Pizy

Unless we get an ironclad obligation to buy a loan just fucks us over once again. Next summer he’s a year older and if he plays like shit on loan he’s even harder to shift than he has been this summer. And it has already been nearly impossible. He has burned every bridge possible. Pissed off just about every club he has played for and also pissed off numerous clubs that he hasn’t played for. Next summer our options could come down to Saudi or terminating his contract. And this asshole could really fuck us over yet again by refusing Saudi another time. So a straight loan to Roma is a poor outcome even if they pay his whole salary.

Better not see the back 3 again. During this run of a handful of winnable matches we need to build comfort and chemistry with a back 4. The back 3 should only ever be used again in emergency injury situations.

Yeah, I rethought it the second I posted it. 🤣🤣🤣 Now that Carney is out we probably need Gallagher. Until Lavia is caught up with the rest of the squad fitness wise Conor will probably play as the most advanced midfielder tomorrow. What I’m not getting is how Ugochukwu apparently surpassed Santos despite only getting a handful of minutes so far. Because I thought Santos showed very well all preseason.

I mean, it’s a very solid loan for Andrey if he actually plays week in and week out. But I’d rather have kept him around than Gallagher tbh.

Nice. No chance that we can panic buy him now. Now we have to hope we don’t do something equally as stupid and pay £40-50m for Brennan Johnson. Feels like one by one the creative/attacking targets we’ve been linked to are going elsewhere. Which is positive in my eyes because it could actually make the Cherki move likely.

Poch did again mention this morning the idea that he wants the attacking signing to be “PL ready.” Who knows if that means figuratively (as in he wants someone physically strong enough to fit into the PL right away) or if he literally means he wants someone who already in the PL.

What “clear and defined role” would he have at PSG with Mbappe and Dembele there? Maybe next year when Mbappe is gone.

Nope. There really aren’t any links that are heating up for any particular attacker right now.

I mean, Cherki is that player.

Perhaps it’s best to just get a super creative type now and then move for Toney as so many here have suggested in January. The striker market it absolutely piss poor right now and we’d end up dramatically overpaying for someone bang average. So instead we should get a player who, even if they don’t score much themselves, they are hugely creative and influential and can produce moments of magic.

LMAO Basically retiring before his career even took off.

I don’t exactly want either “badly,” but I do think Kudus would’ve done well for us. Barcola I have no idea because I haven’t watched him. Cherki is probably the only attacking player left that we’ve been linked with that I badly want. But we aren’t even linked with him by anyone noteworthy anymore. Think he would help us massively in unlocking defenses. But he still wouldn’t really help us in the goal scoring department. I fear we’re going to end up massively overpaying for Balogun or panicking at the deadline and accepting that dogshit Lukaku + cash deal for a Vlahovic.

Kudus close to WH says Ornstein. Scratch another off the list. Wonder what the club saw with him that made us back away? Remember a month ago when Ornstein broke the news that we were very close to signing him and then things just went silent. You’d have to imagine that had we made it known that we really wanted him he’d have been a Chelsea player long ago. So something made us back away. Kind of annoying if we end up buying someone who isn’t as good.

Yeah, both he and Caicedo essentially skipped their entire preseasons in order to force their transfers. That’s why I wasn’t bothered or worried about the former’s horror debut even a little bit. It’s going to take several weeks for us to start seeing the best of both our new midfielders. People need to be patient.

No images of him at all yet since the unveiling and no update from the club or the journalists who usually leak injuries ahead of time, Please don’t tell me we bought an injured player…

The only concern about the Kudus possibility is that Ajax have seemingly raised the price considerably as the window has gone on. I remember in the beginning of the summer there was talk about under £30m or something. Now they’re rejecting bids of over £40m from West Ham I think? So that means when Chelsea get involved we’ll probably get quoted £55m or something.

Whoever we bring in now is going to be hugely overpriced due to how late in the window it is. So with that in mind we 100% need to make it a player we think has an extremely high ceiling and have a super high confidence won’t underwhelm. We can’t afford another mega high priced bust in attacking positions. It’s straight up embarrassing just how long it’s been since we bought an attacking player that lived up to the hype before they joined us. Literally all of our rivals have bought hyped up forwards who have come in and killed it for their new clubs. Whereas every time we do they become scared little children who melt under the spotlight almost overnight. Kudus is the safest bet to instantly fit into the PL and into Poch’s style for me. But Cherki would be the one I’d be most excited about because I think his potential is the biggest. A player who can produce moments of Hazard-like magic out of nothing. Balogun would be extremely underwhelming and we’d probably have to essentially give Arse all the money back that they gave us for Havertz when we ripped them off there. Sadly, the Cherki rumors don't have any actual reporting behind them. It’s just random Chelsea Twitter users trying to wish it into happening.

I’d sell him. I think if it was purely a board decision they’d sell him. But if Poch has the final say I think stays.

Really doesn’t look like Gallagher will go anymore. Poch seems to love him.

So not Doku, most likely not Johnson, Wahi is gone, the Cherki rumors haven’t been revived since about a month ago, and the Barcola rumors kinda came and went after a day since PSG are after him. Sounds more and more likely that we’re going to end up with Balogun. Someone who doesn’t walk into our team, someone who can’t play with Jackson, and someone we’ll end up paying Arse WAY too much money for. Oh, and he’s not really that good. 😔😔😔 Hope there’s a mystery target out there we haven’t heard about.

Whoever it is we choose it would benefit us greatly to have him in during this “easy” run of fixtures. Get them accustomed to their teammates and maybe get in the score sheet.

You could be right but I sort of recall it differently. I could’ve sworn it was very much like Colwill for Saliba in that he was very reluctant to come back unless he was ensured that he was going to play and even said so publicly.

Now that we bought 2 new, high priced DM’s I don’t think bringing Felix back makes sense. If the plan was to stick with this back 3 for good I could see the case for Felix because he could just play the same role Carney has been. But if we’re going to play a 4-3-3 with Enzo, Caicedo, and Lavia I don’t see a place for João. Putting him out wide where his excellent and intricate link up play in tight spaces is negated would be a waste. I will say this, though. If we get close to the deadline and are panicking to find some sort of attacker I’d rather Felix than some of these other names we’re linked with like Balogun or Brennan Johnson.

If we didn’t already have Noni who sadly looks prett bang average then Brennan Johnson would probably be an interesting player to have in the squad for depth. But having both would just be a]saddling ourselves with multiple bang average RW’s. We need someone ready made and already very good. An instant impact, goal scoring beast.

More Balogun chatter this morning on Twitter I see. Would be such an underwhelming signing, man. I just don’t think he adds any qualities we’re currently missing. Looks like the same level as a fit Broja to my eye and will also stand in Broja’s way which Poch just said he didn’t want to do. Plus, paying £50m or whatever it would take to sign a striker that doesn’t even walk into our first XI is silly. There has to be a reason Arteta simply doesn’t fancy him over someone bang average like Nketia. I know he has done well at Arse recently but he’s not anything special. Usually when one of your loanees kills it like Balogun supposedly did their parent club can’t wait to bring them back and reintegrate them into the team. It’s what they did with Saliba. Yet here it feels like Arteta isn’t bothered about Balogun at all. Even with Jesus out. Arse fans don’t care either. How is this not a huge red flag? We need the same scouts that identified Jackson when no other big club went for him to find us another gem.