01 Feb 2026 23:33:26
Interesting that Jacquet chose LIverpool. Have never seen him play so hard to judge on whether it’s a good or bad signing. All I know is if he does well the boo boys will blame the ownership for not signing him and if he flops they will get no credit for deciding against outspending Liverpool.
Hopefully Sarr settles well and our defense is sorted anyway.
02 Feb 2026 04:48:19
Melbourne, I thought all the noise was his preference was CFC. I guess that’s just what it was, all noise. Like you and every other poster I haven’t seen him play, so it’s hard to make any judgement on the lad.
I can’t say I know much about Sarr but our manager does and that can only help.
02 Feb 2026 06:31:04
Melbourne, you took the words right out of my mouth mate, be interesting to hear what the boo boys say now.
02 Feb 2026 07:19:12
I. has thought Chelsea was his preference so foolishly beloeved the noise. Not for the first time. He has looked wonderful on highlights reel - a physically powerful and fast tacklercand passer as said when I first looked and he may turn out to be VDD mark 2 with a sl8ce of orine Rudiger but who knows. He is still v young. Anyway I'd guess that Liverpool may have offered better wages or more mobey to Rennes if he chose them or more guaranteed gsme time? Again, who knows and may partly do to with financial matters or fact LFC believed they needed him.
more. Anyway if this has happened we can but move on. But CH has obviously been a problem position for us this season as we all know.
{Ed001's Note - I have never seen him play, but from what I have heard your problem with selling the club to players is the rotation. Players don't like to be dropped when playing well, they want to play to build up a rhythm, rather than being constantly in and out of the side.}
02 Feb 2026 09:08:35
Ed, do you think our CB options create the rotation issue? Fofana has to be rotated because of injuries, he can’t play two 90mins in a week. If Colwill were fit, I’d assume he’d be treated like Caicedo or Enzo, starting most games. For me, a settled CB partnership is key to a top team, but, the rest of the CB’s are, at best, middle of the road or developmental options, never going to form part of a settled defence.
I do think the writing was on the wall about Jacquet earlier in the day, when it became apparent that Anselmino was going to Strasbourg and we were re-calling Sarr. Haven’t seen too much of Sarr or Jacquet, at all, but plenty to suggest they’re at a similar level and we have high hopes for Anselmino too. So, this could be the best long term option for us.
{Ed001's Note - possibly now, but under Maresca he liked to rotate everything. Personally though, I don't understand why you were even in for Jacquet, you should always prioritise what you have already and then only buy to fill a gap.}
02 Feb 2026 09:11:24
One thing we have to change is the leaks to journalists … sick of romano posting constanyly avout players we’re interested in- blatantly obvious this is wncouraged by the club and drags out the saga for ages, and then like in this situation the players chooses a different option and we look incompetent as a club.
Ome day its ‘only wants chelsea’ and a couple days later he's signed for liverpool.
02 Feb 2026 09:17:34
ED01, Are Liverpool now following the Chelsea model of buying young promising players with the potential to be "the real deal" as oppossed to "so called" experienced players?
{Ed001's Note - that is, to a large degree what we have done since the Klopp arrival due to the need for them to be able to adapt to the demands of his style of play. So it is just something we stuck with, other than the odd exception in Virgil for example.}
02 Feb 2026 09:26:32
In fairness ED001, most of the time, the rotation is forced on us through injuries.
{Ed001's Note - Maresca would have rotated anyway, which is what worries players as they feel it is being forced on the head coach by outsiders. Whether that is true or not, it is the perception from outside the club that the head coach is under orders to rotate to keep players fresh.}
02 Feb 2026 09:34:00
Greenaway
I'm. happy if Sarr is coming to us, it will be nice yo see "our: youngster play rather than paying £60mil for a summer Jacquet.
02 Feb 2026 09:41:24
It’s hard to know the reason he chose them although I did see the initial reports of him having a preference for Chelsea. Wouldn’t be a good sign if he decided against us after we recalled Sarr, as some have reported, as it doesn’t exactly point to confidence in his own ability. He didn’t cover himself in glory against Monaco, nutmegged for one goal and out of the position on another two, although he may not have had his mind on the game in fairness.
Sarr also gave PSG a goal so there’s that.
02 Feb 2026 09:43:13
Interesting comment from you Ed001 as ever!
Yes I understand this from players perspective. It might speak to the difficulty that some of our recent signings have had in adapting to playing for CFC. Obviously fair bit of rotation needed in 60 plus game season and cos of niggles/people coming back from injuries that need to be managed but it is true that we have done more rotations than any other club and sometimes seemingly crazy ones like a whol new left side combo in first hal v West Ham that made all of BB, Hato and Garnacho look bad - though Garnancho also looked bad for losing ball even more than the others and not tracking back enough or with enough energy.
I guess that there are some players who find this rotating in and out even more difficult than others.
Young players in particular need game time to improve, gain experience and confidence. Perhaps especially if coming into EPL from another league. Gittens may be a case in point here, and hard to know if it is this or insufficient quality.
Equally constant and at times pretty extreme rotation means that partnerships eg in defense at CH or entire back four don't develop easily or well. Again for young players this is perhaps harder than for more experenced ones. And some young players at CFC including Guiu brought back from v brief loan spell at Sunderland have not been given much game time at all. Likewise Josh A.
One benefit of generally low level opposition in Conference League was that some could get gaem time there and Guiu did well. But then little or no game time in EPL.
02 Feb 2026 10:35:28
I haven’t got a clue why the player chose to to another club. I also have no idea if he is a good player. As it was widely reported that other clubs were interested maybe that rumour of supposed multi club interest came from the selling club.
Apparently he is not joining us now, so I couldn’t care less.
02 Feb 2026 11:28:53
well tom it was widely reported by the usual club propagandists that he was only intetrested in chelsea and we were elading the race. so what happened, now they fall back on 'internal solutions' and ' we have sarr available' . when in reality they got beaten to the signing by liverpool.
02 Feb 2026 12:19:50
Been away for awhile but still reading.
Some make me laugh on here firstly moaning about us buying another unproven player for 60m then when it turns out he is going to Liverpool we have been beaten to him by another club.
You never wanted him in the first place.
Just proves the ownership or sporting directors can't win lol.
02 Feb 2026 12:31:18
Quite possibly the club decided spending the money wasn’t worth it and would be better to give the young lads we already have a chance to prove themselves over the next 6 months.
I personally am very happy they recalled Anselmino when it became clear that Dortmund wanted to sign him permanently and were in the kids ear. Shows the club do have plans for some of the younger players that were bought and aren’t just looking for quick flips.
It’s clear that kaz isn’t a fan of the owners, no matter what decision is made. Previously it was that spending 60m on Jacquet was a dumb risk, and now it’s we got beaten to the signing by Liverpool. Owners can’t win in some eyes.
02 Feb 2026 13:07:27
Kaz, the other day you were slating the club for wanting to pay £50million for him, now you are whinging they didn't buy him and missed out to Liverpool? sounds to me you just have a downer on our club.
02 Feb 2026 13:48:44
Totally agree with youvabout Dortmond, they turn young players heads then don't want to pay decent fee.
Hope we never send a young player to them ever again.
02 Feb 2026 14:57:51
This is all just pundit rumours. Apparently Chelsea were not happy with the “we want to buy AA” comment.
The other lad chose to play for another club. That’s his choice. I would hope he did it after considering all his options.
Kaz, I have no idea what a “club propagandist” is. I would like to think we have an in-house marketing department. I’m also guessing we have journalists we feed certain information to but I’m also guessing most clubs have a preferred journalist outlet.
I can’t see what the big deal is. Player chooses to go to other club, hardly unusual.
Finchy, spot on mate it’s impossible for the owners, SD’s and managers to make all the fans happy. This potential signing is typical of how us fans use events to match our agenda’s.
02 Feb 2026 16:21:19
I'm perfectly fine with not getting him. the issue i had was we fed journalists all this info of then player only wants us, deal close and in the end Liverpool got it done.
Less talking more action needed. With the sarr anselmino debacle + about 50 transfers.
Just makes it seem likr they don't have a clue as many suspect. too many cooks spoils the broth.
02 Feb 2026 17:36:25
I have no idea if WE fed journalists and my guess is you haven’t either. It could just as easily be his club trying to push up interest.
Anyway makes no difference. Not one single poster knows anything about the lad.
02 Feb 2026 18:22:25
Kazblue since when has anyone at the club ever said a player only wants chelsea blah blah blah.
It's all paper talk for click, likes or what ever young people want nowadays.
How you are turning it around to the club I have no idea.
02 Feb 2026 19:19:15
finchy. if you don't think the club uses romano to leak info/drip feed stuff out then i dunno what else to say
its pretty clear to anyone that looks at his posts on chelsea that certain things are fed through him (as is the case with plenty of clubs/journos) nowadays.
02 Feb 2026 20:19:38
Kazblue, I personally think FR is a bit of a fraud in the sense that others seem to get information and then he puts it out on his site but that’s probably just me.
I would think his contacts are more likely to be agents than clubs.
There is nothing to say that Chelsea have anything more than the same “controlled” information leaks than any other club.
The public information on this particular transfer could have been disclosed by numerous sources. I’m not sure how anyone can be certain but if you’re convinced it’s Chelsea that’s fine.
02 Feb 2026 20:40:10
Like Tom I don’t care that we didn’t sign Jacquet. He may turn out to be a top class defender but he didn’t sign for us- I am only concerned about players we sign. I feel sorry for Anselmino, he was apparently doing well at Dortmund and now he is being shipped out to a Mickey Mouse club in Ligue 1.
As for the tapping up rumours if there is substance in them a formal complaint should be made.
02 Feb 2026 20:59:14
Jimbo, I’m only guessing (as usual) but when a club loans out a player to another club I guess there is always a risk of a subliminal tapping up if that makes sense.
Apparently a senior person at Dortmund made a public statement about wanting to sign the lad. I’m sure ish, if that desire to sign him had been made privately then the lad would likely still be in Germany.
02 Feb 2026 21:12:50
Jimbo like you he hasn't signed i wouldn't want to sign him when we have sarr and AA out on loan and haven't even kicked a ball for us.
As for AA and Dortmund I for one. If all the paper talk is correct. then I am glad we took him away from them. As they always want to charge us the earth but want to get our players cheap.
02 Feb 2026 21:16:06
And to reply to you Kaz yes I do believe the club aren't the ones to leak stories. Why would they as it gives other clubs the heads up.
But just for you. I was outside frankies sports bar when we played West ham. I saw Todd speaking to Romano. Telling him "he wants to bring in another sporting director " heard £90 million is the fee.
03 Feb 2026 09:42:46
I totally agree with people's comments re Dortmond, rotten club and I hope we never send a player to them on loan again.
I also agree, we have youngsters in our ranks already with probably as much "potential" as zjacquet, let's give them a chance to prove it.
03 Feb 2026 12:00:57
100% agree with your opinion bill.