Vesper

Mid last season I admitted I was wrong (other than the insane fee) and usually have had only good things to say about him for some time now.

Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah training away from first team https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5692506/2024/08/10/Chelsea-trevoh-chalobah-training/ Trevoh Chalobah is training away from the Chelsea first team with his future looking increasingly likely to be away from the club. The central defender was left out of Enzo Maresca’s squad for the pre-season tour of the United States and has not rejoined the main group since their return to the country earlier this week. The 25-year-old only signed a new long-term contract in November 2022 but the club hierarchy now see Wesley Fofana, Axel Disasi and summer signing Tosin Adarabioyo as ahead of him as right-sided centre-backs. Highly-rated academy prospect Josh Acheampong is also considered an option as an alternative to club captain Reece James and Malo Gusto at right back. Romelu Lukaku and Armando Broja are also training away from the main group as Chelsea look for a solution for them before the window closes at the end of this month. The club’s position is they do not want to disrupt Maresca’s training sessions and preparations for the new season by bloating the group with players who are no longer in their plans and would prefer for them to instead focus on securing moves away. Chalobah has turned down several opportunities to leave Chelsea in the last 18 months, including a £25m move to Nottingham Forest last summer. He has made 80 appearances in all competitions for his boyhood club while also spending time on loan at Ipswich Town, Huddersfield Town and French club Lorient. A hamstring injury sidelined Chalobah for much of last season before he forced his way into the starting team for the closing stretch of the campaign under former boss Mauricio Pochettino. GO DEEPER The end has come for Chalobah at Chelsea - this was just one battle too many

Chelsea captain Reece James suffers hamstring injury ahead of new season https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5692859/2024/08/10/reece-james-Chelsea-injury-new-season/ Chelsea defender Reece James has suffered a setback ahead of the new season after suffering a new hamstring injury. James felt some discomfort during training at Cobham this week after the team had returned from their pre-season tour of USA. The 24-year-old has been enjoying a positive summer up until now having started all five of Chelsea’s pre-season friendlies but he has already been ruled out of their final warm-up match against Inter Milan at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The hamstring injury has been described by sources at the club, speaking anonymously to the The Athletic to protect relationships, as minor. Chelsea will err on the side of caution and can afford to take their time with his recovery because he is suspended for the first three games of the season. Malo Gusto, who enjoyed a fine 2023-24, was already being earmarked to play in his absence. James was given a second red card of the campaign against Brighton & Hove Albion in their penultimate match of last season, which means he was given an automatic four-game ban. It does, however, put his chances of facing Braga or Servette in Chelsea’s two-legged UEFA Conference League play-off later this month in major doubt. The first leg is on August 22 with the second leg on August 29. Chelsea are already looking at the first game after the international break, against Bournemouth on September 14th, as a possible return date. There will be concern that he has complained of another hamstring issue already though. James has sustained a few hamstring injuries over the years which has restricted his game time. He started just five Premier League games last season after having surgery in December to try and cure a problem in his left leg. GO DEEPER Chelsea and playing out from the back: Why is it not working and is pressure the problem?

Former Chelsea, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino a top target to become USMNT coach https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5689027/2024/08/08/mauricio-pochettino-usmnt-coach/ Former Tottenham and Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino is a top target for the U.S. men’s national team opening, according to multiple sources briefed on the coaching search. The sources said that the federation was still considering multiple candidates as of last week, but Pochettino is seen by some as the favorite in the pool, and U.S. Soccer is engaged in conversations with his camp. U.S. Soccer has declined to comment on any specific candidates for the job. Hiring Pochettino would be seen as a huge splash, especially at a time the U.S. fanbase is looking for a big-name manager. The Argentine has never managed a national team, but has had plenty of success at club level. He guided Southampton to an eighth-place finish in the Premier League in 2013, achieved record league finishes with Spurs, including a Champions League final appearance in 2019, and secured a Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain. Most recently, Pochettino led Chelsea to a sixth-place finish and European qualification before departing at the end of the 2023-24 season. U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker and Pochettino overlapped during the Argentine coach’s year at Southampton. Crocker led Southampton’s academy at the time, and left in November 2013 to join the Football Association. Argentine outlet Olé previously reported Pochettino was a candidate for the job. While it is possible that U.S. Soccer could make and announce a hire before the September window, the federation is planning to have former U.S. under-20 men’s national team coach and current USMNT assistant Mikey Varas to lead the senior team in friendlies against Canada and New Zealand on September 7 and September 10, respectively, according to sources briefed on the program’s planning. The USMNT have been without a coach since firing Gregg Berhalter after a group-stage exit in the Copa América this summer. Berhalter served as the manager from December 2018 through to December 2022, taking the U.S. back to the World Cup after they failed to qualify for the tournament in 2018, and then again from June 2023 until July 2024. The U.S. fell flat in the Copa, beating Bolivia in their opening group game before losing to Panama after playing a man down for more than an hour following a red card to winger Tim Weah. The U.S. then lost 1-0 in the group finale to Uruguay. GO DEEPER Pochettino's Chelsea departure won't see him left on the scrapheap Pochettino would be the highest-profile coach of the U.S. since Jurgen Klinsmann, a World Cup winner. While Klinsmann coached the German national team and Bayern Munich before taking on the U.S. job, his fame came more from his on-field accomplishments as a player. Pochettino has made his name as a manager, with teams that use positional play to try to dominate space, but that also like to press and attack opposition. The 52-year-old will likely command a top-level salary, as reports have indicated he was one of the highest-paid coaches in the world at PSG and Chelsea. However, Crocker has said the federation won’t be limited by financial restrictions. “It’s a really competitive market out there, salary-wise, and we have to be competitive to get the level of coach that I believe can take the program forward in terms of achieving the results that we want on the field,” Crocker said. “It’s a priority. It’s something we’re prepared to invest in and something that we will be investing in.”

I am just raging we bought this forever-injured Neto. I cannot take much more of this bollocks from these fucking hedge fund wanker bankers it is just beyond the pale that we have passed up so many better players and mostly just bought dross and/or extremely young crap shoot youngters by the buketload all the time seeing the absolute shitshow at CB and doing nothing to fix it, fix the mess the fuckers made themselves

that is his main postion we need a bloody LW we have like 10 or so RWers atm

Juve refused to meet the price so he said fuck it, let's do the EPL which should have been fucking Chels! raging.......................................

we are so fucked up madness is running riot 😪

Spurs agree £65m deal for Bournemouth's Solanke https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c0k48z8e7nlo

lol, less dosh for an actual class defender than we paid for dregs Badi, Disaster, and the worst CB buy in Chels history, Fofane for 75m quid

Jean-Clair Todibo: West Ham agree £34m deal with Nice to sign defender Todibo to join West Ham after Juventus transfer collapses West Ham had loan deal agreed with Nice earlier this summer for Jean-Clair Todibo with an option to buy but centre-back was believed to be waiting for Juventus; Italian side have been unable to reach agreement with Nice; Man Utd also keen but cannot trade with INEOS-owned Nice

Just posted on him. I never wanted him. Low production. Injuries. Wrong foot. Wrong position. Overrated a bit, at least for me. I am not at all happy. My targets over the past 3 years or so have been VASTLY better than Clownlake's. Main reason I did not put my only big leave-off on (Palmer) my lists was that I NEVER thought Citeh would let him go. CuCu has vastly improved, but no way is worth £65m. Almost zero big busts (at other clubs) from my lists. Compare that to Clownlake. So many Clownlake buys I have lost my shit over have been massive busts. Ffs.

Yes. Madness. Another left footed RWer We have over 10 now counting youth and the two 17yo teen superstars coming in next summer. Insanity. We would get eith Desire Doue (ambipedal LW)or Nico Williams (right foited LW), 2 actual true LWers, for less than we are dumping on Neto, who is a RWer all the way. Clownlake is wilfully destroying the club.

One year wonder for me

Cuntois

they are the best footballers on the planet ATM mens womens Sr Youth dominant

3 5 Spain

Doue is a baller

3 4 Spain

yep, extra time and Spain have taken off most of their big guns as they thought they had it in the bag

what a save by the teen French Gker, Restes

Desire Doue came on 10 minutes ago

extra time likely in the gold medal game France came back from 1 3 down 91st minute pen https://cracksports.me/olympics-2024/men-s-football-gold-medal-match-france-vs-spain-stream-1-live

Jean-Clair Todibo has told Nice that his plan and decision is clear: he only wants to join Juventus. 😪

Atletico Madrid tried to cancel Gallagher transfer to finalise Guerra deal – Valencia sporting director https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5688639/2024/08/08/conor-gallagher-javi-guerra-atletico-madrid/ Valencia’s sporting director, Miguel Angel Corona, has claimed that Atletico Madrid tried to cancel Conor Gallagher’s impending transfer from Chelsea to facilitate a move for Javi Guerra. Gallagher is set to complete his move to Atletico after travelling to Spain to seal his €42million transfer from the west London club. The Athletic reported last week that the Spanish side were in advanced talks with Chelsea about signing Gallagher after a fee was agreed between the two clubs. While Atletico were pursuing Gallagher, they were also in advanced talks to sign midfielder Guerra. The Athletic reported earlier this week that they had agreed on a fee of around €25m (£21.4 million) plus add-ons, with Valencia holding a sell-on clause of around 15 per cent for the 21-year-old. However, the deal fell through after Valencia imposed a deadline on Wednesday for Atletico to finalise the transfer, threatening to withdraw if the conditions were not met. Sources close to Valencia, Atletico, and Guerra, who were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, confirmed that the move collapsed. Corona has since stated that Valencia “were not informed of anything regarding the link between the two” transfers. Atletico sources previously admitted that it would be “complicated” for the Guerra and Gallagher deals to both go ahead. “There is a maximum agreement (between clubs) on Sunday, plus it was between the president of Valencia and the maximum shareholder of Atletico Madrid,” Corona said. On Monday, the documentation is developed and, in the same way, it goes in parallel with the player, who is advancing in this negotiation and almost closes the agreement. “On Wednesday morning, due to the delay in the return of Atletico’s documents and some comments made, a specific question was asked to Atletico’s owner, about the situation, why the delay, and the answer was that they were trying to get out of the Chelsea operation and that, if they don’t succeed, they can’t face the Javi Guerra operation. “It was the first news that we and Javi had about it, that the operations were linked, and therefore we (Valencia) got out of it because it was not a condition that was discussed on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, when there were constant WhatsApps, emails, calls, comments on clauses…. We were not informed of anything regarding the link between the two and we got out of it to protect ourselves.” Chelsea are unaware of Atletico attempting to cancel Gallagher’s deal, while Atletico sources say their sporting management were exploring various options before Valencia informed them on Wednesday that they were no longer honouring the agreement for Guerra. GO DEEPER Why Gallagher is nearing Chelsea exit: Shorter contract offers and concerns over free move Having rejected three offers of a new contract, which included a two-year guarantee with an option for a third year, and would have put him on wages comparable to top earners like Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, Chelsea indicated to Gallagher that he would be sold to avoid risking losing him on a free transfer next summer. Gallagher is expected to sign a five-year deal with Atletico. The 24-year-old enjoyed an impressive 2023-24 season, providing seven goals and nine assists in 50 appearances across all competitions. That form earned him a key role in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the European Championship in Germany, where he made five appearances in England’s run to the final.