Pizy

So much for Ugarte’s future being sorted by the end of this week like reports said.

Firmino has looked dead at Liverpool for ages. Could hardly get a game for them. But he’s good enough for Real Madrid? What a weird transfer that would be.

Not that I rate Trev particularly highly, but it’s probably best he stays. Azpi is totally spent and Fofana is injured a lot. We need someone who can reliably fill in on that right side. With Silva and Azpi both leaving following this next season we may need Trev. Koulibaly is the only one of our CB’s that doesn’t have an obvious role unless Silva gets a big injury and Poch is playing 3 at the back. That middle CB position is the only place I somewhat trust him in at this point.

Regarding Colwill, I’m sure all of you here also follow Liam Twomey on Twitter and he does raise the concern I’ve also expressed. We’ve spent an absolute fortune on CB’s this last 12 months including 2 that play in the exact sort of area Colwill does. One of which is just barely older than Levi and is very promising in Badiashile. So it’s a real headache if you’re Poch deciding which of these players starts in a season where you would have to assume rotation will be much rarer since we aren’t in Europe. And you can understand why Colwill may be hesitant to return. Badiashile is just 22 and is starting material with lots of potential. KK is at an age and on wages that make it a total waste to have rotting on the bench every week. But he has already expressed his desire to stay at Chelsea and make up for a poor season. The best solution for us is of course to move KK on but I don’t see how at the moment.

All excellent signings, sadly. These are all players that should massively improve those sides. Hopefully we get our midfield targets as well.

I have loved Kova at Chelsea but even I can admit it’s the right time for him to go even if it’s to a domestic rival. If he was 24-25 I’d be adamantly against it. But he’s nearly 30 now and has had constant injury problems. And even when he has been fit he hasn’t been his best like he was a couple of season ago. A situation like City is perfect for him since he won’t have to be an every match player. He’ll be rotated constantly by Pep so his injury risk will be lessened. As for Mount, I just could not imagine a scenario in which he played regularly for us if he stayed. Not when we have the attacking midfield options we have. He’s not playing ahead of Nkunku or even Kai in the second striker role, he’s not playing ahead of the actual, natural wingers we have, and moving him deeper in midfield is pointless. So squeezing £60m or more out of someone is great business. Will he go on to be solid for United? Sure. But I really don’t think he’s a special enough talent to haunt us like Salah or KdB.

Seeing lots of pundits and talking heads slaughtering us for letting Mount go. Idiots that clearly haven’t watched Chelsea closely over the last 18 months in which Mount has been utterly woeful. For both club and country. All of these guys seem to think we’re selling the Mason Mount from the CL winning campaign or the Lampard season where he was arguably our most important player. He hasn’t got near that level in ages. Shitting on the club for refusing to hand a squad player (which is what Mase would be if he stayed) a mega-wage when all the media have been doing since Boehly arrived is criticize us for handing out silly money is so hypocritical.

I mean, with Madrid signing Bellingham and extending Kroos & Modrić for 1 final year they are totally overloaded in midfield. But the idea they’d sell 1 of the best young talents in the world is crazy. Even crazier that he’d leave them for us at the moment.

Does feel kinda sad seeing us send basically our entire midfield over the last few years to direct PL rivals. First J5 and now soon Kova and Mount. Jorginho has already been hugely upgraded with Enzo. I think Mount’s skill set and production can be easily replaced by any number of players we already have in our books. But Kova is pretty unique when he’s in form. I’ll be saddest selling him out of any of them.

Gonna be several fan favorite Chelsea players lacing them up for direct rivals this summer by the look of it. And perhaps I was wrong about us bringing in more than 1 new midfielder if RLC, Mount, and Kova are all sold within the first couple of weeks of the season ending. And Gallagher should really be following them. If all of that happens then yes, we will absolutely need 2 coming in.

Doubt it. He has already proven that the club are willing to spend huge money on transfer fee themselves. And paying off a manager less than a year into a 5 year contract that had him as one of the highest paid coaches in the league. But wages are a big part of what attracts the players themselves. Being sensible with our wage structure is fine. Being cheap is another thing. Not all top class players will want to have their contract loaded up with a hundred incentives. Not when other huge clubs will just go in and say “here’s 200k a week.”

With Felix, Mount, RLC, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mendy, and whoever else all off our books I feel like we could comfortably offer all the new signing big wages and still come out saving money compared to last season.

Of course we shouldn’t go crazy offering dudes 200-300k a week right off the bat, but apparently we’ve offered him midtable PL level wages. Probably a decent bump to what he’s earning currently but why would he choose a Chelsea side who are out of the UCL and who are offering half the weekly wage? He can go to PSG or United and probably earn huge money. If anything, this should be the final summer where we DO offer huge wages in order to get us back into the top 4 ASAP. Then when we make it we step back a bit and trim the wage bill.

Usually when the top PL clubs fall out of the UCL for a short period of time like United have they know they have to offer MORE in wages to make up for it. If reports are to be believed we’ve gone the opposite way…

Are we going to become cheap bastards wage wise under Boehly? If we are indeed going to target players like a Ugarte, Osimhen, Caicedo etc who are highly sought after by a handful of other top clubs then surely our hierarchy can’t expect to convince these guys to choose Chelsea when we’re offering half the wages of the others?

Feels like Ugarte is the exact opposite sort of profile they need in midfield. They’re like the opposite of us. We have the world class playmaker/ball player in Enzo but lack the hard man DM/destroyer. They have the DM but lack the playmaker deeper in midfield. Which is why they’ve wanted De Jong so badly. Bruno and Eriksen are more advanced players and aren’t best suited further away from goal.

They’ve already got one of the best DM’s in the world in Casemiro. Would be a nonsensical signing for them.

If he was the centerpiece of our midfield I’d agree he’d be slightly underwhelming. But we already have an absolute gem in there with Enzo. What we need now are midfielders who compliment him and do all the dirty work.

Since Mount has 3-4 suitors we’re absolutely right to ask a sky high fee for him. Especially since it’ll likely be to a PL rival. If there was only one team that was interested we’d have no leverage and would have to take a much smaller fee. With his age and with him being English I definitely think we can get £60-70m for him even in the final year of his contract. United paying that for someone who doesn’t even walk into their first XI would be fantastic business for us. Liverpool would be more annoying becasue I think he’d actually be a big time starter for them most weeks.

As cool as it may be as fans who are always in “win now” mode to sign two super high quality midfielders this summer, I’m just not sure the club will think it’s wise after the business they’ve done over the past 12 months. We’ve signed 3 teenaged midfielders who are super highly rated in Casadei, Santos, and Carney who are obviously viewed as big players for the future. So going out and buying not just Ugarte but also someone like Caicedo or Lavia means the path for any of those 3 teenagers is completely blocked. Enzo, Ugarte, and Caicedo are all in their early 20’s and Lavia isn’t even 20 yet I don’t think. What would be the point of investing pretty big money in those kids we bought if we then closed their pathway to the first team? My money is on just 1 midfielder. Perhaps if we were in Europe and had a packed fixture list buying 2 would make sense.

Yes. But there hasn’t really been any indication that Gallagher and Kante will go at this moment. RLC, Mount, and Kova seem forgone conclusions.

Italian clubs seem to absolutely love PL flops and castoffs. And tbf they often take those flops and castoffs and make them look solid again because the general level is much lower in Serie A. We should be trying to flog all of our unwanted players there. Ziyech, Pulisic, Auba, Kounilbaly. All these players could totally reinvigorate their careers there.

True, but there aren’t exactly 4-5 clear choices to pick from out there like there are for the midfield. Especially in the position we’re currently in. All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t shock me if we had to use him because we simply couldn’t pull a big name #9.

If Osimhen proves too expensive or decides to go to a UCL club I can 100% see Lukaku being brought back into the fold. Everyone within the club from the manager, to the hierarchy, to Lukaku himself will probably spin it as a genuine “fresh start.” As crazy as it is to say because I never wanted to see him in a Chelsea shirt again, I’d rather be\ring him back and see what he does under a Poch than spend huge money on Vlahović who I’m not sold on. Hell, I still say we throw a £100m or more bid at Kane and see if Levy is crazy enough to turn that down with 1 year left before he goes for free.

He’s basically the ultimate luxury player. If you have a settled team already and drop Felix into it I think he’d be amazing consistently. Sadly, we don’t have that currently. Hopefully he doesn’t return to another PL side next season who are indeed settled and stable. Rumors of United being interested. That would be super annoying for me.