Mhsc

Very possible West Ham are just taking Levy for a ride tbh

Yes but his situation and Palmer's are not really comparable - both in terms of our level of desperation at the time and in terms of the players experience - Palmer already had his bedding in season with City, where they slowly let him adapt to PL and gave him 14 apps over a season he enjoyed so little he demanded to leave in the summer. My point is we're at that point with Estevao and that is a hard place to be, its a lot easier a year or two after they've bedded into PL. We are pretty good at dealing with the players that have had that period but historically pretty shit at ones who have not, although jury is still out if modern Chelsea will do it better or not - depending on what happens in the end with Andrey Santos. It is unlikely he will be patient with us but also unlikely he will actually be ready to slot right in. Most big talents we've had in that situation we've totally bottled it. Hopefully we don't assess him all summer and then decide to do a random poorly thought out PL loan for him like we did with Andrey.

Missed the game, watched the highlights. Not surprised Pedro looked good. I thought there was never a question that he is a very good player, the only question mark really is whether he will be a goal scorer because his non penalty goals has been pretty weak (excl some concerns I have around training ground incidents / match day incidents with him). But he's a versatile, talented guy who can do a bit of everything pretty damn well. Personally I think he's here to fight for Enzo's spot but also potentially play CF depending on opposition. Does feel like a luxury signing when we still haven't sorted out the fundamentals (CB/GK) but pretty excited for next season, we will have a proper bench again and Enzo will have tactical options galore which is where he thrives imo. Bit concerned about Estevao - not got a good record bringing in and integrating players at his stage historically - where they look like they have a huge, insane potential but will need to do a big adaptation and still grow physically and tactically etc. Suspect we'll flounder with him for a year with him playing bit part role and then loan him, then he may get disgruntled and demand a transfer before we get to see the player he can become. We'll see.

On the bench

Jesus. Another reminder that life is fragile and short. 3 small children and a wife who is now a widow. His parents have now just lost both of their children in one instant too. Unbelievable tragedy.

Fabrizio saying we are “exploring” the CB market

What exactly is PL proven about him? He's basically flopped. 5G 3A. Guy hasn't even performed as well as Noni Madueke despite playing more games.

Yes definitely. I assume that was always only desperation. We have made signings to fix that now. Overall it is hard to understand anything at the mo as suddenly we have Gittens and Joao Pedro and need to understand what exactly the plan is for these two. I am assuming they are playing LW.

If there is any reason he can go tbh it is defos his attitude. Got sort of Ronaldo vibes in terms of selfishness/demanding taking pens etc but doesn't back it up with the numbers/performances. That said I overall like Noni and sort of semi believe in Project Noni. I have enjoyed having him in a way I didn't really with Sancho. At least I can see the point in Noni Madueke. He just isn't executing well enough yet.

Haha have been thinking for a couple of weeks it would be hilarious if we outbid them for him just to raise the price but then also don't move at all and turn the whole thing into a deadline day saga for them

Neto and Gittens will be insanely fast on the counter. Wonder if we're secretly building a park the bus and counter team and try to be a team that win 1-0 and solve the defensive problems without solving the defensive problems (i.e. hide our shit GK + CBs deficiencies by playing super defensive / deep / boring, instead of spending money to rebuild it and be a team that can play attacking and win big without being crazy open at the back). Then maybe we tackle those problems next summer...

Sorry I meant Sancho, typing from my phone

I suppose you can argue these signings make sense as Mudryk / Sancho / Felix / Nkunku replacements I suspect things will not end well with Joao, I like him as a player but I’m not sure there is room for this type of aggressive player in VAR ball. We already struggle with NJ who is comparatively an angel. And the Chelsea bias is real so he will never get the soft treatment he got at cute little Brighton

The problem of course is Bundesliga + not playing for Chelsea. Those numbers are likely to tank while being 2v1'd. The plus side is it might be another player that requires 2v1 defending and occupies players to free up space in the middle.

One table that shows Gittens very favourably: xG and xA from dribbling situations.

Gittens looks like more squad filler tbh, albeit decently well suited to Maresca's system Pretty underwhelming especially for £55m but lets see what he does for us. Who are supposed to be the stars at squad filler FC? Cole Palmer good player but may never be that guy doing insane numbers again, so then who is? Are we supposed to have faith that Delap does big big numbers on the first try? Or there just isn't even ambition to score the huge number of goals it takes to win PL? We still look massively short in terms of attacking threat imo. Upgrading our squad filler is good but it is more of a stabilisation job to get us back into being regularly top 5. Doing well in CWC papering over the situation a bit imo, will get found out in PL again during the season if we don't do something better than this before the end of summer.

I've just been ignoring the whole Gittens thing because I don't know much about him and wasn't worth looking much in case the deal doesn't happen as so many of them don't. Guess it is time to check him out. Usually I try to watch the "player vs team" youtube videos because you see every involvement (good and bad) they had in the game, but even then you still can't see so much (what runs they make, whether they are switched off in moments they should be switched on etc). In the stats he looks very Madueke-esque with slightly better defensive output.

Did the game finish yet?

I cba. Going to call if for the night. Fuck this tournament USA a great country for so many reasons but soccer is not one of them yet.

No doubt a local one - but a location they chose! Should have played it in a serious footballing country, proper stadiums, filled with fans.

On the plus side, the new offside stuff looks like a godsend.

Got to give all 5 people in the stadium a chance to get to cover from a drop of rain Fucking state of this nonsense

lmao just finish the game what a fucking mockery of football this tournament is So many people involved in planning this need to be sacked in FIFA. This tournament so far has been a totally embarrassing shambles.

Kudus is very similar to Madueke, but less successful / productive. A very low standard indeed. Madueke is already beneath the level we should have albeit I think its ok to have some squad filler like him, signing more squad filler is not what we need. Unless Madueke is on his way out and Kudus is a vastly cheaper replacement, it would make no sense. We need to be raising the standard not lowering it or just keeping it the same as the worst members of our squad.

Just entering his prime with 5 goals 3 assists. He has great physicality and little else. Selfish and low IQ player, which is fundamentally an unfixable problem and sets a very low ceiling. We don't need to stoop this low anymore.