Let’s play: Imagine Chelsea next summer:

[Powderfinger]

Arsenal are about to walk the League without using a traditional CF. City and Liverpool have been doing it for years now.

I think we’re going to try to do the same thing next season. Lots of quick, skillful, versatile forwards who can interchange positions.

Maybe so but I don't think you have the right player for the role at this point. It's one thing to have a guy who can drop deep or switch positions on occasion. But in any one striker setup your CF still needs to spend a lot of his time physically battling CBs and playing off the shoulder/making runs so that there is space for all the players behind. Gabriel Jesus began his career as a winger but has been playing as a lone CF in the PL for years and years and he thrives on the dirty work of being a CF. Eddie Nketiah has been a 9 all his life.

I don't really see it with Nkunku and much less with Felix. Neither of those guys has played meaningful minutes as a lone CF in their life and they both are guys that want to get on the ball between the lines or play off a CF. They want other guys to do the dirty work so they can play with the ball.

 

[Orc]

Maybe so but I don't think you have the right player for the role at this point. It's one thing to have a guy who can drop deep or switch positions on occasion. But in any one striker setup your CF still needs to spend a lot of his time physically battling CBs and playing off the shoulder/making runs so that there is space for all the players behind. Gabriel Jesus began his career as a winger but has been playing as a lone CF in the PL for years and years and he thrives on the dirty work of being a CF. Eddie Nketiah has been a 9 all his life.

I don't really see it with Nkunku and much less with Felix. Neither of those guys has played meaningful minutes as a lone CF in their life and they both are guys that want to get on the ball between the lines or play off a CF. They want other guys to do the dirty work so they can play with the ball.

I don’t think we’d use Nkunku as like a back to the goal, traditional #9. I’m thinking more like Liverpool used Firmino when he was at his peak. Someone who theoretically plays centrally but can pop up anywhere.

 

[Powderfinger]

I don’t think we’d use Nkunku as like a back to the goal, traditional #9. I’m thinking more like Liverpool used Firmino when he was at his peak. Someone who theoretically plays centrally but can pop up anywhere.

I'm just not sure Nkunku has the right qualities for that. Firmino was all about workrate in and out of possession, facilitating for others, and doing all the things necessary for Salah and Mane to have space and get chances in the final third. Nkunku is a guy who wants to be the star man himself.

 

[Shinjch]

Arsenal are about to walk the League without using a traditional CF. City and Liverpool have been doing it for years now.

I think we’re going to try to do the same thing next season. Lots of quick, skillful, versatile forwards who can interchange positions.

Would disagree there. Arsenal have been playing Jesus and Enketiah up there, who have both lead the line ably.

If you want to play that way you would still need to find someone who brings the quick and skillful forwards into play, or at least get you higher up the pitch. I don't see that sort of player in either Nkunku or Havertz, both seem to prefer having someone to play off as well. Nkunku certainly hasn't played anything like the way Firmino has when I have watched him.

 

[Orc]

Would disagree there. Arsenal have been playing Jesus and Enketiah up there, who have both lead the line ably.

If you want to play that way you would still need to find someone who brings the quick and skillful forwards into play, or at least get you higher up the pitch. I don't see that sort of player in either Nkunku or Havertz, both seem to prefer having someone to play off as well. Nkunku certainly hasn't played anything like the way Firmino has when I have watched him.

Joao Félix?

 

[Shinjch]

Joao Félix?

Again a player who is much happier facing goal, and is by no mean a defensive asset like Firmino was for Liverpool.

With the pieces that Chelsea have, I just think a proper centre forward is needed. I don't see how the pieces fit otherwise.

 

[Hoof the ball]

It’s impossible to even predict what their side will be come the summer.

Think it's fairly obvious, subs included.

 

[Wayne's World]

600 million in six months is absolutely disgusting. There should be sanctions against them type of stuff while teams are trying to stay afloat to keep clubs together while some cowboy from the US plays football manager with the in-game editor on

 

[GaryLifo]

You'll have to forgive me Chelsea fans, but I hope this all blows up horribly in your faces. This is on a level previously unseen in the league and, in a better world, there would be actual enforcable rules to stop you doing it.

It might be 'legal' but it's not in the spirit of the game. Not even City have done it to these levels.

 

[SirReginald]

Whether you like the spending or not (I’m uneasy about it myself), proof of finances and numbers for transfers was looked at before the sale of the club and was approved by various authorities including the government.

 

[TheReligion]

Whether you like the spending or not (I’m uneasy about it myself), proof of finances and numbers for transfers was looked at before the sale of the club and was approved by various authorities including the government.

What kind of person would like the spending or think it’s good for football.

The government bailed you out just like Roman did years before. You have been bending and breaking the rules for years and it’s the same again now under Boehly looking for loopholes in FFP. Handouts FC.

Id be interested to know what the genuine old school Chelsea fans think of all this.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Think it's fairly obvious, subs included.

That bench lacks pace

 

[Chairman Steve]

Getting all these shiny new toys is one thing
Forming a coherent team with them is another thing
And making them a good team is another thing on top of that.

Chelsea are free to spend on whatever want. I dunno about the scattergun approach of it all, because Woodward did that with us and it didn’t get us anywhere. Seems high risk in the long run. Any new manager who comes in is basically going to be told ‘make it work somehow’ but will probably want his own players and say that some of those big signings don’t work for him.

 

[Escobar]

600 million in six months is absolutely disgusting. There should be sanctions against them type of stuff while teams are trying to stay afloat to keep clubs together while some cowboy from the US plays football manager with the in-game editor on

How is that FFP compliant? Especially if they dont make the CL?

 

[UsualSuspect]

it's not in the spirit of the game

Ah there we go. Seeing this after so much time has made me nostalgic.

 

[mikeyt]

Boehly is a kid in a sweet shop. But fair play if the rules allow! The biggest joke in all this are the authorities. They've acknowledged the loop hole and yet instead of instantly changing the rules they've allowed Chelsea and anyone else for that matter to do use the loophole until they can be bothered to actually stop them. It's a joke all round to be fair.

They are showing FFP up to be the joke it always has been.

That being said I also don't think it should be allowed to sign 25 players in a season as Forest have done but then football has gone on to a new hilarity! I mean look at the bloke running Fifa for a start.

 

[SirReginald]

Boehly is a kid in a sweet shop. But fair play if the rules allow! The biggest joke in all this are the authorities. They've acknowledged the loop hole and yet instead of instantly changing the rules they've allowed Chelsea and anyone else for that matter to do use the loophole until they can be bothered to actually stop them. It's a joke all round to be fair.

They are showing FFP up to be the joke it always has been.

That being said I also don't think it should be allowed to sign 25 players in a season as Forest have done but then football has gone on to a new hilarity! I mean look at the bloke running Fifa for a start.

I don’t think they can change any rules once the season begins. So that’s the issue, the reality is they’ve moved VERY fast to change it for the next season, no deliberations required. In turn it’s also accelerated our efforts to sign Enzo, irony.

 

[cyberman]

Boehly is a kid in a sweet shop. But fair play if the rules allow! The biggest joke in all this are the authorities. They've acknowledged the loop hole and yet instead of instantly changing the rules they've allowed Chelsea and anyone else for that matter to do use the loophole until they can be bothered to actually stop them. It's a joke all round to be fair.

They are showing FFP up to be the joke it always has been.

That being said I also don't think it should be allowed to sign 25 players in a season as Forest have done but then football has gone on to a new hilarity! I mean look at the bloke running Fifa for a start.

What’s so good about it? Let me ask you this, how much of the 300m spend in the summer would you consider successful? What happens if this batch ends up the same?