laura90

You know, there is a difference between alright then and categorically no. We urgently needed two CBs, we needed back up or new LWB (depending on Chilwell status) and we needed midfielder, ( we got Saul last year) as well as striker. That was six players we would have signed regardless of the manager. IF Tuchel was fully respected he would have got his six new players at the start of the transfer window not on the deadline day. Majority of our signings were Alright then and not his preferred options. No manager would be stupid enough to consider KK as adequate replacement for Rudiger. Fofana, maybe but there were reports board opted for him. Is this Ronaldo story true? Tuchel said no and that's when they decided to fire him? After getting him 250 mill asset they fired him over Ronaldo? That just sounds stupid. I don't believe it. Tuchel is very good coach. But we handed him very average players, looking at their behaviour on the pitch and their age, they look like pensioners society more than a squad. 100 years old defence, 60 years old injury prone midfield, 34 years striker.... No manager would compete with this, sorry. Not even Klopp. Those youngsters werent Tuchel choice either. Tuchel wanted eluseve targets. Was that his incapability to find more accessible targets, but alternatives are so bad that even his sacking afterwards made perfect sense.

250 mil spend and we will finish 6-9. Madness. By the way, I believed players were Tuchel's choice untill the moment he was sacked. Now, I don't. No way Auba was his signing, let alone KK or Cucurela, even Zakaria. Fofana was picked by using some data analyzes. Auba because we needed striker desperately and he was the only one willing to come, not because of Tuchel. Only Tuchel signing is Sterling, the rest are bad alternatives that will move us away from the top. 200 mill on old below average players, only at Chelsea. Boehly will very soon realize that he is nowhere near qualified to run bloody football club. 7th place is my guess.

Tbh I don't understand why they sacked Marina when they signed the same players she would have signed. Second rate or even third rate options. She was too attached to our deadwood? I saw some claiming we are not weaker team. Yes we are. From the CL team, we lost Rudiger, we lost Andreas, Silva is two years older and Mendy lost confidence consequently. Mendy thrived with our solid defense. It got the best of him. As soon it was clear Rudiger departs, in January, his form dropped and never recovered. Mendy has his flows, but he would still perform better with more solid defense. Our midfielders are two years older, and bar Jorginho, spend more time on treatment table than in the training.. Or midfielders, Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho are the shadow of the players they were during CL campaign. They needed to be replaced right afterwards, because they weren't perfect not ticked all the boxes. New midfielders, Connor and Zakaria are not on the required level either. We only marginally improved our attack but what is it worth with even weaker midfield and defense? Two years ago we had top four team. Today we have midtable team. 250 mil spent on, bar Cucu and Fofana, has beens and deadwood.

I am amongst those who believe our manager wasn't backed at all. I said we weren't able to land his first choices not this year not the last. He got bunch of second rate players who are paid over the odds but that doesn't make them good players. Did he make decisions who to be signed? Those were poor choices to be frank. We landed 31 year old defender while still having 38 and 32 years defenders. 33 year striker? Which manager would want this profile? I think he had some input but his hands were tied and couldn't get players he really wanted. Everything started last season. I was sooo upset when Lukaku was signed and predicted us losing top four status as consequence. It's happening. We had that team, who were champions. Weren't perfect but were champions. Instead of upgrading them, with CM and DM and winger or striker, we dismantled them. Couple of months later, we lost our defenders, our rock. That is when riot began. Last summer window was our last train to improve this team. We missed it. Later came sanctions, 100 mil flop and everything became twice as difficult.

Tomo, famous member warned us to beware if Tuchel gets to choose his targets. I fully understood what he's meant this summer. I was very negative about all our signings. I never expected us to hit the ground running with them. KK - average defender who looked good amongst pensioners. Old. Past it. Has been. On 295 000 a week. Somebody loves wasting money. Cucu - back up to Chillwell. Fofana - young , likable defender who suffered major injury. Wasn't aboard with this at all. Sterling - 27 year old who has played in PL more than 12 years. Will be the best from the bunch, but another has been who has his best days behind him. Zakaria - quite possible another has been who could have great career but was stopped by injuries. I said before, we got rid of some deadwood only to make space for new deadwood. I really feel that. Put in the mix Zyiech, Pulisic, Jorginho, Mendy, unreliable Kante we assembled ourselves nice midtable team. To bad. New owners wanted to spend but we couldn't land our prime targets and second options were yet again well below standard.

Great, another after major injury . I can't help but feeling that for every deadwood player we managed to release finally, we got new one this transfer window. 300 mill yet stop gap transfer. I am fairly pessimistic, if we get another Saul in the midfield, the only way we can play CL next season is by winning it.

No midfield no party. I can't say I am overly enthusiastic with the latest signing or most of them. Even if we get Gvardiol we still wont be able to play back four without decent defensive midfielder. I can not understand how that pivotal part of every football team got neglected here. We saw this against Leeds. And again against Saints. Our aging and average midfielders and defenders were slow and overrun against quicker and younger players. We may invest 500 mill in 10 new players if we don't invest in CDM or at least CM we may still go trough the riot with Kante and Jorginho talking to another clubs in January and putting less effort even when they are fit. I honestly don't understand. We have gentlemen's agreement with Rice for the next season? I don't know but this midfield won't give me faith even if we found ourselves at the top by January. How come so many defenders and no midfielders? This window would be closer to ideal if we got great CDM instead of KK. I respect that Boehly invested in the team but it can all be in vain cause you are only as strong as your weakest link.

And no CDM or CM to pass them decent ball. Yes.

Our recruitment is piss poor it is laughable. We spent 500 mil in the last three transfer windows and still don't have freaking CDM, the most important signing we needed to make after CL. I was so upset with Lukaku signing, not just because of him but because we didn't get CDM and winger or wingback. That is the start of demise. Not getting CDM that year is pure criminal especially having in mind that this transfer would be all about defenders since two of them left for free and third had ACL injury. With everything that happened last season, it was pure miracle we got top four. Now is hard. We missed out on our targets. Sterling alone is not enough. I fear he will have less goals involvement than Werner in his first year. Still no freaking CDM and half of the team on the wrong side of thirties. And Goalie... Lukaku transfer window fiasco and everything that happened last season has left bad consequences on this squad, coach and the team. Taking this lot to CL next year is almost impossible task I'm afraid. I don't see the point in KK and Sterling signings to be honest. Just expensive stop gaps as PEA. New owners are willing to spend but biggest Chelsea pain remains: wasting money.

I wish I was negative. But I am just honest. We are not improving the squad properly. I can't even tell it is our fault. We didn't get our prime targets. De light. Kounde. Raphinha. Jesus. Those would improve us. But wasn't meant to be. Sterling, as I said before has Lukaku vibes. Much more talented but has best years behind him not ahead of him. Mediocre signing. KK - I watched KK in Champions League since I like Napoli. He was nothing extraordinary. Much like Sterling, has best days behind him and I am not so convinced he will be able to cope with PL and CL at the same time. Like I said before we will see defense of Chilwell Cucu Silva James (Azpi) Rlc (James) quite often. Cucu only positive signing in my book but even like that replaces hell of the player we had there last season. He hardly brings something new. But he will be handy as LCB. I said we may miss out from top four and I am not being negative. In my last posts I explained why but to summarize: Our defense has weakened. Big time. KK, Silva, Azpi in their thirties. Could get away with that if we were Napoli from Seria A, or had killers up front like Lfc from PL. Our midfield didn't improve but with Kante and Kova injury status it regressed. Much as our defense. Attack - it marginally improved with Sterling. We do not have better squad than we had in our CL year. And others do.

I hope we wont pay over the odds for PEA. But if he comes, we will have majority of the team in their thirties. I don't care for being labeled as negative, that is too much. KK, Silva, Azpi, Jorginho, Kante, PEA and Sterling ( I know he isn't in his thirties but he is in PL from 16, his legs are). Kova is not in his thirties but his body seems to be. I see we are making signings for the future, that's nice. But our entire team feels like some kind of stop gap and should be very different in couple of years. KK is not Rudiger, I'm sorry. He lacks recovery speed for start. And consistency of Rudiger under Tuchel is hardly replaced. KK would make solid Andreas replacement. Defence is weaker, for now, attack needs to improve at least enough to make up for it. Broja shining would help tremendously as well as PEA doing what he does best. Thank God for world cup in the middle of the season, that will help us tremendously, especially as it will help us skip our traditional tumble period. But Tuchel will be miracle worker if he takes this lot to third or fourth place. It's more challenging than it seems.

I am a bit more optimistic about our team with the latest signings but still there are major question marks about this team. Attack -improvement Sterling and only him. I feel uneasy about attack. Midfield - defense with Kante played major part in our last year's fantastic start that has kept us in the top through chaos. The most important parts of this midfield are Kova and Kante, both injury prone. And Jorgi and Kante are entering last year of their contracts. Defense- Yes we got Cucu but him playing LWB lefts Chilwell out. Is he the same player still? KK, Silva, Azpi over their thirties. Silva is anomaly, will KK manage doing it twice a week? I don't know. I guess we can play Chilwell Cucu Silva Azpi James. We so need another CB. And attacker. This Fofana looks good prospect but wasn't convincing against Arsenal at all. Martinelli bossed him. He had major injury last season. Auba, 33 mill is a bit too much having in mind age and that he is stop gap. We will have more signing for sure. I am OK with loaning Colwill out. Hope he stays injury free there more often than at Huddersfield and comes back here stronger. Age and injury tendency are major concernes with our back . I guess the last season left me traumatized 🙂

The only rock that kept this team together was our defense. It took something from the attack due to low quality of our players and our questionable ability to play four at the back. But that rock is almost gone. KK and Silva, great defenders, could well be past it at the highest level. Our biggest improvement in the attack is another past it player. His peak was at City. He will be shadow of himself with our central midfield. Colwill looks he may be injury prone. Conor flourished in a different system. Broja is Southampton level at best. I don't see the logic that we are better with these players. We are worse. Our rock is gone. Major injury blow and we won't survive this time around. We would need those three to hit the ground running to have a chance. And those are slim.

We aren't finishing top four. No chance. I had said that the last year and nothing has happened to make me change my mind. Ask yourself: Would have Klopp finished top four with this lot? Not in a million years. Same goes for Pep. They both wouldn't come near this team. This team is middle of the table quality at best. Yes Tuchel won CL with this lot, but CL is cup competition where solid defense and couple moments of mastery and luck win you games even final. We showed our real class in the League. With Lukaku, Sterling and KK signing , and loss of Rudiger and Andreas as well of the last year youngsters, we are worse team now than we were two years before and the last year. This time, our competition improved. We are worse than we were two years before and this time table will show it. I made peace with this last year. I can't see other outcome. I still can't make myself to judge Tuchel when I know that half of his team is championship and the rest midtable quality. Only three or four players are top four quality. Our defenders are 31 and 38 years old....

Leeds United is selling Raphina for 70 millions because he kept them up. If they don't replace him properly they may be relegated the very next season. You see Chelsea as jo jo club bringing 4,5 billions back? Or you see Chelsea on the bottom half of the table bringing hundreds of millions of revenue? From TV income? Southampton is getting Tv money on regular bases yet they new owner Solak invested 100 millions to buy major part of the club. Why didn't he have to invest 10 times more? Southampton sold defender for 80 millions not long ago. And later sold Mane, one of the best league attackers for 30 millions. Just because middle club make 100 millions from the player once, doesn't mean they are able of doing that year after year. Or you see Chelsea in the upper part of the table , without CL generating hundred of millions from TV income and player sale and commercial revenue, enough to repay 4,5 billions in 10 years? 450 mil profit. Or 20 years? 225 mill profit. We are sitting on the 7th place without Europa generating at least 400 millions of matchday, tv income and commercial revenue. How? We don't have Cl income. We are on seventh place and our tv income isn't 300 mill but 150. TV revenue relies heavily on CL. Our matchday income 2019 was 75 mill. Was 95 mill 2015. It decreased. So our commercial revenue needs to stay the same when we are seventh as 2019 when we won Europa League and had Hazard on the form of his life. It wont. We may have more twitter fans from Arsenal but they have more spending money fans. They spend money to watch their team fail season after season. We are yet to find out how much will our fans spend when we are seventh. And our ability to sell player for 100 millions? We can't sell player to save our lives. Loan after loan. We have spent summer after summer waiting to sell someone to sign somebody and we only managed to sell Hazard, Cat molester and youth for peanuts. We have thirty players we could sell but no buyers. And you are making us selling club? We need miracles to get there. Even when we had diamonds we sold them for peanuts. If we ever get lucky in that department we will play CL not sit on 7th place. I am not saying we will go bankrupt in the middle of the table. We have been there. And going after Sterling this year and Lukaku last year we are getting that pensioners vibe from past times back. We can function there. But can't get 4,5 billions back. Ever.

If Boehly really expects milking money from fans based on poor results season after season, he did his maths wrong. He simply came to Premier League too late and in the wrong club. It crossed my mind that he will be getting average players and be looking for average results, but how will he get his invested money back? These American owners of sport franchise are used to being awarded for failure. When I looked at Knicks revenue charts I was astonished: The worse results the bigger revenue. I guess they rely on matchday experience/ income. New York Knicks rewards failure. Man Utd rewards failure. (They could go without CL for decades and have mediocre players and their revenue wouldn't significantly drop. Yet they care for CL and are getting Ten Hag). Arsenal rewards failure. (They are without CL for quite sometime and have youngsters. Their revenue is still high, they make profit but after some time their young guns are threatening to leave leaving them no option but to invest and get that CL back). Liverpool rewards failure. Just like United they could go without Cl for decades and have average players or youth and yet their fans that never walk alone would invest in that club enough for them to make a profit. As much as some say we will be run like United, Arsenal or Liverpool before Klopp, that is simply not possible. We just don't have fanbase as these clubs do. They have supporters from 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, from all around the world who invest in club. They have big stadiums and massive match day income. We don't have large fanbase that has been with us in decades. We don't have big stadium. If they stop investing and try to run us as midtable cash cow they may have stadium full but their bank account will be almost empty with tendency of getting emptier year by year.

It was more hilarious when people quoted Pep calling Donkeykaku world class. He was world class at making his competition weaker. Or when almost every pundit called us favorites after signing him, saying he would win us the league by storm. They are paid to make drama and sensation. It would be far less interesting had they said he would flop and spend entire season saying I told you so. And now Pep is offering his rejects to us for big money. Sterling is better player but... It's his thirteenth season or so in top flight. He is not at his peak. He is one or two years away from decline coming for the last enormous paycheck like Donkeykaku. If he flops, and big chances he will, we won't be able to move him just like we can't donkeykaku. Besides who will he displace? Owners favourite, Pulisic? And again people are waving with stats. You just can't look stats from Man City and expect them to replicate in Chelsea. Just like you couldn't look stats at Serie A and expect them to replicate in Premier League. We need two new midfielders. Until we improve midfield every new attacker is destined to underachieve. Unless he is the new Hazard, Or Messi. Or Ronaldo. Or Benzema.. Sterling no no no. High wages and we can't sell. Gabrie Jesus? Look above.

Keyboard warriors on here wouldn't waste 200 mill on Lukaku blocking us signing players for the years to come. Keyboard warriors from Chelsea fans wouldn't be spending entire summer transfer windows trying to offload half of the squad that ono one wants because they are overpriced below average players on insanely high wages , trying to generate money for the next signing. Bakayoko, Mitsu, Drinkwater, Rahman, Zappacosta, Barkley and many many more wouldn't be signed by keyboard warriors. We didn't know who they were when they were signed. Same old story on here. We have about forty players on our books and only 30% are first team material. Like previous years ( bar 2020 when we got out from transfer ban and sold our talisman for big money) we are waiting to offload players first to generate funds. Which will be tricky because the only youth players we can sell are the ones we need in the team. As year before. When sometime in late August we find out that we have unsellable assets, including our record signing, we will loan some midfielder and central back on deadline day. In attack we will get Broja. In midfield Conor and Ampadu. Or Gilmour? Or somebody on loan. In defese Colwill and somebody for free or on loan. I have a sneaky felling feeling those owners will wait for that list of players being reduced from 40 to 20 with nice income before they make big signing. In the meantime they will find themselves in shock when we miss out on CL spot and in couple of years our revenue drops by 50%. These were writings on the wall when 200 mill was spent on Lukaku instead of midfielder, wingback and winger. Too many disastrous signings from too many years are catching up with us. We still have false sense of security. CL spot. When we spend next year fighting for that fourth place, and miss out, we will know better where we stand with these owners. My two cents.

I have just read that last season we spend 28 mill on agent fees. Since we only signed Donkeyaku if true, we spent about 140 mill on him plus wages which makes it over 210 mill not 185 as I thought. Literally entire Hazard money plus bonuses on donkey. Who decided 200 mill on 29 year old striker who failed miserably, to the point being ridiculed, at United is money well spent? Who the hell, I can't grasp it still. And if that lunatic-optimist is still around I wouldn't be surprised if he expects we can regain top four status if we just get our loanies back.

Why wouldn't he? We will spend entire summer trying to offload Donkeyaku just like we spent entire last summer selling our youngsters to get the funds to buy him. This club is becoming some kind of parody. On the official you tube page there is video about Havertz - Chelsea's main man. After splashing 100+85 mill on Donkeyaku's fee and wages year before, Havertz is our main man. What's wrong with that picture? Message to Donkeyaku perhaps, but what is it for - no way we are offloading Donkeyaku without taking major financial loss. We will just have pleasure of having him far playing for other club while still paying his wages and transfer fee. Donkeyaku came here to get his pay increase Inter chairman refused to offer him, and to come back. His plan is running smoothly. And people still argue if this is the worst transfer ever. Not only at Chelsea, in entire football history. Sterling? God no. He will become championship player here. Lukaku wibes. Jesus. No. He will be at least three times less affective here than at City. Unless we sort out that midfield we stand no chance. Midfield still main priority. Nothing has changed from the last season. In fact it has. We need new defence too.

I'm confused. I keep reading Boehly is giving full control of transfers to Tuchel and thinking WTF? He was there when we signed Lukaku, unless there is solid evidence he wasn't introduced to our entire summer transfer activities I wouldn't trust him. Las summer was disaster from so many angels. We could have kept Guehi and Livramento with big wages if needed, could maybe have kept even Tomori in the same way, use Tammy's and Zouma's money to invest in midfield (the lad that just left to Real) and keep the faith in our attackers when we lacked better options. We could spend less money and had lot better team today and upgrade by adding attacker or two when opportunity comes. Shouda, wouda, couda. But if we keep trusting in anyone who had power to suspend last summer decisions but he didn't we are in deep trouble. Midtable obscurity regardless of odd 100 mill we get from time to time to waste. By the way the damage done last summer is so comprehensive it will take lot more than 100 mil to repair. Who can we sell and get decent money? Pulisic, Kante and Jorginho but we are left without midfield. And if we keep them we will have our midfield next season preforming like our defense this season: half hearted watching themselves from injuries. If we give them new contracts, that is the worst outcome. Las summer was missed opportunity that will cost serious money just to avoid it's consequences.

Quiet summer indeed. Instead of getting new players we will be repaying Lukaku's transfer fee and paying his wages close to 50 mil this year alone. I was dead series when I called that transfer catastrophe that will lead to our demise losing top four spot. There is no other way. We will pay ultimate price. This club is on downhill from that moment and I'm seeing nothing to convince me otherwise.

OF course it will need miracle to ship him. It was so obvious last season that if he came he would be unmovable. 30 years never good enough on the top level past it striker with 325 000 a week salary. Why would Inter or Milan want him. To eliminate them from CL group stage again? Who knows would Inter face Liverpool if they played Lukaku in the group stage. They wont lose millions with him again. Our only hope was Broja to shine and to sideline that finger pointing talentless footballer. But that doesn't seem likely at all. I can't stress enough how much damage has been done to this club by previous management. Let this sink in: We have spent Hazard's money and bonuses on Lukaku's transfer fees and wages. Damage is already done and it will take years to recover from atrocious decisions made by this board, even with new owners. We are already set for middle of the table and only miracle will get us Wenger's trophy. It's somewhat superficially discussing manager who has at best midtable team on his hands. We overachieved this season. We overachieved the last season. Can we do it again? Now when bad decisions seem to catching up with us.

Consistency in getting top four? Right before we lose that spot for significant period of time. And how we keep that when we are losing almost entire defense this window and almost entire midfield the next. We are only left with attackers from German and Italian Leagues because they are cheaper down there. 2017 meant our English top table team status vanished. Right after major success. 2021 meant our top four status is fading away. CL manager supported with broken past it midfielder and past it not good enough against top opposition striker, with major technical and mentality issues. It was the last year when our management decided we were good enough to fight for fourth exclusively. Defense with expiring contracts and ageing midfield prone to injuries we get what we got. IT was a statement. Welcome to midtable reality. Had this sale happened two years later we would have been established midtable club. 6 and counting failed attackers isn't coincidence. IT is product of poorly talented midfield in attacking sense and constant signing players from suspicious leagues that can't adapt to Premier League. Lack of scouting and relying on you tube clips. We need to replace 4defenders this season and three midfielders the next - Kovacic is too injury prone, if we look at contract situation and age and injuries propensity. That if we keep the same attackers. No top four for the next year or the year after. It is as certain as Lukaku's flop status was.

Our first eleven, when everyone fit and competition managed poorly (United, Arse, Spurs) is fourth place at best. Good to fight for Wenger's trophy but unable to compete. Our bench is championship level (bar Kova or other mid on the bench). With Marina's appointment our transition from top English club to English Borrusia Dortmund was successfully implemented but failed miserably . Formula: Buy cheap, substandard player, make him look good, sell for profit. Turned into buy expensive flops, make them look worse, loan them at best and collect loan fees. It started after 2015/16 with selling KDB and Salah and buying unproven duds to compete alongside Hazard. IT was written in the stars 2017 what is our intention regarding staying in the top in the league and CL. Underrated is the fact that our second CL was only third time we passed round of 16 in Cl after our first in 9 years. We were so poorly run that is even miracle we are still a CL team. But even that would have been changed under previous regime the very next year, if not this one. And where are we now? In the need to change 70% of the team only to compete. Yes, our bench is beyond joke and our first team is either gone this year or the next or needs to go. Bar Reece, Mount, Mendy, Silva (38 yo), Kova, Havertz and who else? I can't think of no one. It won't be done but that is where we are left.