Chelsea Transfers

[nyikolajevics 2,733]

8 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

You mentioned the main CBs Fofana and Badiashile being injured, but whose fault is that? These guys have been on the treatment table for years, but the club has decided to do nothing about in several windows. 

The discussion was about Maresca's responsibility. He clearly and openly wanted new CB after Levi injured. 

[nyikolajevics 2,733]

15 hours ago, mkh said:

🔵Diego Moreira to @telefoot_TF1: “We all hope to end up at Chelsea”

🟢According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus has identified Chelsea’s Malo Gusto as an option for the January transfer window.

🔴Manchester United and Juventus are both interested in Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos.

{Tutto Juve}

🟣Chelsea are reportedly among the clubs interested in signing AZ Alkmaar wonderkid Kees Smit in 2026.

(@FrazFletcher)

🟡According to @MatteMoretto, Enzo Maresca is being followed by Juventus. He's considered an option for the Italian Club.

⚫

Diego Moreira is definetly one to watch. Big surprise what a player here seems to becoming. Bit like Matic, someone you never expected to be considered rebuying.

I feel Hato is not and never going to be a real alternative/competition for Cucurella. He is moving much more like an CB, not an LB. Gusto is worse than James but still can cover his duties, Hato is completely different kind of player, couldn't offer anything when attacking.

 

Andrey Santos I can see someone we will cash out if Maresca stays. He would be great in 4-3-3, but in current system he doesn't really fit as no6 nor no10. 

[Vesper 30,424]

Falling down a Mike Penders rabbit hole

Learn about the Belgian's Manuel Neuer impression and Milton Delgado's Platformer clinic

https://scoutedftbl.com/mike-penders-stats-strasbourg/?ref=notebook-newsletter

This Mike Pender’s heat map looks different.

It’s rare to see a greater concentration of events outside the area. Events can spill out, but it’s usually exactly that: a spill, a leak. This is a ball of fire. I had to investigate.

The BlueCo Belgian saved a penalty in spite of Strasbourg’s last-minute defeat to Olympique Lyonnais but only made three saves overall. Usually, goalkeepers stand out for their superhuman shot-stopping, like Guglielmo Vicario against Monaco. His heat map follows the usual pattern: the nucleus is inside the penalty area.

My theory was that the reason Penders’ heat map looks more like a centre-back’s is because of the volume of passes, their (lack of) length, the number of Defensive Actions Outside of the Penalty Area and the Average Distance of those actions from goal.

First, let’s deal with the passes. Penders completed 49 passes against Lyon, one of 31 instances of a goalkeeper completing 45+ in a Big Five League game this season. When sorting those by ascending Average Pass Length, Penders was one of two goalkeepers to appear in the top 10 twice, alongside Metz’s Jonathan Fischer.

Liam Rosenoir clearly instructs his goalkeeper to play out from the back and has not yet succumbed to the evils of going long. To be clear, that’s sarcastic. Being effective is never evil. But even Pender’s display against Lyon saw him crank up the Launch % (Passes longer than 40 yards, excluding goal kicks). He is the only player in our top 10 to go above 20%.

Of course, this could have been influenced by any passes that followed Lyon’s 90+1’ go-ahead goal. Especially considering that Penders holds the number one spot for shortest Average Pass Length.

So, this was not Penders’ most extreme passing display. And if I show you Yvon Mvogo’s heat map from his flawless 51/51 Passes Completed at the weekend, you’ll see that lots of passes is not the only reason why Penders’ heat map must've caught my attention.

Penders made 5 Defensive Actions Outside of the Penalty Area (#OPA) against Lyon, one of 40 instances across Europe’s Big Five Leagues this season. When sorting those by the Average Distance from Goal, the Belgian’s 20.4 yards ranks him 26th. In the context of all goalkeepers, it was nothing super spectacular. But it was in an individual context.

This tally did not just represent Penders’ personal best for Defensive Actions Outside the Penalty Area (#OPA) across his league career, it was the first time he’s recorded more than two in a single match. In fact, Penders has only recorded a #OPA in nine of this 72 league games on the Stathead database, which includes all of his appearances for Jong Genk in the Challenger Pro League. This was unchartered territory for the young ‘keeper.

Although it was an anomalous display for Penders, it still doesn’t explain why I was hypnotised by his heat map. Until we consider in conjunction with the passing. Here are the big boy stats.

It doesn't stop there.

Since the start of of the 2017/18 season, it’s happened in 51 different games across Europe’s Big Five Leagues; Mike Penders is the only goalkeeper under the age of 24 on that list. The only goalkeepers to feature on it for 3+ games are: Alisson Becker, Ederson Moraes, Manuel Riemann, and the name you were waiting to see: Manuel Neuer.

Neuer is the only goalkeeper to record this statline in more than three different games. He has NINE (!!!) on record. It looks like we have discovered the quintessential statline for the Sweeper Keeper, endorsed by the original himself.

Of course I had to take a look at what these Neuer heat maps looked liked…

Let’s see how many Penders can rack up in his career.

[DDA 10,028]

Oh you can just feel Andrey Santos is on the for sale list.. he just doesn’t seem to fit into Marescas style. Hope we don’t regret letting him go when we do.

[Reddish-Blue 2,567]

17 hours ago, nyikolajevics said:

I feel Hato is not and never going to be a real alternative/competition for Cucurella. He is moving much more like an CB, not an LB. Gusto is worse than James but still can cover his duties, Hato is completely different kind of player, couldn't offer anything when attacking.

Hato reminds me of young Ake when he came across from Dutch league.  Once he gets a bit more physical, he could easily play that LCB role in a back 3.  

I just hope we give Hato the time to develop as he's got the skills to be a quality defenders for years to come.  

[bigbluewillie 1,941]

Chelsea are looking to strengthen at right-back with the addition of Strasbourg's Guela Doue, though Aston Villa and Brighton are also in the race for the 23-year-old Ivory Coast defender. (Football Transfers), external

[milka 3,405]

On 27/10/2025 at 13:49, nyikolajevics said:

Think you are being a bit harsh. Sure, loss against Sunderland hurted, but we won 4 in a row before and could have won this one aswell, it just wasn't our game.

It's almost November and we are on good way to reach our goals, despite Palmer, Delap, our main CB-s(Colvill, Fofana, Badiashile) and Lavia were hardly available so far. 

I feel this Sanchez-Maignan topic is overdiscussed aswell. Bobby isn't elite but he has been fine this season, it's not like we are constantly swallowing goals because of him. Maigan isn't Jesus Christ either, he doesn't magically make Milan champion team.

Many people were whining about Liverpool having Mamardashvili as backup GK.. Well, they just lost 5 games out of their last 6 with him. While we won 5 out of last 6 with Bobby/Jorgensen.

GK is important, but after one loss bring up this topic again is just creating narrative.

Against Forest was luck we was shit in the first half  they should score at least two , against Ajax they are probably the  worst team in CL that season and against 10 . We speak about top GK not from one lose , we want GK since 3 years .  

I don't know what  goal will reach but top 4 again is not enough we can't even compete for the PL let alone win it same as CL the goal that season was to fight for these things but once again we are nowhere near . So again poor recruitments .

Edited yesterday at 09:48 by milka

[mkh 633]

🟢⚪️Celtic have reportedly reached out to Chelsea regarding their U21 coach, Calum McFarlane, for the position of first team coach.

Chelsea has allowed Celtic to speak with the 39yo, although discussions have not yet taken place.  

(@Glasgow_Times) 

[mkh 633]

Chelsea wants to extend and increase Malo Gusto's contract, who already has a contract until 2030. Discussions are ongoing between all parties. (@FabriceHawkins)

🤐

[whats happening 1,634]

found us a new player

[DDA 10,028]

How fucking painful is it starting to feel watching Woltemade ball at Newcastle with pure class whilst we witness Pedro and Delap!!! 
 

Typical eh.

fucking typical!

[bigbluewillie 1,941]

If only this is true...

Chelsea are planning to replace manager Enzo Maresca with Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola. (Caught Offside), external

[Special Juan 28,262]

6 hours ago, DDA said:

How fucking painful is it starting to feel watching Woltemade ball at Newcastle with pure class whilst we witness Pedro and Delap!!! 
 

Typical eh.

fucking typical!

The short comings of skirting and hiding from buying a top class number 9 for past seasons, but pumping millions into 200 wingers, all this whilst neglecting a keeper and CB

[Vesper 30,424]

Chelsea's Failure to Sign a Top CB & GK is Embarrassing. Sort It Out.

The deals should have been done & would have changed our season

https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/chelseas-failure-to-sign-a-top-cb

There’s no hiding it now. The fact is the Sporting Directors have failed to address two key positions in the last 4 windows, and we’re now facing the consequences. I’m talking of course, about goalkeeper, and most significantly, centre back.

Head coach Enzo Maresca has wanted a new CB since January. He wanted one in the summer, even more so when Levi Colwill was injured. Chelsea’s answer was to recall Trevoh Chalobah, who whilst a great squad or rotational player, has shown this season he’s not the man to be starting every week at a club of the level we want to be.

We tried to sign a CB in the summer. If not for Real Madrid coming in last minute, we’d probably have signed Dean Huijsen. That’s not on the club at all, Real Madrid is Real Madrid, and it was his dream move. But to then completely neglect the position when there were other gettable targets available, is not good enough. Yes, we had to sell to buy, but again, plan ahead and be ruthless.

We weren’t, and now we’re basically relying on Josh Acheampong to stay fit. Our two best CBs are 19 and 22 years old and one is out till next season.

Here’s a staggering fact. Of the £1.6 BILLION Chelsea have spent, only £198m has been spent on CBs. That’s half of what we’ve spent on midfield and less than half of what we’ve spent on attack. Having Colwill, Trev, Silva and Acheampong already here is NOT an excuse.

Our biggest CB spend has been £69m on Wes Fofana who has played 39 games in over 3 years. Basically 12 games per season at most.

The second highest? Axel Disasi for £38m.

That’s embarrassing. As soon as Silva left, given Fofana’s injury history, we should have been signing a top CB to play with Levi. Josh could have played in the Conference League last season to develop and been eased in. Then this season, this CB and Josh would have been our first choice pairing, with Chalobah and Tosin rotating as squad players.

Instead we’re in this absurd place where a 19 year old academy player is our best CB and none of the others are good enough to start regularly. We have one top CB, 2 squad players and 2 injury prone CBs.

This is why it makes me laugh that people blame head coach Enzo Maresca for our defensive issues and bad results. Last season we had the third best defence in the PL, with Levi fit and in form, playing with a combo of Fofana, Trev, Josh and Tosin in rotation. This season Levi is out and its all gone to shit defensively. And it’s not the coaching, it’s a combination of fatigue, injury and Maresca not being backed in the market at CB.

As for GK, we all saw the absolute shambles of a move for Mike Maignan this summer. He wanted to come, he was ready to come, and we blew it over £4m. Shambolic.

Maignan would have added authority, leadership, organisation, a winning mentality and his distribution would have helped our attack, not just our defence. Not a chance we have that mess against United with Maignan in goal. He’s also old enough not to block the path of Mike Penders, the long term option at GK. He would have cost only £22m, which is an absolute snip.

Maresca wanted him, we failed to get it done because we were cheap, simple as that. Simply not good enough for a club of the level of Chelsea.

The players we did sign this summer I was impressed with. I was even more impressed with the sales we made, the Sporting Directors did a great job there. I understand the constraints of the UEFA punishment too.

But elite Sporting Directors plan ahead for such situations and make ruthless decisions, and get deals done. These two positions being resolved would have meant at least 4-5 more points already this season, and up in 2nd place in the league.

It’s absolutely non-negotiable for us to address these positions in the next two windows. Non-negotiable. If they don’t, the SDs know where the door is. I’m personally sick and tired of Maresca, who achieved two trophies and top 4 last year, not getting the backing he earned. He’s been proved right about his requests this summer and he’s the one who gets the stick for the results.

Si reported that former scout Mick Brown has suggested we may go for a top CB in the January window. I hope that’s right and it happens. If we can get a top CB in January, it would have a hugely positive impact on our season. There’s also been reports we want a proven established GK too. I hope they are right as well. No excuses, get the deals done. Combined with players coming back from injury, I truly believe that would get us much closer at the top.

The Sporting Directors haven’t got it right at CB and at GK, and that needs to change as soon as possible.