14 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Enzo alone can't really play in midfield though, can he? Ne needs a partner to do the dirty work, so to speak, and Caicedo was the best of available options, everybody else (Lavia, Adams etc) is a massive step down.

I must be the only who noticed that we sold or released our whole central midfield since January and only brought in Enzo. I know he's good but he's not good enough to do everything by himself, he needs help.

No doubt Caicedo was our ideal taget. But to State that EVERYBODY ELSE is a massive step down… Well, no. 

There are many interesting DMs around - just not a prolific or well known as Caicedo. I’d be happy to trust the youth if Lavia comes in. Enzo/Andrey Santos and Lavia/Adams/Oguchukwu. Not the usual Chelsea standard with world class from day one - but the board has stated for some time that this could take time and that we’re building a future world beating team.

We are mugs

Completely novices in the market.

8 minutes ago, big blue said:

It's just frustrating. It's not like we saving money. 

Clearly there cant be much faith in Ugochukwu to play this season, and if we are targeting Caicedo/Lavia, and have just bought Adams, what is Ugochukwu's long term prospects? 

3 defensive midfielders ahead of him, arguably 4 with Santos, all at a similar age.

That £23m couldve been on Caicedo to get him over the line weeks ago, who is a player the manager clearly wants. 

Agreed. It's wierd what we are trying to build. It's like the club are trying to build 2 set of 11's, one for CFC and other for Strasbourg which we hope will either produce players for CFC or good enough to flog for a decent profit. But the problem is that we are already spending 20-30 mill on these unknown players. Currently the only clubs willing to spend 40+ mill outside the PL are Barca, Real, PSG and Bayern. And if a player is good enough to play for these clubs then certainly good enough to play for us.

3 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

We are mugs

Completely novices in the market.

I suspect Brighton wanted to do us over because of our firm stance on Colwill.

1 minute ago, abramovich said:

Respectfully disagree. You have to get the best player possible, if you want to be competitive, it's called ambition. Arsenal overpaid for Rice, now Liverpool overpaid Caicedo. Both clubs significantly improved and get the player they wanted. What did we do all summer? Buying unknown youngsters from Brazil to strengthen Strasbourg. f**king hell.

 

I do understand your perspective but don't get carried away, Liverpool has been a bit more competitive than us in the league recently and so was Arsenal last season, despite that we did get our own 100m player before them.

There is nothing wrong with rebuilding the squad the way we have been doing, Santos and other younger players might just become amazing in the future. But I believe the difference is that we didn't replace Kante with MacAllister which was a missed opportunity and we could have bought Szoboszlai too he's very versatile and he has been the captain of Hungary despite him being young.

If you believe that for our full picture we needed Caicedo and Caicedo only, in that case we shall see just how much we will miss him soon enough but I think that there are solutions to our problems that don't need to include Caicedo.

 

Just now, BordeauxBlue said:

I suspect Brighton wanted to do us over because of our firm stance on Colwill.

Brighton sold to the highest bidder they owed us nothing.. they were always in a better negotiating position.. They had an in-demand player in Caicedo and maxed out his value. Considering they were able to command more than Declan Rice is just crazy and bodes well for them.

They tried to unsettle Colwill and that was not fair and we could have taken a stance of not negotiating with them yet we decided to buy sanchez so clearly we werent that bothered about it either..

10 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Respectfully disagree. You have to get the best player possible, if you want to be competitive, it's called ambition. Arsenal overpaid for Rice, now Liverpool overpaid Caicedo. Both clubs significantly improved and get the player they wanted. What did we do all summer? Buying unknown youngsters from Brazil to strengthen Strasbourg. f**king hell.

 

We don't know yet if Arsenal and Liverpool have improved. 

Sure they've paid a lot of money for players, but no way to know at this point if that has made them into a better team.

Caicedo for 110 m is mental but I watched pool vs Bayern. If Klopp want to play the same way as he played against Bayern next season then dm is a must sign. It is not even negotiable. They are even in more desperate situation than us. 

Edited August 11, 20232 yr by Bob stark

42 minutes ago, Hanzen said:

Yes - we f**ked the deal. But then again not. Clearly we wanted him, and as you say, if we’re willing to pay £100m now then we could have just done it a month ago. 

We didn’t as are SD’s decided to work the transfer slowly to see if Brighton would give in. The didn’t and now Pool has come in with a bid I highly doubt we’re ever pay.

Adams is a produkt of the Red Bull academy. If he’d played for Brighton I could easily see him being as important as Caicedo. I’m not saying he’s a world beater - but you make it as if Caicedo was the reason we’d get top four. I believe it’ll be down to the overall team function - not one player.

Well the team can't function without a midfield that can't control football matches. As divisive as Jorginho was for us, he is a good example of why this is so important. When he is playing well, the team clicks and we control games, when he is playing bad, the whole team looks worse. Kante is another one. When he was fit and in top form, the whole team went up another level. When he was injured, the entire engine of the team disappeared. One midfielder missing can effect the whole system.

Signing Caicedo wouldn't guarantee top 4, but not signing him guarantees we won't make top 4, or even top 6, not unless we somehow find somebody of similar quality, which we won't because it's too late. 

Edited August 11, 20232 yr by Scott Harris

 

5 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

I suspect Brighton wanted to do us over because of our firm stance on Colwill.

Chase a player all summer, miss out for 10 or so million despite spending best part of 70 million buying young players to ship out on loan.

Moronic 

4 minutes ago, Nick05 said:

Agreed. It's wierd what we are trying to build. It's like the club are trying to build 2 set of 11's, one for CFC and other for Strasbourg which we hope will either produce players for CFC or good enough to flog for a decent profit. But the problem is that we are already spending 20-30 mill on these unknown players. Currently the only clubs willing to spend 40+ mill outside the PL are Barca, Real, PSG and Bayern. And if a player is good enough to play for these clubs then certainly good enough to play for us.

Agree, think that's a problem getting ignored under the word of 'potential'. If we want develop get players on potential, go lower and not spending the sort of money you'd get for a regular squad player at most European clubs. I could see the point of  not wanting to overspending 30M on the priority player , but how much money have we spent on those youngsters, when most keen football fan had to google their names?  I think we could have easily come up with the extra 30M if we spent a bit wisely in the expensive youth recruitment

7 minutes ago, Hanzen said:

No doubt Caicedo was our ideal taget. But to State that EVERYBODY ELSE is a massive step down… Well, no. 

There are many interesting DMs around - just not a prolific or well known as Caicedo. I’d be happy to trust the youth if Lavia comes in. Enzo/Andrey Santos and Lavia/Adams/Oguchukwu. Not the usual Chelsea standard with world class from day one - but the board has stated for some time that this could take time and that we’re building a future world beating team.

Settling for second or even third best is what happens when you accept that you're not a top club anymore.

 

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

We don't know yet if Arsenal and Liverpool have improved. 

Sure they've paid a lot of money for players, but no way to know at this point if that has made them into a better team.

I'm pretty sure Arsenal with Rice and Pool with Caicedo are better off than they'd be without them. 

£110m for Caicedo 😂 I know some fans are gonna be pissed off that we didn't end up getting him, I wanted him as well, but take a step back and think about it. £110m. For Caicedo. This market is well and truly f**ked.

24 minutes ago, Malcolm9 said:

look at the great refresh of our squad and where we are team wise compared to the last season.

Yes, we now have an inexperienced youth team about to embark on a premier league season.

Ladies and gentlemen. May I please introduce you to our new DM...

 

 

1 minute ago, timetowaste said:

£110m for Caicedo 😂 I know some fans are gonna be pissed off that we didn't end up getting him, I wanted him as well, but take a step back and think about it. £110m. For Caicedo. This market is well and truly f**ked.

Well, we certainly did our bit paying out huge money for Cucurella and Mudryk, to name just two.

I was really disappointed with the news this morning but actually now think it is a positive.

We are not paying Brighton well over the odds for yet another player, get them added to the no transfer list ASAP.

For that money I'd want one of the Madrid Midfield 4 who are far more proven.

Santos will get a chance hopefully.

3 signings in Lavia, Kudus and the guy from Leeds.

1 bad injury and Liverpool have no cover.

Still stings a bit and a colossal waste of time buy I think fits more into our strategy overall just now.

1 minute ago, Snedger said:

Yes, we now have an inexperienced youth team about to embark on a premier league season.

Yes, we should have paid £120m for a 21 year old with 1 season under his belt to solve that problem.

Just now, timetowaste said:

£110m for Caicedo 😂 I know some fans are gonna be pissed off that we didn't end up getting him, I wanted him as well, but take a step back and think about it. £110m. For Caicedo. This market is well and truly f**ked.

The amount of toys out of the pram because we didn't spunk 110m on caicedo is baffling...entitled fans lol. We move on this is a rebuild season there will be other targets and I'm sure we will be fine come the end of the season. 

Personally I'm not that bothered because I think Santos will be better than him. 

I know that's me being incredibly biased and hopeful, but I don't care. 

1 minute ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Yes, we should have paid £120m for a 21 year old with 1 season under his belt to solve that problem.

That’s one more season than most we’ve signed. And it didn’t stop us wasting that sort of cash on Mudryk.

Anyone defending this is the 2023 version of "Why spend 75 million on Van Dijk when we can get Drinkwater and Bakayoko for the same price"

1 hour ago, venom2011 said:

I'm sorry but I've seen this way too many times now - what kind of moronic businessmen do people want running the club? Guys who just pay whatever to get things done. I much prefer a tough negotiator, thanks.

 

Any chance of us getting Marina Granovskaia back - SOON ??

6 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Ladies and gentlemen. May I please introduce you to our new DM...

 

 

I'm actually surprised we haven't tried that in pre season. Much better position for the captain to be more involved in everything ! 

Would have Gusto at RB mind you.