It’s a bit grim isn’t it?

[bluedave]

Sterling is an upgrade on Lukaku, and Koulibaly should be a capable replacement for Rüdiger, so it's weird that the OP would say we haven't added any "quality" to the squad. There's also a good chance of another signing or two before the window closes. These things always take time to sort out and can drag on as players and their agents try to shake down prospective clubs for every penny possible, you'd think people would have realised that by now. And then there were the pesky sanctions and change of club ownership. Chilwell's return from long-term injury should be a major boost, and I'm excited to see what Gallagher can do in midfield. All things considered, we're not doing too badly.

What make me a little nervous is that we seem to be resigned to playing a false-nine without any option for a 'plan B'. Looking at the transfer gossip columns lately, we're being linked with defenders and midfielders but no centre forwards, which indicates we're satisfied to enter the season without a traditional CF. I can only assume the scouting team and Tuchel have looked around at which CFs might realistically be signable in this window and decided that none of them are quite right for us, which would be a preferable approach to throwing a f**kload of cash at another Lukaku.

 

[Valpo]

19 hours ago, timetowaste said:

- Koulibaly is in the top 5 best CBs in the world

- Sterling is in the top 10 best wingers in the world 

- We've been taken over by a new group of owners that have shown they're willing to pump hundreds of millions into the club

Yes we've been a bit unlucky in the transfer window but the future of Chelsea is bright, stop acting so spoilt.

 

 

And that poor luck has had quite a bit to do with Barca mortgaging it's future by selling future income in order to try to keep up the appearance of a ultra successful club.

Barca can't keep this up forever.  

 

[WhiteWall]

1 hour ago, Ballack & Blu said:

And I’d have Kane or Son, or maybe ‘Don Conte’ anyday

But they weren't part of spuds summer transfer dealing, which I think is what the original comparison was about

[Ballack & Blu]

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

But they weren't part of spuds summer transfer dealing, which I think is what the original comparison was about

No I know I was just musing, bout they look half decent, I’ll be happy if we get a striker

[thebluekid]

Update: Feeling a little less grim now the prospect of Cucerella and Fofana have been thrown on us.

 

We still need a solid creative attacker or a proper false 9 kind onion bagger; no f**king chance we get anywhere going in to the season with the German Peter Crouch as our frontman.

 

May as well start calling Havertz ‘The Lion’, not because he’s a fierce warrior either… Because all he does is stroll around with his head held high f**king yawning. Would fit right in after a hard day sat on your arse in the Savanna.

[thebluekid]

Just now, thebluekid said:

Update: Feeling a little less grim now the prospect of Cucerella and Fofana have been thrown on us.

 

We still need a solid creative attacker or a proper false 9 kind onion bagger; no f**king chance we get anywhere going in to the season with the German Peter Crouch as our frontman.

 

May as well start calling Havertz ‘The Lion’, not because he’s a fierce warrior either… Because all he does is stroll around with his head held high f**king yawning. Would fit right in after a hard day sat on your arse in the Savanna.

Mean no disrespect to Crouchy either, I’d be having him over The Lion any day of the week

[Sexyfootball]

8 hours ago, Sindre said:

The way it stands right now we will have to be extremely lucky to escape a crisis with our defence. First of all we'd need Silva and Koulibaly to be fit for the entire season and secondly we are going to need that Chalobah/Colwill/Sarr steps up massively and saves the day. Both those scenarios are unlikely to happen in my opinion.

Even in our celebrated season of conceding only 15 PL goals in Jose's first year with us, we had a far from settled defence. JT started 36 games, and the next highest was Paolo Ferreira with 29 starts, 22 at right back and 7 at left back. Then it was Gallas with 28 starts, 12 at centre back and 16 at left back, and then Ricardo Carvalho with 22 starts at centre back. Glen Johnson made 13 starts at right back, Wayne Bridge 12 starts at left back, Robert Huth 6 at centre back, and Geremi 3 (at right back) and Babayaro 3 (at left back). 

Hence why Tuchel wants more defensive signings - we'll definitely need more cover for a long season. Colwill seems not be rated, reading between the lines, possibly Ampadu as well. I think we still need a centre back, a right back and a left back, all of whom need to provide proper competition for starting places, and not just be squad fillers.

I imagine we are still working like mad on : 

IN

Centre back, right back, left back

OUT

Azpilicueta, Alonso, Emerson, Ampadu, Sarr, and sadly probably also Colwill.

[Argo]

3 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Even in our celebrated season of conceding only 15 PL goals in Jose's first year with us, we had a far from settled defence. JT started 36 games, and the next highest was Paolo Ferreira with 29 starts, 22 at right back and 7 at left back. Then it was Gallas with 28 starts, 12 at centre back and 16 at left back, and then Ricardo Carvalho with 22 starts at centre back. Glen Johnson made 13 starts at right back, Wayne Bridge 12 starts at left back, Robert Huth 6 at centre back, and Geremi 3 (at right back) and Babayaro 3 (at left back). 

Hence why Tuchel wants more defensive signings - we'll definitely need more cover for a long season. Colwill seems not be rated, reading between the lines, possibly Ampadu as well. I think we still need a centre back, a right back and a left back, all of whom need to provide proper competition for starting places, and not just be squad fillers.

I imagine we are still working like mad on : 

IN

Centre back, right back, left back

OUT

Azpilicueta, Alonso, Emerson, Ampadu, Sarr, and sadly probably also Colwill.

Ironically that defense would have made a dream back 3 formation too. Carvalho, JT and Gallas back 3 while Geremi was born to be a wingback.

[Jangz]

18 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

 

OUT

Azpilicueta, Alonso, Emerson, Ampadu, Sarr, and sadly probably also Colwill.

I don’t think I trust TTs ability to judge potential give a dodgy PSG record.. plus we seem to be happy selling Tomori and guehi. If we move on Colwill might as well shut the academy

[Sexyfootball]

Just now, Jangz said:

I don’t think I trust TTs ability to judge potential give a dodgy PSG record.. plus we seem to be happy selling Tomori and guehi. If we move on Colwill might as well shut the academy

If you compare to our 04/05 squad, back then we had 4 centre backs for 2 positions (back 4), three of them very much A-List (JT, Carvalho, Gallas) and youngster Robert Huth as #4. 

I'd imagine TT simply wants something similar, and the "youth" spot is already filled by Trevoh Chalobah. 

[Jangz]

6 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you compare to our 04/05 squad, back then we had 4 centre backs for 2 positions (back 4), three of them very much A-List (JT, Carvalho, Gallas) and youngster Robert Huth as #4. 

I'd imagine TT simply wants something similar, and the "youth" spot is already filled by Trevoh Chalobah. 

Don’t you think it’s madness that whether he it Fofana or Cucurella.. every EPl club we want to buy from seems to rate Colwill really high. We on our part instead of placing a 50 mil tag are willing to include him..

Tt is f**king up again.. we let Guehi , Tomori and Zouma go to target players who have had one good season and aren’t even in their national teams yet.

Did fofana really have a better season than Tomori at AC Milan or Guehi at CP? If we let Colwill go this will cost us for a decade.

[Sexyfootball]

22 minutes ago, Jangz said:

Don’t you think it’s madness that whether he it Fofana or Cucurella.. every EPl club we want to buy from seems to rate Colwill really high. We on our part instead of placing a 50 mil tag are willing to include him..

Tt is f**king up again.. we let Guehi , Tomori and Zouma go to target players who have had one good season and aren’t even in their national teams yet.

Did fofana really have a better season than Tomori at AC Milan or Guehi at CP? If we let Colwill go this will cost us for a decade.

Personally I'd keep Colwill.

It will be hugely disappointing if he is sold without any of us ever having a chance to see him in action (bar that Twitter clip of him scoring a nice goal in a training match). If we do sell, hopefully we include a first option/buy back clause etc etc, like we apparently did with Guehi and Livramento.

[JM7]

It’s a shame that Livermento did his ACL as we have a buy back clause on him. Could have been an easy deal. 

[TheSage]

11 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

You don't necessarily need to score 90 or 100 goals to win the PL title, even in the era of Klopp and Pep. Theroetically you could score 38 goals and win it ... 38 1-0 wins for example. 

We have won 3 of our 5 PL titles by scoring 72, 72 and 73 goals. Last year we scored 76.

So do you believe realistically we can challenge for the title? Of course, anything is possible theoretically, but the reality is another matter.

[timetowaste]

On 01/08/2022 at 00:32, Ballack & Blu said:

Who’s the barb aimed at?

Was aimed at the OP. Not been the best window as of yet because of narrowly missing out on signings but we've already strengthened significantly and we're still pressing for more signings. Even with losing out on certain players I think it puts aside concerns that the new owners aren't ambitious and that's a great sign going forward.

[WhiteWall]

13 hours ago, Jangz said:

I don’t think I trust TTs ability to judge potential give a dodgy PSG record.. plus we seem to be happy selling Tomori and guehi. If we move on Colwill might as well shut the academy

I suspect that they would think the reverse. Our academy has Ben standing on its own two feet as a major income stream for some time. Whilst we may all regret Tomori and Guehi leaving the development and sale into top flight reams of the likes of Tomori, Guehi, Lamphey, Abraham etc would appear to a business case being fully maximized and a profitable income stream.

[Sexyfootball]

12 hours ago, TheSage said:

So do you believe realistically we can challenge for the title? Of course, anything is possible theoretically, but the reality is another matter.

Yes !

We challenged very successfully last season until the point we got derailed by injuries, covid and Lukaku ...

 

No reason we cannot do so again, especially as Boehly/TT are clearly addressing some of the deficiencies and issues in last year's squad ... 

 

 

[Ballack & Blu]

2 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Was aimed at the OP. Not been the best window as of yet because of narrowly missing out on signings but we've already strengthened significantly and we're still pressing for more signings. Even with losing out on certain players I think it puts aside concerns that the new owners aren't ambitious and that's a great sign going forward.

Made some good signings, but the Medias  constant portrayal of us tripping up at every turn, makes us look rank amateurish, or worse desperate, I personally think Koullibally is the best signing of a defender we could make, Kounde is average, and De ligt was bang average at Juve, or they wouldn’t of sold him

[Sheva]

I think it's going to be a tough season to achieve top 4 this year. I think we will do it but I can see us finishing behind Spurs.

City/Liverpool are guarentees and I think Spurs are a real threat to third with Conte at the helm. Arsenal have signed well and look good so far but it is Arsenal.

If I had a prediction it would be City, Liverpool, Spurs, Us in that order. Only because they have Conte and their firepower upfront is far superior to ours.

 

[Ballack & Blu]

my needle is wearing the grooves on this particular record right down, but the recruitment of  new Striker is so apparent, especially with Werner probably leaving........come on Wake up

[weetee]

Think top 4 really shouldn't be a problem without equally heavy bad luck regarding injuries and who knows how Corona may kick back in autumn / winter..

Title challenge isn't really a thing for now but I can also imagine Liverpool / City struggle a bit this year (compared to their incredible standards), can Haaland stay fit for a complete season? 

 

I think the outlook is pretty good so far. The new owner is obviously interested in setting up a very competitive squad - that's the best news. New targets all seemingly make sense structurally without  any vanity / show-off transfers (for now). Could be much worse if you ask me. Arsenal and Spurs have to play much more games this season too, no? Spurs still 100% reliant upon Son/Kane to deliver week in week out imho and Arsenal..should be better than last year that's true, ManU I have still heavy doubts about that lot. 

[JM7]

I’m interested to see what happens with outgoings as the squad is currently very bloated. Clearly the club aren’t allowing outgoings until they’ve got the players in which makes sense.
 

Remember we can only loan 8 players out this season as new rules have come in so we are limited. Players I can see leaving are:

Kepa (loan)

Sarr (Loan)

Joringho (sale)

Werner (loan due to massive wages)

Barkley (as above)

CHO (sale, possibly)

[Sexyfootball]

28 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I’m interested to see what happens with outgoings as the squad is currently very bloated. Clearly the club aren’t allowing outgoings until they’ve got the players in which makes sense.
 

Remember we can only loan 8 players out this season as new rules have come in so we are limited. Players I can see leaving are:

Kepa (loan)

Sarr (Loan)

Jorginho (sale)

Werner (loan due to massive wages)

Barkley (as above)

CHO (sale, possibly)

I have us at 32 players right now, so I reckon we'll need to shift 10-12 players out ... either on loan or permanently, to allow space for the potential new arrivals (RWB, CB, LWB, DM, FWD), and leave as at 25 for the season.

[Jezz]

On 02/08/2022 at 22:42, Sheva said:

I think it's going to be a tough season to achieve top 4 this year. I think we will do it but I can see us finishing behind Spurs.

City/Liverpool are guarentees and I think Spurs are a real threat to third with Conte at the helm. Arsenal have signed well and look good so far but it is Arsenal.

If I had a prediction it would be City, Liverpool, Spurs, Us in that order. Only because they have Conte and their firepower upfront is far superior to ours.

That's my prediction as well.

Very worried about Spurs' potential. I still think Liverpool and City are not going down anytime soon.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Jezz

[azpi28]

7 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I have us at 32 players right now, so I reckon we'll need to shift 10-12 players out ... either on loan or permanently, to allow space for the potential new arrivals (RWB, CB, LWB, DM, FWD), and leave as at 25 for the season.

Kenedy has taken #23 which is Gilmour's number

so he will probably go on loan