TheBison

Paulo Dybala will not be joining Chelsea, despite rumours, the club are not interested in signing him. (@CLMerlo) #CFC
— Pys (@CFCPys) July 9, 2023

If Colwill stays that shouldn’t be an issue. Would prefer he gets a real chance than bring in another defender and push Colwill out 

If Colwill stays that shouldn’t be an issue. Would prefer he gets a real chance than bring in another defender and push Colwill out 

Of all our former managers I’d like to see Carlo back. Jose should avoid coming back and tarnishing his reputation. 

Heard Boehlys put in a bid to buy Benfica and fire Rui Costa

As a fellow Norwegian, I can confidently say he’s just not good enough. He’s strong and has the ability to glide through opponents, but lacks creativity and is not a goal threat. Similar to Kovacic and RLC in style, not really what I think we need

Hard pass. Atletico want something like €20M for a half year loan

🙈

A loan inquiry is pretty strange… I mean good to try but not sure why Sheffield United would allow him to leave especially on loan at the deadline 😂

Some stats here.
https://www.premierleague.com/news/2638312
Very surprised to see Mount was in the top 5 corner takers in the league last year, with a success rate far superior to JW-P.

Athleti article, sounds like a great loan for him
 
It took all of five minutes for Callum Hudson-Odoi to produce a first flash of the quality that Chelsea supporters are hoping catches fire at Bayer Leverkusen this season.
Picking up the ball by the left touchline midway through the second half against Freiburg, the substitute cuts infield and digs out a cross that loops invitingly towards a pocket of space just outside the six-yard box. Patrik Schick backtracks to meet it, then powers a header back across goalkeeper Mark Flekken to make it 2-2.

Freiburg went on to win that game at the start of the month, compounding Leverkusen’s awful start to the Bundesliga season, but Hudson-Odoi’s contribution off the bench served notice that their embattled Swiss coach Gerardo Seoane does at least have a potent new attacking weapon at his disposal as he attempts to turn around his team’s fortunes.
Four days later, Hudson-Odoi was rewarded with his first Leverkusen start, away to Club Bruges in the Champions League, and only a VAR offside decision prevented him from conjuring a similar goal: another high, arcing cross with his right foot, this time hit from closer to the touchline, floats deep into the penalty area…

…over a sea of jostling bodies and touches down just inside the six-yard box, before bouncing back up and nestling into the far corner of the net. What’s the German for “corridor of uncertainty“?
Hudson-Odoi may not be able to say it in the native tongue of his temporary home but he certainly knows how to find it.

Seoane did not keep Hudson-Odoi on the left against Bruges, however. The Cobham graduate spent much of the evening operating more centrally as Leverkusen’s No 10. Part of his job was to take up intelligent positions behind the Bruges midfield to receive the ball (as in the move shown below), drive into the space ahead of him…

…and make the right decision when he got into the final third. Here, he looks up, recognises that Jeremie Frimpong is the open man in a crossing position on the right, and finds him.

That is a relatively straightforward sequence but Hudson-Odoi’s No 10 contributions in the next Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid had a considerably higher degree of difficulty.
In the 84th minute, he drifts over to the right touchline to receive a pass from Frimpong and, having drawn four Atletico players towards him, immediately clips a return pass into the right channel for the Dutchman to chase.
Frimpong gets there and ultimately cuts the ball back to the edge of the box, where Robert Andrich fires into the far corner of the net.

Three minutes later, with Atletico pushing up in search of an equaliser, Hudson-Odoi receives the ball in his own half, well aware that Mario Hermoso is coming to pressure him, which vacates space to his right. He quickly jinks away into it, leaving the Spaniard trailing in his wake.

Leading the Leverkusen break, he once again picks the right moment to shift the ball into the path of Frimpong on his right…

…and the low cross that follows gives Moussa Diaby the chance to apply a clinical finish to Leverkusen’s rapid counter-attack, sealing a huge upset.

Hudson-Odoi’s ability to create danger from central areas and cutting in from the left has given Leverkusen’s attack fresh impetus in recent weeks.
“He helps us with his technique and agility, also that he can change his position during the game,” Seoane said of his new loan addition. “That is very valuable for us as a team.”
Hudson-Odoi’s positional versatility should not come as a surprise.
For much of his Chelsea youth career, the now 21-year-old considered himself primarily a No 10 and only moved out to the left flank for England’s Under-17 World Cup-winning campaign in 2017 once Jadon Sancho departed the tournament to return to Borussia Dortmund duties at the end of the group stage.
Neither role ever seemed particularly attainable for Hudson-Odoi at Chelsea, partly due to fierce competition from expensive attacking signings and partly due to the fact that previous head coach Thomas Tuchel quickly concluded that his value was limited to providing cover at right wing-back.
By the end of this summer, Hudson-Odoi felt as if he had gone stale at Chelsea — a feeling cemented by Tuchel’s decision to leave him out of the matchday squad for the Premier League opener against Everton without explanation.
Hudson-Odoi was proactive in canvassing other options and Leverkusen, boasting an impressive track record of developing young attacking talent sourced from their academy and elsewhere, immediately stood out among them.
Germany was always likely to be the destination, too. Among those close to Hudson-Odoi, there is still the nagging question of how much closer to fulfilling his potential he would be now if he had joined Bayern Munich when they were keen three years ago, influenced by Sancho’s rapid rise to superstardom at Dortmund and also by the spectacular emergence of fellow Chelsea academy graduate Jamal Musiala at Bayern as the new golden boy of German football.
Leverkusen offered him the chance to make up for lost time in a league that has provided fertile ground for dynamic young attackers to blossom.
Hudson-Odoi’s early performances have underlined that he is well and truly over the bizarre nerve issue that curtailed last season, as well as reflecting just how seamlessly he has adapted to life in western Germany off the pitch.
Chelsea colleague Kai Havertz helped beyond giving previous club Leverkusen his seal of approval, making some initial dressing-room introductions. Hudson-Odoi has found a squad full of English speakers as well as natural friends in the forms of Frimpong and Timothy Fosu-Mensah, two other graduates of Premier League academies (Manchester’s City and United respectively) who share his Ghanaian family heritage. He is still taking German lessons, though, and is determined to assimilate as fully as he can
Hudson-Odoi’s first five appearances in a struggling Leverkusen side have yielded only that one assist to Schick and zero goals, but the examples detailed above give a fuller picture of the threat he has carried in these early weeks.
The more significant statistic is that, since coming off the bench to make his debut in that loss to Freiburg, he has started four matches in a row across all competitions — a feat he only managed twice in five seasons back at Chelsea.
That, ultimately, is the point of joining Leverkusen on a season-long loan. “Regular football gives you consistency and the more games you play, the more consistent you become, the more form starts to kick in,” Hudson-Odoi said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday last week.
“You feel fresher, you feel better, you feel like… not that you’re getting treated fairly, but that you’ve got the trust from the manager to push you, and kick you on. You don’t want to be on the bench thinking, ‘Why am I not playing?’, and then it becomes weeks and weeks, and the legs are rusty when you do play.
“The most important thing is consistent football. That’s what I’m getting here and it’s making me feel better.”
(Top photo: Rene Nijhuis/BSR Agency/Getty Images) 

i was just minding my own business and fm made me nostalgic 😪

Press leaks, hijacked deals, embarrassment for the club,??
Nothing new...
 

It’s not even the failure to close which is embarrassing but the constant leak of information that’s more of concern. It seems like every time Todd’s failed to close something, it has already been made public that he’s attempted to complete a deal. I’m sure other clubs try and fail all the time but everything is behind the scenes and leaks are limited. I’d be looking around at how this all constantly gets out there as it seems bad for business and has only made negotiations harder 

It’s not even the failure to close which is embarrassing but the constant leak of information that’s more of concern. It seems like every time Todd’s failed to close something, it has already been made public that he’s attempted to complete a deal. I’m sure other clubs try and fail all the time but everything is behind the scenes and leaks are limited. I’d be looking around at how this all constantly gets out there as it seems bad for business and has only made negotiations harder 

Another Todd disaster class lol

Then perhaps a start would be to make contact

The CEO just said they had a verbal agreement with us.  😄

Think Spider-man 2 you get both Miles and Peter in the same game too which should be fun. Just done some googling, looks like Venom and Kraven as the confirmed villians with more likely in there too. 

As I'm someone from Austria, this is absolutely great News. Freund discovered so much great Talents for Red Bull and made incredible Sales about it. This Guy will take us to the next Level - he is An Mastermind and combined with Chelsea Talents at Cobham we are set to take Next Level. 

This is the best news I think we could receive before the next transfer window. Freund seems to have a good history in identifying players and hopefully implements some organization outside the scattered approach this summer. It'll be interesting to see how he does without the Red Bull groups resources but that shouldn't be a problem here. 

Freund was part of the RB set up which has clubs all across Europe, the United States, and in Brazil. Boehly wants to set up a similar thing, where we have feeder clubs all across the world which gives us the ability to loan players and have first pick on world wide talent. So if the academy is lacking (which it is now) we also have this  as a resource.  Boehly also wants to bring in a technical director/advisor to the club that is going to work with both Potter, Freund, and Macaulay. 
I for one am absolutely excited. For the first time we are finally seeing some sustainable structure within the club. Everyone in the Premier League has money now, which means we cannot operate the same way as we did under Roman. 

Welcome back mate!

Hi everyone! Long time lurker here that just created a new account. I had previously signed up around 2011 under a Nathaniel Chalobah handle when I thought we was going to be the next big thing 😂
 
I’ve been closely following the transfer threads during our crazy summer and wanted to rejoin the forum. I’ll also be making my first trip to the Bridge this October for the Wolves match!