Vesper

£116.6m for CuCu (counting wages) LOLOLOLOLOL

I cannot recall one

how is that not a yellow on Coufal? slammed Mudryk well after the ball was gone and mashed him out of play

open header Badi, need to score there

Felix is a massive talent, pure baller

for 2 or 3 years before we bought him I said do NOT buy him said it when he was in La Liga, and said it when he was Brighton

damn, should have scored on that breakaway

I want that little shit CuCu gone disaster waiting to happen every game

ffs and FUCK CUCU his idiot turnover led to that

shit, another offides

what a pass by Enzo too!

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

one thing IF you use an ad-blocker you have to (usually) turn it off for that site/stream

it's you then sorry

ffs, offsides

rock solid as always https://www.topsporter.net/sports/2023/premier-league-west-ham-united-vs-Chelsea-s1/

bollocks call on that foul, they were shoulder to shoulder

2022-23 English Premier League West Ham United Chelsea https://www.topsporter.net/sports/2023/premier-league-west-ham-united-vs-Chelsea-s1/ https://www.vipleague.st/west-ham-united-vs-Chelsea-1-live-streaming

Chelsea have shown they can buy big, but how well can they sell? https://theathletic.com/4171421/2023/02/10/Chelsea-selling-lukaku-pulisic-ziyech/ If there is one thing Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have proven since taking over Chelsea last summer, it is that they know how to buy footballers. Now, after committing more than £500million ($609.4m) to initial transfer fees across their jaw-dropping first two windows, the emphasis shifts as attention turns to the next one at the end of this season. How well can they sell? Offloading those on the fringes of Graham Potter’s bloated first-team squad and the more high-profile names currently out on loans will be a monetary as well as a sporting imperative in the summer. It might even become essential to their hopes of remaining compliant with financial fair play (FFP) if, as expected, Champions League qualification proves out of reach for a side currently 10 points off the top four — UEFA is already watching the club’s movements closely. Boehly and Clearlake believe the depictions of the financial risk they have taken during these first seven months of ownership are overstated. Most of Chelsea’s new signings are young, (presumably) improving assets now tied to long-term contracts on low salaries relative to their Roman Abramovich-era standards, with compensation also tied to playing time and Champions League participation. Internally, there has been a lot of emphasis on the “Chelsea premium” that the club became notorious for paying under the previous regime, both in terms of transfer fees and wages. Boehly and Clearlake might have smashed the British transfer record to bring Enzo Fernandez to Stamford Bridge for £106m and sanctioned huge fees for Wesley Fofana (£70m) and Mykhailo Mudryk (an initial £62m), but the new owners are adamant these deals fit into a broader push to bring the wage bill down to a more sensible, sustainable level. For that push to be successful, however, they will also need to find new homes for a significant number of Abramovich signings who are on “Chelsea premium” contracts that still have several years left to run. This process began last summer, with Timo Werner allowed to return to RB Leipzig in a £25million deal that represents a significant loss on the £47.5m initially paid to secure the Germany forward from that Bundesliga club two years earlier. In terms of how clubs actually account for transfers, Chelsea’s margins were much finer than that. Werner’s original fee was amortised over the length of his five-year contract — in this case, at a rate of £9.5million per year — meaning that, by the time he was sold, his remaining value on the books was just £28.5m. Since the £25m sale fee was registered in one immediate lump sum, the accounting loss for Boehly and Clearlake was only £3.5m. When you add to that the benefit of offloading Werner’s huge wages and freeing up room for new signings, it was clearly a deal worth Chelsea stomaching a little financial pain to do. That cannot be so easily said for some of the other sunk-cost decisions that lie ahead. Romelu Lukaku (remember him?) remains the biggest headache. His previous club Inter Milan have no obligation to extend an expensive season-long loan that has so far seen him make only 11 appearances across all competitions, due to persistent injury and fitness issues, and score twice. At the end of this season, he will still have three years left to run on the five-year Chelsea contract — with a salary in the region of £320,000-a-week — he signed on joining from Inter in the summer of 2021. The £97.5million transfer fee that Chelsea agreed to sign Lukaku for the second time in his career is also amortised over the length of that deal at a rate of £19.5m per year, giving him a remaining value on the books this summer of £58.5m. No sane suitor would go anywhere near paying that number for the services of a player who’ll be 30 by the time the season ends. In the context of their vast transfer spending, is it at all feasible for Boehly and Clearlake to absorb the inevitable gargantuan accounting loss it would take to be rid of the Belgium international permanently? From an FFP compliance perspective, a second season on loan back at San Siro, with Inter again taking responsibility for his salary, appears to be the most palatable realistic option — unless Potter decides he can use Lukaku at Chelsea and rebuild his value. Good luck finding any enthusiasm for that scenario, either from the man himself or the many fans he alienated under previous head coach Thomas Tuchel. To varying degrees, Boehly and Clearlake will need to make similar calculations about Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Kepa Arrizabalaga, despite the latter’s success in re-establishing himself as Chelsea’s No 1 goalkeeper under Potter. All three are very good footballers whose market desirability has been eroded by below-par production and above-market contracts which do not fit the new owners’ vision for the pay scale at Stamford Bridge. Kalidou Koulibaly, who turns 32 in June, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 34 that same month, can be added to Chelsea’s list of highly-paid expendables for whom it will likely be difficult to recover any real value. Mateo Kovacic should be in a more desirable tier for suitors if a contract expiring after next season is not extended, and recent history suggests the market for academy graduates Mason Mount — although Boehly and Clearlake very much want to keep him — Conor Gallagher and Callum Hudson-Odoi will be strong. Profits from outgoing transfers has been a crucial part of Chelsea’s business model for more than a decade, and former director Marina Granovskaia built her reputation on extracting maximum value when selling high-profile players who were either surplus to requirements or keen to leave. Her list of successes is impressive: Eden Hazard to Real Madrid; Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata to Atletico Madrid; Oscar and Ramires to the Chinese Super League; Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic to Manchester United; David Luiz to Paris Saint-Germain. Boehly and Clearlake will find it difficult to emulate such a track record, primarily due to the profound changes in the landscape of the transfer market since those deals were done. According to a report by CIES Football Observatory, the Premier League accounted for a record 48.5 per cent of all transfer fee investment in football’s big five European leagues in 2022, passing the €3billion mark for the first time. Back in 2013, that share was 34.3 per cent, and the inexorable rise in the financial power of England’s top flight has come at the expense of Spain’s La Liga, Serie A in Italy, the German Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. This widening inequality has been turbocharged by the financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2022, CIES reports Premier League clubs had a total net transfer spend of €1.7bn. The next highest was La Liga at just €144m, then Serie A with a €78m net spend. Bundesliga and Ligue 1 clubs actually registered total net transfer profits of €18m and €76m respectively. What does this mean for Chelsea’s selling efforts? Well, the good news is that Europe’s biggest clubs can still pay Premier League salaries; Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich (in that order) currently have the four highest squad payrolls in the world game, according to football finance website Capology; Juventus and Atletico Madrid also rank in the top 10 along with Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool. The bad news is that even these European giants are rarely in the market for expensive — let alone underperforming — Premier League assets. In fact, since the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, the only deals involving transfer fees taking players from England to the continental sides listed above are Raphinha and Ferran Torres from Leeds United and Manchester City to Barcelona, and Moise Kean from Everton back to his previous club, Juventus. PSG and Juventus are the only non-Premier League clubs in the top 10 biggest net transfer spenders of 2022, and the latter’s operations in the market over recent years are being extensively investigated by Italy’s football and financial authorities. Barcelona’s relentless activity since Joan Laporta’s return as president in 2021 has only been made possible by the pulling of economic ‘levers’ that have effectively mortgaged chunks of the Catalan club’s future income. All this means that — unless Chinese clubs are suddenly granted renewed licence to pour the kind of money into the European transfer market that they did in the mid-2010s — Chelsea’s best hope of realising any significant value for players they no longer want or need, both this summer and increasingly in the coming years, will be selling to other Premier League clubs. One obvious problem this reality poses is that the market for any unwanted Chelsea player is necessarily limited to a small number of potential clubs. Another is that some of the smartest over-achievers in the Premier League — namely Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford — focus their recruitment on identifying superior value overseas, rather than buying cast-offs on big salaries from the likes of Chelsea. The more such clubs win, the more their methods will be adopted throughout the division, squeezing the selling market at the top end even further. Boehly and Clearlake are aware of football’s broader financial trends and how they are distorting the transfer market. Last summer’s Werner deal, coupled with the Lukaku loan, indicated a willingness to think differently about what really constitutes success and failure when offloading highly-paid, underperforming footballers. More of that thinking will be needed, in the next window and beyond. GO DEEPER Azpilicueta exclusive: On Chelsea loyalty, setting standards and joining the 500 club

If Citeh walk with just a fine I can see us going Europe Super League as we are near tapped out (limit, not money to buy with) due to FFP, and will be blocked from some moves we need and want and yet Citeh, who lied, cheated, perjured, etc, and get no real punishment and can just keep on doing what they wish to

ZERO chance that is true sub zero

62 million quid, counting the add-ons! and that doesn't include his £175K PW salary on a 6 year long contract that takes it up to £116.6m!!!! insanity those 5 summer buys were some of the worst in decades counting wages, we could well have shit away half a billion pounds or so just from that one summer window and dog knows the secondary knock-on effects, like if we lose Maatsen on a free cuz CuCu shit may well block him

one or both (regardless of Maatsen) needs to be sold Chilwell only if he simply cannot stay heathy if he can stay healthy, then it is CuCu who needs to go, he is borderline shit

If Declan Rice joins a ‘Big Six’ side, he will become as marketable as Kane and Grealish https://theathletic.com/4159494/2023/02/10/declan-rice-west-ham-transfer/ Declan Rice produced a man-of-the-match performance against Newcastle United last weekend, so it was only fitting David Moyes followed up with an equally eye-catching sales pitch. “Declan showed so many things,” he said. “Undoubtedly he’s a top-class player and he will be a British transfer record and more whenever he leaves West Ham.” If he is to move on, it would not just be to West Ham’s financial benefit. Rice would surely receive a significant pay rise and his commercial value would also increase if he joined a “Big Six” side. The midfielder may feel that the latter is overdue. He has done some notable work on the commercial side in recent months. In April, he teamed up with high-end fashion brand Prada to feature on the cover of Circle Zero Eight magazine before starring in Sports Direct’s Christmas advert alongside Mason Mount, Thierry Henry and Eric Cantona. He also has a boot deal with Adidas and recently featured in a Muller Rice campaign (a dairy food company). https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck7xugcKAWI/ But he is still some way off many of his England team-mates. Raheem Sterling, of Chelsea, is the face of male grooming brand Gillette Labs; Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham featured alongside Lionel Messi and Stormzy in a star-studded World Cup 2022 advert for Adidas; Jack Grealish, the Manchester City winger, has a deal with Italian designer Gucci and Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is the face of sports brand Under Armour. https://www.instagram.com/p/CaFgeBtg7hB/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg1jlzitYQ0/ But how marketable is Rice compared to Grealish, Bellingham and England captain Harry Kane? Adrian Wright, the ex-marketing and sales director at West Bromwich Albion, explains. “Most brands will only capitalise on a player endorsement as a result of their social media following,” he said. “Rice will have a certain number of photoshoots for brands, for example, that will help him to leverage his audience. But he’s not that commercial when you compare him to Kane or Bellingham. Kane has 3.8 million followers on Twitter and 13.9 million on Instagram. Declan has fewer followers on social media in comparison (494,000 on Twitter and 1.6 million on Instagram). “If you look at Kane’s Instagram, he has things around mental health, his boot deal, it’s very commercial. Declan has a few things on there but he’s not that high profile. He only has 172 posts, Kane has more than 1,000. He would be enticing for brands because he plays for England. He’s not commercial because he plays for West Ham. “It’s mostly attacking players who have large social media followings. You won’t get many tabloids writing about Rice’s performance against Nottingham Forest. But if he scores a screamer, or a penalty in the last minute, that would gain more traffic on social media. “Grealish is a £100m player and he’s leveraged the fact he’s one of the most expensive British transfers ever. That could be Rice this summer.” For Rice to reach the same commercial value as his England team-mates, it seems likely he will have to break the record for the most money paid for a transfer by a British club. Enzo Fernandez currently holds the record following his €121million (£106m, $131m) move to Chelsea from Benfica on deadline day last month. Before sealing his move to Stamford Bridge, Fernandez spoke about Rice in glowing terms. “I try to watch as much football (as I can) and learn a little bit from everyone,” he said. “I like Rice of England, I try to watch him and learn.” Rice has been capped 39 times for England and has played 222 games for West Ham. Fernandez, however, has made just 114 club appearances so it is no surprise Moyes is adamant Rice would command a higher transfer fee. Though Fernandez is, of course, a World Cup winner. Grealish, who became the first player to move to a British club for £100m when he joined Manchester City from Aston Villa in August 2021, had made 252 club appearances when he put pen to paper. If Moyes is correct that Rice will break the record, the bidding war for the midfielder will start at £106m at the very least. And it is worth remembering that, in April 2022, the West Ham manager said the minimum he would accept for Rice would be £150m. However, the midfielder has rejected three contract offers which means this summer is the London club’s last opportunity to earn a sizeable fee for the Englishman. The British transfer record (only includes fees paid by a British club) has been broken 10 times since the start of 2000. Only three of those deals have been for midfielders and just three have been for Englishmen. UK transfer record being broken (2000-) DATE PLAYER SELLING CLUB BUYING CLUB FEE November 2000 Rio Ferdinand West Ham Leeds United £18m April 2001 Ruud van Nistelrooy PSV Eindhoven Manchester United £19m July 2001 Juan Sebastian Veron Lazio Manchester United £28.1m July 2002 Rio Ferdinand Leeds United Manchester United £29.1m July 2006 Andriy Shevchenko AC Milan Chelsea £30.6m September 2008 Robinho Real Madrid Manchester City £32.5m January 2011 Fernando Torres Liverpool Chelsea £50m July 2016 Paul Pogba Juventus Manchester United £89m August 2021 Jack Grealish Aston Villa Manchester City £100m January 2023 Enzo Fernandez Benfica Chelsea £106m The only examples of midfielders breaking the record are Juan Sebastian Veron joining Manchester United in 2001 for £28.1m, Paul Pogba rejoining Manchester United in 2016 for £89m and Fernandez’s move to Chelsea for £106m. It should be noted that respected analysts of the market, CIES Football Observatory, value Rice at €80m (£70m). Rice’s most recent performance — against Newcastle last Saturday — reaffirmed why Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are interested in him and could potentially break the record to sign him. The 24-year-old midfielder won possession 12 times (the most by any West Ham player), won four duels, attempted six passes in the final third and made three interceptions in his side’s 1-1 draw. And, crucially, it was his corner that led to Lucas Paqueta scoring West Ham’s equaliser. Rice’s contract expires in the summer of 2024, although West Ham do have an option to extend for a further year. But, with Rice most likely to leave this summer, the club have no intention of activating the clause. “I hope he sees out his time here,” said Moyes. “But look, there’s a lot of talk about it and I think Declan will be blowing that British record out of the water, that’s for sure, when it comes around.” So what are his options in the Premier League? Newcastle have emerged as a potential suitor with manager Eddie Howe labelling Rice a “top-quality player” following last Saturday’s draw. But Dan Ashworth, the club’s sporting director, has already hinted the club would be against signing a £100m player. Arsenal are optimistic about their chances of securing Rice’s signature this summer, though they do already have Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Martin Odegaard and Jorginho as their midfield options. Meanwhile, Manchester City being hit with more than 100 financial fair play-related charges could seriously harm their summer transfer window and Liverpool have a long-standing interest in Borussia Dortmund midfielder Bellingham. A return to boyhood club Chelsea also remains a possibility and Manchester United have been linked with a move for Rice in the past. In short, nothing — other than Rice leaving the London Stadium — is close to being a certainty. Regardless of where he ends up, though, this summer promises to be a lucrative one for Rice. The months ahead could end up playing a defining part in his career.

one part of the puzzle (plus their wingers and CFs have been shit and they have had a tonne of injuries) West Ham’s Tomas Soucek still aerially dominant but rest of his game has regressed https://theathletic.com/4120652/2023/01/26/tomas-soucek-headers-west-ham/ There was a time when Tomas Soucek was so popular at West Ham he had to look for a new home to get away from all the fans turning up at his apartment hoping for a photo. He was the man of the moment. The club’s player of the year. A 6ft 4in (192cm) goal threat from midfield earmarked as the Premier League’s new Marouane Fellaini. Manager David Moyes’ golden boy. But Soucek, whose work ethic once endeared him to supporters, including doing 5km runs in his spare time and training at West Ham’s Rush Green complex even on his days off, is now at a crossroads in his career. The Czech international, who turns 28 in February, has regressed over the past 12 months. His central midfield partnership with Declan Rice has suffered as a result and Soucek’s long-term future is uncertain. Last January, West Ham opened talks with his representatives over a new four-year contract. Soucek, whose current deal expires after next season, although there is an option to extend for a further year, was seen as a key player at that juncture but as his form tailed off, negotiations hit an impasse and today there isn’t an immediate rush to hold further discussions. This season, he has scored twice and provided two assists in 26 appearances across all competitions. He’s been substituted in four of his last five Premier League starts — having played the full 90 in the first 13 — and began Saturday’s 2-0 win over Everton on the bench. A look at the stats show how Soucek’s attacking threat has fallen this season. His headed shots per 90 minutes figure (0.46) is the lowest it has been since joining the club from Slavia Prague in his homeland, initially on loan, during the winter window three years ago. His expected goals (0.15) and total shots (1.04) figures are also the worst of his West Ham career. He has also struggled in possession. Soucek has hit 153 passes which did not find their target — the most by any West Ham outfield player. Only Aaron Cresswell (62) has more failed passes in their own half than his 49, and he is second to goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski (104 to 145) for unsuccessful passes in opposition territory. Forgivable for a ‘keeper hitting it long, less so for a midfielder in the Premier League. Throughout his three years with West Ham, Soucek’s strengths have been runs into the opposition penalty area and his aerial presence on attacking set pieces. In 2020-21, his first full Premier League season, he made 222 runs into the 18-yard box — the most by a central midfielder in the division. That season, Soucek scored 10 goals while starting all 38 league games. Three of those were headers and he attempted 28 headed shots — the most he has managed in a season at West Ham. Soucek has only attempted eight headed shots this season, creating a per 90 rate of 0.46 which is the lowest of his time in east London. His aerial dominance is still noticeable, however. In Soucek’s first full campaign, he won the most aerial duels (234) by any outfield player in the league, the following season it fell to 134, the fifth highest. This season, so far, he’s won 50, which puts him sixth among Premier League outfield players. The most pressing issue over Soucek’s form is his partnership with Rice. The summer arrivals of Lucas Paqueta and Flynn Downes have given Moyes more options in midfield. And following the 1-0 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford in October, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher was not particularly complimentary. “I look at midfields and how that works now, I’m not convinced by Soucek and Rice as a partnership,” Carragher said. “Long-standing partnership, it has its positives, but in certain games you need creativity. Soucek offers you an aerial threat, and at set pieces he’s important. “I look at Declan, he’s looking to pop a pass to someone, but it’s not Soucek’s game. (Pablo) Fornals, (Manuel) Lanzini, (Said) Benrahma can play there, (Flynn) Downes. It doesn’t feel like there’s any flow when there’s two players who are so similar in there.” For context, Carragher once hailed Soucek as the league’s best box-to-box midfielder. But he no longer impacts games in the same fashion. Rice often sits deep, which gives his partner license to roam forward. But Moyes has experimented more with his midfield, favouring Brazil international Paqueta alongside Rice for the weekend win over fellow strugglers Everton as he reverted to a wing-back system, rather than his preferred 4-2-3-1. Paqueta has mainly operated as a No 10, but plays a deeper role for Brazil. He could be an option given Soucek’s struggles, but Moyes offered insight at the start of this month as to why he has persisted with the Czech. “I would like to find a good balance with getting all three of them (Rice, Soucek, Paqueta) in the team if we can,” Moyes said. “I think we do need Tomas more in some games than others. But I still fancy (Soucek) out of the three of them, if you asked who is more likely to get more goals. “At the moment he is not doing quite (that) but the other night (against Leeds) he looked closer to it, he played a bit higher up the pitch so we are really keen to get him back in goalscoring form. Goals have been a big issue for us. We see him scoring more goals than Rice or even Paqueta. We need some goals from midfield.” But Paqueta (21) and Rice (19) have both attempted more shots, excluding blocks, than Soucek (13) this season. Paqueta also ranks first among the trio with eight shots on target and appears the most likely to impact games in the final third. A season-by-season comparison of Rice and Soucek’s per-90 stats shows a trend has developed. In 2020-21, the duo were pretty evenly balanced for passes, successful passes and touches. But since the European Championships played that summer, Rice has become more of a box-to-box midfielder — perhaps to the detriment of Soucek. “I think I’ve just gone off my own back and done it, really,” Rice told Sky Sports’ Saturday Social when asked about his new role. “I think I’ve always known I could do it, even from last season; probably in the Euros final I did it quite a lot and when you’re doing it during a game it feels good and it looks good. “As the season started, I just thought, ‘You know what? I’ve got the ability, it’s just having the confidence to do it’. You know sometimes you can play within yourself or choose your moments. But, yeah, this year I’ve just thought, ‘Why am I going to stop it?’ I’ll do it every time I can, really.” Soucek has regressed, while Rice continues to elevate his game. Both may end up leaving West Ham this summer: Rice to a club who can offer him Champions League football, Soucek to get his career going again. GO DEEPER Ings facing spell on sidelines after injury on West Ham debut