17 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

a fee They'll easily exceed the $1bn revenue mark this season thanks to CL QF + league win, and they're set to lose some big wages if Lewandowski and others move on. They need to spend big on a striker and a partner for Pau Cubarsi.

I'd honestly bite their hand off for it. Pedro has been good this season but i'm not seeing anything that would make me think he's a 30 G/A a season player at PL level, and his streaky nature is equal parts frustrating as brilliant when he is on fire. The only issue is that there's no clear replacement, the striker market just gets worse and worse.

During the negotiations I'd also be in Deco's ear about how funny it would be if Barcelona gazumped Real Madrid for Enzo Fernandez in their election year, and that if you have another 86m we'd be happy to see it....

Am I right on thinking that under our present EUFA financial restrictions, a fee of £ 86 million for Enzo wouldn't be any help as it isn't a profit on the fee we paid for him ?

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

That's some serious level of lever pulling by the wonga boys there then to drum up that sort of dough. Hateful corrupt to$$Er

Their lever pulling is just Barca selling off future income to American investors for money up front now. They've sold 25% of future TV income for the nex 25 years to a company called 6th Street That company are due to make a projected £1 billion profit on the deal while Barca get about half.

At least our levers were us just selling stuff to ourselves !!

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

Am I right on thinking that under our present EUFA financial restrictions, a fee of £ 86 million for Enzo wouldn't be any help as it isn't a profit on the fee we paid for him ?

According to The Athletic, his book value in the summer window will be £77m.

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

Their lever pulling is just Barca selling off future income to American investors for money up front now. They've sold 25% of future TV income for the nex 25 years to a company called 6th Street That company are due to make a projected £1 billion profit on the deal while Barca get about half.

At least our levers were us just selling stuff to ourselves !!

Having written the above, those figures don't look right? Regardless, Barca have to give 25% of their TV income to an American investment company for the next 25 years..

Joao Pedro did not make Brazil WC list, so that (former player) Neymar could go. :/
Gutted for him...
Andrey did not make it either — not surprised about that tho.

Fingers crossed Tuchel does not call Palmer and Colwill either.

I feel for him. He deserved to be there. Has been our best player this season and hit 20 goals without any penalties included. Hopefully he uses that hurt to come back even better next season.

Great for us, especially if he comes back with a chip on his shoulder with something to prove.

Ancelotti is nuts.

Delighted for Chelsea. He’ll get a rest.

Gutted for him.

Gutted for Brazilians. Neymar is garbage.

Bad for us. Whether it is realistic financially or not, he’ll be looking at that Barca interest now, no UCL next season, as a club we’re just not on the radar like we used to be. Players see this stuff like this and take notes, especially the ones affected.

Ludicrous decision - he is the best Brazilian striker out there..

2 hours ago, Term_X said:

Bad for us. Whether it is realistic financially or not, he’ll be looking at that Barca interest now, no UCL next season, as a club we’re just not on the radar like we used to be. Players see this stuff like this and take notes, especially the ones affected.

That's what I am worried about. He may view this as Chelsea not being the right place to be to get a Brazil call up.

It's crazy that the players that helped them qualify are getting left out though, especially over Neymar, who hasn't played for Brazil in 3 years. Neymar getting called up feels forced.

On 16/05/2026 at 03:32, The Rising Sun said:

Am I right on thinking that under our present EUFA financial restrictions, a fee of £ 86 million for Enzo wouldn't be any help as it isn't a profit on the fee we paid for him ?

The UEFA restriction is addition to normal FFP/SCR rules, we can't be in 'transfer debt' at the end of the season - the cost of any incomings must be matched by outgoing sales revenue. If we sell Enzo for 86m, we can only spend 86m to replace him.

This rules means it's harder to replace an unwanted player with a new signing because it restricts our usual tactic of loaning out the unwanted player. For example, if we sign a replacement for Delap for 40m, we'd have to sell another player to directly offset that cost as it's unlikely we would get a substantial fee for Delap himself. It's a big restriction for replacing Garnacho, Gittens, Delap and centre-back specifically where the cost of a replacement is far above any funds we could raise from sales from the existing players in that position, and our 'model' is happy to pay higher fees if it means getting a player on a more moderate wage.

On the other hand this is where the 'signings' of Sarr, Quenda, Emegha etc. actually come up trumps, since they are already accounted for in terms of spending and moving any of them on this season would effectively be 'pure profit' for the purpose of satisfying this restriction. Say Neto gets sold for 40m, we could sell Sarr + Emegha for ~30m and then effectively have 70m to spend on replacing Neto in the squad. Similarly, if Quenda is used as a direct replacement for Neto, we then have 40m cash to spend on other players.

4 hours ago, Jangz said:

Ludicrous decision - he is the best Brazilian striker out there..

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

That's what I am worried about. He may view this as Chelsea not being the right place to be to get a Brazil call up.

It's crazy that the players that helped them qualify are getting left out though, especially over Neymar, who hasn't played for Brazil in 3 years. Neymar getting called up feels forced.

Endrick performs well for Brazil, also doing well in France by all accounts and Igor Thiago has been good all season even if his goals include pens. Tough break for him but it's not a unreasonable call.

Neymar call up is fine, no different to Belgium calling up Wistel or us with Henderson. Whoever's spot he took will most likely not have featured anyway outside of 1 game max if 1st place is secured. Might as well have that role go to Neymar for the experience, a lot of players there look up to him afterall.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

That's what I am worried about. He may view this as Chelsea not being the right place to be to get a Brazil call up.

It's crazy that the players that helped them qualify are getting left out though, especially over Neymar, who hasn't played for Brazil in 3 years. Neymar getting called up feels forced.

Really can't see that.

Pedro has had a good season, but not great. He has had some terrific moments but at times, games have passed him by and he chose to have one of his worst performances in the FA Cup Final (maybe Ancelotti watched that whilst he was making his final selections).

Brazil aren't the side they were and have no chance of winning the WC so at least Pedro can have a decent summer break, which is great news for us.

Edited May 19May 19 by Nibs

I'm actually baffled as to why he hasn't been called up, he's clearly better than any striker Brazil have. Also surprised Carlo has been bullied into picking Neymar, didn't have him down as a yes man.

2 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

I'm actually baffled as to why he hasn't been called up, he's clearly better than any striker Brazil have. Also surprised Carlo has been bullied into picking Neymar, didn't have him down as a yes man.

I kind of understand why he didnt pick Pedro as it was his opinion to pick 2 from 3, so fair enough. The Neymar thing though, just ridiculous in every way, hes toxic as f**k in every changing room and will make the whole thing about him. Hopefully Brazil go out nice and early for a laugh.

Neymar over him is really harsh. If Brazil have a world cup, this will be a major thing to point to.

Joao Pedro named Chelsea Men's Player of the Season for 2...

On 15/05/2026 at 21:48, The Rising Sun said:

Having written the above, those figures don't look right? Regardless, Barca have to give 25% of their TV income to an American investment company for the next 25 years..

They also sold just under 50% of their digital content production, licensing, and merchandising department.

Hard done by, to be honest I didnt realise Neymar is still playing football, thought he semi-retired and just taking the p1ss .

7 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

The UEFA restriction is addition to normal FFP/SCR rules, we can't be in 'transfer debt' at the end of the season - the cost of any incomings must be matched by outgoing sales revenue. If we sell Enzo for 86m, we can only spend 86m to replace him.

This rules means it's harder to replace an unwanted player with a new signing because it restricts our usual tactic of loaning out the unwanted player. For example, if we sign a replacement for Delap for 40m, we'd have to sell another player to directly offset that cost as it's unlikely we would get a substantial fee for Delap himself. It's a big restriction for replacing Garnacho, Gittens, Delap and centre-back specifically where the cost of a replacement is far above any funds we could raise from sales from the existing players in that position, and our 'model' is happy to pay higher fees if it means getting a player on a more moderate wage.

On the other hand this is where the 'signings' of Sarr, Quenda, Emegha etc. actually come up trumps, since they are already accounted for in terms of spending and moving any of them on this season would effectively be 'pure profit' for the purpose of satisfying this restriction. Say Neto gets sold for 40m, we could sell Sarr + Emegha for ~30m and then effectively have 70m to spend on replacing Neto in the squad. Similarly, if Quenda is used as a direct replacement for Neto, we then have 40m cash to spend on other players.

Think UEFA put a stop to this last season as our lot we going to exploit it. The only sales that will count are players that are currently part of our registered squad, not loaned out ones. I also wonder if the 1 in 1 out rules still apply next season.

1 hour ago, abigsmurf said:

Neymar over him is really harsh. If Brazil have a world cup, this will be a major thing to point to.

Not only Neymar. Nothing justifies Martinelli, Rayan and Luiz Enrique over Joao Pedro, either.

Truly a strange decision.

This fella is head and shoulders above any other Brazilian striker.

I loved Naymar and have always back him for top scorer in the World Cup but he’s 34 now, injuries and age catch up with everyone. Google tells me that Kaka, Ronaldinho and Robinho were left out of the WC 2014 squad - they had all just had goodish seasons but were left out and Brazil went with Neymar, Hulk, Fred and Bernard. They finished 4th.

Pedro > Neymar at the moment.

Smack of pressure to include Neymar in the squad.

I’ll still be backing Neymar for top scorer though.

More of a chance we offer him an improved contract then going to Barcelona.

Brazil are pretty poor right now and I wouldn't be surprised if Morocco tops the group.