1 hour ago, DannyLB said:

Abroad though? I don't see it. 

Good point though Bats has been mentioned in the press with Valencia.

7/10

Not too shabby, with a new midfield, a new keeper, we kept Hazard, Kante and Willian, and integrated Loftus-Cheek, Barkley and Hudson-Odoi into the first team. 

Centre forward position looks our weak point unless Morata manages to come good. 

Not overly convinced by our back four. But hopefully our midfield will offer us more protection than we’ve been used to lately. 

 

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by Socrates

I think a few rushed through deals towards the end have masked a poor window once again. 

We took an absolute life time to appoint Sarri and prevented him further time planning/with the squad. Good signing though. 6/10

Adding Jorginho was genius, perfect fit for Sarri's system. 10/10

Kepa was a reactive signing but a good one overall, once again a real shame how long it took. 5/10

Kovacic was lucky as he wanted more playing time and they wanted Courtois. Good stop gap signing and hopefully we can make it permanent. Annoying that the board took so long to get a midfielder in though, only 2 days before the season starts. 4/10

Still not upgraded the wingers. Will be 4 years since our last signing for a winger come next summer. 1/10

Not upgraded ST. With Michy likely off its shocking we're going into the season with Giroud, Morata and Tammy. 1/10

We’ve upgraded the midfield hugely, Kovacic and Jorginho are class. One of the strongest midfield in the league, which is a huge change from last season when we had to rely on Bakayoko, Fabregas and Drinkwater. RLC will have a decent chance to be ahead of Fabregas and Drinkwater if he takes the chance.

Replacing Courtois with a goalkeeper who has the potential to be the world’s best. What’s not to like?

I suspect we would have gone after an attacker if Courtois didn’t push for a move away. Then again we wouldn’t have got Kovacic and probably signed another average midfielder, were linked to Vecinio who I imagine isn’t anything special.

We’ve also kept Hazard and Kante!

8/10

As long as no others go abroad now apart from the likes of Bakayoko etc, I would give it 7/10

Decent market. It would be impossible anyway to fill an offensive position (winger, CAM, forward) with a world-class player, being unqualified for the UCL. Central defense doesn't seem a huge problem to me. Difficult to find someone better than Rudiger and Christensen without paying like 100M, which is the standard these days.

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by Lucasl29

I'm happy overall.
I think we would have Willian go if Manure were willing to let us have Martial (IMO) so keeping him until a suitable younger replacement comes along was sensible.
The Rat face scenario was out of our hands and I feel the club dealt with it OK.
I never for one second thought we'd lose Kante, but Eden was a worry.. Phewww.
The signings look on the face of it good additions, a quality keeper on a super long deal, Sarri's choice of playmaker (showing the club DOES support the manager), and the exciting potential of the Croation lad (I'm sure there is a clause somewhere in the loan deal giving us first refusal at a certain price)
All in all, we ain't done bad, could suprise a few after the first few weeks of bedding in are done.

10/10. We hired Sarri and free of "Sufferball" 

6. In that 5 meant we stayed the same, 4 would mean we went backwards. 

Kepa is a straight swap with a decline in quality for now but an upside in the future.

Jorginho is a massive signing and Kovacic will add quality. Green is a useful homegrown addition. 

As I read someone say elsewhere we went backwards badly last season and it'll take a few years to get back to where we need to be. This is a start. I think we are still badly missing goals from attacking midfield and forwards. We'll still be heavily reliant on Hazard to create. 

I think this point from ESPN is also important.

If we give a 6 for results. I'd give a 4 for our process. We've got a decent squad but Sarri has had not nearly enough time and we'll have a new keeper who doesn't speak the language and has trained with us twice. 

We've also still got a massively bloated wage bill full of last years mistakes who really should have been moved on. 

 

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by Spiller86

6 hours ago, Fatty_Speeding said:

 

Kepi for Courtois is a straight swap - possibly an expensive downgrade - while I absolutely detest the idea of simply polishing Real Madrid's gem for them then obsequiously handing him back to our bosses at the end of it.

 

completely agree with this line. 

for now we've spent a huge- i'd say ridiculous- sum of money on a a poorer keeper than courtois.

jorginho- great, a fine purchase, and a player of the calibre we should have signed last summer.

kovacic- IF there is no option to buy, then this is a waste of time. we're not winning the league this season, so we've got ourselves in a situation whereby if he's poor then we've wasted a season's worth of first team minutes that could go towards developing our own players, and if he's good he's off to real madrid. like courtois. like eden will be.

had the club given courtois a bit more money last summer and had we signed a jorginho player at the same time, we would have fought for the title and courtois and hazard may well have committed to us in the long term. and this season we'd still be looking at another title challenge.

as it is, this is a clown club we're dealing with. why didn't we sell hazard this window? he'll go for less money next summer, so why not do it now? 

make no mistake, this is a club in decline. I'm looking forward to the season because we'll be fun to watch, and actually that is the most important thing. but if you're in this to see chelsea compete for titles and be a 'big club', sorry. those days are over.

How do you all know we have kept kante, hazard, Willian etc? Sure no English team will sign them but no way was there every a risk of hazard or kante going to another PL club.

PSG can still sign players, so can Barca, so can real etc. So we don't know yet.

Assuming we do not lose them I would say a 5. 

46 minutes ago, g3.7 said:

but if you're in this to see chelsea compete for titles and be a 'big club', sorry. those days are over.

Never have been, and never would. 

I started supporting us when we were in div 2, anything above that is a bonus for me. 

 

We bought 2 players for around £130m and sold 1 for around £30m, got 1 player for free and 1 on loan, we also sacked Conte and got Sarri.

I would rate it as a good 8/10 transfer window since the club tried to solve some of the squad problems but we still lack a top quality striker, even so it's important to understand that we didn't go cheap on our targets and that we also paid Conte and Sarri for that whole saga as well, all this spending needs to bring us results which is what matters in the end of the day.
I will just quote myself from some hours ago as well:

Quote

 

By next season we should really consider giving a bigger role in the team to Ampadu, Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek.

That still doesn't cover the squad though, in the best case scenario the team will still need at least one striker, two wingers and a center back, and that's the minimal but optimal would be all that + 1 more quality midfielder.

This means that if this season Chelsea finishes below top 4, maybe we will stay below top 4 for more than just a few seasons.

 

 

Edited August 9, 20187 yr by Gol15

1 hour ago, g3.7 said:

kovacic- IF there is no option to buy, then this is a waste of time. we're not winning the league this season, so we've got ourselves? in a situation whereby if he's poor then we've wasted a season's worth of first team minutes that could go towards developing our own? ?players?,

The difference to me between 5th and Top 4 was Fabergas and Bakayoko in the middle of the 3-5-2. Because they offered absolutely nothing going forward, I frequently referred to it as an 8-1-1. Because 8 players were consistently behind the ball.

Long story short, how much financially is Kovacic worth if he is the difference between 5th and 4th this year? 

That's how I'm looking at him. 

Could Barkley or RLC fill that role and Chelsea still finishes Top 4? Maybe. Will we with Kovacic? I don't know, but if we do, I think financial gains, the ability to recruit next year increases and it will have been a well worthwhile loan, even if he returns to Real.

15 minutes ago, Skinnedy said:

Long story short, how much financially is Kovacic worth if he is the difference between 5th and 4th this year? 

That's how I'm looking at him. 

I totally agree, if he is here just one season and helps get us back into the CL it will be worth it and then over a long summer we can find a decent replacement.

Just had a look at the Man utd fan page and it's in proper melt down mode.

Jose getting the blame, ed Woodward getting sh*t, apparently JM getting the sack now and ZZ taking over. It was like dejavu 

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

How do you all know we have kept kante, hazard, Willian etc? Sure no English team will sign them but no way was there every a risk of hazard or kante going to another PL club.

PSG can still sign players, so can Barca, so can real etc. So we don't know yet.

Assuming we do not lose them I would say a 5. 

Easy because we

a) will have told these players there is no chance of them being sold after the window closes,

b) will have told clubs interested in these players there is no chance of us selling our players after the window closes, and

c) it would make the club significantly worse with no chance of fixing it. There would be huge animosity from the fans and send a terrible message to the manager just signed and any manager looking for a job here in the future.

It just isn't happening

 

Just considering the eventual out come of the window I think its been well above expected.

We have brought in Sarri - which is a massive plus.

We have sold and replaced Courtois with one of the hottest goalkeeping prospects who better suits our new manager - Which again is a plus given the situation
I also think that selling Courtois to RM may be a blessing as when he inevitably starts getting stick from the Madrid fans for either not being good enough on the ball or making 1 tiny mistake or just because he has a big nose maybe that will make hazard re think the idea of moving there.£35 m for a keeper with one year left on his contract also isn't bad.

We have bought Jorginho - another massive plus

We have bought in Kovacic on loan - a mediocre plus
He potential improves our starting XI, whilst taking away the need for Barkley or RLC to have to perform in that role, I think this will help them grow into the role for next year, that's if Kovacic isn't obtainable which I think he will be.

We have bought in Rob Green - ...

And most importantly we have convinced both Hazard and Kante that they do not need to force a move elsewhere - Kante looks very likely to resign a long term contract and I wouldn't be surprised if Hazard does by the end of the year too.

We still have 3 weeks to trim the squad but so far our loans on the whole seem quite good.

7.5/10 with the potential to move to 8 if Bakayoko is sold (most likely in the form of an option to buy)

We need to keep Bats this season...we need 4 strikers...2 target men type and 2 willing runners...I genuinely feel that Bats can have a great season if we give him a good run of games and accept that he's still a work in progress...but we have one of the best finishers in the game with Zola so with his tutelage he can only improve...

9 hours ago, g3.7 said:

completely agree with this line. 

for now we've spent a huge- i'd say ridiculous- sum of money on a a poorer keeper than courtois.

jorginho- great, a fine purchase, and a player of the calibre we should have signed last summer.

kovacic- IF there is no option to buy, then this is a waste of time. we're not winning the league this season, so we've got ourselves in a situation whereby if he's poor then we've wasted a season's worth of first team minutes that could go towards developing our own players, and if he's good he's off to real madrid. like courtois. like eden will be.

had the club given courtois a bit more money last summer and had we signed a jorginho player at the same time, we would have fought for the title and courtois and hazard may well have committed to us in the long term. and this season we'd still be looking at another title challenge.

as it is, this is a clown club we're dealing with. why didn't we sell hazard this window? he'll go for less money next summer, so why not do it now? 

make no mistake, this is a club in decline. I'm looking forward to the season because we'll be fun to watch, and actually that is the most important thing. but if you're in this to see chelsea compete for titles and be a 'big club', sorry. those days are over.

This sort of posting intrigues me and dare I say like the majority of posters  on other sites and indeed journalists is a little narrow in its perspective.

First let’s look at the claim that we have downgraded in terms of goalkeeper and also the process was chaotic.

I along with no doubt 99% of those commenting on the skill set of our new keeper have absolutely no idea as to his personal qualities but one thing is for sure Courtois has an annoying habit of winding people up.

I have worked with numerous individuals over the years that had undoubted skills and  because they delivered better than average results management tended to ignore their manner and behaviour. When for whatever reason those individuals moved on the remaining members of that teams moral improved and maybe not immediately but very quickly the team as a functioning unit improved. We may or indeed may not have downgraded our keeper but for me his attitude in public stank the place out and for that reason alone I am glad he has been moved on. 

Hidden  away in a Sky report yesterday and something that has been ignored but it seems that Kepa was always our number 1 target and discussions with his old team around a month ago. The club identified his talent and wrote a massive cheque not really the signs  of a club in decline.

As for polishing Reals gem. I have heard this elsewhere and can’t help but shake my head in disbelief 

Real are a far bigger club than us and we have a player on loan the reasons there isn’t an option to buy is two fold one they genuinely don’t want to be committed to selling him but just as important any option would stipulate a price and in 12 months who knows what they would value him in a rising market or we would value him having gauged how he settled and performed in or indeed want him at the end of the loan.

Irrespective we loan out dozens of players year on year and to take the view that brining in a loan player is wrong based on some sort of view that all we are doing is develop someone else’s player for me smacks a little bit of hypocrisy 

 

8/10. Our midfield is stronger. 9 or 10 if we sorted our striker-situation. Probably sounds optimistic but we don't have a bad squad here. 

8/10 if only we had some threat up front.

9/10

If you think about our biggest flaw last season - it was clearly the mid lane. Now we've got probably the best one in the league or at least it has the potential to be. the smart clubs are not looking for improving one position with one other name, they are looking for weaknesses and how to fix them. Exactly what City did last summer - focused entirely on defense as their biggest disadvantage 2 seasons ago. So the strategy is there, the execution is there, now we just reap the benefits of it. 

We also kept 3/4 of our best players, as the one we got rid of - the biggest c**t in disguise. 

I would have given 10/10 if we had got Marcial or Fekir but its still fine. 

4 minutes ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

9/10

If you think about our biggest flaw last season - it was clearly the mid lane

Got to remember we will now be using a completely different system this season.
Our defence is looking really rough considering it will be a back 4.

2 minutes ago, Sindre said:

? Got to remember we will now be using a completely different system this season.
Our defence is looking really rough considering it will be a back 4.

Yes, but it is going to be because of the system, not because of the quality of the players. Anyway, I think the sun will shine on Luiz again and Rudiger is also pretty quick and strong, so I believe we'll be fine. A bigger concern of mine is the backs - Alonso's speed and Azpilicueta's incapability of making good, deep runs.