Chelsea Transfers

[OhForAGreavsie 6,127]

26 minutes ago, whats happening said:

i mean, we cant expect him to come out now and say it that he really wanted to join us and that he's disappointed in barcas board for rejecting...

Well no, but the latest statement attributed to him is believable and consistent with the previous reporting.

[nyikolajevics 2,835]

5 hours ago, Fernando said:

This whole Strasbourg not going to end well me thinks. 

Fans in france are very vocal and passionate. Similar to owning a club in Germany, not going to fare well. 

I wonder if it would have worked better in Portugal? Or some other league like in Belgium? 

Ligue 1 is miles ahead of both of these leagues. It also became a sort of farmer league for PL, they taylor made players for us, high percentage of players signed from there work out here. We can send players like Sarr or Paez as last step to RSC, if they work out there, they can be promoted to Chelsea. But from Belgian league? I don't think so.

It's very wise we chose to invest there.

[Vesper 31,110]

On 15/09/2025 at 16:34, OhForAGreavsie said:

I don't believe that our record with marquee signings is anything to write home about. Buying names is no substitute for good judgement. Sign good players and no one will care what their name is. Sign a bad player with a big name and no one will forgive the club in a hurry.

There are not ALL that many actually 'marquee' AND remotely available players in postions we need

 

GK  

Diogo Costa
Gregor Kobel  (not really suited to our style of play)

plus 3 older (33, 34yo next summer) ones:

Jan Oblak 
Emiliano Martinez  
Alisson  

 

LCB

Alessandro Bastoni 
Murillo 
Alessandro Buongiorno   

 

RCB (no clear perfect 'big name' targets)

Leny Yoro (probably not possible next summer, maybe never)
Bremer (but will be 29yo in March) 
Giorgio Scalvini  only IF fully recovered
Ronald Araujo  only IF he gets back to WC level, which is a big if

 

DMF

Bruno Guimarães (but turns 29yo in fall 2026)
Aurélien Tchouaméni  (probably not available)
Aleksandar Pavlovic (crazy hard pull)
Adam Wharton  
Carlos Baleba (insanely expensive)
Ruben Neves (wild card, crazy good passer and a less costly fee, a real vet and leader, I love him, but he turns 29yo in March)

 

CMF

Nicolò Barella  (but turns 30yo in march 2027)
Gavi  
Eduardo Camavinga  
Sandro Tonali 
Warren Zaïre-Emery
Frenkie de Jong  (turns 30yo at the end of next season (26/27) though)

 

AMF

Jamal Musiala  (IF recovered, and also he would cost well over £100m IF Bayern would even sell and IF he would even want to come here)
Morgan Rogers  
Fermin Lopez  (do not think he leaves Barca next summer either)
Nico Paz  (Real Mardid will exercise their buy-back though, so very unlikely)

 

Winger

Kenan Yildiz 
Rodrygo
Bradley Barcola
Rafael Leão (hard pass)
Malick Fofana  

 

CF (all 3 are likely not available, plus almost all top CFs are now locked in at new or old clubs, the 3 listed are the only ones even potentially not situated like that)

Julian Alvarez 
Lautaro Martinez  
Victor Osimhen 

 

so

 

as you can see

there are only five main targets for me that would be 'marquee' signings IMHO:

Diogo Costa (and probably not needed IF Penders is soon ready)

Bastoni (my dream CB signing for years)

Adam Wharton 

Morgan Rogers

Kenan Yıldız

 

wild card signing of a non GK vet; Ruben Neves

[Vesper 31,110]

4 hours ago, Special Juan said:

Keep saying it, in a summer when Donnarumma was easily attainable we missed a massive massive opportunity 

On 2 September 2025, Premier League club Manchester City announced the signing of Donnarumma on a five-year deal, with an option for a further year, for a reported transfer fee of £26 million.

His salary is reportedly

£13m this season

£14m in the 2nd and 3rd year

and £15m in the 4th and 5th years  (and probably £15m the 6th year, the option year, as well)

that is £71m just in salary for 5 years, and probably £86m if they exercise the option

PLUS he can earn salary bonus of around £2.5m per season based off performance (personal and club)

that kicks it up to around a potential £101m in toto just in salary/bonuses for the full 6 years

add in the £26m tranfer fee

£127m total potential outlay for 6 years

and his agent perhaps got some pay-off as well (I admit I do not know that, nor do I know IF he himself got a signing bonus)

 

I simply cannot see our owners committing to that level of spend for a GKer, not with so many already on our books and Penders hopefully coming into our Sr team soon

 

 

[Reddish-Blue 2,676]

10 hours ago, Special Juan said:

Keep saying it, in a summer when Donnarumma was easily attainable we missed a massive massive opportunity 

If we did sign a keeper, we'd still be stuck with Sanchez and Jorgensen on the books with even lower re-sale value. 

The Maignan deal made sense as he was old enough to play a few seasons and if Penders is as good as they say, he would be ready to fight for that #1 spot in 2 years time. 

[bigbluewillie 1,979]

The agent of Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson says the 24-year-old will never return to Chelsea following his loan move to Bayern Munich. (Canal+ via Transfermarkt - in German), external

 

[Bluepower777 57]

Would they have ever found out considering it was done a while back under the previous owners and previous administration.?

[YorkshireBlue 3,345]

7 hours ago, Bluepower777 said:

Would they have ever found out considering it was done a while back under the previous owners and previous administration.?

Do you take that chance after putting 3 billion on the table? 

[Strike 7,792]

On 16/09/2025 at 00:24, Reddish-Blue said:

If we did sign a keeper, we'd still be stuck with Sanchez and Jorgensen on the books with even lower re-sale value. 

The Maignan deal made sense as he was old enough to play a few seasons and if Penders is as good as they say, he would be ready to fight for that #1 spot in 2 years time. 

Not sure how true this is given it was documented Graham Potter and GK coach Ben Roberts at West Ham were very interested in Sanchez before they spent on Hermansen 

[Vesper 31,110]

https://football-observatory.com/WeeklyPost513

 

Issue number 513 of the CIES Football Observatory's Weekly Post presents the 100 clubs worldwide having committed the most money in transfer fees (including add-ons regardless of actual payment) to recruit their current first team squad players. Chelsea tops the list with a total investment of €1,314 million, of which €134 million for the most expensive signing (Moisés Caicedo, 10%).

Manchester City (€1,128 million) and Manchester United (€1,071m) round up the podium, followed by two other English clubs: Liverpool (€1,065m) and Arsenal (€1,001m). No club outside England has invested more than one billion to assemble its squad, with a maximum of €873 million for Champions League title holders Paris St-Germain (7th, just ahead of Real Madrid). Al-Hilal tops the rankings for non-European clubs (€451m, 19th).

Compared to the same date last year, the amounts committed by the ten clubs having invested the most in transfer fees to build their current first team squads increased by 15% (from 8.44 to 9.67 billion) and those of the top 100 by 12% (from 26.23 to 29.42 billion). This evolution is directly linked to the record transfer spending registered in 2025, as illustrated in this video.

Transfer fees committed to assemble the squad (€ million)

Top 100 worldwide. Squads as on 15/09/2025. Including any add-ons (regardless of actual payment) and paying loans.

[OneMoSalah 9,104]

On 15/09/2025 at 19:19, Special Juan said:

Keep saying it, in a summer when Donnarumma was easily attainable we missed a massive massive opportunity 

Exactly. But hey he would’ve been on big wages yadayadayada and the BlueCo boffins would be afraid to break their wage structure. Or would rather dedicate the funds to sign 14 16-20 year olds that could easily be the next Buffon, Nesta & Madlini or on the other side of the coin, Paddy Kenny, Titus Bramble & Phil Bardsley. That will probably get loaned and sold anyway for profit. Despite not wanting to be anything like the past ownership but isn’t stock pilling every good under 21 player not something we did before? With Roman? And sending players to Vitesse/loan army? 

On 16/09/2025 at 05:24, Reddish-Blue said:

If we did sign a keeper, we'd still be stuck with Sanchez and Jorgensen on the books with even lower re-sale value. 

The Maignan deal made sense as he was old enough to play a few seasons and if Penders is as good as they say, he would be ready to fight for that #1 spot in 2 years time. 

Yes but outside of the club, do the fans care about re-sale value? No.

I hate seeing people mention it as if it means something significant. Same with net spend - there isn’t any trophies for spreadsheet side of football. Ok the club is a business but no point having a net spend of £50m if all you’ve got to show for it is a place in the Conference League or whatever. And even then, we’ve been nailed with fines and fuck knows what else under BlueCo’s ownership to do with finances/transfers so again wouldn’t be getting a hard on about finances 😂 

If we can improve upon a player significantly, why not show ambition and do it? Hence why I was so for the Maignan deal for the €22m or whatever it was these jokers wouldn’t stump up…. Donnarumma would’ve been an even better signing too. Missed opportunities for sure.

I said Jorgensen wouldn’t be good enough before we closed the deal, the fact Sanchez kept him out the team for most of last season says everything.

 

Edited September 18, 2025 by OneMoSalah

[Bluepower777 57]

Werent the fines mainly due to the previous administration or are they both to blame.

[Vesper 31,110]

1 hour ago, Bluepower777 said:

Werent the fines mainly due to the previous administration or are they both to blame.

Roman only (if we are talking about the 74 charges)

[OneMoSalah 9,104]

10 hours ago, Bluepower777 said:

Werent the fines mainly due to the previous administration or are they both to blame.

The agent charges from FA are under Roman.

We were fined by UEFA under BlueCo for some things, hotel sale and then something to do with squad ratio cannot remember the exact details. And if we don’t follow the guidelines over the next 4 years, it could go from £30m to £90m if I remember rightly.

Aston Villa were also fined around the same time.

Edited September 19, 2025 by OneMoSalah

[OhForAGreavsie 6,127]

On 17/09/2025 at 05:36, Bluepower777 said:

Would they have ever found out considering it was done a while back under the previous owners and previous administration.?

This is an important consideration. Not only was it possible to hide these payments from authorities at the time, they were not even discovered when the club came under heightened scrutiny because Russian owned assets were sanctioned. It's clear therefore that such payments can be hidden relatively easily.

This means there is no way to be sure that other clubs have not engaged in the same activity. Indeed, given the competitive nature of the football industry and the insatiable greed of agents, I'm guessing that many, many, clubs are guilty too. If authorities can't find these payments, but are determined to stop them, it would be counterproductive to impose heavy sporting penalties. Doing that would only make clubs all the more determined to keep their mouths shut about their own regulatory breaches.

There must be penalties but I'm guessing that these are much more likely to be financial than they are to be sporting.

[NikkiCFC 8,516]

 

Edited September 19, 2025 by NikkiCFC

[Vesper 31,110]

7 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

 

love this!!!!!!!

[Vesper 31,110]

 Mohamed Kader Meïté

perhaps the next Osimhen or better

https://scoutedftbl.com/mohamed-kader-meite-breaks-the-internet/

 

Jake Entwistle, SCOUTED’s striker expert, branded Mohamed Kader Meïté “the most exciting centre-forward prospect in Europe.” He is, Jake says, a leading example of modern football’s new favourite meta.

That meta is particularly profound in French football. Born in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, Meïté developed through a number of local junior teams before moving to Stade Rennais at the age of 15, the earliest at which players can move from their immediate locality to pursue opportunities elsewhere. The greater Paris region is an incredible producer of talent; almost every club the length and breadth of France profit from the capital’s exports.

Meïté has developed rapidly at Rennes. Scoring regularly for the U-19 and B teams, he led the former to a prestigious Coupe Gambardella triumph this year, as captain and top scorer, while featuring in first-team squads since making his senior debut in January.

His most notable moment in Britanny came this past weekend, when he carried a comeback against Olympique Lyonnais. He scored one, forced another, all as a second-half substitute in the primetime Sunday night slot. The cameo performance has gone viral on social media, and the intricacies of it underline why Jake is so excited about him. Let’s break it down, play by play.

snip

[Fernando 6,725]

15 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

 

That sounds funny. Going to have watch his full presser now. 

 

[MoroccanBlue 5,399]

 

On 19/09/2025 at 01:14, OhForAGreavsie said:

This is an important consideration. Not only was it possible to hide these payments from authorities at the time, they were not even discovered when the club came under heightened scrutiny because Russian owned assets were sanctioned. It's clear therefore that such payments can be hidden relatively easily.

This means there is no way to be sure that other clubs have not engaged in the same activity. Indeed, given the competitive nature of the football industry and the insatiable greed of agents, I'm guessing that many, many, clubs are guilty too. If authorities can't find these payments, but are determined to stop them, it would be counterproductive to impose heavy sporting penalties. Doing that would only make clubs all the more determined to keep their mouths shut about their own regulatory breaches.

There must be penalties but I'm guessing that these are much more likely to be financial than they are to be sporting.

Brighton did the same thing. Self reported on misrepresented agent fees for a 3 year period. 
They received a small fine. I’d assume we’d just get a larger fine.