They just got another young American player from the Union as well. I'm really intrigued to follow them this season. Ethan needs a great loan and this might be his best chance.
Worth noting here real quick, he has more appearances for Wales than first team appearances over the last 3 seasons. Let that sink in. He really needs this loan.
As a 4th option and someone who is going to provide us depth, this is a great move IMO. He still scored one of the greatest individual goals in CL history too. Slalomed through Bayern. I'm very happy with the window to be honest. All in all, filled the biggest need and then added depth in the one position we needed. CB, IMO wasn't a need this year.
Saul Niguez will join Chelsea on loan from Atletico Madrid, per @FabrizioRomano 🔵📞 pic.twitter.com/bFVP9rSGwp— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 31, 2021
CB need will evolve based on the tactics tuchel employs as well as the emergence of trev. Still time to squeeze a deal in for kounde of course but I hope we stay firm as that makes us stronger in future negotiations which will be important to the brass. Saul is a great low risk deal. We are not spending a fat fee on a player who has regressed a little lately but have an option to pick up a bargain if he gets even close to where he was. Its cover and if nothing else a hard working, tactically astute player who will bring the opposite amount of effort to a pitch than bakayoko ever seemed to. Also creates some extra competition to keep everyone sharp. Smart deal with a large upside.
Our depth chart. Biggest area of worry for me is the big drop off in goalscoring forwards after Lukaku; kinda miss the insurance of a Giroud there. With Saul, the midfield got a lot stronger. We also have Chalobah and James who can play there in a pinch. 5 CBs for 3 spots. Wide areas look thin, but I guess thats what CHO and Pulisic might be used for. Lots of interchangable parts. F: Lukaku, Werner, Ziyech, Pulisic, CHO, Havertz, Mount M: Kante, Jorg, Kovacic, Saul, Ruben Loftus-Cheek D: James, Alonso, Chillwell, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah GK: Mendy, Kepa, Bettinelli
OFFICIAL. Confirmed. Saúl joins Chelsea Football Club on a loan move from Atletico Madrid [€5m] with buy option for €40m. Here we go. 🔵🇪🇸 #CFC #DeadlineDay— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 31, 2021
So with the window now shut we've made a couple of significant upgrades got rid of some more fringe players and made a profit of, what, 30m quid? Not shabby at all!
I also like that our squad is something of a swiss army knife. We have so many options to play different formations depending on the opposition and world class cover everywhere (except a second pure striker but even there we have other options). With an astute coach like Tuchel it feels like a very good spot to be in. I hope the lads play to their potential.
Apparently the Kounde fell through because they could not secure a replacement. they were trying to sign Sven Botman and they couldn't get that deal done. I can only assume will possibly try again in Jan or next season for him. That was a nice window. Saul will be an intriguing one. I wouldn't put it past TT to change our formations and play with an extra mid and maybe only 2 CBs. We shall see. It is good to have options.
So if you go off of Transfermarket, it's actually between 140-150 million quid in money earned from sales and loans and we're just under 105 million quid in player purchases/loan fees paid. Sky is shorting the shit out of our income because they aren't including the academy boys who've left I think including Guehi. They say we're around 94 million. We're so well run (most of the time). That transfer income doesn't even include CL money earned, or PL money earned. We're looking at (probably) around 200m quid in money earned this year alone. Is this the season we finally see green????
Will be worth keeping an eye on kounde for the next few weeks. Seems to be quite unhappy at not being able to force a move. If he decides to half arse it I think that's a bit of a red flag about his professionalism and the club have done a great job of buying players that work hard. His red card for france suggests his head isn't straight.
Such a good point. I think we can cut him some slack for a couple of days but if it lingers, especially when he gets back to Seville, I think that will definitely tell us something
This is my honest take on how we can take our club to the top again. Some of you may disagree with my opinions but that is ok. We desperately need a winger. Jefferson Soteldo from Toronto FC would be perfect. Probably the best dribbler in the world. Lukaku's goals are going to dry up like they did last time. We should have signed Thomas Muller in 2012 and I still think we should do so. He will score 20-30 goals and also reduce the amount of goals we concede. Also a change in management. Anyone fancy Rafa coming back for a second spell? He won possibly our most important cup in the Europa League that season we had him. Finally I think we should not be afraid to show we can splash the cash again. If we are being honest, Roman is a multi billionaire. I would honestly spend up to 350m on Bellingham. Glad to hear what you all think.
1. Regarding Soteldo. I think you mean Yeferson Soteldo? He's a decent 24 year old prospect who shined at Santos, but hasn't really done well at Toronto, which probably has more to do with the quality of the squad overall. They're in last place and no one on that team looks good. 2. Regarding Lukaku - they will dry up like what last time? He never really got a run in the Chelsea team because the incumbents were too good at the time. 3. Not interested in Muller at his age and I doubt he's interested in leaving Munich. 4. Is Rafa available? He's working at Everton as far as I know and our manager is pretty decent. 5. We've been splashing the cash, yes, but we've also been cashing checks from clubs around the world, essentially balancing the books. Bellingham is a target - as he is for any top club - but we'll see. Overall, I'd give this troll post 1 star out of 10. I get what you're doing, but the one-liners are amateurish and reek of a lonely boy away at university yearning for the soft press of his mothers' teet. Go for a walk. Read a book. Crawl in bed with your roommate and have a cry. I appreciate a good troll but this is so boring and lazy. Cheers.
Chelsea could lose Antonio Rudiger on free transfer due to contract impasse - sources Chelsea are risking losing Antonio Rudiger on a free transfer next summer as they refuse to meet his demands over a new contract, sources have told ESPN. The 28-year-old has entered the final year of his existing deal at Stamford Bridge and there has been little progress in talks over an extension since Euro 2020 finished in July. https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-...free-transfer-due-to-contract-impasse-sources
He’s very good and a huge piece but we can’t nor shouldn’t break our wage structure for him. I think he wants 200k a week and was offered 140k and currently on 100k. I’d go up to 150k comfortably but wouldn’t want to go much over 160k.
Is 200k really breaking our structure when Lukaku is well above that? Rudi (being his last big pay day opportunity) has every right to try and fetch 200k+ on the free. With the way agents have been pushing these deals, the player could even see a sign on bonus. With regards to staying; I think the region of 150-175 doable. However I'm curious if we are hesitant due to age.
And any negotiation is not just with rudi, it's for all future negotiations. Club will want to come out of this as the stronger party so that agents dont see us as a soft touch. I've not been in the room and havent seen any of the figures so no idea how reliable they are but certainly rudi will want a fat bump in pay. Just a question of whether they can compromise and how much he wants to be here vs elsewhere.