Reddish-Blue

Definitely looks a raw talent but I get the feeling it may be a signing similar to Carney (the young mid we got from Villa). If we can get him across in January, it gives him 6 months to be eased into the side as a possible rotation option. Would love to see us get someone ready made (in that 23-25 age group) who can come in and have an impact, shame we didn't go after that Portuguese fella who ended up at Wolves, he looked like he had the raw tools to be that progressive midfielder in our tactical setup...

He could do that but not sure which top class CM would leave their current club in January... Feel like the only signings possible in the January window are top up players like a backup RB, backup winger as a replacement for Ziyech.

Let's put it this way, Potter was next in line for a top 6 club role, it was a question of when he would take that step. As for Chelsea being classed as a powerhouse, I would say, we haven't really been a powerhouse since the days of Conte and winning the league with a guy that could destroy the opposition by himself (Hazard) and some top class players in Matic, Willian, Costa and co. Just because Tuchel was able to get everyone on the same page and motivate them towards an amazing UCL run doesn't make this team a powerhouse, it actually just papered over the cracks because we didn't have injuries to pretty much all of our top class players at the same time. Now we have no depth, our top players are either out injured (Kante, James), carrying injuries (Kovacic, Jorginho) or they've left the club on a free transfer (Rudiger, Christensen, even Alonso was solid depth). You take 4 starting XI players out from the rest of the top 6, I bet they would look bang average as well. Imagine City without De Bruyne, Bernardo pulling the strings, Imagine Arsenal if Xhaka & Partey were out, Imagine Spurs without Lloris, Kane, Imagine United without Eriksen, Casemiro.

I think the most recent transfer window should be looked at as pure panic and chaos. No Director in charge, Manager at odds with his new ownership group and we ended up making our problems worse (50+ million on Cucurella, 60+ million on young Fofana coming off a nasty injury, 30+ million on Sterling who seems to have forgotten how to dribble and 30+ million on Koulibaly who will likely get worse with age). It's quite obvious that our lack of a midfield and rubbish attack will cost us a top 4 place this season. We really were spoiled for that period of time where we had Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho fit and firing in midfield. Now you look at the lineup of Jorginho - RLC or Kovacic - RLC and you know the game's gone. Massive transfer window coming up in the summer, wonder if Boehly & co have the balls to sell off half the squad?

Not just time, half the team needs to be sold off to get any improvement in performances. This is what happens when you buy players that don't fit every tactical system, it leads to performances like these as the players only know how to play their preferred style, their preferred role on the pitch and when they are asked to adapt, they fail miserably (Sterling, Ziyech, Pulisic, Havertz....so much attacking talent but we can't score a single goal) Time to pull the band aid off and rebuild, starting with our non existent midfield. If Jorginho/Kante get amazing offers elsewhere, we should let them go as they'll only get worse in the coming seasons.

He had 1 win between Matchdays 12 and 22 last season...it was definitely a process, even Eddie Howe spoke about that, how difficult it was to implement his ideas with the players for over 2+ months

Hopefully with proper recruitment personnel now on board and a Director of Football in place, we can make good transfer decisions and stop overpaying for average players like Cucurella.

Wouldn't the buy back clause technically include first refusal? Like let's say club X bids on Lavia prior to the buyback clause kicking in (normally it's a set date like 12 months after the transfer), Southampton would notify City as a courtesy that club X is trying to purchase Lavia and they would be asked whether they want to match the offer. Even if it is just a sell-on, it actually helps City in the negotiations as let's say Chelsea was to bid 50 million for him and City had a 20% sell on clause, they would only have to spend 40 million for him to get him back to the club (as the sell on clause would be taken off from the transfer fee).

That's the problem right there. The two losses to Leeds & Southampton were major red flags as the players threw in the towel way too early in both games and looked like they had never played with their each other. As for all the other excuses, let's not forget that Tuchel agreed to the Lukaku transfer (like I highly doubt Marina and the club would sanction a 90+ million transfer of a player without getting the manager's approval). Tuchel didn't get along with the board, isn't the first time and won't be the last (Dortmund, PSG & now Chelsea). There were stories and quotes from other managers saying that Tuchel was a bit of a control freak who wanted everything his way....and that sort of makes sense now as to why he was told to go from both PSG & Chelsea as you still have to listen to your owners. It's like someone getting a new manager at work, you don't immediately go into their office and say that they have bad ideas. You try to get to know them, work with them and then see if it's worth sticking around or moving elsewhere.

Will probably be their normal XI with the likes of Ederson, KDB and a few others getting the breather. With the way our injury list is, they can probably afford to play a few more kids and still be in control of the game...

Probably a good thing, less chance of him making that injury worse.

If Potter finishes mid-table it's because he was given an attack and midfield that just don't give a f*ck anymore. Time for guys like Sterling & Pulisic & Havertz to start pulling their weight and scoring goals for the team. The whole team right now screams mid-table. No Kante, no Reece, Kovacic running at 50% fitness.... You take away 3 first team starters from the rest of the top 4 sides, they would probably look much worse as well.

All started with not investing into the side after Conte won the league and we sold Matic for peanuts. Sarri started this transition to 'possession' football with Jorginho as the teachers pet and now we're stuck in no mans land. Feels like any progress we made in those UCL games against AC Milan have been well and truly wiped out with both Reece & Fofana going down to bad injuries. If only July 1 was around the corner, we could look forward to a good transfer window and sell of the players that don't need/want to be here. Don't be surprised if we're in 10th place later on in the season, the only thing that can save us now (from real pain) is a magical potion which gets Reece & Kante fit for the 2nd half of the season.

Wonder if it's too late to try and package Havertz into any potential Nkunku deal....win win for everyone involved

If Kai was our best attacker and we literally had zero shots on target against Arsenal at home....that is seriously concerning for not just the team but also Kai. We don't need another one of those attackers who likes to play between the lines, that worked for Leverkusen because the team was built around him but here at Chelsea, he needs to do something other than 'find space' against the opposition. No wonder why our attack sucks, we have the German generational talent finding space but lacking any other skill infront of goal, we have the washed up 33 year old striker up front (who at this point in his career offers nothing other than finishing in the box) and we have Sterling who seems to have forgotten how to do the simple things right after playing in Pep's system where he was gifted chances on a plate by De Bruyne/Gundogan and co.

We've had this issue since Hazard left the club and that was a few seasons ago. The fact that none of our attackers know how to take on the opposition defender/fullback (other than Pulisic, when he feels like it) is a massive concern for the club. The only other player we had who showed signs (pre-injury) of wanting to take on the opposition defender was Hudson Odoi but then he was asked to learn how to play wingback and now he's out on loan in the Bundesliga.

It's also because they've maintained a clean bill of health for the most part. They haven't had to really tinker with their first choice XI and that's showing in their results as they look confident, most of their players are in form and they have consistency. Sort of reminds me of our first season under Mourinho, things just start to click into place, players start stepping up to the occasion and taking control of the game. If City falter for some reason post world cup, hate to say it but Arsenal will be in the mix...

Makes you wonder just how fit Kovacic actually is...considering the fact that he's putting off surgery to play for Croatia in the World Cup. It's a shame but most managers would struggle with two dynamic midfielders out (Kante for who knows how long and Kovacic is probably 60% of what he was in previous seasons) and then we also have no cheat code on the right flank!

Were we actually that close to City with Tuchel at the helm? Maybe tactically, but from an overall league perspective, we haven't been anywhere near them since Conte departed the club. Conte had to replace Matic with Bakayoyo in midfield and that's where the issues started. He's currently got one midfielder who was discarded by Southampton as surplus to requirements and another who was let go by Juventus and he's somehow got that team in the mix for top 4. it's almost like alot of fans have Tuchel tinted glasses on when they talk about him, it's like our general performance in the league and the rubbish football we were serving up last season has been forgotten about and all we want to do is highlight his amazing cup runs which led to 1 major trophy. People actually wanted Tuchel for the long term with the poor transfer decisions he was making? Interesting how his longest stint in management is still Mainz (180+ games), with Dortmund, PSG and Chelsea, it was 3 seasons or less.

Feel like the end of season transfer window will be huge in deciding where the club is headed (e.g. a bit of stability and retaining our UCL spot or sliding down to a top 8 place). There shouldn't be anymore excuses for the new owners as they've invested in some quality footballing minds from the likes of City & Southampton. I'm not sure if Potter needs to regain trust, we've done alright considering the circumstances (Kante out long-term, Reece out, Fofana out, Kovacic carrying an injury), but I do feel we need to figure out what to do with our attack that is so inconsistent in front of goal. Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech all have question marks over their ability to either create goals or score goals...

The problem is, it stopped making sense on the pitch from pre-season to the start of this season. Players were just jogging around the pitch in those early games and it looked like a change was needed as the trend was concerning (1 point in the UCL after 2 matchdays, 2 horrible losses against teams that we shouldn't be losing against in the league - Leeds, Southampton). I was a fan of Tuchel but I feel he never really recovered from losing Rudiger.

He was given a team half way through the season and managed to motivate them to get over the finishing line, not sure how that is 'winning big'. Quite similar to what Di Matteo achieved with the club, got us over the line against Barcelona and Bayern Munich in that famous UCL season. The last manager who won 'big' with us was the Special One. Klopp can do what he wants at Liverpool now, he hasn't finished lower than 4th in the PL since his first season at the club, broke their PL title curse. It's laughable that your comparing the achievements of Pep & Klopp who have built up credit over multiple seasons with their clubs to Tuchel. Pep & Klopp have had their outbursts to the media over the years but they didn't really fight with their owners whereas Tuchel has a history of falling out with the board (Dortmund, PSG fell out with the sporting director, Chelsea fell out with the ownership group).

Kante, Reece, Chilwell (depending upon injury severity) are all out of WC. Jorginho, Auba aren't involved, would be surprised to see Chalobah/Gallagher called-up. Ziyech should be sold at the first opportunity, what a waste of a player. That leaves: Mendy, T.Silva, Koulibaly, Kovacic, Zakaria, Pulisic, Mount, Havertz, Sterling (9) City would have: Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Ake, Stones, KdB, Bernardo, Gundogan, Grealish, Foden, Rodri (12)

His chances were always going to be limited. Potter's going to go with Auba & Havertz over him on most occasions, he's only going to start if they need a breather or they are unavailable to play...

Might just be a depth signing (Trossard in, Ziyech out) to help get a good deal for Caicedo in the process! We've done it before with Drinkwater & Kante from Leicester