Pizy

So Trev, Thiago Silva, Colwill, and Badiashile for the whole season. Assuming Badiashile returns pretty early in the season as reported. Probably good enough for a season without Europe. Assuming Poch’s plan is for a back 4.

We’ll probably try to get Mitoma next summer 🤣🤣🤣

If that Fofana rumor is true then @Vesper was right from the very beginning. She was banging the drum about his injury issue but I refused to believe our medical team would’ve given the club the green light without being 100% sure it wouldn’t be a long term concern. 😭😭😭 Hope it’s not true. He’s such a huge talent and Poch could’ve done SO much good for his development.

I could be made to eat my words in a few years, but to me Højland doesn’t look like a special talent. I don’t even think he looks as good as Jackson who we’ve just bought and he might not even be our starting striker depending on the rest of the business we do. Media and United fans are hyping him up and comparing him to Haaland. That’s madness. He looks like a decent young striker to me. I’m glad they’re going for him rather than Kane/Osimhen/Kolo Muani/Goncalo Ramos.

With Badiashile and Fofana injured it’s even more impossible than it already was that he’d be allowed to leave. He should 1000% be our starting LCB against Liverpool on match day 1.

Fair to them and fair for us are probably very different. They probably think Rice money is fair. I can see us going to £80-85m but hopefully we go nowhere near £100m.

So Ornstein says that we’ve already sent in a bid yesterday of £70m fixed with no add-ons whereas all the others are saying that we will be sending a bid in of over £70m fixed with add-ons at some point this week. At least we’re actually putting money on the table now instead of just talking. But we surely knew £70m wasn’t going to move Brighton. Don’t want to risk pissing them off and offering him to one of our rivals instead. Feels a bit like the Enzo saga where Caicedo really seems to want to come to Chelsea but we have to kinda be delicate with Brighton for fear of angering them. But we HAVE to push this through this week before more clubs join in and start a bidding war.

Unless Caicedo goes the nuclear route and refuses to turn up to training I just don’t see the incentive for Brighton to budge. And he doesn’t seem like the type to kick up a fuss.

Really? I’ve watched his highlights from this last season and he looks like the complete striker. Pace, power, fantastic technique for a big guy, scores and assisted like a machine. Looks like the sort of striker that, even when he isn’t scoring, will contribute to the team. He’s also young enough to still get better and better. True, if they demand 100m we obviously shouldn’t go near that. But if they’d accept 70-80 I think he’s the best option on the market. I’m certainly WAY more impressed by him than Hojland who United are about to overpay for.

Kolo Muani linking up with Nkunku, Mudryk, and Sterling would be lethal, imo. If we are indeed interested and it’s possible we should get him.

The eternally injured Reece & Fofana injured once again before the season has even started. Before preseason has even started! We should thank our lucky stars that we bought Gusto when we did and that we have a top class, ready to start from day 1 CB returning with Colwill. Could you imagine what a shirt show it would be right now if we had to scramble in the transfer window for a new RB and CB? We’d be panicking right now.

Again, the surprising part is how good he still is. Not like he was a rapidly fading force at City. He could’ve stayed in Europe for another 2-3 years and then retired to Saudi on a cushy contract.

Just signed a new contract a few weeks ago. Arse probably wouldn’t sell him for Mbappe money at this point since he means so much to the club and fanbase. Pep will probably get some relatively unknown South American attacker knowing him.

Appears Mahrez will leave City for Saudi. That’s the first genuinely shocking Saudi move for me. Yes he’s 32, but he still looked really good and could still play at the top level. If not at City then at some other huge club that likes buying older players like the Milan clubs, Juve, or in Spain. Guess since he’s won so much he isn’t bothered anymore so fair play that he’s going for a mega pay day. Wonder who City are going to replace him with. They’re different players but I hope they stay away from Cherki and leave him to us. Pep would turn him into an unbelievable player by getting some discipline into his game.

I did too until just a couple of days ago. 🤣 Thought we sold him last summer during all the madness. But getting a supposed £12m for a player that was never going to play for us again is great business.

In terms of Lavia vs Caicedo, I actually think Lavia has the higher ceiling/potential but Caicedo will be more consistent and steady straight away. Using purely the eye test Lavia looks a level above when it comes to carrying the ball.

He looked completely done and past it for multiple seasons when he left Southampton. Now he goes to Barca….wtf?

If we didn’t already have a world class playmaker like Enzo I’d be very weary about paying a big fee for Caicedo. Because as you say, he isn’t the most polished midfielder on the ball. He’s pretty solid much like Kante was but not top class yet. But since we’d have someone beside him who can pick out those pinpoint passes and control games with the ball at his feet it allows Caicedo to do what he does best without having a creative burden on him.

Yeah, if this is true it’s straight up amateur hour, Arsene Wenger Arsenal era stuff where we offer something we know they won’t accept. We should be in the end game phase now where we put something on the table that can FINALLY finish negotiations. Offering £70m when they want close to £100m after we’ve been talking with them for ages is silly. Whilst it’s definitely an overpay, just offer them £85m or something and be done with it. We need our midfield sorted ASAP.

Don’t think we’d take Maguire for free. It’s actually laughable that someone would even throw our name out there when we’re clearly already we’ll set at CB.

Ehh. We’ve gotten leaked and briefs about every one of these 50 kids we’ve signed ahead of time. We’ve gotten clear briefs from within the club about Mount, Havertz, Kova, and really all of the players we’ve sold. It’s clear there are still people within the club feeding info to trusted journalists. It’s just that this Caicedo deal we have no clue what’s actually going on.

After months of talking with Brighton I wonder if we’re even going to see the usual “Chelsea have placed a bid for Caicedo” song and dance where we go back and forth. Or one day (better be this week, ffs) we just see from Ornstein that a fee has been agreed and it’s wrapped up without the drama. I mean, come on. Every one of our rivals have their primary midfield targets in and training except for us. We HAVE to finally push this shit through this coming week so he gets as many preseason matches with the team as possible. He’s already going to miss the first one in a couple of days.

Be surprised if we ever see him in a first team Chelsea shirt so hard to think anything but “meh.”

I think Colwill & Noni are the last ones to return. Think I read that report tomorrow so should be on the plane but I doubt we’ll see them in this first game against Wrexham.

I guess the only thing you can say about Vlahovic if you’re trying to talk yourself into him is that perhaps he looks much better in a side that’s not coached by Allegri who Juve supporters were complaining about all season from what I saw. Not someone you want to spend 70m on but if the price were somehow reasonable there IS a player in there.