Mhsc

Man is currently on an ANNUAL salary of €80,000. Wow.

Yes I was saying the same in this thread in the last week but getting absolutely shouted down. I still maintain he and various others are very sensible partners for Enzo without us spending crazy money, so we do NOT need to let Brighton bend us over and should feel comfortable to walk away if they are talking stupid money. We already have a ridiculous mega star in Enzo in CM, we just need to unchain him - of course if we have unlimited money and no FFP, then whatever, just go and pay £100m for him and if he is a bust we go again, but it is possible we still need to buy CAM/winger hybrid (Kudus), alternative GK (?) and maybe CB (?), and we DO have financial / FFP limitations. This kid is a reasonably uninspiring solution to the same problem that Onana would solve so I am a bit disappointed, no way we get both as they're so similar but to be fair to our scouts they've done a cracking job on a fair few players so I'll wait to see him in preseason (assuming that's the plan, who can even say). I do not know Rennes or their style of football, perhaps in a our progressive/attacking system he'll unleash some stats that our scouts can see coming.

Well, he seems like a poor man's Onana to me based on the eye test and looking at the stats, and especially seems strange to me because when I look at our other signings they are always freakishly good in certain stats areas, showing some kind of clear approach to our data-led recruitment methodology, but when you look at Ugochukwu he doesn't excel at anything aside from perhaps aerial duels (almost 70% win rate). Feels like a pretty old fashioned case of some scout(s) simply liking him and feeling he has potential? Weird thing is he is not THAT cheap, so not clear there is any real upside to him in the future unless he undergoes a big transformation. Does have age on his side ofc. What I will say is that he does tick a lot of what I was talking about the other day in terms of being at least a basic option to partner Enzo who counteracts all of Enzo's weaknesses - tall, powerful, defensive responsibilities covered, dominant in the air - totally frees up Enzo, which is worth its weight in gold.

That would be a weird one... Strasbourg need to be signing up these sort of players, not us.

Standard practice in acquisitions to include a clause that protects new owners against things like this - probably Roman is footing that bill out of what he was paid for the club. Usually a decent amount of £ is held back from payment for a period of time to allow the new owners to find problems like this and take some of that money back to settle problems.

In case anyone didn't know, full match is available in 1080p here https://www.chelseafc.com/en/video/full-match-Chelsea-1-1-newcastle-united-27-07-2023 for free

There was so much talk on this forum after we signed him + Nkunku that we needed to get a striker (Osimhen etc) and it says a lot about how good he has been that all of that talk has died out, all doubts in him have gone. He looks like he could be one of the best strikers in the league and someone who can really take us places for years. Makes the whole prospect of the new season just a tonne more exciting to have a real striker on board for the first time in years.

I don't think Caicedo is going to push or throw his toys out of the pram now - signed a long term contract with them in just March, and apparently didn't secure a sensible clause to leave so can't really complain. I think the reason is incredibly obvious: he was on just 15k a week when he threw his toys out last time. It got him a new contract with them on 4x the salary but he had to commit with no clause to get it which was clearly his priority (money), and now he's stuck there for 4 years at least while Brighton play around trying to get stupid money for him. Same tricks Levy pulls on players and why Harry Kane ended up stuck at Spurs for his whole career. We should ofc take note with Colwill, who is also on 15k a week and just like Moises making some noises, guarantee that all goes away if we put him on a decent deal at 60k a week.

Agreed. The downside is we can’t know if he’s fully washed or just needs some games to bang again. Torres 2.0. I’d dump him at this point in the same cut throat way we’ve cut everyone else we’ve been unsure on and got us fucked last year.

Definitely walk away from Caicedo and no more business with Brighton - don’t sell them anyone either unless for outrageous prices. Now that word is on the street money means nothing to them what goes around comes around. Despite panic there is shit loads of good options we’ve mentioned in this thread and no doubt far more we’ve never heard of the scouts should have an eye on.

Interesting Pochs comments specifically about needing EXPERIENCE, and we’ve been slow playing Caicedo who has only one real year of proper experience. Maybe Poch is the source of us slowing it down and he wants other targets as a higher priority?

I imagine selling Chlobah and Gallagher is the right financial/company decision, but selling Gallagher given his mentality and love for the club is the more painful to me. Could imagine him doing a Milner-esque role for us for years, filling in here and there and just being a really useful grunt that the manager always wants to keep. I don't object, as long as we're not in the state where you would go into the season expecting he is in the XI. He is a squad player and a helpful one. And a top fucking lad from the sounds of things.

Says who? You?

We rate him so highly he was our 2nd pick behind Ugarte

Guess as long as Caicedo is training well and being professional they’re content to ride til deadline day and see if we come with a bigger offer, gives them time & a strong negotiating position both in terms of selling him and buying his replacement. Wonder if the club is genuinely looking at Maatsen, Cucurella, Reese and Colwill and saying actually a lot of these guys can play in midfield with Enzo and Santos and we shouldn’t feel the pressure at all? Meanwhile Poch has clear public stance we need at least one senior player for midfield…

All goes back to how PSG pulled our pants down and slid it home on Ugarte which we did not see coming. That was the cock up that has led to all other cockups so far, I think. Hopefully we just get something done this week or mostly done, I know everyone has somehow formed into a Caicedo or bust policy (sunk cost fallacy) but I myself just want us to get Enzo a good partner that frees him up and covers his weaknesses. Someone athletic, strong, tall, who can slot into the backline if needed and is a high level tackler / interceptor while being a capable passer would bring us enough team balance and quality to at least give us a real shot against Liverpool in our first game of the season. I think there are a bunch of sensible options and we should just fucking get one. We can go for Caicedo later or never if the price will never become sensible.

Fmpov Kudus > Olise > Cherki. I am beginning to think Kudus is a more important target than Caicedo because we need goals more than we need Caicedo IMO, an athletic, boundless-energy, ball winning DM partnering Enzo is what we need and Caicedo would be the perfect option but there are others that would be more than enough to get us top 4 IMO, but we are still potentially light on goals which Kudus can fix (Jackson, Mudryk, Nkunku and Kudus if you imagine they fulfil their potential then it is not just top 4 but title contention for years).

Liverpool put in £37m for Lavia apparently. Probably a sensible valuation, but the world isn't sensible anymore. Hard to imagine what will become of transfer fees and wages with the growing influence of Qatar + Saudi. Perhaps splurging on players and putting them on long contracts now at today's rates will look like a bargain in the future.

Enjoyed this whole thread.

The idea of him not playing for a whole year in his prime and going into Euro 2024 without play under his belt is unfathomable, but you'd assume if he stays calm eventually PSG will back down and let him play - they'll come under crazy pressure from fans and everyone as Mbappe's only crime is wanting to honour his contract.

Experience is supposed to help us in tough situations but Sterling has folded in every instance for us, so I don't think we can count him as one of the experienced helpful heads. I think Thiago and Kepa are the only players we might consider experienced heads that bring some kind of actually useful experience to the table. It is a little light for sure and if Thiago was out of the XI we'd definitely be lacking. I don't think we'll add much experience due to the salaries such players would tend to demand, until possibly replacing Thiago with a similar mould when it is finally time for him to hang up his boots.

There is a lot to digest here but you want Ziyech in the squad?

If even 1 becomes a Chelsea level player and we sell the rest for similar or more than we paid, it is good business and squad building. Unrealistic to expect they all make it, for sure they will make it at PL level but the reason most youth don’t make it at a club like Chelsea is that we are trying to be the elite in the PL, not just another PL club.

I meant in a years time we may loan or sell them, this year they should all go on loan except for Santos imo. A good loan in PL or any top flight league, hell even the Championship, is what they need for next year. We should just think to try to put these players in clubs where the style of football is the style we want them to develop with. Clubs managed by ex-Pep players, like Burnley, or ofc our satellite clubs.

Would imagine we would loan or sell several of the kids, very unlikely they make it at Chelsea, as we know from many years of experience