Pizy

Disappointing for me personally as it would’ve been interesting to see how he’d perform in a functioning team with a top manager. I would’ve kept him but I understand why we won’t.

I mean, they’d get an excellent young player that could help their team for a season without spending a single Euro? That’s pretty valuable.

Much like Benfica, Sporting are another Portuguese club that are excellent at developing young players. We should be doing everything in our power to send them Andrey Santos on loan as part of any deal for Ugarte. Him developing at a big club and in a country where he speaks the language could be brilliant.

Apparently now Barca are interested in Ugarte. Busquets is gone now and Xavi has said numerous times publicly that they need a new, top quality replacement. We know what happens when Barca start talking to a South American or Spanish speaking player…. 🤦‍♂️ Feels like if we truly want him it’ll have to be very quick while Barca are still dealing with how they’re going to sign Messi.

Seems not until he officially starts on July 1, I guess. Kinda weird how there aren’t even any quotes from him in the announcement.

We really only need 3 incomings: striker, a #6, and a keeper. I don’t think that will be too difficult. We’re completely set at both fullback positions, we’re set at CB, and we’re set in attacking midfield. Depending on what happens with Kova and Kante we may need an additional midfielder along with the new #6. The truly monumental task will be trimming the squad of all the unwanted players.

I think Pulisic would still be very good in Serie A at one of the bigger clubs. I could see him at either Milan club or somewhere like Roma. Loads of players who are mediocre in the PL go to Italy and become stars.

Hopefully Boehly won’t be able to fuck it up. Stay out of everything other than okaying transfers. Let Poch cook and we can challenge for top 4 assuming we sign the players we need.

Leeds, Leicester, and Southampton. Three clubs I’ve always disliked playing against because they’ve almost always been tough. Would’ve preferred Leicester stay up and Everton go down. Anyways, thank FUCK our season is over. It can only possibly go up from here. Let’s hope the club is both ruthless with outgoings and swift with incomings.

I think we’ll try to get rid of KK if possible. With Badiashile and Colwill who are best in the left, there’s not really a need for KK anymore.

Don’t think Trev will be sold. With Fofana’s injury issues and Silva’s age he’ll be handy to have in the squad.

I think the fortunate thing for us is that a lot of our deadwood are either still young, are English, or are pretty big “names.” Or a combo of all those things. Pulisic is a huge name due to his nationality, is still young, and has the talent some other clubs would find exciting. We should easily be able to find a buyer for him. If the desire from our side is there the likes of Mount, Gallagher, RLC, Kova, etc will all be simple to move. We thankfully aren’t in a spot like Arse or United were recently where they had loads of shit players who had been dreadful for multiple seasons and nobody wanted. We’ve got a bunch of players who could still turn out to be very good if given a fresh start elsewhere.

Very interested to see which he tries to implement initially. I just figured he’d play with 3 CB’s but who knows. On one hand it will probably make our attack much more dangerous if we play in a 4-2-3-1 so that we can fit 3 super talented AM’s + a new striker. But then on the other hand the 3 at the back suits so many of our defensive personnel. Reece and Chilly are totally different players when not playing as wingbacks. Having a 39 year old Silva in a 2 is dangerous. And then we’d end up having like a hundred million worth of CB’s we’ve just recently bought on the bench not playing.

Yep. Nkunku is a proper technical footballer as well as an explosive athlete. Timo is a knock it and sprint player who needs lots of space to do his damage on the ball. Very curious how and where he’s going to be used here. With the money we paid for Mudryk and the contract we gave him we have to make him work out for us. I think he’ll be much better with a full preseason under a proper coach. So that’ll be our left wing sorted. We’re going to have a new #9 so Nkunku won’t play there. And for the RW I’m not sure he’s ever played on that side. So assuming Poch sticks with 3-4-3 there’s going to be one hell of a selection headache when trying to select between Mudryk, Nkunku, Sterling, Madueke, Havertz, and potentially Felix.

He’s definitely got a decent amount of talent. He can be someone who is the focal point of a team that’s traditionally mid or lower down the table. The issue is that he’s someone who needs to be playing every single match AND further up in the Mason Mount sort of position on the pitch to reach his best form. Things he’s never getting at Chelsea. Coming on for short sub appearances or getting the odd start as part of a midfield 2 have done nothing for him. If we could sell him to an Everton/Palace/name your usual midtable side I think he’ll revert straight back to his Palace form. So he’s a very solid player but not Chelsea quality. We should 100% be looking to move him but I doubt we’ll see it.

I just can’t see it happening. We’ll probably keep Gallagher and Carney as regular rotation players and I doubt Kante will leave if he’s injured again. Five players competing for 2 positions when we aren’t in Europe is probably enough. A total clearout where we move ALL of Kova, Kante, Gallagher, and RLC whilst bringing in 2 new midfielders would be the dream but sounds very unrealistic.

I know I said yesterday that Ugarte doesn’t really wow you when just watching highlights. But….when you watch the videos of him against individual big clubs he looks incredible. I’ve just watched him physically dominate the midfields of Juve, Arse, Spuds, and Benfica. And he’s much better technically than I initially gathered from his compilation videos. This kid could form a truly special partnership with Enzo. Hope we manage to beat our rivals to him. He’d be a major signing for any PL club.

Yes, strictly in terms of statistical profile Ugarte probably makes more sense. But as you say Caicedo looks like he has more to his game. He’s easier on the eye and a better all around footballer. He very much reminds me of prime Kante though obviously not as good yet. Not someone who is a pure DM but more of a roamer. If one of our rivals gets Caicedo he’s going to be a massive pain to go against for years.

If it were a straight choice between Ugarte & Caicedo I’d go with Caicedo simply because he wouldn’t need much time if any to settle as he’s been dominating in the PL for 2 years now. But I don’t think we can do wrong with either. If we can somehow clear out ALL of RLC, Gallagher, and reluctantly let Kova or Kante leave then one of Ugarte or Caicedo PLUS Lavia would be incredible. But with the striker likely taking up a huge part of the budget as well as goalkeeper I can’t imagine us spending another £100m or more in midfield after doing so on Enzo. Think it’ll be just 1 new midfielder so we better nail that choice whomever it is.

For me Ugarte isn’t a flashy player who wows you when you watch his YouTube highlights. But what’s appealing about him is that his skill set perfectly compliments Enzo’s. He looks like a machine who does all the dirty work, covers the whole pitch, presses very well, and is a prolific tackler. He’s the sort of workhorse midfielder Poch has traditionally liked in his midfields. Problem is, why in his right mind would he choose us over PSG in our current state?

I just check in periodically on Twitter for match updates. Don’t know why any of you continue to torture and annoy yourselves by actually watching this team play still. This lot are gutless and directionless.

Colwill will be starting for us in the opening match next season. Not worried about his situation at all.

As I said the other day, if we aren’t quick in the DM market all the quality ones will be gone before we even have a shot at them. Rice and Ugarte could be scratched off the list soon.

Something massive must have happened behind the scenes during contract negotiations for him to want to go. Probably what he would feel was disrespectful. He was probably asking for crazy money like Saka just got from Arse (300K per week) to be amongst the highest paid in the league and we rightly said no after the stinker last 18 months he’s had. It’s going to be weird as fuck seeing what everyone considered Mr. Chelsea for the past 3-4 years in the shirt of a direct rival. United would be a pretty weird move for him, though. Liverpool made a ton of sense. Bruno is like their main creative spark and one of the first names on the team sheet. And they have Eriksen as well. So he’s going to go to a team with just as much competition for a place as he has here? Being Klopp’s new Milner-like workhorse makes more sense.

I agree. Mount, Gallagher, RLC, Pulisic, Ziyech, and at least one of the keepers could pretty much fund our whole summer needs. CHO is still in our books and we can probably get some small English side to take a punt on him.