Mhsc

Are you suggesting we should have kept playing those 3? Or that them being dropped / shipped out was either sudden or inappropriate? Its hard to imagine that's what you're saying because these guys are all woeful but I don't know how else to read what you wrote. In the meantime we'd pay them full salaries to do fuck all in our squad (as well as taking up a spot for someone that might do something useful, or even worse actually put them in the XI and lose games because of them) instead of getting another club to help pay for them? We'd be bankrupt in no time and have no money at all for bringing in the players we need? That would basically be the death of our club and we'd be struggling in midtable all season again. There was nothing sudden about axing them - they were shit for a LONG time and got a lot of opportunities, way too many opportunities tbh - we need to be more ruthless not less ruthless. Obviously the Lukaku situation is what it is with his behaviour, and he got less chance than the rest as he effectively forced his way out and intentionally suicided his career. At their peak in a past life they were all Chelsea quality but none of them is even close in the last couple of years. This summer we need to clear out the deadwood aggressively again, another bomb squad and we get rid of them as fast as we can, if we can. Nkunku will join the pile too.

Instead of saying "He wants to play at Chelsea!" it should be legally required to say "he wants to make £400k a week at Chelsea!"... man is living fantasies. If he really wanted to play here he'd have made it happen already. He has only been able to get that money because Napoli were over a barrel and gave it to him thinking it would just be for a few months before he gets sold and they'd get that money back in profit as securing him on a contract would put them in a better negotiating position - boy were they wrong. The only other people offering it are Saudi, where he will almost definitely end up given his only interest is money - although I imagine he will see out his Napoli contract as that is the most profitable route (then he can also charge a club a huge sign on fee in lieu of the transfer fee to Napoli). Assuming he can resist Napoli's attempts to force him out which might be difficult as clubs can make players lives pretty miserable if they want to. Curious if salaries in football are going to decline over time given our new wage structure and Man Utd are also in no situation to be offering out big money anymore - there were really only a handful of clubs able to pay huge salaries and most of them have either had to stop or chosen to stop in recent years.

There's no point getting rid of him unless the strategy changes tbh He is genuinely a very good option for Clearlake: - Does what he's told - Says what he's told - Plays the style of football Boehly had in his vision (i.e. slow patient football, dominating the midfield, copying the football Pep used during his successful run) - Deep tactical understanding about how to play that style of football as best as possible with the group of players at his disposal, no interest in deviating from the strategy whatsoever - Tolerates a group of kids and retards (one of the few people in the world that can work with Paul W and co) - No real urgency to win things or work for a big club, he's young and not in a hurry, just happy to be here getting the career experience He's actually a reasonably unique fit for them and I doubt they'll consider getting rid of him in normal circumstances - that would be admitting failure of the concept and the project itself. If we do admit that, you start much higher - get a CEO in and have the owners step away to be more distant, new sporting directors in and remove the dogmatic vision the club has around recruitment + style of play. Then see if Maresca makes sense or not (probably not, but until then, he should stay IMO).

Could take years to get rid of them in a way that works in a financial fair play friendly way though. However, I can understand being hesitant about adding Osimhen or a similarly expensive player into the mix when we have so many expensive flops still on the books - from a salary perspective we are getting robbed blind on Sterling, Nkunku, Reece James, Chilwell, and Fofana, so that does feel pretty "tapped out" in terms of how much we can realistically be offering people while these guys are all around stealing a living. Its just very hard to offload them. When we send them out on loan to try to get them to show something at another club, they just go there and do nothing too. For many of these guys we may just have to carry them all the way to the end of their contracts and loan them out until they're gone, if they're not good enough for a role in the squad at all. Reece and Fofana will presumably just stay perma injured but in our squad and play when they're fit, just on far more money than we should be paying people that are fit so rarely. Another consideration I forgot about is that last year, we were all about the swap deal, and I guess there is no reason at all this year should be any different - probably our targets will be heavily based on whether or not that club is willing to take some wasteman off of us. Maybe we can raid a German club for someone decent in exchange for them taking on Nkunku for example.

Broja and Fofana aren't part of the discussion surely, they're not serious players in contention to even have the most basic of squad roles, they're just write offs to be turned into the most possible cash when an opportunity arises Guiu on the other hand may be a consideration, although I'd just loan him tbh. Delap for £30m is such a giant upgrade on Guiu for pretty insignificant money. Also, this season the squad was supposed to be NJ, Guiu and Osimhen (on deadline day). So maybe they do believe in having 3 and competition, and just don't know how to execute the plan.

Controversial opinion Go and get Delap And still go and get a top striker (maybe even Osimhen, despite my many fears there) NJ has to fight for his spot vs them both plus possibility to play outwide Sell whoever is the least impressive of the 3 in 12 months and finally (hopefully) have a properly dangerous attack

With Lavia back then it becomes feasible to just play Caicedo/Enzo/Lavia in the middle and drop Cole, or try him out wide again. That said I personally do expect as soon as he scores again he'll suddenly be our Cole Palmer again and just needs that goal to get his confidence back so I don't blame Maresca for just grinding through playing him. Should have been an amazing opportunity for Nkunku once Cole's form dropped, but somehow he managed to be even worse than Cole at his worst. What a let down.

I'm sure Nico can feel the lack of support he's had from the day he joined. Got fans and ex players galore publicly saying he's not good enough and they don't want him in the club. Could not blame him at all if he wants to move on really, he's getting all the shit parts of being at a big club (intense scrutiny and pressure) with none of the perks (shit salary, no trophies etc). Perils of running one of the biggest clubs in the world as a youth development centre tbh I don't think we can mess around at GK / CB / ST. All other positions the fans will support young people who make mistakes and aren't fully ready but show potential, but those roles are just too important tbh ruins the whole team if they're not ready (they need to be able to carry the others a bit on bad days frankly)

Thought Madueke was our best player tbh But basically everyone had a good game except for Cole who was anonymous for the most part. Nico gets a pass because he scored but he was pretty shit otherwise tbh Problems with Sanchez are still there though, his problem has always been consistency - on his top game he is one of the best shot stoppers in the league, which was the whole bet that they placed when they bought him, that with a consistent run and a show of faith he could do it on the regluar. He has not been able to so he still has to go. Problems with Colwill also still there. Just like the end of last season, we are doing very well against sides with nothing left to play for.

Cole's whole "thing" was nonchalance and insane confidence He's lost that for now so he just wont be the same until / if he gets it back

How the hell did Nico not get the ball and take it around Pickford He was right there

Having Neto's pace reminds me of having Timo in the side, not amazing end product but his sheer presence changes the nature of games as his speed is so hard to live with We were never the same after Timo left, as average as he was in so many ways, every team needs a pace merchant

Pickford is an embarrassing goalie btw As bad as Sanchez

Just what we need for the end of the season, go on Nico If we can get Cole a goal as well we may be able to do something for CL after all

If James willingly walks away from the contract he's on that would be good news overall, he's a non entity for years and not always good when he is fit. Will be a miracle if he has any sort of serious career from here.

Has Colwill ever got the better of another man in a 1:1 battle? In his career?

Personally I like the line up aside from the lack of Tyrique George. I guess Everton is not a side to face with inexperienced players though.

I'm open minded Petrovic might have improved - but he definitely wasn't good enough when he was with us (I don't waste my life watching Strasbourg so can't say, but hear he's improved significantly) Both my heart and head tell me that we need GK and 2 CBs though. Petrovic maybe a backup and competition. Can't be a serious team without serious players in those positions.

What I really want to know is who the fuck are we buying to be Captain? We need an on field leader. International captain of a serious footballing country. That's the minimum Chelsea standard. Can't go another season without a proper captain.

As long as Sancho is taking a huge pay cut then signing him does make sense tbh, we can loan him out for a decent fee every year to a league he can perform at a higher level in, and sell him on for FFP profit (maybe even real profit). He is not a bad squad player either to have if we want, not great but he's a pretty normal looking backup player for a top team. Could send him to Strasbourg for a year to pad his numbers and sell him on for more than we'll pay Utd surely. But that is a big IF about him willingly writing off a huge amount of his salary that we don't have much info on.

I am hugely in favour of signing Huijsen but also agree with those who say he is not what we need - to that I would just say its true he is not ALL we need but he is a huge upgrade on what we have so we need to go for him if he is interested asap - he would immediately become our best CB, by a mile. After that we still need to look for another CB - and ideally that person is also club captain material, at minimum they need to be an aggressive ball winner that is insane in duels with enough basic technical skill to handle modern build up play. Colwill as our 4th best CB behind Fofana would be a much more normal and realistic progression for an academy player with obvious limitations like him. He should be out on loan still really.

I really doubt they'll do anything meaningful to City. Those guys know how to cheat.

Would have preferred a draw but the good thing about the game was no matter what happened one of them had to lose points which is good for us no matter which way it lands

If Spurs weren't pure scum, you'd almost feel sorry for them, the situation there is as bleak as can be. None of my friends are Spurs fans as I don't socialise with scum, but I imagine they must be pretty depressed - makes our situation look incredibly good. Although I do think there is a possible future in which we slide into something akin to Spurs current situation - an owner with "his own take" on how to run a club, featuring massively long contracts on low money that you renew yearly for a little more every year, so that players are trapped like slaves with no way out, and no hope to win anything stuck in a squad with a few decent players but mostly dross. If we don't start regularly qualifying for CL to up our income I could easily see us end up in a "you must sell to buy" situation and start to slide in that direction (surely the cash that was to be injected to turn the club around is close to dry at this point).

Not an easy team to beat at all these days, got to treat it like another final, Everton under Moyes have always been horrid opponents for us.