Does anyone still have any faith in Baba Rahman as potentially one of our two left backs ?

15 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Does anyone still have any faith in Baba Rahman as potentially one of our two left backs ?

Honestly, no. Didn't know what happened to him either tbh.

43 minutes ago, Deino said:

Honestly, no. Didn't know what happened to him either tbh.

Did his ACL twice I think

9 hours ago, seanlu13913 said:

I feel like we’ll be like Everton or Watford with the squad that’ll be available with the transfer ban. ?

Next season does look dire on paper but I still think this squad without hazard and transfers is still good enough to finish top 6. Top 4 might even be possible depending on whether youth are able to step up, whether pulisic proves to be an improvement to the current players on our team, and whether some of our signings from this year like Jorginho and Kepa continue to adapt to the league and improve. It also helps that Arsenal and Tottenham most likely won't be strengthening so the light at the end of the tunnel might not be so dim!

1 hour ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Next season does look dire on paper but I still think this squad without hazard and transfers is still good enough to finish top 6. Top 4 might even be possible depending on whether youth are able to step up, whether pulisic proves to be an improvement to the current players on our team, and whether some of our signings from this year like Jorginho and Kepa continue to adapt to the league and improve. It also helps that Arsenal and Tottenham most likely won't be strengthening so the light at the end of the tunnel might not be so dim!

On paper we look dire we have a lot of potential players if they show. It will be tough without CHO and RLC for a handful of months. We need our experienced players to show up. Pedro needs a great season and does Willian if they aren’t sold off. I’m hoping that Pulisic hits the ground running in the PL. 

Time to play Football Manager again I see!

For me I think we need five new signings if we skip our ban, Reece James also gets a shot. I wouldn't try and replace Hazard because I just don't think that's possible. Not this summer anyway. Perhaps we save our pennies and play for Sancho next summer. Anywho:

CB - Alessio Romagnoli. One of the best centre backs in Italy, captain of Milan who have failed FFP and missed out on CL, crucially he is left footed. As many know I'm not a fan of Luiz but we will need to prepare for his departure over the next little while anyway. €60-70m 

LB - Lucas Digne. Forget the Robertson rubbish, this bloke was the best LB in England this year. Good freekick taker, solid defender and attacker. An upgrade on Emerson and Alonso (who I think will leave). Crucially he has acclimated to English football and speaks the language. We also have some bargaining chips in players that Everton want. €40-50m. Jay Dasilva is our homegrown alternative. But I fear he may be a little short.

CM: Ruben Neves, Tanguy Ndombele. For me Kovacic should go back to Madrid and Jorginho may well follow Sarri so deeper in midfield is an area to improve. Neves like Digne has shown his ability to play in England. He has great passing range, a good long shot and is a handy freekick taker. Ndombele is simply an amazing footballer. He could well be a new Essien, his ability to dribble through the middle and never lose the ball is remarkable. RLC and Ndombele playing next to each other in the future would send a shiver down most team spines. €40-50m and €70m.

CF: This is the hard one. If Sarri goes the ideal is Jovic, he could dovetail nicely with Giroud and has the ability to finish first time with either foot. This is crucial in my view where we tend to have so little space. But he may well be off to Madrid. The alternative list is a bit short on quality. For me I'd be looking at Maxi Gomez from Celta who has the Diego Costa bastard quality about him and has scored plenty in an ordinary team. Haller from Frankfurt is another option but he would perhaps be more of a Giroud replacement than complement. Rather than signing a new forward I think the other option is to sign someone like Nabil Fekir who can play as a 10 off Giroud. He's got a similar low centre of gravity to Hazard which makes it hard to get the ball from him. He's also a good freekick taker. That would mean Tammy as backup striker. Depends of course who the manager is which way we go. (€60m-70m)

Now some might say that is excessive spending but it's easily attainable with Eden and Morata likely to leave and some others like Michy, Jorginho, Bakayoko and Alonso close to the same category. All will fetch good money. Potentially that could all be done with a net spend of around 100m overall.

Ideal squad is this: 

Kepa, Caballero, Cumming (U21), Dave, Reece James (HG), Rudiger, Christensen (HG), Romagnoli, Luiz, Digne, Emerson, Ampadu (U21), Kante, Neves, Ndombele, RLC (HG) Barkley (HG), CHO (U21), Pedro, Willian, Pulisic, Fekir/Jovic, Giroud, Tammy (HG). 

 

What is dire? 4th place? 5th place? No need to ring the alarm bells. Have faith in the core of our squad and the great young players we have chomping at the bit to get a chance. I think we will surprise some people in 19-20, including some of our own supporters!!

45 minutes ago, Butterhampton FC said:

What is dire? 4th place? 5th place? No need to ring the alarm bells. Have faith in the core of our squad and the great young players we have chomping at the bit to get a chance. I think we will surprise some people in 19-20, including some of our own supporters!!

I’m not sure exactly what would be considered dire.  Would probably be something like finishing 5th or 6th with a huge gap between us and the race for top 4.

Actually finishing 4th though shouldn’t even be a question, it’s not dire.  CL qualification with the squad we are likely to have if the ban is upheld would be a huge success.

To me dire is 5-8th in the table. What worries me is our attack and goals. Hazard was responsible for almost half of our goals this season. I don’t think anyone in the squad can make up for that and we surely won’t be signing anyone who can. 

4 hours ago, seanlu13913 said:

To me dire is 5-8th in the table. What worries me is our attack and goals. Hazard was responsible for almost half of our goals this season. I don’t think anyone in the squad can make up for that and we surely won’t be signing anyone who can. 

I agree that will be a challenge and made worse by the RLC injury who was probably our next most dangerous player.

The new line up with Hazard gone and Pulisic will buy us a little time yet if we do not get the manager situation resolved early we could be in trouble come Christmas/ January.

Even with Pulisic it is complicated due to his USA duties this summer. 

18 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Does anyone still have any faith in Baba Rahman as potentially one of our two left backs ?

I have more faith in myself and I can’t even run in a straight line. 

Looking at next season and although we are losing Eden, Sarri, CHO and RLC are out half term we have very exciting players. 

If you think positively we have 2 most lauded young wingers in the Europe (par Sancho and Mbappe) in Callum and Pulisic. 

Ruben is emerging as one of the best midfileders in the country. He was clearly our best advancing midfielder this term. 

Our D-line with Dave-Rudi-David-Emerson is fine. No matter what you say it is very solid and capable. Christensen has bags of potential as you could see in the EL final. 

Kepa is just excellent. His passing range, calm and reactions are up there with the best. Still a young man. 

On top of that we have Kante, one of the best and wanted midfielders in the world. Even at non-natural spot he was very good. 

Jorginho at best is an excellent player. He had his troubles large periods in the season but maybe it is due to new surroundings. 

Giroud was the main man in the EL scoring 11 goals but he never really struck Gold in the Prem. 

Our problems lie in the shallow midfield and in strikers. The loan army gives us Mount, Bats, Morata, Van Ginkel to name a few. 

Even with the ban we can challenge for 4th BUT I think that is the absolute maximum. A good cup run and this is what our next term could look like. Positives could come with the new manager and the emerging young talent. 

GK: Kepa, Caballero

RB: Azpi, James

LB: Emerson, Aina

CB: Luiz, Rudiger, Christensen, Ampadu

CM: RLC, Kante, Jorginho, Barkley, Kovacic

RW: Pedro, Pusilic

LW: Willian, Hudson Odoi

ST: Giroud, Abraham

Even with the transfer ban the team can look really different next season, with an injection of youth. We desperately need to revamp our attack but I don’t think that’s too bad for a season.

 

Jay Dasilva is the latest of the loan army to move on ... sold to Bristol City, where he was on loan last season.

Very good article. 

https://www.espn.com.au/football/english-premier-league/23/blog/post/3885056/chelsea-face-a-tough-transfer-ban-can-their-loan-army-come-to-their-rescue

 

I don't know how you guys feel but I always hate it when media and football experts don't have anything good to say about our loansystem. There is nothing posititive. People always say 'they have 40 players on loan for some reason'. Some reason? 

For Chelsea the reasons are:

We can call back the player if they hit form and utilize them. 

We can sell them for profit if we bought them cheap. 

For the loanee:

He is owned by Chelsea and has a chance to play for a massive club. 

I think it is a very traditional way of thinking you need to be owned by a club to play in it. I have never seen a problem with it. 

Anyway: loanees we should use are Michy, Mount, Fikori. 

14 hours ago, ozboy said:

Very good article. 

https://www.espn.com.au/football/english-premier-league/23/blog/post/3885056/chelsea-face-a-tough-transfer-ban-can-their-loan-army-come-to-their-rescue

 

Sorry stopped reading after the usual rubbish about an "aging" squad... off the top of my head our average squad age is 26 (+- VAT) this includes outliers like GC and Rob Green, if I am right about the 26 ave age that would put us about right for a prem team. 

We just released Rob Green, Eduardo and Bulka. Cech is clearly taking the backup goalie role...