The Tykes Go Gaga Over Their New Keeper: Gabriel Slonina at Barnsley (olf Chelsea)

Were these strengths on his during his days with the Chicago Fire?

 

Look, this isn't a great comparison for a ton of reasons, but at 22, Matt Turner was fresh out of a relatively unremarkable college career (which isn't to say he was bad, he was just 'all-MAAC 2nd team' good and not 'extremely hot GK prospect' good) before going unselected in the MLS SuperDraft. I think given the evidence of Gaga's evolution, there are reasons to doubt that he'll continue to have a NT-worthy career, but I also think that soccer is weird in-terms of development, and a lot of things are possible, especially for a position that requires lots of experience to succeed at.

That said, maybe the injury was a bigger deal than I remember... it's hard to square what I saw from him with the Fire with what I'm seeing in that video.

 

I think lots of things are possible too.

Gaga might turn it around and become the starting GK at Real Madrid someday.

But based on what we have seen the last 4 years. There's no real reason to think it will turn around. It's been 4 years of failure after failure essentially.

I would love nothing more than to open this thread and see a positive report about anything even a single game but it's literally been year(s) since I have and that is deeply troubling.

 

He made a lot of athletic-looking saves with the Fire, so him not having any spring in his dives is a bit of a concern. It was probably his best attribute at that time, because his command of the area, handling, and foot skills were OK at best.

 

For those questioning his career choices ( I certainly do), just remember that with 106 MLS games under his belt, Brady is still on $350k a season, which translates to £260k, not a lot over over half of the Fire's average salary. Slonina is on £2.6 million at Chelsea and no, that's not a typo.

As I've mentioned before, given his background (immigrant parents, possibly illegal, working 2-3 jobs each and paying for him and his brother's pay-to-play training, etc.) joining Chelsea may have been a poor move as a player. In financial terms, it was a no-brainer. EPB is another who springs to mind.

 

True can't exactly knock him for that. I am quite amazed Chelsea paid him that after just what 1 single season of MLS appearances and some hype.

 

But they did and as the saying goes, "opportunity comes to pass, not to pause."

I've said before that if Chicago didn't offer him an extension on at least $500k and for 5 years at that, he would have simply had to take the Chelsea offer.

Since, for very good reasons, there was apparently no willingness to pay that on Chicago's part, and the transfer fee was very enticing, the transfer was inevitable, even if the outcome wasn't.

 

Strasbourg are a Ligue Un side with just 1 GK under contract. Their veteran 2nd choice has returned to his native Sweden while last season's 1st-choice, Mike Penders, has returned to his parent club, which happens to be . . . Chelsea.

Penders made 52 appearances in all competitions last season. It's not too hard to see this (potential) move as Slonina being given a shot at replacing Penders.

Let's hope he can take it, because £2.6 million has a way of turning into £350k very quickly in football

 

Chelsea is just buying up tons of young prospects knowing many won’t hit but banking on the ones that do.

 

I don’t know what’s going to happen with Slonina but I feel like we shouldn’t read too much into a half of his first preseason game with a team he just started training with.

 

I don’t think I am reading too much into one performance.

I think I am looking at the broader context of 4 years of negative data points and seeing one more negative data point added.

We need to see something positive at some point.

 

True but they don't pay them all $2.7M. They must have thought a lot of Gaga. That's a first team squad salary.

Caleb Wiley, for instance, is on just over $1M.

 

He arrived on Wednesday, earliest but more likely Thursday and the team then flew out to Portugal to start preseason camp, with yesterday's game against a team that's 2 weeks ahead in terms of their preseason.

If he'd got 3 days training with the the team, I'd be surprised. Preseason games tell us nothing and howlers are common in those games

He needs PT and soon but let's have just a little perspective.

 

I mean the larger concern is the broader trend not this particular game.

 

True but where are we getting the 2.7 million number from? I feel like a lot of this salary reporting isn’t always necessarily accurate.

 

Capology, which isn't perfect but it's usually an underestimate.

 

They're paying him 2.6 million sterling, which is just under 3.5 USD and isn't really a first-team salary at Chelsea. He's the about 5th-lowest paid in the squad

 

US $2,785,296 on Capology.

That's still a first team squad salary.

 

That is my position as well..

 

I certainly would think so though maybe it says a lot about Chelsea when they can throw away wages like that on someone they never actually play or sit on their bench.

 

No, $2.8 million is his basic, which rises to just under $3.5m when other factors (performance bonuses, team win bonuses, etc.)

It's only a first-team salary in the sense that he's listed in the first-team squad. It's pocket change in terms of Chelsea salaries and there are at least 27 others earning more than him.
https://www.capology.com/club/chelsea/salaries/

 

I just thought it was interesting that Chelsea bought an 18 year-old keeper with 34 MLS appearances for $10 million+ and paid him a first team squad level salary. They must have had a lot of confidence in him.

 

And one hell of agent on Slonina's part

 

Definitely. The question is how much they have in him today, which is really difficullt to estimated at the moment.

What happens between now and September and September and XMas will tell us everything we need to know about that

 

Back to Chelsea (and straight to Hong Kong):

🚨 Mudryk, Penders, Neto, Quenda, Welbeck and Slonina have arrived in Hong Kong. (@ChelseaFC) #Cfc pic.twitter.com/1IIbPvYNta

— UEC Football Goals 🥅 ⚽ (@StoneCodeBtc001) August 3, 2026