Well, it seems like we have managed to tie down WIlliam Saliba till 2027 for now. Ornstein broke the news about the agreement and it’s going to be a 4 year deal. Saliba has moved on from the one of the best talents to one of the best defenders in the world, and it was very important to not let him go.
So, Edu and the club has managed to tie down Ramsdale, Saka, Martinelli, Gabriel and Saliba, and we are sure Odegaard is not going anywhere too. That’s 6 of the important players from our playing XI. Good job from whoever is involved. We don’t let go the best of our players.
Criticize Edu and Mikel for everything but they have managed to keep the important players. You may argue that we are paying over the odds for likes of 21-year olds, but I am looking to win things even if it means we overpay.
Rice will cost us a whooping 80m+ and will demand a salary of 200k+/week at minimum. He plays for a mid-table team who was fighting a relegation battle for the whole season. Do you expect the likes of Saka and Martinelli, who are probably the best in their places in premier league satisfied with anything less than that? It’s not like we are paying huge money for the has-beens and retiring people (like Willian?).
Credit where it’s due. We have 4 years of no worries in 6 places. We have the RB and LB sorted already. Jesus came in last season and we tied down Nketiah too. It’s the midfield which is a worry, but if we are bringing players, we would have a very stable team, where you don’t have to think for at least next 2 years (that’s when these players have 2 years left on the contract and you decide whether to cash out or offer them some more money).
We are in good place. Hopefully we will sort out the midfield this season, pick ourselves up for the fights at two fronts and win something. I’m going to very specific with my demand as a fan – win Premier League and have a good run in Champions League and I will be happy.
It’s not too much of a ask when we stayed on top of the table for like 90% of the season. It’s not too much when it wasn’t City who won it from us, but we gave it to them. It’s not much when Arteta is in his 4th full season, having spent in the north of half a billion and have a team of his own.
Short one today, hope you are having a nice weekend!
until we make some fairly significant changes to the way in which we conduct ourselves from both a tactical and transactional capacity our club won’t have a substantive impact on the European footballing landscape…our rather rudimentary managerial ways mixed with our amateur hour transfer practices will never cut it on the big stage…as such, if we don’t get this particular window spot-on a regression will be forthcoming…of course, I’m not suggesting that the drop-off will be drastic, but top 4/Wenger Cup talk will once again become our predominant narrative
Hi Almunia
If there was a large financial award for butchered plastic surgery among money grubbing male celebrities, I think Mickey Rourke, Pete Burns, Jacko (rest in purgatory) , and the soon-to-be behind bars POTUS Mr Donald orange-faced-bastard Trump would hotly contest Ms Almunia’s judgment.
Fancy doing a top 5 yourself? Or – a bit closer to home – the 5 ugliest ever Arsenal players? I’ll get thinking on mine in the meantime.
Hope you’re well mate. I guess the exam season is nearly over where you are too. The twins are walking around the house with faces like thunder, leading me to conclude their own exams have not gone well. An even worse time to be around young uns!
TRVL
Not as extreme as Chelsea but Arsenal has always been a Tory party club in my opinion. The opposite of clubs like Liverpool, Manure Newcastle and Cardiff.
Imagine Hill-Wood, the gun-toting Kroenke senior and the old board discussing blood sports, shrinking the state and blaming society’s ills on single mothers over cigars and vintage port… Not hard is it.
To that extent, our miserable record in games outside of England mirror their political thinking ie the club is chronically euro sceptic. It must be 30 years since Parma in the Parken.
Paul Dickov wheeled out on Sky as a totemic City star of the past. He’s a fucking Arsenal man (and a decent Trossard lookalike)!
KP,
Yeah,exam season in full bloom,couple of weeks left before I get to put the feet up for the summer,can’t wait. How about yourself? Any free time coming up? Hols with kids aren’t stress free but they are still preferable to the mundane.
I’ll skip straight to the Arsenal players,my knowledge of celebs is pathetic. Joint top is Almunia,his hair,his stupid expressions after his mistakes,drove me mad. Equally galling in a visual sense was Gervinho,wtf was going on with his hair? You’re a footballing millionaire man,go to a barber and sort it. In third place I’m going to put Franny Jeffers. Look at his face and immediately you’d know he was a scouser,say no more. Fourth,John Hartson, he looked like he had spent his career in rugby league. And finally I always found John Jensen’s face extremely annoying. Maybe it’s just because he was such an uninspiring player. Harsh, I know,but they’re my five.
KP-Mickey Rourke hands down…love the boardroom imagery…Squid Game, behind the glass, meets the head table at the Red Wedding…old world ragged with a dollup of entitled cuntiness
I really don’t think Chelsea are that far off, once they clear out the non-believers and the contract rich hangers-on…when the smoke clears Poch will have the makings of a future juggernaut, with the likes of Nkunku, Enzo, Fofana, James, Mudryk, Madueke, Chukwuemeka, a couple teneable short-term CBs and likely Caicedo and Onana coming(not to mention Poch is pushing hard to keep Mount)…they clearly have the monies, they just need to reign the new owner in a bit…I would rather have that problem than the reverse, as our absentee landlord is oft-times the reason why everything moves at such a snail’s fucking pace
Kroenke
Peter Hill-Woods go to newspaper was the Daily Mirror if my memory serves me correctly.
Its hardly a right leaning newspaper.
Marc
I think PHW would have folded up the sports pages as firmly as possibly and used it as an impromptu wedge to remove some regal dangle berries from his double barreled derriere. After that he’d sit on a gold plated ceramic throne reading the Daily Telegraph, defecating foie gras profusely and accidentally letting hot cigar ash drop onto his greying pubes before pulling his ‘o’ face.
5 pig ugly alternatives coming up after I’ve had my dinner. I knew you’d instantly get the best ones.
TRVL
You may well be right about Chelsea, but the step before the rebuild is a pretty formidable one, ie the purge of the current squad. Auba, Lukaku, Kante, Mendy the list goes on.
KP-by the sounds of things Kante’s gone on a free to the Saudi league, Lukaku might remain in Inter as part of the Onana Keeper transfer and Auba will likely return to Barca with a subsidized contract or will follow Kante to the Middle East…I think their biggest hurdle, in light of their willingness to pay their way out of trouble, is how quickly they solve their longtime Striker concerns…maybe it’s the returning Broja, but I would suspect that this might be the most logical landing spot for Osimhen
It may sound absurd but the Saudi league infatuation is going to kill the hope for Indian football. And there is MLS too for retirement.
Cricket is too big to let anything else prosper unfortunately.
1. Geoff Barnett in goal (I love nearly all of our past gks except Almunia of course) so had to go back to this late fill-in for Willow in the 72 fa cup final which we lost to Leeds).
2. Nelson Vivas. Only a mother could love that grotesque Latino face of his.
3. Chamakh. The barnet and boat race combo would have been enough to scare any back 4 if he could have ever brought a fucking long ball under control.
4. Stepanovs. When he crossed the iron curtain, the entire population in the west regretted helping to bring about the end of stalinism.
5. Steve Bould. Looked old before his time. An ineffectual side man during Wenger’s dotage. A footballing brain from bay watch, a face from crime watch.
Re Chelsea, Poch knows how to keep a compact team. He is getting rid of the has-beens and may-be’s. I still don’t understand why they sacked Tuchel. He should have been the one doing this.
Almunia
Johnny Jensen looked more like the archetypal ‘calm down, calm down’ scouser than the real thing didn’t he?That tight curly perm and bum fluff moustache.
Almunia
We’re off to Malaga with the kids in a few weeks. Little do they know that me and Ms Kroenkephobe are taking a week off from our unpaid jobs running ‘Hotel Los Bastardos’ in Wales (as I like to call home…) and that they are going to be doing all the cooking and cleaning in the house we’ve hired, while I get beered up and do some serious holiday reading. Perfecto!
According to channel 4 tonight, 20,000 city supporters have turned out in Manchester for their trophy celebrations. A mere twenty thousand! I bet more turned out for Burnley’s championship winning parade. Any other major club would have hundreds of thousands on the street. Fucking pathetic! Plastic fans. Maybe they know something we don’t, ie that City will be in the 4th tier next year. 🤞
KP-now I get why you slag off Boehly, but I’ve never heard our organization truly take responsibility for their failed actions, properly acknowledge and show appreciation for their supporters and speak about the specific ways in which they will make their fans proud, with names attached so everyone knows who’s accountable for what…I get that this was in part their attempt at damage control following a shitty season, but we’ve had those before without any of the aforementioned measures being offered up, which is likely due to the fact that the misplaced arrogance of the latter Wenger era still lingers
OPEN LETTER TO THE FANBASE
“Our promise to you was to make our fans proud. We remain completely committed to the long term and sustainable success of our club and fulfilling that promise we made to you.
We know the huge potential we must grow to develop Chelsea FC and it is a role we take seriously. Everybody working here is relentlessly focused on driving us forward. Clearly, for our men’s team, it has been a disappointing season and there is a lot we can and will do better. Throughout these difficult periods, our fans have supported our players and our team across the country, and Europe with unfailing loyalty. We could not be more grateful for your incredible support. We are building a modern scouting, talent identification, and recruiting infrastructure within our sporting department, led by Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, which will help us to identify and transform the squad around elite talent, a squad capable of consistently competing to win the Premier League, raise domestic cups and compete and win at the highest level in European football. We have also appointed Chris Jurasek as CEO to drive our business forward off the pitch, which in turn will make us more sustainable on the pitch. The success we are aiming for is only possible with our supporters behind us. We are proud of the creation of our Fan Advisory Board, which will meet for the first time over this summer, and we are confident its new members will ensure you are at the heart of decision making at our club. We will continue to ensure your voices are heard as we look to the future. For now, on behalf of the board and everyone at the club, thank you for your outstanding support. We hope you all have a good summer and look forward to welcoming you back to the Bridge in August. Chelsea Ownership Group.”
Never have I ever, at least not in this part of London
Ambarish-there’s an Indian League??? LOL
btw Tuchel was axed due to his off-field shit show
KP,
Bouldy was in my thoughts but I liked him as a player and spared him. The other 3 I couldn’t argue with but I’m going to have to Google a pic of Barnett. Chamakh was another disaster, God help him, Stepanovs is a good shout for almost every negative Arsenal list.
Malaga sounds lovely, I’m sure chez Kroenkephobe won’t be the venue of any parties in your absence! That first drink in the hotel bar though…..priceless.
very fortunate that several potential Pot 2 teams didn’t qualify for the CL, thus enabling us to move up from Pot 3, as this will afford us the luxury of avoiding several more potentially problematic teams in our initial grouping…on a side note, I was just reading up on the CL changes that will be coming into effect in 2024-25, which could see the PL get an automatic 5th qualifying spot…not exactly sure what my thoughts are on this situation, but I’m pretty sure I might feel differently if it works in our favour at some point down the line…according to Arteta’s most ardent supporters this is a nothing burger, as 5th place shouldn’t be anywhere near our organizational radar for the foreseeable future…I guess we’ll see
TRVL
Yes, started in 2011, and 11 teams participates currently.
It attracted some retired professionals from Europe and Brazil initially but then the rise of MLS and now this Saudi league means it’s going to take some more time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Super_League
Fun fact – Sunil Chhetri, who plays for India and Bengaluru club is the third highest international goal scorer among the active footballers behind CR7 and Messi.
In 2009, he signed for QPR a 3 year deal but UK declined his work visa because of a rule which only allows non European players to participate in EPL if their country ranks within top 70. Unfortunate for him, unfortunate for Indian football.
Anbarish-I know it exists, I was just trying to be funny by validating your fears…obviously I failed miserably…Cheers
Haha, my bad then. I need to get out and grab a coffee.
Now that the Nuggets have won the NBA crown we’re the last non-title member of Kroenke’s sporting empire, minus his MLS minnows, the Colorado Rapids…let’s pray that Big Stan hasn’t had his fill of winning just yet or we could find ourselves once again at the bottom of his financial pecking order…interesting enough both he and Josh were front and center for all the festivities, so maybe just maybe they will become so enamored by this infectious feeling that they will do whatever is necessary to bring a title to the runt of their sporting litter
TRVL
“very fortunate that several potential Pot 2 teams didn’t qualify for the CL, thus enabling us to move up from Pot 3”
Been banging the drum on that topic and why we needed to win the title. Were it not for the points deduction of Juve we would be in Pot 3 and would have had a difficult time getting out of the Group stages. Can you imagine us getting out of a possible group of death if we were in Pot 3. Bayern, Real, Arsenal, Lens. Best we could have hoped for being back in the EL.
I would have thought winning the title was intrinsically worthwhile not just as a way of getting in Pot 2!
I think KSE has shown plenty of ambition since they took over 100% ownership.
Hi Bob
I think it’s a stretch to say the Kroenkes (gawd bless ’em) have showed ambition throughout their ownership although it’s certainly increased dramatically since Usmanov left to help further with the annihilation of Everton. If they could only channel some more of that thrusting Midwest ambition into acquiring a proper manager, back room team and leadership structure.
If it comes down to only being able to choose one, are you for Rice or Caicedo? Rarely for me, I don’t have a strong opinion on the issue. 😊
Agree Kroenke, as I said once 100% ownership happened, KSE have been far more forthcoming with funds to juice up the squad.
I’ll have to admit I’ve only seen Caceido a few times but there seems to be a consensus that he is a fantastic player and at 21 years old there’s a lot of years left to enjoy. If he is that that good then RM or whoever will be willing to buy him in 2/3 years for a lot more than say Arsenal will have paid for him. He is also versatile so he would be a great addition to rotate into different roles, just like Brighton used him against us at RB. There seems to be stories that Chelsea might be up to their old tricks and offer more money to Caceido and his agent so we’ll see. I would be very, very happy if we signed him.
Rice is more important for Arsenal right now. I was far from being in the Xhaka fan club but I 100% recognise his leadership qualities and his commitment. We’ve been waiting for an upgrade for years and finally it’s going to happen and I genuinely think it’ll have been almost worth the wait! I think he’ll fit in like a glove and we’ll straight away notice the benefits. Not only is he great defensively, interceptions, positionally but he is great driving forward and this quality alone will make us so much better with Odegaard and Jesus in particular benefiting from players being pulled towards him. Less importantly but significant all the same, he comes across as a great bloke.
I want to see both Rice and Caceido lining up in the tunnel before games as both are intimidating presences in different way. I feel we’ll get Rice and 65% chance of Caceido. If Caceido doesn’t happen I’d spend the money on Fresneda and Zubimendi.
As my sons use to chant ‘chicken and rice is always nice’; not sure about the chicken reference but anyway…!
Mbappe has sent PSG a letter confirming he won’t extend his contract. This would mean he could leave for free next summer. PSG won’t allow this to happen,to keep the impression of adhering to FFP they’ll benefit greatly from a sale(the money itself is largely irrelevant to them of course). Real Madrid,having lost Benzema, will make their move now rather than risk him being courted elsewhere. He will go,it’s his stated ambition to play for Madrid.
This ends Kane to Madrid. Instead he will sign for Utd. Martial will not be renewed.
Spurs will replace Kane with Kyogo who will follow his former manager to WHL.
The dominoes are falling…….
( Or I just made this all up)
Man City, Man U, PSG will have large transfer budgets , not sure if there are enough top players to go around! Napoli have three who might be in demand.