King Kante

You say this but I am not sure. I think the idea is Dortmund, but they have forgotten Dortmund play in a lower level league with 18 teams in it, but have 4-5 CL places each year. Prime example of their transfer strategy just needs to be seen here: Summer 2023 - Sanchez - dropped to 3rd choice BHA GK the season prior is brought for £25m and installed as GK1. Petro - Brought as GK2. Season 2023/24 - Sanchez starts and is incredibly poor. Petro replaces him when he gets injured and our form improves quite significantly. Summer 2024 - Sanchez gets ordained GK1 for reasons unknown. Petro gets loaned to Strasborg to replace Sels who goes to Forest. We buy two project GK's in Jorgensen and Penders. Season 2024/25 - midway point - Sanchez is the worst GK in the PL. Petro is the best in Ligue 1. Sels is up there as the best GK in the PL. Jorgensen isn't trusted still. Penders is still highly raw. This is also before we get to Kepa and Slonia.

Only way the team selections make sense is if Enzo has to pick the team by committee before the game and then is forced to only make changes based on algorithms during the game. Otherwise I agree he doesn't really know what he is doing apart from reusing one system he learnt from Pep and using it endlessly like a gambling addict. We have to pray Disaster goes. Felix I think has been used incredibly poorly but if it means we get his fee back I can handle it. In fact if we have to take a £10m hit on Felix in order to get Disaster to Villa permanently on a free we should do it. That guy is even worse than Sanchez pound for pound. Wages. People around here seem to have forgotten that wages dictate what we do more than fees. VO would already be here if he was willing to take a drop in wages. He didn't and now is in the Farmers Turkish league picking up his coin. Gyokeres will want serious money wage wise. Probably £300-£400k a week. On top of that he wasn't great the last time he was in England - sure he was young but he was doing less than Ferguson at Brighton at the same age. Delap is clearly the player that fits all our criteria and will be the easiest to get in the Summer. Wages. Again. He will want a massive signing on fee and wages. I actually can see him in Saudi unless PSG/Bayern go for him. Tax free as well. It is closer to £900k-£1m a week compared to England. We have the GK's. We just don't play them or have them out on loan. CB is tough in Jan. Hopefully, it is sorted in Summer.

Well that may mean Felix to Villa. Ideally it would also mean Disaster there as well. As for CF's. I get the feeling that we want Delap. He fits the profile of what we are looking for, came through City's academy and will almost certainly be achievable in the Summer when Ipswich are relgated. As for this window, I just want a DM/CM like Luiz. Our biggest problem is our midfield not controlling games. After that, I would say it is CB. Sanchez is the next issue, but that is resolvable by putting in Jorgensen (although how good he is, is another question.) As for outgoings, I do not care about any of the following leaving: Nkunku Disaster (actually really care about getting rid) KDH Carney (loan) Casedei (sold with sell on makes sense)

Feel a lot of this is on Enzo. Every 'big name' club he has us playing pathetically passively. Even against Utd he set us up for a draw and bar a great strike would've had us losing there. Too many games this season we take the lead and then step off and try to 'manage the game'. On top of that his ability to see a shift in a balance of the game only happens after 1 or 2 goals have been conceded.

A deal that gets Nkunku out is one I can sign off on. Nkunku has been incredibly underwhelming for me. He isn't awful, but at best he only becomes an effective player, if the team is built around him. Garnacho, whilst raw, does have something about him where you can see him kicking on a couple of levels quite quickly. As a swap, and even a swap with a bit of funds on top, say £60m for Garnacho and £70m for Nkunku, is a good deal for us. This goes double as Nkunku is one of the top 5 earners on the books still.

It is so obvious this Garnacho thing is going to be a FFP work around. Watch out for something like £60m Garnacho, £80m Nkunku or something similar.

One thing every PL club should've learnt by now. Do not buy attacking players from the Bundesliga and expect them to put up similar numbers in the PL. Only exception is obviously great players like Hãland and Bellingham.

Not as stupid as he looks.

Any news if this guy is being sold or loaned? Literally if he does, and even if you do nothing else, I will give the window a minimum of 9/10.

Just had a look and it is apprantly more like £250k'ish - only clubs that can/will pay that sort of money (along with the £60m fee) at the moment are: City and Madrid (do not need him and perfer to take frees then pay crazy wages.) That alone is why no-one challenged City even if they were in serious need of a CF. Let alone us who now have a clear structure which is one of the ain positives of the new ownership imo.

Isn't he needing to completely sell all their AM's because he prefers 'system' type AM's with a forward that is a focal point to finish most of the chances off? Nkunku would be a better fit imo.

Loans with obligations are always pretty high risk, unless the obligation is a good one as if they flop then you still have to buy you look like idiots. A loan with option I think we should do even if it is slightly expensive. Luiz knows the league a is a good to very good DM/CM. We are in desperate need of such a player and a player with experience. He kind of ticks all the boxes on paper.

Thinking about Garnacho. What would people think of Garnacho + £15-£20m for Nkunku?

£4m with no buy option is robbery. If he has a good half season, that helps us to then bring him back as he has more experience - or we can sell for good profit. That is smart business, even if I think we should've just used him at CB in the cups ourselves as there was no need to give Disaster mins even in the Conference. Hopefully, we will see Chilwell get integrated a bit more. No need to have frozen him out like he has been frozen out from a quality point of view. It is the wages. He will likely be on £175k+++. We aren't giving contracts like that out. Even Felix and Sancho had to go down to £100k or so.

Club board are like, 'you watch, give Rob enough time, and he will evolve his game and become amazing' Chelsea fans:

Not sure it is political. Rather blind faith in data/algorithms. I think what has happened is that the underlying stats/data the club have on him, has him as a beast with issues he needs to iron out. This essentially makes the club believe that give him x amount of minutes, he will rapidly become great, so a bit like a pokemon evolve. Personally, I do not see him changing much as most of his issues are concentration based and he is now at an age where he isn't going to improve the lapses much.

This would be a great loaner. I actually wanted him in the Summer. If we can shift Disaster the other way as apart of any deal, that would be jackpot. As for Garnacho, I am surprised by some of the reactions. Sure he isn't a CF, but I suspect our main target is now Delap and he is going to be much easier in the Summer when Ipswich are relegated. As for the player, my feeling is at £42m, he is probably a ok medium risk/high reward player. Sure he is a bit erratic but he seems to cause chaos when he runs at defences, which can be handy for creating space for others. For me, he and the Brazilian kid will take the places of Noni and Mudryk. That for me is ok, and if we can tie in Chilwell to get him off the books (unfairly treated btw) than that also makes sense. For me, with Trev back, I can deal with the CB's so long as this is looked at hard in the Summer along with GK. CF I am happy to wait for Delap. CM Luiz now and then a decision on what we do there permanently in the Summer is also OK.

It is because the starting XI know there is zero consequences to doing this. The manager sets the starting XO up for 75-80 mins before he starts making changes. Every game we see momentum shifting yet he stands there with a pretty solid bench and does nothing until some pre-planned minute he obviously set in his head before the match.

Well football is a little different. If you know what you're doing as a coach/manager, you can get away with speaking your mind after around a half a season/season of decent results. Or straight away if you have standing as a player. For instance, could you imagine what Conte would've done if Marina told him he had to keep Disaster over Trev as he was a profit player. He probably would've dropkicked her in the face. However, this is probably also why the went for Enzo. Young manager who wasn't a name that they knew lacked recognition so would have to do as told. Personally, I do not have a problem with Enzo apart from his inability to be proactive rather than reactive with his subs. As for Trev, I am very happy to see him back. For around the third season in a row, he is going to have to go through the rigmarole of people at the club thinking he isn't good enough to then end up putting the best to second CB performances of the season. Although, that said, this also raises the question of who is evaluating our defensive players (and GK's.)

Yeah, amazing to have your best RCB actually play for you rather than some other team.

Can't be that picky. I would actually rather play with ten men than play 11 if that includes Disaster. For me, even if we can get an agreement to pay off some of his wages and let him go on a free, it has to be looked at.

Tbf, the new ownership haven't really had there pants pulled down on a sale unless the player really wanted to leave/we were desperate to offload. I suspect it will have to be a decent offer. If not get him on loan to a PL club for the rest of the season.

It is a conundrum. For me there are very few CF's where we can go 'that player will score more goals and not provide a drop off in the all round part of the game'. For me, Jackson for sure has to improve his shooting, but I do not think that is beyond him. The reason I say this is that he does score some pretty hard goals - Brentford and Leicester this season and Everton at home last season spring to mind. For me, it isn't the technique side of the game with him, rather that when he gets a good chance he front of goal he panics/gets over excited. I do honestly feel with him that if he took just half the goals he faffs people would be talking about him as a top 5 CF in the world. As I've said, he has a knack of making the hard look easy and the easy look hard. Fortunately, making the easy not look hard is not as difficult as making the hard look easy with perseverance. Equally, I am not worried about him wanting it/putting in the hard yards. I mean let's just look at his development of his hold up play and his ability to drive with the ball. That is leaps and bounds above what he produce in the first six month. I actually do not mind another CF coming in, but equally I do not see why Jackson gets picked on so much when his all round performances are better than at least half of the others that started around him. For sure, sell Nkunku and get another CF but equally unless they're Häland or Isak don't expect them to actually replace Jackson straight away (I am not sold on Gyorekes translating his Portugese production in the PL, for instance.)

He would probably tell him he wasn't playing top level football until he was 25/26 and to keep his head down and keep learning.

Which CF are we getting that replaces he running off the ball or assists like the one for Palmer against Bournemouth? I get why people get fed up with his finishing, but they get too blinded to what he does well. I am not saying he is irreplaceable, but it is not as if we can pick up anyone to replace him. For instance, I still take him all day over VO as whilst VO may score a couple of more chances, he won't be assisting and doing the donkey work that Jackson does which creates goals in non-direct ways.