Pizy

Refresh my memory if I’m wrong, but Eriksen wasn’t exactly a pressing machine and doesn’t do much running or defensive work. And he was Poch’s key playmaker in those great Spuds sides. Could Cherki not play that exact role?

Lyon are in DIRE financial straits apparently. So that would explain the cheap price.

Tbf, if we get Caicedo we’d have two players behind Cherki who are tigers on the pitch that can cover for his defensive weakness. Especially since we’ll be the team with all of the ball in most games. Putting Cherki in a midfield with Jorginho in it would likely have been suicidal. But Enzo and Caicedo can cover every blade of grass. We need a player who can stitch together the CM and the forward players. With excellent ball retention and an eye for a killer pass. Cherki provides that. Fair. And if he was going to be mega expensive I’d say avoid and it’s not worth the risk. But for under £40m the upside outweighs my concerns. Worst case scenario is he needs to be sold in a couple of years when he’ll still be in his early 20’s and many clubs will be interested in a young kid with super talent.

Cherki could be the ultimate boom or bust signing. Could be an unreal value signing like Hazard was coming from Ligue 1 if he works out. His talent on the ball is amazing. But his nonchalant style isn’t going to fly in the PL against every opponent so he’s definitely a risky player as well. I’m sold on him at this point. Wasn’t at first but now I want him.

Caicedo’s comments don’t really help our cause, tbh. Probably just entrenches Brighton’s stance of £100m. Basically the same situation as Arse went through in January. He publicly said he wanted to go there but they wouldn’t meet Brighton’s valuation so they dug their heels in and he stayed.

Another completely silent day. 🙄

Yeah, at this exact moment in time I really feel like Poch will try Nkunku up top to start the season with Jackson as his rotation. Which I wouldn’t mind trying so long as we sign a creative #10 behind him to connect the midfield and attack. Because having Nkunku isolated up top without that would be a waste. ——————————-Nkunku—————————- Mudryk———————new #10———————Sterling That could be really dynamic and score plenty. Cherki, Wirtz, whoever. Dybala could slot right in that spot. I’d rather try that than spend £70m on Vlahović.

Who then? Struggling to think of anyone. Jonathan David?

Giroud was great. Ba was alright as was Eto’o. But then we’ve had plenty of flops when we’ve brought in older strikers. Falcao, Higuain, Auba. For me the perfect profile is a mid-late 20’s striker. Someone who’s young enough to still grow with the team for years but also experienced enough to perform week in and week out at an elite level. No more 19-21 year old kids, ffs. Kolo Muani at age 24 fits the bill.

We absolutely can’t wait. All of our rivals have their sets more or less settled already bar one or two deals. We still need 3-4 players in to be competitive.

Go for Amrabat or Lavia as a pure DM and then target a more creative midfielder. You can get both for the price Brighton want for Caicedo. They’re clearly banking on us bending over and being fools like we did with Potter and Cucu and just being so dead set on getting Caicedo that we pay any price. Which we shouldn’t do.

Agreed, Caicedo is nowhere near a 100m player. You can probably get Barella AND another quality midfielder for that money. But we need to get midfielders NOW. We can’t drag out this Caicedo shit all summer and kill ourselves before the season even starts like last year.

Top 4? If we signed Kane and Caicedo we could push for the title. But as you say, Kane is surely impossible.

Another start to a week with ZERO update or progress on Caicedo, our new manager’s top target. When we have no midfield at all currently.

Bruh, what?! Isn’t Montpellier a bigger club than Strasbourg? Why would a player agree to that? What are we doing?

Still mind blowing that a club of our stature has struggled for months to find shirt sponsors. Both front of shirt AND sleeve sponsors, apparently. You would think massive companies from all over the world would be clamoring to have their logo on the shirt of one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world. One who plays in the most viewed league in the world. It’s even more puzzling because Boehly and Clearlake know all about marketing and branding having worked with the Lakers and Dodgers who are all about star power, Hollywood marketing and branding. You’d think they’d surely have companies calling them begging to have their logo on Chelsea shirts.

Another young kid who is completely unproven at the very highest level and at a big club. Someone with the same profile as Broja or David Fofana. Makes zero sense. Hopefully nothing in it.

We’ve been negotiating for 1 player for over a month it feels like. After doing a lot of the legwork with Brighton when we wanted him in January already. And it STILL isn’t done. And with such a massive transfer it has to be holding up all the rest of our moves. Surely there has to be some urgency to get it done this week before we fly out for the tour. We can’t have all of our rivals having their new midfields settled and ready for preseason games whilst we don’t. City with Kova, Arse with Rice, Liverpool with Szobo & Mac Allister, and United with Mount all will be done before they fly off to their tours.

Ironic that with Caicedo potentially coming in that we release a kit that looks like it belongs to Brighton. The white and mustard brownish yellow ruin it.

He looks to me like a 15-18 goals + 10 assists type of forward. Someone who could link up spectacularly with the likes of Nkunku/Mudryk/Sterling and our midfield. Not a striker who will bag us 25-35 like Kane or Haaland. I just want ANY striker we sign to be a proper footballer and not just a big lump who will be annoying as hell to watch with the ball at his feet.

Dybala & Vlahovic all but ruled out within a couple of hours. Which is a good thing. I’m still holding out hope that we go for Kolo Muani if any striker is brought in.

Well, at the very least Vlahovic is twice the actual footballer that Lukaku is. It wouldn’t be as infuriating watching Vlahovic trying to receive the ball and using it, I just think he could end up being just as frustrating at actually scoring in the PL.

Vlahović is one of those strikers where you love the tools and raw materials but he doesn’t maximize them on the pitch. Or at least he hasn’t since moving to Juve. When he was leaving Fiorentina every big club wanted him because it looked like he was going to be a sure fire superstar #9. But he has really underwhelmed. Having read a little more about him at Juve that’s not all down to him, tbf. Apparently Allegri’s coaching has been dire for a couple of years now and there has been quite a bit of dysfunction at that club lately. Iconic players getting super old and either retiring or leaving, key players like Chiesa missing so much time etc. Not to mention the off the pitch stuff. So I guess at the age of 23 a coach like Poch still sees a potential diamond that can be polished. But he definitely doesn’t feel like a striker I’d be totally confident in.

Pretty concerning, isn’t it? Imagine what happens to the entire team if Enzo or Caicedo gets injured. Or god forbid both at the same time. We’d have a midfield fit for a Championship team at this moment in time. If Caicedo finally gets done this coming week (which it 100% has to so that he can fly with the squad here to the US) we need to instantly get to work on another midfielder. Maybe even 2 depending on what happens with loan moves for Santos & Casadei.

I could deal with the tacky golden badge if it weren’t for those AWFUL white parts on the armpits and the gold at the tips of the sleeves. Retro styling can work if it’s executed well. But this looks like they took the worst parts of the 90’s and made a shirt out of it. 🤢🤢🤢