Chelsea 2024/25

It's been consistently reported that Felix took a huge pay cut to fit into Chelsea's wage structure - he was desperate to get out of Atletico Madrid.

I always hate reported wages in per week; makes it difficult to square with amortisation figures:

OUT (GBP):
Wages: Sterling 15m per year, Gallagher 5m per year = 20m
Fees: Gallagher 35m (42m euros)

Total out: 55m

IN (GBP):
Neto - 55m = 11m amortisation / year
Felix - 42m = 8.4m amortisation / year
Wages: Apparently both Neto and Felix are on Gallagher-level wages - so 10m per year between them
Sterling write off = 30m

Total in: 59.4m

You think Jorge Mendes negotiated deals to put Neto and especially Felix on only 100k per week?
 
We will be in top 4 at the end of the season. Onwards and upwards. Played well against city. Have good rhythm. No complaints for me about the performance. Defense will improve and we will be alright.
Pochettino got two draws vs City last year, didn't he?

Edit same fixture last season finished 4-4 with Chelsea having about the amount of possession as you did last weekend (despite City missing Rodri this time around and seemingly playing at about 70%).
 
Pochettino got two draws vs City last year, didn't he?

Edit same fixture last season finished 4-4 with Chelsea having about the amount of possession as you did last weekend (despite City missing Rodri this time around and seemingly playing at about 70%).
Nobody denied what pochettino did. He turned things from mid season. I am talking about us playing now. I saw many things very interesting.

We try to use width and bit of aggression in our general play. Moving the ball with pace. In my opinion we are looking very good. May be I am wrong but I liked what I see.
 
We will be in top 4 at the end of the season. Onwards and upwards. Played well against city. Have good rhythm. No complaints for me about the performance. Defense will improve and we will be alright.
Awfully confident for a fan of a club that’s widely regarded as being in disarray and ran like a poor business, previous 12th and 6th placed finishes, mediocre keepers (despite having a menagerie of them) and no reliable forward up front. Oh, and a complete novice of a manager that’s a distinct downgrade on Poch - who himself isn’t that great.

I admire your confidence (possibly bordering on delusion).
 
Awfully confident for a fan of a club that’s widely regarded as being in disarray and ran like a poor business, previous 12th and 6th placed finishes, mediocre keepers (despite having a menagerie of them) and no reliable forward up front. Oh, and a complete novice of a manager that’s a distinct downgrade on Poch - who himself isn’t that great.

I admire your confidence (possibly bordering on delusion).
This poster isn't particularly known for their capacity to critically view the club they support, shall we say.
 
He was on far less than that last season, wasn't he?
There was some weird mechanism in place to have him play for the league minimum at Barca, so that they could loan and register him. In a vacuum he should probably be earning between €10 and €12.5m would be my guess. Or maybe I am simply corrupted by the wages the players at Bayern earn. However, 5m p.a. for Felix sounds sketchy, but the whole deal is like that, so what do I know? :lol:
 
Awfully confident for a fan of a club that’s widely regarded as being in disarray and ran like a poor business, previous 12th and 6th placed finishes, mediocre keepers (despite having a menagerie of them) and no reliable forward up front. Oh, and a complete novice of a manager that’s a distinct downgrade on Poch - who himself isn’t that great.

I admire your confidence (possibly bordering on delusion).

I don't personally think 4th is out of the question for a team that finished 6th within touching distance of 4th last season. The squad has largely remained the same with some key players returning from injury.
 
You think Jorge Mendes negotiated deals to put Neto and especially Felix on only 100k per week?
i mean Neto was at wolves, and Felix wants to restart his career with no big clubs willing to take him. I can see the logic behind it, no chance chelsea break their new wage structure for Joao fricking Felix.
 
Yeah, I don’t think so.

Chelsea has a great media PR machine, I will certainly give them that.
Surely this cannot be true? Why would Felix sign for a measly 5m p.a.?
We're already doing Mendes a colossal favour by getting him out of Atleti. They were never going to hold Chelsea's feet to the fire on the contract side; he agreed to a major wage cut to be in line with our other attackers last week.
 
I don't personally think 4th is out of the question for a team that finished 6th within touching distance of 4th last season. The squad has largely remained the same with some key players returning from injury.
More the degree of certainty in his post.

Touching distance? That’s being awfully generous. You were around midtable for the majority of the season, and were never at any point in contention for 4th, or even close to it, despite your strong finish to the season.

Personally, i think Maresca just sets you back. He’ll be another manager out the door before long. If you had kept Poch I’d feel a lot more confident about your chances.
 
i mean Neto was at wolves, and Felix wants to restart his career with no big clubs willing to take him. I can see the logic behind it, no chance chelsea break their new wage structure for Joao fricking Felix.
Sorry, but I would be shocked, if Felix signs a six year contract for 100k pw. Maybe on a 2 year "try me" deal.
 
Sorry, but I would be shocked, if Felix signs a six year contract for 100k pw. Maybe on a 2 year "try me" deal.

No way that is true. He was reportedly on around £230k per week at Atletico and had a contract until 2029 at that figure. The idea that Jorge Mendes had him rip up that contract owing him £60m over the next five years to sign a contract paying him £30m over the next six years is wild.

I doubt he is making similar to the ludicrous wages of Sterling, who they clearly see as outside the new wage structure. But he'll be making somewhere in the same ~200k per week or a little more range as Nkunku, Fofana, Reece James as one of the top earners in their new wage structure.
 
No way that is true. He was reportedly on around £230k per week at Atletico and had a contract until 2029 at that figure. The idea that Jorge Mendes had him rip up that contract owing him £60m over the next five years to sign a contract paying him £30m over the next six years is wild.

I doubt he is making similar to the ludicrous wages of Sterling, who they clearly see as outside the new wage structure. But he'll be making somewhere in the same ~200k per week or a little more range as Nkunku, Fofana, Reece James as one of the top earners in their new wage structure.
He had already accepted a significant wage cut when he extended his deal with Atleti last summer before going on loan to Barcelona. His original contract with Atleti wasn't until 2029, it was until 2027.
 
There was some weird mechanism in place to have him play for the league minimum at Barca, so that they could loan and register him. In a vacuum he should probably be earning between €10 and €12.5m would be my guess. Or maybe I am simply corrupted by the wages the players at Bayern earn. However, 5m p.a. for Felix sounds sketchy, but the whole deal is like that, so what do I know? :lol:
off-shore wages incoming
 
More the degree of certainty in his post.

Touching distance? That’s being awfully generous. You were around midtable for the majority of the season, and were never at any point in contention for 4th, or even close to it, despite your strong finish to the season.

Personally, i think Maresca just sets you back. He’ll be another manager out the door before long. If you had kept Poch I’d feel a lot more confident about your chances.

We finished 3 points off 4th. One swing results elsewhere could have gotten us there. Obviously yes, we left it too late for it to ever be a serious thing, but it's not generous to say we got to within touching distance when it's literally the case.

I don't think we'll get 4th either. In the prediction thread, I had us 5th I think, but it's hardly delusional to predict 4th.
 
He had already accepted a significant wage cut when he extended his deal with Atleti last summer before going on loan to Barcelona. His original contract with Atleti wasn't until 2029, it was until 2027.

He accepted a one year wage cut to facilitate the loan because Barcelona is broke. And also extended the contract to 2029.
 
We finished 3 points off 4th. One swing results elsewhere could have gotten us there. Obviously yes, we left it too late for it to ever be a serious thing, but it's not generous to say we got to within touching distance when it's literally the case.

I don't think we'll get 4th either. In the prediction thread, I had us 5th I think, but it's hardly delusional to predict 4th.
You finished 5 points off 4th place and btw when Villa drew with you in game week 35 they had 67 points and you had 48 having played 33 games so really at no point were you even close to top 4
 
Just an awful situation to be in.

It's very exhausting. All I ever wanted was to support a normal football club that played nice football, followed the rules like everyone else, behaved in good faith and just tried to win by being better and smarter than everyone else.

Instead what we get is 100 signings and 100 sales in 2 years, the academy gutted for pure profit, plotting and scheming every year to exploit new loopholes, finding new ways to comply with PSR rules every summer and that's just this ownership.

I was talking to my best mate, an Arsenal fan yesterday and he was like the biggest saga they had was getting Calafiori over the line. Then I listed the drama involving Chelsea;

Sacked Poch, new manager.
PSR shenanigans with Villa, Everton, Forest etc ahead of the PSR deadline
Chalobah banished from the US tour
Enzo Fernandez racism
Gallagher, Felix, Atletico Madrid FFP nonsense.
Sterling released a statement 10 minutes before the first game of the season, because he was left out of the squad.
 
It's very exhausting. All I ever wanted was to support a normal football club that played nice football, followed the rules like everyone else, behaved in good faith and just tried to win by being better and smarter than everyone else.

Instead what we get is 100 signings and 100 sales in 2 years, the academy gutted for pure profit, plotting and scheming every year to exploit new loopholes, finding new ways to comply with PSR rules every summer and that's just this ownership.

I was talking to my best mate, an Arsenal fan yesterday and he was like the biggest saga they had was getting Calafiori over the line. Then I listed the drama involving Chelsea;

Sacked Poch, new manager.
PSR shenanigans with Villa, Everton, Forest etc ahead of the PSR deadline
Chalobah banished from the US tour
Enzo Fernandez racism
Gallagher, Felix, Atletico Madrid FFP nonsense.
Sterling released a statement 10 minutes before the first game of the season, because he was left out of the squad.
Honestly sounds like Utd levels of drama :lol: Hopefully we're on the tail end of all that shite now, it's not fun.
 
You finished 5 points off 4th place and btw when Villa drew with you in game week 35 they had 67 points and you had 48 having played 33 games so really at no point were you even close to top 4

Okay, but still 1 swing result with Villa would have had us in 4th. I admitted we had left it way too late but to me if 1 different result against Villa has us 4th I'm claiming that as within touching distance :lol:
 
He accepted a one year wage cut to facilitate the loan because Barcelona is broke. And also extended the contract to 2029.
He accepted both a one year cut where he was paid something like €3m and a lower base wage for the remainder of his deal. He's been trying desperately to get out of Atletico Madrid; the lower wage he took was to make it easier for a team to buy him given Atleti were demanding €75-80m.
 
We finished 3 points off 4th. One swing results elsewhere could have gotten us there. Obviously yes, we left it too late for it to ever be a serious thing, but it's not generous to say we got to within touching distance when it's literally the case.

I don't think we'll get 4th either. In the prediction thread, I had us 5th I think, but it's hardly delusional to predict 4th.
Another poster has pretty much said it but you weren’t ever in contention. Gained some ground but never actually in the race for top four at any point and that’s why I’d say you were never really in ‘touching distance’ despite a smaller points gap towards the end.

It’s like a 200 metre runner getting off to the worst start possible and being way off the pace, but gaining ground on the winner in the home straight. Doesn’t necessarily mean they were ever in ‘touching distance’ or the winner was ever in doubt.

Just my interpretation of it. Chelsea were very good for large parts of the second half of the season and you had a great opportunity to build on that under Poch. Again, I’m not really contesting the idea of Chelsea competing for top four - I’m just unconvinced on the grounds of sure-fire confidence for a top four spot when City, Arsenal and Liverpool are very likely to finish about them and then you’ve got United, Spurs, Villa, etc. That’s not mentioning the bizarre transfer business and no true discernible improvement on your squad from last year IMO.
 
Boehly must have some sort of masterplan. He can't just be buying all these players without one. It offers new managers a chance to build a side out of the 1000's of squad players they have, so maybe they hope a title challenging team will emerge if they just find the right combinations?
 
Boehly must have some sort of masterplan. He can't just be buying all these players without one. It offers new managers a chance to build a side out of the 1000's of squad players they have, so maybe they hope a title challenging team will emerge if they just find the right combinations?
AFAIK it's not even Boehly in charge at the moment. They do some weird rotating thing I think and it's currently Egbahli? Maybe? I dunno. It's strange.

That doesn't even mean he won't have any influence either.
 
Another poster has pretty much said it but you weren’t ever in contention. Gained some ground but never actually in the race for top four at any point and that’s why I’d say you were never really in ‘touching distance’ despite a smaller points gap towards the end.

It’s like a 200 metre runner getting off to the worst start possible and being way off the pace, but gaining ground on the winner in the home straight. Doesn’t necessarily mean they were ever in ‘touching distance’ or the winner was ever in doubt.

Just my interpretation of it. Chelsea were very good for large parts of the second half of the season and you had a great opportunity to build on that under Poch. Again, I’m not really contesting the idea of Chelsea competing for top four - I’m just unconvinced on the grounds of sure-fire confidence for a top four spot when City, Arsenal and Liverpool are very likely to finish about them and then you’ve got United, Spurs, Villa, etc. That’s not mentioning the bizarre transfer business and no true discernible improvement on your squad from last year IMO.

Any sure fire confidence regarding anything Chelsea related is bonkers, so you have my agreement there.

I disagree that the team hasn't improved. These are the players we missed for large parts of last season, or entirely.

Nkunku
Lavia
James
Fofana

Their return alone ups the talent we have available to pick from. Then there's Neto, who I believe is a good signing to balance out the quality we get from the right with Palmer and Madueke.

I think we'll be in the mix for top 4. Maybe it's that famous new season optimism but I feel pretty good at the moment.
 


Calling out their obvious PR.

Wouldn't take anything this guy says about Chelsea seriously. Has been banging on about us for years now & has a very weird agenda.

Ornstein on the Chelsea payroll aswell it seems eh!


AFAIK it's not even Boehly in charge at the moment. They do some weird rotating thing I think and it's currently Egbahli? Maybe? I dunno. It's strange.

That doesn't even mean he won't have any influence either.

Boehly is the face of the club while Egbahli holds more power and has been involved in some of our earlier, bigger transfers. But they hired sporting directors who have been in charge of transfers for multiple windows now. United have done exactly the same as us except they're probably a year behind on the timeline.
 
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Boehly is the face of the club while Egbahli holds more power and has been involved in some of our earlier, bigger transfers. But they hired sporting directors who have been in charge of transfers for multiple windows now. United have done exactly the same as us except they're probably a year behind on the timeline.

The way I see it, Boehly or Egbahli or whoever was in charge hired a bunch of likeminded Boehly Egbahli cross breeds continue to the chaos started by them in the exact same way. Rather than learning from the mistakes of the first window, they're trying to surpass the levels of stupidity. At United, we had some really strange days, but nothing compares to this. The strategy right now seems to be to throw a million monkeys onto a piano and hope appassionata can be reproduced at some point.
 
Any sure fire confidence regarding anything Chelsea related is bonkers, so you have my agreement there.

I disagree that the team hasn't improved. These are the players we missed for large parts of last season, or entirely.

Nkunku
Lavia
James
Fofana

Their return alone ups the talent we have available to pick from. Then there's Neto, who I believe is a good signing to balance out the quality we get from the right with Palmer and Madueke.

I think we'll be in the mix for top 4. Maybe it's that famous new season optimism but I feel pretty good at the moment.
Fair enough. I think it’s marginal either way.

I see Thiago Silva as a huge loss, despite his age, and Fofana does not compensate for that level of quality or leadership. You’ve essentially lost what was comfortably your best defender and get a promising young player, who has been beset with injuries, in return.

James is obviously a quality player when fit, but is starting to become really unreliable due to his injuries. It’s like United not investing in a quality left back because they’ve got Shaw to return - however he’s not dependable in the slightest sadly. Gusto is a brilliant player so you have fared well with a second right back there!

Lavia looks quality, I will admit. The midfield configuration of him, Caicedo and Enzo doesn’t really work so something will have to give though and for all the slander he was met with at times, Gallagher was a very worthwhile squad player.

With your attack, it’s a case of striking the right balance. Nkunku and Neto are really good players and Palmer is immense but it’s symptomatic of a very scattergun approach as it seems imbalanced. Then there’s Felix, who you think, what’s the point.

Not really worth going into transfer fees - it is what it is - I just don’t see monumental gains, personnel-wise. Questionable goalkeeper, unreliable striker, and suspect defence still remains.
 
The way I see it, Boehly or Egbahli or whoever was in charge hired a bunch of likeminded Boehly Egbahli cross breeds continue to the chaos started by them in the exact same way. Rather than learning from the mistakes of the first window, they're trying to surpass the levels of stupidity. At United, we had some really strange days, but nothing compares to this. The strategy right now seems to be to throw a million monkeys onto a piano and hope appassionata can be reproduced at some point.

It's only really the wage structure that has changed to be honest which is fair enough but it kind of limits the profile of players we can actually go after. On one hand I'm happy we aren't forking out £300k/£200k+ for players like Sterling & Koulibaly anymore but then again I'd have loved them to extend their stupidity if it meant we could've secured Michael Olise.

And I'm not comparing what we've done in the market to United, just the fact that both clubs have had new owners coming in and have hired people under them who know what they're doing (or should know) in a football sense. The strategy is obviously very different.
 
Fair enough. I think it’s marginal either way.

I see Thiago Silva as a huge loss, despite his age, and Fofana does not compensate for that level of quality or leadership. You’ve essentially lost what was comfortably your best defender and get a promising young player, who has been beset with injuries, in return.

James is obviously a quality player when fit, but is starting to become really unreliable due to his injuries. It’s like United not investing in a quality left back because they’ve got Shaw to return - however he’s not dependable in the slightest sadly. Gusto is a brilliant player so you have fared well with a second right back there!

Lavia looks quality, I will admit. The midfield configuration of him, Caicedo and Enzo doesn’t really work so something will have to give though and for all the slander he was met with at times, Gallagher was a very worthwhile squad player.

With your attack, it’s a case of striking the right balance. Nkunku and Neto are really good players and Palmer is immense but it’s symptomatic of a very scattergun approach as it seems imbalanced. Then there’s Felix, who you think, what’s the point.

Not really worth going into transfer fees - it is what it is - I just don’t see monumental gains, personnel-wise. Questionable goalkeeper, unreliable striker, and suspect defence still remains.

Those are fair assessments, even if I don't entirely agree with all of it .

The point about the midfield balance is a good one.