No.
About 6 people on this website knows what FFP actually is and they certainly don't know how much Chelsea can spend.
Chelsea 2022/2023 | THIS IS LAST YEARS THREAD YOU NUMPTIES
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About 6 people on this website knows what FFP actually is and they certainly don't know how much Chelsea can spend.
If he does get sacked because Boehly and co ain’t happy, then this is all on them. What was the whole point of cleaning out Brighton and their staff just do ditch him a week or so after spending another £300m.
Of all these players Ziyech is but one the cheapest. He was the driving force behind Ajax' 18/19 season and he ripped apart Chelsea and Valencia in the CL in the next season before he moved to Chelsea. He never became the player for them as he was for Ajax. Was it the physicality of the EPL? Approximately 2 years after the transfer he joined Morocco for the 22 WC and was easily one of the best players of the tournament only to go back to Chelsea and not be a shadow of the WC player. Maybe, just maybe the problem isn't the players so much as it is the club? Just spit balling here.
Honestly I think it’s just him. His mentality is atrocious and he sulks at every little thing. He probably never even wanted to come to Chelsea or came to the realization afterwards that he regretted it. Hence why he is better for Morocco. You don’t just give tumescent performance week after week and then suddenly get good again at the WC.. unless he was actively seeking interest.
So how good is this Madueke supposed to be?
I think they'll have more chance of coming good if they start to act sensibly and just buy 2 or 3 in the summer, than if they panic at the poor performances and think the best thing is to add another 6 or 7. They also need a good strip back of players. An overly bloated squad is just as counter productive as having too thin a squad, because there's discontentment at not playing that feeds into a dressing room.
Football isn't like Baseball, where individual talent goes much further than team talent. The team needs to be allowed to settle together, to get to know each other and implement systems and a way of playing. The talent is mostly there now bar 1 or 2 positions, it needs time to develop and grow now though.
Football isn't like Baseball, where individual talent goes much further than team talent. The team needs to be allowed to settle together, to get to know each other and implement systems and a way of playing. The talent is mostly there now bar 1 or 2 positions, it needs time to develop and grow now though.
Koulibaly has been trash, there’s no denying that. We can all see it. Cucurella has had some very bad games that stick out in my memory but he’s actually has some very good games too in fairness to him. So very mixed bag with him. Sterling was great early in the season but underwhelming for most of the season.
If you absolutely must have a rating then you’ll have it
Koulibaly 2
Cucurella 4
Sterling 4.5
Pretty weird negotiating tactics to rush out and spend loadsamoney anyway, before even submitting the request, let alone giving enough notice in advance to get a decision in good time
Oh I could have told you that beforehand. He is an emotional guy that ony thrives if he feels support. He could get moody with the Ajax crowd as well but in the right environment he turns to beast mode.
Potter's line up made no sense.
1) Ziyech has been shite for a very long time for Chelsea and his move just fell through, why was he put straight in the team?
2) What is Cucurella doing in the team? He looks like another write off waiting to happen, i.e. by the summer.
3) Gallagher looked quality for Crystal Palace, now back looking like a Championship player. Shouldn't be starting games.
4) £600m of signings and you still have Mason cnuting Mount in midfield.
5) Havertz is not a striker and shouldn't be playing as a striker. If he wants to play as a striker he can move to League One and play against shite.
1) Ziyech has been shite for a very long time for Chelsea and his move just fell through, why was he put straight in the team?
2) What is Cucurella doing in the team? He looks like another write off waiting to happen, i.e. by the summer.
3) Gallagher looked quality for Crystal Palace, now back looking like a Championship player. Shouldn't be starting games.
4) £600m of signings and you still have Mason cnuting Mount in midfield.
5) Havertz is not a striker and shouldn't be playing as a striker. If he wants to play as a striker he can move to League One and play against shite.
I’ve never been a big fan of Sterling. Even in his purple patches for England and in his prime for Man City.Koulibaly has been trash, there’s no denying that. We can all see it. Cucurella has had some very bad games that stick out in my memory but he’s actually has some very good games too in fairness to him. So very mixed bag with him. Sterling was great early in the season but underwhelming for most of the season.
If you absolutely must have a rating then you’ll have it
Koulibaly 2
Cucurella 4
Sterling 4.5
He seems one of those players which looked better than they were by Pep’s football and system. He just seems so lightweight and poor when striking the ball.
After seeing him in the World Cup, I believe it’s him.
He was running like a man possessed for Monaco. Up and down like a relentless machine. Helping in defence and attack. Never seen him play like that once for Chelsea. It shows he has it but just doesn’t want to.
All of these have pretty simple answers, to be fair:
1) Ziyech has been shite for a very long time for Chelsea and his move just fell through, why was he put straight in the team? It is the first game after most of their signings; not massively surprising that they weren't all thrown on at once.
2) What is Cucurella doing in the team? He looks like another write off waiting to happen, i.e. by the summer. Chillwell was injured; I think that youth player who he promoted is injured also. No choice here.
3) Gallagher looked quality for Crystal Palace, now back looking like a Championship player. Shouldn't be starting games. Kovacic, Kante and that other guy are injured (can't remember his name) - Jorginho is gone. No choice here.
4) £600m of signings and you still have Mason cnuting Mount in midfield. It is the first game after a lot of their signings. Same reason as the first one. Felix is also serving a ban.
5) Havertz is not a striker and shouldn't be playing as a striker. If he wants to play as a striker he can move to League One and play against shite. Who do you play then? Aubameyang is crap; the young striker they have is injured. They don't have anyone else.
Agree Havertz isn't a 9. Our attack doesn't work anyway. Potter got to solve it or sacked probably.
I would go 4 3 3 with Havertz/Mount as an 8, Enzo at 6, Kova or Zakaria in other slot.
Then you can have a proper striker and two wingers up front.
Whatever they've said, I doubt Clear Lake will stick with Potter if we don't see massive improvement in the next few games.
These private equity guys will demand a return for the Hundreds of millions spent.
I would go 4 3 3 with Havertz/Mount as an 8, Enzo at 6, Kova or Zakaria in other slot.
Then you can have a proper striker and two wingers up front.
Whatever they've said, I doubt Clear Lake will stick with Potter if we don't see massive improvement in the next few games.
These private equity guys will demand a return for the Hundreds of millions spent.
And I won't rid Hakim of any blame either but you've got to wonder why he runned his socks of for Bosz and ETH and recently the Moroccan coach, was delighted to join Chelsea under Lampard and no coach at Chelsea can return him to his previous form. If it was just Ziyech being pants at Chelsea than all fair but many players turn into plonkers once at Stamford bridge. As a fan I would have legitimate questions about why that is.
Obviously a big factor is the style of football as well. World cups are never as intense or difficult as the premier league. The standard of the premier league is generally higher than the majority of World Cup games. I just don’t think the prem suits Ziyech along with his lack of desire to want to thrive in it.
Good answer. Spot on post.
Exactly. While we improved our squad in January, we didn’t target the one area where we desperately needed someone CF. I would have honestly not signed Noni and gone all in on a striker. Even at the risk of enduring Ziyech for the rest of the season.
No, what we desperately needed was an upgrade in midfield and improved creativity. We have this now so let's see how things go over the next few months. Yes a CF is needed but despite the spend, January is still a tough market and good strikers are few and far between.
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I don't think there will be any panic buying to be honest. The backbone is there for a squad that can challenge on all fronts. As you say, another no.6 and I'm guessing it will be Rice or Caicedo. I think they'll definitely look at a keeper upgrade. Possibly a striker depending on how they may use Nkunku, who could very well be the main CF option. And I expect Felix to be made permanent. Once everyone is fit and available in the summer and there's been a clearout, Potter has 2 really good options in every position.
In summary Chelsea don't have enough players and a £66m signing is only in the team because a player and a youth player are injured.
We haven’t had a good striker since Costa left. For a team that expects to be challenging in the league and every cup competition, that’s just not good enough. We scored 2 goals a game in the league in 2021/2022, we have enough creativity if they get their shit together.
In no way have we had enough creativity. You only need to score 1 goal to win a game but if you create nothing buying a striker is a waste - as it was with Lukaku and Werner. Now you could argue that both weren't fit for purpose but initially, they made great runs time and time again before they lost confidence. Without Felix, Mudryk, and Enzo we could have had Haaland up top and he would have flopped.
Again, I'm not saying we don't need a striker, but the recruitment team have prioritised correctly.
We haven’t got a good striker either. Martial’s crocked and Rashford’s scoring his goals playing the same position as the dozen or so wide attackers on Chelsea’s books. Plus we carried a 39 year old prima donna for half the season who can barely even score in the Saudi league.
But you are scoring. For so long we have relied on team contributions. We possibly had the most scorers in the league last season. It’s was inevitable that it would come back to bite us in the arse with the massive dip in performances across the board.
This team defensively is fine for the most part, we are joint 3rd for clean sheets. Offensively we are a lower half team. I don’t for a second believe that’s because we can’t create chances. Otherwise we wouldn’t have under Tuchel when he first came. It’s mostly the same players. They’re just low on confidence. Players like Havertz, Ziyech and Pulisic have consistently let the team down and without a Drogba or a Costa to drag the team forward we will continue to struggle.
What I'm hearing from the Chelsea crew here is, despite spending the best part of £1B since Lampard's days (less than 3 years, because he couldn't spend in his first year) they still need to spend more. 
Chelsea will turn it around, it’s difficult not to with so much money spent. What’s been weird to me is that they started off their project by sacking a manager who has managed big players & replaced him with who has no experience of this. Potter is now being asked these strange questions in the media about how much role he has in the signings( which I don’t believe is something another top coach would be asked) and Potter is kind of making it worse by constantly going with I am the head coach line
I know that Potter is new to the job and there have been a lot of injuries but the first thing he needs to do now is to settle on a 11 and try to play them together constantly for a while. I don’t think the Felix starting a few days after coming in or Enzo doing the same makes much sense honestly
I know that Potter is new to the job and there have been a lot of injuries but the first thing he needs to do now is to settle on a 11 and try to play them together constantly for a while. I don’t think the Felix starting a few days after coming in or Enzo doing the same makes much sense honestly
Buying 24 centre backs and 73 full backs probably wasn't the right strategy. Expect to buy 48 strikers in the summer.What I'm hearing from the Chelsea crew here is, despite spending the best part of £1B since Lampard's days (less than 3 years, because he couldn't spend in his first year) they still need to spend more.
There's plenty of things one could choose to criticize Potter for but I wouldn't say either of those decisions belong there. On his debut Felix was hands down the best player on the pitch till his red card which was unlucky more than anything, and on Friday night Enzo was also the best player in our team and definitely not the reason we didn't win.
Also when Felix made his first start we had just missed Sterling and Pulisic to injuries so basically 'settling on an 11 and trying to play them together constantly for a while' was not even an option. Same goes for Enzo's debut when Jorginho had just been sold and Zakaria/Kante/Kovacic/RLC were all out injured so if not Enzo the only other choice would have been to play either Mount or Chukwuemeka at the base of the midfield and both sound pretty catastrophic if I'm being honest.
In an ideal situation Potter would probably have wanted to wait a little longer before throwing either of them in the deep end but as it was the decisions were basically forced upon him by the circumstances.
Well the point is that it shouldn’t be so easy to just walk into the 11 without much training just based on your individual quality. Chelsea had over 10 days to prepare for the Fulham game, then Fernandez gets signed on Tuesday night & I assume he barely had one training session with the team before starting the game.
So you'd have started Chukwuemeka as the defensive midfielder instead of Enzo if you were the manager?
Like I said, if we had any stability in the starting XI to begin with and didn't have a ton of injuries you might have a point but right now the lineup basically picked itself due to the sheer amount of midfield players we had unavailable and Jorginho having left the club. Enzo playing was a no-brainer.
In hindsight the one questionable pick in the lineup was Mudryk starting even though he'd reportedly been sick earlier in the week and not fully fit but the alternative would have been to start Sterling who was only coming back from an injury himself so neither was ideal.
The players they have signed in Jan make a lot more sense compared to what they did in the summer. Still need to keep spending though - expect they sign a MF (Caicedo), striker and maybe a right sided forward in the summer.
Yeah still a couple of positions we need to fill:
- a long term midfield partner for Enzo, preferably a defensive-minded one so Enzo can roam a little more. Enzo's probably already good as is, but we could get even more out of him if he doesn't have to sit so deep and can go forward at times without risking too much at the back. You mentioned Caicedo but personally I'd try for Rice as first choice instead. If there are some further outgoings from the group Kovacic/Kante/Mount maybe another signing will be needed as well?
- striker is a tricky position for us. Auba is definitely a dead man walking and won't be at the club next season, even through contract termination if absolutely needed. We also have Nkunku coming in so interesting to see where he fits, would assume a similar role for him as the one Felix will be playing from now till the end of the season. Even if Felix works out I'd still probably not look to make the loan permanent, and instead use Nkunku there and go for a real striker instead. Who that could be is out of my wisdom.
- a right sided forward would likely depend on how Madueke works out. He seems to have a lot of talent but is also a bit injury prone so that could potentially be a bit of a problem? If Ziyech goes in the summer, which looks almost certain, maybe another option could be useful to have?
- goalkeeper area needs some long term planning. Will probably continue with the current lot next season but both Kepa and Mendy's contracts are up in 2025 and aside from Mendy's great first season in 20/21 neither have looked particularly great. Maybe we'll dip into the market for a new keeper already next summer if we can sell one of those two but it's also possible this issue is postponed till 2024 or later, and we'll first see how the youngster Slonina develops before making any long term decisions.
So yeah a striker and a midfielder are a must and depending on outgoings maybe a RW, another midfielder and a GK?
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That’s a wild stat. Says a lot about how underwhelming our attack and attackers have been.
Speaking of unlikely stats. Chelsea have the third best defence in the league.
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It makes all the sense that this happens after adding 174 players to the club within a 6 month period
Chelsea since City have taken the heat off them.
Chelsea have gone very quiet. Hopefully Boehly, trying to cheat and find loopholes, may be sh!tting himself.
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