Strike

I think best case scenario at this point. Poor guy has had a troubled year personally also with the break-in disrupting his WC

Any truth in the news that City and Newcastle were looking to sign him?

Good news

True. They sold Cucurella for good money and coolly replaced him with Estupinan who has been good for them and was good for Ecuador at the WC. Of course the question remains can this be replicated at a club like Chelsea? We are stockpiling talents - apparently signing a striker Brighton wanted - but we also need to move on senior players quickly.

The ref decisions in the final were all correct. You are just stating things that happened. Don't think there was any major controversy in the final. Few weird refs in the tournament as a whole but nothing major that altered the course of the tournament I think?

Is there an alternative available who will seriously consider Chelsea?

They're only now beginning work and some of them are not even in place for January.

Did we pull the plug or did Leipzig (logically) decide to wait before finalising anything?

Mazraoui, Saiss and Aguerd all start

Dreading going back to watching Chelsea in two weeks

Really liked him when he moved to Juve but his stock has gone down there - has been injured quite a bit.

Every target is priced over 100m

Smart if they are planning a complete midfield overhaul. After this year, we should have low expectations about signing the top young players.

Anyone has a read on how good is Moukoko? I saw Germany got him on at the WC and he plays centrally

Chelsea working on a deal to bring Moukoko in January. Aston Villa (yes, I rechecked) mentioned as a destination for Joao Felix.

Cannot catch a break. This looks like RLC level

I think this is harsh. Southgate picked a good team, went with a 4-3-3 and had France on the ropes after HT. We have to factor in that France are a demonstrably better, athletic side than England. I don't think Mount over Henderson would have made a difference honestly. Henderson pressed well but lacked composure in possession - and I doubt Mount would be any better in that role.

Only Ziyech and Kovacic in the final week of the competition from the Chelsea perspective then. That's good - gets Potter more time with the players

Croatia are the masters in controlling 2/3rds of the territory in games - that midfield of Kova, Modric and Brozovic is excellent. If only they had a sharper attacking unit or a genuine #9 option.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2017/oct/04/next-generation-2017-60-of-the-best-young-talents-in-world-football

How did Boehly lose this in one summer? Ballack was 15 years ago. We were on the decline for a long time and in need of a transition period. Last elite signing was probably Kante in 16 and even that was out of the blue. Have to go back to Eden in 12 to find the last genuine signing where we jumped the market on a surefire superstar. We've lucked out we have a superstar (Reece) and a decent workhorse (Mount) who came through the academy. But otherwise - the very top prospects haven't considered Chelsea as an option in years. The Havertz/Werner 2020 window was an anomaly given most clubs were not active in the market during COVID crisis.

Many papers reported that Thiago Silva hosted Endrick's family, showed Chelsea training ground in November https://www.espn.in/football/soccer-transfers/story/4800283/paris-saint-germain-Chelsea-among-clubs-vying-for-brazilian-wonderkid-endrick-sources

Apart from Partey, this is the one position they dont have a good enough backup (Nketiah)

If Real are in the fray, this one's done