Chelsea Transfers

[Special Juan 27,419]

1 minute ago, Kong said:

Raphinha was thee signing for me watched him live alot this season, he's absolutely pure class.

Not just quality on the ball but an absolute mentality monster who grafts like fuck and want's it all the time.

Look at the teams around us even bringing Spurs and arsenal into it and what they have up top. City have Haaland, Mahrez, Foden, Liverpool have Salah, Diaz and Nunez, Spurs have Kane and Son with Richarlison and Arsenal have Jesus, Saka and Martinelli....all more options, more fluidity, more threat than us who have Kai Fucking Havertz, Werner and CHO

[Laylabelle 9,347]

12 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Not just quality on the ball but an absolute mentality monster who grafts like fuck and want's it all the time.

Look at the teams around us even bringing Spurs and arsenal into it and what they have up top. City have Haaland, Mahrez, Foden, Liverpool have Salah, Diaz and Nunez, Spurs have Kane and Son with Richarlison and Arsenal have Jesus, Saka and Martinelli....all more options, more fluidity, more threat than us who have Kai Fucking Havertz, Werner and CHO

Yeahhhhh. Even if discount Liverpool and City cause they're miles above...Spurs and Arsenal have made improvements this window. I can see us missing out this time. The problems are the same as last season and haven't changed at all..just looking more obvious now.

[Superblue 6,370]

It's a key point in the road immediately for the new ownership.

Does the club finally back a manager to reshape this entire squad and finally make sure players not good enough to be here are moved on in time, or are we going to go down the same rabbit hole the old ownership took us down which frankly is the root cause of why we haven't mounted a sustainable title challenge for over half a decade.

There are failings that do fall at the feet of Tuchel, and his tinkering and rotation of players doesn't help at times but ultimately this is a group that were languishing in mid table under Lampard and heading backwards. We had no right to win the Champions League and for me, the biggest credit by a mile for that fell on Tuchel for finding a way to hide as many weaknesses in our squad as possible - a squad that has been put together with a mix of half a dozen managers with differing tactics and philosophies, and a board/scouting team with an extremely erratic track record.

The attack being a shambles isn't something new. We were carried by Hazard in Conte's second year and Sarri's season, and since then we've had an attack which performs at best, inconsistent and at worst, abysmal. You have to question the recruitment in attack - Werner and Ziyech are really ill fits in the league in my opinion and besides a marketing tool, I struggle to understand where Pulisic ever justified costing upwards of £50m during his Dortmund career. Havertz was clearly a buy at the time the club saw as an opportunity during covid to snap up a player that seemed to be coveted by a number of clubs, but there was absolutely no plan in place for how he'd fit into the side.

The club hasn't bought a defensive minded midfielder since Bakayoko 5 years ago. 

And besides free transfers, Koulibaly is the first centre back we've signed for a transfer fee since Rudiger, also 5 years ago, and that has been borne out of necessity. 

Key areas of our team have just not been worked on or looked after, because we've had to consistently throw money at other areas of the pitch because signings have been poor. Two keepers have been bought in that timeframe, two left backs (whilst a third left back we already had is still here at the club) and god knows how many attack minded players.

Given how poor a fit Lukaku was, and Koulibaly is a replacement for losing one of our best players, Sterling is the first player you could genuinely pin up as an upgrade in our side since Tuchel took over. It's not enough, but this squad isn't going to be rebuilt in one summer and the worrying thing now is the club panics and buys players for the sake of trying to strengthen the squad without actually doing so adequately. There's actually few positions now where I look at real quality available on the market. We may well have to take a step or two backwards to move forwards for the long run. Tuchel might have to place more faith in some of the younger players to pull us through this coming season and give the board time to put in place a sporting director and buy time to actually have a proper run at next summers window.

[YorkshireBlue 3,122]

1 hour ago, Special Juan said:

Not just quality on the ball but an absolute mentality monster who grafts like fuck and want's it all the time.

Look at the teams around us even bringing Spurs and arsenal into it and what they have up top. City have Haaland, Mahrez, Foden, Liverpool have Salah, Diaz and Nunez, Spurs have Kane and Son with Richarlison and Arsenal have Jesus, Saka and Martinelli....all more options, more fluidity, more threat than us who have Kai Fucking Havertz, Werner and CHO

Hes a total work horse.

Are attacking lineup bar sterling and mount atm is a joke. 

Werner can't finish his dinner 

Ziyech is weak non explosive and just a disappointment of a player in all aspects of his play.

CHO I have no words for just how bad he is

KAI well all the Hoope non of the glory for me he's not a CF, he should be playing behind the CF which of course we haven't got one because we pissed it all on lukaku (which I admit at the time thought it would work) now we have loaned him out the season after.

So as it stands we need a CF a right sided winger a box to box CM a power house DMF a LWD a RWB and another centre half (maybe) that's at the very least. The only 2 attacking players this year is mount and sterling I truly believe that if we get any where near that top 4 it will be because of these guys (in an attacking sense)

Edited July 24, 2022 by Kong

[Special Juan 27,419]

I'd  renege now and get Ronaldo in at least he can score goals. 

[maxlev 45]

Lots of double standard comments here and this comes anything we lose a game. The same people that were in support of certain signings calling them quality then still turn back, not just calling those players low quality but calling for the head of the person who signed them. Friendly matches are player to correct possible errors before the season kicks off and those errors will definitely be corrected. In a competitive match we will defeat Arsenal with our best 11(which will still get better with more better signings before season kicks off). Just one top striker will improve us instantly.

[maxlev 45]

Getting top 4 shouldn't be judged by result on friendly matches. It is better to lose matches and correct possible errors than losing competitive matches after preseason friendly wins.

[milka 3,344]

This team looks like a tough fight for the top 4

What we have
 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by milka

[Blues Forever 1,232]

So no Broja to West Ham.

[Superblue 6,370]

27 minutes ago, maxlev said:

Getting top 4 shouldn't be judged by result on friendly matches. It is better to lose matches and correct possible errors than losing competitive matches after preseason friendly wins.

Whilst I would agree with you, and it's better to get results like this in friendlies to wake the club up, some of the same problems cropping up such as defensive mistakes and lack of clinical cutting edge in attack are by-products of last season's struggles in the second half of the season.

[Superblue 6,370]

Side note to the transfers, it's absolutely critical to get James and Mount signed up to long term deals this summer too. 

If it does take a year or two to get rid of all the deadwood at the club and reshape the squad, the last thing we need is question marks on two of our best players. 

There was talk a few weeks ago of getting both on 6 year deals. Get this done, it'll alleviate a huge potential problem we could face down the line.

[King Kante 1,473]

I am not going to lose my shit over a pre-season but I have been of the opinion for a while that we were never going to solve our problems in one window and this should be remembered.

However, the losing of Rudi, Tomori, Guehi and AC caused us a lot of damage and extended my prediction of how long a rebuild will take us from two windows to three. I say this as where this window should've been focused getting the attack right, followed by a CM and some back up WB's, it has required us to focus on CB. 

Furthermore, the two key attacking players I had down to really help us kick on where Raphinha and Chiesa. Raph decided to go to Barca, I personally don't blame the club here as I think they did all the could, whilst Chiesa got a massive injury that ruled him out. That left us with Sterling which I think was probably the best option left to us. 

At this point, I do not see any AM/CF's that we can go out and get this Summer that are going to really improve us.

As a result, I think the goal has to be get Mount and James pinned down to long term contracts and make ourselves hard to beat and just stick to getting top 4 as that allows us to continue to build. 

For me, we need to just get the RCB and a back up WB minimum and hope Kai steps up (I actually think he will due to what I saw him develop last year: his hold up play and ability to fight/stand up to the CB's in the PL.) 

[Superblue 6,370]

3 minutes ago, King Kante said:

I am not going to lose my shit over a pre-season but I have been of the opinion for a while that we were never going to solve our problems in one window and this should be remembered.

However, the losing of Rudi, Tomori, Guehi and AC caused us a lot of damage and extended my prediction of how long a rebuild will take us from two windows to three. I say this as where this window should've been focused getting the attack right, followed by a CM and some back up WB's, it has required us to focus on CB. 

Furthermore, the two key attacking players I had down to really help us kick on where Raphinha and Chiesa. Raph decided to go to Barca, I personally don't blame the club here as I think they did all the could, whilst Chiesa got a massive injury that ruled him out. That left us with Sterling which I think was probably the best option left to us. 

At this point, I do not see any AM/CF's that we can go out and get this Summer that are going to really improve us.

As a result, I think the goal has to be get Mount and James pinned down to long term contracts and make ourselves hard to beat and just stick to getting top 4 as that allows us to continue to build. 

For me, we need to just get the RCB and a back up WB minimum and hope Kai steps up (I actually think he will due to what I saw him develop last year: his hold up play and ability to fight/stand up to the CB's in the PL.) 

Agreed whether we buy Kounde or someone else, we're likely spending the best part of £100m on centre backs to replace two that have left on free transfers.

The worrying thing with attackers is there's not a great deal of depth on the market. Unless we took a massive dice roll with Ronaldo for a year which could easily go a similar way to Lukaku, there's no one that stands out to me that is nothing more than a punt. Hence why it just makes more sense for us to keep Broja this season who will offer a more direct threat in the number 9 role than Havertz (a genuine number 9 option) but is willing to work and press for the system which was an obvious problem with Lukaku.

 

[Mário César 972]

 

 

 

[DDA 9,689]

Just saw TTs post match presser and he was absolutely spot on. We are proper fucked with our current attacking options going into the new season which is literally a few weeks away. 

We need a striker and RW...

But for me most importantly, we need a playmaker.... I know it's not going happen but we desperately need our own KDB. 

It's beyond beggars belief that we have never replaced Fabregas and even Hazard to some extent.

The lack of vision from our midfield is mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling.

Edited July 24, 2022 by DDA

[DDA 9,689]

I'd go out and get Saint Maximin, highjack that Scamacca from West Ham and go fully in for Nkunku.

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by DDA

[Superblue 6,370]

7 minutes ago, DDA said:

I'd go out and get Saint Maximin, highjack that Scamacca from West Ham and go fully in for Nkunku.

 

Personally I struggle to see what Saint Max would give us for the price being touted. He's direct and at times will cause problems with his willingness to dribble but there's a lot of times that he'll either dribble into a blind alley or when it comes to an end product, it's frustratingly inconsistent like our current attacking contingent. 

He's not adding goals to this team either as he's only scored 11 in the league in his 3 years at Newcastle.

You have to also ask questions, given where Newcastle are and where I'm sure they'd like to get to, why would they be entertaining selling him?

[Strike 7,212]