Pizy

No idea how this attack is lining up. Mudryk on the right? Jackson and Nkunku will play up top together I assume.

Hojlund will struggle for United in this league I think. At least in his first season. Glad if they get him rather than going all out for someone like Kane, Osimhen, or even Kolo Muani. United fans have hyped themselves up as if Hojlund is a Haaland level über talent when to me he looks pretty average.

Oh, wow. I kinda take back what I said then. I didn’t realize he was 30+. For some reason I thought he was still like 27-28. 🤣

Verratti is the first top class player who’s still in their prime to go there. That one has to be worrying for the sport. Old, past it former stars going there in their mid 30’s is nothing or players who flamed out at big clubs. But if they start splashing silly money and enticing genuine, currently world class players to go there then it could seriously harm the ability of big clubs in the market.

Verratti to Saudi, WTF?!

In Caicedo’s case we clearly rate him extremely highly. Feels a lot like the Enzo pursuit in that we’re totally determined to get him and only him. So if that’s the case why scared of a big fee when just months ago we “paid whatever it took” for Enzo?

Fine if we aren’t settling for someone we don’t rate as highly, but if Caicedo is our man and our #1 target by far why have we not put a massive offer on the table that Brighton could accept? Everyone and their mother knows £70m wasn’t going to do it.

Because it is becoming more and more evident that it’s Caicedo as our only real target for that area and we’re only going to switch to someone else in a panic near the end of the window. No other explanation other than that because there are 4-5 MUCH easier deals that we could’ve had wrapped up weeks ago. Poch/the club must rate Caicedo far higher than any of the alternatives.

Wish we could at least push this one through whilst we’re dragging the Caicedo chase on and on. With Lavia looking Liverpool bound Arse may decide to make a real push for Kudus. I think they’re only going to make 1 more splashy signing at either deeper midfield or as a rotation option for Saka which is what Kudus would be for them.

Poch has mentioned the need for midfielders in numerous press conferences now. Feels like he’s sending a “guys, wtf are we doing here?” message to the club.

Btw, in addition to being extremely slow with incoming transfers, don’t forget that we STILL don’t have a front of shirt or sleeve sponsor. One of the biggest clubs in world football and we appear to be trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel all over the place to find anyone who will sponsor us. 🤦‍♂️ Feels like there’s something not quite right going on specifically on the incoming business side of the club. We can sell players just brilliantly but suddenly struggle to buy them. Caicedo I at least understand since Brighton are an absolute bastard to deal with. But why have we not pushed ahead with our other, much more straightforward targets?

I mean, he could for sure. But reports are that PSG will try to fuck with him by leaving him out of their UCL squad and leave him out of the preseason tour. Whether he himself cares about that, I don’t know. Seems like they’d be hurting themselves in that scenario way more than they’re hurting him. Plus, if PSG treat him poorly it’ll make them look terrible to future top players. They REALLY fucked up letting him get into this situation contractually. They were silly to think he’d just abandon his Real Madrid dream.

I meant specifically in midfield. -Liverpool moved for Mac Allister super quickly having already laid the groundwork for him before the window opened just like what we did with Caicedo. They also went from linked with Szoboslai to having him holding up a Liverpool shirt within days. -City identified Kova as the Gündogan replacement and signed him super early. -Arse had Rice identified months ago as their top target (like we did with Caicedo) and have got him in on time to play a full preseason to gel with his new teammates. Signed Havertz early as well. -United got their top midfield target Mount in early to play a full preseason. Perhaps with the exception of Liverpool, we needed a midfield overhaul more than any of those clubs and we haven’t done anything.

There’s a reason the likes of Caicedo, Rice, and Lavia have had every big club super keen to sign them whilst nobody is seriously after Onana. He’s not a top player. I’d be extremely let down if we had to settle for him. He’s physically impressive and a nice player but he doesn’t take our team up a level, imo. Caicedo would make our midfield world class. As would Barella. We need someone awesome not someone merely okay.

Ourselves and Liverpool both entered the window needing complete midfield rebuilds. They’re on the verge of signing their THIRD one whilst we haven’t signed any. Brilliant…

We’re going to end up panic buying some bang average DM at the end of the window at this point, ffs. Every other rival manager getting their top targets in and getting them in early whilst we have a brand new manager and are coming off a disastrous season and we still haven’t provided him with the most important signing that the squad desperately needs.

Not accepting £40-45m for Gallagher feels risky to me. He plays nothing like a player worth that sort of money.

If someone offers that same £45m in a single payment that Everton did in January then we should sell. With Gallagher sold we could sign Cherki/Kudus AND Olise. And either of the the former two are massive upgrades on CG.

He’s not world class or anything but very solid. Upgrade on Fred and McTimonay for sure.

Amrabat will definitely be going to United now apparently. So that’s one less fall back option if Caicedo doesn’t come. That’s an annoyingly solid signing for them. Amrabat + Casemiro in a big game will be hell to play through.

While £100m is obviously insane and we should go nowhere near it, walking away from Caicedo means getting an alternative that has many more question marks. Unless that alternative is Barella. Lavia is a fantastic talent but is still just 19 and probably isn’t ready to be an every match starter at a huge club yet. Gabri Veiga is nowhere near Caicedo’s level and would be a total gamble whether he can immediately settle in this league. Amrabat could be a great emergency/fall back option but he’s wanted by several clubs and we’d risk losing a bidding war near the end of the window and being left with nobody. So basically, there’s Caicedo and then a fairly big drop off in quality to every alternative.

If I was Caicedo I’d be refusing to show up to training and extremely angry at Brighton for refusing to let him leave TWICE now when huge bids have gone in for him. It’s especially annoying because he was a good lad after they blocked him going to Arse in January. He came back into the team, got his head down, performed professionally at a top level, and never kicked up a fuss that his big moved never happened. And that’s probably because the rumors of an agreement with the club that they’d allow him to go in the summer are true. We’ve got 3 weeks until Liverpool and we’ve only got ONE midfielder that is Chelsea first XI quality in our whole squad. Casadei and Santos are future stars but they’re nowhere near good enough yet to play against world class opponents. And if we had to start the season with a Enzo + Gallagher midfield 2 it would be a disgrace.

As little as I’d care if we sold Gallagher, I would still not sell to Spuds. Sell to Palace, WH, or Everton but never Spuds.

Gallagher is not Chelsea quality so I’d be good seeing him go for a nice hefty fee. He’s not good enough from a technical standpoint and he’s got that Ross Barkley sort of football brain where his decision making is slow. He’s someone who will always do well for traditionally midtable level sides but isn’t good enough for a massive club.

I’ve now watched 3-4 Chelsea fan channels’ reactions to the potential Olise signing and you would swear we are about to sign Mbappe or a Vini Jr. They’re all acting like Olise is world class. I just simply don’t see it. He’s a very nice player for a small club but I’m not convinced he’s a top player. I’d be very underwhelmed if we get him rather than Cherki or Kudus. Especially if Kudus ends up at Arse or Liverpool instead.