Summer Transfer Window 2023

[FLiam]

Chelsea have reportedly activated Michael Olise’s release clause. 

[stokeriño]

 

 

[DavidMarrio]

Chelsea's squad is looking more and more like an AIs on Football Manager when you decide to look at a team 5 years down the line

[Lineker]

 

[Naitch]

Does this cement Neymar's place as perhaps the most overrated player of all-time?

[Hobo]

2 hours ago, Lineker said:

 

They spent all that time on the video but couldnt be bothered to capitalize the second "I".

These Saudis have their priorities all messed up

[Lineker]

 

[9 to 5]

2 hours ago, Naitch said:

Does this cement Neymar's place as perhaps the most overrated player of all-time?

Why would it?

[Naitch]

@9 to 5 He was previously heralded as the "next best player in the world" when Messi and Ronaldo started approaching 30, only for them to continue being far superior players for much longer than anticipated. Then he became the most expensive transfer ever, moving to the worst of the top 5 leagues, and never scored more than 20 goals in a single season again, peaking at a grand total of two across his entire career (compared to 13 each for Messi and Ronaldo, and Mbappe already has four, for comparison).

Now he's going from playing in the 5th ranked national league to the 36th, despite only being 31 years old, while Messi and Ronaldo played continued playing at that top level for a further 5 and 7 years, respectively.

Adding to that, his biggest contribution at the international level is winning the Confederations Cup back when he was still the "next big thing".

I'm not disputing that he's a "good" player in the grand scheme of things, but I genuinely can't think of a player whose career has been hyped up so much compared to his actual contributions and individual successes, particularly versus his supposed peers. He's the perfect example of a flashy, luxury player who simply isn't worth the money thrown around at or for him.

[gunnar hendershow]

Neymar was certainly at his peak a great player, but he's just another in an extremely long line of Brazilians over the last 20 years who aren't as good as the reputation of being the next great Brazilian (insert position) would make you think.

[Baddar]

Laporte is seemingly off to Saudi too.

[Twist]

13 hours ago, Lineker said:

 

Congrats to Chelsea on their first signing of the 2025 summer transfer window.

[Lineker]

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

Laporte is seemingly off to Saudi too.

Was hoping we would stick a cheeky bid in for him. Would have fit into Ange's system perfectly. 

[Captain Kirk]

Lavia supposedly off to Chelsea, are they just trolling Liverpool now?

[stokeriño]

2 minutes ago, Captain Kirk said:

Lavia supposedly off to Chelsea, are they just trolling Liverpool now?

No, Liverpool trolled themselves by dicking about re: his fee, very publically dropping their interest in him in order to pursue Caicedo, and then trying to crawl back as if he hadn't noticed.

[Captain Kirk]

48 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

No, Liverpool trolled themselves by dicking about re: his fee, very publically dropping their interest in him in order to pursue Caicedo, and then trying to crawl back as if he hadn't noticed.

Not really sure where he fits in with Chelsea though.

[DavidMarrio]

43 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

No, Liverpool trolled themselves by dicking about re: his fee, very publically dropping their interest in him in order to pursue Caicedo, and then trying to crawl back as if he hadn't noticed.

On one hand, the club clearly must have had some indication that Caicedo would have had some interest so if an opportunity to bid for him was available then we'd be daft not to. 

On the other, Lavia has basically been treated as the second best choice in the end. Spent ages trying to sort a bid, better option came available and then we came back tail tucked between our legs. That and he'll be getting his 27 year contract offer

We're interested in Doucoure from Palace apparently so I'll expect him to be a Chelsea player by the end of the week 

 

[Adam]

I know fees have gone off the scale nowadays, but even in this climate a fee of over £50m for Romeo Lavia, a teenager with only 34 senior appearances total seems excessive.

[Lineker]

 

[stokeriño]

2 hours ago, Captain Kirk said:

Not really sure where he fits in with Chelsea though.

Well, he's a central midfielder. He'll either be in a three alongside Enzo and Caicedo, or one of the two in a double pivot.