FFP died a long time ago
Chelsea 2022/2023 | THIS IS LAST YEARS THREAD YOU NUMPTIES
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
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They still need a proper number 9 and another CM to be very competitive. It still won't be enough to topple City, but they could finish second next year.
We extended him …. Just last year…We did some odd isht, for sure.
This was a one window phenomenon. The structure of the sale reset our FFP slate to zero, which in a rolling 3 window would mean we would still have to consider the future. But this is the final year of the last 3 year period, and it starts over next year with the new yearly percentage of revenue format.
This was a longer and much more complicated article online to explain how Covid allowances played a role as well… but it essentially meant we could spend upwards of 500 m this window without running afoul.
It helped us buyout and terminate a lot of dead wood contracts in addition to the purchases.
But given we had all that to work with … we could have taken better advantage.
A long term 9, the CM and ….. a digital billboard of Haaland goal highlights in Madrid.
Alonso better than Cucu? You’re having a laugh. Perhaps technically better but his legs were long gone and he was no longer physically up to the demands we need. He lacks pace, he lacks consistency, regularly caught out of position, can only play LWB, wrong side of 30 and he didn’t want to be at the club.
A few goals a season does not make up for his actual role in the team. A back up should accept their place in the squad, provide decent cover when called upon and also push the first choice in his position to perform to the highest level. Also with so much experience he should be looked upon as a leader in the squad. He does not meet any of these things. Thanks for the service but also riddance riddance, to him and Emerson, absolute pinnacle of deadwood at his point.
I think he was only using -> as an arrow symbol so just noting who replaced who, not commenting on who's better.
Personally I'd give a grading of something like this:
- Koulibaly at least in the beginning is a slight downgrade on Rüdiger but depending on how he settles he could end up being about as good over the season.
- Fofana should be an upgrade over Christensen who I never really rated.
- Cucurella is an upgrade over Alonso whose legs are gone. The money spent on this switch was huge but also need to remember Cucu is not brought in just for this season but for long term while Alonso was getting old.
- Zakaria and Gallagher are upgrades over Saul in both quality and depth. Don't have very high hopes for Zakaria but Saul was so terrible it's not exactly going to be hard to do better than him.
- Sterling is an upgrade over Werner, at least the version of Werner we had who was clearly not suited to the team or the league. Early days but Raheem seems a good fit.
- Aubameyang and Broja are upgrades over last season's Lukaku because I have a very hard time believing Auba/Broja together won't match the Belgian's 8 league goals and 15 goals overall.
Not a perfect window but a solid 7/10 for me. Was always going to be a difficult window with so many players needing replacements. Ended up overpaying for some players (Fofana, Cucurella) and only getting stop-gap options for some positions (Auba, Zakaria) but the overall squad quality has improved a bit IMO. Normally I'd say a total outlay like we had should probably get a bigger overall upgrade but losing Rüdiger and Christensen on free transfers really fecked us and a lot of money had to be spent just to replace them.
Our start to the season has been terrible, partly because too many signings were left to be done so late in the window and having a bunch of injuries in midfield on top of that but hopefully now that the window is over we can just get on with the actual football and start building up some form. I'm still optimistic about a top4 place and some good cup runs but we've given Arsenal and Spurs a big head start in the league table so that's not ideal. At least United and Liverpool haven't exactly been firing on all cylinders either.
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Auba is terrible.
250 million in, 50 million out. Big, big window from the new owners.
Let's see how they all do!
Let's see how they all do!
Up there with Willian!
Aw shit. Seasons over already? feck!
Yeah, Arsenal champions
I just used arrow to indicate replacements. I leave it to users to adjudge who is better. But for me squad over all improved with pace and physicality and vastly improved back ups for multiple positions unlike last season except one player kante. He is irreplaceable though.
My concern would still be that forward area. Obviously Zakaria adds pace and power in midfield, Fofana likewise in defence as an option over Christensen, but I don't think that Auba and Sterling adds more pace and power than what Lukaku and Werner did, and I think in Auba, you have the exact same problem you had with Lukaku, in that the system you play doesn't really suit that type of striker.
I do realise though how important your full backs are though, so perhaps that will make the big difference this season. Exciting times anyway.
Who says we need more pace and power up front? Werner's problem was that he couldn't score. Lukaku's problem was he was stylistically a bad fit. Sterling may be a lot of things, but lack of goals isn't one of his problems and Auba is 10x more of a fit for us than Lukaku was.
one of Sterlings main criticisms is he isnt a clinical finisher.
I think it will be key for Chelsea that Koulibaly starts to deliver. So far he’s not looked like filling Rudiger’s shoes although he might just need time to adapt.
In terms of transfer business it’s been all over the place and going to deadline day making offers on multiple midfielders and forwards shows just how much of a struggle it’s been.
Ending up with Auba and Zakaria will help of course but it doesn’t scream long term vision or elite, especially if it’s correct in what @Bluelion7 says in that the FFP slate was wiped clean and the club could have taken advantage and spent double this window.
Having over £110m worth of LBs is a weird one too. Money could have been spent elsewhere earlier in the window to better balance the side.
In terms of transfer business it’s been all over the place and going to deadline day making offers on multiple midfielders and forwards shows just how much of a struggle it’s been.
Ending up with Auba and Zakaria will help of course but it doesn’t scream long term vision or elite, especially if it’s correct in what @Bluelion7 says in that the FFP slate was wiped clean and the club could have taken advantage and spent double this window.
Having over £110m worth of LBs is a weird one too. Money could have been spent elsewhere earlier in the window to better balance the side.
Where he this sudden overrating of Auba come from? If we’re judging these players from their short time away from England then Lukaku shits all over him and if we’re judging them by their recent time in England then Auba was atrocious. Genuinely terrible.
Is it just because you’re desperate that you’re trying to talk him up? I’d say any striker Chelsea signed yesterday would be lauded to the heavens regardless of who they were
Not being clinical isn't the same as struggling to score - the man scored over 20 goals a season 3 times for City, managed over 30 goals once. Already has 3 in 5 games for Chelsea.
He averages in the 44th percentile for XG - which is pretty poor for someone as good as him.
Proof will be in the pudding at the end of the season on whether he scored as many as he did because of sheer amount of chances created at City or not...
Cant deny he's started well though.
Interesting reading: https://theanalyst.com/eu/2022/07/r...d-of-new-chelsea/#Is His Finishing a Concern?
And what percentile was Werner? I would guess he was in the bottom 5% in the league, possible the entire Europe. That's who Sterling is replacing.
Thanks for the link - it brought up one of the points I was going to make, which is if Sterling scored 25 goals for Chelsea, then his middling xG standing isn't as jarring, which is why is not being clinical isn't the same as struggling to score.
Lukaku problem was genuinely physical he did okay until he got injured in Juve game. When he came back he is not physically fit. Get overweight and didn't put the effort to reduce it instead he gave away silly interviews. He didn't even move properly when he came back to team.
Aubameyang picked by tuchel so he knew something he could work with him to the way we play. We have complete window except may be right winger. I thought gordon will be our player at the end of this window. But overall we improved the team at least on paper. Now tuchel get his own personals to work with. Will see where we are before world cup starts.
Werner couldnt hit a barn door with a bus, which is a shame because his overall contribution to the game is good. Sterling is obviously a good replacement for him.
Take your point on difference of being a good goalscorer vs finisher, dont disagree - just think will be interesting to see if his volume of goals were padded by the sheer amount of chances City create.
I think Auba makes them less easy to defend against.
That's everyone though, isn't it? Haaland will score more goals this season because Man City are so good.
Any of their academy players getting a look in?
To say they have been so dominant at youth levels they don't have many representatives playing
To say they have been so dominant at youth levels they don't have many representatives playing
What? This can't be a serious question, surely?
Yeah that was definitely the main point a lot of people were making when he signed. Will be interesting to how he does without the City juggernaut feeding him chances. So far so good though.
Agreed on Werner.
Well anyway, it's just great to see Chelsea back to pre-Roman levels in the table.
What? Did you just wake up today thinking about random old school Chelsea digs?
yeah, of course it is... just more specifically Sterlings goal record is good, but his finishing isn't... my point was it will be interesting to see if Sterling can still maintain a decent record in a team that creates (generally) fewer chances
3 started the last game. None of the other supposed "big" sides started more.
I would imagine he'll score at a similar rate of chances/goals.
Who are those 3? From the line ups, RLC, Mount started last game and that's it in the starting 11. Broja came on as a sub.
For ManUtd - Rashford, Elanga, McTominay started.
For City - Foden started and 2 came on as a sub
For Arsenal - Saka started and 2 came on as a sub.
Koulibaly's start also hasn't been helped by the injury situation in midfield. The first two games we managed to start with Jorginho and Kante where we looked solid against Everton and at times even great against Spurs, but then Kante got injured and the midfield has been all over the place since.
It's true Koulibaly probably needs time to adapt to the new league and new team too, but any good defense also needs a solid midfield in front of them to even have a chance to play well. We'll see how it goes when Koulibaly gets a longer run of games in our team and the midfield situation hopefully becomes a little bit more stable as well with the return of Kovacic, Kante in there. Zakaria is a bit of a wild card who may or may not come good, time will tell.
I'm going mad, 2 plus 1 is right.
Still more starters than Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs.
Man United have been the benchmark for youth integration for decades and we're not miles off. Will be very interesting to see how/if Ten Hag carries that on.
Tbf Chelsea have done very well when it comes to young players. They have 2 solid starters and also few squad players. Also did very well to sell players to sign ready players for first team, something we lack big time.
Yeah, it's true last game only two started for us because James was out with some illness. Against Leicester five academy graduates started and then four each in Leeds and Tottenham games. Two against Everton.
So far in the first five games we're averaging 3.4 academy lads starting per game and some have also come off the bench in all but one game. I'd say it's a very decent number, at least compared to us in pre-2018 times.
I dunno, a couple of players over the last few years isn’t getting close to Utds history of youngsters.
We were a sex offender away from having a front 3 of nothing but academy graduates (may point to under investment in the forward area but that’s besides the point!)
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