Chelsea 2018/19 - 3rd and European Champions. Sarri, not sorry

[Kentonio]

I think Chelsea's biggest problem is going to be a striker... hazard might well be off... giroud looks likely to go... higuain has been underwhelming (and I'm not even sure with the transfer ban if they could make it a perm deal anyway)
That will leave (subject to the transfer ban being enforced this summer) morata being recalled when it seems he does not even want to be there (and again was underwhelming in his previous spell and presumably abraham and batshuayi recalled as well.

I think Willian pedro pulisic and CHO is a pretty decent set of creative attackers but they will need somebody central to bag the goals they will need

Indeed. Giroud would probably stay in that situation because he’d be first choice, which seems to be the reason he’s unhappy. But a 32/33 year old Giroud is not exactly going to solve any of those scoring problems.

Doubt Morata would agree to return. Maybe Bats could do a job, but I’d hate to have to rely on him. We’re kind of fecked if we don’t get the ban overturned or at least delayed.

Also I’m really tired of our endless striker crisis, not sure why Chelsea always have this issue.

 

[P-Ro]

Leaked new home kit for 2019/20. Personally, I think it looks modern and elegant in a weird way. I like it and I think many will warm to it.

LOL its the shittest jersey I've ever fecking laid my eyes on. Jesus wept. Christ!

 

[P-Ro]

It gets better. Our new away shirt doubles up as a year 6 P.E top.

 

[Pexbo]

Leaked new home kit for 2019/20. Personally, I think it looks modern and elegant in a weird way. I like it and I think many will warm to it.

LOL its the shittest jersey I've ever fecking laid my eyes on. Jesus wept. Christ!

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Chelsea in the Youth League Final again. I thought this was a poorer group of players for them too. Play Porto in the final.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

Chelsea in the Youth League Final again. I thought this was a poorer group of players for them too. Play Porto in the final.

our academy is incredible. Seriously

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

our academy is incredible. Seriously

It's so impressive how they all make the transition to your first team.

Oh wait.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

It's so impressive how they all make the transition to your first team.

Oh wait.

I would reply to that, and yes you are correct, but i just noticed in previous chats with you, as a grown adult, you called us 'chavski'.

That is enough right there for me to know you are most likely a troll or wind up merchant

 

[charlenefan]

our academy is incredible. Seriously

How many of these players have gone on to do anything though? And I don't mean at Chelsea, anywhere in the PL? I mean Loftus-Cheek, Ake and CHO are the only ones I know of and they're all very recent examples and yet Chelsea have been winning things at youth level for the best part of a decade now

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

I would reply to that, and yes you are correct, but i just noticed in previous chats with you, as a grown adult, you called us 'chavski'.

That is enough right there for me to know you are most likely a troll or wind up merchant

Isn't this basically the same thing?

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Think Charlie Brown now is the top scorer in a single season since it began with 12 goals, tied with Solanke in 2015. Unlike Solanke he’s never been capped at any level by England. The one caveat is that he’s 19 so at the older end for this tournament.

Weirdly the final is on Monday.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

How many of these players have gone on to do anything though? And I don't mean at Chelsea, anywhere in the PL? I mean Loftus-Cheek, Ake and CHO are the only ones I know of and they're all very recent examples and yet Chelsea have been winning things at youth level for the best part of a decade now

Declan Rice
Ola Aina is having a good season in Serie A this year.
Borini has a good career.
Van Aanholt
Jack Cork
Gudmundssen
Christensen

I’d say from their successful youth league winning sides

Tomori
Reece James
Trevor Chalobah
Tammy Abraham
Mount

Will be Premier League players within the next 1-3 years and a fair few more.

 

[charlenefan]

Declan Rice
Ola Aina is having a good season in Serie A this year.
Borini has a good career.
Van Aanholt
Jack Cork
Gudmundssen
Christensen

I’d say from their successful youth league winning sides

Tomori
Reece James
Trevor Chalobah
Tammy Abraham
Mount

Will be Premier League players within the next 1-3 years and a fair few more.

Rice? As in the West Ham one?

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Rice? As in the West Ham one?

Yeah, he was with them from the age of 7-14.

 

[charlenefan]

Yeah, he was with them from the age of 7-14.

Did not know that but I would assume given the age he left them then he wasn't ever part of these Youth Cup winning sides they've had down the years?

 

[P-Ro]

I would reply to that, and yes you are correct, but i just noticed in previous chats with you, as a grown adult, you called us 'chavski'.

That is enough right there for me to know you are most likely a troll or wind up merchant

He's obsessed with Chelsea and not worth responding to. He's a 2 bob @GlastonSpur without the considerable knowledge or wumming ability.

 

[SquishyMcSquish]

He's obsessed with Chelsea and not worth responding to. He's a 2 bob @GlastonSpur without the considerable knowledge or wumming ability.

Excellent job when Chelsea fans are rustled.

 

[duffer]

It gets better. Our new away shirt doubles up as a year 6 P.E top.

I like the away kit. Always been a fan of collared shirts and white is nice.

Home kit is awful though.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Did not know that but I would assume given the age he left them then he wasn't ever part of these Youth Cup winning sides they've had down the years?

Sorry I thought you meant from the academy in general.

They first won it in 14/15

Their 16 in the final had

Christensen
Solanke
Abraham
Aina
Brown
Loftus Cheek

In it and all have played in the PL or in Aina’s case in Serie A for the 7th placed team.

The 16 also had Tomori who won Derby’s player of the year this season, I’m certain he’ll play in the PL, probably next season. And the likes of Da Silva and Clarke-salter who might make the level too.

I’m sure in the next 1-5 years we’ll see many more players from those teams in the PL.

 

[Bobski]

Actually fascinated to see how Hazard does when he leaves Chelsea. Some bad habits in his game, how often he plays at walking speed, lack of runs in behind. He is going to have to adapt his game when in a team with more attacking options, play more off ball, and it might be the thing to push him on even higher.

 

[FootballHQ]

Higuain still only scored v Burnley, Huddersfield and Fulham in the league I think.

Giroud must be wondering what is going on so you could well lose him aswell as I doubt he'll want to warm the bench for another season.

 

[SCP]

Higuain still only scored v Burnley, Huddersfield and Fulham in the league I think.

Giroud must be wondering what is going on so you could well lose him aswell as I doubt he'll want to warm the bench for another season.

And why are you always obsessed with Higuain or strikers? I mean it’s their problem, or are you going to count every week the number of teams he scored against?

 

[FootballHQ]

And why are you always obsessed with Higuain or strikers? I mean it’s their problem, or are you going to count every week the number of teams he scored against?

Pardon?

I just expected him to score 10 + goals and make an impact in some of their games v top 6, he's been very much on the peripheral in these games despite having Hazard close to him.

 

[Raw]

Speaks volumes about the other teams when this Chelsea team finishes 4th.

 

[duffer]

Higuain still only scored v Burnley, Huddersfield and Fulham in the league I think.

Giroud must be wondering what is going on so you could well lose him aswell as I doubt he'll want to warm the bench for another season.

Higuain won't be at Chelsea next season. His loan deal runs out and even if we wanted to extend it, we are banned.

Our options are Batshuayi, Abraham & Giroud. So I would think Giroud will be the main man.

Morata is at Atletico until the end of next season.

 

[duffer]

Speaks volumes about the other teams when this Chelsea team finishes 4th.

We'll finish 3rd.

 

[SCP]

Pardon?

I just expected him to score 10 + goals and make an impact in some of their games v top 6, he's been very much on the peripheral in these games despite having Hazard close to him.

But do you know if he is going to stay? I don’t, most probably not, but trying to explain everything based on your goals expectations for a striker is easy to say but their problems during the season were far bigger than that, only my opinion.

 

[Mb194dc]

Hard to believe we're in top 4 with 2 games left.

Very odd end to the season, Utd and Arsenal both only winning one of the last 5, both previously were on winning runs and playing very well, then just collapsed.

We have a year option we can use in Giroud's contract and Sarri has already said he wants it activated. My view is the transfer ban will hold so we can't sign Higuain or Kovacic. There is a reasonable chance we will change owner and then maybe manager too over the summer I think.

 

[Dancfc]

Higuain won't be at Chelsea next season. His loan deal runs out and even if we wanted to extend it, we are banned.

Our options are Batshuayi, Abraham & Giroud. So I would think Giroud will be the main man.

Morata is at Atletico until the end of next season.

We can extent the loan given it was pre arranged before the ban.

And as poor as he's been part of me hopes we do if banned purely because even himat his current state looks like prime Henry compared to Batshauyi.

 

[Synco]

Out of the three candidates for the offensive CM spot, Loftus-Cheek is the only one who has really convinced me in that role. Kovacic isn't effective enough & Barkley is a bit too slow and laborious, imo. RLC seems to be best equipped to play fast with precision and to impact the game offensively.

 

[FutbolFan]

Mount has a shout to get in next season. Reece may get in the squad too

 

[Mb194dc]

Agree, RLC has the AM spot nailed down now. Barkley has looked good in patches as well though. With the ban Kovacic will be off. We have so many options from all our loanees though, not a big problem for us.

Such a strange season we could finish third, just a few weeks ago we looked to be finishing 5th at best and Sarri was under huge pressure. We haven't even done anything special. Sarri must be head scratching as well.

 

[Spiersey]

What a weird season. Realistically it was impossible for us to finish top 2 with the points total that City and Pool have, even if we played incredible all season. 3rd was the best we were going to achieve (even if it seemed different in the first couple of months). Combined with (hopefully) a Europa League final and a League Cup final, it’s a pretty good season.

Definitely promising signs with sarri as well, we will kick on and improve next year. The players will learn the system better, similar to Pep’s struggles 1st season. Obviously we won’t be near as good as City especially with Hazard likely to leave but I don’t think he’ll be as sorely missed as many expect. Would like to see Mount start to be introduced next season, seeing Lamptey in a couple of cup games would be nice as well.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Think RLC is still on an improvement curve too with his lack of game time earlier in his career. Looking at his numbers this season, he should be aiming for 20 goals next season.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

I absolutely do not expect many youth to come into the team next year. Apart from maybe Hazard, and Kovacic, plus Cahill, the squad will stay mainly the same. If the ban does not get lifted via CAS (i think it will), we cannot afford to let much of the first team go. Sarri has a pool of players he chooses from and it stays that way. He rarely changes loads from match to match and his lineups have a lot of consistency about them. Which is not always a good thing

A lot of the loanees i can see going permanent. Because they literally are not good enough. I think Reece James could get a shot because Zappacosta has to go too IMO. Mount possibly aswell as James. Zouma and Batshuayi to return too i reckon.

Abraham i have a feeling will be sold.

Oh and if the ban gets lifted, we will go absolutely bonkers with spending

 

[Dancfc]

I absolutely do not expect many youth to come into the team next year. Apart from maybe Hazard, and Kovacic, plus Cahill, the squad will stay mainly the same. If the ban does not get lifted via CAS (i think it will), we cannot afford to let much of the first team go. Sarri has a pool of players he chooses from and it stays that way. He rarely changes loads from match to match and his lineups have a lot of consistency about them. Which is not always a good thing

A lot of the loanees i can see going permanent. Because they literally are not good enough. I think Reece James could get a shot because Zappacosta has to go too IMO. Mount possibly aswell as James. Zouma and Batshuayi to return too i reckon.

Abraham i have a feeling will be sold.

I feel he's rotated a lot better in the run in. Over Christmas he ran a lot of the squad into the ground but since the Europa has kicked off again I feel he has done very well with his rotation and only Jorginho and Azpi are being overplayed.

 

[ZolaWasMagic]

I feel he's rotated a lot better in the run in. Over Christmas he ran a lot of the squad into the ground but since the Europa has kicked off again I feel he has done very well with his rotation and only Jorginho and Azpi are being overplayed.

Yeh. But i think there's been many a time we could have turned some losses into wins if he had just gone 2 up top for 20mins, or put Kante in Jorginho's role and took the latter off. Or rested underperformers. Many games we could see the issue but his stubbornness wouldn't make the change. He wont change it up enough is maybe a better wording for it.

And those judgements where he has his main core of the side, is why i expect little change in the squad next year should we be banned

 

[Hoof the ball]

For all the criticism Sarri has received, here they are in 3rd place and in pole position to finish the season ahead of Spurs, Arsenal and ourselves.

 

[Orc]

I absolutely do not expect many youth to come into the team next year. Apart from maybe Hazard, and Kovacic, plus Cahill, the squad will stay mainly the same. If the ban does not get lifted via CAS (i think it will), we cannot afford to let much of the first team go. Sarri has a pool of players he chooses from and it stays that way. He rarely changes loads from match to match and his lineups have a lot of consistency about them. Which is not always a good thing

A lot of the loanees i can see going permanent. Because they literally are not good enough. I think Reece James could get a shot because Zappacosta has to go too IMO. Mount possibly aswell as James. Zouma and Batshuayi to return too i reckon.

Abraham i have a feeling will be sold.

Oh and if the ban gets lifted, we will go absolutely bonkers with spending

Reece James is probably the only of our youth/loanee's that have a good shot at a first team breakthrough next season. He's exactly what we're crying out for in that position.

No chance will Michy play a part. Sarri just doesn't fancy him. Don't think he's good enough for Chelsea either. Much as I love Zouma, I don't see a place for him unless Luiz leaves. Even then, I'm not sure replace Luiz with someone who isn't nearly his level on the ball is wise. Sarri likes ball playing CB's which Kurt is certainly not.

Whether or not we can delay the transfer ban will decide Sarri's fate. Next season will be hell if we're forced to use essentially the same squad minus our best player. Should we be able to sign players I think we'll be very dangerous.

 

[Dumbstar]

Does Sarri have good connections to be able to pick out players that no one else noticed? If there is no ban then Chelsea will be trying to muscle in on an already overcrowded top table. Real, Barça, PSG, Bayern, Utd and Juve are all looking to overhaul massively ageing squads. Chelsea will have enough money with the Hazard sale but players will be seriously overpriced.