Under Roman we had FoS sponsorship from solid companies that were household names (Emirates, Samsung, Yokohama, Three) and had products that you'd actually use directly.

BlueCo have served us up Infinite Athlete, Damac, IFS.ai and Circle Jerk USDC or whatever they are called. I guess you can't blame the big boys for not wanting any association with Clearlake and Boehly LOL

16 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Under Roman we had FoS sponsorship from solid companies that were household names (Emirates, Samsung, Yokohama, Three) and had products that you'd actually use directly.

BlueCo have served us up Infinite Athlete, Damac, IFS.ai and Circle Jerk USDC or whatever they are called. I guess you can't blame the big boys for not wanting any association with Clearlake and Boehly LOL

It’s a fair point but I don’t think that’s just a Chelsea issue. The whole Sponsorship market has shifted, everyone is either some form of finance or insurance now.

Off the top of my head the only 2 Teams with FOS that anyone would legitimately use/hear of are Arsenal & City (Emirates & Etihad)

Even Leeds with Red Bull is less a view to selling the product and more that bizarre Red Bull approach to marketing for its other interests.

Just now, The Boehly Babes said:

It’s a fair point but I don’t think that’s just a Chelsea issue. The whole Sponsorship market has shifted, everyone is either some form of finance or insurance now.

Off the top of my head the only 2 Teams with FOS that anyone would legitimately use/hear of are Arsenal & City (Emirates & Etihad)

Even Leeds with Red Bull is less a view to selling the product and more that bizarre Red Bull approach to marketing for its other interests.

All true. It's the way of the world these days.

21 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Off the top of my head the only 2 Teams with FOS that anyone would legitimately use/hear of are Arsenal & City (Emirates & Etihad)

Also worth noting that these two examples are also sports washing.

Now that betting companies are off the table, it's going to be crypto, AI, finance, or absolute monarchies.

It's only sportswashing if they're from Russia or the Middle East.

If it's from America, it's sponsorship.

4 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

It's only sportswashing if they're from Russia or the Middle East.

If it's from America, it's sponsorship.

If it's from Australia, the cheque will bounce.

Much has changed (for the better) since the arrival of Alonso. Blue Co have allowed the manager to bring in his type of player and their policy of youth with potential only has clearly been changed. We even hear Alonso talk normally about whos fit and whos not at press conferences now, rather than a guarded response.

So im thinking whats happened to all this nonsense with the ridiculous micro management from the medical team/ SD's and their prescribing of how many minutes any given player can have - are we free of that too ? We appear to be moving away from the getting players in the shop window nonsense too - Alonso seems to like to do things in an old fashioned way...actually picking the team on merit to suit his tactics and style.

These clowns have had to earn their corn in this transfer window shifting their very own deadwood, i bet they dont fancy doing that too much in future. Any experiments look like they are going to be played out at the Strasbourg Laboratory ( poor sods ) in future, which will hopefully reduce the overloading the first team squad with unwanted and or unsuitable players.

Long may it continue.

I'm not under the illusion that everything is suddenly perfect under this ownership, nor have I forgotten that these changes should have happened ages ago, but it has been great to see the board finally pivoting on their ridiculous self imposed youth only transfer policy. We've finally got a proper manager, experienced players with a winning mentality and we've done our best to get rid of a good chunk of the transfer mistakes we've made over the last few years.

If things continue along this path it won't be too long before we're back to challenging for the biggest trophies.

Edited yesterday at 09:101 day by timetowaste

37 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

I'm not under the illusion that everything is suddenly perfect under this ownership, nor have I forgotten that these changes should have happened ages ago, but it has been great to see the board finally pivoting on their ridiculous self imposed youth only transfer policy. We've finally got a proper manager, experienced players with a winning mentality and we've done our best to get rid of a good chunk of the transfer mistakes we've made over the last few years.

If things continue along this path it won't be too long before we're back to challenging for the biggest trophies.

37 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

I'm not under the illusion that everything is suddenly perfect under this ownership, nor have I forgotten that these changes should have happened ages ago, but it has been great to see the board finally pivoting on their ridiculous self imposed youth only transfer policy. We've finally got a proper manager, experienced players with a winning mentality and we've done our best to get rid of a good chunk of the transfer mistakes we've made over the last few years.

If things continue along this path it won't be too long before we're back to challenging for the biggest trophies.

I agree. Fingers crossed as it will hit the owners financially as they wont get money from selling these older players. Bse they have been making lots of money from selling the players they few years ago as young players. They need think strategically on how they gonna replace the older players they retire. Lots of efforts needtp be made in the academy as it has not produced quality players for years.

I don’t think they need to worry too much about sell on value of the older players. Hendo,Wellbeck and Martinez cost less than we lost on Kellyman.

In a few years time some of our current squad will be the experienced players through natural evolution of the team and their careers. As long as there’s a blend we will be ok.

Difficult to think of elsewhere to post this....From the Shakhtar football club site....

"We invite fans to support the team in the 2026/27 European campaign

FC Shakhtar has announced the start of sales of Champions League packages for the home matches of the 2026/27 league phase, which the team will play at the legendary Stamford Bridge in London, UK.

Fans will have the opportunity to purchase a package for all 4 of Shakhtar’s home matches.

Sales stages

1st sales stage: August 21–24

Priority access to purchase packages will be given to:

• holders of 2026/27 Chelsea FC season tickets will be able to purchase a Champions League package,
• official Chelsea FC Members,
• Ukrainian fans who have purchased tickets for Shakhtar’s matches in the UK over the past two seasons. They will have special access to purchase packages.

The special package price starts from GBP 185.

For this category of Ukrainian fans, priority access will be organised using special codes or private links."

On 30/08/2026 at 10:09, timetowaste said:

I'm not under the illusion that everything is suddenly perfect under this ownership, nor have I forgotten that these changes should have happened ages ago, but it has been great to see the board finally pivoting on their ridiculous self imposed youth only transfer policy. We've finally got a proper manager, experienced players with a winning mentality and we've done our best to get rid of a good chunk of the transfer mistakes we've made over the last few years.

If things continue along this path it won't be too long before we're back to challenging for the biggest trophies.

We haven't quite given up on signing teenagers for big fees! This 18 year old cost £40 million apparently...Honest!

"Honest Ahanor is joining Crystal Palace on loan from Atalanta ahead of a pre-agreed transfer to Chelsea.

Standard Sport reported last week that Chelsea had reached an agreement for the 18-year-old to join the Blues, had agreed personal terms with the defender, and that he had been given permission to travel to London for a medical.""

As mentioned earlier I attended the Chelsea Supporters Trust (CST) AGM on Saturday. I'll post my comments on the meeting later but in the meantime here is the Chair of the CST's report.

https://chelseasupporterstrust.com/wp-content/uploads/CHAIRS-REPORT-2025-26.pdf