Chelsea Transfers

[mkh 748]

Chelsea reach agreement in principle with Atlanta United to sign Caleb Wiley. Fee for 19yo left-back ~£8.5m. 7yr deal. Set to be loan led to Strasbourg for regular first team football. Talks helped by good relations between #CFC & #ATLUTD @DavidOrnstein

[YorkshireBlue 3,341]

16 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea reach agreement in principle with Atlanta United to sign Caleb Wiley. Fee for 19yo left-back ~£8.5m. 7yr deal. Set to be loan led to Strasbourg for regular first team football. Talks helped by good relations between #CFC & #ATLUTD @DavidOrnstein

@Vesperwho is this guy? 

[Pizy 19,249]

42 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

@Vesperwho is this guy? 

Someone we’ll likely never see in a Chelsea shirt.

[Vesper 31,037]

On 05/07/2024 at 11:43, mkh said:

As it stands Chelsea are looking for a left footed IV who can also play at LV as there would only be 3 players who can play that and would fit into Chelsea's regime.
Calafiori goes to Arsenal
Hincapie 
J.Hato 

 

Unfortunately all these players practically never played as a LV but only as a IV:
Pacho 
Inacio 
Murillo 
Branthwaite 
Lukeba 
Bastoni (too expensive)
Schlotterbeck (not so great)
Botman (injured) 
Buongiorno (goes to Napoli) Hancko (goes to Atletico)
Kilman (goes to West Ham)

  

Piero Hincapié
Willian Pacho    
Gonçalo Inácio
Jorrel Hato

youth

El Chadaille Bitshiabu 
Mikayil Faye 
 

[Vesper 31,037]

On 05/07/2024 at 23:22, TheHulk said:

 

fucking insane we do not buy him for £20m!!!

w

t

f

[Duppy Conqueror 1,584]

Think David will go for more than £20m eventually but ongoing mystery why we and others haven't started bidding yet.

Of course every transfer is a risk but we spend that kind of amount on players with so little pro experience and production. My theory is we looking at just 1 more target for the front 3 (atleast for our senior squad this season) and are weighing up options at both LW/LF and CF. I'd personally go for David but who knows what way they gonna go.maybe depends on where Maresca sees Nkunku playing..

[Duppy Conqueror 1,584]

If we just signing one more 1st teamer for this season tho then i'd still go for one of the top keepers over any others.

[LAM09 7,085]

1 hour ago, Duppy Conqueror said:

Think David will go for more than £20m eventually but ongoing mystery why we and others haven't started bidding yet.

Of course every transfer is a risk but we spend that kind of amount on players with so little pro experience and production. My theory is we looking at just 1 more target for the front 3 (atleast for our senior squad this season) and are weighing up options at both LW/LF and CF. I'd personally go for David but who knows what way they gonna go.maybe depends on where Maresca sees Nkunku playing..

He's on INT duty. I'm sure things will heat up next week. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

Watched little of him (Jonathan David) -- only playing for Canada and have to say that I wasn't impressed. He's definitely athletic, a very physically player, which surely helps in the PL, but I'm not sure I see enough skill there for an elite player.
The fee is irrelevant.

Edited July 8, 2024 by robsblubot

[Vesper 31,037]

5 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

@Vesperwho is this guy? 

Quote

Back when I typed that last September, Wiley was the 3rd most valued teenage LB on the planet

trailing only

Lewis Hall  
Valentín Barco 

 

 

[Vesper 31,037]

On 05/07/2024 at 23:36, LAM09 said:

A market that has so much potential. Let's hope we take full advantage of that.

Seyi Olofinjana | Growing Up in a Polygamous Home, Representing Nigeria and The Business of Football

 

[Vesper 31,037]

On 05/07/2024 at 23:49, LAM09 said:

but FIFA keep doing everything in their power to prevent that from happening

fuck FIFA

[Vesper 31,037]

On 06/07/2024 at 02:41, Pizy said:

Calafiori was not going to be a guaranteed starter imo. Seems a lot of people here have just completely written off Colwill and want to replace him already.

I absolutely could have seen them as our two starting CBs in a back 4

and 2 of the 3 in a back 5

[Vesper 31,037]

On 06/07/2024 at 14:15, Pizy said:

I’ve seen similar sentiment about him with the Canadian national team. He basically does nothing with his country.

 

If 27 goals and 16 assists in 3989 minutes, all done with a weak supporting cast other than Davies, is 'nothing', can we get 'nothing' from all our attackers?

 

Edited July 9, 2024 by Vesper

[robsblubot 3,595]

What J.Davis does for the Canadian team should be taken with a grain of salt, otherwise we should be signing James Rodriguez who currently warms the bench for São Paulo FC.
The level is so different from what we need that I'd not read too much into that tbh.

Now his goal tally, or rather attacking stats, in league 1 is definitely impressive.

[Vesper 31,037]

On 06/07/2024 at 12:45, YorkshireBlue said:

What was the last top signing under Roman? Hazard?

Kante

Jorginho

Diego Costa

Cesc

Kova

Kai (money wise, and did score the CL winning goal)

Rom (money wise)

Puli (money wise)

Kepa (money wise)

Morata (money wise)

Chilwell (money wise)

Timo (money wise)

 

all were after Eden

 

[Vesper 31,037]

Chelsea

https://thedailybriefing.io/i/146364459/Chelsea

• Samu Omorodion to Chelsea latest - the Blues are not giving up, according to Matteo Moretto in his latest exclusive column.

• After Renato Veiga deal, Chelsea are prepared to complete two signings for the future. Final details being sorted for Aaron Anselmino to join from Boca Juniors, progressing to the final stages. 2004-born full-back Caleb Wiley is also close to joining but the deal will be for Strasbourg.

• Basel confirm Veiga has left their camp to discuss a transfer: “Renato Veiga has left the training camp - he is in talks with another club.”

• Moises Caicedo: “At Brighton it was all tactical, just with the ball; ‘tactical, tactical, tactical’ and at Chelsea it was run, run, run and it was very difficult for me. With Chelsea I always ran a bit more and with Brighton we almost always had the ball, with Chelsea it was a different football and we had to run more.”

[Vesper 31,037]

Why Chelsea are signing Veiga

Analysis by Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey

The acquisition of Veiga is another sign of Maresca’s influence on the recruitment strategy led by Chelsea’s co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, following the arrival of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City.

Veiga, unlike Dewsbury-Hall, is not a player Maresca has worked with before. He does, however, fit a specific profile that the Italian is looking for to help implement his style of play at Stamford Bridge: a left-sided defender who can invert from full-back into a defensive midfield role when Chelsea are in possession.

Marc Cucurella is also viewed as capable of performing that role, having been deployed in a similar manner by Maresca’s predecessor Mauricio Pochettino in the final stretch of last season. Veiga, however, offers a more aerially imposing option: at 6ft 3in tall (190cm), he addresses what some have identified as a relative lack of height in Chelsea’s squad.

Maresca will assess Veiga in pre-season and judge whether he is first-team ready or requires a loan spell to aid his development. He is essentially one year behind Riccardo Calafiori, who became a breakout star for Bologna last season after moving back to Italy from Basel in the summer of 2023 and has been widely touted as a transfer target for Chelsea in recent weeks.

Veiga’s modest transfer fee reflects that. Chelsea consider him an excellent value proposition, particularly considering that he is taller than Calafiori and has a cleaner injury history.

Above all he is the type of flexible, multi-positional player increasingly prized by progressive, possession-focused coaches like Maresca.

[Vesper 31,037]

On 06/07/2024 at 20:46, Blue Armour said:

I'll still maintain that central midfield is where we needed the big fix

CB (top need now), right footed LW, WC GK, and CF

[Vesper 31,037]

On 07/07/2024 at 15:16, mkh said:

Michael Golding has signed in as new Leicester City player from Chelsea for fee around £5m.

No buy back clause included.

Who is Michael Golding? Meet the England youth midfielder Leicester have signed from Chelsea

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5611512/2024/07/07/leicester-city-michael-golding-Chelsea-transfer/

New Leicester City manager Steve Cooper needs reinforcements across the pitch but the one department where he desperately needs more talent is in attacking midfield.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s £30million ($38m) move to Chelsea, the departures as free agents of Wilfred Ndidi and Dennis Praet, and the return of Yunus Akgun to Galatasaray after his loan spell have left Cooper with very few options if he wants to play with two high No 8s.

Leicester’s second signing of the Cooper era after the club recruited forward Bobby De Cordova-Reid on a free transfer following his Fulham departure is Chelsea’s Michael Golding, an 18-year-old attacking midfielder who, while in the Dewsbury-Hall mould, should be viewed not as his direct replacement but as one for the future.

Golding joins, in a separate deal to Dewsbury-Hall’s transfer in the other direction, for an initial fee of £3million potentially rising to £5m, having captained England at under-16, under-17 and under-18 levels, and having played in both the Under-17s European Championship and Under-17s World Cup in 2023.

He was a key member of the under-18 and under-21 sides at Chelsea as an industrious attacking midfielder, scoring eight goals and providing six assists last season. Such performances led to a senior debut, as a late substitute, in the FA Cup third-round win over Preston North End of the Championship at Stamford Bridge this past January.

Golding, who started his career across London at AFC Wimbledon’s academy before joining Chelsea after his under-12s season, only got nine minutes (including stoppage time) that day after coming on for Enzo Fernandez but showed his temperament and confidence, finding space and demanding the ball.

In this example, even though he initially doesn’t receive a pass when Malo Gusto is in possession, Golding continues to seek an open area to be an option.

He plays a skilful flicked one-two with Moises Caicedo before surging into the box and almost getting on the end of the resulting rebound after Noni Madueke has an effort on goal.

 

He had also shown previously, in appearances in the EFL Trophy for Chelsea Under-21s, what he is capable of.

In a 2-2 away draw against Northampton Town of League One last September, he found pockets in front of the home side’s defence before playing in Ronnie Stutter to score the opening goal.

He went on to score the second himself, squeezing an effort home after Billy Gee’s knockdown.

 

There isn’t a huge volume of footage of Golding so early in his career but there have been other examples of why Leicester were keen to bring in the west London-born midfielder.

While playing for England United-17s against their Faroe Islands counterparts in the Nordic Tournament in 2022, he again showed his strength and ability to deliver an accurate, defence-splitting pass after holding off a defender…

He displayed the same knack for breaking the lines with accurate forward passing in last November’s Under-17 World Cup in Indonesia, with Golding picking out Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri in a 2-1 group-stage defeat against Brazil.

When England beat Iran 2-1 in the preceding match, Golding’s strength and quality inside the opposition penalty box (an area of the game where Dewsbury-Hall made huge progress last season under Enzo Maresca) could be seen, receiving the ball with his back to goal, rolling a defender and getting the shot away.

 

Leicester should be patient and not throw Golding into the fray too quickly amid the pressure of an expected Premier League survival battle in the coming season.

They have other young players coming through the ranks who will also be pushing for opportunities, including Sammy Braybrooke, Will Alves and Ben Nelson, who featured nine times last season under Maresca. Braybrooke and Alves have returned from long-term injuries but all three have recently been on England duty with the under-20s, having come through the international youth ranks as Golding has.

Had it not been for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries, which kept them out for a year, Braybrooke and Alves would be further along in their developments, ideally having spent a loan spell away from the club playing senior football at lower levels, as Nelson did in the 2022-23 season with League Two (fourth division) sides Rochdale and Doncaster Rovers.

Dewsbury-Hall’s loans at Blackpool, in third-tier League One, and Luton Town, then of the second-tier Championship, were the main reason he made such an impact once he broke into the Leicester senior side. Golding has yet to experience a loan spell but is ready to step up and experience a different environment, as well as the extra pressures of first-team football.

Leicester have only just started their transfer business this summer.

With concerns over profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), they have held back on any incomings as they needed to reduce costs in an attempt to avoid a second charge for a PSR breach for the period covering the 2023-24 season. However, after the financial belt-tightening of the past year, which has seen 10 senior players leave as free agents and four assets sold (Dewsbury-Hall, James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Timothy Castagne) since their initial relegation from the Premier League, the shackles may be a bit looser.

There will not be a huge budget and the deal to make Abdul Fatawu’s 2023-24 loan from Sporting Lisbon permanent will take up a chunk of the funds available, but Cooper will need further backing to get Leicester in strong enough shape to compete in the Premier League, with midfield now the priority.

Time will tell what Leicester have planned for Golding but they believe they have signed a player who, in time, will be able to make an impact on their first team like Dewsbury-Hall did.

GO DEEPER

Leicester Transfer DealSheet: Ndidi in limbo; Fatawu latest; Maresca's plans on hold