2 hours ago, Sindre said:

We should have given Rudiger the 200k he wants a week ages ago. We have far less important players on more than that already so it's not going to mess up our wage structure as it's already messed up.

It's a few extra millions over the course of a contract. Replacing him outright when we get no money for him? Going to cost a fortune. Let's say we buy Kounde for his £77 million release clause, then wages on top of that and you have no guarantees he'll work out either. So that's a £100 million + gamble instead of investing a bit more in someone who we know can perform in our current system.

What would you consider ages ago? Ages ago he was badly injured, didn't play for a long time and making us say "Wait til Rudi is back, then our defense will improve massively". Return he did, but was woeful and the mutterings of moving him PDQ emerged. If we had offered him that huge contract then, internet would have combusted. It's only since Tuchel Rüdiger has improved, but not exactly from day 1. 

Edited December 9, 20214 yr by Valerie

Rudi's agent must have been rubbing his hands together at least night's defensive performance. 

Think a few people at the club might be rethinking whether Tony is worth £200k. 

1 minute ago, Valerie said:

What would you consider ages ago? Ages ago he was badly injured, didn't play for a long time and making us say "Wait til Rudi is back, then our defense will improve massively". Return he did, but was woeful and the mutterings of moving him PDQ emerged. If we had offered him that huge contract then, internet would have combusted. 

Ages ago was probably the wrong wording. But certainly shortly after our CL-win I believe we should have given him that. And gone into this season with that issue resolved.

Now we are staring down the barrel of losing our entire defence. Christensen/Azpi - Silva - Rudiger formed the best defence in Europe. To lose two of them now and T.Silva either now or in a year would be disasterous in my view. Certainly for a club with ambitions.
When we for the first time in about 16 years have the best defence in Europe again we should surely do everything in our power to keep that defence intact?

4 hours ago, Sindre said:

Seemingly a severe lack of foresight going on again unfortunately.

Mentioned in the article that both Werner and Havertz earn about £270.000 a week. They got those contracts rather recently so obviously it's going to be difficult or impossible to play hard ball with players that's outperformed them for the last year or so. I'm all for keeping a good wage structure but ours is all over the place to begin with and not resigning Rudiger & Christensen when they've been part of the best defence in Europe up until this seems like an odd place to start anew if that's what the club is thinking with regards to wage policy.

It's not unique to us, the same problem is happening with Mbappe, Pogba etc.

Wenger predicted a while back that this would start to happen.

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Rudi's agent must have been rubbing his hands together at least night's defensive performance. 

Think a few people at the club might be rethinking whether Tony is worth £200k. 

Well it certainly is a help for those talks with Real after how poor he was at West ham.

Long term I am not concerned if both Christensen and Rudiger leave. They are both vastly overrated and protected by the system and having Kante, Kova and Jorgi ahead of them.

Take away that midfield and see how poor AC was last night. Take away Chilwell to help him see how poor Toni was at West ham.

Whether it is Levi Colwill and Mbuyamba or Atilla and Kounde, or two other players they are replaceable. We replaced JT and Cahill we can replace them.

Short term it is a disaster for TT. His midfield is gone, only James left. Now AC and Toni are dropping levels seeing their longterm future away and we look really poor.

Why I say we have no chance in staying in the title race. One or both of City and Pool will pull out a massive win streak and even if qe deliver 2 new CBS to TT on Jan first damage will be done already and we won't be able to catch the top 2.

Can see us coming out of Leeds, Everton, Wolves, Villa and Brighton with 3 or 4 points when it should be 15.

2020 Rudiger almost went on loan to AC Milan, it was almost a done deal according to Fabrizio Romano, Maldini wanted a CB and 6 months after got Tomori instead.

4 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

2020 Rudiger almost went on loan to AC Milan, it was almost a done deal according to Fabrizio Romano, Maldini wanted a CB and 6 months after got Tomori instead.

Exactly.

23 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

2020 Rudiger almost went on loan to AC Milan, it was almost a done deal according to Fabrizio Romano, Maldini wanted a CB and 6 months after got Tomori instead.

And now a section of the fan base want him to be made one of the highest paid defenders on the planet. Bonkers.

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

At this moment, there is a good chance that all 4 will leave too. That will set us back a few years. Finding one replacement is hard enough, but 4? That isn't happening in one transfer window and even if by some miracle we did replace them all, the chances of them all being a success and adapting instantly are very very slim. We would have to be in the market for a RB too seeing as Azpi is both a backup RB and backup CB.

I naively believed we were starting to build something great with this group. It felt like everything was falling into place. I should have learned from past experiences though. If there is one club that loves to shot themselves in the foot when things are going great, it is our club.

Football changes quickly they say, well it certainly does with Chelsea football club. We are a club that can go from euphoria to pessimism within a week. This club plays havoc with our mental state 😆

Yes but if it means Tuchel gets to build his own team i would be much happier knowing we have a manager we can trust to identify who he needs.

Stayed off this place for a while, and i think i might have to have another hiatus. 1L, 3D, and all of a sudden some people are already concerned about the future. 

We have one of the youngest most exciting squads in europe, loads of key players with 5-10 years ahead of them.

So what if we lose a couple of players, iys not like prime JT, Carvalho, and Cole are leaving, Rudiger has had his ups and downs, Christiensen has flaw that will likely never entirely leave his game, Azpi has been a fantastic servant, but is on a downward curve, and Thiago Silva is immense, but he is 37! 

We have Chalobah already coming through, we have Colwill captaining the england u21's, we have a buy back clause on guehi, we have one the highest rated youngsters in europe in Kounde that wants to come here, and we are also blessed with an owner that will spend big money.

We might not win the league this year, but with Tuchel in charge, Roman back in the stands, we are building something strong that will compete for titles. 

 

2 hours ago, coco said:

Yes but if it means Tuchel gets to build his own team i would be much happier knowing we have a manager we can trust to identify who he needs.

Me too, I really think people are overestimating how difficult it will be to replace Toni and AC. It would not be cheap but come on stop acting like they Terry and flippin Maldini.

We already have someone younger and better than AC in Trev. Who is to say this time next year Levi Colwill is not having many of us say Toni who? Our academy is producing some real gems this is a great time to be a Chelsea fan and see them come through.

Edited December 9, 20214 yr by axman2526

12 hours ago, Sindre said:

We should have given Rudiger the 200k he wants a week ages ago. We have far less important players on more than that already so it's not going to mess up our wage structure as it's already messed up.

It's a few extra millions over the course of a contract. Replacing him outright when we get no money for him? Going to cost a fortune. Let's say we buy Kounde for his £77 million release clause, then wages on top of that and you have no guarantees he'll work out either. So that's a £100 million + gamble instead of investing a bit more in someone who we know can perform in our current system.

Was it 200k or 400k he's after? I don't pretend knowing all the money figure  being talked about, but if it's only 200k it be done at the end of last season, he's after a final big pay day, doubt it's any where around that 200k figure. He's probably looking at Alaba  and think I could get the same at Real, just wait it out for a few months. Just like Courtois few years ago ( who claimed he never got time to discuss a contract renewal ), he's made his mind up before the start of the season, anything he or his people says just divert attention.

Its clear to see that the contract situation has impacted our performances and has destabilized the squad along with the injuries and excessive rotation. Rudi's older errors crept back in the last few games which would have been ok had AC also not gone back to his shell. Add to that our back option in Malang Sarr wouldnt make the starting 11 in a championship 11 is a bit of a cause for concern.

i dont think AC or Rudi are going to sign a new contract and we must start planning for this reality now. A few weeks back i thought AC would but now looks unlikely plus he still looks lost when he is asked to lead the defence. May i say Chalobah has been much better and its really sad about his injury.

On TT's part we could do with a little less rotation - too much rotation in the team for my liking is really killing the rhythm of the team and dare i say the players too.

15 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Was it 200k or 400k he's after? I don't pretend knowing all the money figure  being talked about, but if it's only 200k it be done at the end of last season, he's after a final big pay day, doubt it's any where around that 200k figure. He's probably looking at Alaba  and think I could get the same at Real, just wait it out for a few months. Just like Courtois few years ago ( who claimed he never got time to discuss a contract renewal ), he's made his mind up before the start of the season, anything he or his people says just divert attention.

Hard to know with the press what is true and what is not, however you Alaba point seems bang on as the latest is he will be making thst sort of money, just under 400k a week, at Real. 

Terms verbally agreed between Toni's brother ans Real ahead of a Pre contract is the latest reports.

The news about the contract negotiations are that there are no news…

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/12/10/-we-need-a-bit-of-patience----tuchel-on-rudiger-contract-latest

1 hour ago, RMH said:

The news about the contract negotiations are that there are no news…

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/12/10/-we-need-a-bit-of-patience----tuchel-on-rudiger-contract-latest

Hard for TT to say anything else. Am sure he knows Toni is off and likely has a pre contract ready to sign but cannot say anything till it is official.

Then when it is he can Trott out the "they are a great club, made him an important offer, new challange, he will give his upmost for the rest of the season" etc etc.

He has already started to have his focus split imo and am sure, if given a choice to stay here or join his new club in January, he would pick the latter every time.

He went steaming in the second there were handbags after the final whistle - pay him what he wants.

Saved us with his theatrics. The ref will never give proper fouls and penalties if he didn't go down. 

Raphinha and Klich made silly errors and rightfully punished

I think it's hard to find true warriors like Rudiger in the modern era of football. Players who will go to war for their managers and team. He fights for the badge and I'm genuinely surprised if £140k is all that we have on the table for him if reports are to be believed.

I'd say give him £200k a week at his age he's set to be heading into his prime anyway. He knows the league, system and coach. The only reason I'd consider letting him go is if we will switch to a back 4.

If Andreas won't sign the new contract keep Rudi and go in for Koundé in Jan. No reason in delaying we should have signed him in the summer considering the current contract situation. Now we're being held at ransome and any team we do business for a defender will know what's up. 

Back to Rudi, his preference is to stay and teams like Bayern, Psg and Real are interested. Does that not say it all? Were he an attacker playing at the level he was at until recently we probably would have resign him last summer. He's not always been world class but since January he has and I'd like to keep as much as this ucl winning squad intact as possible. 

4 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

He went steaming in the second there were handbags after the final whistle - pay him what he wants.

Loved that and would like him to stay but sounds like his deal to real is already agreed. 

Dont worry we will find a replacement.

Rudi da boss

7 minutes ago, coco said:

Rudi da boss

If he can adapt to RCB, or Alaba to the middle, that real defence of them and miliato would be quite good.

Edited December 11, 20214 yr by axman2526

While Toni's desire and general behavior has rightly been lauded on here, let's not only point out Alonso as at fault for a goal as it was Toni chasing after Leeds in to midfield and leaving his spot at the back that allowed the Leeds sub to run behind Silva unchecked.

3 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

While Toni's desire and general behavior has rightly been lauded on here, let's not only point out Alonso as at fault for a goal as it was Toni chasing after Leeds in to midfield and leaving his spot at the back that allowed the Leeds sub to run behind Silva unchecked.

The ref should have blown up for a foul on Callum, it was clear as day he was being held in a bear hug, i mean wtf is the ref seeing there in that not being a foul ?

42 minutes ago, coco said:

The ref should have blown up for a foul on Callum, it was clear as day he was being held in a bear hug, i mean wtf is the ref seeing there in that not being a foul ?

Lol commentators called it a 50/50 😄