Pizy

Gallagher the clear weak link of this side.

Quotes from Poch shed all the light you need for the surprise selection and formation. Says it’s what he felt was best with the players available today. A clear hint that had we had midfielders in on time there’s no way he’d have picked this team. People need to stop melting down. This won’t be our normal formation, surely.

Well that’s a shock! Didn’t see this formation at all in preseason. Shocked that Mudryk isn’t starting even with Nkunku out.

Rest of the Spuds side looks bang average but Maddison looks like he’ll be a great signing for them. Just about everything they do runs through him. Their attack could’ve been extremely annoying had Kane stayed. Now they’re as dependent on Maddison staying fit as they were on Kane in years past.

Regardless of what happens I hope we never deal with Brighton again. Even if they have someone super highly rated in a position we need.

Those people who tweeted that this was all done yesterday looking foolish once again.

Fact that there STILL isn’t an agreement with Brighton after we supposedly negotiated all through the night is weird. Is the club finally stretched too thin financially and that’s why we haven’t just put the money down? And the hold up is us trying to pay in several installments that we can’t get Brighton to agree to yet?

Genuinely surprised at the complete silence this morning from all the usual journalists. Expected at least several updates even if the announcement doesn’t happen today.

Can’t see a massive, record transfer like this just being announced out of nowhere by the club. You’ll have Law, Ornstein, Romano etc all briefing that the deal is signed and done at least an hour ahead of it being made official. That’s why I’m still on edge right now. Too many twists and turns in this saga. I see most of the well known Chelsea YouTubers and personalities are talking trash and celebrating as if it’s 100% done and I just cringe. Don’t do that unless the club announces it or you make our whole fanbase look bad if he goes to Liverpool!

Yeah, it’s definitely starting to feel like that whole “Chelsea’s dream is to announce Caicedo before the game and unveil him to the crown at the Bridge” stuff was bullshit.

I’d love him. But in a season without Europe I’m not sure how practical it would be to have Kudus, Sterling and Madueke as options for that spot. If we can’t pull the Lavia signing off then I’d 100% bring in Kudus to play in the advanced midfield role.

If (and at the moment it’s still a big IF) we sign both Caicedo AND Lavia, the only real area of our best XI you can look at and immediately say we could use an upgrade is on the right wing. But even that sounds a bit harsh before we’ve seen what Madueke and Sterling can do with a proper structure behind them in midfield. Of course Sterling looked like dogshit all preseason but what’s to say he won’t look great again with a rock solid midfield 3 behind him? I’d be pretty surprised if we dip into the market for a RW after the money we could be about the spend in midfield. If any further attacker is brought in I’m betting it’s a striker to rotate with Nico Jackson.

Kinda crazy that with all the player sales Leipzig has year after year nobody has snatched Dani Olmo. Great player. I know one of the Spanish giants tried recently but that no big PL side has signed him is very surprising.

Doubt we’re getting any announcement tonight. Can’t imagine the club announcing a record transfer late at night when everyone in the UK is asleep.

The overall bid I'm not worried about. It’s whether Brighton accept the payment terms that seems to be the hold up.

Don’t want a late night Ornstein bomb blowing up my phone saying that Caicedo changed his mind and will go to Liverpool after all. Or that Chelsea couldn’t match the bid… 😭

Ornstein has been awfully quiet today about the Caicedo situation. And wasn’t he the most clued in the other day about Liverpool’s bid?

I somehow doubt he’ll be seeking the same insane wages he had at United. Otherwise he’ll never play again as nobody would even pay him half of what he made last season.

Know people here are against it but I’d have DDG as our backup.

Was hoping he’d go to a different league so he wouldn’t have one of his 2-3 world class performances per season against us! 😅😅😅

Yep, Newcastle weren’t a fluke last season. They’ll be very strong again. I still maintain however that they’ll fall away once the extreme fixture congestion starts.

Ah, yeah, you’re right. I think you can only amortize the contract over the first 5 years of a contract.

I thought they closed this loophole specifically because of us and contracts longer than 5 years were no longer allowed?

Is Kasper any better? I remember his form talking WAY off for Leicester towards the end and apparently he’s been mediocre in Nice. DDG may be shite with the ball at his feet and prone to a howler but he is still a great shot stopper. As our #2 I think we could do much worse.

I don’t care about getting rid of him generally speaking. Just the timing is bad.