Vesper

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

so close, grrrrr

they tried every single eay to fuck us

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

fuckkkk

most inexperienced bench I have ever seen us roll out

Spuds have won once at the Bridge in the last 35 seasons. Let's keep that going.

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Chelsea is wrong environment for Pochettino to recreate Spurs feel-good factor https://theathletic.com/5457418/2024/05/02/mauricio-pochettino-Chelsea-tottenham/ By this point in Mauricio Pochettino’s first season at Tottenham Hotspur, things were already looking up. Spurs had 57 points with five games left of the 2014-15 season, and had moved up to sixth in the league. Harry Kane had just scored his 30th goal of his breakthrough season. They finished the season without a trophy and without Champions League football, but that was beside the point. Pochettino had already succeeded in the tasks that underpinned everything else: changing the mentality, changing the habits and creating bonds between the players — and between the players and the supporters. That sense of unity, excitement and optimism fuelled Spurs’ rise over the second half of the last decade. There is nothing quite like that feeling of being at the start of a journey, knowing that you are on the right track but not knowing exactly where you will end up. That is what Tottenham have been trying to get back to this season under the management of Ange Postecoglou. Pochettino, meanwhile, has been trying to build that same unity, optimism and sense of direction at Chelsea, a club still looking for their post-Roman Abramovich identity. In Pochettino, they had a manager who could create it. But with five games to go in his first season, no one could honestly say that Chelsea are in as good a place as Spurs were in May 2015. Their league record is worse, with 48 points from 33 games, even if they have had two good runs in the cups. There has been some recent improvement, with one league defeat in 10, but that was a painful 5-0 thumping at Arsenal. They will likely finish seventh or eighth, better than last year, but not exactly the resurgence fans were hoping for. What is missing from Pochettino’s Chelsea this season is that sense of shared purpose throughout the club that marked out his first season at Spurs. Even with the growing grumblings among some Spurs fans about Ange Postecoglou and his methods, there is still a far more tangible sense of unity and stability at Tottenham than there is at Chelsea. There is no speculation about whether Postecoglou will be in charge at the start of next season. For those of us who predicted that Pochettino would be a big success at Stamford Bridge, this forces us to ask why it has been so difficult to create an identity and a shared ethos at Chelsea. If there was a question over whether this job would be more like Spurs or Paris Saint-Germain for Pochettino, the expectation was that it would ultimately be closer to the former. That has not proven to be the case. So what explains the discrepancy? Why is it that, when Pochettino sowed his seed at Tottenham, it bore fruit but when he tried the same at Chelsea it has not yet taken root? What is it about Stamford Bridge that has made it such rocky ground? One thing that Tottenham never had a lot of during Pochettino’s era was money and there has been no shortage of that at Chelsea during the Todd Boehly-Clearlake era. The most money Spurs spent on a player under Pochettino was £55million on Tanguy Ndombele, and he only started seven league games for Pochettino before his dismissal. Chelsea, meanwhile, have plenty of players — Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Mykhailo Mudryk — signed for far bigger fees. And yet this squad is less than the sum of its parts. GO DEEPER How much is Chelsea's squad really worth? Maybe part of the issue comes down to power. Looking back at the Pochettino era at Tottenham, what was so striking was how streamlined the operation was. Franco Baldini was still there in Pochettino’s first season but when he left, there were remarkably few decision-makers on football matters at the club. Just Pochettino, Levy, and initially Paul Mitchell, later replaced by Steve Hitchen. It was a tight circle and it meant that it was easy to get things done. Chelsea used to be like that in the back end of the Abramovich era, when Thomas Tuchel could work closely alongside Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia to make decisions on players. But the new owners have seen the growth of a different structure, with not only multiple owners but two sporting directors and an overwhelming sense of too many voices and too much politics. The simple decision-making processes at Spurs must look very far away now. The evidence of this is clear in the playing squad itself. For all the money spent on Chelsea, it remains a strikingly unbalanced squad, one that does not look much closer, two transfer windows in, to playing a recognisable form of Pochettino football. Partly this is down to quality: ask yourself how many of the Chelsea squad would be sought after by the rest of the ‘Big Six’ based on of their performances this season. Cole Palmer, obviously. Conor Gallagher probably. Malo Gusto maybe. But beyond that? Breaking down Cole Palmer’s astonishing season at Chelsea An expert’s guide to his all-round brilliance Do Manchester City regret letting him go? England have a star made for the big moments This is also to do with the type of players that Chelsea have signed. Everyone knows the style of football that Pochettino wants to play: pressing high, winning the ball back quickly, positional attack, width from the full-backs. And yet the squad at his disposal has never looked consistently able to do that. Full-back has been an issue all season, with Reece James barely available, and Ben Chilwell only playing a bit more. Gusto has looked good but Chelsea have often been lacking on the other side, especially when Pochettino had to play Levi Colwill there to provide extra defensive cover. In his first season at Spurs, Pochettino already had a young Ben Davies, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose in the full-back positions. At centre-back, Chelsea have needed to keep relying on Thiago Silva, now 39 years old and set to leave Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. None of the other centre-backs have convinced — Wesley Fofana’s absence through injury has not helped — and Chelsea have only kept six clean sheets in the league all season. They have been involved in some thrilling games — 4-4 against Manchester City, 4-3 against Manchester United, 2-2 with Aston Villa last week — but you wonder whether that is where they want to be almost one year in. Perhaps the biggest issue comes in midfield. Pochettino’s Spurs used to physically dominate opponents in the middle of the pitch, with Eric Dier, Mousa Dembele and eventually Victor Wanyama playing there — but for all the money Chelsea have spent, they struggle to dominate games, get counter-attacked easily and never look like overpowering opponents. Given the amount of money they have spent on midfielders, it beggars belief how little control they have in that area. It should be remembered that Romeo Lavia, the only natural No 6 they have bought, has barely played due to injury. But there is another issue beyond the individual profiles of the players, the lack of power, the lack of size, the lack of a left-back or a centre-back or a No 6 or a No 9. And that is the dynamic of the dressing room. We assumed at the start of the season that Pochettino would create the same atmosphere at Chelsea that he had at Spurs, where every player looked willing to run through brick walls for him. While Pochettino is certainly popular with the players — who have spoken about the fact they want him to stay — he does not look as much of a dominant figure here as he did after one year at Spurs, someone who sets the tone for the whole club every single day. Perhaps that Tottenham connection has been a barrier to his relationship with the Chelsea fans, which has made everything else harder. One theory is that this comes down to leadership from the dressing room, or the willingness of the players to push on behalf of the manager’s ideas. While Pochettino oversaw a generational shift at Spurs, he was also blessed with plenty of young players who were the willing building blocks for his era. Hugo Lloris had already been France captain for two years when Pochettino arrived at Spurs. Jan Vertonghen and Dembele, like Lloris, had arrived in 2012 and were fully settled into the environment. Dier and Davies signed in 2014 but were unusually mature young players who commanded respect quickly. Walker had already won PFA Young Player of the Year, Kane and Ryan Mason had been around the club for years. So when Pochettino arrived at Spurs, there were at least some foundations to build on, a new generation of responsible young players who had been at the club just long enough to understand how it all worked. But at Chelsea, the turnover of players has been so frantic that they barely have that structure. Lloris was an integral figure to Pochettino’s Spurs, the go-between from the coaches to the players, speaking to every player in whichever language they wanted and always gauging the mood of the camp. Chelsea’s official captain is James and, while he has been unfortunate with injuries this season, he is not a Lloris-type figure even when fit. The vice-captain is Ben Chilwell and ultimately Gallagher has worn the armband for much of this season even given the ongoing uncertainty about his own future. There has been so much change at Chelsea that instilling any clear ethos looks an almost insurmountable challenge, like trying to hold together a political party being pulled in too many directions at once. It almost makes you wonder whether in hindsight the best time for Pochettino to take the job would have been when Thomas Tuchel was sacked in September 2022, back when they still had the core of the 2021 Champions League-winning side, players with a bit more experience who could have ensured more stability on the pitch. No manager can control his own timing in football, but Pochettino taking over in 2023 rather than 2022 has given him an even more daunting rebuilding job, as he tries to magic order out of chaos. Taking over Tottenham from Tim Sherwood 10 years ago has probably never looked as easy. (Top photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

How much is Chelsea’s squad really worth? https://theathletic.com/5460572/2024/05/01/Chelsea-squad-value-boehly-clearlake/ Results on the pitch in the second full season of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s ownership of Chelsea have continued to disappoint. But what about their fortunes off it? The principles underpinning the divisive strategy implemented by Chelsea’s owners since January 2023 are economic as well as sporting in nature: to build a financial and footballing success story by sanctioning unprecedented transfer spending on young players committed to ultra-long contracts, effectively turning a Premier League squad into a human investment portfolio. One way of tracking the trajectory of the Boehly-Clearlake experiment is through Chelsea’s financial results, which tell a worrying story; essentially, the club only mitigated heavy losses and narrowly complied with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability regulations (PSR) in 2022-23 by effectively selling two hotels on the Stamford Bridge site to themselves for £76.5million ($96m at current rates) — and that transaction is still awaiting an official sign-off from the Premier League. The problem with this method is that, since clubs publish their accounts almost a year after the fact, it is always looking into the recent past. GO DEEPER What Chelsea's latest accounts tell us about their PSR prospects Another way of gauging Chelsea’s financial health is to assess the value of their squad, including the many players they have signed relative to the transfer fees that brought them to Stamford Bridge. This is where the CIES Football Observatory comes in. Founded in 2005 by Dr Raffaele Poli and Dr Loic Ravenel as a research group within the International Centre for Sports Studies in Neuchatel, Switzerland, it specialises in the statistical analysis of football — and has become best known for its approach to estimating the transfer values of footballers. Get the latest transfer news on The Athletic… Transfer news and analysis | Follow David Ornstein Join The Athletic Insiders WhatsApp channel Sign up for the brand new The Athletic FC newsletter Poli and Ravenel brought scientific rigour to the transfer market; their statistical model, built in 2013, comprises more than 10,000 fee-paying transfers and can be used to explain the value of transfers or estimate the transfer values of players before deals happen. “We can explain about 85 per cent of the differences in prices paid between players,” Poli tells The Athletic. “That’s huge — 12 years ago when we started, we could explain around 70 per cent. It’s not because the market has more rationality, but because we found new variables and fine-tuned the model. “We are still working on it but it’s quite strong and reliable.” Player age and remaining contract length are, unsurprisingly, two of the biggest determining factors in transfer value. “Age is a linear regression — the younger you are, the better it is, all other things being equal — while contract length is logarithmic,” Poli explains. “That means from four to three years, for example, you lose less value than from two years to one year or one year to six months.” At the other end of the scale, players get no boost to their transfer value in the model for having longer than four years remaining on their contracts — bad news for the Boehly-Clearlake signings who are committed to Chelsea for the rest of the decade. There are many other variables in the CIES model, including: A player’s experience (minutes played) in the 24 months preceding a transfer, weighted by the sporting level of the club and league A player’s progression in the 12 months preceding a transfer relative to the previous 12 months Number of goals scored in the previous 24 months, weighted by the sporting level of the club and league Number of assists provided in the previous 12 months, weighted by the sporting level of the club and league Number of accurate passes in the previous 12 months, weighted by the sporting level of the club and league Number of successful dribbles in the previous 12 months, weighted by the sporting level of the club and league A player’s full international experience since the start of their career, weighted by the level of national team represented The economic level of the buying club The average value of the 100 largest transfer fees completed on a global level during each of the previous four transfer windows (to take inflation into account). Poli knows the CIES model cannot account for everything in a transfer market dictated by humans. “There are some residuals,” he says. “If there were no residuals, our approach would be worthless because the market would have perfect rationality.” Residuals are factors that are not statistically quantifiable: some examples include a player’s relationship with team-mates or his coach, a club’s indebtedness or fear of relegation or, in Chelsea’s case, deciding they simply could not allow Moises Caicedo, the midfielder they had publicly pursued all of last summer, to join rivals Liverpool regardless of the cost. Poli and Ravenel’s work has garnered credibility within the industry; CIES player valuations are regularly used by clubs and agents for transfer and contract negotiations, and referenced in club takeovers and even in cases that reach the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Findings are also regularly made public on its website. CIES has provided The Athletic with valuations of every player in Chelsea’s first-team squad, up to date as of April 25, 2024. The valuations have been converted from euros to British pound sterling in the table below, and compared to the reported initial transfer fees for each player (with the exceptions of Cobham academy graduates, whose valuations are pure profit): Some of these valuations may be surprising. Enzo Fernandez has almost entirely retained a transfer value that many felt was excessive when Chelsea prised him from Benfica on the final day of the January 2023 transfer window. His performances have fluctuated and been hampered by injury in recent months. He has undergone surgery on a hernia issue and will miss the rest of the season, but he had played almost every match for his new club and been a consistent starter in a World Cup-winning Argentina side. At 23, Fernandez’s youth also works in his favour when it comes to determining his transfer value — as is the case for many of the other Boehly-Clearlake signings. Cole Palmer’s value has predictably sky-rocketed in light of his spectacular Premier League breakthrough campaign. Nicolas Jackson and Axel Disasi have also seen their transfer values benefit from being in the top five for Premier League minutes played in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad in the 2023-24 season. Caicedo is a different story, though that is more a reflection of his gargantuan transfer fee than his performances since joining Chelsea. Conor Gallagher’s value would almost certainly be significantly higher if he were not about to enter the final year of his contract. If no extension is agreed, £46.3million is in line with the level of transfer offer that would satisfy Chelsea this summer. Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk retaining values similar to the transfer fees Chelsea paid for them is likely to be controversial given their underwhelming individual seasons but both benefit from the fact that the CIES model prices in the positional premium that favours attackers, and neither have had their availability seriously impacted by injuries. The same cannot be said for Christopher Nkunku, Wesley Fofana, Ben Chilwell, Romeo Lavia and Carney Chukwuemeka, all of whom have depreciated in value while on the treatment table. Reece James, who was emerging as one of the world’s best right-backs before enduring two injury-plagued seasons, would be worth a lot more than £25.7million if he had been playing regularly for Chelsea. Overall, the fact that CIES’ valuations indicate this squad is worth £57.5million more than the estimated transfer outlay required to assemble it might encourage the view that, on a financial level at least, the Boehly-Clearlake strategy of investing in young talent is working. But that is not the whole story. More than £130million of that squad value is accounted for by Cobham academy graduates who cost nothing to acquire. If they are removed and only the CIES valuations of Chelsea’s signings are examined, the picture is very different: According to the CIES model, there is almost £80million worth of depreciation in transfer value of Chelsea’s signings, the vast majority of which were made by the current owners. Even with notable success stories — such as Palmer, Jackson and Disasi — to persist with the investment portfolio analogy, more lines are going down than up. This is only a snapshot in time. Chelsea are not planning to sell most of these players anytime soon, and Palmer’s stratospheric rise is a reminder that transfer values can change very quickly. It might only require better injury luck in the cases of James, Nkunku, Fofana, Chilwell, Lavia and Chukwuemeka for the overall picture to look much better in 12 months. On the other hand, it could also look much worse if Chelsea do end up selling academy graduates Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah this summer for short-term accounting gain, and not enough of the Boehly-Clearlake signings trend upwards next season to compensate for the loss of squad value. In any case, it is a stark illustration of the fact that Chelsea’s investment portfolio is faring no better than their football team. GO DEEPER Chelsea may have spent £1bn - but how much of that have they seen on the pitch? (Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

oh ffs! Mauricio Pochettino praises Chelsea’s ‘amazing’ medical team amid new Thiago Silva, Axel Disasi injuries https://theathletic.com/5463637/2024/05/01/Chelsea-injuries-pochettino-silva-disasi/ Mauricio Pochettino insists he has full confidence in Chelsea’s “amazing” medical and performance staff as the club contend with a worsening injury crisis. Thiago Silva and Axel Disasi are unavailable to face Tottenham on Thursday, meaning Pochettino will be without 14 first-team players for the visit of Chelsea’s bitter London rivals to Stamford Bridge. Pochettino has repeatedly pointed to injuries as a key reason why Chelsea have struggled in the Premier League this season, but while he admits there is considerable scope for improvement in the club’s approach to rehabilitation and recovery, he believes the specialist staff at Cobham are capable of solving the problem. “I need to be honest,” he said. “What I can say is always when you’re in a new process in a new structure, there are things we can do better, of course. We all feel the responsibility. Then there are too many circumstances that happened, and it’s difficult to explain with one sentence. “We are working and trying to improve. We have an amazing staff — medical staff, performance staff, coaching staff, and we all have experience managing clubs and being in this business. “At the end of the season, we need to put all the information on the table to be better next season. We need to improve the communication, dynamics, strategies, everything we need to put our knowledge to try to improve and coordinate better. But I think the quality is here. “We are assessing why but the inconsistency of the new project… I don’t say it’s that. It’s too many things all together, and that’s why we’re suffering so many injuries.” GO DEEPER How much is Chelsea's squad really worth? (Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)

he turned 29yo this season that is not twilight time unless you are an injury ruint player, why he is not

FUCK Raheem Sterling not looking to leave Chelsea, but Romelu Lukaku to Saudi could be one to watch https://thedailybriefing.io/p/excl-what-salah-klopp-row-could-mean#§raheem-sterling-not-looking-to-leave-Chelsea-but-romelu-lukaku-to-saudi-could-be-one-to-watch Sterling remains committed to Chelsea, and is settled in London. But as a high earner at the club, it’s natural there will be speculation about a summer exit. Unless Sterling has a major U-turn, he’s going to resist an exit and try to prove any critics wrong. It hasn’t been an easy spell for him at Chelsea, but staying fit and having a run in the side could yet change all that. Links with Saudi, and Al-Hilal specifically, are wide of the mark according to my information. Sterling had a very informal approach from Saudi in summer 2023, but since then there has been no contact. Chelsea are naturally open to doing more business with Saudi, and away from Sterling, they will gladly sell Romelu Lukaku to a Saudi Pro League club. Al-Hilal had a €45m offer accepted last summer but Lukaku wanted to stay in Italy. Al-Hilal now have other targets, but keep an eye on both Al-Shabab and soon-to-be promoted Al-Qadsiyah.

Ian Maatsen not returning to Chelsea, plus thoughts on Jack Grealish links https://thedailybriefing.io/i/144193380/ian-maatsen-not-returning-to-Chelsea-plus-thoughts-on-jack-grealish-links Ian Maatsen has impressed since leaving Chelsea to join Borussia Dortmund on loan, and some fans have even asked me if this could lead to him returning to be part of the first-team at Stamford Bridge. My understanding is that Maatsen will leave Chelsea for sure, so no, I don’t see him staying. Borussia Dortmund will try their best to keep Maatsen, they’re very happy with him and he’s also happy in Dortmund. The budget will be crucial to understand if they can make it happen, but the intention is clear. That’s the latest on the situation, and I don’t know anything yet about other clubs joining the race in case Dortmund can’t afford the deal. Staying with Chelsea, I’m also aware there have been some slightly surprising links with Jack Grealish. However, I have zero information on this - Manchester City are not discussing Grealish’s future, not even internally at this point of the season. It’s all quiet.

multible CBs other than Colwill and with Thiago leaving the rest of our CBs are shit

absolutely a pen Anthony Taylor fucking over teams again

thats a pen

wow, how did Fullkrug miss that

and they have Xavi Simons Gabriel Moscardo Hugo Ekitiké out on loan

look at their bench (Beraldo is on) just loaded

wow, PSG hit the post twice in 5 seconds

will say it again, no way should we sell him unless someone comes with a crazy offer (over £60m)

Dortmund have the option via a release clause to buy Maatsen for only around £35m I think they just might do it. Romano also revealed that the defender has a £35 million ($44.2m) release clause and that Dortmund will look to go for Maatsen in the summer. Chelsea will be very open to that sale as they look to raise sales for the summer in order to be in line with Financial Pair Play and Profitability and Sustainability.