Superblue

Maybe it's a topic of discussion once he's finished up here as hopefully there is much more to come but where do people think Thiago Silva currently ranks amongst free transfer signings for Chelsea? Off the top of my head I think the competition for that 'title' would be Ballack, Poyet, Gullit and Vialli. There are some notable others like Eto'o and Melchiot was a decent signing too on a free but ultimately I think they'd fall below those above.

With that record, it's no wonder him and Chelsea seem such a great fit!

We operate in the same way, 1 year contracts for players aged 30 or over. We've bent a little bit in recent years with this, but even then it's only been for 2 years. There's no way we'd be offering a multi year deal for a 35 year old. Thiago Silva has been given one year contracts since he joined. The only 30+ year old player I can think we've bought fairly recently for a transfer fee is Giroud and he only got an 18 month deal.

Rudiger is without question the main one. I'll be disappointed if Christensen leaves and we would miss Azpi's leadership and versatility as a squad player but if Rudiger re-signs and with Silva already in the bag, I wouldn't be concerned with losing the other two.

It's an awkward one to assess the risk levels because it's not like the case of Saul where you can lock him into a future deal if things go well. If Dembele came here and was a success, the likelihood is we would be competing with other top teams for his signature in the summer on a free and his wages may have just gone up a fair few grand for a deal. I think given his injury record and the way his Barca career has seemingly spiralled it's probably a lower risk to do a loan deal and see what he can offer to us. Knowing our luck though he'll be one of the few loan signings you'd actually want to keep permanently and instead he goes elsewhere in the summer!

No doubt his form pre injury was above any previous levels he had performed at so maintaining that would always be the biggest question mark. In a way though the same could be said of Reece on the other side who had a period this year similarly at a level higher than he has shown previously. Ironically when Chilwell went down injured, I felt Reece's performances dropped a couple of pegs down before he got injured too. What cannot be denied though is the alarming drop off in both the offensive and defensive facets of our game linked directly to the loss of Chilwell and James. I firmly believe if Liverpool lost TAA and Robertson for half the season you'd see a significant drop off in their attacking quality and chance creation. People questioned Pep when he first came here wanting to spend huge sums of money on a number of full backs that could be relied on. It's no longer the position you can make do with someone steady and in our situation particularly under Tuchel, the wing backs are the most important players on the pitch for getting the balance between attack and defence. It is critical this is sorted if not January, then in the summer.

I agree. I know that our opinions on Chilwell differ as I rate him higher then you do and consider him to be a more than good enough left back for us to be challenging for trophies (put it this way, if Chilwell was the biggest problem position for the club I think we'd be doing extremely well) but you are spot on with what we should be looking for as an alternative left back/left wing back option for him. Chilwell could take a long time to get back to that form he was showing pre-injury. He may never even get back to that, it's not a given and shouldn't be taken as one. So we have to plan ahead that we may need a player capable of usurping him as first choice. But Chilwell injury aside, we should be doing that anyway. Trying to buy squad filler options doesn't cut it anymore, especially with the strength a team like City show. The academy can supply the squad filler as a starting point for some of their inclusions within the first team picture. I don't want to see a Zappacosta style signing, I want to see 2 wing backs/full backs on both sides capable of being considered first choice, and where one is absent, the other can slot in without a noticeable drop off in quality. We don't have that at the moment, and if it can't be rectified in January, then I believe alongside making some potentially big decisions on Lukaku's future, a right and left wing back of starting quality is probably the greatest importance in the summer transfer window.

@Vesper is this who you mentioned the other day?

We're being linked with Dylan Williams from Derby and apparently Rooney has confirmed they're in talks with a Premier League team today. Anyone know much about him? 18 year old left back.

I managed to get my Ballack shirt signed by him through a third party who were sorting out his security cameras at his house. They said they dealt with quite a few players in the London area and he was easily one of the best and easiest to deal with. Great player and great person.

Whilst there was obvious demand for Hazard and a fight for his signature, he was very much still potential over undoubted world class talent at that time. He became world class here. Regardless of who is perceived world class or not though it's a clear trend that's been at the club during Roman's tenure. We've always had a much better track record either buying younger players who have then developed in their time at the club or what would perhaps be more 'obscure' or low-key signings compared to the big money marquee signings. I know there's less margin for error perhaps with a bigger money signing but some of ours have taken the biscuit with how bad they have been, and so far Lukaku is unfortunately no different to the likes of Sheva, Morata and Torres.

I'm pretty sure Sterling has said in interviews before that he'd like to go and play abroad whilst he's still at the top level so I wouldn't be surprised if his contract runs down a bit more if that were to happen. I can't see him going somewhere else in England directly from City.

The only thing I'd be concerned with bringing Maatsen back is how keen is Tuchel on him. Tuchel has at least talked up Emerson as someone he trusts could slot back in and "do a job". Emerson is never going to be the long term answer, but at least if he was brought back for the rest of the season I think Tuchel will use him and rotate Alonso with him. I think we have to accept that we'll struggle getting anything in January that upgrades on Alonso but we do really need an alternative there that Tuchel can use regularly if needed. I know CHO and Pulisic have played there now and again and Sarr could play at full back in a 4, but we do really need another proper wing back option on both sides. Alonso isn't great, but a run down Alonso playing game after game for the rest of the season is going to be horrendous.

Think it was like a goals show from the previous week on a Saturday morning and then a live game on a Sunday afternoon but I could be wrong it was a bloody long time ago!

Growing up in the early to mid 90's it was THE league. I used to watch Italian football I think it was on channel 4 on Saturday's and Sunday's and used to buy the magazine too. It was just brimming with quality players and teams so deep into the league. Look at the players Chelsea bought during that time from Italy - Gullit, Zola, Di Matteo, Vialli, Desailly. Some of those were in their 30's and considered in decline and not good enough anymore over there but came over here and did phenomenal. How the tables have turned like you said with the likes of Giroud, Dzeko, Zlatan, etc still performing well in Italy but I think would for the most part struggle now over here with the pace and intensity.

This and our issues with Lukaku only continues to highlight in my opinion how poor the Italian league is. It's the same reason why I'd be hugely cautious about players like Vlahovic.

I completely agree there has to be a balance, a manager can't just be blindly backed with any signings they want. But it's just as important I think for a manager to be given time. I understand the club in the past have had to pull the plug on people like Conte and Mourinho once things have turned toxic but there certainly doesn't appear to be such an issue with Tuchel. He represents the club well in the media, seems to get on very well with Marina and Cech and this Lukaku debacle aside, seemed to build a very tight knit group of players. With the success he has already achieved here which is wildly beyond anybody expected, I think he has earned at least the time to shape and mould this squad in his image. As Matt Law has mentioned our managers inherit a group of players bought under a number of former managers with different formations and philosophies. That requires more time and patience than we're usually willing to provide, to shape such a mish-mash squad into a coach's vision. If he can be backed (realistically) with signings then even better, but at present I think a manager at Chelsea needs time just as much as funds to build something more robust and lasting than what we have had for the best part of a decade now. What would be next if Tuchel was given the boot either during this season or in the summer? Do we then look at someone looking to play a different style of football yet again to try and get more out of Lukaku?!

That recruitment also extends to managers and the bigger picture or vision the club has. If we're not prepared to back Tuchel properly then where does the next manager lead us to? There has rarely been a long term plan, we just seem to go for either the flavour of the month at that point (AVB, Sarri) or the one with the highest pedigree available on the market. There never seems to be a rhyme or reason behind it. It does feel like there needs to be a strip back somewhat. The most sustained success the club had was when it let Mourinho have quite a bit of influence in the makeup of the squad the first time he was here. The core of that squad took us on for the next 7 or 8 years. We actually have a nice core of really talented young players who could form something similar again but that needs building around properly and for every change that gets made, it makes it that much harder to gain any form of consistency and vision with recruiting.

To be fair what do you expect him to come out and say in public?

That whole issue stems from the short term mentality the club has shown over the years. If Haaland was a no-go and the board have turned around to Tuchel and said we can get Lukaku, I'd love for him to turn around and say he won't be the right long term fit for what I'm building here. But even with the Champions League in his back pocket, Tuchel knows the recent history of Chelsea and he may not get that long term to build towards. Despite the promising signs of what was being built last season our attack was still incredibly wasteful and not clinical enough. Whatever we say about Lukaku his goalscoring record across his career, and specifically in this country is very good overall and adding that goal threat probably for Tuchel, felt like it would help get us out of situations we were in last season when we couldn't put teams away. The club did seem to back Tuchel significantly over Lukaku with the interview. We'll see in time whether they back Tuchel in the summer, because I cannot see both Tuchel and Lukaku lasting beyond the summer as it seems an ill fit. I really hope it's not Lukaku here for the long term.

There was a period midway through the season though when "Sarriball" was a real hard watch. I think by the end of the season we had evolved from that and were back in an upward trend. Similar can be said of Lampard. The United result at the start aside, we played some really good football for a bit and then it went completely off the boil and picked back up again before it completely crashed. Is it as simple as just over the winter? It is a trend that we seem to fall apart around this period year after year. Or do we need to absorb this and get through the other side to find an improved team, i.e. either Tuchel finds a solution that maximises Lukaku in the team, or come the summer he's sold on and the club as a whole realise that we need a better fit for that position. I agree at present it's a real hard watch, but I will be extremely disappointed if the club moved on from Tuchel and would like to think he would be given longer than for example Lampard got, to address and arrest this slide. I wonder if Pep had a first season at Chelsea like he did at City if he'd have survived, or if Klopp had a season like he had last year at Liverpool, would the club have decided it was going stale and made a change? At some point the club needs to back someone over a longer haul and trust that when there are issues or periods of poor form, they have the right man in charge to solve that. Tuchel in my opinion is within the top 5 coaches in world football at present and also comes with the added bonus of being seemingly willing to work with the board instead of against them, and overall being a positive representative of the club. If we're going to finally show some loyalty and perseverance with a manager, he has my vote.

Not just this but we seem to have a roundabout way of dealing with players. Some we don't seem to give enough of a chance to and end up regretting it. Salah and De Bruyne are obvious examples but I take even someone like Tomori as an example. The club appeared to rate him at one point and when a deal was done to go on loan to Milan it appeared Lampard wouldn't be far out of the door then too, so why be so quick to agree a permanent option in the deal? I'm not saying he'd definitely be the answer, but I think from what I had seen of him when he was in the first team his characteristics would actually have suited playing as one of the wider centre backs in a 3 under Tuchel. But then at the other end, there's players we seem to hold on to forever. I understand some are difficult to shift like a Bakayoko or Drinkwater for example. They are just rubbish buys and the club has to suck that up and do what it can to claw something back through loaning them out. But some players stay in the first team picture for far too long. I'm pretty certain that a lot of this has to do with regular managerial changes seemingly giving players a fresh start again under a new manager. If anything our recruitment should be made so much easier now because we're no longer needing to find squad filler. That door for the academy players has been opened now and I think it will lead to a steady stream of players coming from that route moving forward who can occupy those squad roles within the squad (and hopefully develop into something more central to the first team in time). Our primary focus now should be on either buying the best players available that are going to 'fit' our team and improve the starting XI, or if there's a really promising young player who looks like becoming that player and the opportunity is there to get them at an earlier stage (like we did with Salah, De Bruyne, etc). If that isn't available then don't make a move. I think that's what we're unfortunately paying for now with Lukaku where we've panicked that we need a striker to be added to the squad. And if Tuchel has given his ok to the deal I can completely understand why. Even with the Champions League win, he knows he'll never be bullet proof here like Klopp or Pep might be at their clubs. If the team struggled to score and break teams down like last season he could be out the door and for what is likely a short term tenure, adding a proven goal scorer to the squad would make sense. It's the same reason why I'd rather not try and address the full back/wing back issue this January if the right options aren't there. It definitely needs addressing in the summer because Alonso and Azpilicueta aren't good enough and mobile enough to play that role in the way that it needs to be played. But I want a genuine alternative to Chilwell and James which doesn't show an obvious drop off in quality. I don't want to see another Emerson bought in January and it's yet another player to serve a purpose short term but be stuck dealing with long term.

To be fair I can understand the tiredness argument. Our schedule has been relentless, especially when you factor in Carabao Cup games and whilst near on every team has had a form of "covid" break during the last few weeks we're actually getting more games crammed in earlier rather than later in the season to factor in the Club World Cup. Juggling a lot of injuries, covid, etc during this period has stretched the squad to the brink at times. Azpilicueta and Alonso looked completely dead on their feet tonight. Towards the end Azpi was struggling to even track back. But unless we play wingers at full back, there isn't much by way of alternatives right now.

They do seem to have our number somewhat (albeit I don't think they've ever beaten us). But the games against them these last couple of weeks have played right into their hands to give them easy possession and retention of the ball. We may have been wasteful, but I'd rather see a Lukaku-less attack at the moment with some mobility, movement, aggression.

I'm not at all surprised that Brighton have now played us off the park twice in a couple of weeks. They play brave and they look to get on the ball and the front foot. Games against that type of opposition this season have proven that Lukaku playing in those games leaves us with a passenger that you cannot afford to have. It's not a coincidence that our performance against Liverpool was significantly better than these when you have mobility in the attacking positions to press and stop them playing, in exactly the same way as Brighton tried to do to us tonight. Ironically Lukaku will possibly be a better fit to play against Spurs who are more likely to sit deeper and not look to wrestle control of possession away from us, but I would just rather he didn't play at this stage. I can accept players not playing well, or out of form so long as they show the right application. The lack of pressing and mobility in our attack when he's playing is wearing thin.