I’m not sure how people can criticize Chelsea for spending major money this window. Assuming that they are not on the verge of becoming insolvent, it is far preferable for your owners to spend too much than it is for them to spend too little.
I agree that is it fairly unlikely that they’ll get an adequate return on investment on most of these signings. But still, they saw that their current squad isn’t working and they’ve been aggressive in bringing in reinforcements, and there’s no reason to believe that Boehly doesn’t have the means to afford these purchases.
The problem with FSG’s far more conservative approach (to be polite) is that they leave far less room for error if one of their signings doesn’t work out for one reason or another.
Give me a break, you have no idea who has and hasn’t met their valuation. Its not public knowledge they could have several offers on the table.
And the “stark reality” is that other than in midfield we don’t need a full rebuild. We have 6 very good forwards, we have arguably the best fullbacks in world football and very decent squadies to back them up and we have the best Cb and Goalkeeper in the world with again good squadies to back them up. Our midfield needs reinforcement but players like Hendo, Thiago and Fab can still play major roles for the club even if they dont start every game.
Come the summer we need two quality midfielders and possibly a CB. We have some players we can sell to offset some of that cost but its not like we need a top to bottom rebuild so anyone spending the circa 4 billion to buy the club probably aren’t gonna be too fazed to drop another 100 mil on players. Most owners in this scenario want to inject money into the club and get the fans onside and put their own stamp on the club. Do you think someone is gonna pay 4 billion for the club and then tell Klopp sorry the well is dry.
This is my view, whilst it seems the team is in total disaray it doesn’t take a new 11, it needs 3-4 quality players coming in, with at least 2 being in the midfield.
From Hendo, Thiago, Fabinho, I’d want to sell one, keep one and push one as a squad option. Fabinho to be sold for me.
I agree about the CB position, we basically have 4 injury prone options.
If we are going to sell I’d think Fab has the highest value of the three. I can still see Hendo and Thiago starting plenty of games next season and long term i’d think Hendo moves into the Utility role that Milly currently occupies.
I could see a scenario where Gomez, Fab, Kelleher, Phillips and Bobby and prob a few others i’m forgetting leave the club in the summer and we’ll get fees for all of them. And I also see Morton, Carvalho, Elliott and Baycetic playing roles in midfield next season too which gives us 0 cost options on very low wages which can at least match the ouput that Keita, Ox provide. Add Jude and another and a top class CB to rotate with Konate and VvD and Matip can move to 4th choice. Williams the injury cover.
A Net spend of 150-200 mil would I think have us back amongst it.
I dont know how to quote like you have but I would say people(in general)are being overly dramatic/pessimistic about alot of our players.
This squad came within touching distance of a never before achieved Quadruple 6 months ago.
Nobody seemed to have a problem with Trent’s inability to defend when we where winning trophies. VVD again six months ago we nearly won a quadruple and now he’s been poor for a long time ? And I’d say when fit we have the best forward group in the league. Gakpo is what 5th/6th choice when everyone is fit. I’d say thats a very good option at 6th choice. Better than we have ever had really prob wouldn’t even make the squad when everyone is available.
Appreciate its been a bad season and there is reason for disappointment but I think there is a myriad of reasons why we are where we are but these guys who nearly made history 6 months ago haven’t turned into rubbish players overnight.
With a few quality additions I think we can bounce back quite quickly.
Yes but we did not, we took the 2 consolation prises.
Nobody seemed to have a problem with Trent’s inability to defend when we where winning trophies.
First yes a lot of us saw that, Southgate for instance but that is not the point, you were talking about the best fullbacks in world football and IMHO, TAA defending is not good enough to label him as best in world football.
VVD again six months ago we nearly won a quadruple and now he’s been poor for a long time ?
He has never been the same after his injury and this season he has been poor, in my book that is a long time.
The legs of our ageing midfielders are gone that together with a lot of injuries are the main reason why we are in 10th place after Friday night and we did nothing this transfer window to improve.
Again I don’t know how to multi quote but we’ve all known Trent isnt the best defensive defender in the world, never has been but he isn’t in the team to be a defender we use him in an attacking playmaking role and the midfield has helped out to cover they just dont have the legs to cover him like they have preciously and he is getting exposed.
Van Dijk was the key element in our defence last season. A defence that allowed 26 league goals the equal best in the league with City. As part of that defence we had a strong midfield that controlled games and shielded the back four. That isn’t happening this season and tbh I dont think 6 months is a period where by you would suggest a player has been poor for a long time.
And yes we didnt win the Quad but we came closer than any other team in history to doing it but people act like a Cup double is nothing. Rewind to pre Klopp days and we wouldnt have given anything for even one cup success let alone two in one season.
I think this season is a bit of a perfect storm for us. Years of running ourselves ragged pressing teams has caught up with a few of our older players. We’ve had injuries to key players all season and the club has failed to reinforced/refreshed the midfield to the level required, which has been years in the making. But again 6 months ago we where pushing for a Quad I dont think anyone could have expected us to drop off so significantly this season given how well the same players played last season. We have been blinded alittle bit by our own success and carried too many injury prone players especially in midfield and now the ones who’ve picked up the slack are cooked.
Just to quickly assist on this, all you need to do is highlight a text of one’s post you wish to specifically reply on and then click "Quote when it autopops, repeat that before you reply as a whole making sure each reply is under the appropriate quote.
Because even with licence given for owners to spend their own money it isnt a never ending pot. Their owners are in this to make money so they now have external pressures to massively increase revenue to make up to it. There also are external restrictions. The tricks they have used (long amortization periods) to allow this much spending in such a short period will have severely limited them moving forward as they will go into every window with a significant portion of their capacity for needed ongoing spending already accounted for.
