Zappacosta is a prime example of half commitment to your manager. We tried to appease Conte but ended up wasting 20m pounds. I'm sure we'll get some of that back but we'll take a haircut.
I love the transfer window. Here's some speculative shit from reddit. "Okay so want to start this off by saying I totally understand if you choose not to believe me since I can't provide any proof and not willing to share the social media of the person im talking about and because I'm using a throwaway. But regardless this is 100percent true. So im Belgian and so is my closest friend, who happens to be first cousins of Mertens and quite close. He went to see him a couple of weeks ago in Naples. And they had conversations about his future. What I can sum up for you is that he basically thinks that it was ofcourse heart aching for them not to win serie a and that they all feel drained and frustrated, to lose in the final stretch. Especially with Sarri leaving. He mentioned how Sarri is a dream coach to play under. And that him going to Chelsea will be a huge benefit for a player like Hazard. And that Hazard will be a huge asset to Sarri. Now all that is not hard to believe. Here is the interesting information I got. So Dries will most likely leave Napoli this summer if a big club wants him, but he knows his age is putting fear into some boards from signing him. The clubs two they talked about was Chelsea and Man United . Sarri has been suggesting Dries should come with him wherever he goes. Dries has mentioned to Sarri how Batshuayi is the best shooter his seen every time they practice together for Belgium he is impressed. And that Sarri he agreed to look carefully at Batshuayi and give him a real a chance if he does get the job. Dries also said that part of him genuinely thinks it would be amazing to have a front three of Hazard, Batshuayi and himself. The Belgium trio. But things are never this simple. He has spoken to Hazard and he says hazard wants him to come as well but that he knows that it's potentially Dries's last big contract and that he knows it's a tough choice. Because the other big club is supposedly United that want him. Dries has been told by Fellaini who is a good friend of his that Mourinho wants him. Says he hasn't spoken to Mourinho yet. But wants a conversation with him. He did also mention that he was also alerted by Spurs. And that a lot of his Belgian teammates tell him to come to the Premier League. And that he's convince that we're gonna win the the World Cup aha. Well that's that. Anyways thought you guys would take a few interesting things from that. The fact that Dries considers Batshuayi the best Shooter he's seen. That he's spoken to Hazard. That he fantasies about a potential belgian front 3. Sarri will consider Batshuayi and the words Mertens said about him and see for himself.
Rumors have us in on Jorginho now. I would be quite pleased with that. Adding he and Mertens would fill our two biggest needs IMO. Edit: I should add the caveat that I know this won’t happen.
I’m against buying anyone from Napoli unless they have a release clause and we agree to meet that release clause.
If that’s the case then I’m cool buying him if we just agree from the start to just hit the clause and start talking contract with him
Liverpool just bought Fabinho for £50m. Same fees and probably 1/4 of the wages we pay for Barkley and drinkwater.
There was a time where Chelsea bought the players I bought in fifa career mode. Now Liverpool are buying them. I miss the days where we won the summer. Or at least came in second or third.
How bad is it that my opinion of the state of the club is so low right now that I don't even want us to get Pulisic and ruin him.
It’s sad but I have had some of the same thoughts. Only thing that might make it different is that he is a signing from outside who already has minutes. I also think it’s clear that if we use a 4-3-3 that Napoli used, he would be a perfect RW. I’ve gone back and forth though on entrusting Chelsea with Americas pride and joy though. Shows the faith in the current structure.
I know our situation isn't great right now and the direction of the club has been worrying but we've got two titles in four years.
The team emanalo built was capable of winning a lot. Mourinho gutted that future but bought players who can win now with the proceeds. We had the backbone of a title team. Kante was an amazing buy. If you look at the last 18 months though it’s clear emanalo wasn’t happy and left for a project he believed in more. He hasn’t been replaced and we haven’t made good moves. The top 4 from last year for better or worse have a clear vision of what they want to be. Arsenal is trying to change their vision post-wenger. I just can’t see what our long term vision is. That worries me. I think the effects of these last 12-18 months and moving forward are more likely to be felt these next 2-3 seasons than the titles we won. It’s not just the transfer spend going close to a net 0. It’s the panic buys on transfer day. It’s very much what wenger did the last 6 or 7 years.
The question I have is who will buy Chelsea in the next 12 months. Not who will Chelsea buy but the other way around, who will be the new owner.
It’s very possible. I think Roman gaining an Israeli passport makes it more likely that he continues to own Chelsea. Israeli citizens can visit the UK whenever they want. That said, there is now business risk for him owning a team in the UK. What if they seized assets. It wouldn’t shock me if he was open to selling for the right buyer. If someone other than an oligarch/oil tycoon/other super rich villain buys Chelsea though and wants to continue with the stadium we are going to be operating a below capacity budget for a few years.
It's kind of disconcerting that we're haggling over a few million dollars in regards to Sarri's release clause. I do understand the board's position though, Di Laurentis has fucked us over enough in the past.
People expecting anything like an old school chelsea summer will be disappointed. To me it’s more a disappointment of knowing we won’t spend this summer than the fact that the coach isn’t in place yet. Old Roman strokes that check and doesn’t think twice.
Simon Johnson is about as connected to Chelsea as any journalist and he tweeted this. Sounds like Roman might be open for business. Premier league has exploded since a top 6 side came up for sale. Would be interesting to see what kind of offers he could get. I assume that even if he were open to selling he would only sell to an owner willing to bankroll the club properly. Still have to wonder if this impacts the summer business.
Could also be a power play but I just don’t think the project makes sense financially. He’s worth 11 billion that we know about per Forbes but this would cost a big percentage of that and he’d have to self finance.
Not sure what kind of a power play it is. The costs won’t significantly go down. It’s an insanely ambitious project because of the location of Stamford bridge. It’s really not financially prudent to do that but Chelsea pitch owners won’t let them discuss moving and really would have never let the team move. They would need to agree to it. I don’t think Roman will sell to just anyone but if the right person with the right ideas came along I could see him selling and moving on. My fear is that turmoil hurts our ability to do business unless it is resolved
Who knows. Some of our pursuits of players haven’t made sense as of late and have looked disorganized and sloppy. Can’t be surprised if a manager one went that way sooner or later
that behavior with him is no new revelation...they were already on notice if that was a non-starter for their next manager
Chelsea, why art thou in shambles? I wonder if Abramovich is the owner by the start of next PL season.
Yes without a doubt. Sale will take a bit longer than that to go through in my opinion if it were to happen
I feel like there's legitimately no real news coming from Chelsea. Everything being reported is being implied or speculated on; Matt Law hasn't had any real news to share.
So just trying to pray someone signs conte and we don’t have to pay the buyout and trying to sign the cheapest coach of our 10 choices. Seems like a recipe for a great summer