Let’s say you are a winger, we sign a striker this summer and he flops like our last 10 striker signings. You now have to play 2 full seasons without a competent striker because that can’t be fixed next season. The board has done a truly horrible job with transfers since emanalo left. With the ban we have probably prepared worse than even the past 2. What makes you think we will hit a homerun with players we target or can close the guys we do? If cech comes back and the player recruitment side is built up with a focus on summer 2020, we are much more likely to make good signings. Even if we don’t have champions league football to offer which I doubt we will. We can also try and sign guys in January who will join next summer and can sell them that we played champions league this season and might be sitting in 5th, 6th or 7th but can say we will/could get it.
Maybe, I just think the pitch to players is easier now with CL than not. Most of these dudes have sizable egos so they're going to think that their addition to the squad (along with others as I'm guessing Chelsea will tell them) will be enough to guarantee CL again next year. If they've got a year to see us as a total dumpster fire (and I think we're headed that way) complete with managerial chaos I think they'll be far more hesitant to join.
You’re assuming that we target the right players. Signings are currently chosen by a businesswomen who knows very little about the sport and has just become involved in it heavily in the last 5 or so years. I agree that we might be in a better position to convince guys to come to Chelsea. If those signings are morata 2.0, Alonso 2.0 and drinkwater 2.0, does it really matter that we look more appealing? Liverpool signed a large majority of their team without champions league to offer.
I agree about Drinkwater but Alonso was a good signing IMO. I don't love him as a player but he was integral on a title winning side.
We are cursed right now. If you were to ask me who the 3 players we would build the team around in the post-hazard era, I would have said kante, RLC and CHO. SMDH.
Better for next year? Of course. But still nowhere near good enough. If you take your lumps this year and set up to buy right in summer 2020, maybe you can actually compete for a title in 2020-21. Under your idea, maybe we clip 5th instead of 6th or 7th next year but then can’t buy that summer so we slide to 6th or 7th. It ensures that it takes us longer to actually compete. I don’t care if we are 6th or 10th. Give me the way that gets us to actually competing as quickly as possible. I don’t have the faith that our board is ready to build a competitive squad by making purchases this summer.
With the direction we're headed at the moment I'm not sure 10th is even guaranteed. What does our 1st 18 even look like for the first 3 months of next year? There's not a lot of top end talent and even less depth.
I mean RLC didn’t play a lot until the end of the year in the league and CHO barely at all. Losing hazard absolutely sucks but we basically have the rest of the team the same and add pulisic. I don’t see 4 teams outside the top 6 being better than us. If we can get Pepe, jovic, a LB and maybe a CB or CM that is young and good I’d be in favor of wanting the ban frozen. Our board has done an incredibly poor job at identifying the right targets in the market. I just don’t see how you can look at what the current board has done in the last 4 windows (since emanalo left) and think that they will be able to hit such a homerun that we will have a squad that can absorb no transfer in January or the following summer and leave us legitimately competitive in both the league and Europe in those years. With cech already coming, rumors of makelele and a clear acknowledgement from the board that a restructure is needed, I have far more faith that we can target the right players next summer as opposed to this one.
So, what's the matchday 18 look like for the first 3 months? Hazard is gone. CHO and RLC are hurt. Who knows what happened to Kante. There are a decent number of unsettled or potentially unsettled players that could leave the club this summer. It's pretty grim. I get I'm in the minority here but read through this thread and there will be loads of posts from all of us about how this squad needs a complete makeover. We have zero options off the bench to change the game offensively and heaven forbid one of our projected starters go down. This year was bad, next year
Reece James, mason mount, batshuayi, Abraham, palasic, Marco van ginkel is I think still on Chelsea. Ola aina and jay dasilva both options at LB and aina RB as well. Zouma comes back at CB. Tomori is an option as well at CB which could allow luiz to play some midfield. Are those champions league level players? I’d say a few are or could be. Is that a team who could get top 4? No. 5th or 6th? Maybe. I mean zouma was the top defender on the 8th place team. This team absolutely needs a makeover to compete again. If it’s frozen, maybe we make some purchases that make us competitive for 3rd and 4th. Will we be able to have a good enough summer to lose hazard and close the gap to city and Liverpool? I don’t think the board is ready to do that. So if we are at best 3rd/4th and then have a transfer ban next summer, the earliest we can compete is 2 full seasons from now. I think we could be competitive year after next if we spend 12 full months preparing for next summer and possibly buying some people early.
sem who is it you’re buying this summer? Jovic is VERY unlikely. Pepe maybe but he could sign somewhere by the time the ban got lifted. I can’t see this summer being worth it unless we signed both of those guys and I think it’s more likely we sign neither. Then what? We overpay for another drinkwater/Barkley type in midfield and get a winger who’s a little better than Willian? Still not sure that team gets 4th.
I have no idea who I'm buying just the same as you've got no idea who you're buying next summer. You threw out some names but still not a full 18 and some players you listed are pretty laughable. I'm in total agreement we won't win the league any time soon. Where we differ is our expectations for next year. Where are any goals coming from? The majority of players you listed are defenders and that isn't even close to our main issue right now. You knock Barkley above yet he's probably 1st choice for us next year.
I doubt it. With our transfer ban and the current form of Abraham and batshuayi it looks like Abraham could very well be our number 2 striker next season and potentially push giroud for the top spot.
What's the deal with Bakayoko? He should be returning this summer right? I've talked a lot of shit on him, but he could be useful to have around this upcoming season. No idea where he plays in that 3 man midfield though.
The board has made some really dumb decisions as of late but the worst one might be including options to buy in some of these loans when they knew at that point that fifa was investigating us with a transfer ban a possibility. At a minimum, all options to buy should have been voided if Chelsea received a transfer ban.
I think it's good news if he is back because it at least boosts the numbers in midfield for the number of competitions there will be next season. RLC > Baka but the injury complicates that.
I don’t think he fits that well with what we do but he seems to be like a better fit than kovacic in either of the 2 advanced midfield roles. He can’t play jorginhos role though and he’s nowhere near kante/RLC so really just a backup. Not sure he’s better than Barkley either so if we are bringing back mason mount, it still may make sense to sell bakayoko.
I'd bet a decent bit that Sarri is gone (and I wouldn't be shocked to see Jorginho go with him) so having Bakayoko in the fold makes sense.
These are the kind of comments that make sarri a bad fit. I don’t have a problem if he thinks that but lie. He’s been saying shit like this in press conferences all year. If we were winning like man city the manager can say anything they want but when you have had struggles at different points in the season, you have to at least attempt to connect with the fans and he never has.
Very possible sarri is gone but I’d be shocked if Jorginho leaves unless the transfer ban is overturned. You don’t sell top players when you have a transfer ban and are already losing your top player.
Sarri and Jorginho are a package deal in my eyes. Does Jorginho want to stay if Sarri goes back to Italy? It's not like the fans have exactly embraced Jorginho either. This is part of my concern with not appealing the transfer ban, there's going to be some level of attrition and we're getting to the point where our squad depth is just warm bodies.
Jorginho was man city’s top transfer target last summer. Mourinho came out and said he thinks he is the best midfielder in Europe. The idea that Jorginho can’t play without sarri is way overblown IMO. His role could change but he has a lot of strong attributes. If anything, I think that he has a chance to be embraced by fans more if he isn’t looped in negatively by people who already hate sarri.
I didn't say he wasn't good, I said I view them as a package deal. Will he want to stay if Sarri leaves, especially if he winds up in Turin? There's a clear admiration between the two. With that said, how hard will Chelsea fight to keep unsettled players?
Looks like nothing between Luiz and Higuian but Sarri acting like a child the night before a final is not a good look.
I don’t think Chelsea let any players go except hazard and ones who truly suck and have homegrown replacements like zappacosta.
Will Sarri's run at Chelsea be the most successful, yet unsuccessful, era in Chelsea history? We find out this afternoon!
Glad that kante is starting but not sure how effective he will be. Emerson is a big plus over Alonso. Surprised at kovacic over Barkley and Pedro over Willian but not sure one is better than the other these days.
Arsenal looking much more dangerous. Pedroand kovacic are each ruining one side making it impossible to attack through either side at the moment.