Mhsc

The good news is that successful teams have a tendency to get completely shit out of the blue in an unpredictable fashion They might be awful next year

Last summer it turned out we were in discussions with Duran and Samu who pretty much no one had heard of (I had not). Curious what random names we're talking to now that could turn out to be pretty good despite a lack of fame at the mo. Bit worried what the fan reaction will be though given how toxic everything is these last years. The plus side this year at least with sticking with Maresca is that for the first time we're entering a summer transfer window with the same manager and sporting directors who worked together all year, and now they can try to get precisely the players we need after learning exactly the limitations of the current group and seeing where we are weak. Hopefully we'll sign some players that slot immediately in because they're perfect for the system and Maresca actually rates and wants them here (unlike Felix etc).

Blimey, would be pretty happy if we got £40m with a decent sell on %, £50m or something with no sell on would be amazing, can't picture anyone spending £70m on him but if they did would snap their hands off with no terms added at all Maybe I'm too much of a Colwill hater to see the value Been the biggest liability in our team consistently for 2 years imo

Sell him imo Need the cash more than we need a CB that can't play at CB (or in any clear position). Obviously has talent and there will be buyers. Maybe in 5 years we'll regret it but in the near term its the right move. Stick in a big sell on clause and move on.

Tbh if we have constrained budget (due to years of horrendous misspending) I would spend every penny on GK and 2 CBs and just try to get by with what we have otherwise, as grim as it would be Arsenal (and various other clubs historically, including us) have shown you can do a fair bit with boring football and a good setup at the back CF would be amazing but for me would be the one we could delay if we have no choice Think we are a little conditioned to expect to have our cake and eat it too at this point we may have to just prioritise and try to get by

𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Real Madrid-Bournemouth have reached club to club agreement for Dean Huijsen, £50m clause to be paid by end of 2026 Fabrizio Romano Shame for sure, but he's not the only decent CB in the world. We have to move earlier to buy and lock down players like that (in January perhaps, like we did with Enzo before the other clubs circulated).

After predicting a comfortable win vs Newcastle and seeing us get a red card and suffer a crushing defeat I predict a 6-0 loss

I think they did want it, but they blew their money on junk. Now, aside from the fact they themselves have exhausted the cash injected into the club, we no longer have scope in financial rules to buy players on top wages and in fact need to continue to lower them by getting rid of high earners on the books at the mo Only way back is to get back into and stay in CL, get some proper sponsorship deals on the go, continue to cash in on players when we can and eventually get a stadium sorted. Maybe in 5 years we'll be in a good position as a top club with top players on top wages, best case. Most likely is 10 years+ or just never returning to that level. Too many years of being run into the ground already behind us. That or we start to cheat like City did, which I hope we do not.

And this is why I do not bet on football :)

Hell yes. The thing about all of our bad results is, the same shit has been happening to all of our competition all year as well - except for Liverpool. We're all really bad together or maybe the league is just really hard these days.

Can still make CL, but gonna be a lot harder now Can't get away with things like that in VAR era - bit soft but fair red overall. Costa could never have been a top player in this era, which is sad in itself, personally I always liked that aggressive part of the game as long as it wasn't taken too far.

Can't wait to sell Sanchez

They're already time wasting lol

Why do we even have CBs? They may as well just leave that space open because these guys just stand in those spaces and act like they're gonna do something but every ball goes by them like they're not even there

Osimhen would be perfect for them, and they don't seem shy about spending huge on wages (given the stupid money they gave Kai), something like that wouldn't surprise me at all other than for some reason they seem super shy about signing conventional / obvious attackers and prefer to do weird things like buy Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus etc to be "quirky" up front. They could definitely win the title with that team if they all stay fit.

Maybe if we get top 5 they can put something like this out about us - "FULL-TIME - Chelsea NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL" Edit: what the hell if you write Chelsea all caps it gets automatically edited when you post lol

On the other hand, Rice is the only sort of elite player in that midfield and having two (perhaps) elite CMs is usually what the really great sides have. Far more reliable that way if you want to stay strong for a whole league campaign. If they also get an elite CF finally it will be a genuinely generational team for them that they have been waiting for in last 20 years.

Gonna embarrass myself here but... I reckon we win. Comfortably.

Agreed, he got a great loan deal in with some fantastic experience at a top club, time to bring him home The only thing with him versatility wise is that Maresca said in an interview that Veiga is very insistent on only wanting to play CB and the loan move was to get time at CB to try to get and hold down an international spot there. And he plays left CB. Personally I doubt he is worse than Colwill who cannot defend but does have other qualities.

I don't think we have much choice. The club has almost no revenue other than player sales - we're pretty poor really, small stadium, years outside of CL now, not won anything in ages, lots of money sunk on bad players in transfer fee and wages. At this stage all we can afford is young people on lower salaries that we have hope to sell for similar or more money in the future. Even if sugar daddy Boehly pours money in, we just can't balance the books in PSR at this point if we go for elite players on big wages - maybe if we do a good job offloading deadwood we can have a few to replace them, but even that is probably quite ambitious. We are operating on a mid table clubs revenue now and have played most of our one-off PSR tricks. We need to be back into being consistently in the CL, get the stadium sorted, and get some really good sponsorship deals in - 5-10 years of work realistically. In the meantime, we have to keep our wage bill low and keep buying young players who will hold or improve their value - its the only money we get.

Personally I think we've had a very nice progression this year, whatever happens in the league, just based on the eye test all season. We've gone from being a team with 0, and I mean 0 game management, to knowing how to control the pace of game, when to slow it down and when to speed it up, and how to see out the end of a game. We know how to chase a lead without going ridiculously OTT. We know how to defend in a structure now as a cohesive unit, on and off the ball, how to press as a unit, when to drop deep etc. Our improvement in off the ball play has been literally that of a youth team with no clue turning into a mens pro team over the course of a season - just go back and look at how we were off the ball last year or in preseason this year. We are not where we need to be in terms of on the ball play, while we are deadly if teams press high and try to play progressive football (even with Sanchez in goal passing the ball around), we are pretty hopeless at defeating a low block but even there we have improved IMO. For me Maresca is several tiers above Poch in terms of tactics and the way he's developed the group - maybe Poch was good for getting them all to be friends, but Maresca has taught them how to be a team, both tactically and in terms of working for each other on the pitch. I also think we saw how Maresca-ball is supposed to look in the beginning of the season and I thought it was good to watch. We have seen a collapse in form that overlapped with Lavia + Fofana being injured, NJ being injured and then out of form, and our cheat code player Cole Palmer being dreadfully out of form for 3 months. I really don't know what options Maresca had in that period to do things differently, the SDs should and could have handled January better and maybe we would be in a better place 2nd half of season. Maresca does have obvious flaws and areas to improve in, but I don't think a better manager exists for this project. If we change the project (sack SDs / change vision), then it makes sense to move on from him.

Ffs totally free header for Van Dijk

Cole finding his way back to his best I reckon Just needs a goal

No excuse for that NJ ffs a mile offside for no reason

Enzo's passing been pretty poor, corners poor, but calm and composed in front of goal... If this guy could finally bring it all together at once he'd be the £100m man that we signed.