Joao Felix

Early days still but Felix has surprised me so far in how he's looked.

Despite getting sent off against Fulham early in the 58th minute he's had 9 shots to his name in his first two games at the club and really stands out in that regard because most of our midfield and attacking players average somewhere between 1-2 shots a game each. Of course not all of Felix' shots were dangerous but at least he's giving it a fair go and a team can't score if they don't shoot. Also seems really good at taking players on and drawing fouls in dangerous areas.

Really thought he'd struggle in the PL, especially in our team that's not currently doing well in any area of the game, but he's looked good from the first minute. If he keeps up a similar level of performance and this isn't just a temporary 'new club bounce' that will quickly fade, I wouldn't mind trying to lure him in permanently if a transfer can be done. A lot can still happen between now and the summer though.
 
pocco said:
Let's face it, they'll be back soon and he's young. It's not as if he's going to be winning the CL if he joins us.
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This is the EPL we can’t be certain of anything. Right now them and Spurs are the worst ran clubs in the top 6. I have more confidence Liverpool get it right before Chelsea. It’s not going to be easy.
 
SirReginald said:
Again, like Casemiro?

Honestly in recent history more players have picked Chelsea over United when given the choice. At least from what has been made public knowledge, In part due to location.
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Casemiro is a 5 times winner. He wasn’t moving for that. Joao Felix needs an upward trajectory
 
SirReginald said:
Again, like Casemiro?

Honestly in recent history more players have picked Chelsea over United when given the choice. At least from what has been made public knowledge, In part due to location.
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I dont see any evidence for that claim. The media print stories against united because they know it gets clicks.
Chelsea seem to want to try and link themselves with every player we go for as well.
 
SirReginald said:
Again, like Casemiro?

Honestly in recent history more players have picked Chelsea over United when given the choice. At least from what has been made public knowledge, In part due to location.
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Which ones, out of interest? I know Hazard went for Chelsea over United cos Chelsea threw money at him and his agent.
 
redcucumber said:
Which ones, out of interest? I know Hazard went for Chelsea over United cos Chelsea threw money at him and his agent.
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Only recent one is Lukaku and unfortunately we won that race:lol:

I remember Chelsea matching our bid after it was accepted by Everton, which went under the radar.
 
Mainoldo said:
Only recent one is Lukaku and unfortunately we won that race:lol:

I remember Chelsea matching our bid after it was accepted by Everton, which went under the radar.
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Oh shit yeh! Around the same time Morata dyed his hair red wasn't it..
 
This idea that immediate CL football on offer has some kind of massive effect on a player's decision to join a club needs to die.

Just within the last month or so we've secured permanent moves for high-demand players like Enzo, Mudryk, Nkunku and Gusto when CL qualification already looked to be a distant dream. All of them could have waited till the summer to get moves elsewhere if short term CL football was so important for them. Instead they were pitched a 'long term vision' by the club's directors and a good amount of money was thrown their way so the decision to join was seemingly very easy.

Of course having CL on the table doesn't hurt when negotiating for a player but it's probably quite low on the list of priorities as long as it's plausible for the player to believe there will be CL footy and title challenges later on.
 
SirReginald said:
Again, like Casemiro?

Honestly in recent history more players have picked Chelsea over United when given the choice. At least from what has been made public knowledge, In part due to location.
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As pointed out mute point in terms of Casemiro given what he’s won.

Sancho and Lukaku both decided on United over Chelsea more recently. Hazard the only one I recall opted for London however United weren’t prepared to pay the fees discussed.
 
TheReligion said:
As pointed out mute point in terms of Casemiro given what he’s won.

Sancho and Lukaku both decided on United over Chelsea more recently. Hazard the only one I recall opted for London however United weren’t prepared to pay the fees discussed.
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I could be remembering wrong but wasn't Kovacic linked to you when he was leaving Real Madrid?
 
TheMagicFoolBus said:
I could be remembering wrong but wasn't Kovacic linked to you when he was leaving Real Madrid?
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Every player from any big club is linked with us but I can't remember anything credible, issue is he's the type of player I'd gladly have been linked with but we signed Fred that year.
 
Prodigal7 said:
All that usually means is that players agents are linking their players with us to try and get the move. Rarely do we actually have any real interest in them.
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tomaldinho1 said:
Every player from any big club is linked with us but I can't remember anything credible, issue is he's the type of player I'd gladly have been linked with but we signed Fred that year.
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https://talksport.com/football/406376/manchester-united-transfer-news-kovacic-bid/

Dunno if this is at all true given the source, but they are claiming that this is from Marca (might be equivalently shit but just in Spanish).

I could have sworn I saw this brought up again recently as there's been some fresh speculation you might bid for him next summer - but could just be the usual nonsense based on nothing.
 
SirReginald said:
Again, like Casemiro?

Honestly in recent history more players have picked Chelsea over United when given the choice. At least from what has been made public knowledge, In part due to location.
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We're still waiting for the info who are those players who choosed Chelsea over United.
 
Mainoldo said:
Only recent one is Lukaku and unfortunately we won that race:lol:

I remember Chelsea matching our bid after it was accepted by Everton, which went under the radar.
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And Shaw. Remember Jose throwing his toys out when that happened.
 
Also not that I care about signing Felix, but with Nkunku and Joao for 100m, that’s the end of Chelsea’s transfer budget for the years to come.

Some of their fanbase that thinks the PE guys are going to keep spending 300-400m every year are going to get a rude awakening.
 
The dick measuring contest in here is kinda boring.
 
SinNombre said:
Also not that I care about signing Felix, but with Nkunku and Joao for 100m, that’s the end of Chelsea’s transfer budget for the years to come.

Some of their fanbase that thinks the PE guys are going to keep spending 300-400m every year are going to get a rude awakening.
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The bulk of our squad rebuild has already been done though. With players such as James, Gusto, Chilwell, Cucurella, Fofana, Badiashile, Colwill, Enzo, Kovacic, Mount, Mudryk, Nkunku, Havertz, Sterling, Madueke the squad core for the next years should already be there and the age structure is really good with only three of them over the age of 25 and the average age from that group being 23. In the short term we will also have Silva in there and potentially Kante as well if he extends. Also a bunch of other 18-19yo youngsters (ie. Hall, Chukwuemeka, Andrey Santos, D. Fofana) some of whom could well develop into being decent or good players for us.

Plenty of room for growth and development in that list of players even without splashing the cash every season. A couple more additions will probably come in the summer, mainly an attacker (whether it's Felix on a permanent or a more traditional striker instead) and potentially another midfielder if we lose someone from Kante/Kovacic/Mount. Otherwise, unless every player we've signed so far and will sign in the summer turn out shite we're hardly going to need 300-400M invested into the squad every year. Assuming even some of the players we've brought in come good, there will only really be a need for the occasional signing here or there to keep the squad fresh and replace some outgoing players but I definitely don't see an overhaul of this magnitude needing to happen anytime soon.
 
Rnd898 said:
This idea that immediate CL football on offer has some kind of massive effect on a player's decision to join a club needs to die.

Just within the last month or so we've secured permanent moves for high-demand players like Enzo, Mudryk, Nkunku and Gusto when CL qualification already looked to be a distant dream. All of them could have waited till the summer to get moves elsewhere if short term CL football was so important for them. Instead they were pitched a 'long term vision' by the club's directors and a good amount of money was thrown their way so the decision to join was seemingly very easy.

Of course having CL on the table doesn't hurt when negotiating for a player but it's probably quite low on the list of priorities as long as it's plausible for the player to believe there will be CL footy and title challenges later on.
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This comes across as a little naive. The reality is that in all of those examples, the players have likely been able to triple their wages and play in the PL. I’d be surprised if they were “wooed” by any vision. They probably couldn’t care less. All things being equal I’m sure Mudryk would have moved to Arsenal, but Chelsea massively overpaid and Shaktar probably couldn’t believe their luck.
 
Calidad said:
This comes across as a little naive. The reality is that in all of those examples, the players have likely been able to triple their wages and play in the PL. I’d be surprised if they were “wooed” by any vision. They probably couldn’t care less. All things being equal I’m sure Mudryk would have moved to Arsenal, but Chelsea massively overpaid and Shaktar probably couldn’t believe their luck.
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Well yeah I did mention a lot of money being thrown their way to make the decision much easier, didn't I?

But the point was if they're as good as they supposedly are, there would have been plenty of clubs offering similar wages in the summer with CL football on offer, yet they were very much willing to join right away to a club that won't have CL, which would imply that the non-existence of CL football for next season was not in any way a dealbreaker.

I'm under no illusion that Mudryk wouldn't have joined Arsenal if they'd matched the offer or that Enzo for example would still have joined us if there were some other top clubs in the bidding for a January move (ie. Real Madrid) but I do think that to some extent the players have been 'wooed' by the club's 'project' as well.

Chelsea's current owners may have their flaws but one thing that's for sure is they have a world class PR machine and seem really good at talking a big game with whoever they do business with. Of course the money helps a lot but it won't move mountains by itself. A 21-23 year old top player will want to compete for things eventually so why would he commit to a long term contract with a club that just throws money at them if he doesn't actually believe they're going to be good, if the alternative is to wait a few months and then go to another club throwing the same amount of money at them and as a bonus they are already good? That's where the 'wooing' comes in and looking at the player interviews it's obvious many have drank the Kool-Aid and seem genuinely excited about our future prospects. It's a very young group of players with a huge amount of potential to grow and develop together so I can see how it could be appealing to some players.
 
SinNombre said:
Also not that I care about signing Felix, but with Nkunku and Joao for 100m, that’s the end of Chelsea’s transfer budget for the years to come.
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Amazing. So no increases in revenue or player sales in those future years huh? Genuine question - is such a nonsensical statement made out of fear or delusion?
 
UsualSuspect said:
Amazing. So no increases in revenue or player sales in those future years huh? Genuine question - is such a nonsensical statement made out of fear or delusion?
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Why are some of you so delusional to think that the PE guys are going to spend 600m every year on transfers, and this won’t have any impact on future spending?

Do you lot even understand the PE model and fiduciary responsibilities.
 
Real Name said:
We're still waiting for the info who are those players who choosed Chelsea over United.
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Off the top of my head Kovacic, Kante, Essien, Robben. Not exactly the same but going by some reports you tried to poach Reece James in 2019 and he told you where to go.

I mean ofcourse you're the bigger club (it's truly odd some members are trying to use that as a flex given I have not in my entire life seen, read or heard a Chelsea fan claim otherwise) but we have beaten you to players in the time.
 
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Felix is quality, still not sure exactly how good he is, or what levels of consistency he provides... Atletico benched him for a reason, and he hasn't set the world on fire quite yet for the national team. But it's clear that he's a player. Ideally a United player, for sure, and we should be in the hunt if he is available.. but, where would he play? And more importantly, especially with our pause on big-spend, is a player like Felix our priority?

But yes, I can see him as a Utd player, he would raise the level of the quality, compliment the top players.. but would we score more goals? Be more clinical? Have that cutting edge we have been lacking as a team? Not sure, but I must admit, I don't like him playing against us.
 
Dancfc said:
Off the top of my head Kovacic, Kante, Essien, Robben. Not exactly the same but going by some reports you tried to poach Reece James in 2019 and he told you where to go.

I mean ofcourse you're the bigger club (it's truly odd some members are trying to use that as a flex given I have not in my entire life seen, read or heard a Chelsea fan claim otherwise) but we have beaten you to players in the time.
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Were we ever interested or put a bid for Kovačić or Kante?
I give you Essien and Robben and do we believe 'some reports' about James?
 
Very jealous they managed to sign him, ignoring the obvious money issues, he’s a brilliant footballer and the sort I’d very much welcome here. So many underrated him due to watching him play for a vile Atletico side.
 
Judas said:
Very jealous they managed to sign him, ignoring the obvious money issues, he’s a brilliant footballer and the sort I’d very much welcome here. So many underrated him due to watching him play for a vile Atletico side.
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He doesn't seem to be the type that will get huge numbers, but I guess in a more attacking side at Chelsea, he could flourish. He already seems central to most of our attacking play and very influential compared to what I saw from him in the Atleti teams the last few years.
 
Real Name said:
Fair about Kante, as for Kova I'm not sure.
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Yeah it definitely wasn't authoritative - from what I can glean it seems Kovacic wasn't keen on playing under Mourinho (at least according to Marca who say a fee had been agreed and Kovacic refused the deal). As others have pointed out though, it's unclear the extent to which this is verifiable given you also signed Fred that summer.
 
SinNombre said:
Why are some of you so delusional to think that the PE guys are going to spend 600m every year on transfers, and this won’t have any impact on future spending?

Do you lot even understand the PE model and fiduciary responsibilities.
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Not sure who you are referring to as I've never seen or met any reasonable fan who thinks that. That would be almost as ridiculous as the number of people claiming the transfer budget is tied up for the foreseeable future.
 
WeePat said:
He doesn't seem to be the type that will get huge numbers, but I guess in a more attacking side at Chelsea, he could flourish. He already seems central to most of our attacking play and very influential compared to what I saw from him in the Atleti teams the last few years.
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Well currently he's averaging a high number of shots/game and is a very good, technical finisher. That's exactly the type that will get good numbers once everything clicks. But his ability to create chances is what excites me most.
 
UsualSuspect said:
Well currently he's averaging a high number of shots/game and is a very good, technical finisher. That's exactly the type that will get good numbers once everything clicks. But his ability to create chances is what excites me most.
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I agree. You got the feeling the first half at the weekend was a sign of things to come. He and Enzo in particular gave me a lot of things to feel encouraged about. Potter seems to have figured out the defence. Badiashile replacing Koulibaly has had an almost transformative impact on the defence. We don't concede much anymore, I believe we have the third best defence in the league after Arsenal and Newcastle. We just need to get the midfield and attack going.
 
Rnd898 said:
This idea that immediate CL football on offer has some kind of massive effect on a player's decision to join a club needs to die.

Just within the last month or so we've secured permanent moves for high-demand players like Enzo, Mudryk, Nkunku and Gusto when CL qualification already looked to be a distant dream. All of them could have waited till the summer to get moves elsewhere if short term CL football was so important for them. Instead they were pitched a 'long term vision' by the club's directors and a good amount of money was thrown their way so the decision to join was seemingly very easy.

Of course having CL on the table doesn't hurt when negotiating for a player but it's probably quite low on the list of priorities as long as it's plausible for the player to believe there will be CL footy and title challenges later on.
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In short Tood Boehly threw a boatload of cash at them. The idea that Todd and his entourage have any long term vision or strategy is laughable.
 
Rnd898 said:
This idea that immediate CL football on offer has some kind of massive effect on a player's decision to join a club needs to die.

Just within the last month or so we've secured permanent moves for high-demand players like Enzo, Mudryk, Nkunku and Gusto when CL qualification already looked to be a distant dream. All of them could have waited till the summer to get moves elsewhere if short term CL football was so important for them. Instead they were pitched a 'long term vision' by the club's directors and a good amount of money was thrown their way so the decision to join was seemingly very easy.

Of course having CL on the table doesn't hurt when negotiating for a player but it's probably quite low on the list of priorities as long as it's plausible for the player to believe there will be CL footy and title challenges later on.
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You have to pay a lot more money to compensate though. Most top players love playing in the CL…. If 2 teams go in for a player and one is in the CL then he’ll most likely go there unless he’s a greedy player with no ambitions but just wants money then he’ll choose the highest contract.
 
thomas porter said:
In short Tood Boehly threw a boatload of cash at them. The idea that Todd and his entourage have any long term vision or strategy is laughable.
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Well if you've been paying attention you'd know that Todd now has handed over the recruitment/planning side of things to Eghbali and the new technical team.
 
DJ_21 said:
You have to pay a lot more money to compensate though. Most top players love playing in the CL…. If 2 teams go in for a player and one is in the CL then he’ll most likely go there unless he’s a greedy player with no ambitions but just wants money then he’ll choose the highest contract.
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Yes but when you're talking about two clubs who both qualify for the CL more often than not, do you really a singular season outside of the CL is that much of a deal breaker? I just mean in general here, because with Felix there's the added context that he's spending 6 months settling in at Chelsea before hypothetically having to decide between United and Chelsea.
 
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