Don´t think any players are desperate to join Chelsea in 2026. Xabi Alonso can be an incentive for some but not counting players like gittens who are happy collecting a paycheck and not playing.. there are better situations to dream about

1 hour ago, DarkMata said:

Rod and Jane are still kicking about not so much Freddy

We have a few Bungles to sell!!

No idea why Xabi is okay with this, we've sold someone who's likely to be Brazil's starting midfielder for the next 5-10 years for barely anything. Even worse if we're replacing him with a 33 year old Xhaka

Not to mention Santos has only missed 3 games in his entire career through injury, a far cry from the rest of our squad

10 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

No idea why Xabi is okay with this, we've sold someone who's likely to be Brazil's starting midfielder for the next 5-10 years for barely anything. Even worse if we're replacing him with a 33 year old Xhaka

Not to mention Santos has only missed 3 games in his entire career through injury, a far cry from the rest of our squad

Think many of us expected a breakout season from him.

Edited July 9Jul 9 by Sconnie Blue

Another summer where we actively participate in making our rivals stronger.

15 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Another summer where we actively participate in making our rivals stronger.

15 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Another summer where we actively participate in making our rivals stronger.

Couldn't make it up could you. We give them a crazy £40 million for the talentless, lazy Garnacho, who they were desparate to get shot of, and they give us just £10 million more for a vastly superior player who has generally shown the right attitude, skill and determination in his time on the pitch.

18 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

Another summer where we actively participate in making our rivals stronger.

Blue Co and thier stupid trading belief that you buy or sell to anyone.

We have sold players to Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and allowed one of our best youngsters to leave and go to Liverpool.

And who have we got in return from these clubs........ Garnacho.

Although in the interest of fairness you could add Palmer, but City have since said never again (proved when we made an enquiry for O'Reily).

We need to fleece these clubs if we are selling to them.

Money is more important than sport for Blue Co.

Can we realistically replace Santos with a player just as good or better for only £50m? That's the real question here.

And if the goal all along is to use those funds to get a clear upgrade in midfield, we are still going to be weaker in depth and are yet again in a situation where if Caicedo is injured we are f**ked given how unreliable Lavia is and how unknown both Barco/Essugo are.

21 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I'm fine with saying "we don't know" but it's a lot more likely Alonso signed off on this than saying Alonso is going to very unhappy with this.

21 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I'm fine with saying "we don't know" but it's a lot more likely Alonso signed off on this than saying Alonso is going to very unhappy with this.

Who knows?

We paid Vasco de Gama in 2023 a figure of around 15 million. Hes been decent and weve sold him for around 48 million in 2026. It could be worse, i dont think Blue Co has done badly here, its not like he was the first name on the team sheet, theyve hardly got rid of an essential team member.

Im just amazed that they have done such a deal although i accept the market price for medium quality midfielders is rising.

IF Blue Co were normal and competent in the transfer market Alonso shouldnt have a say in selling a player for three times what we paid. But alas we are not normal. This sadly is the exception rather than the rule.

Edited July 9Jul 9 by OTL

16 minutes ago, OTL said:

We paid Vasco de Gama in 2023 a figure of around 15 million. Hes been decent and weve sold him for around 48 million in 2026. It could be worse, i dont think Blue Co has done badly here, its not like he was the first name on the team sheet, theyve hardly got rid of an essential team member.

Im just amazed that they have done such a deal although i accept the market price for medium quality midfielders is rising.

IF Blue Co were normal and competent in the transfer market Alonso shouldnt have a say in selling a player for three times what we paid. But alas we are not normal. This sadly is the exception rather than the rule.

Its good business on paper, bad for us on the pitch.

I think it's getting that people on here blame the owners for everything that they don't like at the moment, and still pick at things they get right.. i.e Alonso's appointment.

He wanted to leave because he wasn't good enough to play in front of who did, the club said ok and sold him for 50m... Good business I'd say for a player who after just one season behind a world cup winner and a beast in that position wanted out.

FFS lads everything isn't the fault of the owners, sometimes it's just how football at every big club pans out.

12 hours ago, chelseablueboy said:

I think it's getting that people on here blame the owners for everything that they don't like at the moment, and still pick at things they get right.. i.e Alonso's appointment.

He wanted to leave because he wasn't good enough to play in front of who did, the club said ok and sold him for 50m... Good business I'd say for a player who after just one season behind a world cup winner and a beast in that position wanted out.

FFS lads everything isn't the fault of the owners, sometimes it's just how football at every big club pans out.

The only reason you think he wanted to leave is because that’s what BlueCo have told the media to say. We’ve seen this with every exit we’ve had under these owners, where they’ll paint the player in a bad way to soften their own reputation.

Shame to see such naivety this long into this ownership.

They don’t even see the damage their lies do to the reputation of the club with all these players ‘wanting to leave’ but better than harm their own reputations and say we have to cash in on Santos to book some profit in order to cover all the dross we have signed and no FOS yet again.

18 hours ago, chelseablueboy said:

I think it's getting that people on here blame the owners for everything that they don't like at the moment, and still pick at things they get right.. i.e Alonso's appointment.

He wanted to leave because he wasn't good enough to play in front of who did, the club said ok and sold him for 50m... Good business I'd say for a player who after just one season behind a world cup winner and a beast in that position wanted out.

FFS lads everything isn't the fault of the owners, sometimes it's just how football at every big club pans out.

The Alonso appointment is a plus for me. Getting someone of his standard is a good move.

I just don’t trust the owners to make the right moves to make us stronger.

We finished 10th last season and the team who finished 17th are buying proven Premier League players to improve thier team.

Just changing the manager isn’t gonna be enough to jump all the way up to the top 4.

Let’s be honest Santos wanted to leave because he didn’t get enough minutes despite Enzo having no impact in the most of the games he played other than popping up with a goal here and there.

We’ve made Enzo an untouchable and he doesn’t even want to be here!

If it was right at the end of the transfer window and Enzo commits to staying then maybe it would make a bit more sense. But selling at this point with Enzo’s future up still in the air and at the same time giving Man Utd the chance to integrate Santos fully during pre-season is very short sighted IMO.

Edited July 11Jul 11 by 2211

9 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

The only reason you think he wanted to leave is because that’s what BlueCo have told the media to say. We’ve seen this with every exit we’ve had under these owners, where they’ll paint the player in a bad way to soften their own reputation.

Shame to see such naivety this long into this ownership.

More conspiracy theorists here than naivety Cucurella and Enzo have made it clear they want out so why wouldn’t Santos? Could easily feel the same way about how the club is ran (who can blame them), on top of the fact he wants first team football. Looks on paper like a career upgrade for Santos if he gets to play.

I think we will regret this ,will turn out to be a top player when given a good run in the team and proper training from the coaches

1 hour ago, hawkster said:

I think we will regret this ,will turn out to be a top player when given a good run in the team and proper training from the coaches

Yup... the un-dropable Enzo f**ked his chances up

2 hours ago, DarkMata said:

More conspiracy theorists here than naivety Cucurella and Enzo have made it clear they want out so why wouldn’t Santos? Could easily feel the same way about how the club is ran (who can blame them), on top of the fact he wants first team football. Looks on paper like a career upgrade for Santos if he gets to play.

I’m not surprised so many wanted out. They’re probably silenced, to a degree, in their contracts. But if that Maresca stuff started going down in November, and he wanted out in Dec, if must have been pretty toxic behind the scenes.

Still disappointed to see Santos go, but we move on with Alonso. Better times ahead - maybe he can get Caicedo, Enzo and whoever else is fit, available or signed firing again in midfield.

On 11/07/2026 at 22:12, DarkMata said:

More conspiracy theorists here than naivety Cucurella and Enzo have made it clear they want out so why wouldn’t Santos? Could easily feel the same way about how the club is ran (who can blame them), on top of the fact he wants first team football. Looks on paper like a career upgrade for Santos if he gets to play.

Once again we have this theory every season.

Before this season end, I already said Santos will probably get sold, same with cucu. At the end of last season I said Madueke n Jackson were the one that gonna get sold.

This got nothing to do with their playing time or whether they want to leave or whether the manager rate them or not. It is all about 🤑🤑🤑

31 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Once again we have this theory every season.

Before this season end, I already said Santos will probably get sold, same with cucu. At the end of last season I said Madueke n Jackson were the one that gonna get sold.

This got nothing to do with their playing time or whether they want to leave or whether the manager rate them or not. It is all about 🤑🤑🤑

This. Nothing matters except the $$$$.

If someone were to offer 70m+ for Palmer or 120m+ for Caicedo or James, they would sell them too.

Club were happy for Fernandez to mouth off if it meant they got a big bonus. Now there's no suitors, so all the talk is about "re-integrating Fernandez" and how "valued" he is by Alonso etc.

On 10/07/2026 at 10:16, chelseablueboy said:

I think it's getting that people on here blame the owners for everything that they don't like at the moment, and still pick at things they get right.. i.e Alonso's appointment.

He wanted to leave because he wasn't good enough to play in front of who did, the club said ok and sold him for 50m... Good business I'd say for a player who after just one season behind a world cup winner and a beast in that position wanted out.

FFS lads everything isn't the fault of the owners, sometimes it's just how football at every big club pans out.

Please don't come in here with the simplest possible explanation for something in football. 😅

We much prefer elaborate conspiracy theories.

32 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

This. Nothing matters except the $$$$.

If someone were to offer 70m+ for Palmer or 120m+ for Caicedo or James, they would sell them too.

Club were happy for Fernandez to mouth off if it meant they got a big bonus. Now there's no suitors, so all the talk is about "re-integrating Fernandez" and how "valued" he is by Alonso etc.

Selling star player is more complicated, it impact the perfomance too much and replacement will be too expensive.

3 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

This. Nothing matters except the $$$$.

If someone were to offer 70m+ for Palmer or 120m+ for Caicedo or James, they would sell them too.

Club were happy for Fernandez to mouth off if it meant they got a big bonus. Now there's no suitors, so all the talk is about "re-integrating Fernandez" and how "valued" he is by Alonso etc.

Would you? Even if they do, we can't say for sure it's a bad business considering those players have drawback.

10 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Once again we have this theory every season.

Before this season end, I already said Santos will probably get sold, same with cucu. At the end of last season I said Madueke n Jackson were the one that gonna get sold.

This got nothing to do with their playing time or whether they want to leave or whether the manager rate them or not. It is all about 🤑🤑🤑

Predicting Madueke and Jackson are to be sold, come on mystic Bob I wanted them both gone having seen them play for a month. Cucu basically came out saying the club is a shambles and he wants out. No doubt from me he'd still be here if that's what he wanted, not exactly forced out for profit.

Have any of our best player been sold or have they all been deemed not good enough? Selling Juan Mata was a million times worse than this.