Jype

Yeah at first glance it seemed like another terrible overpayment by the new owners but now after getting some specifics it doesn't look too bad. Salary is very reasonable and the add-ons will only be triggered if we win the PL/CL sometime during the contract and if that happens I couldn't care less about some extra payment. The base fee of £62M is big but to put it into perspective it's not much more than the ones paid for Jorginho, Pulisic, Cucurella and is less than Kepa and Havertz were. If he's a flop it seems really big but if he's a success it's not even worth mentioning because good players go for fees like that all the time now.

Wasn't it always obvious the figures from £30-50K a week were bullshit? No player who moves for a fee nearing €100M will accept wages of £1.5-2.5M a year, that's ridiculous. If they did their agent should be sacked on the spot. Even the 'confirmed' £97K/week seems low for a transfer that big so maybe there are some performance clauses that can increase his total wage package.

Still a little bit unsure about Mudryk as a player but loving the Gooner tears.

Yeah that's the same salary as Pulisic got 4 years ago and I'm sure the squad's average salary and overall wage bill have both risen a little since then. But £150K/wk on an 8,5 year deal is still a ton of money to commit paying in the future. If Mudryk's development stalls or he has a nightmare time with injuries we're stuck paying him till 2031 anyway and there won't be clubs lining up to take him off our hands. Big risk but also a big reward if he comes good.

No. Chukwuemeka would have to have been at the club for a minimum of 2 years to qualify for the B list. And yeah for PL registration currently no issues. There's a free spot in the squad list for Felix to come in and the other new lads (Mudryk, Badiashile and also if he stays D. Fofana too) all count as U21. Next season Mudryk and Badiashile won't be U21 anymore so will have to be registered for the PL but by then we'll have had a better chance for a squad clearout to make room.

Yeah that would be the most obvious choice if the need to cut someone still exists by the registration deadline and the problem hasn't already taken care of itself with some outgoings. Pulisic will miss both RO16 legs to injury anyway. Only problem with that is how Pulisic himself would take it and how it would potentially affect the dressing room? He's proven to be a bit of a cunt who doesn't take kindly when his playing time is reduced so I can't even imagine how pissed he would feel if he were dropped from the squad list completely. Especially if we somehow managed to qualify for the QFs, let alone go any further than that, I think Pulisic would be sulking quite a bit for not even having the chance of being involved. 😂

True, but like I said the UEFA rules still allow for a maximum of 3 new players added mid-season so some of the new signings will have to miss out even if there are some outgoings. But yeah let's see what happens between now and the end of the window.

Kepa Mendy Bettinelli (association-trained HG) Silva Koulibaly Badiashile Azpi Cucurella Fofana James (club-trained HG) Chalobah (club-trained HG) Chilwell (association-trained HG) Jorginho Kante Kovacic Zakaria Mount (club-trained HG) RLC (club-trained HG) Gallagher (club-trained HG) Chukwuemeka (association-trained HG) Pulisic Ziyech Havertz Sterling (association-trained HG) Aubameyang Felix Mudryk D. Fofana That's 19 non-HG, 5 club-trained and 4 association-trained players for a total of 28. The maximum squad size is 25 so three will have to be cut for UCL. Even if we leave out D. Fofana and replace Bettinelli with an U21 academy keeper for the B list to make room, that still leaves one spot to be cleared in the current squad. For PL squad registration we're fine as Mudryk, Badiashile, D. Fofana and Chukwuemeka all still count as U21 (born after 1st January 2001). Also worth noting that a maximum of 3 new players can be added for the knockouts so any additional new signings made in the January window would be left out if we want to include all of the other new guys (Badiashile, Felix, Mudryk). Maybe if we sign a new midfielder like Caicedo or something like that, he would be more important to have in the CL squad than Badiashile? Either way it's not ideal and we can't fit in everyone.

UEFA are not but are the UK? Is it even possible for a Russian national to apply for a work permit there now?

Yeah. If Mudryk was really adamant to join Arsenal a hijack would never have worked, just like it didn't with Raphinha last summer. It's not like the window is about to end either, there's still more than half left and he could easily have stalled things a bit and wait to see if Arsenal would match our bid but cleraly he had already given us the green light once the offer went in. Credit to Boehly etc. as well that they have learned a thing or two since Raphinha to only make a bid once the player is already on board. Still not fully convinced about the player being worth all that money and on the face of it the 8,5 year contract seems crazy too but without knowing the salary I can't really comment on the contract length much. If it's a reasonable wage, the long deal can be a good thing to help lower the amortisation costs but if it's something like +200K/wk then it's just not great business. Looking forward to seeing what the guy can do in the PL.

For UCL squad you need a minimum of 4 club trained and 4 association trained HG players. Club-trained (5): Mount, James, RLC, Gallagher, Chalobah Association-trained (4): Bettinelli, Chilwell, Chukwuemeka, Sterling There's also Broja who would be eligible for the club-trained list but is still U21 so was eligible for the B list so he doesn't take a spot. Lewis Hall will also go to the B list.

Preferably both.

Whether Potter is good enough to take the club to the next level or not is besides the point. The squad in it's current state would be problematic for anyone to handle so why not just ride this out, start rebuilding the squad with players better suited to the kind of football the club want to instill and if at that point Potter looks bad, then bring in another manager to continue his work with a better and more stable squad to start with? The key is to build the squad with a certain footballing identity in mind and once that's done the head coach is basically just a cog in the machine that can be replaced without having to overhaul the squad every time a new manager comes in. That was the biggest problem for me during the Abramovich era where there was zero continuity and the playing style / system went from one absolute to another between managers and as as result the squad was a mash-up that had no clear identity. Bringing in another manager in the current environment would be pointless without these changes and whoever came in would only be set up for a failure once again.

Yep.

Silly question really. Lots of young English players have gone abroad in recent years and struck gold with their development. With examples set by the likes of Sancho, Bellingham etc. more and more players are open to giving the foreign leagues a go. Rightly so because it can offer a very good pathway to first team football at an early age. Nothing dubious about having left England to build a career elsewhere first before making the return as a ready-made first teamer but I'd still pass based on the injury record alone.

What's all this Madueke talk now? An injury prone player from PSV with 12 goals and 9 assists to his name in around 60 games and they're demanding the same money for him as they sold their absolute star performer Cody Gakpo to Liverpool for? This is some high level bullshit. Only 20 years of age and already has 7 different injuries recorded on his Transfermarkt page for +50 games missed out overall. Yeah that's exactly what we need.

Enrique isn't even the Spain manager anymore, he was released after the World Cup. But he's shite anyway.

That's been the case for at least 10 years with or without CL football though. I would even go as far as saying Hazard is the last 'top shelf' player we have signed where there was real competition from other top clubs for the players signature that we had to overcome. There is maybe an argument for Havertz being 'top shelf' at the time of signing but due to COVID we basically had a free run at him. Kante was definitely a world class player when he joined but he had only been at Leicester for one year prior to signing and a lot of clubs probably still had doubts whether he was actually that good or if it was just a purple patch so for him too there was no competition, which is really bizarre in hindsight. Other than that, has there been any players that were targets for multiple top clubs (with the clubs also willing to pay what it takes) and they ended up choosing us specifically? I can't really think of any.

Nkunku also agreed to join even though he knew CL next season was far from certain. When the contacts started top4 still looked a real possibility but when he's said to have signed his contract (December) we were already in a bad place. Also before messing up the negotiations there was Enzo desperate to join while already looking very unlikely to have CL next season. Football fans seriously overestimate the pull of short term CL football. Sure it's better to have it than not have it but as long as the club appears to have the ambition of being competitive and the player gets a shit ton of money on their contract, most of them won't give a single fuck whether the club has immediate CL football on offer or not. A different (and bigger) club for sure but for example Manchester United have attracted the likes of Di Maria, Pogba, Zlatan, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro all without CL football. Arsenal have also gotten a few quality players over the last few years even though they haven't been in the CL for ages.

The 16/17 team already had a Kante that was better than the version he is today.

Initially he looked way better than I expected but the red card and 3 match ban just highlights the stupidity of the whole deal. The club are now paying like 3M€ for Felix to sit out in the stands and eat pies for the next month? Fucking hell.

And? Say what you want about Rice as a player (personally I rate him) but at the very least there should be zero doubt over his leadership skills. Always seems very vocal on the pitch and was promoted to vice captain of West Ham when he was like 20 years old and is now full time club captain for his side. Law is very much correct when saying Havertz lacks 'character'.

Yeah I even noticed on Twitter a while ago Saul posted a pic of him watching a Chelsea game and was cheering the team on so I'm guessing he's genuinely glad of having had that experience even if it didn't work out for him on the pitch. Always seemed a likeable bloke too, he was just a bit shit at playing football nowadays.

Barca are seemingly open to getting Aubameyang back if they get rid of Depay first. Obviously they're broke as fuck so won't pay anything for him but since they're our only option for a January move due to the FIFA rules, how about a free six month loan with them picking up the wage bill and then in the summer we can see if we can attract a market for him elsewhere if Barca still won't pay to take him?

Yep, and also partly a reason why Havertz has failed too. While he can play up front or out wide on the right, neither of those are optimally suited for him and for those kind of roles there are much better suited players available (maybe not at Chelsea but generally speaking). Havertz too would be at his best playing behind a striker as a free roaming no.10 but none of the three managers he' played under have used a formation where that role exists. The closest to that was Tuchel's 3-4-3 as one of the 'double 10s' behind the main striker but without actual wingers it was not great whenever the main wing-backs (Chilwell-James) weren't playing. Be interesting to see if Potter plans to use both Felix and Havertz together or if it's just one or the other. Either way it's going to be hard to fit them in.