The College Dropout

You think Howe wants any outfield player that can't press? And that player being Nick Woltemade? Osula is way more a Howe player than Nick. A summer won't change that.

I think Howe is done with Woltemade. He doesn't have the disposition to play for Howe.* Kind of like how Rafa needed a striker to run a lot and be mobile..... Howe pretty much needs the same thing. If he can't/won't make runs in behind and press defenders - he's a non starter. *Unless he tries a 10

Good chance he's just second choice next season. Get in a new striker. Bomb out the 2 signings and go as is.

Absolutely nothing. We lose all football ability. We lose a lot of leadership, determination, grit etc. Even when people said he was poor last season, I always thought he was one to get on the ball and try and play.

Good managers do sometimes get players wrong. Rafa never liked Mitro. He continued with Sissoko RW, Wijnaldum AM when both would've formed a good midfield 3 with Shelvey imo. But i'll trust Eddie on Wissa and Woltemade

The number of top level goals Nick has outside of 2025 is spooky

Yeh that's fine. If that's mediocre - bring me mediocre. Most would be delighted with that here.

You said "Chelsea were fine to accept mediocrity before they got bankrolled by Russian billions." That period before Abramovic joined was a lot better than mediocre. Akin to a golden era for us. And they kind of already dropped back to what they were before. A team finishing 3rd-6th and a cup team.

I agree with nearly all of this and entirely with the main premise. You've called that Bates period - fairly successful. That's more successful than I've ever seen Newcastle United. That would be a golden era for us. If Chelsea did all of that in 6 years and are a nothing club, what does that say of Newcastle United the last 50 years? Spurs the last 30? I do agree that pales in comparison to the Abramovic era and that changed football forever. But they weren't a nothing club prior is all.

Yep it is THE difference. The best players will join clubs that have ambitions to win it or have won it in the last 10 years. But money is more important.

People make this claim that Chelsea were nothing before abramovic. When they won several trophies and qualified for the CL twice in the 5-6 years before he bought the club. Sure their long term history wasn’t amazing. But it was a club that had tasted recent success. Like proper success more than us these last 4-5 years, more than us under SBR.

Nah. Chelsea were shocking. That PSG game ended Rosenior. Im growing in the belief that the Barca game did untold damage to Eddie and the players.

That Spurs relegation would hit so pure.

Chelsea were a top 6 team most of my childhood. Winning cups. Finished 4th the season before Abramovic joined.

And Livramento wasn't even a professional 5 years ago

Problem is Eddie really. He likes what he likes in football. Nonstop up and at em.

Outside of the Isak replacement we didn't really go for players with potential to be elite. Mbeumo? Joao Pedro? Larsen? Woltemade is a 1 season wonder. His reputation was less than Isak, Tonali. Went from Etikite, Joao Pedro, Isak to more proven versions of the first 2 - surprised we got gazumped. Then the likes of Wissa, Mbeumo etc.

That was naive and I don't totally agree. I don't think Mbeumo, JP, Sesko are elite. But they are more proven than we can go for. Even Madueke went to Arsenal right. We need to be getting the Madueke that went to Chelsea. We need to get talents 1 or 2 years before the cavalry arrive.

That wasn't going to keep us challenging for the CL. We needed Gordon/Barnes level on the right as a minimum and Joelinton level at CM as a minimum.

Wouldn’t be at Eddie it’s not his job to sign players. Im not even mad at him if he’s the one that wanted Wissa at that price. He shouldn’t be able to make that call. Elanga too.

It’s crazy to we would’ve been better off just going with Osula and keeping our powder dry.

We drastically overpaid because we were panicked

Nah it was panic. £55m for Wissa is desperate desperate stuff.

Gordon, Livramento, Tonali were bought for £40m in total or more. England internationals, won cups, CL qualification you would assume add-ons have been met. All of these are successes. They would all be sold for a profit. Including Hall, £33m after 12 senior appearances. We spent a premium on all of those. I’m happy for us to do that if the club really believe in the signing. We saw in the doc - Ashworth, Howe, Staveley all really believed in Gordon. IMO he had not shown to be worth that money based on output or even talent imo but they all believed he would be. Everyone said we overspent on Gordon, Hall, Tonali, Isak etc. but we really believed. Again - we were going for players 1-2 years before the other big 6 clubs would. We need to get back into that. We took risks on high talent players. We were signing all the players the top 6 just weren’t quite convinced on. Instead we pivoted to players that were definitely never capable of being close to that elite level (in the main)

Not doubting this may have been the idea. But it always looked like a bad idea. Nobody thought Ramsey or Elanga would be that bit of quality to really solidify us as CL chasers. Especially compared to Tonali, Isak, Bruno at the time of their signing.