Awaiting Chelsea’s fire sale: who goes where?

1905 said:
When I say outside of short/safe passes I mean through balls mainly, defence splitting, and not even necessarily complicated through balls either. I just don't think he's good at them at all. I don't know the proper definition for progressive passes but I'd assume something along the lines of passes that break the lines, bypassing opposition midfielders? Would him driving forward with the ball past a player and playing it forward also count in this regard? That could skew the data as he's very good at that.

I also thought he was Croatia's best midfielder at the WC quite comfortably but there comes a point with us where he is not contributing in terms of creativity or goals, and has become less and less reliable over the years with injuries. A bit like Mousa Dembele when he was at Spurs. Absolutely elite in one aspect, but a bit lacking in other areas where it sort of becomes a 'what if' he was slightly better in this one aspect then he'd be a truly world class player. Kova is a style of player I love but one that you just want to be able to do more, because he's so talented.
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Just FYI, here's the definition of progressive passes used by fbref.com (which is where I took that screenshot):

Progressive Passes -- Progressive Passes
Completed passes that move the ball towards the opponent's goal at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes, or any completed pass into the penalty area. Excludes passes from the defending 40% of the pitch
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So his dribbling is excluded here - the bit I linked was purely his passing.

If you're keen to explore a bit further, here is the page in question:
https://fbref.com/en/players/79c0821a/scout/365_m1/Mateo-Kovacic-Scouting-Report

I hear what you're saying though overall - but I also think the number of players who can play those sorts of defense-splitting passes from central midfield is actually very small (though that number includes the guy we just acquired), and Kovacic not being elite at that specific aspect isn't an indictment of him as a passer.
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
Not to pour a ton of cold water on this, but Record in Portugal are reporting today that Benfica asked for Kovacic as part of the deal for Enzo - apparently that was a total non-starter for Chelsea:

https://www.record.pt/futebol/futeb...kovacic-ao-chelsea?ref=HP_DestaquesPrincipais
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Not sure how reliable Record are, why would Kovacic even agree to that. He will have plenty of clubs lined up, at his age there is close to 0 chance that he would have agreed to move.
 
roonster09 said:
Not sure how reliable Record are, why would Kovacic even agree to that. He will have plenty of clubs lined up, at his age there is close to 0 chance that he would have agreed to move.
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Oh for sure - Record are a bit flimsy, especially when it comes to Benfica news. But it seems that they didn't even get to the stage where Chelsea would even bother asking Kovacic what his thoughts were.

Could be that he'd be keen on another project though - especially if his minutes go down (though again I'm skeptical that this would be due to Enzo).
 
I'd take James but they won't sell him. I'd take Kovacic but only if he isn't our only midfield signing and we can get him for cheap. Wouldn't touch the rest.

Taking Chelsea cast-offs hasn't exactly gone well for us before. For midfield let's go for someone younger for 1st team.
 
Has Kante really declined that much? He's only 31. Just 2-3 years ago he was still a top 5 central midfielder in the world..
 
Auba has a year left on his deal after this summer.
Loan to the French or Turkish league written all over it, hard to see Barca being interested, with his level being so low right now.
 
Really not impressed with Chelsea’s new signings after the Fulham game. Enzo was of course good, but most expensive ever good? Not even remotely. Benoit Badishie was a stiff, really poor passing game. Mudryk invisible without space.
 
Reminds me of Milan’s late 90s transfer windows:
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Quite a clearcut. Only Kanté and Kovačić to a degree confirmed thus far but half of the deals are likely done by the end of next week. That's around £350m if they can get those fees they're currently asking for, and at least £300m even if they struggle with a few fees (Lukaku, Gallagher).

Havertz - Arsenal (£65m)
Mount - United (£55m)
Gallagher - Dortmund/Spurs? (£45m)
Lukaku - Inter? (£45m)
Cucurella - Newcastle? (£30m)
Kovačić - Man City (£25m + £5m)
Mendy - Al-Ahli (£17m)
Koulibaly - Al-Hilal (£17m)
Loftus-Cheek - ? (£17.5m)
Hudson-Odoi - a Saudi club? (£10m)
Ziyech - Al-Nassr (£8.5m)
Kanté - Al-Ittihad (free)
Bakayoko - contract running out
Aubameyang - ? (free)
Azpilicueta - Inter? (free)
 
top1whoisman said:
Quite a clearcut. Only Kanté and Kovačić to a degree confirmed thus far but half of the deals are likely done by the end of next week. That's around £350m if they can get those fees they're currently asking for, and at least £300m even if they struggle with a few fees (Lukaku, Gallagher).

Havertz - Arsenal (£65m)
Mount - United (£55m)
Gallagher - Dortmund/Spurs? (£45m)
Lukaku - Inter? (£45m)
Cucurella - Newcastle? (£30m)
Kovačić - Man City (£25m + £5m)
Mendy - Al-Ahli (£17m)
Koulibaly - Al-Hilal (£17m)
Loftus-Cheek - ? (£17.5m)
Hudson-Odoi - a Saudi club? (£10m)
Ziyech - Al-Nassr (£8.5m)
Kanté - Al-Ittihad (free)
Bakayoko - contract running out
Aubameyang - ? (free)
Azpilicueta - Inter? (free)
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That Saudi skanking is just unacceptable. Outrageous.
 
top1whoisman said:
Quite a clearcut. Only Kanté and Kovačić to a degree confirmed thus far but half of the deals are likely done by the end of next week. That's around £350m if they can get those fees they're currently asking for, and at least £300m even if they struggle with a few fees (Lukaku, Gallagher).

Havertz - Arsenal (£65m)
Mount - United (£55m)
Gallagher - Dortmund/Spurs? (£45m)
Lukaku - Inter? (£45m)
Cucurella - Newcastle? (£30m)
Kovačić - Man City (£25m + £5m)
Mendy - Al-Ahli (£17m)
Koulibaly - Al-Hilal (£17m)
Loftus-Cheek - ? (£17.5m)
Hudson-Odoi - a Saudi club? (£10m)
Ziyech - Al-Nassr (£8.5m)
Kanté - Al-Ittihad (free)
Bakayoko - contract running out
Aubameyang - ? (free)
Azpilicueta - Inter? (free)
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That’s quite a fall for CHO. Weren’t Bayern supposed interested in him at one stage.
 
Azpi is the next man out. He’ll probably just arrange with the club to get released. Chelsea will most likely grant his wish.




So far that’s:

Havertz (Arsenal)
Kovacic (City)
Koulibaly (Saudi Arabia)
Mendy (Saudi Arabia)
Ziyech (Saudi Arabia)
Kante (contract expired)

That’s 6 players that have either already left or on the brink of leaving. Mount and Azpi could join that list very soon. So could Lukaku, Loftus-Cheek and Auba.
 
top1whoisman said:
Quite a clearcut. Only Kanté and Kovačić to a degree confirmed thus far but half of the deals are likely done by the end of next week. That's around £350m if they can get those fees they're currently asking for, and at least £300m even if they struggle with a few fees (Lukaku, Gallagher).

Havertz - Arsenal (£65m)
Mount - United (£55m)
Gallagher - Dortmund/Spurs? (£45m)
Lukaku - Inter? (£45m)
Cucurella - Newcastle? (£30m)
Kovačić - Man City (£25m + £5m)
Mendy - Al-Ahli (£17m)
Koulibaly - Al-Hilal (£17m)
Loftus-Cheek - ? (£17.5m)
Hudson-Odoi - a Saudi club? (£10m)
Ziyech - Al-Nassr (£8.5m)
Kanté - Al-Ittihad (free)
Bakayoko - contract running out
Aubameyang - ? (free)
Azpilicueta - Inter? (free)
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Wow!!! Who are they keeping?
 
WeePat said:
Azpi is the next man out. He’ll probably just arrange with the club to get released. Chelsea will most likely grant his wish.




So far that’s:

Havertz (Arsenal)
Kovacic (City)
Koulibaly (Saudi Arabia)
Mendy (Saudi Arabia)
Ziyech (Saudi Arabia)
Kante (contract expired)

That’s 6 players that have either already left or on the brink of leaving. Mount and Azpi could join that list very soon. So could Lukaku, Loftus-Cheek and Auba.
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:lol:

Can’t believe Koulibaly left already
 
Not sure they can afford to sell Cucerella at £30m, that would represent a loss of about £20m.

Great business selling Havertz for over £60m but Mount & Kovacic are in Chelsea's best 11, huge losses.

Interesting to see how much they'll have paid agents the last year, will be an astronomical figure.
 
Erik the Red said:
Haha yes, but of these 106 players, what would the current first XI look like, and if they had a sane owner, where would they be plugging holes?
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Kepa
James - Fofana - Silva - Chilwell
Caicedo? - Enzo
Madueke - Nkunku - Mudryk
Jackson

Bench: Slonina, Gusto, Badiashile, Colwill, Gallagher, Chukwuemeka, Sterling

Biggest need at this point by far is a defensive midfielder to sit next to Enzo. Caicedo obviously fits the bill to a T.
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
Kepa
James - Fofana - Silva - Chilwell
Caicedo? - Enzo
Madueke - Nkunku - Mudryk
Jackson

Bench: Slonina, Gusto, Badiashile, Colwill, Gallagher, Chukwuemeka, Sterling

Biggest need at this point by far is a defensive midfielder to sit next to Enzo. Caicedo obviously fits the bill to a T.
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I can’t be the only one that looks at that team and think their starting 11 was better before? Crazy given they spent over £600m to make the team.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I can’t be the only one that looks at that team and think their starting 11 was better before? Crazy given they spent over £600m to make the team.
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:lol: I thought I was alone. £600m for that. Roman would never!!

Good luck to them though. Apparently they are going places.:lol:
 
ayushreddevil9 said:
Who is paying 45m for Gallaghar?
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23-year old full England international with two years remaining in his contract, not surprised Chelsea are looking at that kind of a fee. If a PL side decide to go for him, it will be close to that, maybe £40m. Dortmund won't pay that though, but it won't be much lower either. Perhaps £35m.
 
In general I agree with hitc seven on YouTube, it doesn’t seem likely this is a Chelsea / Saudi conspiracy. However one transfer makes this entirely dodgy and that is the sale of koulibaly. Chelsea need rid due to his ridiculous wages, ffp book cost, etc. no one any where is paying more than 10m for him, yet conveniently Saudi’s turn up willing to buy for almost the same fee, on massive wages. It absolutely smells like bullshit
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
Kepa
James - Fofana - Silva - Chilwell
Caicedo? - Enzo
Madueke - Nkunku - Mudryk
Jackson

Bench: Slonina, Gusto, Badiashile, Colwill, Gallagher, Chukwuemeka, Sterling

Biggest need at this point by far is a defensive midfielder to sit next to Enzo. Caicedo obviously fits the bill to a T.
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This is just the strangest team ever. It’s kind of like having “gone on holiday” for a year or two while playing Championship Manager and all of a sudden half the team are regen-names.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I can’t be the only one that looks at that team and think their starting 11 was better before? Crazy given they spent over £600m to make the team.
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I was going to say too, but I didn’t want to be tagged by 3-4 of the Chelsea faithful telling me otherwise.

They may or may not do well with Pochettino, but their eleven definitely isn’t better after an 600 million spend. It’s really poor.
 
Josep Dowling said:
I can’t be the only one that looks at that team and think their starting 11 was better before? Crazy given they spent over £600m to make the team.
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That front 4 doesn't look that threatening at all, unless they are going to play on the counter all the time.

Don't forget the players they spent on over the last 2 or 3 years and only one or two of them is in that line up. All these are missing or already gone from the club, about 400m.

Mendy - 24
Ziyech - 40
Lukaku - 113
Koulibaly - 38
Havertz - 80
Cucurella - 65
Werner - 50
 
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