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I've watched Etitike quite a lot from way back when he was loaned to Danish side Vejle BK. Not exactly anything out of the ordinary back then. He didn't succeed in PSG. Took some time to really break through in Frankfurt. Great season he's had now though - but as many other are adressing; so did Jovic, Kolo Muani, Haller and many others. Even Lindstrøm, who's fallen through in both Everton and Napoli since. There absolutely no way we should be forking out €100m for this guy. Is he interesting? Yes. Is he a €100m player? No. I'd even argue that a straight swap for Jackson would be idiotic. I can easily see Jackson bagging 20 goals a season at Frankfurt.

Seems like a classic negotiation tactic. Agent leaks that he could be keen on moving and name drops Chelsea. - While the real reason is probably that they want to position themselves (agent + player) to gain a higher salary. No way we're offering him anywhere near that as a squad player with Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia already in the team for the same position - and with Ugochukwu + Andrey Santos out on loan. Not to mention Casadei and KDH though they're already being linked elsewhere.

Same here. They’ve offered a contract - and he seems to be one of the local La Masia talents that’ll stay if possible. But then again. New coach and Lewandowski/Roque is in front of him. Could defo happen - but time will tell. He’s interesting for sure, but doesn’t look like a massive or unique talent; hence the reason Barca haven’t sorted his situation out way earlier as the usually do.

This one has significantly more hype around him. The others are completely different cases as well. Washington was always bought for the U23-team and Strasbourg. Potentially with the hope of him either developing or just to sell on. Kenedy and Nathan were quite cheap and not the biggest talk of the town from Brazil at the time. Piazon was a sad casen. Lots of hype and the talent was there - just didn’t fulfill his potential. And well, Pato. We took him in on loan after several major injuries - hardly fits a list of Brazilian prospects. For me, Estevao is one of the most exciting investments in many years. Really looking forward to seeing him and Paez on the team.

Well, there are many other places he'd be able to go TBF. Liverpool, Bayern - and soon enough Real Madrid. Though all will most likely prefer Alonso ATM. In regard to Poch and our next move... It seems many are still jumping on the Poch-out train. - To some extend I can follow the reasoning. His tactics and game-based strategic approach are yet to be seen. That's a massive issue. Still, it's a young team - and it seems he hasn't lost the dressing room. From time to time we're playing immensely with something that could look like a structure in our pressing and positioning. But the inconsistancy of the team is absolutely mind-boggling. In some games it seems like noone really cares what'll happen. Next week we're flying ... for one half at least. There are two areas in leeting him go that I'm concerned about. 1. What's the alternative? Hansi Flick? Almost 60 y/o. Only been a first team manager for two clubs; TSG Hoffenheim (2000-2005) and FC Bayern (Nov. 2019-2022). 111 games as a manager since 2006 across Bayern and the German NT. Lastly were he failed misserably. Still he's one of the best options out there right now. De Zerbi? Definately interesting. Great results at Shaktar Donetsk - not really before that despite a good spell at Sassuolo. Decent start at Brighton ... but in decline. 1.44 PPM this season. Woth noticing he took over a team that was playing extremely well after three years of Potter & co. building up a structurer. Potter wasn't exactly a succes for us, but De Zerbi could turn out different - or exactly the same. Xabi Alonso? Would be my pick - but he's probably taking one of either Liverpool or Bayern (or Real Madrid in a year or two). Rúben Amorim? Young and quite unproven. But oh my, some results he's had for both Braga and Sporting. While Liga Portugal isn't the best benchmark I'd much rather pay €20-30M for a coach than €100M for a former Coventry player with one good season under his belt in a high tier league. To summarize, we've already switched around massively. Tuchel, Potter, Lampard and now Poch. Neither has managed to deliver after the new owners came in. 2. Time/Patience. Can anyone change the situation at the club if they're not given time? Noone is given time in Chelsea ... and TBF, 10-15 years ago that made sense with us having world-class players. We'd pay £30-50M and get a proven player from the very top. We have the best players; make them perform. Now we don't. Look what Brighton build. It took Potter and Brighton 2-3 years of being in the lower half of the league and a clear-out of several players (with as many new coming in) to create a team that ended in the top-half in 21/22. By then you could see a clear system and strategy. Possesion-based, ballplaying football. They just clicked; and the start to 22/23 summarized exactly that. Fast forward two months and he was our new coach - for four months. Another example is Liverpool with Klopp or Arteta with Arsenal. It took time. The main difference between those two and Poch is the seeming lack of tactical or strategic output on the field. I'm still yet to be convinced that he has what it takes - but maybe if he's given another year we'll see that. Remember, no matter who we're getting in we still have two SDs + Egbali calling all shots at the club. Our striker is still Jackson and the injuries will still be there.

However, I'd assume that the fans of Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Brighton, Spurs and Newcastle are alle saying the exact same in regards to us. - That's if they're even considering us in that bracket at the moment. I genuinely believe that we can beat most of the teams in the league. On the other hand we've just started this new journey with Poch. There's no real experience in the side. It'll take time. It could be anywhere between 4th to 10th IMO. Won't be surprised to see us ending up somewhere between 8-10. - Still, with a good string of results and assuming our key players won't be consistently injured, I do think we can sneak into 4th.

To be fair that does seem like a decent deal for both parties. Not sure if Juventus would accept a deal becoming mandatory on our terms though. - I'd imagine them wanting it the other way around. If they accept to buy him it would be for 30-40m which then would make it mandatory for us to take Vlahovic for 70-80m. I could even see them demanding us to put in a clause for either games played or goals to ensure our part becoming mandatory without them having to include the same for Lukaku.

What's crazy is that a top player for several years; Romelu Lukaku, is worth less than Balogun who's had one decent season in Ligue 1. Lukaku has only just turned 30. Should be in his prime. I know, he's had some injury issues and especially behavioural issues in the past couple of years - but still. It would be foolish to hand a direct competitor £40-50m for their third - or even fourth - choice as a striker. Balogun just turned 22. That's only two years younger than Pulisic. Despite that, he's only played for Middlesbrough for a half season and Reims for a full. - That's 18 months of genuine first team football at the age of 22. Other than that, all he's ever played is U23. The only other clubs in the running for him are Monaco and Fulham. Reminds me of like Tyler Adams. We were in for him - but luckily pulled out. Now he's at Bournemouth. Why wasn't Liverpool or other top tier clubs after him? This one is a hard pass for me.

Well. Looking at the positives; great first half. Lot’s of chances. Chilwell looks good - as always. Raheem looked great. Plenty of negatives though… West Ham were clinical. We were - as usual - not. We continue seeing the same problem as in previous seasons. Can’t break down a low defensive wall. Seems as if we still lack creativity… Hard to understand with us spending as much as we have on transfers. Makes me miss a guy like Felix. Sad for Enzo to miss that penalty. Bad attempt unfortunately. Freekicks were all over the place - not in a good way. Mudryk. Oh my. Not good today. Doesn’t thrive against low-stranding defences that are packed around - or in - the penalty area. Wingback isn’t for him. Could really use a goal. Caicedo. I feel for him. Didn’t look ready. Slow in thought and action. Many mistakes and gave away a stupid penalty. Two people (Paqueta and Bowen, red.) bullied that right side of three-four Chelsea players. In that regard. Gusto. Ups and downs - but never looked in the game really. Highly out matched physically. But anyhow - well done to West Ham. Utilized their tactics and profited from that. Not the best beginning to the season but we move on.

To some degree that’s correct. Some might argue that we should have wrapped it up quicker or earlier - and just have bid the £100m Brighton wanted. It would seem as if we thought the deal was genuinly possibly at £85-95m. That being said… few would have foreseen Pool coming in with a massively higher bid; £110m + sell-on with and ideal payment structure. In some way we us to thank, while Pool is part of the story as well. IMO. The fee is too much. Should have been £90m at max - which was also the area our SD’s were working on. That part was defo influenced by Pool coming in with a record bid. However, I’m glad we got him. Even more so due them dropping that bid. Excited to see him alongside Enzo.

Not really. Latest news is that Caicedo has started following Chelsea on Instagram - maybe we can use that in the negotiation? 🫠

Or even better. Keep Ugo; sell Adams for £50m to Brighton and offer Gallagher to Pool for £75 since they insist on paying stupid money. Hell, we can even put in Lukaku for a combined £111m to Pool just to be nice.

He still is. Hopefully the it’ll be us matching their fee and nothing more. £90-110m is too much. £120-130m is simply laughable. I’ve read that Brighton want Adams though. Could be funny to see how it all ends. Let’s say we offer £100-110m but with a deal of giving up on Adams and letting him go to them. Could be some sort of win-win. They’ll get a player for cheap that in reality was no longer on the market while we get our man - still massively overpaid. Then we’d just need to scoop Lavia away from Pool as well, and I’d call it a day.

Agreed. He can’t do everything by himself. Let’s hope that Ugochukwu turns out to be out of this world despite his age or that Lavia/Adams (given that we don’t get another player) can do the job. After all, most of them are more defensive minded than Kovacic/RLC and Gallagher, despite his non-stop running.

No doubt Caicedo was our ideal taget. But to State that EVERYBODY ELSE is a massive step down… Well, no. There are many interesting DMs around - just not a prolific or well known as Caicedo. I’d be happy to trust the youth if Lavia comes in. Enzo/Andrey Santos and Lavia/Adams/Oguchukwu. Not the usual Chelsea standard with world class from day one - but the board has stated for some time that this could take time and that we’re building a future world beating team.

Cesc worked with multiple different players in several clubs.

Yes - we f**ked the deal. But then again not. Clearly we wanted him, and as you say, if we’re willing to pay £100m now then we could have just done it a month ago. We didn’t as are SD’s decided to work the transfer slowly to see if Brighton would give in. The didn’t and now Pool has come in with a bid I highly doubt we’re ever pay. Adams is a produkt of the Red Bull academy. If he’d played for Brighton I could easily see him being as important as Caicedo. I’m not saying he’s a world beater - but you make it as if Caicedo was the reason we’d get top four. I believe it’ll be down to the overall team function - not one player.

Yes, yes and yes. Spot on!

Nah. That’s just plain wrong. Pool have bought an entire midfield, yes. they’ve also chosen to spend more than £215m on them. To summarize, that’s 2xDeclan Rice. However, if these players had come in at Chelsea just a year ago you would have probably said the same thing; mid table midfield. MacA/Caicedo have both developed massively over the past year - but a lot of that is due to Brighton, given their general function of the club and their tactical approach and consistency. Are they world class players right now? Not sure. That being said, I’m sad to see us missing out on Caicedo - could have been a class partner for Enzo IMO. Still, at that price… no.

Exactly. Caicedo is a good player for sure - although never an £90-100m; let alone £110m player IMO. Not sure what happened with Lavia/Caicedo and Liverpool/Chelsea. Did they just switch or was it due to ud budding for Lavia? Anyhow. While I was hoping to see Moises at Chelsea, I’m glad we didn’t spend £110m on him. What I read is that our bid was up to £100m. This sounds like a bid that includes several add-ons or a bonus in some sort.

A lot of fairness around here 😇 ^^ But to be fair (JK) is see a massive difference between the two. IMO Enzo was a positive part of very bad team in the second half of the season. Falling for a dummy happens. After all it's a dummy. Doubt that a lot knew him prior to the WC. Going to Benfica and being a instant starter while later on being a starter for Argentina in the WC; that's not random. - It's due to quality! He does what Jorginho does - just faster, better and direct. Dictates the play with mostly progressive passes. Decent in ground duels. We decided to pay that much in the last second of the January window as we'd sold Jorginho, while Kanté was a walking injury. We put ourselves in that situation. Cucurella, however... He was one of the first transfers we did; in the summer even. Seems like we just splashed the cash to beat City to him. - He's a defender. The last line of the team. He starts out attack and - sometimes - ends the oppositions attack. It just happens to be that he unsuccessful at doing he's defensive part very often. He's had a year to settle now. Many managers, sure. So has others had. He had the advantage of being able to play both LCB and LWB/LM in the system we already knew inside-out under TT. After that, his former manager joined. Still made errors. He's been used as LCB in both a 4-man and 3(5)-man backline. He's been played as LB in a 4-man backline. LWB/LM in 5-man midfield. Probably best in the LWB/LM in a 3-4-3 perhaps? Potentially due to the backup he'll be getting from LCB, LCM and LW. He's not getting that backup at LB in a 4-man backline. He is the last piece. Headless pushing up to the field and bad positioning will be punished now.

Agreed. He definately didn't pick all of the players. With Cucu it was probably Boehly. After all he was the one that made a statement when signing him - something in line with Cucu "being an elite defender". - He wasn't and isn't. It becomes clearer that that tactics of Brighton shielded his mistakes due to other players covering when going in a high press. Furthermore their playing style primarily had him playing as a left midfielder. Not sure if he was decent when playing LCB for them. In recent weeks I've had a feeling that he could be worth keeping. That he'd probably redeem himself. But oh my... These mistakes comes way too often. He could turn out costing crucial points.

Either a loan or a permanent deal as makeweight for the Caicedo-deal. Maybe they'll agree to sell him for £70m if they get Cucu back. Could be that they'd want £120m if they have to take Cucu back though 🤔

Great goal and movement again last night. Tall, fast and strong. Takes you back really... 🥳 Not to mention his pressing. His ability on the ball - technically good and with some flair. Lastly he just seems like a likable charachter. Could be a massive scoop this one.

To be fair, Maatsen has been at the club or five years. Two seasons at the youth/dev-teams before three seasons away on loan. I actually had a feeling he was never going to break through. Credit to him - he looks exciting. Hall is still young - perhaps a loan to the Championship would be ideal. - Unless we sell Cucurella...