The amount of money we've wasted on mediocre signings has been mind boggling. I don't know how the board thinks, but wouldn't it be better to spend the money on 2 or 3 quality signings and use the youth to fill the squad, instead of buying several mediocre players? To be fair, I doubt many saw how badly Morata (our biggest signing) was going to flop. I hope Sarri finds some use for the likes of Drinkwater. 

3 hours ago, mickydroysleftpeg said:

I don’t think it’s fair to lump DD in with Bakayoko, he’s had limited time and been nothing special. Bakayoko on the other hand has proved himself - to be total sh**. Selling Baka / giving away / paying someone to take away should be priority.

 

dud signings nothing new.. robert fleck, Chris Sutton, sheva, Torres.

And what position do they play? Add moratta to that, and something is really wrong.

9 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

With little doubt for one the ten richest clubs in the world, our recruitment isn't  well run. Post Jose's return to the club we seem to have moved from our buy young strategy to a 'buy whoever we can get' strategy. Since the summer of 2014-15 we've paid big money for so many players not at the level.

Here are the sums:

Include Jorginho and Cuardrado and that's close to 500m in recruitment. Half a billion dollars! 

Of that list, assuming we dont know how Jorginho will turn out, how many apart from Kante would you buy again? 

I think you'd buy a lot of them again. Alonso, Kante, Bats, Kenedy, Pedro, Luiz, Emerson, Ampadu and Rudi are no doubt good investment. The newer players it's too early to tell. I agree some of those players have been pointless but those tend to be the cheaper fees.

Baba is the only one who has been a real disappointment in the end considering most had such high hopes for him. 

1 hour ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think you'd buy a lot of them again. Alonso, Kante, Bats, Kenedy, Pedro, Luiz, Emerson, Ampadu and Rudi are no doubt good investment. The newer players it's too early to tell. I agree some of those players have been pointless but those tend to be the cheaper fees.

Baba is the only one who has been a real disappointment in the end considering most had such high hopes for him. 

But then we should of never bought him if we just kept Felipe Luis and played him more.

8 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

But then we should of never bought him if we just kept Felipe Luis and played him more.

This is true but you could also point to sticking with Bertrand and Luis is never needed either

Drinkwater is nowhere near as bad as people make out. He is still a decent player, but I find his problem is looking forward for a pass. He needs to pick the ball up and turn towards the oppositions half then pick a pass, rather than picking up the ball and looking for the safer option. This is something that will probably take some time to get used to. 

He's a headless chicken and not good enough to play Sarri's style. 

I really feel for him. I think he sees he is not the quality we need. We wasted our money and his time. 

Yesterday non well. I think Cesc could do better as alternative to Jo

Edited August 8, 20187 yr by Master&Commander

If Kovacic is coming in on loan and Baka is leaving we should get rid of DD too. Offers nothing to this Chelsea side and Kovacic can cover any position that DD would. 

DD looked like a fish out of water last night.  In that deep lying role in Sarri's system the player needs to constantly make sure they are available to received a pass, DD tends to lay the ball off and then stand still and/or turn away from the ball.  Surely he's watched what Jorginio does in training? 

IMHO I like DD - to me he seems to be a model professional - I hope he works out w/ us longer

Rumours Ranieri wants him at Fulham, hope we can a decent fee back for him.

I don't think we even need a great fee. Something like 20m is fine considering his age and ability. 

21 hours ago, enigma said:

I don't think we even need a great fee. Something like 20m is fine considering his age and ability. 

Considering he has not played this season I think more likely £10m though if so, we should add on a clause about resale and more money after so many appearances. 

I would give him away for free - rather than have him on the bench and pay his salary.  It is shocking the amount of money that we havespent on average players. We are honestly better of spending that money on bonafide superstars and using our youth to fill in the depth.

1 hour ago, brownindian said:

I would give him away for free - rather than have him on the bench and pay his salary.  It is shocking the amount of money that we havespent on average players. We are honestly better of spending that money on bonafide superstars and using our youth to fill in the depth.

225M wasted on morata, baka, zappa, drinky and Emerson........Emerson is ok but what a waste of good money. Could have got 2-3 elite level players for that.

yup - splash 125 mil on Greizman, 100 mil on Kalidou Koulibaly and we have the base of a solid spine! Instead we have a middling bunch of players who are not top 4 level.

17 minutes ago, atomis said:

225M wasted on morata, baka, zappa, drinky and Emerson........Emerson is ok but what a waste of good money. Could have got 2-3 elite level players for that.

Not every signing can be a marquee signing and not all signings work out.

Zappa and Emerson are very able deputies as we can't have one LB/RB operating all season. We are likely to play around 60 games. We need them for Europa League/Domestic Cups and in case of suspension/injuries.

Transfers are easy to judge with hindsight but even in successful times there are signings which don't work out. Kezman/Shevchenko/Boulahrouz/Del Horno spring to my mind.

8 minutes ago, Nickcook26 said:

Zappa and Emerson are very able deputies as we can't have one LB/RB operating all season.

I'd like to see some of those deputies come from within. Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake, Victor Moses, Reece James, Dujon Sterling, Ola Aina, Fikayo Tomori

seems a pair from that group could do the same job as Emerson and Zappacosta right now considering the competition, and that's 45M to put back into the squad. I understand the idea of loaning players out, but there seems to be some merit to having them stay home and play in a lot of the Europa/Domestic Cup games like you say. 

over paying for squad players while watching one of the most talented academy programs loan players out is one of the more frustrating aspects of the club to a lot of us.

49 minutes ago, Skinnedy said:

I'd like to see some of those deputies come from within. Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake, Victor Moses, Reece James, Dujon Sterling, Ola Aina, Fikayo Tomori

seems a pair from that group could do the same job as Emerson and Zappacosta right now considering the competition, and that's 45M to put back into the squad. I understand the idea of loaning players out, but there seems to be some merit to having them stay home and play in a lot of the Europa/Domestic Cup games like you say. 

over paying for squad players while watching one of the most talented academy programs loan players out is one of the more frustrating aspects of the club to a lot of us.

Reece James has by all accounts had a very successful loan at Wigan, hopefully he will get integrated into the squad as he has all the attributes that Sarri will be looking for in a right back.

15 hours ago, Nickcook26 said:

Not every signing can be a marquee signing and not all signings work out.

Zappa and Emerson are very able deputies as we can't have one LB/RB operating all season. We are likely to play around 60 games. We need them for Europa League/Domestic Cups and in case of suspension/injuries.

Transfers are easy to judge with hindsight but even in successful times there are signings which don't work out. Kezman/Shevchenko/Boulahrouz/Del Horno spring to my mind.

Skinnedy is spot on........on top of that its still a huge amount to waste on average players who have added nothing to the team. We have just not bought quality and its a shame when the amount is so huge. Then you have the wages to consider. Filling the team with average players will only get you so far at this level. Sure we cant buy marquee everytime, we aint city, but some level of vision and long-term planning wont be bad.

I hear both Skinnedy & Atomis arguments and do accept your points.

I don't think the club bought these players believing they were average though.

Some players bought for modest transfer fees do indeed turn out to be world class (Azpi a great example in my opinion).

Emerson for me actually hasn't had a proper chance yet and but has looked good when I've seen of him.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Nickcook26 said:

Emerson for me actually hasn't had a proper chance yet and but has looked good when I've seen of him.

 

The other part of that window was that nearly ALL of the players that year were coming off of injuries, so the club thought they were getting a discount. I do agree on Emerson though. I think he could still be a first team option down the line. And also, Zappa was bought to unseat Victor Moses at RWB. I'm not sure he really has a place now, especially with Azpi entrenched at RB.

Zappa and Emerson can't be happy though. If they move on, hopefully we'll get a second chance to invest in the first team and promote from within for depth.

He's finished:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46650810