Ins and outs

[ozboy]

This list is taken from soccer mole:

Raheem Sterling (£50m, Manchester City)
Kalidou Koulibaly (£34.2m, Napoli)
Omari Hutchinson (free, Arsenal)
Gabriel Slonina (£12.3m, Chicago Fire)
Carney Chukwuemeka (£20m, Aston Villa)
Marc Cucurella (£55m, Brighton & Hove Albion)
Wesley Fofana (£72.4m, Leicester City)

and we can add Auba and Zakaria. I can see Sterling, Koulibaly, Cururella and Fofana being first team regular starters and Auba playing quite a lot. If Zakaria works he will also get plenty of minutes so that's pretty much half a team.

Of the guys that have left only Rudigier and to an extent Werner were regular starters and given Rudigier couldn't be kept I think only Werner was the one Tuchel actually wanted to stay. Kennedy has also gone I'm pretty sure and of course Mitchy. And I think Billy gone to. Please add any names in that aren't on the lists. 

For my money that's a pretty strong window and a complete team rebuild that clearly is taking a bit of time, we don't really have, to settle down. Kante going so early in the season, although not surprising, is still disappointing and probably the difference in these early games.

We have moved on a lot of players and the squad is slimmed down but still big enough.

Out
Antonio Rudiger (free, Real Madrid)
Charly Musonda (released)
Danny Drinkwater (released)
Jake Clarke-Salter (free, Queens Park Rangers)
Lucas Bergstrom (loan, Peterborough United)
Andreas Christensen (free, Barcelona)
Sam McClelland (loan, Barrow)
Romelu Lukaku (loan, Inter Milan)
Nathan Baxter (loan, Hull City)
Jamie Cumming (loan, MK Dons)
Ian Maatsen (loan, Burnley)
Tino Anjorin (loan, Huddersfield Town)
Henry Lawrence (loan, MK Dons)
Levi Colwill (loan, Brighton & Hove Albion)
Matt Miazga (free, FC Cincinnati)
Timo Werner (£18m, RB Leipzig)
Malang Sarr (loan, Monaco)
Emerson Palmieri (undisclosed, West Ham United)
Ross Barkley (free transfer)
Callum Hudson-Odoi (loan, Bayer Leverkusen)
Abdul-Rahman Baba (loan, Reading)
Xavier Simons (loan, Hull City)
Dujon Sterling (loan, Stoke City)
Ethan Ampadu (loan, Spezia)

Chelsea total spent to date: £240.3m
Chelsea total received to date: £40m

Chelsea net transfer balance: -£200.3m

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by ozboy

[HazardousChoice]

One of the worst Windows I can ever remember a club having. 

Once Auba signs we'll have spent over £250m.  A quarter of a billion pounds.

A net spend over £210m

And the squad is no stronger than it was last season.

We still have an aging injury prone midfield where 2 of our main players contracts are expiring next summer.

We still have the worst set of forwards in the top half with no decent right winger.  

We still have the worst set of keepers in the top half. 

We've thrown an awful lot of money around but we've not closed the gap on any of the teams above us.  If anything we've gone backwards.

[AlwaysRight]

Highlight is Sterling, he looks good and seems to know where the net is. The rest well there is question marks over a few, but Cucarella could be a good one too in the long term. See what excuses Tuchel will use if we lose or scrape a draw to West Ham at the weekend, after he's just spent more money than any other team on new players. 😵‍

Edited September 1, 2022 by AlwaysRight

[azpi28]

It’s not that bad 

we still have some areas that need strengthening but you can’t do it all in one window 

[WhiteWall]

20 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

One of the worst Windows I can ever remember a club having. 

Once Auba signs we'll have spent over £250m.  A quarter of a billion pounds.

A net spend over £210m

And the squad is no stronger than it was last season.

We still have an aging injury prone midfield where 2 of our main players contracts are expiring next summer.

We still have the worst set of forwards in the top half with no decent right winger.  

We still have the worst set of keepers in the top half. 

We've thrown an awful lot of money around but we've not closed the gap on any of the teams above us.  If anything we've gone backwards.

Sobering but i don't think i can fault any of the points here.

It certainly feels that my hopes are still just a pipe dream for us to be a club with a settled, deep squad of players playing in their favoured positions so that when we need to we can just cherry pick players in advance, like Liverpool are doing for Bellingahm.

Let's hope we are all wrong and TT pulls this group into a cohesive unit that can challenge for a top 4 place. Sadly, currently i am still not moving from my 6th - 8th prediction.

[Jackbuchanan]

Personally my only disappointment is Werner. I really liked him, and given the crazy money thrown around for players now days, we let him go for pittance. Should have just loaned him out.

 

[ozboy]

Romano reports the Michy deal collapsed. Bad luck Michy

[ozboy]

And Harvey Vale has gone on loan to Hull

[RomansRoubles]

5 very solid first team players, a low cost loanee who was very good just a season ago, some exciting young talent for the future and getting rid of lots of deadwood despite a turbulent takeover and an owner with very little experience. Only someone entitled can complain about this window.

[BluesPower]

Add Cesare Casadei to the in's

[Valerie]

6 hours ago, ozboy said:

Romano reports the Michy deal collapsed. Bad luck Michy

And no other last minute loan? Oh dear. In which competitions is the window still open, Saudi-Arabia? Canada? @axman2526 would love to see him in his neck of the woods! It's waiting for the January window otherwise. 

[Sexyfootball]

12 new signings, 21 sold or released, 22 players sent on loan. Great effort from Todd and the club.

Just Batshuayi currently in limbo (I put him in the OUT column for now - anticipating that we cancel his contract as per Barkley, or alternatively he'll be loaned to a club whose window is still open)

25 for the First Team Squad : 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders, 6 forwards.

Of the 25, 16 are retained from last season, 7 are new signings (six bought and one on loan) and 2 are promotions from the 21/22 loan army.

[Mário César]

hard to believe that deadwood like barkley, emerson and drinkwater are all left the club

finally

[HazardousChoice]

6 hours ago, RomansRoubles said:

5 very solid first team players, a low cost loanee who was very good just a season ago, some exciting young talent for the future and getting rid of lots of deadwood despite a turbulent takeover and an owner with very little experience. Only someone entitled can complain about this window.

Many of the players we've brought in are quality players no doubt but It's almost physically impossible not to improve a squad with a net spend of over 200m in one summer.

The real question is that given what we've spent are we really any closer to challenging for the title over the season or even solidifying our place in the top 4?

For all the money we've spent we still have so many glaring holes and deadwood around the first team it's hard to call the window a success.

[WhiteWall]

44 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

12 new signings, 21 sold or released, 22 players sent on loan. Great effort from Todd and the club.

Just Batshuayi currently in limbo (I put him in the OUT column for now - anticipating that we cancel his contract as per Barkley, or alternatively he'll be loaned to a club whose window is still open)

25 for the First Team Squad : 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders, 6 forwards.

Of the 25, 16 are retained from last season, 7 are new signings (six bought and one on loan) and 2 are promotions from the 21/22 loan army.

What a great graphic. Thanks

[RomansRoubles]

40 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

Many of the players we've brought in are quality players no doubt but It's almost physically impossible not to improve a squad with a net spend of over 200m in one summer.

The real question is that given what we've spent are we really any closer to challenging for the title over the season or even solidifying our place in the top 4?

For all the money we've spent we still have so many glaring holes and deadwood around the first team it's hard to call the window a success.

You have to look at this in context. We lost so many first team players. We had to replace them first. If it all, it highights the incompetence of the previous board who had no long term strategy and kept extending terrible players.

We spent 270M which is much more than the 200M people were laughing that that the owner will spend at the beginning of the window.

It was next to impossible to close the gap because we lost so many players and city strengthened on top of what they have. But it was not for want of ambition. If we had got our primary targets of Raphinha and De Jong, we would have been much closer.

Edited September 2, 2022 by RomansRoubles

[Sexyfootball]

41 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

Many of the players we've brought in are quality players no doubt but It's almost physically impossible not to improve a squad with a net spend of over 200m in one summer.

The real question is that given what we've spent are we really any closer to challenging for the title over the season or even solidifying our place in the top 4?

For all the money we've spent we still have so many glaring holes and deadwood around the first team it's hard to call the window a success.

I think that's the nub of it isn't it ... £200m doesn't buy you that much in modern football ... obviously it hasn't helped that we've bought so many duds in the last 5 years, so we are behind the curve so to speak.

Of course we can't truly evaluate a transfer window until there are tangible measurable results to assess it against. 

On paper, the 20/21 window looked superb (Mendy, Chilwell, Havertz, Ziyech, Werner - £222.5m) but fast forward 24  months and Mendy has lost form, Chilwell has lost his starting place after injury, Havertz is inconsistent and far from what we thought we were buying, Ziyech would have been sold if we could have found a buyer, and Werner HAS been sold ... it was basically a huge amount of money down the drain. Hopefully this year's buys prove better. Suspect we will need 2 more windows to fix all the glaring holes and deadwood. This season could well be the last one with us for Kepa, Silva, Azpi, Jorginho, Kante, RLC, Havertz, Pulisic and Ziyech, but there is only so much revolution you can do in one window ! I think Boehly is on the right path, and when they get the DoF in, plus start using data analytics in earnest, I think we will see a quantum leap forward.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Sexyfootball

[CFCCAN]

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think that's the nub of it isn't it ... £200m doesn't buy you that much in modern football ... obviously it hasn't helped that we've bought so many duds in the last 5 years, so we are behind the curve so to speak.

Of course we can't truly evaluate a transfer window until there are tangible measurable results to assess it against. 

On paper, the 20/21 window looked superb (Mendy, Chilwell, Havertz, Ziyech, Werner - £222.5m) but fast forward 24  months and Mendy has lost form, Chilwell has lost his starting place after injury, Havertz is inconsistent and far from what we thought we were buying, Ziyech would have been sold if we could have found a buyer, and Werner HAS been sold ... it was basically a huge amount of money down the drain. Hopefully this year's buys prove better. Suspect we will need 2 more windows to fix all the glaring holes and deadwood. This season could well be the last one with us for Kepa, Silva, Azpi, Jorginho, Kante, RLC, Havertz, Pulisic and Ziyech, but there is only so much revolution you can do in one window ! I think Boehly is on the right path, and when they get the DoF in, plus start using data analytics in earnest, I think we will see a quantum leap forward.

Well said - The thing I am disappointed with is that TT said that we would be going through a transition; and while the club has bought youth in we won't be seeing them too much them this season, if at all,  other than if we are being drawn against a lower league club in a cup game.  What I see here is TT asking TB for experienced players so he doesn't have the frustration of having to deal with mistakes and the learning curve of young inexperienced players, resulting in dropped points and his position comes under scrutiny....it's almost like he is trying to replicate a Jose team where he has faith in experience rather than youngsters and where those experienced players out of form are ostracized and sent to the bench, rather than having to work with them and then they eventually get sold.

My fear is, that like Jose come the next summer it will be yet another wash/spin/dry repeat cycle of buying experienced players and leaving youth out in the cold rather than integrate them into the first team, unless Todd steps in and directs him to do so, given that he has scooped up some of the best youth players in Europe. If they stink the joint out then that's a different story.  

On the bright side I think TB has done a good job of getting rid of the deadwood, shame Bats couldn't have been among those leaving and gone somewhere.  On the downside there has to be more to Billy going to Brighton for £9M...for an International player and various medal winners that a steal and I can only assume there is a buy back option in there somewhere.   

I'm interesting to see where this 'transition' take us this season and next.

[TheGermanOne]

Batsman probably goes to Fenerbahce.

[Valerie]

1 hour ago, TheGermanOne said:

Batsman probably goes to Fenerbahce.

Loan or sale, do you know?

[WhiteWall]

3 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think that's the nub of it isn't it ... £200m doesn't buy you that much in modern football ... obviously it hasn't helped that we've bought so many duds in the last 5 years, so we are behind the curve so to speak.

Of course we can't truly evaluate a transfer window until there are tangible measurable results to assess it against. 

On paper, the 20/21 window looked superb (Mendy, Chilwell, Havertz, Ziyech, Werner - £222.5m) but fast forward 24  months and Mendy has lost form, Chilwell has lost his starting place after injury, Havertz is inconsistent and far from what we thought we were buying, Ziyech would have been sold if we could have found a buyer, and Werner HAS been sold ... it was basically a huge amount of money down the drain. Hopefully this year's buys prove better. Suspect we will need 2 more windows to fix all the glaring holes and deadwood. This season could well be the last one with us for Kepa, Silva, Azpi, Jorginho, Kante, RLC, Havertz, Pulisic and Ziyech, but there is only so much revolution you can do in one window ! I think Boehly is on the right path, and when they get the DoF in, plus start using data analytics in earnest, I think we will see a quantum leap forward.

Good points here and from @HazardousChoice.

For me it has to surely be about thinking and shopping smarter. Of the group that you have selected Werner is probably the most striking for me. He was prolific when we were looking at him, one of, if not the highest goalscorer in Europe at that time. Not only clinical but a blistering turn of pace. Liverpool were sniffing around him big time and it was a major coup of Marina's to get a deal done and bring him in.

Yes, there were some glaring misses at the start and an erosion of confidence, but that happens to all strikers and they generally bounce back at some point. However with Timo it soon became evident that he just didn't fit with the style of football that TT plays. What is the point of playing a pacy striker that sprints in behind if you play a slow tempo possession based game. Jamie Vardy would similarly find SB a graveyard in this system.

Werner then returns to Leipzig, back to a counter attacking rapid ball movement system and hey presto, goals, goals, goals. It tells us one thing. It weren't down to Timo!

Now i don't particularly like this football. I like swarming, smothering pressing of the ball, and then rapid one, two touch passing when in possessions and getting in behind. Basically a counter attacking strategy.

But if this is what it is going to be, then this is it. But if we are going to operate on this basis agaisnt teams that will sit deep against us and will try to counter on us we must employ players that are ultra comfortable with the ball at their feet, that move constantly, that do not fall to the floor every time someone puts them on the weights, that can unlock defences with forward passes but can also strike from distance.

For me these last two points are probably the most important. Employing players that constantly want to run with the ball in a possesion based team against low block opposition is destined for failure. This is why our players constantly run out of ideas as they run into endless dead ends making the rest of the team bemusedly stand and watch rather than move into space. Also if there are 18 -20 blokes inside the box because of a low block and countless sideways passing by us, somebody in this team has to have the ability and the bollox to shoot from range.

Therefore (long winded, apologies) its not about us buying the most shiniest players on the shelf, it must surely be about buying players that fit the mould of the style that we want to play and if it means we forgo the likes of CR7, Haaland, Lewandowski etc and end up going for people like Brereton Diaz because he fits our style and will be dynamic in this system , then i think that's what we should be doing. A bit moneyball i know, but there are so may stats sites out there developing this type of empirical data should not be hard.

We will see with what we have now got. All i will say is that there are number of different faces turning up but still similar styles of footballers that we either have already got or have just moved on.

 

[WhiteWall]

2 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Loan or sale, do you know?

It can only be if we terminate by mutual consent to make him a free agent, surely now.

[dkw]

12 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Loan or sale, do you know?

Holiday.

[Sexyfootball]

40 minutes ago, dkw said:

Holiday.

LOL. He could have shared a twin room in Spain with Kenedy !

[axman2526]

8 hours ago, Valerie said:

And no other last minute loan? Oh dear. In which competitions is the window still open, Saudi-Arabia? Canada? @axman2526 would love to see him in his neck of the woods! It's waiting for the January window otherwise. 

Probably only Toronto FC might pay him decent wages and that is far, far away...