Chelsea Transfers

[DDA 10,005]

4 hours ago, Stats said:

Also, no matter how much people don't like Jackson, Maresca made it clear that it was not his decision. Although we got a nice loan fee, it shows it is always about getting money.

It’s painful knowing how we went from spending money without a care in The World in search of success at any means necessary under Roman to this… buy young, loan for a fee yearly or sell as soon as profit is made on that asset with success being a bonus if it happens but not really fussed as long as the players sell.

[milka 3,399]

Top management for those who didn't want to buy  GK and CB in the summer leave us another season with that clown Sanchez who cost us already points . 

[Vesper 30,322]

Barcelona confirm double injury blow to Gavi, Fermín López

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/46345202/barcelona-confirm-double-injury-blow-gavi-fermin-lopez

[Bluepower777 37]

On 19/09/2025 at 07:14, OhForAGreavsie said:

This is an important consideration. Not only was it possible to hide these payments from authorities at the time, they were not even discovered when the club came under heightened scrutiny because Russian owned assets were sanctioned. It's clear therefore that such payments can be hidden relatively easily.

This means there is no way to be sure that other clubs have not engaged in the same activity. Indeed, given the competitive nature of the football industry and the insatiable greed of agents, I'm guessing that many, many, clubs are guilty too. If authorities can't find these payments, but are determined to stop them, it would be counterproductive to impose heavy sporting penalties. Doing that would only make clubs all the more determined to keep their mouths shut about their own regulatory breaches.

There must be penalties but I'm guessing that these are much more likely to be financial than they are to be sporting.

In that case we should have just ignored those discretions. Assuming it was not possible for it to come to light .

[Bluepower777 37]

Just on the players i been saying for a long time regarding the players these sd's are bringing in. Half of them are simply not good enough. There's too much reliance on those top quality half a dozen or so players we have and in turn half of them are injured regularly. Its a no win situation. 

[Fernando 6,603]

I think we should wait until the end of the season to decide what is good and what is not. 

I still think they did a good job this summer. 

Especially when they had to balance the books because of UEFA restrictions. 

Last season we started kind of slow, and I expected the same because of the insane summer we had. We might finish the season strong again. 

[mkh 627]

Strasbourg CB Ismaël Doukouré could join Chelsea next summer.

(@CyrilOlives)

[Mário César 1,346]

3 minutes ago, mkh said:

Strasbourg CB Ismaël Doukouré could join Chelsea next summer.

(@CyrilOlives)

the world class CB that we are waiting for ! 

[mkh 627]

Chelsea had a large delegation in the directors’ box on Saturday. There was Eghbali, Winstanley, Stewart, Joe Shields, Sam Jewell, Daniel Finkelstein. Among their travelling party was David Weir, less than 2 weeks after his surprise departure from Brighton as technical director.

(via @kierangill_DM)

[Mário César 1,346]

32 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea had a large delegation in the directors’ box on Saturday. There was Eghbali, Winstanley, Stewart, Joe Shields, Sam Jewell, Daniel Finkelstein. Among their travelling party was David Weir, less than 2 weeks after his surprise departure from Brighton as technical director.

(via @kierangill_DM)

Can anyone share the article published by kierangill?

[Vesper 30,322]

5 minutes ago, Mário César said:

Can anyone share the article published by kierangill?

https://archive.ph/CeiJr

 

[JFKvsNixon 59]

38 minutes ago, Mário César said:

Can anyone share the article published by kierangill?

Before people starts to panic, from the same article:

Quote

 

Given how many of the Blues’ hirings have previously worked within the Seagulls’ setup, it might be tempting to put two and two together. However, it appears all is not what it seems.

 

Confidential has been told Weir was simply a guest of Chelsea’s for the game, having previously worked at Brighton with Winstanley, with whom he is friends. The former Everton and Rangers centre back also lives relatively close to Old Trafford.

 

 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,095]

15 hours ago, Bluepower777 said:

In that case we should have just ignored those discretions. Assuming it was not possible for it to come to light .

I'm guessing there were a cocktail of reasons for the club's decision. Among them might have been; bearing our track record in mind wanting to avoid the risk of extremely heavy punishments if these payments were to come to light, wanting to establish a new relationship with governing bodies, perhaps the purchase agreement included an agreement that sanctions relating to historical misdeeds could be charged against the reported two billion fund held for contingencies and management wanted to clear all liabilities while that fund is available, a desire to clean up our reputation, and other guesses too. 

Edited yesterday at 21:10 by OhForAGreavsie

[OneMoSalah 8,901]

4 hours ago, mkh said:

Chelsea had a large delegation in the directors’ box on Saturday. There was Eghbali, Winstanley, Stewart, Joe Shields, Sam Jewell, Daniel Finkelstein. Among their travelling party was David Weir, less than 2 weeks after his surprise departure from Brighton as technical director.

(via @kierangill_DM)

We might as well just become fucking Brighton then eh? Not like they haven’t been trying to for the past 2.5 years anyway. 

These cunts who own and run the club are absolutely at it, sooner they sell up and fuck off the better.

Disliked by Chelsea fans & disliked by Strasbourg fans. Says it all. Hapless.

[Bluepower777 37]

Well I wouldn't really want them gone. They spent a fortune of their money on the club which they never going to get back. However theres definitely something wrong in the setup if you spend so much money on average players. Having said that they did also bring in a few gems but not enough. Way too many players not up to it.

 

[ulvhedin 526]

On 20/09/2025 at 13:45, Mário César said:

he is so dumb 

nah, Marca wrote article based on some satire site who reported this

[Vesper 30,322]

Why Raheem Sterling didn’t leave Chelsea – and what’s happening now

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6651696/2025/09/25/raheem-sterling-Chelsea-where-what-transfer/

A picture on social media goes viral. The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) gets involved. Enzo Maresca talks about his father’s career as a fisherman.

Raheem Sterling’s situation at Chelsea has certainly been getting a lot of attention lately.

When the transfer window shut in England on September 1, Sterling was still a Chelsea player. This remained the case after deadline days in the Netherlands (September 2), Turkey and Mexico (September 12) and Portugal (September 15). A final possible option — the Saudi Pro League — ended when its window closed yesterday. It did not come as a surprise to either party.

Neither the club nor Sterling wanted it to come to this. Yet the 30-year-old is now facing over three months of training away from the first team at Cobham. Centre-back Axel Disasi is going through the same thing. A further sign, if needed, of just how far out of the picture Sterling (and Disasi) is came on Wednesday when the club published their official squad photograph for the 2025-26 season on their official website/app and he was not in it.

Understandably, the focus is centred on Sterling. This was Chelsea’s ‘marquee’ signing of the 2022 summer window, bought from Manchester City for £47.5million (then $57m) and made the highest-paid player at the club with a salary in excess of £300,000 a week. Not so long ago, he was one of the biggest names in English football, having won 10 major honours at Manchester City. He was also probably England’s best player as they reached the final of Euro 2020 (played in 2021 because of Covid-19 restrictions) and voted Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year in 2019. Another measure of his impact came four years ago, when he was awarded an MBE for his work to promote racial equality in sport.

 

Sterling was the marquee signing when he arrived in summer 2022 (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

So what is going on? Let’s start with Sterling posting a picture on his official Instagram account of the training ground and writing ‘20.21’ (using the 24-hour clock) as a caption to indicate what time he was there. Within a few days, reports then emerged that the players union, the Professional Footballers’ Association, had contacted Chelsea about how Sterling and Disasi were being treated.

This is not an unusual step for the PFA to take when players find themselves on the periphery at a football club. It is actually a very common occurrence with the PFA representing players in the Premier League, EFL and the Women’s Super League. But when a player as big as Sterling is involved at such a newsworthy club as Chelsea, it inevitably gets much bigger attention.

Nor is the PFA interaction very confrontational. Conversations are cordial, and if anything, the PFA sees its role as just being there to advise on the regulations and check clubs are staying on the right side of them as far as player care is concerned. As Chelsea were providing the duo with coaching sessions and access to facilities at the club’s training ground, there were no major concerns in this department.

Perhaps the most significant thing that has taken place since then is that the duo have had a few training sessions with the under-21s. Sources speaking anonymously to The Athletic to protect relationships say that this is all part of a plan put in place to keep the players in shape before trying to secure them a move in January.

Chelsea head coach Maresca then had his say on the situation last Friday, saying that real strife was his dad working long hours as a fisherman. While you can understand the point he was trying to make — and there will be fans who will not have too much sympathy for what Sterling and Disasi are going through, given the riches they earn — it did not help defuse the situation.

Sterling has been here before. He was part of the fringe group last year, too, after Maresca decided the winger was not part of his plans following the 2024 pre-season tour of the United States. On both occasions, he had to train away from the senior squad along with others who were up for sale or loan. This summer, the group was overseen by loan technical coach Carlo Cudicini, with former under-18s youth coach Ed Brand taking the sessions themselves.

Sources speaking anonymously to protect relationships say many of those involved felt there was a better setup to help this time compared to 2024. Many internationals, including Joao Felix, Ben Chilwell, Renato Veiga and Armando Broja, were involved, so standards were high. But that group has since been sold. It was always going to be harder for the individuals left behind.

In saying that, Sterling is continuing to work with his own team, as he has done for many years. This includes England’s former lead physical performance coach Ben Rosenblatt. They concentrate on strength and conditioning, ball work and fitness. Sterling has facilities at his London home to do various exercises as well. The extra spare time on his hands means he can be around his children a lot more, watch his eight-year-old son, Thiago, at Arsenal’s academy, and attend the academy sessions at the RS7 Academy that he has set up for young players aged six to 11 in Tolworth.

Still, the obvious query football fans will have is why the club or Sterling have not been able to come to a solution to avoid all this. Well, it was never going to be straightforward. The cost is one reason. Even if Chelsea pay a proportion of Sterling’s wages for a loan, like they did at Arsenal last season, it would still be an expense that would put off teams. Indeed, Sterling is one of the reasons the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium soon changed to offering incentivised rather than guaranteed contracts.

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Sources close to Sterling, kept anonymous to protect relationships, say the forward did not want a repeat of last summer, when a season-long loan to Arsenal was organised in the final 48 hours before the deadline. There was little time to speak to head coach Mikel Arteta about how he would be used. Of the 28 appearances he made, totalling a mere 1,143 minutes, only 13 were from the start. His form was not great, as a tally of one goal and five assists suggests, yet he did not play consistently.

Some European clubs did come in for Sterling earlier in the recent window, although mainly over a season-long loan. But sources close to Sterling say the biggest factor was that he wanted to remain in London, where his family live.

Bayern Munich made a late attempt to convince Sterling to join them. It is perhaps not that surprising, given another former Manchester City team-mate — Vincent Kompany — is the head coach. A move for Sterling was raised during discussions with Chelsea over the loan deal for Nicolas Jackson.

Some will inevitably question how Sterling can say no to a club that will provide a great opportunity to compete for major honours. But the sources close to Sterling point out that he was reluctant to move his family to Germany, or be away from them, for what could be nine months, especially with little guarantee of featuring regularly. He had a good relationship with Arteta (who worked as Pep Guardiola’s assistant from 2016-2019) from their time together at the Etihad Stadium, yet that did not make a difference regarding game time while at Arsenal.

As for a switch to another team in London, there was interest over a loan at various points, but it was never close to formal discussions.

 

Raheem Sterling struggled for game time with Arsenal (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Sterling will feel he has done nothing wrong because a club that suited his circumstances never materialised. Chelsea will believe they are not the bad guys either, with Sterling having the possibility to join some big clubs and turning them down.

So what now? Given that Sterling turns 31 in December and will have gone seven months without a competitive game when the January window opens, the possibility of getting a move then certainly will not be any easier.

One option, of course, would be to reach a settlement over his contract, which expires in 2027. The problem here is that Sterling is not going to walk away from around £30m he is due to earn in wages. Who would? That is money that can benefit Sterling’s family for generations. Chelsea are not going to pay him off in full to get rid of him, either, just so he can join someone as a free agent — and benefit from another contract. What club would? Clearly, a compromise has to be reached for that to happen.

This is a scenario where neither is the victim nor the villain. Until a resolution is found, there are no winners either.