manpe

I think ideally he should be the AMF in a 4-2-3-1 (we're never gonna play that). In a 3-4-3 I don't really know, he's not a wide player nor a b2b midfielder, so CF is probably the most suitable if we wanna shove him in the line-up. Maybe we should play 3-5-2 more if we're gonna persist with 3 atb and have him as a SS to... i don't know, Broja?

Feel it was a big mistake letting Marina and Petr go at the same time. Tuchel has said several times he's a coach first and foremost, and that he doesn't like working the transfers himself. We let those two go without any adequate replacement. For all her faults, Marina was pretty good at offloading unwanted players for reasonable prices. Not being able to get rid of these players is almost as bad as not being able to sign players, because they cost us a good chunk of money every week... Money that could be used on other players. Now these responsibilities lie solely on an inexperienced Boehly and a frustrated Tuchel, who can't anymore focus only on training and improving players, but has the burden of negotiating and managing other stuff that would have been normally managed by Petr or Marina. Not a good start for Boehly, he acted without a plan and fucked up. He got rid of two Tuchel's confidants that he liked working with and put extra pressure on TT.

Lol, I thought the bid was accepted a long time ago as per the same twit journos. It's pointless following them, they got no clue.

Vesper said KK played 80-90% matches on the right. I wouldn't know, but I doubt she is lying.

Everything I've read points to Kounde stalling, not us. Where do you get that it's us who are stalling?

KK is right footed, why would he have any trouble playing on that side?

Robert Lewandowski signs for Barcelona as Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann hits out - CNN And for a club which has gone through years of financial mismanagement, resulting in huge debt and a bloated wage bill, the vast sums of money spent have left Nagelsmann confused. Although he admitted the transfer of Lewandowski was good for both clubs, he said Barcelona is "the only club in the world that has no money but can buy every player." Speaking before Bayern's preseason game against DC United, he added: "It's kind of weird and kind of crazy for me, but at the end, they find solutions. I don't know how."

Just started a save with Charlotte on FM22. Looking at their squad we shouldn't have many problems. 😄

Don't forget Gilmour. In terms of numbers we are STACKED in midfield. In terms of balance we are way off, we only have B2B and AM types there except for Jorginho. We definitely need to first off-load some to buy some. Gilmour is likely to go on loan again, but it remains to be seen whether we can shift Barkley (last chance to get some money off him) and RLC. If not, I'm afraid there is little chance we're gonna sign anybody. This is also the last summer we can get anything for Jorginho and Kante unless they extend, these are options we should be looking at if we don't wanna lose them for free, but at the moment there is little to suggest that either is leaving or extending. We might face the same problem with our MF as we are with DF right now. I think this is the window where we get our defence sorted. Next summer is when we'll go rebuilding our midfield once Jorginho and possibly Kante leave for free.

Welcome! Just what we needed. 🙂 Koulibaly is one of only a few CBs that could have replaced Rüdiger and not be a downgrade. My biggest worry is how will he adapt coming from Italy, but looking at how defenders tend to excel at Chelsea, I worry about that much less than if he was an attacker. All the stories about his mentality and leadership indicate that he will get on just fine here. I'm liking how our backline is looking - a nice mix of experience and youth, quality, physicality, hunger, leadership... Just need to get one more CB and a RB to complete it.

I think it's gonna be either Ake or Kimpembe, not both. Can't see us dropping that kind of dough on both and have one of them be backup... And where would that leave Colwill? Although with this new ownership you never know, for example we probably wouldn't be in the race to sign a 31yo CB on a 4 year contract under the previous ownership.

We can count Mount in the mix also and potentially Gallagher. If we sign both Sterling and Raphinha then I think there is a good chance we are going 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 next season and the only place for Mason in that formation is in the middle. We have plenty of good midfielders on our roster, a good mix between youth and experience, but the problem being that none of them is a DMF we need. We will have numbers and quality, but not necessarily the balance. I'm afraid we'll continue to see inconsistent performances from our midfield next season - they will run rings around some teams and will be overrun by others due to not having an out-and-out DMF. RLC, Barkley and Gilmour will surely be off-loaded if there are any willing takers. Don't think we can count on them. Survive the upcoming season and then go for our obvious nr. 1 target Declan Rice. It would be nice to one day have an all-English midfield of Rice, Mount and Gallagher. 😁

Good riddance. Was excited and had high hopes for him after seeing what he did in Italy, but quickly became apparent that he has a shitty attitude and with shitty attitude you don't make it at Chelsea. Bye!

What? Can you link to where he said it? If true then this is the same as Mourinho - all about defending, zero fucks given about the attack. IF this is true then his career here won't be very long. You need ultra-talented and smart attackers for that to work and we don't have those.

Who cares what someone's dad says, is he a child or smth? If he doesn't like it then he better earn his way into the starting eleven or he's free to leave.

We could do much worse than someone like Pulisic being a media machine. He is actually a useful squad player. If he accepts that he won't be playing every game, then having players like him is good for the team. It's not like he's completely wank, it is being overly exaggerated. He's simply inconsistent, but on his day he can be a handful for the opponent. You can't expect a squad player to be consistently world class, if he was he'd be a definite starter. But I'm good with having him as long as he accepts his role in the team and if Tuchel won't be forced to use him more.

All depends on the players he will have at his disposal I suppose. If Chelsea team consisted only of players that PSG, City or Liverpool have, no way would he be playing 5 atb. It was never his go-to formation at Dortmund or PSG, only at Chelsea did he make it his main one for reasons that we saw under Lampard. We need at least 2 CBs who can play in 4 atb formation without being babysitted and a proper DMF in front of them (Jorginho is not it)... Somewhy I doubt we can pull them all off this summer, we will probably need one more summer transfer window.

Peter Kalmus: ‘As a species, we’re on autopilot, not making the right decisions’ | Climate crisis | The Guardian Shut down fossil fuel production sites early to avoid climate chaos, says study | Fossil fuels | The Guardian Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown | Fossil fuels | The Guardian Some depressing reading there regarding the state of our climate. Horrendous stuff, psychopathic billionaires have taken over the world. I don't believe there is anything we can do anymore but just wait and see how everything goes to shit.

Good. Great to see that a young player is able to add to his stats on a consistent basis, well on course in his learning curve. I expect him to explode in 2-3 seasons, have high expectations for him.

Hard to believe that they'd be so naive. The board must have had serious doubts about him for the money he was asking for, as he'd been performing at the highest level only for under half a season by that time. Before that they were ready to sell, Rüdiger was always in-and-out of the team, never quite cemented his place and was mostly known as a rash player with silly mistakes in him, so they perhaps took a more patient approach and waited until January to see if he'd be able to perform consistently at the highest level before offering him a long-term bumper contract that goes well beyond into his 30s. Remember, our club is very careful when it concerns players over 30. The club probably thought they'd still have plenty of time after the turn of the year, because Rüdiger signaled his intention to stay and his performances had merited that bumper contract, so back behind the negotiation table they went. But then the war happened and the rest is history. Like Rüdiger said, the sanctions situation affects everybody at the club and it is topic nr 1 on players' minds, so the sanctions sealed the deal for him. Fuck war. To be fair Rüdiger played nothing like he has been playing under TT. Mistake after mistake, awful positional awareness... he was a liability, Lampard recognized that. WE wanted him dropped and gone. Zouma, for all his faults, was more reliable at the back in a 2 CB defence. I don't know how it's possible that a player performs like a clown in one formation, but then like the world's best in another. Is it REALLY that dependant on the system for him? Or is it the confidence and belief that he gets from the coach more important? Was Frank simply a bad man manager? Maybe Rüdiger needs to feel like the main man for him to be up for the fight? We'll perhaps get answers to some of those questions when he plays in a back 4 for Madrid. One thing is for sure, we'll miss him under Tuchel's specific system and management, but if we got a new manager down the line, then who knows, we might have been stuck on another dreg on high wages running down his contract...

The most interesting piece from that article: Unfortunately, my contract negotiations had already started to get difficult last fall. Business is business, but when you don’t hear any news from the club from August to January, the situation becomes complicated. After the first offer, there was a long gap of just nothing. We’re not robots, you know? You cannot wait for months with so much uncertainty about your future. Obviously, no one saw the sanctions coming, but in the end, other big clubs were showing interest, and I had to make a decision. I will leave it at that, because business aside, I have nothing bad to say about this club. If true it seems the club weren't that interested in extending him anyway.

Has anyone asked those nutjobs what is so pro-life about producing more broken people and families? Is it all only about religion?

I thought Barca were interested in him only because he'd come for free, are they ready to pay a fee for him? It also wouldn't make much sense for Chelsea to let him leave considering AC, Rüdiger and probably also Alonso and maybe Sarr are leaving. We'd have no defence left, we'd need to sign two CBs, a RWB and LWB... At least Azpi covers one CB and RWB position, one or two less signings needed for another year. Unless we promote some kids, are there any capable of filling their shoes?

What's this talk about Azpi leaving? I thought he got extended 1 more year due to some clause in his contract, am I missing something here?