Erikse

Oh, another guy who pretends like FFP doesn't exist. Nothing to do with football. Imagine buying a 69m striker to replace your 130m striker. That's cheating.

His back injury was even more of a disaster in hindsight. I'm convinced he would have had a breakthrough with us that season. Looked very good in pre season. At the very least his value would have gone up.

Joelinton has been out for 39 games in the last 2 years with 6 separate injury layoffs. He would probably have gotten quite a few starts last season, and even more in this one with the added load of CL. Not a star player like at Forest, but I still think his development would have been good with us, and with increasingly more minutes as he got better.

Wissa hat trick vs Barca in there aswell.

Spent too much time with Barnes already.

Burn wants the LIverpool move for sure.

I also thought of Cisses first half a season when I saw some of the finishes.

So now Chelsea will have a £1bn headroom?

I agree, but Schär and Burn both turn 34 this season, while Kraft is 31, and Lascelles soon turn 32. Thiaw is a question mark currently, and so is Botman in terms of whether he can hit form again after all the problems.

I think Wissa will definetly be preferred early on, due to Premier League experience.

The Peter Crouch and Messi hybrid.

Yes, exactly. I wouldn't deem him injury prone yet. 2 years out (mostly out) can have a long term effect, though, but I think it's worse for wingers and such.

I think it's a bit of frustrtation going around from the fact that he has barely been match fit for literally 2 years now (since september 2023). It's really hard to tell what he can do for us this season. Too early to judge for me.

For how long do we think Burn and Schär will last at this level? They both turn 34 this season. Can we rely on them for the next season aswell? Lascelles and Krafth are also ageing, so a centre back for the future would be nice next summer. Maybe even two if Botman doesn't have a good season. Replacements for Willock and Trippier will also be key. GK depends on how well Ramsdale does, same with our wingers.

Yes, it's a discovery that I just made. A groundbreaking one.

Botman could really not do much more in the time when he actually played and was fit. He was absolutely class. That's his real level. Whether he can recover or not still remains to be seen, but to think that he isn't class just because he has been out for a long time is short term memory. I had a discussion in the summer about whether Barnes was a great signing, when many was suddenly raving about him after a run of form. I said wait and see what the opinion will be like if he starts this season on a low.. The Barnes thread has already changed in tone. One day he's a mediocre player and a waste of money, and the next day he is absolutely class and a bargain. Soon after he is considered to be not good enough once again..

To my understanding you can't fine a player his wages for longer than a few weeks? It should be the case that you can fine them their entire wage until they finally decide to play again.. That would only be fair, and we would see less of this thing.

Diaz looks better than Wirtz currently..

I think a lot of our opponents are in the same position. Leeds, Liverpool and Wolves for instance. Leeds has a lot of new players, Liverpool sold and bought a lot of players and Wolves lost 2 key players in Cunha and Ait Nouri.

No idea why all the pundits just assune that Isak is telling the truth and that the club is lying in all this..

I agree. Botman was also flawless in that season, for pretty much the entire season. We kept a bunch of clean sheets with him and Schar. He also did very well in the build up, which isn't one of Burns strengths.

It's a bit hard for me to rank a player who has really only had 1 proper season with us, against some who has played 3,5 or more. Botman was excellent in that season when he actually was fit and played. Probably even better than Burns last season.

He hasn't been fit and in match form since september 2023 though. Literally 2 years ago.

I was told a couple of years ago that not smiling automatically means that you are unhappy with your new club. Did we actually force him out?

The good old "made it sound like he knew more, but it aged terribly" thing..