Vesper

It is outrageous they have failed for multiple windows now to start to dump the deadwood. These loans with no obligation to buy can still blow up in our face as well.

'Cursed!' Chelsea fans are saying the same thing about Alvaro Morata after Atletico Madrid debut The Spanish side fell to their first defeat in 19 games on Sunday https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/players/alvaro-morata-atletico-madrid-debut-15776783

CIES Football Observatory n°249 - 04/02/2019 Demography Stakhanovite big-5 league players http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2018/249/en/ Who are the footballers having played the most minutes in the big-5 leagues during the last five years? This is the question answered in issue number 249 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post. Samir Handanović (Inter) tops the table for goalkeepers, while César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) heads the rankings for outfield players. Only ten goalkeepers in the top 25 list have been in the same club during the last five years. This is the same proportion as that observed among outfield footballers. Conversely, Joe Hart played for four different big-5 league teams over this period: Manchester City, Torino, West Ham and Burnley. Only five forwards are in the top 25 list: Lionel Messi, José Callejón, Romelu Lukaku, Luis Suárez and Antoine Griezmann. The most fielded players at German Bundesliga level, where there are fewer matches as only 18 teams are competing, are Daniel Baier (13,477 minutes for Augsburg) and Oliver Baumann (15,210 minutes for Freiburg and Hoffenheim). Highest number of minutes played during five last years Big-5 league matches, 01/01/2014 - 28/01/2019

Player Analysis Kepa Arrizabalaga: Chelsea’s Basque custodian https://footballbh.net/2019/02/04/kepa-arrizabalaga-chelsea-tactical-analysis-statistics/ Kepa Arrizabalaga has been a calming presence between the posts for Chelsea. Unfazed by the weight of his transfer fee and replacing Thibaut Courtois, the Spanish custodian maintains his steady improvement. Much had been made of how Chelsea made an unproven 23-year-old the most expensive goalkeeper in history. His £71.6million fee surpassed the £56million set by Alisson‘s transfer to Liverpool a few weeks earlier. Our tactical analysis looks at his performances compared to rival ‘keepers and how he has taken to English football. On signing for Chelsea, Kepa Arrizabalaga was revealed to be a calm goalkeeper whose maturity belied his young age. His shot-stopping ability compared encouragingly to Courtois’ and his passing ability shows he fit right into the high-possession system. He can distribute passes over long and short distances and would not hesitate to rush out to mop up any loose balls, maintaining his team’s build-up from the back. snip

INSANE that this is REAL, from the fucking club!! I was sure it was fake! truly WHAT THE FUCKERY!!! This could be used to prove a charge of tapping him up, grrrrrrrr

MAJOR BIDS EXPECTED FOR REECE JAMES https://thisisfutbol.com/2019/02/blogs/nixon-major-bids-expected-for-reece-james/

Maurizio Sarri names the player who will finally replace Cesc Fabregas at Chelsea Chelsea news includes an analysis of the midfield options available to the Blues from the boss himself https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/transfer-news/maurizio-sarri-names-player-who-15775720 Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri has revealed the options available to him when it comes to adding depth in Jorginho's position. Speaking after his side's 5-0 win over Huddersfield Town, the Italian considered the merits of Ethan Ampadu and Mateo Kovacic as options to take on the responsibilities of Cesc Fabregas following the Spaniard's move to Monaco in the January transfer window. His departure has left the former Napoli boss with a dilemma. The 60-year-old had called on the Blues to go into the market to sign a replacement to the playmaker only for Leandro Paredes to join Paris Saint-Germain. Nicolo Barella ended up staying at Cagliari and was even linked with a shock switch to Manchester United. snip

Hamsik will tear apart the Chinese Super League Once a player hits 31, 32, it is hard to slag off them for wanting to go make a quick £20-30m plus for a couple years or so over there. It isn't like he is giving up crazy trophies to soon come at Napoli.

Vardy, CHO, Willian and Courtois (joining in via web stream) could have formed a babershop quartet Big Nose and the Knobheads first album could have been called Of Snakes and Emojis

Most of what the board does footballer wise just boggles my mind. I can TOTALLY understand the Pulisic buy as even if he ends up a semi-middling player, his marketing value is immense, but most of the rest is just enraging. Especially the contractual bungling and the shit desperation buys. Morata, Bats, Bakayoko were calculated gambles that didn't pan out, and we may only lose around £40m or £50m max total, that is just the breaks. But the rest is just insane, not even going back to the horrid sales of KDB, Salah, etc. We turned down £630m in hard offers last summer alone. Wrap yer head around that. I look at the big, cumulative picture from a medium to long term event horizon, and I assure you, it is not good for my mental state of mind, even worse for my purely emotional mood. I am not a footie executive, but I am a trained financial professional who deals in valuations versus both perceived and real-time self-evident risk measurements, and it drives me absolutely batshit cray. A wee little deal, Cesc, whose loss (and misuse as he should have been used as 60th, 70th minute lock-picker CMF sub in tight games, THAT part is on Sarri) will surely bite us in the jacobs at some point soon (as we FAILED on both Barella and Paredes), shows that the board was, is, and will be in clown-car mode in perpetuity.

I calculated selling off all but 11 of loan army (keeping 3 to main, 8 out on loan for new max) and it generates £250 to £275m so you are actually a wee UNDER almost exactly two thirds of a BILLION QUID right there

I only go off on the pitch performance when I slag out players. The Willian as poison meme I agree with you on is just icing on the cake. I do not think anyone can honestly say Luiz AC (I still would give him a chance unless we get a £40m or more offer) Cahill Marcos Alonso Emerson (can live with him as a backup perhaps) César Azpilicueta (fine with him as a option at CB but not RB) Davide Zappacosta Danny Drinkwater Morata (hopefully gone for good) Bakayoko (looks like we get real deal fair value sale for him!) Bats (massive disappointment, along with Baka and Morata) Barkley (unless he massively comes on in last 1/3rd of the year, which I doubt highly) Willian Pedro (too old and too brittle by next season for sure) Giroud Zouma Musonda are at a true championship winning level (Azpi, (the main 'maybe not' one along with AC) mainly because of RB performance in Sarriball, and I fear age and insane minutes catching up to him) That is SEVENTEEN or so players (AC and/or Azpi and/or Emerson not in the 'must be sold or let go soon' category) it's a crazy amount of under-performance and bad buys (and/or lack of selling)

Hate to say this but unless they renew, Eden and CHO HAVE to be sold. If they walk on frees that is around £265m in board-induced contractual blunder lost valuation just between Big Nose and those 2. Add in what we will get for Willian subtracted from that £65m Barca turn down and the total lost is £300m or so. Add in Drinkwater and its £350m plus. That's horrific to our bottom line and our future. It is unreal Marina still has her job, just beyond the pale.

I do not wish him ill, he just isnt up to EPL footie. He never tried to sabo the club (unlike snake Big Nose, CHO, Willian, and probably Eden).

I have to say I really dont think I would anymore. NOT saying AC is the answer but Luiz is once again starting to get lit up like a Chinese firecracker will be tomorrow (its CNY). We desperately need a WC CB upgrade. There are a shit tonne to choose from (NO, Rugani is NOT oki!) Sarri would be wise to replace this inconsistent Chelsea star before their top-4 hopes take a hit https://www.mediareferee.com/2019/02/04/sarri-would-be-wise-to-replace-this-inconsistent-chelsea-star-before-their-top-4-hopes-take-a-hit/ Why Chelsea need to replace David Luiz before it ruins their season Chelsea have suffered defeats of the nature of – 4-0 to Bournemouth, a 2-0 to Arsenal, and a 1-0 to Leicester City in the past month. This combined with many other defects in the Chelseateam have seen the club struggle a bit under Sarri. The former Napoli boss started the season well going 13 games unbeaten before a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham in the last week of November. Since then nothing has gone right for either for the Blues or Maurizio Sarri, but there is one main problem that they need to fix – defensive issues. With Chelsea conceding 13 goals in their last 13 games, including four on Wednesday night. Things will only get worse going forward, and the main culprit has been the former PSG star – David Luiz. The Brazilian has struggled over the last few weeks. While his passing has been impeccable, his defending, on the other hand, has been terrible. Against Bournemouth alone, the 31-year-old was at fault for at least three goals, which included presenting the ball to David Brooks for the Cherries’ second goal. However, at the same time, against this young and rather speedy front-line, Luiz looked out of place and struggled to keep up. snip

I just do not like his on field play. What do Barca Juve Bayern (granted having an off year, but look over the last 4,5 years) Real (perfect example as Marcelo has started a major decline and look at their struggles, although it is not all on Marcelo, CR7 leaving really was a bigger deal than many thought, and they have other issues as well) Liverpool Shitty (another good example of last year v this year with Mendy being injured yet again and Delph playing far worse than last year, thus they are off the pace partially because of that) all have in common for the past 4, 5 years (Liverpool not so long, but look at the skyrocket upsurge since Robertson and TAA have blown up)? Superb true fullback play Hakimi has been a MONSTER for Dortmund, and look where they are at (granted Sancho and a finally healthy Reus are a huge reason as well) Napoli was FAR more settled at fullback under Sarri for the most part. If Emerson is not up to level as a full time starter (I doubt he is), then it is criminal to not upgrade and then sell off Alonso whilst we can still get huge quid for him.

The main thing I hate about this whole Big Nose shite is the £50m or so in valuation we lost. We should have sold him in summer 2017 and got around £80m for him. We all knew he wasn't going to renew. I bet we could have done a straight swap with Atletico back then for Oblak. I still am happy as hell we got Kepa, but we pissed away around £70m (between less on sale and overpay on GK) or so by not being proactive. We could have had Alisson in 2017 for far less than Victimpool paid in 2018, and I wager Bilbao would have taken far less for Kepa then too (not sure on that tbh). Might have gazumped Shitty on Ederson too.

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy appears to call Claude Puel a ‘fucking knobhead’ while talking to Manchester United star Paul Pogba https://talksport.com/football/487611/leicester-city-striker-jamie-vardy-claude-puel-manchester-united-paul-pogba/

Chelsea could lose Brazilian winger Willian after upsetting him with a derisory contract offer. Chelsea star Willian has future thrown in doubt after contract troubles https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/757468/Chelsea-Willian-contract-trouble-news

Younger, he was 19yo when had his first son, Yannis.

Just so we all know on where I rate GKers 1 Oblak 2 Ederson 3 Alisson 4 ter Stegen 5 de Gea 6 Kepa 7 Big Nose 8 Thomas Strakosha 9 Pau López 10 Wojciech Szczesny 11 Gianluigi Donnarumma 12 Alex Meret 13 Alphonse Areola 14 André Onana 15 Alban Lafont 16 Fernando Pacheco 17 Tomas Vaclik 28 Mattia Perin 19 Anthony Lopes 20 Rui Patrício Probably 20 or more I would take over Pickford, I think he is absolute shit

100% Agree.

I am all for trying it but Sarri will never switch formations this year, probably not next year either, if he isn't sacked first.

Jorginho is a massive worry, sorry but he is.

FUCKKKK