Vesper

Chelsea shortlist two new midfielders as Moises Caicedo talks stall https://thetopflight.com/2023/07/24/Chelsea-shortlist-moises-caicedo/ Chelsea have seen recent outgoings in their midfield this summer. Big names include Mateo Kovacic departing to Manchester City, and Mason Mount making a controversial switch to Manchester United. While he rarely played in the Chelsea midfield, Kai Havertz has also left, as has N’Golo Kante, joining Al Ittihad on a free transfer. Midfielder Omari Hutchinson has joined Ipswich Town on a season-long loan, while Cesare Casadei is expected to also secure a loan move. Conor Gallagher is also likely to find a new club this summer. So where exactly does that leave their midfield situation? Chelsea are desperately trying to add Brighton’s Moises Caicedo, but discussions have stalled in recent weeks. The Top Flight has reported recently that Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi stated Caicedo will stay until the owner changes his mind. Now while it is too earlier to say Chelsea’s talks for Moises Caicedo are over, it certainly feels like there’s growing frustration between the two clubs. The Guardian is now reporting that talks have fully stalled because Brighton insists on wanting Levi Colwill in a Moises Caicedo deal. Additionally, Chelsea is not willing to meet Brighton’s locked-in transfer price of £100m for Caicedo. Evening Standard is reporting that Mauricio Pochettino is willing to have two more midfielders added to the squad. Enzo Fernandez, Andrey Santos, and Carney Chukwuemeka are the only midfielders currently expected to start the season with the club. While Moises Caicedo is the number one priority, two young midfielders are shortlisted as transfer targets for the club. Southampton’s Romeo Lavia is once again seen as someone they are keeping a close eye on. Chelsea had a £50M bid for Lavia rejected back in January and could circle back on the Belgian if a Caicedo deal cannot be completed. The other listed midfield target is Celta Vigo’s Gabri Veiga, who has a £34M release clause. Veiga is much more of an attacking option than Caicedo but provides immediate help in the Chelsea midfield. He could be a like-for-like replacement for the departed Mason Mount. What’s next for Chelsea is seeing how far Brighton are willing to go on standing still on Caicedo talks. If things don’t budge before the season starts, the Blues may move towards the likes of Lavia and Veiga.

Conor Gallagher: The midfielder rated higher by rivals than he is at Chelsea https://theathletic.com/4716154/2023/07/24/conor-gallagher-Chelsea-tottenham-west-ham/ Time for a little pre-season quiz: who is Chelsea’s oldest current central midfielder? If your answer was Conor Gallagher, a) you are correct, and b) this might be the moment to admit you are paying too much attention. It is a remarkable, surprising fact that underlines the exodus of experience from that area of the squad over the last six months and the strength of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s desire to build around young talent. A little more than three weeks into Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure as head coach, it remains unclear which of those two camps Gallagher will end up in. He was the only outfield player to last the full 90 minutes against Brighton & Hove Albion in the second match of the club’s five-game U.S. pre-season tour in Philadelphia on Saturday, yet he continues to be linked relentlessly with a move away. Chelsea are yet to offer Gallagher an extension to a contract which runs until June 2025, and it has been made clear to interested clubs that he is available for the right price. A package worth in the region of £50million ($64.1m) would certainly be enough to get it done, but a market at that level has been slow to develop despite the esteem he is held in across the Premier League. A source close to Chelsea, who will remain anonymous to protect relationships, said on Monday that West Ham United submitted a bid worth £40million for the Cobham graduate. However, Chelsea later rejected the bid. With such a lofty asking price, Chelsea are essentially telling his potential suitors they value Gallagher as a premium asset: a 23-year-old, proven Premier League performer and senior England international with considerable positional and tactical versatility and potential for further improvement. All of which begs the question: why they are entertaining the notion of selling him? Gallagher is not pushing to leave. Coming from a family of diehard Chelsea supporters, his preference has always been to pursue a long and successful career at Stamford Bridge. That mindset has not been shifted by the endless speculation about his future, nor by the explicit acknowledgement by the club that he is regarded as expendable. In the final days of this year’s January transfer window, Gallagher was the subject of a £45million bid from Everton. Chelsea made it clear they were amenable to this offer, much to the bemusement of the player and his camp. Gallagher had zero interest in joining a team fighting for their Premier League survival, and the perception that he was being nudged in that direction did not go over well. Gallagher is from a family of Chelsea fans and in no rush to leave (Photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images) Newcastle United indicated they were prepared to bid at a similar level, and Chelsea did not encourage interest from a club who, with their unexpected charge towards a top-four finish, were establishing themselves as one of the west Londoners’ serious long-term domestic rivals. The apparent concern about what he might achieve at his former club’s expense in a more talented Premier League team jarred with their willingness to sell. Gallagher quietly went on to crack 2,000 minutes of play for Chelsea across all competitions last season, ranking him ninth among outfielders in the squad. He maintained a record of featuring in at least 30 league matches in every season of his professional career — a reflection of the fact he almost never gets injured, as well as his impressive knack for winning the trust of his coaches. He has had enough practice, with Pochettino being his fifth different one to impress at Chelsea after Frank Lampard (twice), Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter. GO DEEPER Colwill can be 'one of greatest centre-backs in England' — Pochettino England manager Gareth Southgate is a fan too, offering an effusive assessment of Gallagher’s game when explaining his inclusion in the squad for last year’s World Cup. “He’s fantastic at pressing the ball,” Southgate said. “There are going to be moments in these (World Cup) games where we need certain attributes and we feel he could be that sort of player. He’s not as experienced as some of the others but he has an impact in games and has a goal threat. “When you look at midfielders you often ask: ‘Do they stop goals, create goals or score goals?’ He does a lot of all of that.” Gallagher’s technique does not pop in the manner of fellow midfielder, 2022 World Cup winner and January signing Enzo Fernandez; the majority of his contributions on the pitch are not glamorous and not always even that obvious. But he is adept at finding space in which to receive the ball, looks to move it on quickly and is a real asset in a modern pressing system. He also offers a genuine goal threat from midfield and his commitment is never in doubt — two things recent Chelsea history suggests cannot be taken for granted. He may not be quite good enough to be an automatic starter in a team with serious aspirations to win the title or Champions League, but at the very least Gallagher profiles as the kind of homegrown stalwart that Sir Alex Ferguson frequently utilised to keep Manchester United winning on the pitch while maintaining a culture and standard of accountability off it. GO DEEPER Pochettino urges Chelsea to continue clear out: 'We don't need 30 players' That is not the sort of player to dispose of lightly, even for a juicy transfer fee. Chelsea’s first-team academy core feels more fragile than ever with Mason Mount and Ruben Loftus-Cheek gone leaving summer, Reece James’ knee a continuing cause for concern, Levi Colwill not yet fully convinced of his importance to this rebuild, Armando Broja feeling his way back from an ACL knee injury in December, Lewis Hall facing a challenging path to consistent first-team minutes and Trevoh Chalobah viewed internally as another saleable asset. The early indications are that Pochettino recognises Gallagher’s ability to be a valuable contributor. He can barely afford to think otherwise with the Moises Caicedo negotiations with Brighton stuck at a £30million gulf in valuations, Fernandez being carefully load-managed after a 2022-23 season that saw him rack up more than 4,500 minutes for club and country and Andrey Santos, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei all still more promise than proven pedigree. Banking £50million or close to it for Gallagher from West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur or another of his Premier League admirers might go a long way towards helping Chelsea shore up their central midfield options this summer — but would simply keeping him around not achieve a similar end?

Chelsea interested in signing Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus By David Ornstein https://theathletic.com/4712439/2023/07/22/mohammed-kudus-Chelsea-ajax-transfer/ Chelsea have made contact with Ajax to express an interest in signing attacking midfielder Mohammed Kudus. The Premier League club are yet to submit an offer to their Dutch counterparts, but initial dialogue has taken place. Kudus is among a number of options Chelsea are considering and an agreement with the Ghana international on personal terms is close. Kudus, under contract to Ajax until 2025, rejected a one-year extension in April and is keen to leave the Johan Cruyff Arena. The 22-year-old scored 18 goals and provided seven assists in 42 appearances in all competitions for Ajax last season. He also scored twice for Ghana in a 3-2 win against South Korea in the group stages of the World Cup in Qatar in November. GO DEEPER Mohammed Kudus: A star on the rise with Europe's big clubs circling What makes Kudus so appealing? Analysis by Thom Harris A mid-sized (5ft 9in; 177cm), stocky player with boundless energy both on and off the ball, Kudus is a midfield bulldog, speed dribbler and powerful ball-striker rolled into one. His ability to dominate various roles with his blend of physicality and speed has been hugely effective for Ajax, who have utilised his unique profile all over the pitch to gain momentum in individual battles or to burst through weak spots in the opposition set-up. Kudus has played as many as seven positions since his debut in Dutch football, operating all the way from a deep-lying No 6 to out-and-out centre-forward, with the majority of his time spent out on the right-wing running at the full-back.

he is eventually going to be a star

Reece and Thiago are the 2 clear captain candidates give Enzo some time

we have a 20% sell on clause on Guehi so a £45m bid only would cost us £36m

and a GREAT GKer!!!! Kepa is going to fuck us up 😓

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have faith

woot, fuck those bloodsuckers

whatever you do, make sure you go to my favourite bar (proper bar, not talking about giant crazy techno clubs like I also love) on the planet The Connaught Bar in Mayfair 16 Carlos Pl, London W1K 2AL, United Kingdom best bartenders in the world the martini trolley is 💙 they sent some of their bar team up here to the Grand Hotel Stockholm in February for a one off special event

two reccos for South Kensington area hotels (close to everything, smaller boutique gorgeous hotels) these are very calm, posh settings, not mob scenes NUMBER SIXTEEN 16 Sumner Pl, South Kensington, London SW7 3EG https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186338-d188478-Reviews-Number_Sixteen-London_England.html https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/number-sixteen/ The Franklin London 24 Egerton Gardens, Chelsea, London SW3 2DB (1. 2 minutes walk from the Knightsbridge border across Brompton Road, also a few minutes walk from South Kensington) https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186338-d10382433-Reviews-The_Franklin_London_Starhotels_Collezione-London_England.html https://collezione.starhotels.com/en/our-hotels/the-franklin-london/

Trevor Francis, Britain’s first £1m footballer, dies aged 69 Francis scored winner for Forest in European Cup final He played 52 times for England and was also a manager https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/trevor-francis-dies-aged-69-nottingham-forest-england-1m-footballer

Kylian Mbappé: Al-Hilal submit world-record €300m bid for PSG forward Saudi Arabian club open to having Mbappé for only one season PSG want to sell France international unless he extends contract https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/24/kylian-mbappe-al-hilal-world-record-300m-bid-psg-saudi-arabia The Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal have submitted a world-record bid for Kylian Mbappé, understood to be worth €300m (£259m), and are willing to have the forward for only one season if that is what is takes to get the deal done. The move comes after Paris Saint-Germain left Mbappé out of their squad for their pre-season tour of Japan, determined to sell him unless he signs a new contract. PSG will accept Al-Hilal’s offer but there have been no talks between Al-Hilal and Mbappé, and PSG remain convinced the 24-year-old has agreed terms to join Real Madrid on a free transfer next summer. Al-Hilal will try to tempt Mbappé with a world-record salary and, mindful that it may suit him to come for only one season, are open to a deal that – even by recent Saudi Pro League standards – would destroy football’s financial norms. Al-Hilal offered Lionel Messi more than £350m a year to join from PSG but the Argentina forward opted to move to Inter Miami. It emerged in June that Mbappé had presented a formal letter to PSG, informing them he would not to take up the option of a one-year contract extension next summer. The club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said this month: “If Kylian wants to stay, we want him to stay. But he needs to sign a new contract. We don’t want to lose the best player in the world for free; we can’t do that.” Mbappé joined PSG from Monaco in 2018 for £166m. Saudi Pro League clubs have been spending huge sums this summer to sign players from Europe. Al-Hilal are one of four teams in the country owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has majority ownership of Newcastle United, and have signed Rúben Neves, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Kalidou Koulibaly. They are are also closing on deals to buy the forwards Malcom and Aleksandar Mitrovic from Zenit St Petersburg and Fulham respectively. Mbappé had appeared close to joining Real Madrid last summer before renewing his deal in Paris. The world-record fee is the €222m Barcelona received from PSG for Neymar in 2017. The Brazil forward’s contract is due to expire in June 2025. Manchester United are not negotiating for Mbappé, with their focus remaining on Rasmus Højlund of Atalanta.

the largest offer I saw for CHO from Bayern that was fully legit in terms of sourcing was £40m but even 'only' £40m is still a shit tonne more than £8m I really thought we could now get £15-20m for him from another English side

one or two years that blows out our FFP ledger is not worth it plus we have no CL to offer and zero guarantees we get it this season (even with Mbappe as bringing him in means we well fucked in terms of adding other players of high quality at vital positions) sorry, I am never going to advocate a 'short term potential glory/fanboi/fangurl fappening' at the expense of burning it down in terms of a longer term event horizon predicated upon a linear upward build curve

Chels/Brighton negotiations over Caicedo atm

All X'ed up 🤡

I obviously rate Mbappe I think he the best or co-best player on the planet (along with Håland) by miles atm BUT he would only be here for a few years max and would likely fuck up our books with FFP IF we also add other players (players we so so so need atm) I would much prefer to lever away Tchou (and hopefully even Valverde) from Real in exchange for funding their transfer fee for Mbappe

your maths are off 40 days to go (counting today) https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12893159/summer-transfer-window-2023-when-does-it-open-and-close-dates-deadline-day-how-to-follow-with-sky-sports The summer transfer window opens on Wednesday June 14 and will close at 11pm on Friday September 1

Deffo prefer Kudus over Michael Olise. As Zakharyan is likely blocked, Kudus is now my number one (who is actually available) AMF want. Positive for both is that Kudus and Olise are both left footers who can also play RW, but Olise is so far not much of a scorer.

depends who the MFer is