The club complained recently that EM had undermined their position in the centre half market when Colwill got injured by stating we needed a centre back.

Firstly it was no secret Colwill was injured, other clubs were aware and secondly at that time we had several players including Sterling in the very public bomb squad doing their value the world of good. Idiots.

The whole concept of the bomb squad, to me, is terrible business. Why put Sterling in the bomb squad and buy someone like Garnacho and Gittens, who are currently worse than Sterling.

Sterling - 59 apps, 14 goals 7 assists. Goal involvement every 3 and a bit games. Not great.

Gittens - 16 apps 2 Assists

Garnacho 15 apps 1 goal 3 assists.

So they have ended up spending near enough £100m (if you include Sterling's wages for this season) for 2 left wingers with worse output than Sterling.

In no way am I saying Sterling is good enough. Just that it's nonsense to think any of the above is good business. Unless we end up selling either Garnacho or Gittens for profit, which is highly doubtful.

All the while, we have Tyrique George with 12 apps in last two seasons (most from the bench), 1 goal 1 assist. He would have been fine back-up/competition for Sterling this season if we put them both in the shop window and played them, rather than buy two other mediocre left wingers.

2 hours ago, Shweaves said:

The whole concept of the bomb squad, to me, is terrible business. Why put Sterling in the bomb squad and buy someone like Garnacho and Gittens, who are currently worse than Sterling.

Sterling - 59 apps, 14 goals 7 assists. Goal involvement every 3 and a bit games. Not great.

Gittens - 16 apps 2 Assists

Garnacho 15 apps 1 goal 3 assists.

So they have ended up spending near enough £100m (if you include Sterling's wages for this season) for 2 left wingers with worse output than Sterling.

In no way am I saying Sterling is good enough. Just that it's nonsense to think any of the above is good business. Unless we end up selling either Garnacho or Gittens for profit, which is highly doubtful.

All the while, we have Tyrique George with 12 apps in last two seasons (most from the bench), 1 goal 1 assist. He would have been fine back-up/competition for Sterling this season if we put them both in the shop window and played them, rather than buy two other mediocre left wingers.

Just underlines how poor our wide options have been / still are when we start to question whether we'd be better off with Sterling and George.

Over last couple of seasons, with the exception of Estevao, they have largely been as bad as each other. Sterling, Mudryk, Neto, Garnacho, George, Gittens, Madueke. All extremely inconsistent with a lot more bad games than good. At least we got a decent fee for Madueke - can't see us getting too much for any of the others. I still have slim hopes for Gittens, as he does show little glimpses now & again, but have never seen a player so timid and light-weight.

3 hours ago, Shweaves said:

The whole concept of the bomb squad, to me, is terrible business. Why put Sterling in the bomb squad and buy someone like Garnacho and Gittens, who are currently worse than Sterling.

Sterling - 59 apps, 14 goals 7 assists. Goal involvement every 3 and a bit games. Not great.

Gittens - 16 apps 2 Assists

Garnacho 15 apps 1 goal 3 assists.

So they have ended up spending near enough £100m (if you include Sterling's wages for this season) for 2 left wingers with worse output than Sterling.

In no way am I saying Sterling is good enough. Just that it's nonsense to think any of the above is good business. Unless we end up selling either Garnacho or Gittens for profit, which is highly doubtful.

All the while, we have Tyrique George with 12 apps in last two seasons (most from the bench), 1 goal 1 assist. He would have been fine back-up/competition for Sterling this season if we put them both in the shop window and played them, rather than buy two other mediocre left wingers.

I have seen Garnacho score 2 goals in a single game - so the stats are not right.

23 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

I have seen Garnacho score 2 goals in a single game - so the stats are not right.

These are stats in the PL. If you include all games sterling gets another 10 G/A in 2 seasons, but given in cup games you can stat pad against lower league opposition, I chose to leave it out for all of them.

It'ls also fair to say Gittens has not started many PL games this season so it reads a bit worse than it actually is.

13 minutes ago, Shweaves said:

These are stats in the PL. If you include all games sterling gets another 10 G/A in 2 seasons, but given in cup games you can stat pad against lower league opposition, I chose to leave it out for all of them.

It'ls also fair to say Gittens has not started many PL games this season so it reads a bit worse than it actually is.

Out of Garnacho, Sterling, George and Sterling - I think Garnacho is the best of the currnt day bunch. The bunch might not be any good - but he is still the best of the bunch.

29 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Out of Garnacho, Sterling, George and Sterling - I think Garnacho is the best of the currnt day bunch. The bunch might not be any good - but he is still the best of the bunch.

Before that West Ham game I would have agreed. But that 45 minutes was possibly the worst I have seen from a CFC player in a very long time.

30 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Out of Garnacho, Sterling, George and Sterling - I think Garnacho is the best of the currnt day bunch. The bunch might not be any good - but he is still the best of the bunch.

I get that recency bias is firmly in my mind, but I can't get over the disaster that was Garnacho's 45 minutes.

I feel bad for George, of all players. Not saying he's what we need, but it's not like the bar is set high.

Garnacho off the bench can have some effect. It seems when he starts he's just atrocious.

7 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Garnacho off the bench can have some effect. It seems when he starts he's just atrocious.

That is because he is suited to a game in transition. Against low blocks which is 85% of our opponents he shouldn’t be starting because he lacks 1v1 ball skills.

4 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

BlueCo "strategy" seems to be to significantly overpay for most of their player "assets" and then drive the value into the floor for some of them via use of these awful bomb squads .... very odd behaviour on both counts ... and doubly so when the people driving it are simultaneously rewarded with pay rises and contract extensions.

11 hours ago, Shweaves said:

The whole concept of the bomb squad, to me, is terrible business. Why put Sterling in the bomb squad and buy someone like Garnacho and Gittens, who are currently worse than Sterling.

Sterling - 59 apps, 14 goals 7 assists. Goal involvement every 3 and a bit games. Not great.

Gittens - 16 apps 2 Assists

Garnacho 15 apps 1 goal 3 assists.

So they have ended up spending near enough £100m (if you include Sterling's wages for this season) for 2 left wingers with worse output than Sterling.

In no way am I saying Sterling is good enough. Just that it's nonsense to think any of the above is good business. Unless we end up selling either Garnacho or Gittens for profit, which is highly doubtful.

All the while, we have Tyrique George with 12 apps in last two seasons (most from the bench), 1 goal 1 assist. He would have been fine back-up/competition for Sterling this season if we put them both in the shop window and played them, rather than buy two other mediocre left wingers.

Sterling isn't good enough.

The hope was that people would think he is good enough and being treated poorly. It failed, kinda. But it did get him out eventually.

I assume they figured worse outcome would be other teams seeing him being sh*t from the bench and learning he's not good enough.

That's the point of the bomb squad.

I would rather Gittens than Sterling. Id rather anyone than Sterling. He's not a Chelsea player. I'm so happy he's gone and will work to imagine he was never here.

Edited February 2Feb 2 by bisright1

One of the most interesting things on transfer deadline day was the sporting director of Union Berlin, Horst Helt, saying that he'd been offered Raheem Sterling. At the time, I think he was a bit blindsided by it. He's like, 'Is this a joke? This is Raheem Sterling. We can't afford anything like that'."

Think he has priced himself out of a move. A bit crazy when you consider his age, and how much he has earned. Just needs to call it a day.

I hear Inter Miami need a replacement for Messi.

On 02/02/2026 at 11:01, Shweaves said:

All the while, we have Tyrique George with 12 apps in last two seasons (most from the bench), 1 goal 1 assist. He would have been fine back-up/competition for Sterling this season if we put them both in the shop window and played them, rather than buy two other mediocre left wingers.

Cant launder money if it sits in the washing bag.

I did not see this coming 😁 I'd better get in touch with the one Feyenoord supporter in my life.

BBC Sport

Raheem Sterling: Former Chelsea and Manchester City winge...

Former Chelsea and Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling joins Dutch club Feyenoord on a deal until the end of the season.

That is such a rogue move, but I'll give him credit for going because it seemed like he'd only go to a club that would let him do the school run.

Maybe he felt like he wanted to play for an actual club, not a club in the middle of butt-f**k nowhere.

Strange how now that he's been paid off the remaining years of his contract he's all of a sudden open to playing outside of London.

16 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Maybe he felt like he wanted to play for an actual club, not a club in the middle of butt-f**k nowhere.

You clearly have never spent time in Rotterdam 😳

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

Strange how now that he's been paid off the remaining years of his contract he's all of a sudden open to playing outside of London.

Or perhaps that was all nonsense to begin with.

40 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Or perhaps that was all nonsense to begin with.

For someone with a passion for the Tory slug Dominic Sandbrook you can otherwise be perceptive.

3 hours ago, dermott said:

For someone with a passion for the Tory slug Dominic Sandbrook you can otherwise be perceptive.

Mmmm, I like me a Tory slug. Apparently.

On 13/02/2026 at 00:08, SydneyChelsea said:

Maybe he felt like he wanted to play for an actual club, not a club in the middle of butt-f**k nowhere.

Ah, you are speaking about Tottenham.

So is Fat Ange https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cwyx18287k9o

Respeck.

Got his first assist for Feyenoord at the weekend (their second):