I think he only has 1 year left on his contract also. I’d be thrilled if we got 10 for him. Should have sold him after that Dortmund loan. he played under bielsa at marseille so the link makes sense. Hopefully just posturing on both sides and we can make a deal.
one of the few players I like who busted pretty hard at chelsea. Will always have the goals against west brom and atletico Madrid though. 2 massive goals. Not many players can say they scored the goal to win the league title.
congratulations on coming in first on my rankings of the 92 teams in the prem + EFL. more meaningful than winning the champions league IMO
Skeptical with reports from Italy that inter only want cash but I know they’ve liked Emerson in the past and need a LB. This would be an incredible move for us at that price.
Such a luxury buy but he’s an incredible player if TT stays with the back three. If Haaland happens, great but get Rice or Tchouameni and try to run it back with the rest of the regulars and make a run at Haaland next summer.
the more I think about it the more I’m not sure how much of a luxury buy it is. If Reece got hurt we’d be beyond fucked. Wingbacks also probably the position that needs rotation the most. Seems clear tuchel didn’t trust CHO there at some point but wanted that type of option. Hakimi can play on the left and is so good at so many things that I think tuchel finds interesting ways to use him. If tuchel does prefer Reece at RCB, this makes sense. Reece doesn’t have that dynamic speed. He’s an incredible crosser but I like Reece a lot as the RCB. He was incredible there. It didn’t work because azpi isn’t a wingback. Hakimi/Reece combo on the right would be crazy. I’ve broken my own rule of getting ahead of myself on this one so I hope it happens.
I think CHO has very little interest in playing in a formation that requires you to track back and defend as much we do and it showed late in the season.
Cal is heads and tails above the other forwards in non-pressing defensive actions. Werner and Havertz (and Hakimi) are better at pressing but Cal is quite good (for a forward) at defending further back.
Nowhere near werner or mount. Not really close to Kai either. Does he track better than pulisic? Perhaps. Ziyech? Probably. When CHO doesn’t try though he REALLY doesn’t try. Those first few games at RWB it was new and exciting and he looked pretty good. He got over it fairly quickly though and it looked a lot different.
Mount a bit deeper but also an excellent presser but Cal has very good non-pressing defensive numbers for a forward. Hakimi is an elite elite WB/FB going forward and competent defensively. Reece is pretty great at everything but can’t hold a candle to Hakimi offensively.
you’re comparing underlying stats of a guy who played 1/3rd of his minutes at wingback to other attacking mids and wingers in the top 5 leagues. Unfortunately those comp charts have major limitations for players like CHO, Reece James, azpi and players who play multiple positions. They don’t really have players to comp them to and their stats when compared to one position on a percentage basis don’t really tell the proper story. Not surprisingly, a few of the “similar players” to CHO on FBREF also dabbled at WB like carrasco.
I am very aware of what I’m comparing. People said Cal doesn’t track back or try defensively and I’m arguing that that is simply not true. It’s a relatively small sample but Cal’s numbers stand out compared to the other Chelsea forwards in both the lack of pressing but the better interception and tackle numbers. Not saying he’s the solution at WB or that we shouldn’t sign Hakimi (who I was just noting is a tremendous presser).
Had to renew my club membership today and was checking out the CL winners gear and blech. Really hoping they do a special jersey like they did after 2012 instead of just putting a second star on next season's home abomination.
my birthday is today and my girlfriend and I decided to look for some cool champions league clothes/memorabilia/art as a present. I want to get the scarf but haven’t placed the order just for that. Was hoping they came out with some things I liked. I will probably just wait until some artist on Etsy or somewhere else online does something cool that I like. When fsu won and the ravens won there was so many good options. Seems like a missed opportunity by Nike and the club.
He’s just the best If I was the CEO of IKEA, I would sponsor him to just take pictures of him smiling on all sorts of the furniture and bedding. “Ngolo is the official sponsor of IKEA because in the offseason he just loves to stay at home”
Some accounts on twitter claiming personal terms agreed to with Haaland and now they have to make a deal with Dortmund. Offering Tammy plus 70 million per the same reports.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are broke so he’s not good. Man city could get involved if they wanted to but it looks like it’s us or he stays
supercup before game 1 but some of those games are before the champions league starts. Certainly puts a major emphasis on getting any business done so that new signings have a full preseason. also a big chunk of top 6 matchups in January. Our premier league games that would take place during the champions league weeks, both group stages and knockouts, are favorable and our run in is favorable. If we can stay within a game after the first 6, I think it sets up well for us.
We’ve got a good share of guys playing internationally right now, I’m guessing preseason is going to be a mess.
so do other big clubs though. Final is July 11th and season starts august 14th. I’d imagine that the players who make it far get 2 weeks off. Still better than last preseason. If anything, I think it makes bigger teams more likely to trip up early against inferior competition so that arsenal game is the one to be worried about. Palace in transition with a lot of new players could be good to catch game 1. I’m a pessimist plenty of times but I’m going to glass half full this one. Let’s see what the transfer window looks like. Hopefully we have a solid amount of players dropped out of the euros early and get a good preseason. No international tour should help the guys focus on prepping for the season.
Read from an unreliable source we upped our offer to Haaland to Abraham + 70m. If we somehow manage to get Haaland and Hakimi this summer I'll be blown away. Feels like the old days when Roman's oil money bought us best in class talent.
tammy swap makes a lot of sense for chelsea and for Tammy. Not sure it does for Dortmund. Unlike the hakimi swap with Emerson/alonso, I don’t think Tammy is one of their better options. I could see them bringing back isak first and there might be a few others but I really would love the fit of Dortmund for Tammy.
Still kind of surprised we pulled €30m with loan fee and transfer fee for tomori in a pandemic from an Italian team. His sale becomes easier to stomach with Reece playing more RCB and with how good guehi has looked at Swansea. I mentioned this on Twitter but it almost feels like the reece/lamptey situation in reverse. The playing time isn’t there for fik now. I think guehi is better personally and the path to playing at CB is stronger in 2022-23 with Thiago Silva and maybe 1 more guy leaving.
Not sure he’s wrong which makes you wonder just how good he could have been if he had a great mentality band wanted to be the best. He was a top 5 player in the world for half a decade doing the bear minimum. I still think he’s the only player that Antonio conte allowed to half ass it and continue to play. Sarri mentioned that he had to build around Eden because of his magic. Was edens ceiling messi/Ronaldo level? I think it could have been. Still the most talented/skilled player to ever play for a club in my opinion.