Mhsc

Its not a failure to not do deals that turn out to be bad deals. It is a failure to make a bad deal just to get a player in.

If I were Man Utd I would offer to loan Sterling with option to buy if we'll loan Sancho with obligation to buy. Then send him back to us in 12 months and find someone actually good.

I just posted to explain please read a few posts up. We made a promise to him that he will get some portion of money (the sign on fee) as long as he does not request a transfer. Simple as. We promised it and we should pay it. That's how contracts work and the right thing to do. The rest he will obviously lose and will be on him to get from his new club.

I feel the same. VO would be nice if the deal is right - I'm not convinced he is 100% nailed on starter for us, but good competition for NJ and improves the squad. Duran for similar reasons would be nice, any number 9 who is physical and a bit of a bully would add some nice variety to our squad of Mr Nice Guy forwards. We could use someone with a bit of an edge to them. TBH a world class CB would make more difference than a number 9

Remember that VO's salary at Napoli is a fake salary. He was given this deal to shut him up and they never expected him to make that money for more than a few months. It was to inflate the salary he'd get next, as he assumed he would never be asked to take a pay cut. Its far more than he's worth and they & we know it. The only place that will pay him ridiculous money will be Saudi. If he wants that, it is his choice and I wont blame him - that's a different level of wealth. Depends on his motivations and life ambitions. Obviously either way he is sorted for life financially. But that is clearly a one way road: no one is going to buy him back out of Saudi and put him on any kind of serious wages when he's not played proper football in years. I don't blame the guy either way tbh.

The Sterling situation is very easy to understand. He got some kind of sign on fee for joining. Probably many millions. The sign on fee is not paid all at once but distributed over time. If as a player you hand in a transfer request then you waive your right to the rest of the sign on fee. If the club instead chooses to sell you then you are still entitled to it. We owe him whatever is left of his sign on bonus. That is all. Everything else is on him to negotiate with his new club.

Well that might just drive some panic into the owners/sport directors. Expect at least 1 signing that we massively over pay for tomorrow.

Ngl KDH looks like a fan in a charity match given a chance to play alongside some ex pros

Badi is just a poor man's Zouma

Worst ref I've seen in a while. Wants this to be an MMA match.

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/match/servette-vs-Chelsea-uefa-conference-league-qualifying-2024-08-29 I am watching it here for free now

Apparently we've made the stream free on the website/app now after problems with payments

Shouldn't be allowed to enter European competitions with a pitch like this. It looks worse than what I played on at school ffs

Terrifies me seeing this pitch. Can't play our game on that. Plus injury risk is huge.

Injured again. What a sale he was.

One of the biggest fumbles of all time

Eh. Not like we get to choose when other clubs make bids and we can't force anyone to take them. They're all advertised as for sale. Sterling and Chilly maybe we could have done sooner but clearly Maresca wanted to assess them first. Most or all will either get sold or go on loan before the deadline. Deals to Saudi for example I assume can still happen later (e.g. if Sterling finds himself with no realistic alternatives to continue making the money he wants + actually getting to play football).

As long as Lukaku is gone I will take it or leave it with VO, sensible offer on salary + bid to Napoli and call it a day if he prefers to go to Saudi I can't blame the man (£30m/year is ridiculous). Don't know much about VO's dreams but if he's spent 15 years dreaming of winning CL and playing in Europe then you'd think many millions playing here and retiring potentially a legend would have a huge appeal, but c'mon £30m/year is going to turn anyone's head - guy could buy a football club to run himself when he retires lmao.

As long as Sancho is off to somewhere they could still take Raheem, he's better than all of their options (rather embarrassingly)

He is definitely better than Rom (who of course we should never have signed), aside from his injury problems. He presses and puts his body on the line, he has demonic power shots and great aerial / heading ability. Puts in a good shift. Very poor passing and ugly dribbling but like with forwards like Costa when we had him its ugly yet effective when in form. He takes tonnes of shots and will miss a lot and frustrate us a lot in the games when he doesn't score. But with the volume of shots he gets in he does score plenty of goals. If he isn't scoring at least 20 league goals a year he will be a downgrade on NJ imo, because NJ also assists and helps massively in build up as demonstrated beautifully vs Wolves. I am not even convinced Osimhen is a 100% guaranteed starter for us, but definitely a great option to have in the squad.

I don't think the club will break their approach on wages now, not for a risky guy like Osimhen - that's the kind of guy that they put in the wages rules to protect us against. I don't know what is a reasonable salary though. Maybe £150k pw base with huge incentives that can make him one of the best paid players in the world if he hits a 25-30 goal season and we are winning competitions? Who knows. Also, one thing that occurred to me is this guy might not even pass a medical. He has serious problems for years, and we rejected Samu Omorodion after medical (who had no obvious problem to the casual observer). On the other hand we did buy Neto who has big injury history, which was waved away as saying it was mostly impact injuries.

Personally have reservations around Osimhen, too many to name, but its always the way with that type of number 9. If the only thing you contribute is goals, you damn sure better score a lot of them, because otherwise we're just playing with 10 men and a passenger. A bad season for such a player has to be 20 league goals but realistically he needs to be putting out 25+. His career history does not suggest this is realistic but hope he can do it if he comes. I'll fully get behind him if he comes and in truth there are not a lot of options out there these days, and we could definitely use another finisher in the squad.

Whole routine looked straight off the training ground. Loved it.

Most of the players that leave us I genuinely wish them well and happy to see them do well later (as long as it is not vs Chelsea), not so with Lukaku. Hope he spends the rest of his career being a lazy fat twat with the touch of a donkey, with a huge fall out with Conte+Napoli that sees him ultimately retire in disgrace.