It's been a very mixed summer for us I'll say that much. Certainly we made an absolute hash of signing Sarri/removing Conte which will no doubt cost us in the courts later. We also look like losing one of the best goalkeepers in the world for much less than his value over the next 12 months while letting the only available player of a similar standard go to a rival.

But there are some signs of green shoots. Jorginho looks a top signing and Sarri's style may invigorate some of our current players to play at a higher level.

All in all we have a squad to make top four and get back to CL next season, but as to whether we have done enough to convince Hazard that we can compete with Europe's elite again, I'd say it's unlikley barring a dramatic turn in the last week of the window. Never a boring day as a Chelsea fan that's for sure.

Given late arrival of half of the team because of World Cup and shorter window and new manager - I don't actually find overall lack of activity especially upsetting or surprising.

It is very reasonable for the new manager to assess the team before buying or selling players.

If it means he has to go into the season with what we have - fair enough. As long as we don't lose Courtois without an adequate replacement.

I just hope that we keep Sarri long enough for him to get a stab at a transfer window next year and make a couple of readjustments based on actually knowing the team, the strengths, the weaknesses.

Edited August 3, 20187 yr by Ilya

7 minutes ago, Ilya said:

Given late arrival of half of the team because of World Cup and shorter window and new manager - I don't actually find overall lack of activity especially upsetting or surprising.

It is very reasonable for the new manager to assess the team before buying or selling players.

If it means he has to go into the season with what we have - fair enough. As long as we don't lose Courtois without an adequate replacement.

I just hope that we keep Sarri long enough for him to get a stab at a transfer window next year and make a couple of readjustments based on actually knowing the team, the strengths, the weaknesses.

You know that common sense has no place in this forum, right ?

38 minutes ago, Ilya said:

Given late arrival of half of the team because of World Cup and shorter window and new manager - I don't actually find overall lack of activity especially upsetting or surprising.

It is very reasonable for the new manager to assess the team before buying or selling players.

If it means he has to go into the season with what we have - fair enough. As long as we don't lose Courtois without an adequate replacement.

I just hope that we keep Sarri long enough for him to get a stab at a transfer window next year and make a couple of readjustments based on actually knowing the team, the strengths, the weaknesses.

I take your point Ilya. My personal view is that in 12 months, Hazard is in the same situation as Courtois right now. With us over a barrel. Now is the time to convince him we are capable of delivering late runs into European comps.

We are right now pitching ourselves at Top 4 is good enough. That won't be good enough to get him to sign a new deal.

45 minutes ago, Valerie said:

You know that common sense has no place in this forum, right ?

More worryingly though the club lacks common sense as well some of the time.

47 minutes ago, Valerie said:

You know that common sense has no place in this forum, right ?

Having said what I said, I am also very upset we didn't buy Messi. I mean wtf? There's us, there's Messi - why didn't it happen?

2 minutes ago, Ilya said:

Having said what I said, I am also very upset we didn't buy Messi. I mean wtf? There's us, there's Messi - why didn't it happen?

I know, right! Still getting over that, he was there for the taking.

17 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

We are right now pitching ourselves at Top 4 is good enough. That won't be good enough to get him to sign a new deal?.

That may well be true. Or maybe not? I do, however, suspect that pitching ourselves at top 4 is what we'll be doing for the foreseeable future. We are not going to spend enough to aim higher. Those times are gone or at least temporarily suspended.

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

That may well be true. Or maybe not? I do, however, suspect that pitching ourselves at top 4 is what we'll be doing for the foreseeable future. We are not going to spend enough to aim higher. Those times are gone or at least temporarily suspended.

In that case Hazard needs to be sold now while his value is high because he won't be signing a new deal. 

Given we're not looking to do that I'm skeptical that our ambitions only extend to the top four.

1 minute ago, Spiller86 said:

Given we're not looking to do that I'm skeptical that our ambitions only extend to the top four.

I don't feel it's a binary choice: we either go for the league title, or we do not.  There are very recent examples of teams winning PL without being one of the biggest spenders.  So I'm sure there is a chance. And I'm sure there is a wise transfer strategy that maximises this chance, and there is one that doesn't.

But money does matter. It looks like we will not be spending as much as either Manchester club or Liverpool in the near future. And while that still leaves us with a chance of "more than top 4" - it does overall decrease our chances. The days of an almost guaranteed CL semi and 1/2 spot in PL - probably gone. We currently have 4-5 positions in the team that you could confidently say don't need an upgrade / couldn't realistically be improved much (around 10 years ago this number was 8-9). For the other 6-7 - it's anywhere between 50K and 150K for top level upgrade. How many of these purchases do you think we can realistically expect?

Again, I think that's OK. For me personally: it's nice being in CL, so top 4 is important. And then if have a decent stab at PL title some years - all the while playing fun football - I'm happy.

1 hour ago, Ilya said:

I don't feel it's a binary choice: we either go for the league title, or we do not.  There are very recent examples of teams winning PL without being one of the biggest spenders.  So I'm sure there is a chance. And I'm sure there is a wise transfer strategy that maximises this chance, and there is one that doesn't.

But money does matter. It looks like we will not be spending as much as either Manchester club or Liverpool in the near future. And while that still leaves us with a chance of "more than top 4" - it does overall decrease our chances. The days of an almost guaranteed CL semi and 1/2 spot in PL - probably gone. We currently have 4-5 positions in the team that you could confidently say don't need an upgrade / couldn't realistically be improved much (around 10 years ago this number was 8-9). For the other 6-7 - it's anywhere between 50K and 150K for top level upgrade. How many of these purchases do you think we can realistically expect?

Again, I think that's OK. For me personally: it's nice being in CL, so top 4 is important. And then if have a decent stab at PL title some years - all the while playing fun football - I'm happy.

Take your points and I don't want to portray myself as one of the sky is falling types. My point is largely that for a club of very significant resources we have a limited plan to work back towards a position of success. You felt in the season before Jose joined second time that we were positioning ourselves for success. We didn't spend a fortune but we identified key young players who could play a role in a future generation of success. Sadly we squandered most of that but the direction was there.

At the moment there doesn't seem to be real rhyme or reason to our approach, Jorginho aside. We're using our resources poorly. We should be aspiring to be in the top four every year at a minimum and aiming to build a team that competes at that level. We might not compete with City or United but we remain one of the 10 wealthiest clubs in Europe. We spent 250m last summer and only Rudiger looks like he might improve the squad. I'm not asking to be out there buying 5 100m pound players, but what I would like to see is a plan or a semblance of a plan.

8 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

At the moment there doesn't seem to be real rhyme or reason to our approach, Jorginho aside. We're using our resources poorly.

If you are referring to last year's hysterical bash to buy literally anybody available that brought in Drinkwater and Zappacosta - I agree. That was a bit weird. :) 

But I don't feel it's been done so much that we could really say that "this is what the club does". I feel it's a byproduct of some poisonous dynamic between Conte and the club, and I hope it's not out thing now. 

13 hours ago, Ilya said:

If you are referring to last year's hysterical bash to buy literally anybody available that brought in Drinkwater and Zappacosta - I agree. That was a bit weird. :) 

But I don't feel it's been done so much that we could really say that "this is what the club does". I feel it's a byproduct of some poisonous dynamic between Conte and the club, and I hope it's not out thing now. 

Let's hope so. :-) My point went broader than that though. Perfect example is our inaction on Courtois leaving us now over a barrel and looking at vastly inferior keepers to replace him. 

Let's hope so. :-) My point went broader than that though. Perfect example is our inaction on Courtois leaving us now over a barrel and looking at vastly inferior keepers to replace him. 

I know that there is no such thing as loyalty in football today and so should the club. As soon as it was obvious Courtois wasn't going to sign a long term deal we should have signed a new keeper and chucked him at Real. Hanging on to him and letting him go for free at the end of the season is f**king stupid. There are few really good keepers out there, where are we going to get one in 6 days??

It's not last minute on Courtois.  We could keep him until January, and sell him then.  We're not privvy to everything going on behind the scenes, so let's wait and see.  Honestly, he's not a player I could care less about, he's done plenty of moaning since he joined us, and we even got rid of Cech for him.  Now I'm reading in some quarters that we should do the "humane thing" because he wants to love to Spain to be near his family.  FFS - He's paid 100k a week, and could fly them over here on a private jet every week.  It's pathetic, it really is.

Not sure there are any exciting replacements though.  And with how our defense is playing right now, we could do with Bennetti back.  LOL

As Ilya said we are likely done for this summer, barring a late surprise.  Which my money was on Aaron Ramsey.

 

Shocked no one has left of note though

I think Sarri is the type of coach who would just rather work with we have than buy new.

 

Although i havent seen the quotes myself mind you, there was apparently a presser where he said he wants another midfielder? (reason for my ramsey hunch)

 

re.Courtois my theory is that his replacement is already found/shortlisted.   We are just waiting for the official word from him that he wants out and then we will sign the replacement.  Who? No idea, a blind guess would be Butland, Schmeichel or Reina.  Kasper would suffice for me, the other 2.. meh

Edited August 6, 20187 yr by RickUK

Double post

 

This is the quote i was referring to re. a midfielder. 

“I talk with the club about the market but only one or maybe two times, not more. I spoke about positions and characteristics but no names,” Sarri said. “So, I don’t know. I think we need something, but maybe only a player.

“We have very good midfielders, but maybe a midfielder with different characteristics [would be a good fit].”

 

 

I just hope we dont end up buying someone just for the hell of it like we did last window. Cant see the logic in not spending the extra 10-15 mill om a premium player and opting for 3 mediocre-poor players at the same price

Now we have Green as back up keeper with big game experience if Courtois does go think we might go with what we have until January.

Just hoping we get a fit box to box m/f than can play to Sarri's game plan.

I don't think neither RLC or Barkley (who is improving) will be fit all season.

deadline day and I can say its been fairly good.

Kepa may be a good keeper  but hes still below Courtois and we've only signed Jorginho permanently. Kovacic is a good loan addition, but we are still lacking in a few areas. But playing with 4 at the back we have less to worry about wingbacks and Azpi can go back into his RB position with Alonso on the left. CB's we are more than covered. Its only our attack options that are a little weak atm outside of Hazard