Pizy

I may think this is a silly transfer at the moment and a big overpay, but at least it’s clear what type of attacker the club and/or Potter wants and it’s the type I’ve been desperate for for a long while. Nkunku, Mudryk, links to Leão and that kid from PSV. We want super quick, highly aggressive, skillful attackers who have the balls to take on defenders and be assertive. Hopefully brings an end to soft and dainty guys like Pulisic and Ziyech who are either injured all the time or can’t beat a player in space to save their lives.

The #1 thing that stands out when watching Mudryk highlights is his blistering pace and ability to dribble and beat players in space. But the thing you also notice is how many clips there are of him in just massive acres of wide open pitch. How often will that happen for him here at Chelsea and in the PL? When we’re actually in form as a team our opposition sits deep and negates space which could rob a player like this of his best attributes. That’s what I worry about.

If we aren’t getting a midfielder this window then for the love of God, can we at least sign a RB so we don’t have to watch Azpi struggle though match after match for any longer?

It’s clear that the sizable add-on’s are what makes this 100m deal different than the 100m Enzo deal, but fucking hell this is annoying. We could have signed a transformational player in a position of dire need. Instead we could spend mega money on a kid who will have huge pressure on him instantly in a team with rock bottom form and confidence. Apparently there’s still a chance Arse can hijack the hijack. I’m kind of hoping they do.

Spending 100m on a left winger after just spending 50m in a left winger a few months ago is some hilarious shit, btw. Like spending 62m on Cucu when we already had 50m Chilly. Ordinarily you’d say that’s great for depth but when we have GLARING holes in the squad elsewhere that are seemingly being ignored it’s just madness.

We’ve been so monumentally shit that I haven’t even glanced at the table or watched a single minute of any football other than ours in months. So finding out just now that Liverpool are having an almost equally as shit of a season as we are is nice.

He’s been whoring himself at Arse for literally weeks, if not longer. The dude clearly dreams of playing for arguably our most hated rival currently. 🤢🤢🤢

If we are so desperate for a wide player that we can bid 100m for one, why not bid for Leão? Isn’t his contract running low? We really think Milan would turn down 100m? Mudryk looks like a player who you’d be glad to have for £40-50m. But 100m!? Ridiculous.

Oh, FFS, please don’t do this you idiots! USE THAT MONEY ON ENZO!!! This kid isn’t worth NEARLY this kind of silly money. Just let Arse have the guy!

No chance you can look at Newcastle or Spuds or any of these usual midtable or lower sides that are above us currently and say they’re more talented than we are. I’d argue that if all our players were at their peak level we’d have the second most talented squad in the league after City. Arse have a bunch of players who everyone would’ve said are bang average prior to this season. Everyone was saying United’s team were all bang average as recently as a few months ago when they got off to that dreadful start. What these clubs have that we don’t right now is completely buy-in to the manager from their players.

In terms of mentality and team cohesion we are. In terms of talent we’re every bit as good if not better than most of the clubs above us. We must purge all the mentally soft jokers and aging players if we want to turn this ship around.

United and Arse going from embarrassing to title contenders within the span of a single year should give us all hope that we can completely turn things around next season. If we get the recruitment right, get rid of the right players, and the manager gets his ideas across. Last season Arse were in the relegation area early on and there was a huge portion of their fan base calling for Arteta’s sacking because he was in totally over his head. United were waddling through the mud and their fans were calling for every player bar De Gea to be sold. Like, literally without exaggeration. When Rashford was inexplicably linked with PSG a few months ago everyone (including United fans) laughed and said they’d personally drive him there for free. Now he’s a Player of the Season contender. It was the worst United side in decades. Now they’re a different club. That’s the light at the end of the tunnel for us if we get our midfield and attacking rebuild right over the next 2 windows.

Yeah, I don’t quite understand them doing so either. I mean, fair play to them making themselves stronger despite already flying but I figured they’d be a bit more cautious after paying huge money for another wide attacker recently (Pepe) and being burned.

I’ll wait to hear a price before I criticize, but yeah. Seems a strange buy at this moment in time. The two positions we are i the most dire need of right now (RB & midfield) we seem not to be prioritizing. Unless a true future superstar of a wide player was available in January like Leão and you had a chance at him I don’t know why we’re after anyone. Should just wait until we can move CP & Ziyech and see what our options are.

Not just saying this because I’m sour he’s going to Arse (since I didn’t want him anyways) but just watching footage of both Mudryk and Madueke I’m easily more impressed with Madueke. Both look like top talents but I don’t see anything “special” about Mudryk, just a solid wide player. The concerning thing I keep seeing over and over though is that he’s injured so often just like Mr Glass Christian Pulisic.

Jesus, take it easy. You’d think I just insulted your mothers or something. I’m not suggesting that he’s shit because he isn’t at one of the elite English clubs. I’m just curious why he’s not in England altogether, be it at a small club or big one and why I haven’t even heard of him until just a few days ago. Usually you see these exciting English talents in the Championship and lower half PL clubs will take punts in them. It’s just slightly unusual to see a talent like his abroad instead.

Also, why is a supposedly highly rated young English player playing abroad? And why is no other English team interested?

Watching this kid’s footage reminds me of Zaha in terms of dribbling style. Looks simultaneously like he’s out of control and totally in control. Really quick, twitchy kind of style. He is the sort of wide player I’ve been crying out for but would be yet another player that’s a huge gamble. And apparently he’s injured all the time on top of that.

I suppose you’re right. What I should’ve said is we’ll struggle to sign the most sought after players. Players that all the other top clubs will be after may not even consider us in our current state. We should still be able to attract guys who will see Chelsea as a huge step up in their careers. Players from small clubs like Brighton for example. But players who are already at big Champions League clubs (like Milan or Benfica) will probably look at us now and think “if I leave my club I want it to be a big step up to a stable club.”

We’ll get good players without CL football. We won’t get players from the very top shelf, though. It’ll have to be more young talents with potential or players in the Badiashile profile who are good but not great players. Our only chance at players like Enzo, Leão, or whatever other world class talents we may desire is for Potter to steady the ship and finish out the season strong (which looks impossible at this point) or for Boehly to completely blow other competing clubs’ salary offers out of the water to make up for the lack of CL football. World class players are starting to get smarter when they’re choosing their new club these days. They want stability and to go to a team with structure and a set way of playing that can maximize their talents. Look at Haaland for example. He had a list of clubs that he was seriously considering and we were on it. But he said he chose City over everyone else because of their incredible stability, structure, and playing style. A top player these days may look at what’s happening at Chelsea where things chop and change so often and think we’re too big of a risk. Huge talents come to Chelsea and turn to shit. That’s got to be a consideration for these guys.

Mourinho is finished as a top manager for a big club with sustainable success ambitions. He shouldn’t even be remotely close to consideration. Just a couple of days ago I saw quotes from him lamenting how out of touch he is with modern players. There is currently no clear candidate available that’s a no-brainer. Every high profile manager that’s currently out of work has red flags and all would be nearly as risky as Potter was. Pochettino is probably the only one I’d be fairly confident about being able to adapt quickly.

I’m less worried about the lack of CL football for a season as a deterrent to top players than I am about whether said top players will want to play for Graham Potter after we finish midtable or worse. If we had a manager who was well known and well respected by world class players across the globe then top players would say “eh, they had one nightmare season but the project looks promising.” But I highly doubt many players outside of the PL have even heard of Graham Potter. So when we chase targets who will also have offers from Klopp or Pep it’s not going to be a contest. Or Ten Hag who will likely finish top 4 and have new ownership themselves who will want to make a splash.

Showed more class in that hour or whatever than any of our attackers have shown all season. And now he gets a month off when we need him most. Because of course that would happen to Chelsea this season.

I honestly don’t think anyone’s coming in and salvaging this season. We’re too far gone. Too many players at rock bottom, worst in their career form. Too many hugely important injuries. Too many players simply not good enough for Chelsea. I have nothing against Potter, really. This isn’t all down to a manager who is tactically stupid or naive. This is 85% down to these soft, mentally fragile players in my opinion. We have an entire squad full of guys who dropped off a cliff quality wise. All at the same time. Really don’t see a way out of this during the season. We need to just weather the season, take our lumps, and avoid getting fucking relegated.

We may very well finish between 12th-15th. This is worse BY FAR than the dreadful 10th place season.