12 Aug 2024 07:48:52
While I didn't want CG to leave, I sort of understood the decision. I think Chalaboa is better than Disasi, so on football ability I don't understand the decision.
I do NOT understand why on earth we would be interested in Felix and the worst of the lot would be the sale of Chuka.
Clubs buy and sell lots of players and I know it's impossible to make every fan happy but the amount of players we have signed and about to sign seems odd. I can only guess how many will be leaving over the next few weeks.
12 Aug 2024 08:51:24
Tom, Carney is as good as gone. He was signed prior to the SDs coming in and in collaboration with the academy they have gutted. They can't take credit for him, so he's out.
As for Felix I hope this is what wakes people up to the insanity of what is going on at our once great club. We've been told all summer that the reason we didn't sign Olise was because the club thought the deal was too expensive, and here we are 4 weeks later spending nearly double what that deal would have cost on two vastly inferior players in Felix and Neto.
We've also been told that Paez and Estevao are coming in next summer and going straight into the first team and this is why Chelsea aren't rushing to sign attacking players. Only for us to splash 30m on KDH who looks like a poor imitation of Mount (who did he play for again? ) .
This time last year, Felix was deemed not good enough for Chelsea and Poch was appointed to be the manager after a long and exhaustive search by the SDs. Now Felix is on his way back because Mendes needs somewhere to offload his dross and Poch has been replaced by Joe Shields's mate.
We could have done nothing all summer and been a favourite for top 4. Instead, we have whatever this is.
12 Aug 2024 10:02:46
Tom completely agree that Chalobah is twice the footballer of Disasi.
Unfortunately Disasi we massively overpaid for and no one in their right mind would touch him with a barge pole where as Big Trev is a profitable asset and sadly our club is a business.
I don’t get the Felix thing at all he is a bang average player, will probably cost a fortune and like others have said we have so many players in that position we don't need him.
12 Aug 2024 10:03:38
I do think that that the SDs have tended to want to sell off CFC academy players they can take no credit for and sadly it seems to mean selling some of our best players from last season who imnproved and flourished under Poch.
I do think the SDs should gake some credit for several fine signings, not least Palmer, but I am repeating myself by saying I cannot make sense of the majority of signings this transfer window including the KDH one. But Guiu sems a bargain and Neto, if he remains fit, could be a fine acquisition too though Olise quite probably a better one if would cpould have got him.
Most mystifying to me has been the apparent failure - but is Osimhen still a possibility? - to bring in an experienced out and out striker and a really commanding CB to replace Silva though perhaps the lad from Fulham is supposed to be that? TC for me the best we had left though am sure likes of LC has huge potential to become that. One obviously wishes him well as also KDH or anyone else who signs for us.
But as some were saying around me at the Bridge yesterday it is almost as if the acquisition of so many young players was building a portfolio of future assets rather than helping build a team capable of challenging for the title this season. And after hopes were raised towards end of last season that we might just be doing this with a couple of key battle hardened acquisitions to add to what he had plus fully fit Nkunku and recovered Lavia I remain puzzled by another window of large number of incomings and doubtless outgoings. Bringing back Felix if it happens part of that puzzlement though he can clearly be brilliant at times. Seems part of desire by club to be rid of CG?
So I go into the new season a bit like I went into last one after all the changes not really knowing what to expect or where CFC will finish at end of it! Always hoping for the best but some unease if particularly over our defensive capabilities which is not just about the CBs but whole team in this respect when we haven't got the ball. But what a cast list the new manager and SDs have to choose from and fair bit of gelling jas to start all overvagin petrhaps. Do not know what more surprises here may still be for us - good and disappointing (or downright bad? ) - before transfer window ends. If TC follows CG out of the door it will put many supporters on edge as two academy players and fan favourites got rid of. THis can surely only be because the club thinks that without them we are more likely to make Top 4. Will they be proved right?
12 Aug 2024 10:13:27
JBS, enjoyed your post mate. On the CG debate he was in the last year of his contract and apparently there was an offer to extend that contract with comparable wages. CG understandably wanted liger security while the club didn’t want yet another free transfer.
RBD, I do not believe that the SD’s have a sort of vendetta against academy players or players signed before they joined.
12 Aug 2024 10:49:21
JBS I think you touch on a really excellent point about what the recruitment is actually for. The idea of buying players, with the knowledge that they are unlikely to play for Chelsea, is nothing new to us as fans. But those purchases have always been accompanied by signings to improve the first team in the here and now.
I agree that Chalobah and Gallagher are fan favourites from the academy, but I think the actual dismay from fans is more that they proved themselves amongst our best players last season. Following on from this, the sell off of academy players seems to be engineered not to improve the squad, but because they offer a convenient accounting trick. Academy players are who fans form a bond with more quickly because we can more easily project ourselves and our own fandom onto them. We'd have done anything to be good enough to work our way from academy to first team, its the dream personified right?
But really it comes down to the fact that we are in a position where we need to sell them to afford players that are either inferior, or who will likely never play for the club. That's why it sticks in the craw so much.
This is what is upsetting me as a fan, the weakening of the first team squad now, in the hope that we make profit in the future.
{Ed002's Note - Gallagher is being soild because he won't sign a new contract.}
12 Aug 2024 12:05:18
Love seeing acadamy players come through, but I honestly don't see Gallagher or Chalobah as good enough, think when everyone is fit if that ever happens neither make the 1st eleven.
Having said that I think Chalobah has been treated really badly and with a lack of respect.
we all see things differently but I see KDH as a top signing as usual time will tell.
12 Aug 2024 13:09:52
Seymns2, fair point. Also, looking back apart from Terry which other academy players have made a significant contribution to the team over a number of seasons?
{Ed002's Note - Anders Christensen, Gallagher, Mount, Loftus-Cheek, Abraham, Reece James....,}
12 Aug 2024 13:10:22
It’s not as if academy players will not be in the names squad for this coming season.
12 Aug 2024 13:32:05
Jimbo, good point. Judge players as players not just because they come from the academy.
12 Aug 2024 14:08:12
Ed002, I forgot about Christensen but I was talking about impact over a number of seasons All the players you mentioned have had perhaps a couple of good seasons. I suppose it could be argued that if we hadn’t sold them they might have contributed more. Anyway, water under the bridge.
{Ed002's Note - I think you will find two is a "number of seasons".}
12 Aug 2024 14:31:55
James and Colwill in my opinion would both be in our starting 11 when fit, not sure who the next acadamy products coming through although people speak highly of Josh Acheampong.
12 Aug 2024 17:29:23
Colwill certainly has potential but I think he needs to push on this season. No one doubts Reece’s ability but he has hardly played for two seasons. let's hope he can stay relatively fit but the signs are not good.