Chelsea Transfers

[NikkiCFC 8,285]

7 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Any idea on who reports to training next Monday? 

Everyone. 3 weeks vacation. Just 13 days to prepare for PL opener. 

[Vesper 30,079]

Chelsea’s Mike Penders joins Strasbourg on loan

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6508994/2025/07/28/mike-penders-strasbourg-Chelsea/

Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders has joined sister club Strasbourg on loan for the season.

The Athletic reported on July 22 that Penders was set to join Strasbourg, alongside defender Mamadou Sarr, who arrived at Chelsea from the French side earlier this summer.

The Premier League side agreed a deal in advance to sign Penders from Genk last summer, with the 19-year-old joining up with his new side ahead of the Club World Cup campaign in the United States. He did not play a minute, acting as third choice behind Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen.

Penders is expected to become Strasbourg’s No 1 for the 2025-26 campaign, effectively replacing Djordje Petrovic, who spent last season on loan with Liam Rosenior’s side from Chelsea before joining Bournemouth permanently earlier this month.

What You Should Read Next

Mike Penders will join Chelsea in the summer – is he ready for the Premier League?

Goalkeeper Mike Penders is 19 and has only just broken into the first-team at Genk

Penders, who stands at 6ft 7in (200cm), began last season as first choice for the Genk Under-21s, who play in the Belgian second tier, before becoming the first-team goalkeeper in January. He ended the season with 25 first-team appearances.

The Belgian has also represented his country at youth level, playing up to under-19s.

Strasbourg are also controlled by BlueCo, the holding company which owns Chelsea. FIFA rules permit only three players be loaned between clubs with such arrangements.

Rosenior’s side will play Conference League football next season after finishing seventh in 2024-25. Petrovic was voted as their player of the season after keeping 10 clean sheets in 31 Ligue 1 appearances.

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Meet Jorrel Hato, the Ajax teenager on cusp of Chelsea move: ‘I want to achieve big things’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6519740/2025/07/28/jorrel-hato-Chelsea-transfer-interview/

Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared on The Athletic in September 2024.

---

 

Jorrel Hato might be young, but the Dutch centre-back is used to taking responsibility.

The evening before he spoke to The Athletic in April 2024 — back when Hato was 18 — 36-time Eredivisie champions Ajax conceded a stoppage-time equaliser in a 1-1 home draw against mid-table Go Ahead Eagles.

It was not Hato’s fault — goalkeeper Diant Ramaj dropped a simple cross, and after sprinting back to the goal line, Hato couldn’t quite block the shot — yet rewatching footage in a building overlooking the Ajax academy pitches, he blamed himself anyway.

“I watched it back already,” he said at the time, revealing later he does video work each week with the squad’s oldest player, 40-year-old reserve goalkeeper Remko Pasveer. “I dropped backwards because there was danger, the ball came onto my hips… but ah, it was an awkward height. I touched it, but it wasn’t enough.”

A bridge connects the academy to the Amsterdam club’s 55,000-capacity Johan Cruyff Arena, and staff emphasise the metaphorical importance of walking over it to join the first team.

Compared to the previous generation of Ajax academy talents, such as Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt, the now 19-year-old crossed into a more challenging situation.

In the 2023-24 season, the club came fifth in the Eredivisie table, their worst finish since the 1990s, and because Ajax struggle financially without the Champions League, doing much better domestically is imperative. Hato, rather than settling into a winning team, instantly had to become part of a transformation.

“I know about the players who get into the first team when they’re 17 or 18 and play in an Ajax team that was dominating the league and going far in Europe,” he said of his predecessors. “It’s a different situation for me. I have more responsibility than those players. So it’s different, and it is difficult, but I’m doing it well.”

Already evident is a preternatural calmness on the ball, a characteristic of Ajax academy defenders, and allied with his passing range and physical traits, Hato looks like one of the most talented young centre-backs in Europe. EA Sports FC 24 gave him the highest potential rating among the under-21 centre-backs in the video game.

He has lived up to that billing. In the 2023-24 Eredivisie season, he completed the third-most passes and had the highest completion percentage. In November, at 17 years and eight months, he became the youngest player to captain Ajax. A week later, he replaced Virgil van Dijk at half-time of a European Championship qualifier against Gibraltar, becoming the second-youngest player to represent the Netherlands since 1931, behind De Ligt.

With Ajax needing to make sales to fund incoming transfers in summer 2024, Europe’s biggest clubs were on notice, but Hato was at the heart of the project to rebuild the club. He signed a new contract in March 2024 and reaffirmed in June 2024 that he was staying. Despite needing to facilitate up to 10 departures during the window, Ajax were clear: Hato was not for sale. It worked out for them, as they finished second in the Eredivisie, just a point behind winners PSV. Hato played 31 games in the league, starting 30 of them.

“This season was… let’s say it was a learning season for all of us,” he said of the 2023-24 campaign. “But even more so for me as an 18-year-old guy. I can take these learnings in the future. I want to achieve more, to achieve big things with Ajax: championships, playing in Europe, being at the highest levels of the Champions League.

“It’s not rare that people are going to speculate or think I’ll go to another club, but for me, it was always, ‘I want to stay at Ajax and achieve things’.”

Of course, potential bidders still kept tabs. It now looks as though he will move to Chelsea this summer, with the west London club closing in on a deal to sign him.

Moving to the capital will see Hato share a city with his idol. “Coaches told me that I always needed to look up to Virgil van Dijk, but when I played in the under-18s, I always looked up to Jurrien Timber,” Hato said. “I played with him for six months before he left, and I learned so much from him. When I came into the first team, he was my mentor. I love his playing style, his calmness on the ball. And he is just a great defender in defending terms.”

When Timber was signed by Arsenal in the summer of 2023, the qualities that attracted manager Mikel Arteta included his bravery and ability in possession — not only passing but also carrying. Those traits are evident now in his younger counterpart.

Sitting with The Athletic, Hato watches a clip (embedded below) of himself dribbling through opponents Napoli in a UEFA Youth League game in 2022.

“If you play at the Ajax academy, you always get that bravery the coaches tell you to play with,” Hato says. “It’s one of my qualities to dribble past players and create a chance. There needs to be space to do it, but if there is space, I will always try to look forward for that.”

Does he do it naturally, or was it coached into him? “A little bit of both,” he replies. “I have it naturally, but coaches tell me that I can do it more often.” One of those coaches was Dolf Roks, a former head of academy at Sparta Rotterdam, Hato’s first professional club, before he left at 12 years old to join Ajax. Roks also now coaches in their youth setup.

 

Hato helped Ajax improve last season (Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)

“There was always the feeling that he had more (bravery) than he’d show us,” Roks says. “There was one game where he was really aggressive, where he was really going for the ball, and I told him, ‘That’s what you have to do’. He was comfortable, so we had to make him show us what he could really do.”

Hato’s football journey began in the shadow of Rotterdam’s De Kuip stadium, home of Ajax’s bitter rivals Feyenoord. His family were Feyenoord fans and his first football involvement came when his father, a plasterer, took him down to local team De Zwervers, who were effectively situated at the southern end of the Eredivisie side’s training pitches. In his first year, he played on the left wing for their top youth team.

“He was so easy on the ball,” said Michel Koks, the club’s president. “All the kids only want to dribble and never pass, but he’d be happy to do it. He’d always stand slightly away, to the left or the right, and see where the space is. That’s how you knew, at five years old, that he was going to be a good footballer.”

He was also a terrible loser.

“He’d always want to be alone,” said Koks, remembering how Hato would walk behind the goal at the far end of the pitch. “He just could not have it when the people around him were smiling after a loss. It wasn’t what he wanted.”

“I remember,” said Hato, smiling at the memory. “When I was very young, I’d always cry when I lost. My father would be upset at me for that. But the only thing that would make it better was the next win.”

Despite being under their noses, Hato was ignored by Feyenoord. Instead, he joined neighbours Sparta Rotterdam before switching to Ajax, enticed by their academy’s historic success. According to internal data, 84 per cent of players who appear for the Amsterdam side at under-17s level will have some sort of professional career in the game. Hato’s brother, Elgyn, made the same move from Sparta to Ajax’s under-14s last year.

“They (Feyenoord) never wanted me, but it’s OK,” Hato said. “I play at Ajax, and I play in the first team. Of course, when you grow up in Rotterdam, you grow up as a Feyenoord kid. But if a club like Ajax comes, you don’t say no.”

Part of the rivalry between Feyenoord and Ajax is down to the personalities of their respective cities. Rotterdammers perceive themselves to be industrious and down-to-earth, and consider Amsterdammers privileged and over-stylised. Ajax fans, for their part, say this feeling is mired in jealousy towards their status as the Netherlands’ most successful club.

When he spoke to The Athletic, Hato still lived in Rotterdam, close to De Kuip, and drove just over an hour north to Ajax’s training complex each day. It is fitting, in a way, a player who, in his footballing traits, is now half-Rotterdam, half-Amsterdam.

“The Feyenoord slogan is ‘geen woorden maar daden’ (actions rather than words),” said Koks. “It comes from the harbour (it is a major port city), a long time ago. It’s the difference between the two cities, and you can see it in him. He’s working hard, he knows where he comes from, but now he’s a stylish player, developing a little bit more show.”

Coaches at Ajax were aware last year that Hato was not yet physically mature, which they think could enable him to improve even further once that happens. “I worked with (73-cap Dutch international and Ajax great) Frank Rijkaard, and Jorrel has the same attitude,” said Roks. “But also, at 18 years old, he had the same sense of needing to grow into his body, to get in tune with it. And when you see his body, it is clear that in two years, he will be more stable when he’s more used to his physique.

 

Hato was not targeted by Feyenoord despite coming from Rotterdam (Maurice van Steen/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

“He’s fast. I don’t know if people recognise how fast he is, but reaching the next level in duels is very hard. He’s got to say, ‘It’s my ball, it’s for me’. Then, it’s doing what he’s already shown he can — to have the ball, to be brave and dribble in, and to play balls beyond the back line.” Last season, he played the 12th-most passes into the final third across the entire Eredivisie. The challenge now is for him to get nearer the top of the list in that metric.

Two days after he spoke to The Athletic in April 2024, Ajax lost 6-0 to Feyenoord at De Kuip. It is their heaviest defeat in the match known as De Klassieker, and their largest in any match for 97 years. Given a torrid time at left-back by now-Brighton player Yankuba Minteh, this was Hato’s toughest day as a professional. That he will rebound, however, seems clear.

“I always go back to my standards,” said Hato. “It’s just playing football, doing my thing, and not letting the outside noise affect your skills. In the academy, we heard about (basketball icon) Michael Jordan, saying that he missed 1,200 free throws, and that is why he succeeded.

“I’m not afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes them. It’s not fun or good, but life goes on — and so you learn from them.”

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Newcastle United

https://thedailybriefing.io/i/169406914/newcastle-united

• Newcastle are in contact with Benjamin Šeško's camp but have not reached any agreement. RB Leipzig have yet to receive a formal offer, and any potential deal may hinge on the future of Alexander Isak. (Florian Plettenberg)

• Eddie Howe on chances for Isak to join Newcastle squad on tour next week: “No, no chance”.

• Yoane Wissa is still pushing for a move to Newcastle, but Brentford have told the club to pay over £50m or back off. Wissa feels the club has broken a verbal agreement from last year, which allowed him to leave for £26m this summer. (Ben Jacobs)

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4 hours ago, mkh said:

Chelsea retain an interest in Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho and the arrival of Simons will not necessarily close the door on a potential deal for the Argentine.

(@Matt_Law_DT)

what the fuckery!!!!!!

[Pizy 18,846]

In theory, Garnacho only makes sense of you consider the club wants 2 players for each AM position and that Xavi would be seen exclusively as a #10 rather than a LW.

Gittens + Garnacho LW, Palmer + Xavi #10, and Neto + Estevão RW.

[mkh 558]

Chelsea could go for both Alejandro Garnacho and Xavi Simons this summer. There's a concrete possibility they go for both! They want both of them! At the moment the priority is Simons.

(@FabrizioRomano) 

[mkh 558]

Rodrygo has no interest in joining Tottenham, reports

(@Santi_J_FM)

😂😂😂

[mkh 558]

Today, Matt Law and Fabrizio Romano have once again strongly linked us with Garnacho.

I think that in the end, Nkunku will go to United and Garnacho to Chelsea.

Amorim has made it clear that he no longer has plans for him if a good offer comes in.

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4 hours ago, mkh said:

Trubin😜😉

he was weak in the FCWC

[mkh 558]

Chelsea could bid for Alejandro Garnacho in addition to Xavi Simons, Another LW possible even after Gittens due to Quenda arriving in 2026, Mudryk unavailable, Sancho returning to MUFC and a chance George is loaned.

(Ben Jacobs)

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5 hours ago, nyikolajevics said:

Someone posted few years ago what a blow for Malick Fofana to end up at Everton after being linked to Liverpool and us.

years?

days

[mkh 558]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

he was weak in the FCWC

I know he wouldn't be right for me either, but his stats look very good compared to the goalkeepers you listed, so I included him anyway.

Since our SD is based on stats.

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1 minute ago, mkh said:

I know he wouldn't be right for me either, but his stats look very good compared to the goalkeepers you listed, so I included him anyway.

Since our SD is based on stats.

[mkh 558]

𝐗𝐚𝐯𝐢 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬 (𝟐𝟐)’s dream remains to join FC Barcelona one day

(@FabrizioRomano)

[Stats 7,135]

8 hours ago, LAM09 said:

It feels like us & Barca are the only two major clubs in Europe who are really in need of a first choice GK. I just feel this move would be a massive roadblock for Penders, whom the club think very highly of.

Barca bought Joan Garcia from Espanyol, who is highly rated. He will be their no.1 this season.

[nyikolajevics 2,689]

10 minutes ago, Vesper said:

years?

days

Shit, yes.. Where is my mind

[nyikolajevics 2,689]

13 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea could bid for Alejandro Garnacho in addition to Xavi Simons, Another LW possible even after Gittens due to Quenda arriving in 2026, Mudryk unavailable, Sancho returning to MUFC and a chance George is loaned.

(Ben Jacobs)

Garnacho rumours are like the sword of Damoclas hanging over our heads, a sword with stupid trimmed eyebrows and blond dyed hair.

There have been players at Chelsea who I disliked first but got to like, or ones I never really liked, but Garnacho is Emre Can level annoying to me. Anyone but him please.