17 hours ago, Nick05 said:

With all these average signings including the manager we're not even City-lite. The quality of players a club targets is a direct indicator of the club's ambitions and signing the likes of Kellyman, Guiu and Drewsburry-whatevers paints a bleak picture of our ambitions. 

We're going by reports going in hard for one of the best players in Serie A last season.

For most of the past year our most recent signing has been Cole Palmer.

In that same summer we signed Caicedo and Nkunku (probably the best two 'proven' players that we could have realistically got given our circumstances).

The window before that we got in a player fresh of playing a crucial role in a world cup win.

I've seen some ridiculous sweeping statements before but this one probably tops the lots.

Edited July 3, 20242 yr by Argo

21 minutes ago, carefree franco said:

Or maybe palmer is seen as one of the 3 with 2 players for each position and palmer and hall, Caicedo and Gallagher, Enzo and Lavia as the midfield options 6 players for 3 positions? 

Still got Carney and Santos to fit in somewhere

26 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Still got Carney and Santos to fit in somewhere

True, santos from what I’ve seen can play enzos or caicedos role. Carney is more attacking so he probably wouldn’t play with palmer or hall. Gallagher may yet be sold too. I think with injuries everyone will get plenty of game time although 8 players for 3 roles is extravagant! 

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Apologies for the pedantry but i can't help it. Surely a player that spent 15 years or more at one club and then leaves to join only his second club, cannot be classed as journeyman.

Whether he makes it here or not only time will tell. Drinkwater I was all for because i thought he provided the platform for Kante to shine. He turned out sh*t cos Kante could shine all on his own. Kovacic I was meh over cos he was made of glass but then I would have had him back last season in a heartbeat. Nobody knows really how these players will turn.

I remember the WHU fans forum where Uncle Harry had to explain to the Neanderthal West Ham fans that "fat" Frank would end up going to the very top. That aged well for them.

If the guy wants to work hard, keep himself fit and provide a positive contribution then i am all for it.

 

Providing he doesn't prevent Carney from blossoming 😁

There's actually a clip of Redknapp at the fans forum telling fans who hated Frank exactly that.

Quality,!

We have 3 spots for midfielders in 4-3-3. DM and two box-to-box midfielders. 

DM: Caicedo, Lavia, Lesley, Santos and maybe Enzo or Gallagher 

8's: Enzo, Gallagher, Carney, KDH, Palmer, Casadei, Kellyman?

Maresca apparently likes versatile players and I think we have a couple.

 

20 minutes ago, evissy said:

We have 3 spots for midfielders in 4-3-3. DM and two box-to-box midfielders. 

DM: Caicedo, Lavia, Lesley, Santos and maybe Enzo or Gallagher 

8's: Enzo, Gallagher, Carney, KDH, Palmer, Casadei, Kellyman?

Maresca apparently likes versatile players and I think we have a couple.

 

Some of those will need to go on loan, if there’s interest by other teams, otherwise it is a bit of a crammed first team.

3 hours ago, ozboy said:

Maresca  may use a different formation to Leicester. 

The signing of KDH point out that we will play the same formation. 

What maresca want from his midfielder is similar to sarri (Italian style). Jorgi/Enzo as deepest midfielder, Kova/KDH as wide midfielder and kante/caicedo as box to box. 

 

Edited July 3, 20242 yr by Bob stark

1 minute ago, Bob stark said:

The signing of KDH point out that we will play the same formation. 

 

Not necessarily. That assumes The Initialism is a bona fide starter. 

14 minutes ago, dermott said:

Not necessarily. That assumes The Initialism is a bona fide starter. 

I think we can safely say that Enzo - Caicedo will 100% start and based on what we saw last year, they can't play in double pivot without whoever in front of them press diligently. 

So the choice will be KDH or maybe Lavia. It can be 433/4231 (enzo as 10 maybe). It doesn't matter. 

Edited July 3, 20242 yr by Bob stark

3 hours ago, Argo said:

We're going by reports going in hard for one of the best players in Serie A last season.

For most of the past year our most recent signing has been Cole Palmer.

In that same summer we signed Caicedo and Nkunku (probably the best two 'proven' players that we could have realistically got given our circumstances).

The window before that we got in a player fresh of playing a crucial role in a world cup win.

I've seen some ridiculous sweeping statements before but this one probably tops the lots.

And how many were chuffed we signed Cole Palmer on deadline day. Not many actually. A second choice player at City being a cut above the rest at Chelsea is only a stark reminder how poor our signings have been. 

And 115m for 45 games of Caicedo in the PL was quite the "proven" signing. The only highlight of Enzo's career here is the price tag we bought him for. We've spent almost a billion euros and you seem to count that as a massive success instead of looking at the quality of most of our signings. We need better players to compete at the very top. 

And weren't we in for Gvardiol last season and Isak and Olise this season ? Going hard for the quality players is just for show now. I'll be surprised if we end up signing the said "one of the best players in Serie A last season". We only sign those who fit into our "wage structure". 

The ridiculous thing about your reply is the way you turned this into more of a personal attack without even actually mentioning the 3 signings I mentioned in my post. We've signed plenty of "promising" young players. What will take us to the next level now are experienced quality players, not more young inexperienced players.

Edited July 3, 20242 yr by Nick05

For the purposes of balancing the squad the easiest solution would have been to trust in Andrey Santos in the pivot but he's young so it wouldn't be a risk free move for the PL so it's Lavia but he in turn has been injured a lot and is a question mark which leaves us with a fairly cheap solution of 30m for a combat-ready KDH that featured in 49 matches last season.

Enzo doesn't want to play that deep, Gallagher leaves gaps often. KDH fits the profile Maresca needs and having 15 assists last season while objectively it could have been closer to 20, he looks PL ready.

We have the star players, we needed someone like KDH that does that role quietly, Caicedo can only get better next season.

 

25 minutes ago, Nick05 said:

And how many were chuffed we signed Cole Palmer on deadline day. Not many actually. A second choice player at City being a cut above the rest at Chelsea is only a stark reminder how poor our signings have been. 

And 115m for 45 games of Caicedo in the PL was quite the "proven" signing. The only highlight of Enzo's career here is the price tag we bought him for. We've spent almost a billion euros and you seem to count that as a massive success instead of looking at the quality of most of our signings. We need better players to compete at the very top. 

And weren't we in for Gvardiol last season and Isak and Olise this season ? Going hard for the quality players is just for show now. I'll be surprised if we end up signing the said "one of the best players in Serie A last season". We only sign those who fit into our "wage structure". 

The ridiculous thing about your reply is the way you turned this into more of a personal attack without even actually mentioning the 3 signings I mentioned in my post. We've signed plenty of "promising" young players. What will take us to the next level now are experienced quality players, not more young inexperienced players.

What on earth are you on about? Nothing in the post was personal. My "sweeping statement" comment was about your post, not you as a person.

3 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Apologies for the pedantry but i can't help it. Surely a player that spent 15 years or more at one club and then leaves to join only his second club, cannot be classed as journeyman.

Whether he makes it here or not only time will tell. Drinkwater I was all for because i thought he provided the platform for Kante to shine. He turned out sh*t cos Kante could shine all on his own. Kovacic I was meh over cos he was made of glass but then I would have had him back last season in a heartbeat. Nobody knows really how these players will turn.

I remember the WHU fans forum where Uncle Harry had to explain to the Neanderthal West Ham fans that "fat" Frank would end up going to the very top. That aged well for them.

If the guy wants to work hard, keep himself fit and provide a positive contribution then i am all for it.

 

Providing he doesn't prevent Carney from blossoming 😁

My bad, yes, he isnt a journeyman, one club, but he is imo not much better than sidwell...  the biggest obsticle to Carny blossoming is sadly his own body... much like our kid Reece... TBH... key to this season for us is keeping James fit and in the side. Top four with him and palmer (needs to stay fit too) in the side, top ten without them both. Subject to our new manager proving he's competant. 

4 hours ago, dkw said:

We literally took him after he stopped a transfer to Brighton as we contacted him.

Wish he had chosen brighton... I guess our owners thought it was a way of us stopping spending 80 million on him next season after signing for them and having a belter of a season. 

His signing, along with the others have just left me go Meh... If he knuckles down and trains and doesnt give out, great, but we had many players like that, Kovacic being a prime example. Any player who pulls on the odd shirt this season gets my total support, even if you lot want to lynch them for sh*tty performances. 

"We used to date porno, now we just rent, do you really remember where the good times went" - Rollins Band.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6FXvrIKyuc

Just imagine this punk legend singing this to our yank owners. Theyve let us all down. We need a bloody big season from all the players... 

8 hours ago, dkw said:

Hes not an Italian/Spanish/German lad so immediately that means some will judge him ridiculously harshly unfortunately,

For the past 18 months many fans have demanded we stop signing young players, bring in players to fit the managers system with experience. This is literally that signing, yet apparently its just simply not good enough. 

It actually goes one further.

The thought process of Chelsea fans:

1) Stop buying over priced established superstars like Sterling, Lukaku, Koulibally, Morata etc - they rarely work out for us. We should instead target up and coming players.

2) what a surprise....now we have been buying up and coming players, but we have not won anything for a couple of seasons....This cant continue. We need to buy more experienced players to fit a system, and that are not as overpriced. That Dewsbury Hall guy would fit the bill.

3) Dewsbury hall?! WTF?! Now we are buying young, good value players, who fit the system - but they are NOT the ones I wanted. What we really need are more experienced players, that are young and up and coming, that fit our system, and which offer good value.  Is Vinicius, Bellingham or Haaland available for under £20m?

 

So confused about our transfer policy so Im basically just lettting everything happen and then judge based on the season.

I don’t post on here as much, and I realise why , the stench of entitlement makes me think you’re like the Scousers of it’s our year, or why isn’t it of a few years back, listen Boehly Spunked £220, 000,000 on midfielders that haven’t exactly clicked, a 25- 26 yr old goal scoring mid is what we need, and he has prem experience, so you doom mongers, give the manager and the newbies some slack, after all only Palmer was really any good last year!!!

Gusto was as well and Gallagher. And Jackson.

This guy has really high hopes that kdh will be perfect with Enzo and caicedo (apparently doing extremely well at copa)

 

"With Fernández expected to operate to the right of Caicedo and new signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to the left in Maresca’s favoured 4-3-3 setup, Chelsea have the makings of a top-quality midfield trio. The £221m they spent on Caicedo and Fernández should start to look like a better investment this season. If they continue to improve, Chelsea will boast a dynamic, high-intensity midfield triumvirate that rivals any in the Premier League."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/article/2024/jul/03/moises-caicedos-form-copa-america-chelsea-argentina-quarter-finals#comments

 

I agree with quite a few of the posters...let's all calm down and see what happens. And yes I remember when we got palmer how ppl criticised we were going for city rejects. Lol

Woooosa, rub those ear lobes chaps...stop the gloom and doom. Only because we aren't fully aware of the exact plan or what's in our owners/SDs heads doesn't mean they don't have one. Just means for whatever reason they ain't sharing it. Could be because they are sh*t at communicating or good at keeping things close to their hearts.

 

Like above...let's look forward to and judge the season.

Preseason needs to hurry the fk up too...I miss club football.

7 hours ago, evissy said:

We have 3 spots for midfielders in 4-3-3. DM and two box-to-box midfielders. 

DM: Caicedo, Lavia, Lesley, Santos and maybe Enzo or Gallagher 

8's: Enzo, Gallagher, Carney, KDH, Palmer, Casadei, Kellyman?

Maresca apparently likes versatile players and I think we have a couple.

 

Also I mentioned this in a different thread I think but I personally find it very hard to add reece, lavia, lesley, fofana, or even carney, (etc.) and others that haven't left the nurses office yet in any potential lineup, until they are fit and the team can rely on them. But I also agree that we may have to accept some are made of glass and we need these new ppl to take over..its a shame but is what it is. Rather have a player that can actually play than a superstar that lives in the nurses office.

8 hours ago, Argo said:

We're going by reports going in hard for one of the best players in Serie A last season.

I think most of them used to play for us

Let's be real. If we hadn't already signed him and weren't linked to him and then somebody on here suggested him as a player we should sign, every single person on this forum would laugh in that persons face for suggesting him.

 

Edited July 3, 20242 yr by Scott Harris

1 hour ago, Simplymo said:

This guy has really high hopes that kdh will be perfect with Enzo and caicedo (apparently doing extremely well at copa)

 

"With Fernández expected to operate to the right of Caicedo and new signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to the left in Maresca’s favoured 4-3-3 setup, Chelsea have the makings of a top-quality midfield trio. The £221m they spent on Caicedo and Fernández should start to look like a better investment this season. If they continue to improve, Chelsea will boast a dynamic, high-intensity midfield triumvirate that rivals any in the Premier League."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/article/2024/jul/03/moises-caicedos-form-copa-america-chelsea-argentina-quarter-finals#comments

 

I agree with quite a few of the posters...let's all calm down and see what happens. And yes I remember when we got palmer how ppl criticised we were going for city rejects. Lol

Woooosa, rub those ear lobes chaps...stop the gloom and doom. Only because we aren't fully aware of the exact plan or what's in our owners/SDs heads doesn't mean they don't have one. Just means for whatever reason they ain't sharing it. Could be because they are sh*t at communicating or good at keeping things close to their hearts.

 

Like above...let's look forward to and judge the season.

Preseason needs to hurry the fk up too...I miss club football.

Ecuador overall have been very average. Caicedo has looked a cut above without dominating g anything. Nor has Paez been a game changer although again talent evident. Haven’t seen Enzo yet but they are all playing tomorrow my time. 

12 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Let's be real. If we hadn't already signed him and weren't linked to him and then somebody on here suggested him as a player we should sign, every single person on this forum would laugh in that persons face for suggesting him.

 

As soon as we assigned Maresca I stated to whoever at work would listen that we would definitely sign KDH, as he was the obvious signing from Leicester!

38 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Let's be real. If we hadn't already signed him and weren't linked to him and then somebody on here suggested him as a player we should sign, every single person on this forum would laugh in that persons face for suggesting him.

 

The average Chelsea fans opinion is hardly an endorsement and I include myself in that.

Last year most of us thought replacing Mount for Palmer was an outrage.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

The average Chelsea fans opinion is hardly an endorsement and I include myself in that.

Last year most of us thought replacing Mount for Palmer was an outrage.

My point was that those having a go at others for being against this signing can't really say much when they would laugh at others for even suggesting it before any rumours were flying around.