Chelsea Transfers

[Magic Lamps 11,649]

24 minutes ago, laura90 said:

We aren't finishing top four. No chance. I had said that the last year and nothing has happened to make me change my mind. Ask yourself: Would have Klopp finished top four with this lot? Not in a million years. Same goes for Pep. They both  wouldn't come near this team.

This team is middle of the table quality at best. Yes Tuchel won CL with this lot, but CL is cup competition where solid defense and couple moments of mastery and luck win you games even final. We showed our real class in the League. 

With Lukaku, Sterling and KK signing , and loss of Rudiger and Andreas  as well of the last year youngsters, we are worse team now than we were two years before and the last year.  This time, our competition improved.

We are worse than we were two years before and this time table will show it. I made peace with this last year. I can't see other outcome.

I still can't make myself to judge Tuchel when I know that half of his team is championship and the rest  midtable quality.  Only three or four players are top four quality. Our defenders are 31 and 38 years old....

 

We regressed, esp relatively to our competition, but I don't think we dropped from 3rd to midtable. Most of our players are not top 4 quality that's true but you need to factor in Arteta is a choker. Spurs under Conte are a threat, but their first XI is still mediocre, Son is ageing, Kane wants out. In short, we might still somehow scrape it. One of the NL duo is gonna choke for sure,they always do. If we can avoid a mourinho 2015 collapse with morale breaking down completely, if i sum up the winnable fixtures with a few fandom fk ups after int breaks factored in, we can still get 65-70 points easily.

Also big plus: only 2 PL games in november and december respectively.

Also how is 31 old for a cb? Thiago is 37 and still world class, imagine we had got him aged 31.

Sure i would have preferred to get in proper players and have  a fresh start but the new board are literally still noobs so it is natural the club will stagnate a bit. No point crying about it now. We will see what the season brings. I will reserve my ultimate prediction till after mw 3.

 

[Tomo 21,733]

3 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Rightly so? 

He's got given one of the world's best CBs, one of the world's best inside forwards tailor made for his system and also has the return of one of the leagues best young midfielders who would have cost upwards of £60m had Palace owned him.

We were a lot better than Arsenal and Spurs last season (the points tally was close because we had 5 tournaments to juggle, a major injury crisis aswell as unprecedented ownership issues while they both had only the league to focus on by the time we got into spring), and our signings are better than their's.

Given the situation of the ownership change I'll give him a pass if we're (as is likely) a way from the title again, but zero excuse if he lets United or Arsenal creep above us (Spurs could maybe be somewhat justified with the Conte factor).

Edited July 29, 2022 by Tomo

[MoroccanBlue 5,291]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

He's got given one of the world's best CBs, one of the world's best inside forwards tailor made for his system and also has a the return of one of the leagues best young midfielders who would have cost upwards of £60m had Palace owned him.

We were a lot better than Arsenal and Spurs last season (the points tally was close because we had 5 tournaments to juggle, had a major injury crisis aswell as unprecedented ownership issues while they both had only the league to focus on by the time we got into spring), and our signings are better than there's.

Given the situation of the ownership change I'll give him a pass if we're (as is likely) a way from the title again, but zero excuse if he let's United or Arsenal creep above us (Spurs could maybe be somewhat justified with the Conte factor).

Unlike Arsenal and Spurs, we have an un-unified squad. 7 players want to leave and our attack is still lacking for goals. 

[Jype 6,398]

1 minute ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Rightly so? 

Missing out on top 4 would be a massive failure. Not quite sure about sack-worthy but massive nonetheless.

While so far there's not been a big enough improvement in the transfer market to even dream of a title challenge, the squad isn't really any worse than last season either and even then we finished on 74pts. If there's a big drop off in the points total and we miss out on top-4, it's definitely on Tuchel.

Even if the rest of the transfer window is somewhat of a disappointment and we only get a couple depth signings (CB around the level of Christensen and maybe RWB backup) I would still definitely expect a minimum 75 points overall in the league. Koulibaly and Sterling are both good signings for the first XI and having Chilwell back will be huge also.

None of Spurs, Arsenal or especially Man Utd have signed anyone to make me really scared about them over the course of a season. I wouldn't be too surprised if Spurs nick 3rd place because having Conte for the full season will likely have a big impact but I'd be really disappointed if at least two of those teams do better than us in the league.

[MoroccanBlue 5,291]

Just now, Jype said:

Missing out on top 4 would be a massive failure. Not quite sure about sack-worthy but massive nonetheless.

While so far there's not been a big enough improvement in the transfer market to even dream of a title challenge, the squad isn't really any worse than last season either and even then we finished on 74pts. If there's a big drop off in the points total and we miss out on top-4, it's definitely on Tuchel.

Even if the rest of the transfer window is somewhat of a disappointment and we only get a couple depth signings (CB around the level of Christensen and maybe RWB backup) I would still definitely expect a minimum 75 points overall in the league. Koulibaly and Sterling are both good signings for the first XI and having Chilwell back will be huge also.

None of Spurs, Arsenal or especially Man Utd have signed anyone to make me really scared about them over the course of a season. I wouldn't be too surprised if Spurs nick 3rd place because having Conte for the full season will likely have a big impact but I'd be really disappointed if at least two of those teams do better than us in the league.

See reply above 

[Tomo 21,733]

6 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Unlike Arsenal and Spurs, we have an un-unified squad. 7 players want to leave and our attack is still lacking for goals. 

We haven't had an "big" scorer while Spurs have had Kane and Son for years and we stayed above them. You may say they didn't have Conte then but that's offset with the fact we had Sarri or Lampard instead of Tuchel.

As for Arsenal, they have consistently been low down in the table when it comes to chance creation under Arteta. With that in mind how does that make Jesus a safer bet than Sterling to score goals? Arteta's system has made even Aubameyang struggle to score.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Tomo

[Jype 6,398]

Just now, MoroccanBlue said:

See reply above 

Maybe you're reading too much into pre-season?

Some of the want-away players will probably get their moves and be replaced with players of similar quality. Let's face it, none of them have been all that great so probably won't be too hard to replace with players who give equal performances.

The rest of them will stay and as soon as the season starts and the window is closed most of them, if not all, will continue to do their best to help the team. Even if they still want to move, they'll have to do as well as they possibly can to get their preferred moves later on. Stinking up the place for a season won't lead to anything good for their futures either.

As for the attack lacking goals, that was the case last season as well and the team still scored third most goals in the PL by a large margin and conceded tons less than any of the top4 rivals Spurs, Arse, Man Utd. While there's definitely a lack of a focal point in attack, the game system is set up so everyone will chip in collectively and the overall amount of goals scored is by no means bad and I don't expect that to change.

How the window's gone so far I'm definitely not being very optimistic about closing the gap to the top-2 but I also don't think the chasing pack have done anything significant to close the gap to us either.

[MoroccanBlue 5,291]

@Tomo @Jype

Noted. Will look to you if we see some down tooling this season. 

[Blues11 213]

53 minutes ago, Tomo said:

If he fails to get top four he will be sacked and rightly so.

Have you been watching season six of BCS?

[Last Sicarius 610]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tomo 21,733]

22 minutes ago, Blues11 said:

Have you been watching season six of BCS?

I have, wasn't a big fan of the recent episode though.

[Special Juan 27,419]

Send Keep to Leicester and bring Fofana

[ZAPHOD2319 4,466]

 

[turgi 71]

16 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

Departures FC

Emerson.

Rudiger to Madrid.

Alonso, Azpi and Christensen to Barcelona.

Lukaku.

It's all one way traffic.

[Blue Armour 4,275]

1 hour ago, turgi said:

Departures FC

Emerson.

Rudiger to Madrid.

Alonso, Azpi and Christensen to Barcelona.

Lukaku.

It's all one way traffic.

If Emerson leaves Alonso stays.

[Blue Armour 4,275]

4 hours ago, Tomo said:

He's got given one of the world's best CBs, one of the world's best inside forwards tailor made for his system and also has the return of one of the leagues best young midfielders who would have cost upwards of £60m had Palace owned him.

We were a lot better than Arsenal and Spurs last season (the points tally was close because we had 5 tournaments to juggle, a major injury crisis aswell as unprecedented ownership issues while they both had only the league to focus on by the time we got into spring), and our signings are better than their's.

Given the situation of the ownership change I'll give him a pass if we're (as is likely) a way from the title again, but zero excuse if he lets United or Arsenal creep above us (Spurs could maybe be somewhat justified with the Conte factor).

Can see your point.

Comparing the squads, Rudiger has been replaced by Koulibaly, we traded Lukaku for Sterling, and we traded Saul for Connor. Only question is whether Colwill can step up to provide an adequate replacement for Christensen.

EDIT: the question is whether Tuchel will use Colwill to replace Christensen, instead of Saar.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Blue Armour

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

5 hours ago, Maravel21 said:

And rightly so 

Who does this poster remind you of☹️

[Strike 7,212]

31 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

If Emerson leaves Alonso stays.

Joakim Maehle links. He played LWB primarily last year