Chelsea Transfers

[MoroccanBlue 5,320]

Lewa would be fantastic 

[Pizy 18,480]

If the club are somehow in the position to choose between CR7 and Lewa, I’d 100% take Lewa. I think he’d slot in our team much more seamlessly. And he doesn’t consume all of the oxygen and demand all the spotlight that Ronaldo does both on and off the pitch. He would never be a distraction or dressing room controversy.

I still have a faint hope or feeling that Barca’s incompetence will somehow play to our advantage with one of these dominoes. Whether it’s Raphinha, Dembele, or Lewandowski. Still be shocked if they can afford all 3 whilst also adding the wages of Azpi, AC, Kessie, and Alonso to their books.

[Superblue 6,372]

30 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

I hope the club had actually given up on Raphinia. It's a pure disgrace to the club to be basically called second choice worst case scenario in media by agent and player in some teeny-tiny games with Barca, no place for those guys here. And he's hardly an improvement anyway, I'm sick of buying players who are way below Chelsea level and then surprisingly turn out to be way below Chelsea level and and purely financial burden season later.

I see this comment and loads on social media claiming Chelsea, Tuchel, Boehly, etc have no "pull" etc and it's laughable.

People seem to think a club just decides to buy player A and within a couple of days it's done. In the same way any one of us would want time to decide on moving home, changing jobs, etc don't think that football players don't want similar, particularly the top level ones that may have multiple options. For many, they have to decide on moving cities, or even countries. Many have young families to also take into consideration. For some they like to find out about a club interested, maybe speak to other players there. 

Many of the top clubs will make initial moves for players months in advance. City will have laid the groundwork to sign Haaland for a few months. Barcelona laid the groundwork to sign Raphinha reportedly 4 or 5 months ago. Bayern have likely shown an interest in De Ligt for a while now themselves.

We've gone immediately into a transfer window cold and we're mostly competing with other top clubs for players we want, some of which will have already shown their interest and made their pitch to these players way before now, and given them time to think about such moves. It's reported that Sterling was really appreciative of Tuchel and Boehly giving him time to consider moving to Chelsea, and if something positive comes out of Raphinha I would expect he will similarly feel appreciative too. 

Some of this window is going to have to result in the club being a bit more patient to work on deals. Hopefully in future windows a structure can be put in place and the right personnel to be able to be far more efficient in identifying and securing targets much earlier in a transfer window, but for this summer we just have to accept how much we've been hindered by the sanctions and the fall out within our ownership and hierarchy at the club.

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Superblue_1986 said:

There might be a couple more but the only game I can really think of where we played well with Lukaku was his debut against Arsenal and they were an absolute shambles at that stage. Even the game at the start of the season at home to Villa where we won 3-0, we got completely played off the park and were far too easy from front to back to play against and in hindsight it was a pre cursor to what would follow.

I know there will be games where it doesn't happen and the usual question marks will come up about having a genuine out and out goal scorer but I'd rather see Tuchel go back towards that. If he wants to evolve us into a 4 atb system or stick to the back 3, that's for him to decide but in my opinion we are currently much better suited to playing with a more fluent attacking unit without necessary a more focal, static point, but with the ability and willingness of all to press together properly as a unit.

Sterling I think fits what Tuchel wants us to become like a glove, and I feel Raphinha does too if we managed to get him. If we could bring those two in, possibly alongside Broja in exchange for Lukaku and Ziyech I'd be delighted with those moves. 

I think the time I started to worry was as early as the second half at Anfield. The first half was an uncharacteristically decent display in a big game for him but the second half worried me because a) he was kept on when he should have been the first off with a backs to the wall performance required which hinted that he'd be playing 90 minutes unconditionally and b) he jogged around while the rest of the team were working their bollax off to maintain a draw with ten men.

The City and Juve games were when reality truly hit me. Well I say all that above i always knew but once his return was at the point of quite clearly going to happen I tried to convince myself he did improve under Conte (tactically that is, I didn't have any illusions that he'd come back technically decent but I held some delusional hope he had learned to work around his lack of technique ala Diego Costa).

Edited July 9, 2022 by Tomo

[Vegetable 830]

54 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I see this comment and loads on social media claiming Chelsea, Tuchel, Boehly, etc have no "pull" etc and it's laughable.

(snip)

Yeah, that's all true, but not where my point actually is; I'm aware big transfers are big process with lot of people and time involved (even if I can imagine Chelsea is known for shithouse madness style of business like in Sunderland documentary, lol) and players are dealing with several clubs to very last moment, but in this particular case facts are one thing and politics is another one - you cannot shit on your potential employer in media, Lukaku-style, it's a no way to start any sort of relationship, even if purely business one. Especially that we are talking player who is mediocore at best and he and Deco are making us look like we are begging a guy, who, for me, could as well go to Turkey or whatever, to come here. From freaking Leeds. Depreciating other side of deal is a negotiation tactic, but club of CFC level shouldn't let itself be played like this.

And well, the "pull" is part of properly working business. Oil money aside, big clubs can attract big players. Our inability to do so was excused with it being "smart business", but it only goes so far. I can understand some upcoming star prefers living in Spain instead of London, but if players prefer Bayern over us, that's a worrying sign.

Of course, I can understand that the club is in transition as a company and it hinders it's initial workings, but Boehly isn't a child in the dark; If we can't do good in this window then f**k it and roll with Kennedy and academy instead of getting another Drinkwater-Batsman-Bakayoko-core fella or replace Zyiech with 0,003% better version of him for only 60 mil pounds. 

Club of our calibre should either do spectacular business like RM or a smart one like we did on several occasions, but recently I feel like we do neither and it's worrying. 

 

If we are seriously aiming for Sterling, Ake (why sell with no buyback then?), Raphinia and Kondue, who, with all respect, are not topmost of dream transfers, not to say they sound rather mid-table, and cannot secure any of them, that's not a good sign either. Planning and life changes? True, but if Real calls, most of guys are there next morning. And us?

Edited July 9, 2022 by Vegetable

[Mário César 1,021]

 

I start to believe that neither Koulibaly neither De Ligt will be sold, tbh

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

18 minutes ago, Mário César said:

 

I start to believe that neither Koulibaly neither De Ligt will be sold, tbh

Especially to us...

[Mário César 1,021]

7 minutes ago, xPetrCechx said:

Especially to us...

Even to Juve or Juve selling to Bayern

If Juve don't get Koulibaly I have very doubts that they will sell MDL to Bayern... 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,534]

 

[Jype 6,398]

34 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

Especially that we are talking player who is mediocore at best and he and Deco are making us look like we are begging a guy, who, for me, could as well go to Turkey or whatever, to come here. From freaking Leeds.

Did Raphinha shag your missus or what? 😂

17G + 12A in 60 league starts for a relatively low-scoring side like Leeds is not a bad feat by any means. Raphinha is far from mediocre and I'd take him any day ahead of players like Pulisic, Ziyech and Hudson-Odoi.

Nothing wrong with him taking a week to see out his options before making the final decision on his next club. 

 

[Pizy 18,480]

Can see us turning to a striker then if both our primary wing targets after Sterling are off the table.

 

[Mário César 1,021]

lets see if dembele renew will be good for us or not 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,534]

 

[Strike 7,272]

https://theathletic.com/news/Chelsea-sterling-manchester-city-agreement/GXBzNPzD4vnx/

Deal worth £50 million

[Vegetable 830]

34 minutes ago, Jype said:

Did Raphinha shag your missus or what? 😂

17G + 12A in 60 league starts for a relatively low-scoring side like Leeds is not a bad feat by any means. Raphinha is far from mediocre and I'd take him any day ahead of players like Pulisic, Ziyech and Hudson-Odoi.

Nothing wrong with him taking a week to see out his options before making the final decision on his next club. 

 

Shag? No of what I know of, he just pissed me off.

Bad? Not. Star? also not, so that's what medicore is for me. Decent, but is it seriously the most we can do?
Plus, one season stats guarantee nothing, as we almost burn ourselves with Palace's superstar Wan-Bissaka, to give an example.

When Sarri came only the top names were mentioned in this thread and suddenly we went from expecting Chiesa and nothing less to praying that we can snag some reasonably decent bloke from Leeds, who doesn't even want to come here in the first place.

Still, my main point is:  Nothing wrong with him taking a week to see out his options before making the final decision on his next club, true. But you can share your concerns with your friends, not via press statement. Being open about Chels being plan C is just lack of respect, even if that's what the reality is. And this guy is not Mbappe.

Only thing that kept us aflot, luckily, was that we had squad of reasonably cold-headed players with good attitude and suddenly we decide to cut the branch that keeps us alive and start a dumpster fire with Lukaku, racing for Dembele (!) and what not, where we should really be careful about what kind of character we are getting in, especially when our captain and potentially few other senior, core players are leaving. 

If we didn't employ high-profile names, because they would shake the dressing room and club culture, then what are we doing now? It's like club is trying to go 10 opposite ways at the same time. We can build a squad of Kante, Mendy and 9 Barkleys, but is that really a point?

Edited July 9, 2022 by Vegetable

[bluesman2610 1,353]

https://www.90min.com/posts/Chelsea-alerted-to-potential-dayot-upamecano-availability

 

Is he still worth it? I remember him being a top choice only just a season ago

[Nero 1,847]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,534]

Just now, bluesman2610 said:

https://www.90min.com/posts/Chelsea-alerted-to-potential-dayot-upamecano-availability

 

Is he still worth it? I remember him being a top choice only just a season ago

He was criticized quite a bit last year.