The Pre-Season Thread

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

Game against Ryan Reynolds team Vrexham added. July 19th North Carolina. 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

Poch starts work in 5 days. Training with players in a week. It is important to get our targets before trip to USA so players can have time together on the pitch. 2 weeks in Cobham will be fitness and they will have that in their current teams anyway so ideally we have 3 weeks to bring players and trim the squad.

[Mhsc 876]

Really looking forward to preseason tbh. Want to see some Pochball and how the side might look going into the season.

[Special Juan 27,424]

The likes of Mudryk have got to hit the ground running- if he starts the season, or even pre-season missing chances and the ball pinging around his feet the demise will be quick and he will disappear into his shell.

 

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

8 hours ago, Special Juan said:

The likes of Mudryk have got to hit the ground running- if he starts the season, or even pre-season missing chances and the ball pinging around his feet the demise will be quick and he will disappear into his shell.

 

I honestly think he’s gonna struggle. He was a decent enough up and coming player but his price tag is absolutely ridiculous. He was maybe a £35m signing at most. I don’t think we will ever see a return on the £80m or so his fee wis amount to, I really don’t. Looks like he is lost when he puts on a Chelsea top.

[Mário César 975]

4 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

I honestly think he’s gonna struggle. He was a decent enough up and coming player but his price tag is absolutely ridiculous. He was maybe a £35m signing at most. I don’t think we will ever see a return on the £80m or so his fee wis amount to, I really don’t. Looks like he is lost when he puts on a Chelsea top.

most of the January hirings were a disgrace.

not only what was bought, but what was spent

i only liked enzo and badiashile.

we spent more than 100 million on mudryk and madueke 

where we could have spent that money...

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

30 minutes ago, Mário César said:

most of the January hirings were a disgrace.

not only what was bought, but what was spent

i only liked enzo and badiashile.

we spent more than 100 million on mudryk and madueke 

where we could have spent that money...

Honestly between him and Mudryk, they are at similar stages of their development. One cost £80m one cost £25-30m so price wise its unfair to throw Nori in with Mudryk. Plus he is a lefty coming in off the right whilst Mudryks a righty coming in off the left and we had heaps of them. And even then, if we were crying out for young wingers why didn’t we just keep CHO at beginning of the season though?

For instance was CHO really any worse than what Mudryk’s looked? Wouldn’t say so. Madueke is a different profile though, left footer coming in off the right, finding these players at good value is always tough.

Edited June 27, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[Mário César 975]

11 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Honestly between him and Mudryk, they are at similar stages of their development. One cost £80m one cost £25-30m so price wise its unfair to throw Nori in with Mudryk. Plus he is a lefty coming in off the right whilst Mudryks a righty coming in off the left and we had heaps of them. And even then, if we were crying out for young wingers why didn’t we just keep CHO at beginning of the season though?

For instance was CHO really any worse than what Mudryk’s looked? Wouldn’t say so. Madueke is a different profile though, left footer coming in off the right, finding these players at good value is always tough.

I like some things that I see from Mudryk but he is too young and need a lot of time to develop and no way we could spend so much money on him 

if he arrived for 30M pounds thats ok...

I think the fact that Arsenal was purchased him overvalue him tbh and we were dumb to spend so much on him

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

1 hour ago, Mário César said:

I like some things that I see from Mudryk but he is too young and need a lot of time to develop and no way we could spend so much money on him 

if he arrived for 30M pounds thats ok...

I think the fact that Arsenal was purchased him overvalue him tbh and we were dumb to spend so much on him

I think theres no doubt Mudryk’s got good physical attributes - pace, acceleration, ability to change direction quickly etc but a lot of the clips of him playing well for Shakhtar in the CL group, people forget they played more as a counter attacking side.

He’s not necessarily that young either, he’s already 22 and has made 82 appearances at club level.

Not sure how many are starts or that but some of the others we signed of a similar age bracket over the years:

- Badiashile 22, over 150 games.

- Enzo 22, over 130 games.

- Kai when he signed, 21 IIRC, 150 games.

Maybe a lack of football exposure has an effect on him? Maybe after another 50-60 games he might start to come good and iron out a few more flaws? Who knows but I think technically he looks pretty raw sometimes, even the likes of dribbling wise he runs into players far too often. As did Timo who was a lot older and look how that went. Mudryk’s finishing is also very tame, the amount of good positions he was in, probably could have had at least 5 goals. He’s a very expensive project.

Edited June 27, 2023 by OneMoSalah

[KEVINAA 92]

Here is the preseason premier league 20 clubs fixtures by the PL website.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/3119764

Chelsea fixtures

19 July v Wrexham (North Carolina)

2 August v Dortmund (Chicago)

 

PL Summer Series

22 July v Brighton (Lincoln Financial Field)

26 July v Newcastle (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)

30 July v Fulham (FedEx Field)

Edited June 29, 2023 by KEVINAA

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

Bought our tickets today. Double header. I have to drive 4 hours after the game and work the next day. 
 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

Some of our best in early for preseason

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

1 hour ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Some of our best in early for preseason

 

Basically players that were not with national teams in June are here. Others have more days or weeks of vacation.

Except Casadei. He played U20 WC final 3 weeks ago but is here. Probably wants to impress Poch.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

4 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Basically players that were not with national teams in June are here. Others have more days or weeks of vacation.

Except Casadei. He played U20 WC final 3 weeks ago but is here. Probably wants to impress Poch.

Santos and Maatsen could have stayed out longer, but wanted to be there early to impress. Santos played his last full game just 10 days ago. Reece and Broja could have taken longer with rehab, I am sure they will ease them back into full training. It is good to see these guys wanting to be there day one.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[Blue Armour 4,278]

1 hour ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

Still wish he had a chance to work with some of our players before they left.

But I guess that was never going to happen with most of them wanting out so badly.

Shame he has to see the likes of Lukaku & Ziyech instead.

Hopefully Jackson & Nkunku being among the early arrivals means that they get some good training in under Poch before the preseason game. 

[Vesper 28,779]

10 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Still wish he had a chance to work with some of our players before they left.

which ones?

I am not stressing over any that have left