200m) Willian £65m from Barca CHO £40m from Bayern (we wanted £45m, and I do grant THAT number might have been attempted gamesmanship, and now it too looks like it will blow up in our face) Add in the £30m we turned down for Luiz from PSG (who likely will walk on a free), and the £40m or so we lost on the Big Nose forced sale, and you are talking £350m in losses (if all walk on frees) £620m in total offers last summer turned down (as I have extensively documented for ages on this very board) we will be lucky to walk out with 30% or 40% or so of that Plus Abramovich is now apparently (and it was the case that he turned down Ratcliffe's £2bn offer) refusing to sell to any UK buyer, due to his not getting a visa renewal. He is a globally targeted bloke, due to the yanks/Trump/Putin/now the UK via Skripal etc shite. I would NOT be shocked at all if FIFA has not been under back-door political pressure to fuck us (and thus Roman) up. 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/ 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 Even Russia itself is putting the old bovver boots in. Abramovich Forced to Sell Stake in Russian TV Channel Over Israeli Citizenship https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/07/abramovich-forced-sell-stake-russian-tv-channel-after-israeli-citizenship-a64743 We (as in CFC) are caught in a giant global geo-poltical cold war and paying (and will pay) a steep, steep price.

Not that it matters now (as we have now transfers until summer 2020) but Sarabia is a pure AMF, and Aouar is more a CMF (thus a Kovacic replacement/upgrade), so no reason to not get both.

I hope Shitty and PSG get a giant bollocksing and are ripped apart over this shit. Their criminality makes us look like mere toddlers who shat our panties and then lied to the nanny about it whilst sitting on our parents 10K quid couch (is that a little too personal? LOLOLOL)

AND, it (the fucking bans) ARE the BOARD*S own fucking fault. They knew the goddamn rules, yet wilfully chose to ignore them. The SIBNEFT model doesn't work in the West, where there is (albeit to a lesser extent than I wish) legal and structural accountability.

I think the on the board are literally losing hundreds of millions in transfer sales valuations as we speak and have for years, plus have made horrid buys and horrid sales, so I fell quite comfortable slating them hard. They, by most metrics, seem to have little to no future-forward awareness when it comes to the market and their own players intentions. That is being concretely borne out as we speak.

Thank you so much for staying on top of this! We are well and truly fucked it appears. Do you have any insight on the Higs loan extension? Will it be allowed, as it is a new loan technically I do believe.

IF he plays at RW, he has very little competition at Bayern atm (do you even look at rosters and future-forward moves before you posit things?), other than an out of position Gnabry You are one of those appeal to authority types who always thinks there is some grand scheme going on and that the club is infallible at the end of the day and all will work out pro tip: you are WRONG as

Oki so no summer window I think we may just have to eat a crazy loss and keep Eden and CHO, plus recall a lot. We also are going to have to decide on Willian, who will walk in 2020 if no multiyear deal offered. Funny how our absolute fuck up of not selling him to Barca is now double-penetration fucking us. Between Eden, CHO, Willian, and the cock-up of Big Nose, thats around £340m LOST in potential revenue if we hold onto all of the 3 remaining and they walk on frees in 2020. And people say I do not know what I am doing when I slag the board out (with great meticulousness and evidence btw) I also (until someone tells me otherwise) am assuming Hig's loan deal (which expires thsi summer and THEN has an option to do a 12 month new one) is now fucked and he has to go back to Juve We also lose Kovacic, so now the idiotic sale of Cesc REALLY is going to fuck us unless (spoiler alert) Bakayko comes good (and there is another, albeit temp, loss of £35m or so in trans rev) OR we use.... drum roll......... Drinkwater. IF Luiz walks, then that takes the loss up to £400m!!! (as we turned down £30m from PSG last summer) We CANNOT break the 30-something no multiyear rule. So either Luiz takes one for the team and sign a one year or he is OUT. here is a 25 man potential roster (no Higs) IF we just keep Willian, Eden and CHO 10 HG, so no issues GK Kepa GK Caballero GK Bulka (HG) CB Rudiger CB Zouma (HG) CB AC (HG) CB Ampadu (HG) LB Emerson LB Alonso RB Azpi RB Reece James (HG) DH DMF Jorginho DH DMF Bakayoko CMF Kante CMF Drinkwater (HG) AMF RLC (HG) AMF Barkley (HG) LW Hazard LW CHO (HG) RW Willian RW Pulisic RW Pedro CF Bats CF Giroud CF Tammy (HG) NOW here is a 25 man roster IF we sell all 3 (Willian, Eden, CHO, who will walk on frees in 2020) GK Kepa GK Caballero GK Bulka (HG) CB Rudiger CB Zouma (HG) CB AC (HG) CB Ampadu (HG) LB Emerson LB Alonso RB Azpi RB Reece James (HG) DH DMF Jorginho DH DMF Bakayoko CMF Kante CMF Drinkwater (HG) AMF Mason Mount (trial by fire for real, and of course RLC can slide over for cover from RW and go back to AMF) AMF Barkley (HG) LW Pulisic LW Kenedy RW RLC (HG) RW Pedro RW Moses CF Bats CF Giroud CF Tammy (HG) option on this lineup is to not use Moses, loan him out again, and bring in Tomori as a 5th CB for BOTH lineups, IF Luiz stays dont recall Happy

It will be too late by the time FIFA rules and then it goes to CAS. The summer window opens in only 110 or so days and runs a RIDICULOUSLY short 5 weeks. Thanks FA, you cunts for that!

I warned all as soon as I saw it was Thomas Bodström's call. He is a massive cunt.

Well fuck, doomsday has come it looks like. SOOOOOOOO What do we do about Eden and CHO? Sell them and take the hit until summer 2020 (we should be able to get around £125m to £150m for both (that's a BIG hopefully added in on those totals btw, and we COULD have gotten around £225m IF we had sold Eden this past summer and CHO this January, thanks board!!!!) Or do we keep them and let them walk on frees in 2020 and lose that massive (but ever-diminishing) cash? So fucked we be. We are also going to have to recall loanees like Happy, Bats, Tammy, maybe even Bakayoko. I also think (perhaps I am wrong) we just lost Higs too, as the loan was for 6 months, with OPTION for another 12, and the option is now gone, as we cant add new buy/loan incoming contracts. (PLEASE correct me if I am wrong someone). DOOM

HOLY FUCK! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wow disastrous

Ryan Bennett is out due to cumulative yellows, so that is a good break for us. He was a monster in the first game.