Pizy

Yeah, doesn’t really say anything about his Chelsea time at all. Looks like he was desperate to hop to City at the first opportunity.

Kova was a joy to watch when fit and in form. But hopefully we properly replace his skill set with someone who can also contribute in attack which he never really did. We 100% need at least 2 new CM’s. Caicedo + another who is more technical and box to box.

Since there really isn’t any standout striker candidate available to sign in addition to Jackson it’s probably best to wait until next summer and assess what’s out there. Maybe some big player unexpectedly wants to change clubs or some club needs to sell. Buying Lautaro or Vlahovic now for the sake of signing any experienced striker would be stupid. Having done a bunch of YouTube scouting the only interesting striker that could be in the move this summer for me is Kolo Muani. But the price for him is insane and one we surely won’t touch. We should instead get a couple of players in other positions who can score and create goals.

Good luck to Ruben. If (and that’s a big IF) he can stay fit for an extended stretch he should excel in Serie A. Hopefully Pulisic is next.

Doubt Levy would accept a penny less than £100m just like we did with Hazard in his final year. Like us, Levy knows Spuds are dead next season if they sell him so they’ll demand a fee nobody will pay.

That Bayern bid for Kane is cheeky as fuck 🤣 Even with a year left on his deal they didn’t really think they could get one of the best strikers in the world for £65m, did they? Almost feels like a troll bid to turn his head.

Ruben is a better footballer but at least if Gallagher rediscovers his best form under Poch he offers a genuine goal threat. And unlike RLC he actually has a high intensity mindset instead of casually strolling around the pitch.

It feels crazy that we haven’t sealed a midfielder yet. It’s as though we’re asking for other big clubs to start up a bidding war for whatever targets we have. Why hasn’t Caicedo been wrapped up yet when the sales of Kai and Kova alone will have brought us £90m, never mind the extra money we’ll be getting for the 3 Saudi deals? We don’t even have to dip into whatever transfer funds were available outside of players sales yet.

Having a coach in well before preseason, telling the club which players he doesn’t want, telling them which players he’d like to sign, and then having a full preseason to drill the players in his idea should automatically mean we’re better than last season. Remember how calamitous our preseason was last year? The signs were there right away when we got smoked by Arse in America. By all accounts from his Spuds and Southampton days he has been described as the sort of coach who demands superhuman fitness and discipline from his players. He’s got a clear idea and plan. This is what we were missing completely under Potter who seemed in WAY over his head and was battling from minute 1 to try to earn the respect of players who most of which had never heard of him. Depending on who we buy I’ll be super confident that we’ll be in the mix for top 4.

RLC was never going to become anything worth keeping at a club of our ambition. Didn’t score, didn’t assist, not mentally switched on enough to make it. And he’s always injured over the years. At his absolute best he was nice but even then he was essentially Kova with a bit more power. Wasn’t getting or creating goals. Just good at carrying r ball. That’s not good enough.

Getting rid of ALL of your deadwood in one summer is the stuff most big clubs dream of but can never do. But we’re actually doing it! A couple of months ago when some of the Chelsea reporters talked about how the club were going to sell an absurd number of players this summer I just rolled my eyes and thought to myself “uh huh, sure. There’s no way we’ll be able to move most of these dudes.” But we’re actually selling every player I thought would be impossible to shift.

Expected a big flurry of outgoing announcements today but we get nothing it seems…

If I had to choose between Lautaro and Vlahovic I’d take Lautaro. But I don’t really want either 😪 Feel like Lautaro’s playing style could mesh better with the attackers we have. Though I suppose after working with Kane in the PL Poch would fancy Vlahovic more since he’s more of a classic striker.

Whatever it takes for me to never see yet another manager think to themselves “hey, maybe RLC is good enough for Chelsea” again for the 15th time. I just want him gone.

Is it? Much like KK and others simply getting him the hell off our books with those huge wages is a massive win. I don’t see some small PL club being able to offer him well over 100k per week. He’s a one in every 10 games sort of player.

I and a few others here agree. Osimhen is a great finisher within the box and is a powerful, classic #9 that would do well in the PL. But he’s not a £100m+ player for me. Not even close. He’s average with the ball at his feet and doesn’t offer enough besides goal scoring to be worth mega money. For a striker to be worth that sort of money they need a world class all around game like Kane or Benzema. And if they don’t they need to have alien like production every season like Haaland. Osimhen is no Haaland.

We should never engage with Napoli again unless one of their players has a release clause. Reports suggest that De Laurentiis will demand like £150m for Osimhen so we can forget about that. In my opinion, we should avoid ever paying huge money for a striker or keeper again unless they’re coming from another PL club and have been killing it there for a number of years. We can’t afford another embarrassing, mega money bust in these positions.

This is going to be a crazy week for outgoings. Let’s hope it’s got a couple of incomings as well. Jackson is a given obviously, but can we get a midfielder in this week?

Saw Barella trending on Twitter and clicked on it hoping it was something Chelsea related but instead all the posts are about Liverpool moving for him. Man, I really hope we don’t let him go there without fighting like mad. Really, we should be making him our primary midfield target before Caicedo when the prices being talked about are similar.

Is Havertz getting married today or something?

Nope. Having a club suddenly ripped from the hands of one owner, having the government seize control of it, and then find a new owner within such a short span is totally without precedent. We’re seeing right now how long and complicated a process of new ownership is with a massive club like ours with the Man United situation. It’s been how many months since the Glazers started the process? And there’s still no clear picture there.

Mount really does seem intent on destroying all the good will he built up with Chelsea supporters here.

Problem is, a midtable PL side couldn’t afford his huge wages unless he just agrees to take a big pay cut in order to start playing football again.

Barring any last second fuckery (which we know can happen with this new club negotiation group after the Ziyech & Ugarte moves) it really is incredible that we’ve sold off so many unwanted players so quickly and easily. I thought it would be nearly impossible to move Koulibaly this summer. Mega wages, was only here for 1 season, and he himself had expressed his intent to stay and turn his bad fortunes around at Chelsea. At BEST I thought we could perhaps loan him to a Serie A side. I figured Ziyech and Mendy would drag on all summer because they’d be merely fallback options for clubs that failed to get their primary targets. And again, thought we’d only be able to loan them. Mount and Havertz I expected to be kept and used by Poch as squad players. That we’re going to get £120m combined for the two of them is “pinch me in case I’m dreaming” stuff. The final hurdle we now have in getting rid of the last of the deadwood is finding solutions for Lukaku, Pulisic, RLC, and CHO. And unfortunately these 4 are probably the hardest to move. One of them (Lukaku) is a stubborn asshole and will only accept 1 club. Pulisic will probably have many options but seems perfectly happy to stay and be a squad player so I could see him staying. And CHO & RLC are on massive wages so will be extremely difficult to move permanently.

Whether Bayern want him or not it’s moot. He clearly wants United and only United because they’re probably offering him wages that nobody else will go near and he has surely been tapped up by a bunch of his English mates in the United squad.