3 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Then why did he insist on inverting Gusto all season? Lazy excuse.

If you don't invert gusto, who is going to play rb?

2 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

If you don't invert gusto, who is going to play rb?

What does this even mean?

Just play Gusto as an over traditional full back like we saw against PSG.

1 minute ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

What does this even mean?

Just play Gusto as an over traditional full back like we saw against PSG.

Try to comeup with a lineup without James n Lavia +gusto as traditional fb

Edited July 28, 2025Jul 28 by Bob stark

3 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Try to comeup with a lineup without James n Lavia +gusto as traditional fb

Just have Enzo sit in the pivot with Caicedo and not crash the box.

Gusto was inverting into the half space the majority of the time anyway, which isn't different from playing as a traditional full back.

On 28/07/2025 at 02:43, Ukraine Bolt said:

Then why did he insist on inverting Gusto all season? Lazy excuse.

Because Gusto is robust out of possession.

People ignore that while Maresca is a mad scientist regarding build-up and woke in and out of possession shapes with inverted strikers and overlapping goalkeepers, he's still a manager that builds his team from the concept of how they're going to set up without the football.

While Gusto might not be the most comfortable in central areas on the ball, he's still fast and strong and good at man marking out of possession. He wins the ball back and is fantastic apart of the press. He just asks him to not be a liability on the ball and get it to Caicedo / Palmer / Enzo so we can move forward.

I believe the vision with Hato is the same. Strong kid, who's probably a bit better with the ball than Gusto, but will be able to fill into his formation defensively and with the high pressing seamlessly.

4 minutes ago, drool winner said:

Because Gusto is robust out of possession.

People ignore that while Maresca is a mad scientist regarding build-up and woke in and out of possession shapes with inverted strikers and overlapping goalkeepers, he's still a manager that builds his team from the concept of how they're going to set up without the football.

While Gusto might not be the most comfortable in central areas on the ball, he's still fast and strong and good at man marking out of possession. He wins the ball back and is fantastic apart of the press. He just asks him to not be a liability on the ball and get it to Caicedo / Palmer / Enzo so we can move forward.

I believe the vision with Hato is the same. Strong kid, who's probably a bit better with the ball than Gusto, but will be able to fill into his formation defensively and with the high pressing seamlessly.

Gusto and strong in the same sentence pmsl I should have stopped reading after seeing ‘mad scientist’

4 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Gusto and strong in the same sentence pmsl I should have stopped reading after seeing ‘mad scientist’

Physically he is. He's not a frail twink. He's fast and can deal with wingers 1 on 1 in isolation and does a good job. He also covers ground and has a good engine.

We're doing the thing where a player has an obvious flaw and then we use that to exaggerate every attribute. People do it with Sanchez too. He's braindead with the ball at his feet and people use that to say he's a poor shot stopper which is just objectively false.

We had the third best defensive record in the league last season and he was part of that.

Also Maresca is obviously a mad scientist, how many different shapes and orientations did he attempt to play with this past season or even in the CWC? He's also fine tuning and adjusting and trying new things with players in different roles.

Just now, drool winner said:

Physically he is. He's not a frail twink. He's fast and can deal with wingers 1 on 1 in isolation and does a good job. He also covers ground and has a good engine.

We're doing the thing where a player has an obvious flaw and then we use that to exaggerate every attribute. People do it with Sanchez too. He's braindead with the ball at his feet and people use that to say he's a poor shot stopper which is just objectively false.

We had the third best defensive record in the league last season and he was part of that.

Also Maresca is obviously a mad scientist, how many different shapes and orientations did he attempt to play with this past season or even in the CWC? He's also fine tuning and adjusting and trying new things with players in different roles.

Quite literally everyone unanimously agrees Sanchez is a good shot stopper.

Rage bait used to be believable, this is boring.

13 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Quite literally everyone unanimously agrees Sanchez is a good shot stopper.

Rage bait used to be believable, this is boring.

I've talked with people leading up to the CWC final that refused to admit Sanchez was a good stop stopper because they mix-up his decision making and mistake proneness with his dominance inside the 18Y box and on set pieces.

I'm still awaiting Mike Penders and hope he pans out because he looks like a rare GK prospect, but it's the same thing with Gusto.

He's robust out of possession and works very hard to win the ball back and combines with Caicedo/Lavia/Enzo in the middle of the park to be legs there to keep our connective press alive.

That matters to Maresca if you weren't aware. Gusto having a limp noodle for leg in the final third and braindead decision making hold him back from being a first name on the team sheet staple like Caicedo and Cucurella are, but he's clearly a player Maresca likes for those very reasons.

Not sure why our fans struggle to understand what Maresca values and what he doesn't.

Such a strange one this guy. Apparently he made it clear a long time ago that he wants to leave for good, ever since he went out on loan. But the funny thing here is that just some days ago, an owner of a club in the Romanian League said he was proposed Veiga on low wages two years ago, before his move to Basel, but they refused to sign him, although Veiga was ready to come and was only waiting for the final "ok" from the Romanian club.

From almost signing in the 3rd world of football in the Romanian league, to signing for Chelsea just a one year later, become a part of the Portugal NT and then want to leave Chelsea after one season, for me it is plain dumb.

11 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

Such a strange one this guy. Apparently he made it clear a long time ago that he wants to leave for good, ever since he went out on loan. But the funny thing here is that just some days ago, an owner of a club in the Romanian League said he was proposed Veiga on low wages two years ago, before his move to Basel, but they refused to sign him, although Veiga was ready to come and was only waiting for the final "ok" from the Romanian club.

From almost signing in the 3rd world of football in the Romanian league, to signing for Chelsea just a one year later, become a part of the Portugal NT and then want to leave Chelsea after one season, for me it is plain dumb.

Can't say I blame him for not wanting to Romania whether he is (or felt to be) too good for that level or not! I don't expect that competition to be crawling with football scouts to pick out the talents, or with coaches from the Portugal squad for that matter. And not fancying his chances in a 80 man squad with a coach that keeps picking the usual suspects regardless of recent minging performances, also quite understandable. He wants regular playing time with the World Cup looming.

20 hours ago, Valerie said:

Can't say I blame him for not wanting to Romania whether he is (or felt to be) too good for that level or not! I don't expect that competition to be crawling with football scouts to pick out the talents, or with coaches from the Portugal squad for that matter. And not fancying his chances in a 80 man squad with a coach that keeps picking the usual suspects regardless of recent minging performances, also quite understandable. He wants regular playing time with the World Cup looming.

Veiga wanted the move to Romania!

It's why I was saying that from almost joining a dross league, to then join Chelsea and then want to leave, it is a bit strange. If he was proposed to a Romanian club by his agent, clearly he was not that big of a deal before joining Basel. Then he hit the jackpot. I'd have stayed at Chelsea waiting for my chances. Even if he was to be given little to no minutes in the next seasons, it's not like he was going to join some 3rd tier club after that, he'd still be viewed as a Chelsea player with lots of options to choose from if he were to leave.

Where is he at the minute?

Easiest money ever. Whats that, 20M+ in profit on him with the loan? All in one year.

We've done well there, hopefully we can press ahead with Xavi Simons now we've got some money in seeing as the Nkunku and Jackson sagas will probably go on til the end of the window.

8 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

We've done well there, hopefully we can press ahead with Xavi Simons now we've got some money in seeing as the Nkunku and Jackson sagas will probably go on til the end of the window.

Not sure we did....didnt we turn down more from Atheltico?

15 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Not sure we did....didnt we turn down more from Atheltico?

I don't think we ever knew what Atletico offered, either way, they decided we wanted too much and ended up with that other guy. Doubling our money on a player we had for a year isn't too shabby at all.

Edited August 20, 2025Aug 20 by timetowaste

20 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Not sure we did....didnt we turn down more from Atheltico?

I believe the report was Atletico offered 33mill euros, and we asked 40mill euros. They then signed someone else for less than 30mill euros.

There was no mention of a sell on percentage though.

So right now we are 3.5mill euros worse off, maybe 4.5mill if it was 34mill euros offered, I think it was 33mill euros. However Villareal are much more of a selling club that Atletico, and the sell on is "heavy" so we are hoping to make a better deal there.

We do love our pure profit and he cost us 12mill pounds, so what's that 14mill euros, and we got 5mill euros loan from juve? Much as I think they are not the level we need Winstanley and Stewart got a winner on this one.

2 hours ago, timetowaste said:

We've done well there, hopefully we can press ahead with Xavi Simons now we've got some money in seeing as the Nkunku and Jackson sagas will probably go on til the end of the window.

Thought I read Veiga and Felix sales don’t count under UEFA guidelines or something. Needs to be Nkunku & Jackson.

5 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Thought I read Veiga and Felix sales don’t count under UEFA guidelines or something. Needs to be Nkunku & Jackson.

This all comes back to what the sanctions agreement actually says.

Neither Felix nor Veiga were on the January A list so some have come to the conclusion that their leaving won’t count.

As I pointed out there are several interpretations as to how the agreement will impact .

I have to admire this guys dedication to not play for Maresca again.

Anyone else would see the injuries and jump at a chance to make a name for themselves.

27 minutes ago, Remodez said:

I have to admire this guys dedication to not play for Maresca again.

Anyone else would see the injuries and jump at a chance to make a name for themselves.

They must have had a fall out, I can’t believe if the reports are true you’d be willing to go to Romania or even Villarreal now but not fight for your place a Chelsea.

Maresca has a knack of alienating players, whether it be B teaming them or comments in press conferences(Fofana). Or even the entire squad(not ready/good enough to challenge) last season.

A small quick profit flip for him it is then. All high fives and hand jobs in the boardroom and we can forget all about Kellyman, Washington etc etc etc etc.

Reported 40% sell on clause included as well makes that a lovely bit of business.

Do we automatically qualify for the CL if we finish top of the ‘sold for a nice profit’ summer transfer league?

Thank you Renato and good luck for the future.