Chelsea Transfers

[Artandur 939]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Oh, I know that. I meant just in terms of us having enough forwards currently. Unless the plan is just for Auba to never play in a Chelsea shirt again.

Feels like that might be the idea, honestly

[Jype 6,398]

20 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

Law talking about character and after twerks around Rice all day.

And?

Say what you want about Rice as a player (personally I rate him) but at the very least there should be zero doubt over his leadership skills. Always seems very vocal on the pitch and was promoted to vice captain of West Ham when he was like 20 years old and is now full time club captain for his side.

Law is very much correct when saying Havertz lacks 'character'.

[TheHulk 2,655]

1 minute ago, Jype said:

And?

Say what you want about Rice as a player (personally I rate him) but at the very least there should be zero doubt over his leadership skills. Always seems very vocal on the pitch and was promoted to vice captain of West Ham when he was like 20 years old and is now full time club captain for his side.

Law is very much correct when saying Havertz lacks 'character'.

Very vocal, yeah he is but not in the good sense. Last week or two weeks ago this idiot was finger pointing and blaming his teammate for him getting roasted by Saka, if having character means being a clown I'd rather have no characters like Havertz all day long. So sick of these journalists finding character and leaders in all these overhyped English players. 

[Laylabelle 9,741]

16 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Too much negatively around here for a club that is 7 games away from winning CL. 

Ahahaahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa. How?! Know odd things happen but playing how we have....

[Vesper 31,126]

Boehly has built upon years of poor decisions and neglect by the previous regime and accelerated our destruction

it is going to be 6 or 7 years at the soonest that we have a new stadium

why would a great player want to come here atm, other than cash, and if cash is their main motivation, I DO NOT WANT THEM

[Vesper 31,126]

every move we make blows up in our face like IED in Baghdad circa 2005

[Mhsc 1,150]

A great CM and a great GK would transform us. Probably better just to wait until summer tho and have our pick instead of taking those few who are available rn.

[DDA 10,267]

9 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

A great CM and a great GK would transform us. Probably better just to wait until summer tho and have our pick instead of taking those few who are available rn.

Have our pick with no CL football?

[Mhsc 1,150]

1 minute ago, DDA said:

Have our pick with no CL football?

Money trumps everything in football

[Laylabelle 9,741]

10 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

Money trumps everything in football

Hmmm. Also helps having a direction and  being able to convince players as well. We don't have a direction...or probably a manager..or any idea of what to do

[Reddish-Blue 2,690]

8 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

Hmmm. Also helps having a direction and  being able to convince players as well. We don't have a direction...or probably a manager..or any idea of what to do

A direction towards building a younger squad is there, you can see it with the investment in Carney, Casadei, Santos for our midfield, Fofana up front, Slonina at GK, Badiashile at CB, Lewis Hall and some of the other promising youngsters getting a look in with the first team. 

You take away 4-5 starting quality players from any PL team and they would look bang average as well.   Might be time to invest into some physios from the top clubs as well. 

[Special Juan 28,820]

Madueke talks ongoing apparently and we will have to stump up Gakpo amounts according to Rik Elfrink

[Costa19 858]

32 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Madueke talks ongoing apparently and we will have to stump up Gakpo amounts according to Rik Elfrink

For another technical bang average player who is insanely injury prone.

Yeah that sounds like todays Chelsea 

[Tomo 21,751]

15 hours ago, Jype said:

And?

Say what you want about Rice as a player (personally I rate him) but at the very least there should be zero doubt over his leadership skills. Always seems very vocal on the pitch and was promoted to vice captain of West Ham when he was like 20 years old and is now full time club captain for his side.

Law is very much correct when saying Havertz lacks 'character'.

I'm not sure. I feel he has a bit of an "excuse culture" mindset to him.

When England went on a run of 4 scoreless games and got relegated he came out and practically said it's okay because they score in training and then after the world cup bragged about Mbappe being quiet in the France/England match.

Compare that to James who said "ready to win trophies" to Koulibaly in their first meet up and it's night and day.

[Tomo 21,751]

12 hours ago, DDA said:

Have our pick with no CL football?

We got Kante in without it.

And according to @We Hate Scouse also convinced Jose to return (when he was still in and around his peak) with our top 4 place far from secure.

The players we wouldn't be able to sign would be the case even if we had it, case in point Haaland not looking twice at us even after we won it.

[Pizy 19,308]

I’m less worried about the lack of CL football for a season as a deterrent to top players than I am about whether said top players will want to play for Graham Potter after we finish midtable or worse. If we had a manager who was well known and well respected by world class players across the globe then top players would say “eh, they had one nightmare season but the project looks promising.” But I highly doubt many players outside of the PL have even heard of Graham Potter. 

So when we chase targets who will also have offers from Klopp or Pep it’s not going to be a contest. Or Ten Hag who will likely finish top 4 and have new ownership themselves who will want to make a splash. 

[Jype 6,398]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

We got Kante in without it.

And according to @We Hate Scouse also convinced Jose to return (when he was still in and around his peak) with our top 4 place far from secure.

The players we wouldn't be able to sign would be the case even if we had it, case in point Haaland not looking twice at us even after we won it.

Nkunku also agreed to join even though he knew CL next season was far from certain. When the contacts started top4 still looked a real possibility but when he's said to have signed his contract (December) we were already in a bad place. Also before messing up the negotiations there was Enzo desperate to join while already looking very unlikely to have CL next season.

Football fans seriously overestimate the pull of short term CL football. Sure it's better to have it than not have it but as long as the club appears to have the ambition of being competitive and the player gets a shit ton of money on their contract, most of them won't give a single fuck whether the club has immediate CL football on offer or not.

A different (and bigger) club for sure but for example Manchester United have attracted the likes of Di Maria, Pogba, Zlatan, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro all without CL football. Arsenal have also gotten a few quality players over the last few years even though they haven't been in the CL for ages.

[Pizy 19,308]

We’ll get good players without CL football. We won’t get players from the very top shelf, though. It’ll have to be more young talents with potential or players in the Badiashile profile who are good but not great players. 

Our only chance at players like Enzo, Leão, or whatever other world class talents we may desire is for Potter to steady the ship and finish out the season strong (which looks impossible at this point) or for Boehly to completely blow other competing clubs’ salary offers out of the water to make up for the lack of CL football. 

World class players are starting to get smarter when they’re choosing their new club these days. They want stability and to go to a team with structure and a set way of playing that can maximize their talents. Look at Haaland for example. He had a list of clubs that he was seriously considering and we were on it. But he said he chose City over everyone else because of their incredible stability, structure, and playing style. 

A top player these days may look at what’s happening at Chelsea where things chop and change so often and think we’re too big of a risk. Huge talents come to Chelsea and turn to shit. That’s got to be a consideration for these guys.

[Jype 6,398]

42 minutes ago, Pizy said:

We’ll get good players without CL football. We won’t get players from the very top shelf, though. 

That's been the case for at least 10 years with or without CL football though.

I would even go as far as saying Hazard is the last 'top shelf' player we have signed where there was real competition from other top clubs for the players signature that we had to overcome. There is maybe an argument for Havertz being 'top shelf' at the time of signing but due to COVID we basically had a free run at him.

Kante was definitely a world class player when he joined but he had only been at Leicester for one year prior to signing and a lot of clubs probably still had doubts whether he was actually that good or if it was just a purple patch so for him too there was no competition, which is really bizarre in hindsight.

Other than that, has there been any players that were targets for multiple top clubs (with the clubs also willing to pay what it takes) and they ended up choosing us specifically? I can't really think of any.

[Pizy 19,308]

24 minutes ago, Jype said:

That's been the case for at least 10 years with or without CL football though.

I would even go as far as saying Hazard is the last 'top shelf' player we have signed where there was real competition from other top clubs for the players signature that we had to overcome. There is maybe an argument for Havertz being 'top shelf' at the time of signing but due to COVID we basically had a free run at him.

Kante was definitely a world class player when he joined but he had only been at Leicester for one year prior to signing and a lot of clubs probably still had doubts whether he was actually that good or if it was just a purple patch so for him too there was no competition, which is really bizarre in hindsight.

Other than that, has there been any players that were targets for multiple top clubs (with the clubs also willing to pay what it takes) and they ended up choosing us specifically? I can't really think of any.

I suppose you’re right. What I should’ve said is we’ll struggle to sign the most sought after players. Players that all the other top clubs will be after may not even consider us in our current state. We should still be able to attract guys who will see Chelsea as a huge step up in their careers. Players from small clubs like Brighton for example. But players who are already at big Champions League clubs (like Milan or Benfica) will probably look at us now and think “if I leave my club I want it to be a big step up to a stable club.”