Vegetable

So they chose to bring Olmo in instead of keeping Felix it seems, despite the latter being less expensive, at least for us. Perhaps they could make it work if they really wanted. Remember the general opinion about his loan here was very similar - he was quite well regarded and liked, actually one of most impressive players from those who failed to impress here, but nothing to make a fuss about in the end. Not going to argue as no crystal ball here and no strong opinion really, I'm just seeing a lot of red(ish) flags, remember his previous stint and also baseless enthusiasm towards Enzo being the superstar savior player, so I keep my optimism at bay. Personally I feel he fits Barca better (where players have it easier after all) but maybe he is too limited again. I don't mind having him around, unless it means this 44 million contributes towards overcrowding story once again, no CB, no GK and no ST this season, then it's not good.

It's still 44 million for a player unwanted at every club he has been to in his senior career, including Chelsea, perhaps not without a reason, occupying position we are absolutely packed at, who had great talent when he was considered wonderkid but since he made tragic decision for his development this is a distant memory now. Also, his skillset isn't best suited for PL and he has to broaden it significantly to be of any use + his lack of product and consistency fits what is bane of Chelsea squad since ages. He is a luxury player, perhaps capable of making the difference few (count on fingers) times per season. If we couldn't afford this earlier but we can afford this now - fine. If we consider having enough groundwork done for making a difference to make a difference - also fine. I'd really like to see some educated opinion if he had actually improved in any aspect since leaving Chelsea the last time.

Leaving out tiny detail that most people could see there isn't much in those players even before they came here and it took the board few years and several tens of millions to notice it. It's not like they were uncut gems with 50/50 chance of turning out wonderkids, rather fishing in very muddy waters for big cash. I get they could expect the reputation of The Project will at least increase their value in the meantime, but the project turned out what it turned out. And knowing our luck, it's only matter of time when one of the dross we managed to shift unluke Mudryk will turn out KDB and Salah story. Also it's fine that club is showing assertiveness, too bad it directs it mainly towards our academy players who deserve the spit in their faces least of whole bunch.

Zero shock if Mamardashvili will work out better for Pool, than all our transfers this window together. Also, potential freeing Sterling's and Kepa's (who is unironically our best keeper atm) wages shouldn't be used to create another wage gap. I really liked the idea of more democratic wage policy and it shouldn't be broken for another half-ass starlet. As most people came to notice, VO has the same disaster we've been through 120 times already written all over him, so either make him realize he is part of the team, not a rockstar, or avoid. Also, what is a FFP difference between loan with obligation and installments? Can't really see being obligated to buy player who failed to impress during loan for unadjusted price being ideal move.

Time on ball is one thing, opposition players is another. This seems to be typical problem with people who look great in slow-motion leagues. Suddenly the "easiest" opponent in PL runs faster, thinks faster, acts faster, has twice the muscle mass and twice broader vision, than most difficult opponent from Portugal or WC and has already tactically worked out your next five moves. National Teams, even the top ones, still rely more on freestyle and individual talent because what kind of tactical sophistication can you pull during four training sessions with people you see twice a year. Either keep your head down, work hard and adapt or be forgotten, as I don't thing trying to boss around to make up for the difference is no way to do it. I think almost every player coming to PL have to make significant step up to keep up and not everyone is able to.

Felix may be an oddball as is Sterling, but IF we'd get VO I wonder whether it would mean Clearlake decided to quietly move from the "only exciting project players" philosophy into more realistic approach without loudly admitting it doesn't work in top football or it's a sign of scattergun whatever stick haywire approach, especially in context of potential ban. If so, it's interesting concept to wade into multi-window transfer ban without a goalkeeper or rather with bus full of Championship level ones.

Recently I was thinking how Clearlake promised excitement and all we get is frustration and your optimism seems to prove contrary and that's unironically a comforting sign. Don't know about others, but personally I'm not depressed, just fed up. A short bursts of doing basic footballing stuff on this level isn't quite the thing to get me going. All the good things are overshadowed by the fact that we still carry the same glaring issues we did last season, two seasons before or even towards the end of previous ownership. Also: Yeah, maybe so, maybe not, but if you scroll this board back you will read exactly the same sentence year before, two years before and three years before. Also four and five probably. I don't care we lost to City (or rather 65% of actual City's power), I care I didn't quite see us being remotely a threat to them and didn't see anyone willing to eat the grass to make us so.

He was listed as captain also, which I find quite intriguing after the Euro thing. Don't want to create any conspiracy, but given club was literally begging for this guy to come here, who knows what he has written into his contract. Maybe since he is half-godlike in the eyes of a lot of fans for whatever reason, this is also reflected in contract and his preferred position must be heard as someone pointed earlier that Enzo allegedly prefers to play more up front, despite it resulting in nothing.

The alleged Dodgers strategy won't help either. If the club operates with idea of flipping players asap there is no incentive for them to actually care for the club but rather try to show off as much as possible for their next move. Funny how fast we are losing the reputation factor also; for last 15 or so years we were in line with Juve, Barca, United etc - playing for Chelsea was nobilitation and aim in itself. Ever heard of some abroad player dreaming to play for Southampton or Crystal Palace? It's a job for them and this is what we are becoming, smaller club mentality.

That is true, but I think the hard part is to switch ones thinking from "teams being around us" being City, Arsenal and United to "teams being around us" being Leicester, Brighton and Wolves. Besides, since Potter we are very busy making excuses about cohesion, chemistry, club structure… Cohesion is the 5% extra edge but extra edge is not our problem right now, we fail at basics. Enzo is invisible player since he came here, similar to Werner, but Werner was actually contributing to other factors of game and didn't have team built around him, including another 100+ mil worth of players. Our 1st choice GK is nowhere near Kepa level. Front line is too slow or unaware to escape offside trap. Sure, there is a lot of young players and dross players in the team and we became a full mercenary operation, but if you acquire 80+ million footballers nothing less is to be expected from them, than 80+ million football.

I do not support it, but pricetag causes certain expectations. People give them way more slack than they did to Werner, Koulibaly, Lukaku etc., despite them being actually cheaper, anyway.

Incredible how much and in how expensive way can change in this team to change nothing in the end. You'd expect some new energy, dedication and drive after all this, meanwhile it's copy paste everything we've seen before, easy loss at home against jogging and starting Premier League battle with displaced Brighton's 3rd choice keeper as a starter.

What a coincidence that from 2:20 of youtube highlights none comes from Premier League.

I personally wouldn't have a problem with shaking his hand, but we are talking uber pro football here. I do not think Chelsea is a place for players after long term bans to reinvent themselves but that's my personal thing. Paying 50 or more million for a striker that bares risk of getting banned again and club ending without either striker and money paid is different thing. Mocking the club everytime something unusal happens is one another. What we gonna do? Trust person with addiction problem their word they won't do it again? Send people to follow him around 24/7? Everyone has their deamons, so did Mutu, empathy is one thing but on this level it hardly matters. Imagine we bought Onana from Ajax at the time when it was actually plausible move - instant trainwreck situation. Being moral asshole is not something to get player banned from sports, so letting Terry slide wasn't pretty, but different kind of risk I guess.

Reasonably low. Can't predict everything, however Alonso car crash, Mutu, Barkley and few more perhaps are still night and day vs likes of Dembele, Onana, Tonali or constant United shithousery. Just avoid problems were they are easy to avoid.

Like, seriously no one here cares Toney was banned for betting? Stay away from the club, Abramovitch's staff at least had proper gravitas and avoided recruiting any type of obvious football shitheads, fortunately keeping the level of substance scandals, sexual assaults allegations, DUI and all this stuff sticking to the club at reasonably low level. Now hardly anyone seems to care if this club becomes a joke or not.

Sounds like a perfect outcome for us tbh. But given Napoli are "a bit" more effective negotiatiors than Clearlake, it sounds bit too good. Of what I remember from some short video about him it seemed like those people are handing the news to him themselves, what they like and how they like it, to get some buzz. So he needs to create this buzz to retain his value. He operates much more like an influencer these days, than a nosy journalist leaking some secret info.

On the other hand, fact that one doesn't like the player is not making the player worth 0 Euro. Lukaku, Kepa, Sterling or Mudryk are still gold for Serie A (hence all the clubs lick fingers for Lakaka), they just are not to keen to pay for them, so why would we give them away for free, just to take off some overinflated value from another rando who will probably flop in PL and massively boost a club we may meet in Europe one day (hope, lol)? That's no way to do business, club can always give players away for free like it did with Zyiech. Having 250 million worth of assets on books, despite the wages cost, surely makes some financial operations easier too. Napoli doesn't want any 20 mil player, they are quite pressed into Lukau and want Osimhen out, yet nobody wants him. And we don't really need him, given he has trainwreck written all over him and people are now getting hyped up with Jackson and probably think Osimhen with his wages and ego will be sitting on the bench, patiently waiting for chance in Carobao or not playing will not hinder Jackson's development lol. So if even in this situation we cannot recognize position of power, then good luck. It looks like straight swap for me if we toss Casadei in. Lukaku can be shipped out for 15 million any moment I guess, but it's not the point to sell 100 million player for 10 million and 3 more free 20+ million players as a bonus.

Always thought she took roles in other Abraomovitch's ventures afer/same time as Chelsea… Transparency is not most important factor in such dealings 😄

And that's something I have hard time to grasp (given football club isn't a startup you want to milk as much as possible and bankrupt in the end) - I understand Clearlake entered the football making overpaying their virtue, to show that they are no-nonsense partners for other clubs and to impress fans with effectiveness of getting high-profile signed without much fuss. But long term, this has to stop. We could easily do without like 60 or more % of players purchased in Clearlake reign and while I understand books is one thing and reality is other thing, isn't it easier to just not spend 100 million on trash in the frist place, than spending 100 million on a whim and then trying to balance the books with sales, despite our assets aren't worth anything near it, yet costed way more. Yeah, we are selling players, but it's hard for me to believe that wages included there is any profit on it. Income, yes, but the money is still burned. So like, in the end someone or something is losing the money and how long is it practically and legally possible to sustain the club, putting new 100 or more million into it? Do you believe any books on pro level are clear? Football, athletics, racing, everything comes to how much can you bend the rules on highest level. I wouldn't be surprised if they calculated that cooperation and blaming previous owners and general idea the club was punished by forceful sale in the first place will give them fresh start and will they will get free or cheap pass given the situation. Yet they were either very naive or didn't took upon consideration that any chance to crack down on Chelsea will be used to no end. I won't believe russian oligarch did something, that Saudis or Chinese didn't on five times bigger scale. And I won't be surprised if it will come down to 1000 euro being given from Marina's pocket to 14 old from Vitesse B via his aunt, meanwhile City will be cleared of any wrongdoing, like they once were already.

Club is desperate to sell Gallagher and will do it for 10% of his worth and happily pay twice the asking price for player with no place in the team, that's what will happen I guess. Who cares the whole "pRoFiT oN bOoKs" argument kinda falls down if he is gone for penauts. Funny to think Marina had no real businness background yet managed to be way more effective, than business people of gigantic investment fund.

Felix is a luxury player for us, as was said here many times when most of us was fine with him leaving. I understand there is financial mumbo-jumbo involved and would take him any day over Mudryk, but Felix is not a winger and who knows if he can replicate his performance from freeroaming amf. And we can't really play with 6 freeroaming amfs up front. Atleti was trying to ship him anywhere anyhow because he is reluctant to defend and I always believed there is no place in top PL teams for players who won't involve into defense. And we already have some of such and potentially Osimhen incoming. Previously when we believed we could afford out-of-system targetman what happened was the sole Lukaku destroyed our entire system and performance. Sure Felix can pull some tiki-taka dance moves, but this ain't no league for tiki-taka dance moves and Maresca seem to have rather rigid idea of what to play. Sure I'd like him to round some corners in his game and find some outlandish synergy with Maresca, but I'm not sure if it's realistic to expect anything more, than we've already seen in Chelsea shirt. And even then we seem to mistake playing for the badge with playing for his life, eg. any contract anywhere other than Atleti, when everyone else downed their tools. I have nothing against the guy, but can easily see our board getting carried away again and paying fortune + Gallagher for him and that would be stupid.

…Thought Atletico board 5 years ago. Felix is massively experienced player, who has never really lived up to the hype of world's biggest talent from 2018/19, but largely a done product. There is hardly a reason to expect any incredible development from him, he is not the same thing as our two team buses of young and promising players of similar age.

And a goalkeeper as well.

Slapping us with any serious punishment for we-don't-even-know-what, especially after quite ridiculous transfer ban we've got previously, while City remains untouched and no questions asked despite 115 charges or given 10 000 fine would be absurd and totally unsurprising, so it makes sense.