Chelsea Transfers

[TheHulk 2,030]

3 hours ago, Mário César said:

80M euros and he can go, tbh

Selling our best player, it's a shame he is forced to play under shit coaches again and again. Look how he looks at national.

[Vesper 29,376]

1 hour ago, King Kante said:

I think he would only consider Real and they only do free's these days.

speaking of Real Madrid and frees (if this is true)

Liverpool Exclusive: ‘Trent Alexander-Arnold has already signed pre-contract’

https://www.footballinsider247.com/liverpool-exclusive-trent-alexander-arnold-has-already-signed-pre-contract/

Trent Alexander-Arnold has already signed a pre-contract agreement to leave Liverpool and join Real Madrid when his contract expires this summer.

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, who remains well-connected within the game, explained sources in Madrid are “100 per cent” convinced the deal has been agreed.

The 26-year-old has been available for talks over a pre-contract agreement since January, and Madrid appear to have swooped quickly to agree terms behind the scenes.

Trent Alexander-Arnold set to join Real Madrid after pre-contract agreement

Former Man United chief scout Mick Brown told Football Insider in November that Liverpool were already aware of Alexander-Arnold’s decision.

Now, Robinson has claimed that an agreement was reached during the January window but kept under wraps, and the deal for Alexander-Arnold to join Real Madrid is done.

“The information I have is: Trent Alexander-Arnold is going to Madrid,” he told Football Insider.

“I spent time in Madrid when we covered the Real Madrid v Man City game, and speaking to sources, they’re convinced Trent signed a pre-contract in January.

“It hasn’t been made public knowledge yet, but the word in Madrid is they are 100 per cent sure that he has signed a deal.

“Out of the three of them [Salah, Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnodl], that one looks like it’s a done deal.

“I don’t think how Liverpool perform between now and the end of the season will have any baring on the decisions the players make.“

Speculation over the future of Alexander-Arnold has persisted throughout the season, alongside Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk as all three remain out of contract.

Football Insider first revealed on 1 November that Madrid were making advances towards Alexander-Arnold ahead of the January window with a pre-contract deal in mind.

Now, Robinson has explained that Alexander-Arnold is the one out of the three star players edging towards an exit that is already a “done deal”.

Edited Thursday at 14:00 by Vesper

[Vesper 29,376]

Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham set for 13-day transfer headstart as Premier League confirm rule change

https://www.londonworld.com/sport/football/arsenal/arsenal-Chelsea-tottenham-premier-league-transfer-headstart-5054733

The Premier League has altered the summer transfer window to help clubs taking part in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Premier League rivals will all be able to get a head start on transfer dealings this summer with the Premier League giving the green light to an earlier A Premier League statement on Thursday read: “Premier League clubs have today agreed the dates for the Summer 2025 Transfer Window.opening of the window.

The Premier League transfer window ran from June 14 to August 30 last summer. The period when top flight clubs can complete deals will now take place over two separate periods this summer due to the FIFA Club World Cup.

That change has been made to benefit Chelsea and Manchester City ahead of the tournament but will also see the opportunity to complete signings as early as June 1 extended to all Premier League clubs.

When does the summer transfer window open for Premier League clubs?

The summer transfer window for Premier League clubs will now be open in two separate periods. The first is between Sunday, June 1 and Tuesday, June 10. The second is between Monday, June 16 and Monday, September 1.

“The window will open early, between Sunday 1 June and Tuesday 10 June, due to an exceptional registration period relating to the FIFA Club World Cup. It will then reopen on Monday 16 June and close on Monday 1 September.”

The first fixtures of the Premier League season will kick off on the weekend of August 16. That means that the window will remain open and allow clubs to complete business during the early rounds of top flight fixtures, as was the case this season.

How the Club World Cup has changed the transfer window

The transfer window has changed this summer in order to allow Premier League clubs taking part in the FIFA Club World Cup to sign players ahead of the competition. The tournament takes place between June 14 and July 13 in the United States.

The FIFA Council had already approved the interim window in October. A FIFA statement explained: "The objective is to encourage clubs and players whose contracts are expiring to find an appropriate solution to facilitate the players' participation."

In the interests of fairness, the governing body has since extended the early transfer window period to be applicable for all Premier League clubs and not simply those involved in the Club World Cup.

Which Premier League clubs are involved in the Club World Cup?

Chelsea and Manchester City are the only two Premier League clubs competing at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States this summer. Places in the tournament are decided by European teams’ performance in the Champions League over the past four seasons.Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021 and Manchester City lifted the trophy in 2023, which has helped them qualify for the Club World Cup. Real Madrid, who won the Champions League in 2024 and 2022, have also qualified. The rest of the nine places available for European teams were given out through a Uefa ranking system.

Only two clubs from any one nation are permitted to enter into the Club World Cup, which is why teams including Liverpool and Arsenal were not considered with Chelsea and Manchester City already ushered in. The FIFA Club World Cup groups are as below:

• Group A: Palmeiras, FC Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami
• Group B: Paris St-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders
• Group 😄 Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica
• Group 😧 Flamengo, Esperance Sportive de Tunisie, Chelsea, Club Leon
• Group E: River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter Milan
• Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns
• Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus
• Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg

In other news, Arsenal have been handed an Alexander Isak transfer opportunity amid Newcastle United contract claim.
 

[mkh 383]

🇸🇳 Strasbourg have agreed deal to sign 17 year old winger Yaya Diémé to join from Senegal from 2026 when he turns 18.

BlueCo Group (with potential future view on Chelsea move) have been following and monitoring him for months and now closed a deal.

(@taggatsn)

[Vesper 29,376]

27 minutes ago, mkh said:

🇸🇳 Strasbourg have agreed deal to sign 17 year old winger Yaya Diémé to join from Senegal from 2026 when he turns 18.

BlueCo Group (with potential future view on Chelsea move) have been following and monitoring him for months and now closed a deal.

(@taggatsn)

17-year-old winger is currently training with Chelsea ahead of future Strasbourg move

https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/transfer-news/17-year-old-winger-is-currently-training-with-Chelsea-ahead-of-future-strasbourg-move/

Chelsea currently have a youngster training with them even though he’s due to sign for Strasbourg in 2026.

Chelsea and Strasbourg both fall under the BlueCo ownership, so activity between the two sister clubs isn’t uncommon.

In the current 2024/25 season, Chelsea loanees Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic are both enjoying incredible campaigns in the French Ligue 1 with Strasbourg.

Santos has been earmarked for Chelsea’s squad going into next season because of his impressive midfield displays.

As for goalkeeper Petrovic, he’s enjoying a really strong campaign in net in France. However, Jody Morris doubts Petrovic will make it at Chelsea.

Yaya Dieme training with Chelsea ahead of Strasbourg move in 2026

According to The Daily Mail, Chelsea have teenage winger Yaya Dieme training with them at Cobham right now.

Apparently, the 17-year-old prospect hails from the Diambars football academy set up by Patrick Vieira in 2003.

The report says that Dieme is expected to sign for Strasbourg, moving to France in January 2026. In the meantime, the exciting youngster is currently training in England with sister club Chelsea.

Back in 2023, Dieme was part of the Senegal side that won the Under-17 African Cup of Nations.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano reported back in January that Strasbourg agreed the Dieme transfer with a potential future view to joining Chelsea further down the line. However, the forward doesn’t turn 18 until October, so his deal is on standby until next January.

Strasbourg becoming a great alternative for Chelsea players

As Strasbourg hunt down European qualification this year, it’s becoming a more attractive home for Chelsea loanees to go and develop.

Position	Club	Matches played	Points
1st	Paris Saint-Germain	26	68
2nd	Marseille	26	49
3rd	Monaco	26	47
4th	Nice	26	47
5th	Lyon	26	45
6th	Lille	26	44
7th	Strasbourg	26	43

Current Ligue 1 standings in the 2024/25 season

Chelsea fans predict big things for Santos because of his outstanding performances at Strasbourg, scoring nine goals in 26 appearances across all competitions this term.

From a Chelsea perspective, they may have a perfect process to help build themselves future stars.

While Dieme is expected to join Strasbourg next year, perhaps he’s someone that Blues supporters should keep an eye out on.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,593]

 

[mkh 383]

Chelsea Sporting Director, Laurence Stewart is spotted today alongside Strasbourg President, Marc Keller.

👀🔵Cherki,Sarr,Santos,Petrovic,Bakwa,Emegha,Moreira,Barco,Rosenior🔥🤩

Edited Friday at 21:33 by mkh

[LAM09 6,873]

9 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea Sporting Director, Laurence Stewart is spotted today alongside Strasbourg President, Marc Keller.

👀🔵Cherki,Sarr,Santos,Petrovic,Bakwa,Emegha,Moreira,Barco,Rosenior🔥🤩

Barco will probably be added to that list, too.

[TheHulk 2,030]

25 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea Sporting Director, Laurence Stewart is spotted today alongside Strasbourg President, Marc Keller.

👀🔵Cherki,Sarr,Santos,Petrovic,Bakwa,Emegha,Moreira,Barco,Rosenior🔥🤩

We missed the train on Cherki.

[TheHulk 2,030]

Also Rosenior is head and shoulders above this fraud Maresca, his comments yesterday that players should be allowed to dream and fight for CL is normal, meanwhile this loser..

[mkh 383]

7 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

Also Rosenior is head and shoulders above this fraud Maresca, his comments yesterday that players should be allowed to dream and fight for CL is normal, meanwhile this loser..

💯🔥✍️

[LAM09 6,873]

11 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

Also Rosenior is head and shoulders above this fraud Maresca, his comments yesterday that players should be allowed to dream and fight for CL is normal, meanwhile this loser..

They had no real expectations at the start of the season while CL was surely the bare minimum for us. Maresca's comments are just his way of covering himself should the worse happen and if we do qualify, he's done wonders (in his own head).

Edited Friday at 22:10 by LAM09

[NikkiCFC 8,118]

We will have 10 days to sign new players before CWC. 

Premier League clubs have today agreed the dates for the Summer 2025 Transfer Window.

The window will open early, between Sunday 1 June and Tuesday 10 June, due to an exceptional registration period relating to the FIFA Club World Cup.

It will then reopen on Monday 16 June and close on Monday 1 September.

-Premier League statement

[Vesper 29,376]

Andrey Santos looked great again

as did most of Strasbourg (after a poor first half where Lyon dominated play, they flipped the switch on in the 2nd half)

they tore apart Lyon for the most part (was 4 1 until a 96th minute pen)

extended highlights

https://hoofoo42r.videohatkora.com/embed/09MW36butjfS3

Edited Saturday at 09:33 by Vesper

[mkh 383]

The loans of French midfielder Mathis Amougou and Ecuadorian striker Kendry Paez [from Chelsea to Strasbourg] are almost completed.

‼️The proposed Mamadou Sarr's move from Strasbourg to Chelsea in the summer would be banned by UEFA if both clubs qualify for the same UEFA competition.

(via@lequipe)

 

🔵Chelsea are interested in Ousmane Diomande. The fee could be close to what they paid for Geovany Quenda.

via@LuisCoelho51

Edited Saturday at 15:34 by mkh

[milka 3,373]

Santos   doing well in Strasbourg, but what will happen at Chelsea when expectations are high, or at least they were until 2022, and these kids like him, Estevao play against real teams and players without proven players with them how they will progress ? Hype is good when it's backed up in Chelsea the hype  with these kids is only PR to shut the fans .  With just potential you can't win anything  .

[Vesper 29,376]

18 minutes ago, mkh said:

Chelsea are interested in Ousmane Diomande.

same thing has been said since 2023

[Vesper 29,376]

Geovany Quenda is going places. Fast. ‘I see similarities with Lamine Yamal’

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6235533/2025/03/28/geovany-quenda-Chelsea-signing-sporting-lisbon-profile/

https://archive.ph/sDHqP

Training was already starting when Geovany Quenda turned up.

 

He was new to the neighbourhood — new to the country, in fact — and he wanted to play some football. He approached the coaches and asked if he could join in.

 

In normal circumstances, they would have let him. SF Damaiense, based in the Lisbon suburb of Amadora, is a community club. Turning away bright-eyed local kids is not really the done thing. On this occasion, though, there was a small issue. Quenda, who had just turned nine, didn’t have any kit.

 

“He was wearing jeans and trainers — social clothes,” recalls Edmundo Silva, Damaiense’s president. “He clearly had the football bug and was desperate to play, but the coaches said no.”

 

Quenda, disappointed, might just have walked home. Instead, he hung around. He found a spare ball and started kicking it around by himself. He surely knew what he was doing, just as you surely know where this is going.

 

“The coaches saw his touch, his relationship with the ball,” says Silva. “It wasn’t typical for a kid of that age. They decided to make an exception and let him train. They were curious to see more. And he was astonishing.”

 

Curiosity and astonishment: these have been recurring themes in Quenda’s journey to this point. It is not a long story — he is only 17, barely halfway through his breakout season at Sporting CP — but it has moved quickly, hurtling along with the same momentum that defines Quenda’s wing play.

 

Chelsea may have won the race to sign him for £40million ($51.8m) — he will move to Stamford Bridge in 2026 — but excitement about his potential goes beyond club affiliations. In Portugal, there is a growing conviction that Quenda will be a genuine global star, not to mention a fixture of the national team for years to come.

 

“A good news story for Portuguese football,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez called him in November. Bernardo Silva, one of the stalwarts of Martinez’s side, was even more effusive: “He might steal my place. It’s impressive how good he is at that age.”

 

 

Edmundo Silva recognises that sentiment. “He had so much quality in his left foot, even back then,” he says. “After three or four training sessions, we all agreed that the boy was special.”

Age, as they say, is just a number. And denim is a just a material.

---

Quenda was born in Guinea-Bissau, west Africa. He moved to Lisbon in 2016, joining his father, who had relocated there for work a couple of years prior.

One of his early mentors in Portugal was Basaula Lemba, a former international footballer for Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). Lemba had spent much of his club career in Portugal and was working as youth coordinator at Damaiense when Quenda arrived.

“He had never played organised football, but he was playing passes with both feet, making it look easy,” Lemba told Portuguese website ZeroZero in 2023. “He was the guy starting every attack. He had extraordinary potential.”

Off the field, Quenda was not the most ebullient. “He was still getting settled into a new life, finding new friends,” explains Silva, the Damaiense president. “He was observant, not a big talker, but very calm and respectful. And he quickly demonstrated that he was a very attentive, smart kid.”

 

 

Quenda as a child with former Sporting CP player Yannick Djalo (Photo courtesy of Geovany Quenda)

 

Quenda’s talent was so obvious that Silva knew it would be tough to hang onto him for long. He told the youth coaches to hold off on using the youngster in tournaments so scouts from bigger clubs wouldn’t catch sight of him before he was fully registered at Damaiense.

It was a smart plan. It didn’t work.

 

“The coaches couldn’t resist playing him,” says Silva. “They took him to a competition in another neighbourhood. After five minutes of the first match, I was getting calls from the two big Lisbon clubs asking me where we had unearthed this diamond.”

 

Silva resisted. “We didn’t want to give him up immediately,” he says. “Geovany was still adapting to a new environment, establishing friendships. Damaiense is a small club, but it has a strong social role in our community. We succeeded in keeping him for a year. It was a fight at times, but it was important for him to be happy.”

 

His next destination was Benfica. He entered their academy in 2017, impressing his new coaches with his dribbling ability and maturity. “He wasn’t scared and he didn’t feel pressure,” David Sousa, who managed him at under-11 level, told Portuguese newspaper Record. “That helped him a lot. He would make difficult things look easy.”

 

After two seasons at Benfica, there was a rift. Quenda and his family expected an offer of a place in the club’s on-site boarding house. When it did not materialise, he left, joining rivals Sporting.

 

---

Tiago Teixeira arrived at Sporting in summer 2022. He became assistant coach of the under-23 side, later taking up the same role with the senior team. He remembers the buzz about Quenda. “Everyone was talking about Geovany,” Teixeira tells The Athletic.

 

A year later, Teixeira got a closer look at what the fuss was about. Quenda was only 16 when he moved up to under-23 level, but you would never have known it. “He had a fantastic season for us,” says Teixeira. “He found it easy to adapt.”

 

Teixeira’s impressions are recent enough that he quickly abandons the past tense. The player Quenda was in 2023 and 2024 is the player he is today, give or take a little refinement.

 

“He is a very, very good dribbler,” Teixeira says. “He’s impressive physically and can beat his man on the outside or on the inside.”

Case in point: his goal for Portugal Under-17s against Morocco in September 2023, a ludicrous solo effort that left a trail of dazed defenders scratching their heads and wondering what the hell had just happened.

 

 

 

Teixeira, though, is at pains to point out that Quenda has plenty more arrows in his quiver. “He’s a very intense player, very committed,” he says. “But I think his greatest strengths are his decision-making and his ability to play the final ball. He reads the game brilliantly.”

 

It is telling that the players Quenda looked up to in his early teens — Franco Cervi at Benfica, Marcus Edwards at Sporting — were not hug-the-touchline wingers, but tricksy creators. Many of his assists at youth level and for Sporting’s B team came from through balls rather than crosses. He is currently playing on the left flank for Sporting, but it is not a given that he will end up there.

 

“He has a great capacity to learn new positions,” says Teixeira. “Sometimes with the under-23s, he was close to being a No 10. He can operate in small spaces, be that out wide or in central areas. He is very switched on defensively, so he really contributes out of possession, too. In the long term, I think he will end up playing through the middle.”

 

---

It seems fair to say that Quenda’s career would not have progressed quite this quickly were it not for Ruben Amorim. It was the latter’s willingness to promote youth players that propelled the teenager into Sporting’s first team last summer.

“We see him as a big project,” Amorim said in March 2024. “We will take it slowly and look at the big picture.”

 

 

Quenda has impressed since breaking into Sporting’s first team (Filipe Amorim/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Quenda quickly put paid to the careful approach. Playing slightly out of position at right wing-back, he found the net in the Portuguese Super Cup against Porto — a goal that made him Sporting’s youngest-ever scorer — and never left the side thereafter.

 

“He got an opportunity and didn’t give me any way to leave him out,” Amorim said after watching Quenda net his first league goal against Famalicao in October. “No reason for doubt, nothing. I think he’s going to be a great player.”

 

It is to Quenda’s credit that his level did not dip when Amorim departed to join Manchester United in November. He has arguably been even more effective under the new coach, Rui Borges; witness the superb assists against Vitoria Guimaraes and Porto this year.

 

Borges, clearly, likes Quenda a lot — and not just the cutting edge he provides. “Individual quality isn’t enough and he understands that, understands that he has to be committed,” Borges said after a recent victory. “He’s a kid who likes to learn.”

 

 

Quenda in action against Dortmund in the Champions League (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)

 

His team-mates, meanwhile, increasingly look to him for inspiration. “He’s an enormous talent,” Sporting captain Morten Hjulmand told Record last week. “What stands out is the way he carries the ball. It’s hard to stop him because he changes direction at great speed. He’s really hard to mark.”

 

---

Like any 17-year-old, Quenda is not a perfect player. Amorim once expressed exasperation at his finishing, which could generously be characterised as scattershot.

 

“He is often more interested in setting others up than shooting himself,” says Teixeira. “I think he could also be more aggressive in one-on-one situations. He could go at his marker more, be a bit more incisive and ambitious, maybe alternate more between going left and right.”

 

The extra year in Lisbon should work to his advantage. He is still living at the Sporting academy, still in school. There are plans for extra English lessons to soften his landing when he moves to London in 15 months’ time. Teixeira, for one, doesn’t believe he will have any problem adapting to a new league.

 

Of greater concern will be the precise circumstances he encounters at his new club.

 

It is not just that Chelsea already have a huge cadre of wingers and creative midfielders; it is also that two more players with very similar profiles to Quenda — Kendry Paez and Willian Estevao — are also due to arrive before him. Paez and Estevao are both left-footed attackers who can play wide or centrally. Both will arrive with significant fanfare. Both are still teenagers. You could easily see Chelsea signing a couple more wonderkids before 2026, too.

 

 

Quenda will join Chelsea in 2026 (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)

 

What’s the plan here? Not for Chelsea, whose modus operandi under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly at least has the benefit of being transparent, but for Quenda? There is a lot to be said for backing yourself, but the route to regular first-team starts at Stamford Bridge does look unusually congested. There is a danger that at least one of the new guys is going to go the way of Angelo Gabriel, the much-hyped Brazilian winger who was flogged to Al-Nassr — still, somehow, at a profit — in September after precisely zero appearances in Chelsea blue.

 

You can understand, perhaps, why some saw Manchester United — and a reunion with the coach who first took a chance on him — as a better fit. “The Amorim factor could have been a big help,” Sousa, Quenda’s old coach at Benfica told Record. “Maybe it would have been easier for him to adapt.”

 

It is Quenda’s task — and Chelsea’s — to make those hypotheticals irrelevant. The talent, clearly, is there. And for all that we must exercise caution when we talk up 17-year-olds, for all that that it is our duty to highlight the possible pitfalls, to point out that players rarely follow a linear development path, there is a degree of confidence about Quenda’s ability to surf the waves.

 

“I see similarities with Lamine Yamal,” says Teixeira. “Both of them started playing senior football at 16, 17. Yamal is already playing for Spain but Quenda has just been called up by Portugal for the first time and I’m certain he’s going to be a regular in the national team for years to come, and a star of the Champions League.

 

“He will get better with age and keep growing in confidence. He has everything he needs.”