Chelsea Transfers

[Clockwork 1,794]

8 minutes ago, Strike said:

We are reaching a point where every player needs to have a high level of passing - even the CBs 

He is a very good passer. Just not special in the sense of Jorginho was. Nothing wrong with that. 

[Special Juan 28,133]

The love affair between Kova and Pep will see this ending him at City

[Special Juan 28,133]

Romano saying Mendy could be off at the end of the season- good news, another bog average player off the list.

Now to get rid of the other useless fucker in Kepa and go and buy a proper keeper.

[Vesper 30,119]

2 hours ago, Clockwork said:

Kone is a different player though, he is more of a B2B player than a true DMF like Ugarte, Rice, and Lavia. 

the thing that REALLY worries me about Lavia

he is their key defensive non back 4 player

and they are the worst team in the league by far (IMHO and also in the table) and are being relegated

[YorkshireBlue 3,268]

23 minutes ago, Vesper said:

the thing that REALLY worries me about Lavia

he is their key defensive non back 4 player

and they are the worst team in the league by far (IMHO and also in the table) and are being relegated

True but to put that down to one player is a tad harsh, we have Enzo who's the premier league's record transfer fee and we are down the bottom half the table, with relagation only just now mathematical impossible.

[Reddish-Blue 2,495]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

the thing that REALLY worries me about Lavia

he is their key defensive non back 4 player

and they are the worst team in the league by far (IMHO and also in the table) and are being relegated

Remember when Gini got relegated with Newcastle and he got his move to Liverpool, turned out to be a pretty good midfielder. 
Same with Robertson getting relegated with Hull, turned out to be pretty damn good LB/LWB for Liverpool as well....

Feel like Lavia is young enough where its more about the experience than the results.  If he was paired with other experienced midfielders and had a decent defensive line behind him, I would be worried as well. 

Let's not forget that Southampton also had 21 year old Bazunu as their starting keeper, and Bella-Kotchap as their key CB (also 21 years old)....not to mention various other young players coming in like Mara, Alcaraz, Diallo, Edozie, Sulemana. 

 

[OneMoSalah 8,885]

13 hours ago, Superblue said:

I think letting Jorginho go in January was the right move, unless you feel he should have been given a new contract. If we had been anywhere near challenging for the league with Arsenal then maybe it would have been more of a consideration but in our position as good as writing the league season off and having just signed Enzo, it was a good amount of money to bank on a 31 year old who would have been leaving on a free 6 months later.

Kova falls into a similarly difficult category with what to do with him next season. He'll be 30 during next season, has never had the best injury record and I don't think has played particularly well this season. With a year left on his contract, do you renew and look at keeping him here on a 3-4 year contract? Especially if Kante signs back up as we'll have two similarly aged, similarly injury prone players in the same position being relied upon. 

As a side note, there's also been a lot of talk that Kova doesn't want to sign a new contract and would like a new challenge anyway. With this in mind, it makes sense to sell now than let him leave on a free in a year's time. I understand the position the board are taking with this, especially when they walked through the door to see two players worth millions leaving on free transfers last summer. 

Keeping Jorginho to the summer and letting him go on a free would of been the best move - its been hinted at that some of the discussions in the dressing room that have gone on about how the clubs been run/the seasons gone etc were heavily focused on the sale of him to Arsenal. I mean I know we have to/need to sell players but do people think we were that desperate for 12m or whatever we got for Jorginho in January? 

Even if he was backing up Enzo, or playing with him. We are still lightweight in terms of quality in MF, other than Kante, Kova and Enzo. I mean if any of them were to have gotten a big big injury would Gallagher, Zakaria or Loftus-Cheek have really been suitably good enough to come in? In comparison to Jorginho? No. I mean how often have we seen Gallagher play and be abysmally off the pace and overawed since January? 

Kova if he wants a new challenge fair, but if its because we don’t want to give him a 3 + 1 year deal maybe - then it is stupid. Are we not reportedly going to give Kante a 2+1? Or a 3? Why not offer Kova a 3+1? Having him, Kante, Enzo and if we sign a 23-27 year old MF player - gives us a really good mix of experience and quality again.

People are making out that there are a huge amount of top midfield players out there though when in reality, there really isn’t so I think for the club to be particularly interested in just letting Kova go is very strange and typically the same sort of approach we’ve become accustomed to with this new ownership. I would rather we focused on shifting Gallagher, Ruben and perhaps even Mount depending on what he, the club and Poch discuss first and foremost.

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

At the point where if Kovacic leaves, great. If he stays, great. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

 

[Reddish-Blue 2,495]

10 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

Keeping Jorginho to the summer and letting him go on a free would of been the best move - its been hinted at that some of the discussions in the dressing room that have gone on about how the clubs been run/the seasons gone etc were heavily focused on the sale of him to Arsenal. I mean I know we have to/need to sell players but do people think we were that desperate for 12m or whatever we got for Jorginho in January? 

Even if he was backing up Enzo, or playing with him. We are still lightweight in terms of quality in MF, other than Kante, Kova and Enzo. I mean if any of them were to have gotten a big big injury would Gallagher, Zakaria or Loftus-Cheek have really been suitably good enough to come in? In comparison to Jorginho? No. I mean how often have we seen Gallagher play and be abysmally off the pace and overawed since January? 

Kova if he wants a new challenge fair, but if its because we don’t want to give him a 3 + 1 year deal maybe - then it is stupid. Are we not reportedly going to give Kante a 2+1? Or a 3? Why not offer Kova a 3+1? Having him, Kante, Enzo and if we sign a 23-27 year old MF player - gives us a really good mix of experience and quality again.

People are making out that there are a huge amount of top midfield players out there though when in reality, there really isn’t so I think for the club to be particularly interested in just letting Kova go is very strange and typically the same sort of approach we’ve become accustomed to with this new ownership. I would rather we focused on shifting Gallagher, Ruben and perhaps even Mount depending on what he, the club and Poch discuss first and foremost.

How do you know that Jorginho wanted to stay though beyond January?    There were reports from Italian media where they said Jorginho asked his agent to look for other options in the January transfer window as he wasn't pleased at the Chelsea situation and was keen on a new challenge. 

If those reports are true, it makes sense that the club took a transfer fee rather than following the same trend as Rudiger/Christensen and letting quality players go on a free transfer. 

[Vesper 30,119]

@bigbluewillie

You want Thiago to leave??

You made a sad face over that tweet that said he is likely staying.

[OneMoSalah 8,885]

15 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

How do you know that Jorginho wanted to stay though beyond January?    There were reports from Italian media where they said Jorginho asked his agent to look for other options in the January transfer window as he wasn't pleased at the Chelsea situation and was keen on a new challenge. 

If those reports are true, it makes sense that the club took a transfer fee rather than following the same trend as Rudiger/Christensen and letting quality players go on a free transfer. 

I’m pretty sure there was multiple quotes from his agent about wanting to stay and wanting a new contract here. But we pushed him out the door for all of £12m because he had 6 months left and we had Enzo Fernandez coming in despite the midfield already being a weak position in the squad.

There were rumours he was considering letting his deal run out and returning to Italy at the end of the season also. Mainly from Italian media. Which would of been a better outcome. 

Edited May 13, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[Vegetable 830]

Jorginho wouldn't be a matter if only things had worked out as planned. Not like people here rated him very much to put it lightly until he was gone and we were, in theory, improving quality, so better to let him go when there was someone interested, instead of making him sit in the parking lot as we can't fit players in the dressing room. Too bad it turns out not only we miss his imperfect input, but he was one of very, very few people exhibiting a bit of leadership and charisma here. There were multiple reports his departure didn't go down very well with the rest of players.

Can't shake the feeling that club got carried away the same way with Giroud.

Edited May 13, 2023 by Vegetable

[Vytis33 1,263]

 

[Gundalf 805]

Legend on and off the pitch.