SwedishEntity

Scaring young players on the pitch to play like he wants it rather than the way they do it the best. Long may it continue. "Leader"

I'm not trying to stirr up sh*t but if you think about it, couldn't that be the business plan here? Things pointing in that direction: 1. Investors want returns from their investments. Todd Boehly & co are not running a charity. Money needs to come from somewhere. 2. The sell-on clause in the Caicedo deal. Is that about Boehly and Bloom knowing something we don't? Maybe there will be a similar league as the Saudi one in Qatar or Oman or something, and the best players could be worth £200-300m in a couple of years. 3. Todd Boehly has some sort of relation to the Saudis and may have known that they were entering as a new player on the transfer market. 4. The very long contracts means good Chelsea players would be more expensive to buy than players from most other clubs

I'm sure a lot of big clubs are following this development and thinking about if this is the way to go or not. On one hand: if the football economy takes a big hit, lets say the TV deals have reached their top, it gets a bit messy having very well-paid players on long contracts. But if the growth continues, you might have the cheapest top team squad in five years or so. And yes, it is to some extent greater control of the asset, but in the odd cases it will almost certainly mean you have players that will be difficult to get rid off (even if their slightly lower wages makes it easier to get them out). Imagine Winston Bogarde lurking in the shadows of Stamford Bridge and Cobham for an additional four years... Slightly OT but related: I remember a story told by Bogardes teammate in Milan, Andreas Andersson - "Bogarde was an utter egotist and extreme in every conceivable way. That man could never be wrong, he never made a bad pass and lacked any form of self-criticism. Moreover, he saw himself as God's gift to humanity. During pre-season training, we almost always trained two sessions a day, occasionally running a one-kilometre loop in various smaller groups. The guidelines for the groups were clear. There should be a high tempo while the groups should always be kept together. Jesper (Blomqvist) was in Bogarde's group and Bogarde wanted to show everyone what a physical specimen he was, so he always ran a bit ahead of everyone else in his group. When the group caught up in order to fulfil the coaches' directive to have a cohesive group, Bogarde just increased his speed so much that there was again a significant gap to the others in the group. Afterwards, Jesper tried to ironise and joke in a way that could not be misunderstood. Jesper smiled, laughed and disguised his voice in a joking manner and said to Bogarde that "Wow, what a big, strong and fit guy you are, running so fast that none of the rest of us have a chance to keep up". Bogarde didn't realise that everyone was making fun of him but just stretched, puffed up his chest and said with his superior attitude - "It is normal. It is always like this." Nobody could take him seriously. The worst part was that there was almost no irony in Bogarde. He was always deadly serious in emphasising his own personality and excellence. If Bogarde missed a pass in the passing drill, it was always someone else in the group's fault. Bogarde saw himself as a sun without a hint of blemish. Something went wrong somewhere in his childhood." Point is that of course you have greater control - in some senses - over your asset, but you may also be stuck with one or two f**ktards annoying the sh*t out of the rest of the group. Its a bit of a gamble.

Probably the most loved one as well. When Abramovich started to spend a sh*t load of money on Chelsea, I remember that the Swedish Chelsea forum exploded with new people. Same when City started to spend unreal money and more recently Newcastle. When it comes to City fans, I remember how they saw Chelsea (and United, when the Glazers came in): "oh, happy it is not us, would not like to sell our soul like that and all these money shouldn't be in football" and whatnot, then it took about three days of UAE ownership before they considered everyone elses disgust "jealousy". A lot of people are fascinated about money and get starstruck when someone has a lot of it. Big money, big names, big attention - all a bit glossy. surreal Hollywood-stuff, and people do watch Hollywood movies. Then of course there will be a sentiment of people who feels that "I can't relate to this sh*t" or "as someone making £25k a year, my eyes bleed when we spend hundreds of millions on more or less w**k footballers", and they go watch non-league football or something instead. I'm sure there was a fair bit of old-timers that dropped out once Abramovich/UAE/Saudis (and Glazers, though they are in another category of owners) bought their respective clubs. But the majority of people in the world has been conditioned into believing that the concept of wealth, luxuary and obscene spending are beautiful things - and I imagine all these clubs got at least two new fans for each one who felt alienated and f**ked off. So yeah, you're probably the most hated but also the most loved one.

Are you not the least bit worried? Genuine question. The US has not been affected by the same recession as over here but if it were to happen and a number of big wealthy players could go down the drain... you could find yourself in an awful situation not dissimilar to plenty of the clubs that had Chinese investment a few years ago. Maybe Boehly & co are "too big too fail", I don't know the details, but I'd certainly be a little bit nervous if someone not really that attached to the club bought it and spent a sh*tload of money and signed players on 8-9 year contracts that may be impossible to get rid off if they don't work out.

Manager promised in public that Mitoma wouldn't be sold, we've already made some £150m this summer, already sold two key players.... yeah, he'd cost a lot of money right now. Next summer maybe £80m or something. Bloke is great but also 26.

1. Caicedo was bought in January 2021 because the club knew that Bissouma would soon leave. Same as why we bought Mitoma in the summer of 2021, because we knew Trossard would eventually leave. Both were great and none of them wanted to sign new contracts, so it wasn't a surprise. The succession planning we often talk about publically means that if any of the 30 most important people at the club leaves, there's a couple of names ready to replace them. 2. Doesn't matter that it is a big club. There's massive pressure in Real Madrid and Barcelona, more so than in any English club - doesn't prevent them from usually having a lot of young players from the academy in their teams. Players don't pick clubs because the expectations are lower or (usually not at least) because of more game time. If Chelsea or Manchester United (who were interested but didn't want to bother resolving all the issues of buying this player) had competed with Brighton for this player, he would have gone to either of them. But big clubs in England, City aside, does not really have plans. They get very limited value. With the money in English football, English teams should win all three European competitions pretty much every year and that doesn't happen. Its not easier. Its just a matter of competence.

They might not talk about winning 3-0 against Real Madrid in the CL but they're quite likely to do it, which is a statement of ambition in itself, a statement heavier than words.

He made a few mistakes, most noticable against Palace, and also looked quite uncomfortable playing some sort of short passing game within his own penalty area. He has pretty good feet and distribution, but this "playing tiki taka in your own box" is not something that suits him. I also don't think Rob Sanchez personality was a good match with De Zerbis. Sanchez want to mr Cool and Collected and RDZ wants players to be mr Fierce and Intense. Shouldn't be a problem with Pochettino who personality wise seems more Potter than Zerbi.

Well, that is certainly one completely detached-from-reality view of what they're doing in Newcastle.

Bloke has played three games (all of them in March/April) since February, with no games (no competitive games, no friendlies, no U21 appearances) in the last four months. If you were expecting a 10/10 performance, you were expecting too much.

Some money will be reinvested, some money will be used to cover club operations. Brighton is one of very few clubs in the PL trying to be actually financially sustainable, but without transfer income the club (like most PL clubs) would make a £50m-£100m losses every year. Some of the money received this summer will be used to cover that. Tony Bloom has spent £400m on Brighton and "profits" is probably not all that interesting, he just doesn't want the club to bleed money every year. But there's complete faith in TB obviously. We were all worried when it was clear Bissouma would soon leave, "oh my god how are we going to replace him?". Then we signed Caicedo for £4m and no one gave a sh*t when Biss was sold to Spurs. If you have a genius in charge, you don't have to spend £100m to have a good team. The Brighton side that beat Luton 4-1 this weekend cost about £60m, with Joao Pedro being £30m of that.

No. Good potential but City being unwilling to use their £40m buy-back clause, despite having no backup for Rodri, says a lot I think. The interest in Lavia from bigger clubs imho mainly shows that there's very few great defensive midfielders on the market.

Doubt any of the clubs would be interested in a £30m obligation since one of the clubs are going to look like idiots in the end. Yes, sure, as it stands that club would most likely be Newcastle, but it is hardly out of the question that it could turn out that he is really quite good in the right environment and when given a bit of time and positive vibes, and then £30m looks silly for you. But yeah obviously Newcastle are the ones more likely to disagree with such a deal. And they are also pretty much the ones to decide the conditions as there are very few clubs that could afford to take a chance on spending a loan fee on him and pay his wages. There won't be a bidding war for Cucurella at this point. Newcastle could just say "take it or leave it".

Brilliant deal for us. That much is 100% certain. But also think it will end up being more than worth it for you. The history of the Premier League shows that you don't win titles without a top class DMC.

Even if there is no loan fee, Real Madrid will be paying his wages of course. Probably a fair bit of money saved there if you get a cheap goalie for free. Pochettino might think he's not someone you want part of the group and then you might want to get rid of that player, even if its a financially poor deal. Personally, if a player refused to be subbed off in a game, I'd never play him again. Can't have players with that attitude if you want to build a good team or a dynasty.

I should have known that a lot of Chelsea fans don't know whether to go to North Stand Chat or The Shed End.

If you sell him, you're not very clever. Class player imho. Like a couple of his teammates, it really is uphill for him because he kind of likes your club and feel that pressure. Easier for mercenaries to deal with failure and poor results. Bloke probably barely slept all last season. He showed in Palace that he is a good PL player and then some. Probably best as a box-to-box midfielder next to a destroyer and a playmaker, but his broad set of skills should make him decent in most positions. Really wouldn't mind him as part of the Caicedo deal...

You tell me "only a complete idiot judges a players ceiling from one game" and then go on to compare him to Drogba? Every signing is great until they're not. If I was a Chelsea fan, I'd be happy with the performance today and I'd say there's promise in this guy - but I'd also think "is this guy really the one to carry our front line right now, or do we find another option in case it doesn't work out quite so well?"

Like I said, fair bit of potential. But evident for all to see that his link-up game is just quite far from the required standard. Works fine against a Liverpool that leaves a lot of spaces for the opponents but there's games where this inability to play with the back against the goal is going to be some grim viewing.

What do you do when you're not happy with your £100m Carlton Cole? You buy Carl Cort for £32m. Bloke has a fair bit of potential but if you want top 4 this season, you're going to need something different.

Liverpool with no midfield, Chelsea doesn't have a PL striker, Reece James injured... is this a continuation of the 2022/23 season?

Looking good for you, don't know what you're moaning about. Liverpool look a little sh*t centrally.

Please don't hand this absolute diamond to Roy Hodgson. Would be a waste of his talent. Imho I think he showed last season that he is a future world class player who could already be useful to a lot of teams, including yours.

You've followed Chelsea for 35 years but now you're quitting because Kepa might be replaced by David De Gea?