Reddish-Blue

Wasn't there a post from the Brighton forum where they absolutely loved the fact that they were able to offload Winstanley or the other guy from their scouting/transfers team? That speaks volumes about the new ownership at Chelsea. Roman used to have Piet De Vissier as his senior consultant (i.e. the guy who brought Ronaldo to PSV, found De Bruyne, Courtois and a number of other top talents over the years)...and now all we have is an ex-Spurs man as our head coach.

Honestly felt like the board was just loading up a new save in football manager and signing every 4 and 5 star wonderkid hoping that they would pan out in 5 years time. I actually like Caicedo as a player but that 70-ish million that Arsenal offered to Brighton was overpayment back then and then they somehow laughed their way to the bank as we blindly offered 110+ million for him. For 200 million, we could have had a top midfield with experience...but in our case, we have 2 youngsters that will probably get agitated and depart once they actually hit their prime (Enzo won't be short on offers if he lives up to his potential).

Not to defend them but it was 40+ million which would have helped with FFP concerns moving forward (same reason why they were keen on Chalobah and Maatsen sales).

It's pretty simple stuff, counter with pace, pressure the opposition's defenders and cause mistakes (they were basically gifted 2 goals from Trippier....even the commentator on my service mentioned that Trippier has been the best everton player in the second half).

Let's be honest some of the deadwood had to go but the problem is, we didn't replace the outgoings with a similar level of quality. Spending 130 million on Cucurella and Mudryk and they've been bang average so far, then spending 30+ million on Madueke who isn't even part of the first team...not to mention the 75 million spent on Fofana and he's probably another bad injury away from early retirement. Losing Rudiger, Christensen, Kovacic and even an injured Kante has set us back 5 years. I'm keen to see what the plan is moving forward as the only things to look forward to are: - Nkunku getting fit and linking up with Palmer/Enzo and co - The development of Colwill, Gusto, Palmer

This has 1-0 loss written all over it. F*ck me, what a depressing state to be as a club. We are literally a mid table side and our rivals are all running away from us, they're on 30+ points already.

I don't think Gallagher has been here long enough to qualify as a "Leader" in the dressing room. Like I love his energy but he needs to add another level to his game if he wants to be part of the future England midfield in the next 3-5 years. I also think that's part of the problem we have at the club right now. With so many new signings, no one has been here long enough to be able to lead on the pitch and take the initiative. Back in the day, you could turn to Lampard, Cech, Ashley Cole, JT, Essien, Drogba and many others who were all leaders at club or international level.

Think Arsenal will be more worried about a motivated Klopp and Liverpool 😆

I get the example but he did have another "maestro" in MacAllister roaming around the Brighton midfield. Not to mention some other good midfielders in Gross and co. Caicedo's main problem is that he'll have a very hard time justifying his price tag at Chelsea. He's a good player and I'm sure he'll be valuable in the next 5 years but to spend that much on a midfielder who doesn't really score or create goals is crazy.

What I don't get is why we agreed to loan him there? Forest never had any plans to play him, I remember people on the reddit transfer forum saying that they were only signing Santos as cheap depth on loan. Why have strategic partnerships like Strasbourg if we can't loan them good young players

United are like our bogey side, similar to Villa/Everton They will beat us easily by 2-3 goals and then forget how to play football the very next game.

There's nothing wrong with Casadei, he's still a kid, give him a season or two of proper development before judging him. Santos to Forest was always a head scratcher, why loan your talented midfielder to a side that has like 20 midfielders to choose from. Surely he could have been loaned to the Championship or abroad to play 10-15 games? He's better than what we have in midfield (other than Enzo)...and he hasn't even played a minute of football yet for us....that should tell you all you need to know about our lack of technical quality in midfield. You can run around for days but if your midfield can't break down the opposition wall, the game is over before it started. Not every team will let you attack them on the counter like Spurs, City, Arsenal.

Poor players don't cost a fortune, you just have to make the right signings. You can't say that we "needed" Mudryk/Maduke/Disasi/Cucurella/Lukaku....even Caicedo/Lavia seemed like a bit of overkill for midfield. That's why we are mid table and Liverpool are fighting for UCL next season....and they've spent their fair share of money as well. The difference is they got attacking quality in the side, that fella from Leipzig, Gravenberch from Bayern, Gapko, Jota, Nunez. We blew our money on signings that have zero value. Other than Enzo, Sterling, Palmer and Gusto (in some games), the rest of the signings have been average at best.

There was also quite a few rumors of Tuchel being involved with a staff member and apparently there was backlash and as a result both parties decided to part ways. There's always 2 sides to every story and Tuchel's history shows that he's fallen out with most of the boards that he has worked with (Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea). In terms of signings, the biggest question marks will continue to surround: - Fofana, Disasi, Cucurella - Mudryk, Madueke

It's sort of interesting that Mount may actually have been a better fit next to our current midfield group....and Ten Hag was actually quite high on Lavia. From what I saw at Southampton, Lavia is definitely a level above Ugo. He's got that keen eye for a pass, ability to break the line...something which Ugo/Caicedo aren't known for.

I agree with what you're saying but it was always going to be very very difficult to replace 3 top class mids in such a short period of time. I think between Enzo - Caicedo and Lavia (once he's fit), we should have a decent base in midfield and Nkunku should definitely help the likes of Sterling/Palmer once he's fully fit. We still lack a clinical finisher up front and that will cost us a lot of points. Just look at us and United, you can't tell me that they've been playing amazing football this season, the only difference is, their attackers have been able to finish those 50-50 chances and they've taken the 3 points. The question will be: what to do with Mudryk, Madueke, Cucurella and some of the other players in the squad as they are nowhere near consistent enough to be playing for a side that should be (at the very least) around the top 6 of the league.

The funny thing is, Poch is actually a good fit for this current side. It was always going to be a huge challenge this season but the one positive is that we've gotten most of the deadwood out of the first team squad.

United and Everton must be delighted, knowing full well that our weakness is set pieces. Wonder what the rate is for Maguire to score the winner against us

The problem for Kai was always going to be how he transitioned to a more physical/intense league as his profile seemed like he would struggle (i.e. he's not really the dribbling type that can fit in on the wings and I wouldn't classify him as a #10 that is capable of linking play, he's more of a workhorse that can slot in as required). The Kai I saw at Leverkusen was benefitting from counter attacking football where he played off the striker/target man, got into space through the middle and used his attributes to his advantage...but in the Premier League, you don't get that much space through the middle unless you have that dribbling/trickery to beat your man.

It's only fair to balance out all the biased decisions they've had in the Premier League.

Think it was Peter Crouch who basically said Jackson isn't the guy to get you 20 goals a season and even Sturridge said Jackson doesn't look like a clinical finisher and that's something Chelsea will need to look at moving forward.

Lol we are a team of kids, other than Sterling/Silva/Reece/Sanchez. Imagine having Hazard/Fabregas with a decent finisher up front against their high line...

Well they did sign the best striker from England for like 100 million...not to mention De Ligt, Kim at the back. The funniest thing is, both Mourinho and Ancelotti were far better managers for Chelsea than Tuchel could ever hope to be. There is a reason why we won the league under them, it was a team fighting for something. Tuchel effectively built a cup team that was running on emotion.

Agree here, I don't expect them to challenge for the title once it gets to the serious end of the season (let's say gameweek 30) but they have enough going for them to get top 4 this season. I don't usually praise Spurs but you gotta give them credit for getting their transfer targets sorted. Vicario was a solid Serie A keeper, that CB from the Bundesliga looks to be a good addition, young Udogie & Sarr provide energy, Bissouma looks motivated and Maddison (mind the spelling) could be signing of the summer if he keeps up that sort of form for the next 10-15 games.

To think we sold Hudson Odoi for peanuts and bought this kid for 30 million, PSV must be laughing all the way to the bank. Madueke needs 2 seasons on loan in a competitive league before he's "ready" to play for Chelsea week in week out, that's the problem....same can be said about Jackson, Broja, Ugo and various other players that we've signed. Think it was Sir Alex who said something along the lines of: if you don't give the kids the chance to make mistakes on loan, you're just ruining their development and not giving them a fair chance.