Chelsea 2023/24 season thread.

duffer said:
We didn't "kick the whole side to the curb". Christensen, Rudiger and Mount all rejected contract extensions. Chilly and James are still there.

I don't think any Chelsea fan would want back Werner, Mendy, Pulisic or Havertz. Maybe Kova and/or Jorgi but that's two.
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These guys just won the Champions League. They are on top of the world and you have had unlimited resources. That translates to "if you wanted them to stay, they would have". You just didn´t fight hard enough.

Also the front four of Werner, Havertz, Pulisic and Mount worked, cause they are all mental workhorses and create insane pressure offensively and defensively. There was nothing flukey about that CL win, unlike the Bayern Munich one.

I get that some fans don´t want to look beyond goals. I get that some are easily manipulated by media bias, but a professional club is supposed to be above that. You ride that team/front four until it does not work anymore. Some teams search for that kind of cohesion for years. And these guys were all young, so you could expect individual growth from each player.

You f***** up a great thing, so you can finish in 7th-10th place. Only comparable team I can come up with are the 2011 Mavericks, but at least they were old.
 
LilienFan said:
These guys just won the Champions League. They are on top of the world and you have had unlimited resources. That translates to "if you wanted them to stay, they would have". You just didn´t fight hard enough.
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I don't think Rudi or Christensen would've stayed for £500K a week. They wanted to go to Real Madrid and Barca (and I can't really blame them) on free transfers. We probably could have chucked more money at Mount to stay but although I love him, let's be honest, us selling him for £60 million is not looking like a massive error.

Mendy was not great. Pulisic, Werner and Havertz were so inconsistent for ages, selling all of them was the right move and I would not want any of them back.
 
duffer said:
I don't think Rudi or Christensen would've stayed for £500K a week. They wanted to go to Real Madrid and Barca (and I can't really blame them) on free transfers. We probably could have chucked more money at Mount to stay but although I love him, let's be honest, us selling him for £60 million is not looking like a massive error.

Mendy was not great. Pulisic, Werner and Havertz were so inconsistent for ages, selling all of them was the right move and I would not want any of them back.
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Yeah, I don’t think that changing the players itself was the problem, it was more the speed of the change, then combined with the make up of the players brought in (I don’t even want to say quality of players because there’s obvious quality among them).
 
Has there ever been a case where a CL winning team was dismantled so quickly, to great results? Maybe Barcelona 2009.
 
55m on a 17 year old seems absurd but people are saying this kid is supposed to be Endrick levels of special. Now given that I haven’t watched a single full game of Endrick, I can’t speak to how legit he is but I’ve obviously seen the hype and explosive highlights. Anyway, seems like this kid actually wants Barca but that Chelsea are doing their best to outbid them.

 
WeePat said:
55m on a 17 year old seems absurd but people are saying this kid is supposed to be Endrick levels of special. Now given that I haven’t watched a single full game of Endrick, I can’t speak to how legit he is but I’ve obviously seen the hype and explosive highlights. Anyway, seems like this kid actually wants Barca but that Chelsea are doing their best to outbid them.

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Not to take anything away from the young Brazilian but is a player like him really what we need?

I mean we already have Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Kendry Paez as left-footed right wingers at the club and the oldest among them is fecking 22.

Feck knows who's making the squad building decisions and why.
 
Rnd898 said:
Not to take anything away from the young Brazilian but is a player like him really what we need?

I mean we already have Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Kendry Paez as left-footed right wingers at the club and the oldest among them is fecking 22.

Feck knows who's making the squad building decisions and why.
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Eh...i think we all know the answer to that. Well apart from those in your last sentence.
 
Rnd898 said:
Not to take anything away from the young Brazilian but is a player like him really what we need?

I mean we already have Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Kendry Paez as left-footed right wingers at the club and the oldest among them is fecking 22.

Feck knows who's making the squad building decisions and why.
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Hutchinson will go to Ipswich permanently surely. Madueke may go this summer although he's playing well consistently so would feel an odd time to trade him in. Kendry turned 17 just yesterday so asking a lot for him to hit the ground running straight away when he joins next year.

I'm more interested which positions these experienced players will be signed. Obviously CB with Silva leaving but I presume an experienced keeper and CF will also come in?
 
FootballHQ said:
Hutchinson will go to Ipswich permanently surely. Madueke may go this summer although he's playing well consistently so would feel an odd time to trade him in. Kendry turned 17 just yesterday so asking a lot for him to hit the ground running straight away when he joins next year.

I'm more interested which positions these experienced players will be signed. Obviously CB with Silva leaving but I presume an experienced keeper and CF will also come in?
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We've had W Fofana out all season, I can only see us buying a CB if Trev is sold. We need to sell 100m plus before doing anything. 28m for hall is coming but not sure which period it'll count in.

Gallagher supposedly being sold, Maatsen might go to City or elsewhere as Dortmund can't afford his clause.

Not sure even after that if we have the cap space for a mega CF signing. Nkunku might well end up there, if he's ever fit. Probably depend on if we have any Europe revenue next season, Poch future could depend on that as well.

If we can cut our injuries massively next year, I think we can make top 4 with this squad - Silva, possibly a big if.
 
Mb194dc said:
We've had W Fofana out all season, I can only see us buying a CB if Trev is sold. We need to sell 100m plus before doing anything. 28m for hall is coming but not sure which period it'll count in.

Gallagher supposedly being sold, Maatsen might go to City or elsewhere as Dortmund can't afford his clause.

Not sure even after that if we have the cap space for a mega CF signing. Nkunku might well end up there, if he's ever fit. Probably depend on if we have any Europe revenue next season, Poch future could depend on that as well.

If we can cut our injuries massively next year, I think we can make top 4 with this squad - Silva, possibly a big if.
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It is reported Mount is going on this years books. So that is £55m.
 
Mb194dc said:
We've had W Fofana out all season, I can only see us buying a CB if Trev is sold. We need to sell 100m plus before doing anything. 28m for hall is coming but not sure which period it'll count in.

Gallagher supposedly being sold, Maatsen might go to City or elsewhere as Dortmund can't afford his clause.

Not sure even after that if we have the cap space for a mega CF signing. Nkunku might well end up there, if he's ever fit. Probably depend on if we have any Europe revenue next season, Poch future could depend on that as well.

If we can cut our injuries massively next year, I think we can make top 4 with this squad - Silva, possibly a big if.
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You see this is where you're going wrong a bit imo. All your CBs are basically the same profile, early 20s, lack of talking and leadership etc. Guess a plan is for Colwill over time to be given vice captaincy and become that type but he's still some way off and been playing most of this season at LB.

Silva leads with organisation and just general assurance of being a top level CB for 15 years in Europe so commands huge respect so I think him not being replaced leads a void there.

It's a bit like getting rid of Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill all in one go and replacing them all with kids and that obviously didn't happen, you still had Luiz, Rudiger about.
 
FootballHQ said:
You see this is where you're going wrong a bit imo. All your CBs are basically the same profile, early 20s, lack of talking and leadership etc. Guess a plan is for Colwill over time to be given vice captaincy and become that type but he's still some way off and been playing most of this season at LB.

Silva leads with organisation and just general assurance of being a top level CB for 15 years in Europe so commands huge respect so I think him not being replaced leads a void there.

It's a bit like getting rid of Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill all in one go and replacing them all with kids and that obviously didn't happen, you still had Luiz, Rudiger about.
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Disasi is 26. Chalobah turns 25 before next season. James is 24. Chilwell is 27 as the part of the overall defence. Losing Silva’s leadership will be hard, and we may need to replace that experience with an experienced CB butI wouldn’t say it’s absolutely necessary. These players have gone through a lot together the last 18-24 months and individually I rate most of them quite highly, so I wouldn’t be pposed to letting Fofana come back slowly but running it back with a CB group of Colwill, Badiashile, Disasi and Chalobah.

I think the bigger issue this summer is figuring out how to raise the money we need to comply with the rules. Preferably without selling any academy players like Chalobah and Gallagher.
 
Rnd898 said:
Not to take anything away from the young Brazilian but is a player like him really what we need?

I mean we already have Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Kendry Paez as left-footed right wingers at the club and the oldest among them is fecking 22.

Feck knows who's making the squad building decisions and why.
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I’m pretty sure Angelo is just a profit making asset for the club so he’ll go on loan until he can be flipped to some middling PL team for £30m or he never improves and quietly goes back to Brazil after a couple of underwhelming loan spells in Europe.

Estevao is supposed to be a gem, and I guess it makes sense to always be in the market for talent like this, in the same way we were interested in Endrick, and we pounced to secure Kendry Paez. It does seem like an absurd amount to spend on a 17 year old, irrespective of whether we have a clear pathway for him right now, but if he’s legit legit then I guess it’d be like Real Madrid snapping up Vini and Rodrygo, the only difference being, which is a pretty humongous difference, we have no track record of ever developing young elite talents signed from South America.
 
Not a fan of Pochettino but he was right when he said the table doesn't represent their actual performance on the pitch.
 
Rnd898 said:
Not to take anything away from the young Brazilian but is a player like him really what we need?

I mean we already have Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, Omari Hutchinson, Angelo Gabriel and Kendry Paez as left-footed right wingers at the club and the oldest among them is fecking 22.

Feck knows who's making the squad building decisions and why.
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No he's not. Didn't need Paez. And United never needed an 18 year old Cristiano Ronaldo. And that's okay...as people still don't seem to understand that there are two signing streams - one for the first team and one for the multiclub/prospect model. Casadei, Angelo, Ugochukwu, and Santos were not signings for the first team either.

I'm sure the SDs will address the first team squad balance and fitness issues in the next window.
 
Co-incidence they've starting scoring loads of goals with Enzo Fernandez out?

He's a fine footballer but feels like the trio of him, Caciedo and Gallagher together is too slow moving the ball up to the forward line. Whereas two of those in a pivot, Palmer as number ten with two quick wide players is far better balance and Chelsea could yet be on to something if they realise it.

Feels like he'll be in La Liga in a year or two I think.
 
FootballHQ said:
Co-incidence they've starting scoring loads of goals with Enzo Fernandez out?

He's a fine footballer but feels like the trio of him, Caciedo and Gallagher together is too slow moving the ball up to the forward line. Whereas two of those in a pivot, Palmer as number ten with two quick wide players is far better balance and Chelsea could yet be on to something if they realise it.

Feels like he'll be in La Liga in a year or two I think.
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Hard not to notice, we're also better with Sterling on the bench.

Things possibly looking up, in with a chance of 6th now and Europa League proper if City win the FA Cup. Slim pickings but it looked like we had no chance of any Europe around Christmas and had relegation form pretty much for a year before that...
 
slbsn on X: "EXCLUSIVE: Is this why Chelsea have told Ornstein they no longer need to sell before 30 June 2024? Chelsea have now attempted to sell (or have actually sold) their Cobham Training Ground to themselves (ie intra-group). Their lawyers applied to register this dealing in… https://t.co/wQez9X0qiM" / X (twitter.com)

EXCLUSIVE: Is this why Chelsea have told Ornstein they no longer need to sell before 30 June 2024?

Chelsea have now attempted to sell (or have actually sold) their Cobham Training Ground to themselves (ie intra-group).

Their lawyers applied to register this dealing in early February (after the window creaked shut). So Chelsea's 23/24 PSR confidence appears to be based on this intra-group accounting profit to outweigh the expected £200m+ operating loss.
 
MegadrivePerson said:
slbsn on X: "EXCLUSIVE: Is this why Chelsea have told Ornstein they no longer need to sell before 30 June 2024? Chelsea have now attempted to sell (or have actually sold) their Cobham Training Ground to themselves (ie intra-group). Their lawyers applied to register this dealing in… https://t.co/wQez9X0qiM" / X (twitter.com)

EXCLUSIVE: Is this why Chelsea have told Ornstein they no longer need to sell before 30 June 2024?

Chelsea have now attempted to sell (or have actually sold) their Cobham Training Ground to themselves (ie intra-group).

Their lawyers applied to register this dealing in early February (after the window creaked shut). So Chelsea's 23/24 PSR confidence appears to be based on this intra-group accounting profit to outweigh the expected £200m+ operating loss.
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Pretty funny tbh, we're the champions of financial engineering if not on the football side. Sounds like we'll easily make FFP this season after that move. Crucially if we can hold on to Connor and Trev that'll be good for the football side, a whole team of mercenaries and selling all the academy players won't work well.

If Clearlake got the transfers as spot on as the financial side we'd be up their with City. You never know, a lot of the young players might improve like Palmer has done so we are in the next few seasons.
 
FootballHQ said:
Co-incidence they've starting scoring loads of goals with Enzo Fernandez out?

He's a fine footballer but feels like the trio of him, Caciedo and Gallagher together is too slow moving the ball up to the forward line. Whereas two of those in a pivot, Palmer as number ten with two quick wide players is far better balance and Chelsea could yet be on to something if they realise it.

Feels like he'll be in La Liga in a year or two I think.
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We haven’t seen Enzo really play for Chelsea without the hernias… so it would be really hard to evaluate. We are just now seeing Caicedo get to play without having to guess whether he will need to suddenly rush back to cover space his injured midfield partner can’t get to defensively. Caicedo was handcuffed until recently.

If you have enough money, accountants,lawyers and determination, you can accomplish anything! But stuff like this could also be people grabbing at random straws. I don’t know that you could even list something like this as profit against PSR even if you were trying to be clever. So it could just be re-alignment of how assets and entities are listed for very boring reasons related to the infrastructure of the company.
 
Bluelion7 said:
We haven’t seen Enzo really play for Chelsea without the hernias… so it would be really hard to evaluate. We are just now seeing Caicedo get to play without having to guess whether he will need to suddenly rush back to cover space his injured midfield partner can’t get to defensively. Caicedo was handcuffed until recently.

If you have enough money, accountants,lawyers and determination, you can accomplish anything! But stuff like this could also be people grabbing at random straws. I don’t know that you could even list something like this as profit against PSR even if you were trying to be clever. So it could just be re-alignment of how assets and entities are listed for very boring reasons related to the infrastructure of the company.
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Clearlake seem to know how to exploit loopholes. They seem to find a new one every six months or so, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is true. The problem they will have moving forward however, is that these will get closed down ASAP. For instance, we know they have sold the hotel to themselves so they have probably rushed this through to benefit before it gets closed down.
 
Happy birthday to Malo Gusto who celebrated his 21st birthday today

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:nervous:
 
P-Ro said:
Happy birthday to Malo Gusto who celebrated his 21st birthday today

70e50a9c-70e7-4a37-9e60-5ca18fd13cb6


:nervous:
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I didn’t know that he was a kid who was that young.

Honestly, you’ve done so much better than us this season, a massive improvement on last season, which I think is your worst in my 25 year lifetime (which is a guesstimate, correct me if I’m wrong).
 
Devil_forever said:
That's harsh Pogue, their goal difference is comfortably better, their xG is miles better and they have a clear style of play. They're a clinical finisher away from finishing top 4 imo.
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Indeed. I think it might be because we’ve had our worst season in 35 years and they’ve got the kid Palmer, but then again, they’ve still been better than us this season.
 
Devil_forever said:
That's harsh Pogue, their goal difference is comfortably better, their xG is miles better and they have a clear style of play. They're a clinical finisher away from finishing top 4 imo.
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They’re 3 points better off than our worst season in 35 years. Not sure I see the need to blow any smoke up their arse, personally. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
They’re 3 points better off than our worst season in 35 years. Not sure I see the need to blow any smoke up their arse, personally. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
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If you're blind or stupid or both then maybe you can delude yourself into to thinking that we've been remotely comparable to them. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
 
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