Romeo Lavia | Chelsea bound?

Fred was only announced after my post. Still not completely done yet - anything could happen, ask Tyler Adams who had a medical yet deal still fell through.
yeah i know...just saying we got one of those two you mentioned out the door so maybe we can pull a lever or two now
 
But he needs to spend £160m+ to on two midfielders to compete?
It is how the market is right now. Chelsea didn't want to spend no more than £80m on Caceido till Liverpool forced their hands. Lavia value seems just, so £130m (£160m) on a midfield that needed to build is actually on the cheap end. Liverpool was about to spend £200m plus on their midfield rebuild if they go Caceido. So £160m is really nothing compared to that.

Also how much did Arsenal spend on there's just this window? That is around the going price for rebuilding midfield now a days for top clubs.
 
Last edited:
With Liverpool walking away from Caicedo, watch us walk away from Lavia now.
 
So Chelsea are getting FFP penalties right? I have never seen a team spunk money in January like they did earlier this year but here we are again watching them going nuts :wenger:
They did some of those ridiculously long deals before that loophole was closed, and have sold a heap of players for good money. I doubt they're too far off being ok from that perspective.
 
Exactly, I feel Pochettino will make them well known players like he did with players he has managed in the past before

Come on man, most of the players they are signing are highly rated - and they’re signing them for that reason
 
Come on man, most of the players they are signing are highly rated - and they’re signing them for that reason
By highly rated, do you mean highly rated youngster? If that is the case, then that is true. But none of these players are top established professionals. Even their most highly rated one played around 50 games at the top level.

Declan rice is an example of a top established professional, while Caceido is an example of a highly rated young player with a massive amount of potential. Nkunku and Deisi are established professional, but not at the world class level.
 
Be funny when Chelsea finish 6th.

They have a porous defence, like Liverpool, and pretty much a goalless front line (Jackson unknown). And after selling Mount and Havertz no goal threats from midfield.

Reece and Chilwell will have to do pretty much everything from both ends of the pitch. Both overly injury prone.

6th is ambitious for them.
 
They have a porous defence, like Liverpool, and pretty much a goalless front line (Jackson unknown). And after selling Mount and Havertz no goal threats from midfield.

Reece and Chilwell will have to do pretty much everything from both ends of the pitch. Both overly injury prone.

6th is ambitious for them.
We absolutely DO NOT have a porous defense. We in fact had one of the best goals against records last season even though we had a nightmare year. The defense wasn’t the problem.
 
Last edited:
We absolutely DO NOT have a porous defense. We in fact had one of the best goals against records last season even though we had a night at year. The defense wasn’t the problem.

Yeah 38 goals last year was shocking, basically need to double that to get top 4. Without Nkunku it's hard to see where 30 more goals are coming from even if the team plays better overall.
 
Yeah 38 goals last year was shocking, basically need to double that to get top 4. Without Nkunku it's hard to see where 30 more goals are coming from even if the team plays better overall.
We surely have to be signing an experienced goal scorer before the window closes. Poch has mentioned it a couple of times now to the press.
 
We surely have to be signing an experienced goal scorer before the window closes. Poch has mentioned it a couple of times now to the press.

Then I don't get why you'd look to get Lavia and Caicedo, doesn't seem a priority. Tyler Adams for the price he was would have been a fine rotational player. No point in Caicedo breaking up the game and setting counters if there's nobody to finish them.
 
Yeah 38 goals last year was shocking, basically need to double that to get top 4. Without Nkunku it's hard to see where 30 more goals are coming from even if the team plays better overall.

Not from Lavia, Enzo and Caicedo that's for sure. As for the defence, Reece and Chilwell are some of the best in the PL but often missing through injury.

I should have said defence will become porous when those two are inevitably out as Poch will need to push forward to overcome the lack of goals and lack of goalscorers, leaving spaces and inexperienced defenders at the back.
 
We surely have to be signing an experienced goal scorer before the window closes. Poch has mentioned it a couple of times now to the press.
Not sure why you guys gave up pursuit for vlahovic. He offers a different profile to your current strikers and is a goalscorer. It kind of like why you guys gave up on onana. It doesn't really make sense, but I guess it is just budget issues.

Caceido, lavia, olise and vlahovic should be the four you guys signed.
 
Not from Lavia, Enzo and Caicedo that's for sure. As for the defence, Reece and Chilwell are some of the best in the PL but often missing through injury.

I should have said defence will become porous when those two are inevitably out as Poch will need to push forward to overcome the lack of goals and lack of goalscorers, leaving spaces and inexperienced defenders at the back.

Enzo is perfectly capable of getting as many goals as Mount or Havertz did from midfield as long as he's not the only midfielder responsible for actually sitting deep. Think the main reason we're going big on midfielders right now is Nkunku's injury. Enzo is the best fit to take on the 10/8 role for the first half of the year.

Our team looked porous when pushing men forward because we haven't had a midfielder of the profile of either Caicedo or Lavia since Kante put together an extended run of fitness in 20/21.

Also in terms of attacking quality at fullback, going from Chilwell / James to Maatsen / Gusto isn't actually that huge a drop-off - it's defensively in 1v1s where that's more likely to be a problem.
 
Not from Lavia, Enzo and Caicedo that's for sure. As for the defence, Reece and Chilwell are some of the best in the PL but often missing through injury.

I should have said defence will become porous when those two are inevitably out as Poch will need to push forward to overcome the lack of goals and lack of goalscorers, leaving spaces and inexperienced defenders at the back.
We now have excellent depth at both fullback positions. So if (when, its inevitable) James and Chilly get injured we shouldn’t skip too much of a beat.

Malo Gusto in particular looked fantastic in preseason.
 
We now have excellent depth at both fullback positions. So if (when, its inevitable) James and Chilly get injured we shouldn’t skip too much of a beat.

Malo Gusto in particular looked fantastic in preseason.

You realise no one has heard of Matalan and Gusto. They won't suddenly become adequate cover for world class players. To much pressure on young players for a start.

It's like saying Bajcetic will own the number 6 spot as he was fantastic there last season. He's still young and will make mistakes youngsters do.
 
I just think it's too many players out and in again. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we'll be miles off but if we finish a few points off of 4th, I won't be surprised.
Yeah that's fair.

I just think people need to start taking Chelsea seriously, most people seem to be brushing them over as if you'll have a season like last. Chelsea fans included btw.
 
Yeah that's fair.

I just think people need to start taking Chelsea seriously, most people seem to be brushing them over as if you'll have a season like last. Chelsea fans included btw.

People will start taking them seriously when they warrant it.
 
You realise no one has heard of Matalan and Gusto. They won't suddenly become adequate cover for world class players. To much pressure on young players for a start.

It's like saying Bajcetic will own the number 6 spot as he was fantastic there last season. He's still young and will make mistakes youngsters do.

It's too much pressure for a young player to be a backup?

Outside of Man City who just buy two established starters for every position this is how almost literally every top football club operates?
 
Yeah that's fair.

I just think people need to start taking Chelsea seriously, most people seem to be brushing them over as if you'll have a season like last. Chelsea fans included btw.

Lots of people in the prediction thread had us in and around 4th and 5th ti be fair.
 
Yeah that's fair.

I just think people need to start taking Chelsea seriously, most people seem to be brushing them over as if you'll have a season like last. Chelsea fans included btw.
Yes, them (and Liverpool) not having to play European football is going to work in their favour too
 
You realise no one has heard of Matalan and Gusto. They won't suddenly become adequate cover for world class players. To much pressure on young players for a start.

It's like saying Bajcetic will own the number 6 spot as he was fantastic there last season. He's still young and will make mistakes youngsters do.
These aren’t unknown teenagers that are coming from the youth setup. Gusto has big club experience and was very highly rated. Maatsen starred in that great Burnley side that dominated the Championship last year.

I’m not saying they’re superstars or anything. Just that we won’t fall off a cliff if our starters get injured like we have over the past couple of seasons.
 
Yes, them (and Liverpool) not having to play European football is going to work in their favour too

Especially with the squad Chelsea have and a manager who (for all his foibles) has a reasonable track record of improving young players.

Also Liverpool are in the worse situation since they have to travel hither and yon all across Europe in the Europa League.
 
Especially with the squad Chelsea have and a manager who (for all his foibles) has a reasonable track record of improving young players.

Also Liverpool are in the worse situation since they have to travel hither and yon all across Europe in the Europa League.
Oh, I thought they didn't make the EL. Fair enough
 
We now have excellent depth at both fullback positions. So if (when, its inevitable) James and Chilly get injured we shouldn’t skip too much of a beat.

Malo Gusto in particular looked fantastic in preseason.
I think its more the experience you'll miss personally. Don't think Chilwell is particularly irreplaceable but an experienced player with a bit of history at the club would help.
 
I think its more the experience you'll miss personally. Don't think Chilwell is particularly irreplaceable but an experienced player with a bit of history at the club would help.

Ian Maatsen joined Chelsea 2 years before Chilwell did!

Tongue in cheek obviously since he's been on loan, but they've all been in England and he's impressed at every level.
 
Ian Maatsen joined Chelsea 2 years before Chilwell did!

Tongue in cheek obviously since he's been on loan, but they've all been in England and he's impressed at every level.
He's young, they all are. Some youth is good, bordering essential for a healthy squad i'd say but yeah, I kind of half expect to see a couple of line ups that could play for your u21's this season. I'm probably overestimating how young some of them are but i just dont expect it to end that well. The number of signings being a red flag too where i think if your getting 2 in 3 right your probably doing fantastic and i dont expect you to have done a fantastic job over the last 6 months.
Supporting a team with a few academy or younger players hits different and I think it could be a fun season or two even if you dont quite make top 4/5. Depends on expectations i guess.