Jase

In other words, they have no money.

Emma Hayes: "For those of you that are winning your first title with us, get used to it. That's what we do. Winning is what we do at this football club"

Well...

If you say so...

Fortunately/unfortunately, I'm one of those who can't get fat.

Death. Taxes. @killer1257 trying to convince everyone that Werner is bad.

Next week feels like an eternity away... 😭

People should just listen to this podcast on our pursuit of Werner and more... https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/werner-to-chelsea-the-inside-story/id1488521447?i=1000476889309

Make some as undisputed starters. Have some as clear second choices and players who can play multiple positions. Easy-peasy...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/06/05/exclusive-petr-cechs-major-role-chelsea-transfers/ Frank Lampard and Petr Cech made an undercover pre-lockdown trip to Germany that helped Chelsea leapfrog Liverpool and Manchester United to convince Timo Werner to move to Stamford Bridge. Telegraph Sport can reveal that the pair gave Chelsea’s bid to sign the forward the personal touch, as they laid out their plans for how Werner will fit into Lampard’s vision for the team. It is understood that the visit from Lampard and Cech, who won three Premier League titles and the Champions League as Chelsea team-mates, hugely impressed Werner, his family and his representatives. The feeling was mutual, as Lampard and Cech were encouraged by Werner’s driven but humble character, and the trio have since remained in contact. Cech played a key role, as both Werner’s father and his agent Karlheinz Forster are not fluent in English but the former goalkeeper speaks perfect German and he was able to translate, as well as offering his own expertise. Werner was told about how Lampard wants his team to look next season and the duo talked to the 24-year-old about the winning mentality they want to breed at Stamford Bridge. Lampard had made Werner his priority some time ago and enquiries had been made before Christmas with Cech holding a first round of talks ahead of the January transfer window, but Werner did not want to leave Leipzig mid-season. Liverpool were thought to be leading the race to sign the Germany international, thanks to their charismatic manager Jurgen Klopp, while Manchester United had also shown an interest. Both clubs made personal contact before Chelsea, but Lampard and Cech proved their pulling power. The journey to Germany, which is believed to have taken place back in Chelsea’s February mid-season break before the coronavirus pandemic struck, gives an indication of the approach to transfers that Lampard, Cech and director Marina Granovskaia are taking. Granovskaia gave her full backing to Lampard and Cech making the trip, which made it clear Chelsea were prepared to meet the £53 million release clause if the player could be tempted. It also left Chelsea in an excellent position to complete the deal at a time when Werner and his agent could not travel to England because of the coronavirus restrictions and the resumption of the Bundesliga. Granovskaia had often been the lone negotiator following the departure of former technical director Michael Emenalo. By the time he left, ex-head coach Antonio Conte’s relationship with the club had broken down and his successor Maurizio Sarri often proved difficult to contact as he did not use WhatsApp. But Cech’s appointment as technical performance advisor last summer, together with Lampard’s return to the club, has helped to bring the on and off-pitch departments back together. Lampard and Cech make a formidable pair to lead talks with targets over Chelsea’s on-the-pitch aims, with Granovskaia able to concentrate more on the business side of deals, for which she is rated the best in her field. The meeting in Germany earlier this year left Granovskaia in the perfect position to strike, when Liverpool stalled over paying Werner’s release clause together with wages worth around £200,000-a-week. Werner will become Chelsea’s second signing of the summer transfer window, following Hakim Ziyech, who also fell for the Lampard-Cech charm offensive. Lampard spoke with Ziyech and kept in touch with the attacking midfielder over telephone messages during Chelsea’s negotiations over his move from Ajax in a deal worth £37m. Cech was also present in every meeting with the Morocco international and his agent. Describing his talks with Lampard, Ziyech said: “We had a few long conversations about his approach, the playing style, the club, about me personally. And later on we texted quite a lot.” The arrivals of Ziyech and Werner could coincide with the summer departures of Willian and Pedro, with Roma hoping to sign Pedro on a free transfer.

It also helps that we have an owner who can pump money in.

As much as the prospect of signing Havertz or Sancho is exciting, getting one of them at this point will be overkilled. We already have so many attacking players. How are we gonna fit them all in and keep them happy, even with the competition for places?!

Not saying Loftus-Cheek wasn't good last season but part of the reason he was good because we were playing some shit football under Sarri. That is why it was refreshing when we saw Hazard, CHO or Loftus-Cheek be direct and take players on, rather than engage in all the senseless passing nonsense. Given we play much differently now, it will be interesting to see how he fares.

In regards to the Champions League, yeah, Guardiola likes to overthink things for whatever reason and throws out weird systems/formations. But domestically, he made it work when Man City steamrolled their way past everyone for the last 2 seasons. I do think Lampard needs to make sure he has our style of play (e.g. tiki taka) nailed down first and foremost (which we already kinda do but he needs to be 10000% certain about it) and from there, can work around 2-3 different systems to make that style of play effective and successful. If he starts changing our style of play from one game to another, then we are gonna have PROBLEMS.

I think Gallagher will be loaned out simply because of the number of players we currently have in midfield. 6 would still be okay, I guess.

I just realized you left out Jorginho there. Was that intentional? Plus him and Gallagher, we would have 8 (EIGHT!) players for 2 or 3 midfield positions. That 8 needs to be cut down to 5.

Judging a player out of nowhere over 2 games in the Champions League is silly. I remember Sancho was rubbish when Dortmund played Spurs in the CL last season but that didn't mean he was bad. As for Werner vs Spurs, I don't think he was bad or anything. Not perfect but he was lively and gave a busy performance in both legs.

HELL. NO.

The midfield is just stupidly bloated at this point. 1-2 need to be sold!

That's assuming they will be demoted to 2nd choices, which I doubt. It'll come down to form, performances and competition for places.

This is what Nagelsmann said about Werner and the striker role earlier this season... https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/timo-werner-a-different-kind-of-striker-to-lewandowski-rb-leipzig-s-julian-nagelsmann-9547 bundesliga.com: You said Timo Werner "is a different style" - tells us a bit more... Nagelsmann: "Yeah, it’s part of the reason why we’ve started him a bit deeper, we don’t want him right on the last line, because he needs a bit of a head start, a bit of tempo, in order to really show his pace on the pitch. When he’s on the last line, he often finds himself static when he needs to get going, but with a bit of room in front of him, he can hit top speed. And from this deeper position, he’s much more involved in our build-up play and combinations. In the last few years all his moments have come in transition, whereas now he has his moments in combination play too. He’s having many more touches of the ball than in previous years, and this new position has done his development good, playing in between the lines against teams who sit deep. That’s another trait he’ll need if he wants to be one of the best in Europe. There are a lot of teams who sit deep and defend deep against you, and he needs that second way of being dangerous to opponents too, and he’s definitely developed that this year." bundesliga.com: Do you think a striker's role has changed? Nagelsmann: "Strikers are definitely more involved in the build-up than before. In days gone by there were many classic 'penalty-box' strikers who were primarily responsible for putting away crosses and cutbacks, which led to some amazing goalscoring records from some strikers. Today you’re much more involved in the combinations. I think teams overall defend much more tactically, so it’s not always as easy to create chances. You need all 10 outfield players involved to create chances, and the striker is often tasked with changing positions. Now there’s a new positional profile with the nine-and-a-half, a bit more like the old number 10, where you go between the lines and don’t just play as the buffer up front like in old times. It’s changed a bit." bundesliga.com: Why do you think that is? Nagelsmann: "The athletic side of the sport is a bit different. When you look at Werner or Lewandowski, they’re total athletes. Gerd Müller was unbelievable in the box, very powerful, and he had a very good eye for goal, he held the ball up. I’m not sure he would score as many goals if he were playing today – nowadays, you need incredible athleticism and dynamism like Timo Werner or Robert Lewandowksi, or Mario Gomez, who had amazing movement, I think he was one of the first strikers who always moved against the defenders as they shifted around, which wasn’t so easy for a defence. Things have changed a bit even more since Mario Gomez was in his pomp, but he was a good role model, and you can see how the dynamics have changed so much. Gerd Müller scored, I’m not sure exactly, 95 per cent of his goals from inside the box and he was set up by teammates for many situations, but nowadays when you look at Timo Werner or Lewandowski, who are always drifting out to the wings, you can see how much the profile and the movement of strikers has really changed."

Please, don't get me going on that...