Chelsea Transfers

[mkh 588]

Behind the scenes, Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea is “very very advanced, and very active”

(@FabrizioRomano)

[mkh 588]

Brentford closing in on deal to sign Dango Ouattara (23) from Bournemouth. £42.5m deal, reports

(@JacobsBen)

😵

[Mário César 1,255]

5 minutes ago, mkh said:

Behind the scenes, Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea is “very very advanced, and very active”

(@FabrizioRomano)

LOL he says always the same

[Vesper 30,175]

10 hours ago, mkh said:

BREAKING: Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart + recruitment chiefs Joe Shields and Sam Jewell have signed contract extensions that commit them to the club for the next SIX years.

(@MattLaw)

Chelsea co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley, Laurence Stewart sign new contracts

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6553098/2025/08/14/paul-winstanley-laurence-stewart-Chelsea-contracts/

Chelsea’s co-sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, have signed new contracts at the club.

Co-director of recruitment Joe Shields and director of global recruitment Sam Jewell have also signed fresh terms until 2031.

The quartet all started their roles at Chelsea following the takeover by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital-led consortium in May 2022. Stewart and Shields joined from Monaco and Southampton respectively in October of that year, with Winstanley and Jewell moving across in November 2022 and February last year respectively.

The new regime at Chelsea had already spent more than £1billion on player transfers ahead of this summer window, with fans and pundits often critical after the significant turnover in the playing squad resulted in 12th- and sixth-place finishes between 2022 and 2024, a period which saw four head coaches lead the men’s team before Enzo Maresca was appointed last summer.

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Chelsea’s co-sporting directors were hired for the long term and that is how they will be judged

Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley are the subjects of fans' anger but they are key components of Chelsea's plans for the future

Optimism has shifted around Chelsea after Maresca guided the west London club to a fourth-place finish and triumphs in the Conference League and Club World Cup in 2024-25. Chelsea have continued to spend with the signings of Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Jorrel Hato and Liam Delap for around £240m this summer, while bringing in just over £200m in sales.

As well as the playing staff, Stewart and Winstanley have overseen a period of change in Chelsea’s recruitment operation since their arrival, with around 20 new hires across the scouting and data teams alone.

There was also leadership change in the academy following the departures of the long-serving Neil Bath and Jim Fraser in the summer of 2024. Glenn van der Kraan then joined from Manchester City in the role of academy technical director.

Winstanley and Stewart also led the process to replace Emma Hayes as Chelsea Women head coach in 2024 alongside head of women’s football Paul Green, with Sonia Bompastor recruited from Lyon, as well as overseeing the then-world record signing of Naomi Girma from the San Diego Wave in January.

Chelsea start the new Premier League campaign on Sunday at home against Crystal Palace, while Bompastor’s side begin their Women’s Super League title defence against Manchester City on September 5.

[TheHulk 2,444]

 

[mkh 588]

Chelsea rate Benoit Badiashile very highly and a lot of people I speak to at Chelsea who have seen this guy train, see his demeanour and work ethic think he’s a signing who’s slipped under the radar a bit.

(@JacobsBen)

🫥🫥

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

4 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea rate Benoit Badiashile very highly and a lot of people I speak to at Chelsea who have seen this guy train, see his demeanour and work ethic think he’s a signing who’s slipped under the radar a bit.

(@JacobsBen)

🫥🫥

Literally the Bakayoko of CBs. Fragile mentality. 

[TheHulk 2,444]

5 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea rate Benoit Badiashile very highly and a lot of people I speak to at Chelsea who have seen this guy train, see his demeanour and work ethic think he’s a signing who’s slipped under the radar a bit.

(@JacobsBen)

🫥🫥

Needing to pay the journalists to suck your own shit signings.

[James 5,318]

52 minutes ago, mkh said:

Behind the scenes, Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea is “very very advanced, and very active”

(@FabrizioRomano)

He repeats himself over and over again! 😅

[Vesper 30,175]

49 minutes ago, mkh said:

“very very advanced, and very active”

(@FabrizioRomano)

sounds like a termite infestation

better call Anticimex

[Vesper 30,175]

Liverpool reach agreement to sign Giovanni Leoni from Parma

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6552813/2025/08/14/liverpool-transfers-giovanni-leoni/

Liverpool have reached an agreement with Parma to sign defender Giovanni Leoni.

The Premier League club will pay a fee in the region of £26million (€30m) plus add-ons for the 18-year-old Italian youth international.

The player has been given permission to travel to Merseyside to agree personal terms and undergo a medical, which is expected to begin on Thursday.

The club’s plan is for Leoni to be immediately integrated into the first-team set-up for the upcoming season with any suggestion of a loan move completely ruled out.

Leoni only joined Parma last summer and went on to make 17 appearances, including 14 from the start, in Serie A, as the newly-promoted club finished 16th.

He has been capped by Italy’s Under-19 side, and was contracted to Parma until summer 2029.

Liverpool have been looking for defensive reinforcements since selling Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen last month with the move for Leoni in conjunction with the pursuit of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.

“The clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn’t signed for us yet. The moment he signs for us, I can go into more detail,” head coach Arne Slot said of Leoni in his press conference on Thursday.

“And the other one is of course (Guehi) the answer you always get from me. He’s not our player. Unfortunately he was the captain of the team who we lost against last Sunday. If you want to have any talks about him you should go to Palace, to (Oliver) Glasner and ask him his opinion about him.”

Slot only has two fully fit central defensive options at his disposal ahead of the Premier League opener against Bournemouth on Friday in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, although Joe Gomez has returned to training after an Achilles injury.

The Premier League champions have enjoyed a busy summer with Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong arriving from Bayer Leverkusen alongside Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt and Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth while the club maintain an ongoing interest in Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak.