The guy on the ", football boardroom" who used to work at Chelsea has said his only concern is that if Clearlake finance their buyout with even more debt at more high interest rates then the payments to service the debt which is already high could become a problem.

Also, as Clearlake are just the managers of other people's investments, they won't want to sell at any discount, thus devaluing the club.

Todd's £5billion valuation is a very big stretch, Ratcliffes part investment values United just over £5billion, and the recent Liverpool investment values them even higher.

But , with the owners publicly admitting we need a bigger stadium and doing f**k all about it i, it's a negative when it comes to valuation comparisons with other clubs.

Personally, the less money our w**ker owners have at their disposal to f**k around with,the better for everyone else.

Come on you BLUES!

Another week passes and nobody has been sold. Meanwhile Man City in the process of moving on their last two leavers in Marmoush and possibly Gonzalez. All their sales for reasonable to decent money, yet these cretins overprice everyone, get fck all done and end up getting mugged off for loans with options to buy that will never get exercised. Oh except the few ongoing sales.....to ourselves. Why are these fcking idiots still stealing a living off of this club.

The outlawing of Bomb squads is a big problem for the board and Alonso. The friction this will cause between them could derail the "new project " before it gets going.

How is Alonso going to train 40 players and/or how are the board going to get rid of 10 players?

They'll have to loan out players and pay their wages. In the meantime the player values drop and other clubs will be licking their lips come the next window.

The only reliable trait this board have is its ability to seek out new ways to cock things up.

18 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

The guy on the ", football boardroom" who used to work at Chelsea has said his only concern is that if Clearlake finance their buyout with even more debt at more high interest rates then the payments to service the debt which is already high could become a problem.

Also, as Clearlake are just the managers of other people's investments, they won't want to sell at any discount, thus devaluing the club.

Todd's £5billion valuation is a very big stretch, Ratcliffes part investment values United just over £5billion, and the recent Liverpool investment values them even higher.

But , with the owners publicly admitting we need a bigger stadium and doing f**k all about it i, it's a negative when it comes to valuation comparisons with other clubs.

Personally, the less money our w**ker owners have at their disposal to f**k around with,the better for everyone else.

Come on you BLUES!

Just posting a link to that discussion

https://youtu.be/Ur1tqM6L42I?is=pwT8nSXE5kWNHUIn

1 hour ago, carrickblue said:

Just posting a link to that discussion

https://youtu.be/Ur1tqM6L42I?is=pwT8nSXE5kWNHUIn

Cheers Carrickblue 👍

Edited Friday at 16:214 days by The Rising Sun
Information

We've got Champions League football after all !!! 😂 I suppose we will have to move some of our fixtures to accommodate this ??

FC Shakhtar Donetsk will play their home matches in the UEFA Champions League at Stamford Bridge during the 2026/27 season.

Shakhtar have played their European home fixtures in several cities across the continent in recent seasons, including Hamburg and Warsaw. This season, Stamford Bridge will provide the setting for their Champions League campaign in London.

Edited Friday at 20:184 days by The Rising Sun
Info

Tickets for Champions League games...

We are giving supporters the opportunity to secure their place with a four-match ticket bundle, giving access to all four of Shakhtar’s home Champions League fixtures at Stamford Bridge.q

As a Season Ticket Holder, you can secure all four matches for just £185 — only £46.25 per game. Tickets will be on general sale from £218.

6 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Tickets for Champions League games...

We are giving supporters the opportunity to secure their place with a four-match ticket bundle, giving access to all four of Shakhtar’s home Champions League fixtures at Stamford Bridge.q

As a Season Ticket Holder, you can secure all four matches for just £185 — only £46.25 per game. Tickets will be on general sale from £218.

Haha I’ll have 2.

Still not convinced the club can spend close to £350m in a year out of Europe. At the end of last season we were told they were certain of generating £300m in sales, and I reckon they bought Rogers early on in the window with the belief those sales were going to be generated. With 10 days to go in the window, they have brought in less than £150m and are saying everything is fine.

4 minutes ago, markpitts said:

Still not convinced the club can spend close to £350m in a year out of Europe. At the end of last season we were told they were certain of generating £300m in sales, and I reckon they bought Rogers early on in the window with the belief those sales were going to be generated. With 10 days to go in the window, they have brought in less than £150m and are saying everything is fine.

No chance they are raising £350 in sales, they will be lucky to sell anymore players before the end of the transfer window at all.

The latest email newsletter from the Chelsea Supporters Trust (CST). As I've already mentioned I hope to attend the CST AGM on 29 August and will report back.

"After an extraordinarily difficult campaign last year, particularly during its closing months, there is something especially welcome about the prospect of a new season and a fresh start.

There is plenty to update you on from the Trust, particularly around the significant ticketing changes now coming into effect. But first, to matters on the pitch.
 

Welcome, Xabi

On behalf of everyone at the Chelsea Supporters' Trust, I would like to welcome Xabi Alonso to Chelsea FC and wish him every success as our new manager.

His pedigree as both a player and manager speaks for itself, and he arrives at Stamford Bridge following a hugely disappointing season for everyone associated with Chelsea.

After so much change and upheaval, I hope Xabi is given the opportunity and support required to bring stability and, ultimately, success back to our football club.

Whatever concerns supporters may have about matters away from the pitch, we all want to see Chelsea competing at the level this club should expect. We wish Xabi and the team all the very best for the season ahead.
 

Ken Bates

The summer also brought the very sad news of the passing of former Chelsea owner and chairman Ken Bates.

Ken was undoubtedly one of the most significant figures in the modern history of Chelsea Football Club. He took charge during one of the most precarious periods in our history and played a defining role in securing the club's future at Stamford Bridge, while helping lay the foundations for much of the success that followed.

Ken was a character who generated strong opinions throughout his time at Chelsea. What cannot be disputed is the scale of his impact on our club and his importance to its history.

His place in Chelsea history is assured, and our thoughts remain with his wife Susannah, his family, friends and all those who knew him.

Thank you, Ken.
 

Ticketing: Welcome Progress, But Concerns Remain

There was welcome news earlier this summer when Chelsea confirmed that general admission season ticket and match-by-match prices would be frozen for the 2026/27 season.

The CST had consistently made clear that affordability must remain central to Chelsea's ticketing policy. After such a challenging season, the decision to freeze prices was significant and positive, and demonstrated what can be achieved when the club listens to supporters and its recognised supporter bodies.

Unfortunately, our concerns about several of the wider ticketing changes remain.

Most notably, the CST and a significant majority of matchgoing supporters strongly opposed the introduction of the new ticket application window and ballot process when it was proposed at the end of last season.

Our concern was never opposition to change for the sake of it. We support measures that tackle touting, fraud and the misuse of tickets.

Our concern was much simpler. Despite repeatedly asking, we saw no evidence that balloting would result in more tickets reaching genuine Chelsea supporters.

We also felt strongly that the club should fix the fundamentals first.

Last season was an extremely difficult one for supporters attempting to buy tickets. Confidence in the ticketing operation was badly damaged. With new leadership now in place within the ticketing team, our preference was to give that operation time to improve, embed new processes and demonstrate that the basics could be delivered consistently before introducing a large number of further changes.

Chelsea chose a different approach.

Unfortunately, the first ticket application process, for Brighton at home, did little to reassure us. The allocation and distribution of tickets was plagued by problems, with supporters receiving outcomes considerably later than originally planned.

The first operation of the new Automatic Cup Scheme also caused significant frustration. A scheme intended to make the process easier instead left a number of supporters who had opted in having to purchase their own tickets.

These may prove to be teething problems, and we sincerely hope they are. But they also illustrate why the CST cautioned against introducing so many significant changes at once.

Our focus now is on ensuring the new arrangements work as fairly and effectively as possible for Chelsea supporters.

Central to that will be transparency.

If Chelsea is going to operate a ballot system, supporters should be able to understand how it is performing. The CST will therefore continue to push the club to publish meaningful, fixture-by-fixture data, including the number of applications received, the number of tickets available and the resulting success rates.

Other clubs operating similar systems provide this information to their supporters. Chelsea should do the same.

We will also be asking our members and the wider fanbase for feedback after the first month of the season. That will allow us to assess the changes based on supporters' actual experiences and take a clear body of evidence back to the club.

The CST will always support sensible changes that make ticketing fairer, safer and more accessible. Equally, where supporters raise legitimate concerns, we will continue to challenge the club robustly and constructively until those concerns are properly addressed.
 

CST Annual General Meeting

Finally, I am looking forward to welcoming members to the Chelsea Supporters' Trust Annual General Meeting at 12pm on Saturday 29 August.

As previously announced, this year's AGM will take place online via Zoom.

In previous years, the Trust has been able to hold its AGM at Stamford Bridge without a venue hire charge. This year we were quoted a substantial fee to use a room at the stadium and, as a member-funded organisation, the Board did not believe it would be responsible to spend that level of members' money on a single meeting.

I appreciate that some members would have preferred to attend in person, and I share that disappointment. However, we will make the AGM as open and inclusive as possible, with opportunities to submit questions in advance and participate on the day, while a full recording will also be made available afterwards.

This is not a move away from face-to-face engagement. The new CST Board will hold informal matchday drop-in sessions during the season and we remain committed to arranging an in-person Special General Meeting at the earliest suitable opportunity.

Full joining details for the AGM can be found below, and I hope as many members as possible will join us.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the Trust. As always, I am keen to hear directly from as many members as possible. If you’d like to meet before a match or arrange a call, please do get in touch with me directly. The CST is at its strongest when it properly reflects the experiences and views of Chelsea supporters."

On 22/08/2026 at 16:06, markpitts said:

Still not convinced the club can spend close to £350m in a year out of Europe. At the end of last season we were told they were certain of generating £300m in sales, and I reckon they bought Rogers early on in the window with the belief those sales were going to be generated. With 10 days to go in the window, they have brought in less than £150m and are saying everything is fine.

£350m = £70m/year amortised. We've already sold ~£140m so for compliance purposes we're already sitting at £70m 'profit' on the books. Cucurella's sale in combination with the CWC and CL revenue helped sort the books for 25/26, and Andrey Santos' sale alone financed this year's cost for Rogers.

As said before, the real challenge is the end of next season and summer window for 27/28. If we don't make the Champions League, then player revenue is all we will have to rely on. If we make the Champions League, we will need funds to invest in the squad and will need to rely on player sales to make up for a quiet revenue year. Garnacho and Badiashile's potential sales next season will help this immensely.

The sales of Fernandez, Neto and Gusto would have been an absolute windfall and while they could be sold next year or in Jan, all three are arguably at their peak price right now so it would be ideal to sell them. We will not be getting anywhere north of £200m next summer window. This is where, yet again, the idiots in charge and their hubris are letting us down.

On 21/08/2026 at 21:23, The Rising Sun said:

Tickets for Champions League games...

We are giving supporters the opportunity to secure their place with a four-match ticket bundle, giving access to all four of Shakhtar’s home Champions League fixtures at Stamford Bridge.q

As a Season Ticket Holder, you can secure all four matches for just £185 — only £46.25 per game. Tickets will be on general sale from £218.

I suppose that the £218 for a general admission ticket helps Shaktar selling out...

4 minutes ago, charierre said:

Some of the Paddy Power reels are brilliant. This one included. Prefer it when they take the piss out of Spurs or man Utd, but you have to laugh.

Seems the best place to post this.

Fan Engagement Plan published for 2026/27 season

Funny how we got along fine without a Fan Engagement Plan back when we were winning back to back Championships.

40 minutes ago, Scott said:

Funny how we got along fine without a Fan Engagement Plan back when we were winning back to back Championships.

I don't think I'll bother to read how I get to be engaged. Too traumatic.

Debbie downer here again:

Paul Quinn of The Esk has published a detailed analysis of BlueCo's debt situation and the risk of default.

In short, he thinks there is a high likelihood of BlueCo being in technical default by July 2027, but a low probability that the default will result in serious enforcement from the lenders (ie asset-stripping).

The banks probably have more to gain by refinancing their 792m loan, and the private credit lender (Ares Capital) certainly has more to gain by converting the money owed to them into equity and/or influence. It may even be mutually beneficial for Ares Capital and Clearlake to enter into an arrangement for the purchase of Walter/Boehly's shares; this would help write off the cash owed to Ares, but since Ares got in at the ground floor, they would stand to profit handsomely from any eventual sale of the club and might even be able to have board influence on BlueCo. Given what they did for Atletico Madrid over the last decade, it's safe to say they have far more expertise in football business than Clearlake.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by SydneyChelsea