So much change, I really dont see us getting top 4 next season. Young squad, new manager, biggest squad overhaul from a big club I've ever seen. 

What I would like and what I think we will do are maybe not quite aligned. 

We need a new GK, a new striker, and replacements for Kante, Kovacic, Mount, and possibly another winger assuming Pulisic and CHO leave too. 

GK

Diogo Costa, Slonina, Bettinelli

DR

James, Gusto

DL

Chilwell, Maatsen

CB

Colwill, T.Silva, Badiashille, Fofana

DM

Caicedo, Santos

CM 

Enzo, Veiga

AM

Nkunku,

RW

Sterling, Mudryk

LW

Madueke, Szoboszlai 

CF

Kolo Muani, Jackson, Broja

On top of the other obvious outgoings, I would try and cash in on Cucurella, and I dont see us keeping Mount, Gallagher or Chalobah.

Casadei, Hall, Chukwuemeka, Hutchinson and DD Fofana all probably getting loaned out. 

Hard to know what our spend will be these days, after all these sales, is that to balance the books, or is it to go again in the market? We are still way off a top 4 side imo, so I'm hoping we can add quality. 

Guys, I haven't been on here a while but need some support. I'm devastated. What is going on?? Letting kovacic, havertz, jorginho and likely Mount go to our rivals. Kante gone to Saudi. Its not right. What are our owners thinking ffs!! We won the champions league 3 years ago and we've fallen in a horrific way since. We have to try and keep Mount. Our core has been decimated. It's was a terrible season, agreed, but I'd put a large chunk of that down to management. I cannot see this working out well. Am I alone!??!

3 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Guys, I haven't been on here a while but need some support. I'm devastated. What is going on?? Letting kovacic, havertz, jorginho and likely Mount go to our rivals. Kante gone to Saudi. Its not right. What are our owners thinking ffs!! We won the champions league 3 years ago and we've fallen in a horrific way since. We have to try and keep Mount. Our core has been decimated. It's was a terrible season, agreed, but I'd put a large chunk of that down to management. I cannot see this working out well. Am I alone!??!

It was down to the players, same ones we have now sold. Squad needed gutted 

4 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

It was down to the players, same ones we have now sold. Squad needed gutted 

But why does everyone want to leave ? How toxic must the environment feel. Bad bad management. 

11 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

Guys, I haven't been on here a while but need some support. I'm devastated. What is going on?? Letting kovacic, havertz, jorginho and likely Mount go to our rivals. Kante gone to Saudi. Its not right. What are our owners thinking ffs!! We won the champions league 3 years ago and we've fallen in a horrific way since. We have to try and keep Mount. Our core has been decimated. It's was a terrible season, agreed, but I'd put a large chunk of that down to management. I cannot see this working out well. Am I alone!??!

Maybe not alone but certainly in the minority, this clear out is well overdue and we're building for the future.

2 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Maybe not alone but certainly in the minority, this clear out is well overdue and we're building for the future.

We are clearing out the wrong players to balance the books. We will get nowhere with a bunch of kids, a lot of them new to the country and league. We used to be a team containing about 6 national team captains. We're replacing champions league winners with 18-21 year old who have done nothing in the game.

I really hope I'm wrong. Id love so much to be wrong, but I don't agree with what is going on. Every year there is a new bunch of potential wonderkids, we're buying a load of them now that could do nothing. Reminds me of Arsenal in the latter Wenger years.

 

34 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

But why does everyone want to leave ? How toxic must the environment feel. Bad bad management. 

If you read Mendy's leaving message, it might prove your point! Thanks to Roman, Marina, Cech, etc.... Nothing towards Todd & Co at all!

I think now maybe Mount should be cut some slack, if he is taking a pay reduction at United, it probably isn't just about playing Champions League next season!

2 hours ago, the special one said:

Xhaka? Dear lord...

7 hours ago, Mod said:

If you read Mendy's leaving message, it might prove your point! Thanks to Roman, Marina, Cech, etc.... Nothing towards Todd & Co at all!

I think now maybe Mount should be cut some slack, if he is taking a pay reduction at United, it probably isn't just about playing Champions League next season!

Mount take a pay cut on his £80k/a wages? That is laughable. Would be surprised if he is earning anything less than £250k/w at Utd when he makes that move. 

 

8 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Maybe not alone but certainly in the minority, this clear out is well overdue and we're building for the future.

Should have been done right after the CL win but we had a manager who spent the next 2 windows pissing away funds on duds. It was obvious it was the end of a cycle and the team was due a refresh.

3 hours ago, ducavis said:

Mount take a pay cut on his £80k/a wages? That is laughable. Would be surprised if he is earning anything less than £250k/w at Utd when he makes that move. 

A pay cut on what Chelsea were offering I assume!

10 hours ago, the special one said:

Can't see us playing without wingers after investing so heavily on Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke in the last few windows. Xhaka isn't really a DM either (or very good!).

Stealing that website but I think it's going to look something like this if it's a 4231. CB options will rotate but I expect Caicedo to be box to box and Enzo to drop deep and dictate play and pick out runs of our wide players with his ability to play it long.

If it's a 433 then we would need to either play Nkunku upfront in a deeper false 9 role (I know, I don't want that either) or you can play him out wide which means one of the wingers won't play.

The 4231 makes the most sense for me and it's all situational because this is when we have the ball and most teams line up differently and more compact when they don't have the ball. It will be interesting who we sign to be honest because in a 4231 even if we sign a traditional defensive midfielder then where does Caicedo play? If we play a 433 then we should be doing everything to keep Mount to play that Kova role.

1 minute ago, Sheva said:

Stealing that website but I think it's going to look something like this if it's a 4231. CB options will rotate but I expect Caicedo to be box to box and Enzo to drop deep and dictate play and pick out runs of our wide players with his ability to play it long.

If it's a 433 then we would need to either play Nkunku upfront in a deeper false 9 role (I know, I don't want that either) or you can play him out wide which means one of the wingers won't play.

The 4231 makes the most sense for me and it's all situational because this is when we have the ball and most teams line up differently and more compact when they don't have the ball. It will be interesting who we sign to be honest because in a 4231 even if we sign a traditional defensive midfielder then where does Caicedo play? If we play a 433 then we should be doing everything to keep Mount to play that Kova role.

No way I will pick silva in back 4.

4 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

No way I will pick silva in back 4.

I mentioned CB options will rotate, could be any of our options as they are all more than capable.

7 minutes ago, Sheva said:

I mentioned CB options will rotate, could be any of our options as they are all more than capable.

As ccb in back 3, Silva is my first choice. But in back 4, it is a big no. 

If we are going to go the same route (which all evidence suggests yes) with our wingbacks providing a lot in attack, we will likely need 3 midfielders or 3 CBs. 

22 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

If we are going to go the same route (which all evidence suggests yes) with our wingbacks providing a lot in attack, we will likely need 3 midfielders or 3 CBs. 

This is where it get interesting. The most important thing is to decide who you want to play. 

Edited June 29, 20233 yr by Bob stark

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Can't see us playing without wingers after investing so heavily on Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke in the last few windows. Xhaka isn't really a DM either (or very good!).

May not be a good DM I agree - but is he a good fit for the team and the players around him?

For me 4-2-3-1 could work if we still had players of the calibre of Hazard and Willian, expecting Mudryk/Madueke to reach the same heights is unrealistic IMO, that's why I went with 4-3-1-2 - Chilwell/James/Jackson/Mount if he stays can provide the width

Fabrizio has said recently we are open to selling Gallagher.

On top of that several rumours say we want Santos as part of our squad, and want to add Caicedo and Vega. Casadei we want to send out on loan, Carney seen as a further forward option.

So thar would make our deeper midfield options Enzo, Caicedo, Vega and Santos.

20 hours ago, Mod said:

If you read Mendy's leaving message

I can’t find Mendy’s thread, where did it go?

Beyond signing Nico Jackson (to be confirmed on club site) I haven't seen a ton of solid links with any other strikers. I know we have Nkunku, but I was under the impression he is more of a number 10 or wide player? Are we likely to start with Nkunku as our number 9 and Jackson as backup? Or do we think that there is a strong likelihood that we will try to sign another CF?

On 29/06/2023 at 07:51, Sheva said:

Stealing that website but I think it's going to look something like this if it's a 4231. CB options will rotate but I expect Caicedo to be box to box and Enzo to drop deep and dictate play and pick out runs of our wide players with his ability to play it long.

If it's a 433 then we would need to either play Nkunku upfront in a deeper false 9 role (I know, I don't want that either) or you can play him out wide which means one of the wingers won't play.

The 4231 makes the most sense for me and it's all situational because this is when we have the ball and most teams line up differently and more compact when they don't have the ball. It will be interesting who we sign to be honest because in a 4231 even if we sign a traditional defensive midfielder then where does Caicedo play? If we play a 433 then we should be doing everything to keep Mount to play that Kova role.

I suspect we are targeting Vaiga as the Mount replacement. Assuming Conor stays the 2 would compete/rotate in that position

Chukwuemeka, Casadei and Santos all at Cobham today.

Be cool if they all impressed the hell out of Pochettino in pre-season to nail down a squad place for the season. 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/kader/verein/631/saison_id/2023

So according to Transfermarkt we have 31 players in the first team squad. Ideally we should be getting that down to around 25ish. 6 more outgoings, assuming we don't sign anyone. 

Ampadu - 10M

Sarr - 5M

Cucurella - 35M

CHO - 10M

Ziyech - 5M

Lukaku - 30M

Auba - 5M

Total - 100M

Can also assume Diego Moreira and/or Angelo go out on loan. Then realistically we sign Caicedo with the fees raised above. Think we'll likely sign others too but for now that's the most likely. 

GK - Kepa / Slonina / Bettinelli

RB - James / Gusto

CB - Silva / Chalobah / Fofana / Biadiashile / Colwill

LB - Chilwell / Maatsen

CM - Enzo / Caicedo / Hall / Santos / Gallagher

LW - Mudryk / Sterling

AM - Nkunku / Chukwuemeka

RW - Madueke / Angelo

ST - Jackson / Broja