Chelsea Transfers

[turgi 71]

Why do we stick with a back three?

[LAM09 7,069]

6 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

No he’s not a nobody perhaps but he’s hardly a elite level central defender. I mean he’s a reasonably solid squad player and even then, you can bet Pep won’t pick him regularly when he has all his CBs back fit and available, I mean hes no better than Ake and hes a pretty average CB.

Dortmund were eager to sell because he had 1 year left on his deal and he declined a new contract, plus anyone who’s watched Dortmund over the years know he hasn’t exactly been a revelation for them and they could afford to let him go. I mean I think him going to City was a surprise for many, he was available for transfer all summer and nobody went for him at that price barring City at the last minute due to Ake picking up an injury on top of the already injured Laporte not being closer to fitness.

But because he’s doing well for City (think he’s played 4 games, Seville, Dortmund, Wolves and United - ironically two teams have ended up sacking their managers for very subpar performances this season - particularly in attack) we should have “been all over him” as if he is any better than who we went after or who we signed. 

If people said last summer we should replace Rudiger or Christensen with Akanji, they would of laughed. We needed to target top level CBs to replace the 2 good players we lost. Not a rotational player/squad player in that position because Azpi and Chalobah can already do that roles. If he plays for City regularly for 2 or 3 years when everyone’s fit I will eat my words but I significantly doubt it.

Also without question Kimpbembe is a vastly superior player, absolutely, so makes sense why we were going after him. Even without considering the more obvious reason of his quality, he is a mobile, strong, left sided central defender who is comfortable in a back 3 or 4. Which would of been a pretty good buy to take Rudigers role as TT continued with a back 3.

There's a difference between going for top defenders & overpaying for ones that aren't. Our CB targets in the summer got progressively worse, starting with de Ligt & ultimately ending up with Fofana, so it almost makes a number of your points void, as we ended up with good players/downgrades in the end anyway. Comparing our situation to City's is totally irrelevant.

I couldn't hate anything more than comments seemingly presuming my thoughts were solely based on his short time at City. At £15m~ he would have been a great signing for a number of reasons, not at £40-50m, which is why I made the comment to begin with. It's called depth, as we'll be back to Azpi in a matter of weeks.

Also, I completely disagree with the last bit, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

Edited October 7, 2022 by LAM09

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

According to Bayern insider we fended off heavy interest from fc Bayern when securing the nkunku deal, prevailing vs an other European heavyweight for a change 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

11 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

According to Bayern insider we fended off heavy interest from fc Bayern when securing the nkunku deal, prevailing vs an other European heavyweight for a change 

Doesn't make any sense, Bayern still have Muller and Musiala.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

1 hour ago, Blues Forever said:

Doesn't make any sense, Bayern still have Muller and Musiala.

Yeah right bc Bayern  never buy players they don’t need…

 

no srsly, the play 4231 or 4222 with false nine and/or second striker 

musiala Müller Start start as no. 10s in behind usually , ofc all front 4 or 5 interchange during the game

nkunku would compete vs Gnabry and mane mostly for the nominal 2 positions up front

 

 

 

 

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

17 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Yeah right bc Bayern  never buy players they don’t need…

 

no srsly, the play 4231 or 4222 with false nine and/or second striker 

musiala Müller Start start as no. 10s in behind usually , ofc all front 4 or 5 interchange during the game

nkunku would compete vs Gnabry and mane mostly for the nominal 2 positions up front

 

 

 

 

 

Bayern want to sign pure no.9 next summer. Nkunku as i said before would be a strange choice.

[MoroccanBlue 5,384]

5 hours ago, turgi said:

Why do we stick with a back three?

Midfield. 

In an ideal world, Kante and Jorginho are sold and upgraded next summer. Kovacic a rotation option. 

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,299]

Have we actually signed Nkunku or we just getting ahead of our selves here? 

[Vegetable 830]

7 hours ago, Blues Forever said:

Doesn't make any sense, Bayern still have Muller and Musiala.

Thinking where they got him from I wonder what's a point of having a "top notch academy" if we can't manage to properly develop and retain talented youth. It's not a first and not a last player who had to leave to explode his potential, otherwise he'd spent rest of his career on loans to 3rd Spanish division…

[Tomo 21,751]

28 minutes ago, Vegetable said:

It's not a first and not a last player who had to leave to explode his potential, otherwise he'd spent rest of his career on loans to 3rd Spanish division…

That notion is is abolsute myth. Players who play in the Spanish 3rd division and levels similar play in it because that's their ability level, nothing more nothing less.

Solanke and Brewster leaving us for "more chances" hasn't helped them get particularly far.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Tomo

[Reddish-Blue 2,517]

18 hours ago, Magic Lamps said:

According to Bayern insider we fended off heavy interest from fc Bayern when securing the nkunku deal, prevailing vs an other European heavyweight for a change 

Don't forget that Bayern have always held a strong interest in a certain young German attacker playing for Chelsea at the moment...

It wouldn't surprise me at all if they begin to step up their interest in the coming seasons.  

[OhForAGreavsie 6,092]

On 07/10/2022 at 21:50, Vegetable said:

Thinking where they got him from I wonder what's a point of having a "top notch academy" if we can't manage to properly develop and retain talented youth. It's not a first and not a last player who had to leave to explode his potential, otherwise he'd spent rest of his career on loans to 3rd Spanish division…

That is not why Jamal left. Once he decided that his life would be in Germany, and that he would play internationally for Germany not for England, the move to Bayern was always on the cards.

I thought the myth of us denying opportunities to deserving young players had died. It just isn't true. Marc Guehi perhaps but he's the only candidate. All of the others fit into one of four categories: -

• Never good enough in the first place
• Near miss but ultimately still not good enough
• Was given a chance to impress over many games but the manager eventually decided they were not for him.
• Play right back, grew up with Reece James and are not idiots.

The only players showing signs of top-flight careers fall into the last two categories. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by OhForAGreavsie

[Reddish-Blue 2,517]

1 hour ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

That is not why Jamal left. Once he decided that his life would be in Germany, and that he would play internationally for Germany not for England, the move to Bayern was always on the cards.

I thought the myth of us denying opportunities to deserving young players had died. It just isn't true. Marc Guehi perhaps but he's the only candidate. All of the others fit into one of four categories: -

• Never good enough in the first place
• Near miss but ultimately still not good enough
• Was given a chance to impress over many games but the manager eventually decided they were not for him.
• Play right back, grew up with Reece James and are not idiots.

The only players showing signs of top-flight careers fall into the last two categories. 

Tomori should be added to your list.  He sort of fits the 3rd dot point but I feel there was enough raw potential there for us to keep him.  

If only the club had a crystal ball about the Christensen contract situation, we could have saved ourselves 30-40 million by keeping Tomori/Guehi at the club. 

[Vesper 30,301]

5 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

If only the club had a crystal ball about the Christensen contract situation, we could have saved ourselves 30-40 million by keeping Tomori/Guehi at the club. 

Marina had a blind spot for renewals. She assumed that she could strong-arm players like Cuntois, Rudiger, and AC. when the Sukhoi Su-34 rubber hit the runaway.

Just those 3 cockups have cost us around £175-200m or so at the end of the day, when Kepa's crazed world record for a keeper panic fee + salary for 7 years, plus £100m (or so) in lost transfer fees for AC/Rudi combined are figured in.

[OneMoSalah 8,889]

5 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

Tomori should be added to your list.  He sort of fits the 3rd dot point but I feel there was enough raw potential there for us to keep him.  

If only the club had a crystal ball about the Christensen contract situation, we could have saved ourselves 30-40 million by keeping Tomori/Guehi at the club. 

Tomori would of been perfect to play where he did here under Frank in a back 3 with TT or even on the right. Plus I have every faith he wouls of plaued more often with TT than with Frank the second season.

And with Rudiger going, he would of been a shoe in perhaps but to be fair, (what looked like) a lack of belief in him and chances he got under Frank sealed his fate.

And for someone in his situation, when a club like Milan come knocking, particularly with Maldini fronting a lot of their transfer activities, the history of players like him, Baresi, Nesta etc weaved into their history, its a once in a life time chance and a tough call for any young defender. He's no doubt improved a lot but I feel he would of done so here with Thiago Silva (who definitely had a positive influence on Rudi and Andreas as did TT) and the managers system, as well as due to his talent, which was there. 

Guehi is good too but I think Tomori is definitely a much much bigger fuck up. Between the board and Frank, putting him on a loan there with an option was mental. I mean its mind boggling. You don’t do that unless both club and manager are more than happy to let a player go either so the blames definitely as much on Frank as the folk on the board.

[Vesper 30,301]

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

particularly with Maldini fronting a lot of their transfer activities

this is so true

it's why they have a fiercely loyal Theo (grrrrrrrrrrrrr) for instance

when you have the best (or second best, Beckenbauer v Maldini is like Pele v Maradona) defender in football history (and a one club man for over 30 years, from age 9 to almost 41, way over 1000 games total) come calling and then following up like a father, ts hard to say no to.

Plus it is Milano, incredible quality of life (well, we shall see what transpires under the new fascist (for sure) slash borderline neo nazi (on the edges) government) and also that insane football tradition (AC Milan is second biggest club over the entirety of footballing history, only trailing Real Madrid, both in front of Bayern, and even farther in front of Barca, Manure and Pool and of course Ajax, who have been vastly reduced since the end of the 20th century by the rise of the Big 5 leagues). Chels still needs 20 to 30 more years of excellence (CL, league, and club world champions trophies must keep flowing in) to start to be tossed into the grand sweep of history arguments.

[Vesper 30,301]

Chelsea to appoint Christopher Vivell as technical director

https://theathletic.com/3667533/2022/10/07/Chelsea-christopher-vivell/

Christopher Vivell will be appointed as the new technical director at Chelsea.

The west London side have been looking to recruit a technical director after Petr Cech departed the club in the summer.

The process in identifying a candidate is now over as Vivell looks set to take charge in his new role at Stamford Bridge.

Vivell, 35, left former club RB Leipzig on Friday due to “differences of opinion.” He had held his role with the Bundesliga side since 2020.

Owner Todd Boehly was acting as Chelsea’s interim sporting director throughout the summer and played a key role in signing eight players during the transfer window.

Chelsea originally held an interest in recruiting the sporting director from Red Bull Salzburg, Christoph Freund, who had emerged as the favourite to fill the sporting director vacancy at Chelsea.

Although he initially refused to rule out a move, he later confirmed he would be staying with the Austrian club.

Vivell will now likely play a key role in Chelsea’s future recruitment. The Athletic revealed earlier this week that forward Christopher Nkunku, who plays for Leipzig, has signed a pre-contract agreement to join Graham Potter’s squad for the 2023-24 season.

Chelsea are preparing for their upcoming match against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League this Saturday.

What will Vivell bring to Chelsea?

RAPHAEL HONIGSTEIN: Vivell has been an integral part of the Red Bull football group’s successful recruitment network since joining RB Salzburg as Head Scout in 2015.

A sports science graduate of Karlsruhe’s Institute of Technology and former analytics coordinator at TSG Hoffenheim, Vivell was promoted to Head of Scouting in Austria before joining Leipzig as technical director in August 2020.

His main focus there has been on long-term squad planning in line with the club’s footballing principles.

Of his work, he said: “I’d like to explain it this way. Managers think from one game to game to next, sporting directors think from one transfer window to the next, technical directors think three transfer windows ahead.”

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Vesper

[Vesper 30,301]

question

are we also going to have a SPORTING director?

it is my understanding (perhaps a wrong one) that a technical director is in charge of the of the overall club structure, and a sporting director is in charge of the on the the pitch/recruiting side

[Vesper 30,301]

 

rise of the Millennials 🤣

[Blues Forever 1,232]

20 minutes ago, Vesper said:

question

are we also going to have a SPORTING director?

it is my understanding (perhaps a wrong one) that a technical director is in charge of the of the overall club structure, and a sporting director is in charge of the on the the pitch/recruiting side