Blue Armour

Ashley Cole might be a Chelsea man, but when he came in this season as part of Lampards team, I'm sure he would have told Mount to take the money and run. Nearly every player on the planet looks out for themselves. No guarantees of a long career.

I don't know. Maybe the same reason why Kai, Kovacic and plenty of others are willing to jump ship so easily? I really hope I'm wrong on this, but there is something wrong (or was wrong) with the culture at the club last season. Partly the players fault, but for so many of them to act this way, shows something else. Hopefully Pochettino can change all of that.

Exactly. There are none.

That's my thinking as well. After all that happened last season., you think more people would be cautious. It always feels that the new management has the best intentions and direction, but for every step forward they've ended up taking two steps back. Did Tuchel need to go after the disaster class of a start last season and an insipid end to the previous one? Maybe. Should he have been replaced by a less experienced Potter? No. Did the board need to rectify the squad in the January window after the failings of the summer window? Yes. Did they need to bloat the squad with too many unproven players in similar positions? No. Did the board need to replace Potter after a disastrous run of results, and lackluster gameplay? Likely yes. Did they need to bring in a novice like Lampard to help out an imbalanced squad? No. So yes, I will still be cautious about the moves they make this year because I got burnt by expectations last season. The clearout is likely needed. But this sort of mass clearout where you chuck 3/4th of the first eleven in one window like in a Fifa game is a bit unprecedented. I'd feel a lot more confident if we had quality WC replacements lined up, but atm it feels like too much weight is being put on Pochettino's shoulders.

I think the main thing that bothers me about Havertz/Mount/Kova departures is that we're still left with useless options like Gallagher, Sterling and Cucurella. The hope is that some of the new arrivals (Nkunku/Jackson) and a new CM, will relegate them to being squad options.

Team chemistry is going to be the big question mark. Granted we barely saw anything last season, but we could be in for another rocky start to the season depending on how well pre-season goes. So many fresh timers starting together for the first time.

I would also add JT to City in 2009 also to that list. Not sure how true the rumors were, but they dragged on for the entire summer window. And also Lamps to Inter in 2008.

Yep. Really pathetic if true.

Looks smart as far as training kits go.

Our dealings with Inter have been...weird to say the least. Never gave a serious look-in for Skriniar last season, and not really linked with Barella. The one thing I hope Boehly & co. improve upon is lining up a plan B or plan C option in case plan A doesn't work. They tried to act quickly with Ugarte, but have taken their foot off the pedal since. Maybe the reason for the slowdown is primarily to do with FFP, and they will up the ante with Caicedo next month, but if that also falls through, I hope they act quickly with other options like Barella.

Rudiger sealed his departure after Roman's days were numbered and the club was sanctioned. Same with Christenesen. It was Marinas fault for letting it drag out, but the turmoil around the club nailed it.

Depends on what's happening behind the scenes. Under Abramovich we've had a couple of really bad seasons But star players never left in droves like this. Fans are laughing now because it's Kai & Mount, and not Drogba or Hazard. But the fact that the likes of Drogba and Hazard stuck with us through tough times, and players are jumping ship here at first sight, speaks a lot about the club and its current state of affairs.

Hazard was the most sensible person to lead that lot, followed by DeBruyne. Made sense, since he had the personality to get along with all of them., even though the rest disliked each other. Shame his form died., and with that, his claims to captaincy.

Correct. Mourinho., Ferguson and Wenger were all scouting Drogba at the time he came on to the scene in French football. Only we took the chance back then, because he was a bit pricy for a relatively unproven player. Same with Hazard. Everyone was looking at him. Only we took the chance. (Plus we had some inside assistance from Joe Cole and Drogba)

That's what I'm afraid of too, and you can only look at Arsenal during Wenger's last few seasons to see why that's not a good idea. You can't just indefinitely keep building for the future., without having some sort of competitiveness and success. You'll just likely risk losing the good players you developed, to bigger, winning clubs when they get fed up with the lack of trophies. I just hope there are a couple of natural leaders there among our new signings.

I think they take AFCON seriously enough...and a few teams often make it to knockout stages of WC competitions. But even if you disregard that...so what? Haalands team is virtually useless, and Ibrahimovic's team has hardly set the world on fire. I just don't see their situation as being more disadvantageous than the rest. I think Asian players have it way worse.

But should our league position really matter? Chelsea is already an established brand (besides being a club) at this point, and has a huge global following. One poor season shouldn't make the club go backwards in this regard. I'm not convinced that it's a league position issue. Yes, being out of Europe may reduce the number of TV viewers on account of less fixtures, but the PL is such a big draw in itself. If Chelsea had gone down to the championship, then I'd understand.

Ffs are they going to do this to evey player who doesn't sign their cracked 8 year deal?

Exactly. It's strange that all of a sudden everyone trusts Boehly & co. to completely replenish the starting 11 after last year's disaster

Why is that troll still allowed to post here. Obvious troll is obvious. All his posts are meant to rile up real fans here.

Omg, it's more hilarious than I thought it was 😂

Would you rather be stuck with Lukaku and create another toxic dressing room? I have no doubt he had a hand in screwing up Tuchels second season at the club. We were on top of the league around the time Lukaku lost his starting 11 position. He will cost us more money in the long run by hanging around.

IMO, we should take whatever money we get for Lukaku and run. Havertz is the one we need to be careful about. We shouldn't let him go for cheap. And IMO, we should hold on to Havertz for at least one more season.

How so, though? I don't think he was caught out by the Man City press. Plus there was very little for him to aim at with the likes of Martinez up front. Not sure what he could have done better.

I miss Werner. Not his lack of finishing in front of goal. But his attitude and work rate on the pitch., especially off the ball with how he stretched opposition back lines, giving the likes of Mount and Havertz more room to operate. Under the right manager, I'm sure he could have done a better job than a lot of our attackers have this season. Bad decision to let him go and sacrifice his playing time for the likes of Lukaku.