Chelsea Thread - 2023/24

[ASHCFC]

Are you linked to a keeper? As you and the Rags are desperate for one.

We've been linked to quite a few. I must say I don't know what our intentions really are.

I like Onana, but as with any of our top targets, they have other options who have Champions League football.

 

[ws01]

Absolute shambles this lot are. They're gonna have to spend more money bringing players in given the number they're seeing out the door. I can't imagine squad cohension is going to be very smooth given all their movements

 

[Vialli98]

Why are people getting on @Vialli98 case?
He's a good poster, better than the gooners we have swarming the place!

Thanks as always mate. I try my best to discuss and argue in good faith. I've been here for years now so clearly I enjoy chatting with the locals here, but I guess you can't avoid some people thinking I'm an idiot :)

 

[Vialli98]

How's it looking squad wise now.

Still a bit all over the place. We need to sign midfielders because in the last 6 months we've sold Jorginho, Kovacic, Mount, Loftus-Cheek and also let Kante leave on a free. Caicedo and someone else like Lavia or Kone would be brilliant.

Pulisic is on the verge of a move to either Milan or Lyon. Both have presented bids for him. With Ziyech also potentially out of the door, if he can sort his medical out, then I suspect we need another forward;

At the moment the squad is looking like this;

GK - Kepa

Defenders - James, Gusto (RB). Badiashile, Colwill, Fofana, Silva, Chalobah (CB). Chilwell, Cucurella (LB).

Midfielders - Enzo, Gallagher - plus youngsters like Chukwuemeka, Hall.

Forwards - Madueke (RW). Sterling, Mudryk (LW). Nkunku (AM). Jackson (ST).

As you can see we likely need to add at least 2 midfielders and some kind of attacker. Madueke being the only right sided attacker seems kinda light to me.

And of course we need a new keeper because Kepa cannot be the starting keeper next season. He just cannot.

We have been linked with players in all the positions of need, which is at least something.

Keeper - Diogo Costa
Midfield - Caicedo, Lavia and Veiga.
Forwards - Vlahovic, Kudus.

There's also rumours that we'll cut our losses on Cucurella to accommodate Maatsen, which I would be in huge favour of.

 

[Semper aggressus]

Seems like Cucurella is a huge (and expensive) bullet dodged!

Question for @Vialli98 or any other Chelsea fans; how good is Kovacic, what can we expect?

 

[Vialli98]

The Saudis are just moving from a football backwater to become a competitive country. Maybe they just spotted an opportunity which was Chelsea’s need for a fire sale. Paying over the odds is simply their way of ensuring the players and clubs say yes. The money is small change for them. Was our buying up of Arsenal’s players part of some plot?
PIF link is so tenuous as to be nugatory.

They're not even paying over the odds in terms of transfer fees to Chelsea - we signed Koulibaly for 30m a year ago, sold him for 20m, we signed Ziyech for 32m, he was close to leaving for 8m and Mendy we signed around 22m and he left for, I think, 15-18m. So we're taking losses on each of them. Where they are paying over the odds is the wages these players are being given.

 

[ASHCFC]

Seems like Cucurella is a huge (and expensive) bullet dodged!

Question for @Vialli98 or any other Chelsea fans; how good is Kovacic, what can we expect?

Imo Kova is superb as a ball winning (and ball retaining) midfielder who can carry the ball with strength - difficult to knock off the ball.

I'm not surprised Pep took him. Of all the players we've let go Kova is the one I'm saddest about.

 

[Vialli98]

Seems like Cucurella is a huge (and expensive) bullet dodged!

Question for @Vialli98 or any other Chelsea fans; how good is Kovacic, what can we expect?

I would say Kovacic's best feature is his dribbling. He's incredibly press resistant. Loves coming deep to collect passes from the keeper or defenders then twist and turn his marker. He is the most impactful in that deep bottom third and middle third areas of the pitch. He can do one-twos, pass and move all day long, so he'll fit into City's build up play seamlessly.

He's not that good in the final third, though he is not terrible. He does have an eye for a pass sometimes, and he has the necessary skill to pull off difficult through balls or pin point balls over the top. He just doesn't attempt many of these. He also isn't much of a goal threat, so don't expect him to fill Gundogan's shoes on that front.

I'd say the season just gone was by far his worst season for us, and I'm not gonna lie, I was very disappointed with his effort levels for most of the season. I felt like he had chucked it in and given up on the season, which was doubly frustrating to see when he was meant to be one of the leaders in the squad and he was actually captain in quite a lot of games after we sold Jorginho.

But new team, new challenge, new coach, new scenery. I'm sure he'll find his motivation again.

 

[Pontypool Blue]

Never forget this club were part of the Hateful 8 and they have circumnavigated FFP to an extent that’s way more excessive than the charges we’ve been accused of.

£1.6 billion written off loan (fact) that was used to support cash flow and therefore must have been released in the P&L to balance FFP VS £30 million received from "shadowy brown Arab figure" (Allegedly)
The ratio of your actual financial manipulation VS what we are currently being accused of is 53 to 1 and if was reported in a similar vein to ours would read:
Chelsea guilty of 6095 charges of financial cheating going back 15 years!

 

[hammocity]

£1.6 billion written off loan (fact) that was used to support cash flow and therefore must have been released in the P&L to balance FFP VS £30 million received from "shadowy brown Arab figure" (Allegedly)
The ratio of your actual financial manipulation VS what we are currently being accused of is 53 to 1 and if was reported in a similar vein to ours would read:
Chelsea guilty of 6095 charges of financial cheating going back 15 years!

Yes, exactly as I see it that 1.6b went towards transfers/wages/operating costs whichever way it’s looked at.