6 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Let’s wait and see how the majority of our players develop first.

With a couple of smart signings and a better manager, we should be challenging for trophies.

I can already see a few players being top players in a couple of years time, such as Jackson, Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo, Colwill, and so on. The jury is still out on Mudryk but he looked frighteningly fast last night. So much potential in the squad.

I think the issue is that we are probably committed to making 100m+ transfer profit per season now. 

Even if we are doing well we will probably have no choice but to see some of those players go when they are 26/27 and have eaten into their amortized transfer fee. 

U21 players with the most goals/assists in Europe. 

 

Cole Palmer (19)

Jude Bellingham (19)

Florian Wirtz (18)

Pochettino gives him the space and the freedom he needs and he's happy to play every week.

Now some might say it's just that he's already talented but we have had so many of those that didn't manage to do well when they should have, so in my eyes this is a huge argument for Pochettino doing the right thing as the manager first and foremost.

Saw the Tim Sherwood interview. that death stare had Tim fumbling.. this guy has the mentality.. he will be big for sure..

5 hours ago, Jangz said:

Saw the Tim Sherwood interview. that death stare had Tim fumbling.. this guy has the mentality.. he will be big for sure..

Sherwood is and always has been a buffon. Stunning to me that he ever captained a side to a Premier League title.

Whatta a player this lad.. I refuse to believe that he wouldn’t have gotten into the team over Doku or Bernardo.

Almost starting to take his brilliance for granted now, what a player he is. Among all the doom and gloom and calamitous transfers - whoever recommended we buy him and Gusto deserves a pat on the back

18 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Almost starting to take his brilliance for granted now, what a player he is. Among all the doom and gloom and calamitous transfers - whoever recommended we buy him and Gusto deserves a pat on the back

We clearly are when he bags another goal and assist and there are only two posts congratulating him. What I've noticed is as players try and nullify him, it's opening space for our other forwards to exploit. We've scored 19 goals in the last 8 games - pretty impressive. Shame that we've conceded so many.

The lad is quality. The assist back heel for Carney's goal was absolute class.

I think he has brought into the "project" so not too concerned of us losing him any time soon, but just pray he doesn't get injured ('cos we'd be f**ked!!).

 

Edited March 18, 20242 yr by Nibs

14 minutes ago, Nibs said:

The lad is quality. The assist back heel for Carney's goal was absolute class.

I think he has brought into the "project" so not too concerned of us losing him any time soon, but just pray he doesn't get injured ('cos we'd be f**ked!!).

 

I agree, plus I read somewhere that there was talk of an approved contract being prepared for him, which will no doubt also do wonders for his motivation to stay LOL

4 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I agree, plus I read somewhere that there was talk of an approved contract being prepared for him, which will no doubt also do wonders for his motivation to stay LOL

How long is his current one?

Just now, Kev56 said:

How long is his current one?

It's until end of June 2030, but it's not the length it is the £££ ... according to Capology he's on £75K a week ... 'peanuts' compared to several in our squad. As he is doing so well it makes sense to improve his terms. 

Just now, Sexyfootball said:

It's until end of June 2030, but it's not the length it is the £££ ... according to Capology he's on £75K a week ... 'peanuts' compared to several in our squad. As he is doing so well it makes sense to improve his terms. 

Absolutely,  sterling is on nearly 5x that. 

1 minute ago, Kev56 said:

Absolutely,  sterling is on nearly 5x that. 

He's not great value for money (understatement), but we could say the same about most of our players who are £100K per week and higher. We are doing much better with the lower earners, possibly based on expectations that the salary level creates.

This is the link I'm looking at for all this btw : https://www.capology.com/club/chelsea/salaries/ 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

He's not great value for money (understatement), but we could say the same about most of our players who are £100K per week and higher. We are doing much better with the lower earners, possibly based on expectations that the salary level creates.

This is the link I'm looking at for all this btw : https://www.capology.com/club/chelsea/salaries/ 

 

 

Have to say Sterling is far better value for money than the next 4 on that list.

That Fofana contract is easily the worst contract in the history of professional sport. 7 year 200K a week contract for a lad that had played more than 14 games in a season once in his career and had 4 serious injuries and had played half a dozen games in the year before we signed him.

It's an actual crime.

19 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Almost starting to take his brilliance for granted now, what a player he is. Among all the doom and gloom and calamitous transfers - whoever recommended we buy him and Gusto deserves a pat on the back

The standards have already raised for him so high already because of how good we expect him to be. He wasn't even bad in the Liverpool game but by his standards we all said he had a bad game. 

That's what makes a quality player, he's been consistently good all season. 

Not like his chances creation/goals are purple patches. They've been consistently throughout the season. 

Deserves the pay bump. 

When you see that list, it is no wonder you get resentment and bad feeling in squads these days.

If you have a player like (for example) Hazard, then you don't question what he is on, 'cos he's an elite player and will always command top pay. But for players to see Sterling stinking the place out week in week out, when they are on a lot less than him, it must really piss them off. Just underlines how football is so badly run these days.

17 minutes ago, Nibs said:

When you see that list, it is no wonder you get resentment and bad feeling in squads these days.

If you have a player like (for example) Hazard, then you don't question what he is on, 'cos he's an elite player and will always command top pay. But for players to see Sterling stinking the place out week in week out, when they are on a lot less than him, it must really piss them off. Just underlines how football is so badly run these days.

Personally think thats the wrong way to look at it.

I think someone like Noni probably idolised Sterling growing up. What you're describing is pretty much in any competitive business not just football, if someone has an impressive body of work for 10 years or so then he has simply earned that amount of money over someone who's just starting out. None of them have the trophy cabinet he has and they are quite far from it. If they do show resentment towards Sterling then I fear for their careers because they won't get very far.

Palmer will get his reward just like Sterling did when he was playing for Liverpool or City.

 

48 minutes ago, Sheva said:

Personally think thats the wrong way to look at it.

I think someone like Noni probably idolised Sterling growing up. What you're describing is pretty much in any competitive business not just football, if someone has an impressive body of work for 10 years or so then he has simply earned that amount of money over someone who's just starting out. None of them have the trophy cabinet he has and they are quite far from it. If they do show resentment towards Sterling then I fear for their careers because they won't get very far.

Palmer will get his reward just like Sterling did when he was playing for Liverpool or City.

 

Nah, it's complete madness and where the game is today and unfortunately, Chelsea are among the worst offenders.

I know it's a gamble and you often have to pay a big transfer fee and big wages to get a player to sign. But a player like Sterling should NEVER be on £325k a WEEK. As soon as figures like that were being mentioned we should have just walked away. Of course younger players should be on less until they have proved they are worth more (but again, we f**ked up by paying players like RLC & Hudson-Odoi too much, too soon). £50k-£75k per week is great money for a 20 year old - however talented. But when that 20 year old totally outperforms a senior player who is on over 4 times his wages, that's when it all starts to go wrong.

 

Cole Palmer is good, we know and so now do the rest of the football league so he is being marked more closely as they recognise he is our danger man.

Will be interesting to see how we adapt.

45 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Nah, it's complete madness and where the game is today and unfortunately, Chelsea are among the worst offenders.

I know it's a gamble and you often have to pay a big transfer fee and big wages to get a player to sign. But a player like Sterling should NEVER be on £325k a WEEK. As soon as figures like that were being mentioned we should have just walked away. Of course younger players should be on less until they have proved they are worth more (but again, we f**ked up by paying players like RLC & Hudson-Odoi too much, too soon). £50k-£75k per week is great money for a 20 year old - however talented. But when that 20 year old totally outperforms a senior player who is on over 4 times his wages, that's when it all starts to go wrong.

 

The amount of money in football is madness but the concept of pay is the same in most walks of life. Most impressive CV gets the most money and the most talented person gets more money than someone not as talented and there's also other factors like other companies poaching players (talent). CHO is not earning that money if Bayern are not coming in for him.

Over the course of the season the only player that's outperforming Sterling is Palmer out of the attacking options in his position and I full expect him to get rewarded for it and if he doesn't then he's off elsewhere. You could say that Noni and Mudryk are not getting the opportunity to do so. Well the manager is watching them in training and if Sterling is stinking out the place in training then I very much doubt he would be starting as much as he is now.

 

 

Edited March 18, 20242 yr by Sheva

5 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

One of them does it in an awful Chelsea in a tougher league whilst also being the best player on the pitch moretime

Meanwhile Bellingham dropping bad performances but popping up with statpadded goals.

Injury?