Vesper

Liverpool warned of HUGE wages, signing-on fee Marc Guehi could demand as transfer race sees pair drop out https://www.teamtalk.com/liverpool/marc-guehi-transfer-huge-wages-signing-on-fee-demands-barcelona-real-madrid-liverpool Liverpool have been warned that delaying the signing of Marc Guehi to the end of the season could ultimately hit them harder in the pocket than ever expected, amid claims the Crystal Palace star’s sky-high demands have seen two major suitors drop from the running and with one top journalist now naming the club the defender is expected to join. The England defender came within a whisker of joining Liverpool on transfer deadline day back in the summer, only for Crystal Palace to pull the plug on the £35m sale after failing to sign his replacement in defence. Having returned to Selhurst Park, Guehi has shown zero signs of being affected by that transfer breaking down, having continued to put up one dominant display after another in the heart of the Eagles’ defence. But with the 25-year-old making clear he won’t be signing an extension to his contract, the player is poised to become one of the most in-demand free agents of all time this summer, with sources revealing no fewer than 13 sides have already contacted his representatives over a summer transfer. Free to sign a pre-contract agreement with interested overseas sides from this Thursday, January 1, we understand Guehi has made it clear that he intends to see out the season at Selhurst Park before making any firm decision on his future. That stance seriously increases Liverpool’s confidence in striking a fresh deal themselves for the 26-times capped England star. However, former Man Utd goalkeeper Ben Foster, speaking on his Fozcast podcast, has revealed the jaw-dropping costs likely to be involved in signing Guehi on ‘a free’. “Marc Guehi could go to anybody in the wo‎rld. If he lets his contract run down to the summer, he can sign for whoever he wants,” Foster said. “At that point there he gets to say, ‘I want £250,000 a week’ or ‘I want £300,000,’ because if he gets four, five or six teams sniffing at him and wanting him, he’ll get it as well. The amount of money this guy’s about to earn is honestly outrageous. “With the signing-on fee, you haven’t got to pay £40m or £50m for a player like Marc Guehi; instead of that, you can say, ‘Give me a signing-on fee of £30m and we’ll call it quits.’ It’s crazy money.” Top journalist names Guehi preference as two sides drop from race Despite the enormous salary demands Guehi will seemingly demand, it potentially closes the door on the number of clubs that can viably match his terms. In light of all that, Sky Sports’ journalist Sacha Tavolieri has revealed that Liverpool are ‘leading the race’ for Guehi and remain the club he will most likely sign for. At the same time, Tavolieri has suggested the name of Barcelona off the list, because the Spanish giants are unable to match personal terms to the defender offered elsewhere. Taking to X, Tavolieri stated: “FC Barcelona close to ruling out Marc Guehi! “The English defender wants to decide his future soon, and Barca’s offer would be lower than those from English clubs. Liverpool still leading the race for Guehi. Wait and see.” Tavolieri’s claims follow suggestions last week from his colleague, Karveh Solhekol, that Guehi has a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to join the Reds – a claim since fiercely denied by our sources who have provided an insight into the defender’s transfer stance. As a result, sources do not expect Guehi to reach a quick decision on his future, instead preferring to wait until the back end of the season to decide his next move. That is a verdict echoed by the BBC’s chief football reporter, Sami Mokbel, who stated last weekend: “My understanding at the moment is he probably and is expected to stay at Palace until the end of the season when his contract expires. “Look, he’s got so many options in the summer. You’ve got Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan… all these clubs have registered varying degrees of interest in Guehi in recent weeks. “When you come to the end of the season, you’ll have Liverpool back in the mix, Manchester City back in the mix. “So he is leaving, he’s going, but I expect that situation to continue until the summer when he’ll have his pick of the clubs.” Mokbel added: “He’s delivered week in, week out, and the way he’s reacted to that Liverpool move falling through has seen several clubs come to the fore. “That’s the kind of personality and character people want at their club. He’s done himself a brilliant service to himself this season. “He wanted to join Liverpool, let’s make no bones about it, but he’s put that behind him and had a brilliant season so far.” Of the clubs mentioned, Real Madrid are perhaps the most attractive option, though ESPN Deportes last week ruled Los Blancos out of the chase, removing another sizeable object from Liverpool’s path.

I am losing interest in the team BlueCo is sapping my energy scumfuckers

he also looks exhausted

we are tumbling down the table at this rate no CL

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Palmer coming off Pedro on

we cocked that counter up

Neto on as well

we are a joke on corners

fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

great save by Sanchez

yes yes he did Cole is lucky

almost a 2nd yellow on Caicedo

woooot

that will be a pen for us

Josh often plays at RB it is not 'out of posotion' and Hato is out so Gusto is it in terms of LB (and yes, he is a right-footer so he is out of position)

goal stands

maybe handball

here we go again ffs

the board can fuck off

Some comment from Nizaar Kinsella on The BBC Chelsea have dropped more points from winning positions at home than any other team in the Premier League this season. It is a trend manager Enzo Maresca concedes is “not random” and he wants “to understand why”. It is especially frustrating for Chelsea as fast starters at Stamford Bridge, having scored first in eight of their past nine home matches. However, they have also dropped 11 points from winning positions at home - more than any other Premier League club. In total, Chelsea have surrendered 13 points from winning positions home and away, which equals the gap to league leaders Arsenal. Maresca’s substitutions have faced scrutiny before, notably in defeats with 10 men against Manchester United and Brighton earlier this season. Atalanta forward Charles De Ketelaere even suggested they “drop” in the second half after his side came from behind to beat Chelsea in their Champions League game in Italy earlier this month. While Maresca’s changes have occasionally worked, it has usually been when resting key players. Against Nottingham Forest and Brentford in the Premier League and Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup, he rotated heavily but ultimately relied on star players to secure wins. This has sparked a chicken-and-egg debate: some blame the lack of quality on the fringes of the squad, while others question Maresca’s handling of certain players. Chelsea rely on youth, and have had minimal impact from their changes in the Premier League this season. The average age of their starting XI is 24 years and 219 days, while substitutes average 21 years and 349 days - both are the youngest in the league. Alongside Arsenal, Chelsea make the earliest changes, averaging their first substitution at 48 minutes, often at half-time. Despite this, their substitutes have contributed only three goals and one assist in the league this season. - Nizaar Kinsella

Well done Behdad, you've made a 40 year fan apathetic Those running Chelsea are sabotaging our success. They don't care about the club or fans. https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/well-done-behdad-youve-made-a-40 I never thought I’d become apathetic about Chelsea. I’ve supported the club nearly 40 years, I love the club passionately, and I’ve sat through much worse times than this in terms of results and quality of the team. But right now I’m as close to apathy as it gets for me. I clearly was deluding myself that Behdad Eghbali or the Sporting Directors remotely care about fan opinion. They don’t. They insult our intelligence on a consistent basis with the constant briefings and have shown a total inability to build a competitive squad, when fans have made our concerns clear they have ignored us. They may even mock us behind the scenes. To me, that’s all disrespectful to the institution of Chelsea Football Club, and the fans, many of whom have been around for a long time. But they genuinely don’t care. And not only that, if things go wrong they won’t look at themselves or their actions/decisions or the strategy and take responsibility, they will sack the manager and continue the same way, as if they’d done nothing wrong. They’re kidding themselves if they think they are elite football operators. They’re the David Brents of Sporting Directors. Big egos, full of themselves, looking to take credit and never take responsibility, and have an inflated view of their own ability. We’re a joke of a football club. No one takes us seriously as a major contender for the biggest honours, we don’t operate like an elite high performance operation. Now, even established elite players don’t even see us as a club who can win the big trophies anytime soon, as we’ve seen with the Semenyo saga. We were about 4th on his list, at best. Embarrassing. I’ve almost resigned myself to being a top 4/top 5 team and a good cup team for the foreseeable future, because the people running the club don’t have the ability or courage to take us any further. I used to have hope we’d challenge for the title soon, now that hope is gone. £1.6 billion to make us a side who scraps for top 4, has some good cup runs, and still needs about 3-4 elite players to make the next step up. Sorry, but that’s a shoddy, awful performance. There’s no way around it. Its abysmal squad building, and every manager is ignored and sabotaged by those above him. I can’t criticise the manager too much when he’s working with an arm tied behind his back. Let me be clear. There’s not too much wrong with the plan or strategy itself, this is not my issue, bar some tweaks. I’m still fully behind the long term strategy. The issue is the people executing the plan. And even though they’ll read this they won’t care, they’ll probably laugh at this and me, as if someone who’s followed the club for 40 years knows nothing about this club or football. From all I can see don’t care about or respect fans opinions, they act like the worst of the fanbase represent the whole fanbase. It really does come across to us that they think they’re the most knowledgeable people on football to have ever lived and have some secret way to succeed, when the evidence is to the contrary. A complete lack of self awareness and humility. Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. They and Behdad Eghbali are a genuine embarrassment to Chelsea. If they had an ounce of courage or shame they’d admit their mistakes and rectify them. Making mistakes can happen to anyone, not learning from them is unforgivable. Co-owner Todd Boehly, who has proven to be a real winner, someone who knows what it takes to succeed in sports and how elite sports operations are run, must be fit to bind, whatever he says in public. It’s been well reported he’d have a lone sporting director, an elite one, a few more established players and step back from day to day running to allow football people to be in charge. How an elite club SHOULD operate. So well done to Behdad and the SDs, they’ve made one of the longest serving most passionate Chelsea fans completely apathetic. That’s probably what they want though, they don’t want real fans, they want customers who’ll pay big money to come to games, and kill the atmosphere. They don’t know what football or Chelsea really means. They’re making us a soulless shell. They’re so arrogant and up themselves regarding football, they probably have no shame. No character, no courage, no winning mentality. I’m sorry if that hurts, but if they don’t like being criticised, then maybe they need to stop giving the impression they don’t care and know it all, do their jobs properly, and respect the fans. Because frankly they insult our intelligence on a consistent basis. I’d honestly love them to prove me wrong. I just want Chelsea to win, unlike them I don’t care about being proven wrong, because my ego isn’t dependent on it. So if they prove me wrong I’ll say it publicly. But the odds are they won’t. It involves them admitting they have made mistakes and actually rectifying them all. And I have no faith that will happen anymore. We’ll keep signing talented youngsters, great. But we need some 23-26 year olds who still fit the model but are more established and able to contribute immediately. Semenyo instead of Gittens, Guehi instead of Sarr. Those two signings last summer and we’re likely near the top of the league right now instead of level with Man United and Sunderland. To spend £1.6 billion and be there is down right embarrassing. Just give me a bit of hope. Because I and many other fans are almost done with this shit show.

Analysis of Chelsea’s signings since Winstanley is worryingly damning I'm not sure many will disagree too much with this, unfortunately https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/analysis-of-chelseas-signings-since This is not an analysis written by me, but it’s an analysis that I actually find it hard to disagree with, mostly at least. I think every single person in this community has had a gripe around Chelsea’s recruitment under this owners. Of course, we’ve had gripes about recruitment under the previous ownership as well. But right now, that’s irrelevant. We are here and now. The amount of money spent on this squad that still has gaping holes that 99% of us can all see, is quite literally absurd. How are we about to go into yet another couple of transfer windows and still need to make more big signings? It’s beyond belief really and we can all see it. I’ve tried to be consistent with my opinion on current Chelsea, even after we won the Club World Cup. I’ve never been satisfied with what I’m seeing from the squad build, and with analysis like this below, it’s easy to see why. Chelsea fan and former Chelsea TV staff, Jake Heasman, posted this on his X account: ‘Analysis of Chelsea’s signings since Winstanley. ‘42 signings, 3 genuine hits. ‘93% of signings have been misses or had minimal impact. Some in the balance. ‘£1.2bn spent. 89% on players under 25. ‘6 of these signings sold for profit, 4 made a loss. ‘It’s time for change.’ We can debate the hits and misses but I don’t think this is far wrong, in my view. Enzo Fernandez might be the only genuine debate here. I do rate him, I just think that really the Premier League is just too much for him, he doesn’t quite have the athleticism and physicality to compete with the big, fast, and energetic midfielders that we have in this league, and he is often ghosted out by them. It’s that simple for me. But even still, this analysis is truly damning and honestly, I’m running out of words to say on it all. I’m just genuinely in disbelief. Jake is right, it needs to change, and change NOW!