floydgator

I disagree. Overpaying b/c you think you have no choice is a bad habit and sets a bad precedent (not that we haven't already done that). Also, money spent now is money that can't be spent later (and better). Again, I don't think there was going to be any real interest in Kovacic for 50M and Kovacic is not a clearly necessary player for us. 20-30M? OK. 50M? Hell no. My other concern is that players you spend 50M on play b/c you spent 50M on them. He's a solid player that would be an asset to the team in the right role but if he's starting over younger players because the club and manager feel the need to justify the expenditure, it doubles the problem. That's not the kind of box I want to put Lampard in. The one benefit of the transfer ban would be the opportunity to give young players a legit chance with lowered expectations. 50M for Kovacic could undermine that.

I disagree. Overpaying b/c you think you have no choice is a bad habit and sets a bad precedent (not that we haven't already done that). Also, money spent now is money that can't be spent later (and better). Again, I don't think there was going to be any real interest in Kovacic for 50M and Kovacic is not a clearly necessary player for us. 20-30M? OK. 50M? Hell no. My other concern is that players you spend 50M on play b/c you spent 50M on them. He's a solid player that would be an asset to the team in the right role but if he's starting over younger players because the club and manager feel the need to justify the expenditure, it doubles the problem. That's not the kind of box I want to put Lampard in. The one benefit of the transfer ban would be the opportunity to give young players a legit chance with lowered expectations. 50M for Kovacic could undermine that.

I don't see anybody paying anywhere near 45-50M for Kovacic and Madrid don't want or need him. He's a nice enough player, not good enough to start for a team competing for titles. I'd be happy to have him for depth, playing 5 PL games a year and a bunch of cup games. If his price drops below 30M, we should be interested. More than that, hard pass.

We just finished 3rd due to historically terrible performance by ManU, Tottenham and Arsenal down the stretch and lost a top 5 player in the entire world (and our only offensive threat). And we won't be able to replace him or any of our other aging and fading starters. I voted for 6th and I think that is a little optimistic. Re: Wolves. Their record against the big 6 suggests that their performance was no fluke. I think there is a decent chance they (and possible other non-6 clubs) could finish ahead of us. I think 1 of them will but ManU will be in full meltdown mode.

Pulisic's immediately problem is going to be the physicality of the premier league, imo.

That goal (plus another later) were scored by Aaron Long. He's the reigning MLS defender of the year and he's been the best defender on the US squad over the last 9 months. I'd really like to see him move to the premier league, bundesliga, la liga or Serie A to develop his game. Miazga has been dreadful for the US. I understand he played better in the Championship League but it hasn't shown on the international level. Playing for Berhhalter doesn't help. He's content to run untalented retreads out there b/c he knows them from MLS and past work for the USMNT (Bradley, Gonzalez, Ream, Zardes, Arriola and Will Trapp). Guys like Miazga need to be playing right now (though he's behind other young players in terms of need to play). Either they succeed or they fail but we need to know what they are (and I don't believe Miazga is any good). We know the current guys can't compete even we mid-level international competition. Pulisic has had a ton of success for the USMNT already but he's going to have a lot more once Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Josh Sargent et al are full time on the squad. We are finally starting to get multiple, big European League-level talents. If only we could replace the hacks in charge of the program. Berhhalter is like a sh*ttier Sarri. He has his complicated system and he's going to play it with his old favorites no matter what. Nevermind whether it fits the actual players.

At least we got our "once a half" pointless Luiz shot from 60 yards out.

I assumed that was a translation issue. Even Sarri isn't that clueless. I think he meant with have 1 or 2 players good enough to challenge for a title. Only 9 or 10 more to go!

This will be a huge win if it means I can finally find some decent Chelsea gear here in the States. And no, I don't mean gear with another man's name on the back of it. Just a decent T-shirt.

So it's not just me and my lack of futbol knowledge. These are pretty much my thoughts after every match.

New fan. Stereotypical American Football guy ("never soccer), played soccer as a kid but never got interested. Decided to get into it after the 2014 WC and early qualifying matches and chose Chelsea as my EPL team to start the 2016-2017 season. I watch all the Chelsea matches and probably 1-2 other EPL matches a week. I say I don't understand the game for a number of reasons, the current one being that I don't get Sarri-ball at all. Anyway, looking for a place to get input from more knowledgeable fans after games. I've been to Stamford Bridge in the offseason, hoping to make it to a match someday. Excited about Pulisic, a new reason to be happy to be an American Chelsea fan.