Pizy

Going into the season with Enzo and Caicedo as our only two first XI quality midfielders would be a recipe for disaster. We’d be one serious injury to either of them away from finishing midtable again. It simply can’t happen. We need 2 new midfielders.

Fabinho looked dead on his feet last season. Liverpool fans were complaining about how shit he was nonstop. To get £40m for him is mad and I’m sure Liverpool fans who cried about us selling to Saudi will suddenly be cheering this and Henderson going there and helping their rebuild. In other Saudi news, looks like Jordan Ayew is moving there, too. A player that was always super annoying to play against so I’d love this. Even when he wasn’t scoring against us he was just a pain in the ass with his holdup play and drawing fouls.

That #7 looks absolutely horrible on him. And this isn’t just me being salty that he’s in a United shirt. Seeing someone who isn’t a tricky, explosive wide player wearing that number just looks wrong. From the club he chose to force himself to, to the number he decided to take knowing the history it carries there it truly does feel like a move solely to grow Mason Mount the brand rather than what was best from a football perspective. He thinks about himself as and is trying to further become someone who reaches beyond the football pitch like his new teammate Rashford. He wants to be a celebrity who is in fashion ads and commercials for Nike or Adidas. All the more reason I’m not bothered at all that he’s gone. If we sign a new #10 type we’ll forget about Mount within a few months.

True, but I feel like the minimum/sweet spot we should sell at is £35m. Then we wash our hands of him forever.

£25m for Lukaku when you’re receiving 50-60m for your keeper is pretty laughable.

So after like 5 seasons straight of being linked with a move away to every big club under the sun, Milinkovic-Savic finally leaves Lazio. To go to Saudi to never be seen or heard from again. It’s going to take some real getting used to seeing under 30nplayers in their prime going to that league.

Something has to be wrong behind the scenes on the commercial side, man. Struggling for months to even get a sponsor at all and now we’re asking for peanuts for it? Aren’t our big club PL rivals all getting paid almost twice this for their shirt sponsorships? What are we doing?

Him not being an every match starter at Brighton isn’t relevant. What matters is his future potential which again like Gvardiol is immense. And tbh, comparedGvardiol, Colwill has the better physical tools due to his height and size. I remember reading some stats that showed Gvardiol being one of the worst CB’s in Europe when it came to winning his aerial duels.

Even if Liverpool offered something silly like the €100m City are about to spend on Gvardiol we should say no chance. He’s that same level as a CB prospect. He can literally become the best in Europe if he fulfills his potential and there’s a reason why all of our rivals are clamoring for him. The fact that Klopp wants him to be the long term replacement for one of the best CB’s of his generation in VVD tells you all you need to know. Selling him (and even worse, selling him to a hated PL rival) would be the most unforgivable bit of business this club has ever done. Worse than selling Salah, worse than selling De Bruyne. All this noise and bullshit will hopefully be killed the instant he reports back to Cobham and starts working with Poch.

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.