NikkiCFC

And if we win tomorrow we will have 66

Tammy is nowhere near starting 11 in this squad and you think he should be starter next season when we get Timo, Kai and Ziyech Also I don't know from where this Werner as LW story started. Ofc he will play as CF.

James, Tomori, Mount and Abraham had great season in Championship and all got chance this season in Chelsea. Not only as squad players but to be regular. Gallagher is having a tremendous season. So he deserves the same. But tbh circumstances are different. We had transfer ban last summer. If Swensea get promotion he should stay there and play PL regularly. Jorginho and Kante are not far away from leaving. Barkley even sooner. So there will be place for him soon. To keep him next season as 4th/5th choice would be selfish and not good for him. Conor has future in Chelsea. Frank and Makelele especially are in constant contact with him. This season he played: DM, CM, AM, LM, RM, LW, RW. In Charlton he showed how he can score great goals and now in Swensea he is showing how creative he can be. 7 assists in 19 games.

Ivanovic-Lovren

Well if we are going to have constant back 4 rotation than fuck me now. But I agree, with almost no pre season huge team depth is very important. This may fuck Pool. 9 players on the bench and 5 subs is also good thing for us. But Frank has to have idea of starting XI. Rotation is one thing, but my impression is that this season after 50 and more games he has no idea what is our best team.

Already my favorite player. New boys had vacation already and will have another one I guess in August.

10%? I would say much more...

You think his sister is not reliable? If not photoshop it is 100% true. I remember we knew Jorginho was coming after his mother and sister started following Chelsea on instagram.

Creepy Chelsea fans.

Hmm... It is not easy situation. But regarding CS... We should not take it seriously or change any pre season plans because of this glorified friendly game. Last game of the season is August 8th. First game of the next season is September 12th. So 35 days between. I guess players will get half of this period off? Probably going back in training around August 25th so this CS game should be taken just as one pre season friendly game. And for me it makes more sense if CS is on Sunday September 6th. A week before PL start as usual. About Havertz I think he will play last game for Leverkusen on August 10th against Inter just two days after our game against Bayern. And he already had period off so he should be ready.

People still do not understand Jorginho role... See? Most passes into the final 3rd even this season. This is his job. This is why Pep wanted him. He has his flaws of course but there are systems that can hide them. Henry on Pep philosophy: "For him, winning is a consequence of playing well with the ball on the ground, respecting his plan, staying in position and always keeping possession. "He puts everything in place to get the ball up to the final third of the pitch and then trusts his team to finish the job in the only area of the field that can’t be planned for." Jorginho job is to move the ball into the final 3rd and than it is none of his business. This could not work well with our attackers this season but next when we have Pulisic, Werner, Havertz and Ziyech it can be amazing. But than again, we have no idea what Frank wants and I am not sure even he knows...

Alonso costed us less goals this season than any of 8 defenders we have.

New season starts in 50 days! 50 more days and Werner, Ziyech, Kai... In Chelsea shirt!!!

I like Areola. He should be 20m max. Not big wages. Loan deal also possibility. New house in London. I remember this top performance when he had 7 saves against Germany.

Exactly. From possible 4680 minutes this season Reece played 2237. So almost 50%. And he missed around 10 games this season because of injuries. Plus Azpi is getting older. So, he will definitely play even more next season. He will improve defensively by time.

Going with back 5 again or changing guys like Willian or putting Chris again is huge, huge risk... You cannot drop players based on last performance. Back 4: Azpi, Zouma, Rudi and Alonso. This back 4 always kept clean sheet this season. Kepa confidence is low so I am ok with Willy starting. Pulisic-Giroud-Willian upfront without saying... And probably unpopular opinion but I would go with Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante in MF. Frank barely used them all together this season. And they were all regular for Sarri. We can rely upfront on Puli and Olie.

They all have release clauses. Oblak and Gimenez 120m euros. And Thomas around 50m but he is close to renewal. So if it is true that AM has to sell I think we can get in situation where we can get Gimenez or Oblak for like 30% cheaper price.

I think we all agree that we cannot fix all weaknesses in our squad in just one transfer window. And this is perfectly fine. Every team has them and if you have 8 or 9 top players in starting 11 they can cover for those 2 or 3 who are not at required level. Basically you can hide your weak links. For example, when City won the league in 17/18 season with 100 points they had Delph or Zinchenko as LB. Otamendi and Stones were also regular at CB. This is not better from what we have now at CB and LB positions. So after Havertz we will have limited transfer budget but in ideal world we need GK, 2 CBs, LB and DM. We will not get them all. Oblak, Gimenez, Chilwell or Alaba and Rice. Not happening. So our board and Frank need to decide what would be smartest move in this situation. I think top CB is essential. Market is not perfect this summer for CBs but I think we should pay for Gimenez even if this means not getting Rice this summer (leave that for next year). I like Rice but not sure he can transform our defense right away and not even sure of him as CB. For DM we still have many great options. I mean Kante-Kovacic in 4-2-3-1 is not that bad, right? They do not offer much offensively but they dont have to when you have Kai, Puli, Timo and Hakim ahead. Looks like LB will be cheaper option like Tagliafico, Gosens or Telles and this is also fine. New GK is must at this point because of the state of Kepa. We do not have money for Oblak so we need to be creative here. Let Cech decide. So with new top GK and Gimenez our weak link would be second CB (at times) but than again Rudi or Zouma may look much more solid along top CB like Gimenez and maybe full backs? But lets see who we buy for LB and how James do next season. Again, spending fortune on Rice will fuck us in terms of getting top CB and GK so leave that for next year. And even if Kepa next season is the one we saw in his first season here it would be fine if he is that weak link if we fix back 4 and DM.

We always like to make things black or white It was general opinion that Kepa was great in his first season here. It is true that he is horrible this season and not 15% of what he was last season. We have example of DDG. How many years he has been labeled as best GK in the world? Now people make fun of him. Probably two, three years now. Both from hero to zero. I think it is mental thing with Kepa. Saying this, he has been shit lately and needs to be replaced urgently. But he is not the worst GK like some making him... He can easily come back next season (In Spain?) and become world class and Spain number one. I think we need new GK next season but not because I think Kepa is the worst GK but because if I have to bet I think it is more likely next season he will be Kepa from this season and not from the last one.

I think Atletico has to sell one top player due to financial reasons. They had to buy Morata this summer plus Covid played part so they are in big minus. I am hearing Thomas will renew despite Arsenal interest. They cannot get big money for Diego if any. He will probably go back to Brazil or something. Majority of other clubs also cannot spend a lot of money. So I would not be surprised if Oblak or Gimenez leave Atl. Gimenez has not been regular this season so they may decide to sacrifice him.

Why are so many old topics closed so we need to make another one like in this case?

Ridiculous.

I think we cannot justify picking Kovacic over Puli because of playing time. Kovacic in PL played 1989 minutes. Pulisic 1649 mins. So not much difference. Kovacic has been great this season but still we usually come here to praise or criticize players after games and you can see this season long periods on Kovacic thread when no one post anything. He is consistent and regular performer but this tells also something. Pulisic is number one this season, Kova second. Willian, Azpi after them. Ok Giroud did not have much playing time but every time he performed he was great.