Chelsea Newsletter - Friday 2nd September
Deadline Day complete! All the reactions and news as it came in yesterday, plus a bit on DM's, and my match preview/predictions for West Ham...
Well, well well, the summer transfer window is officially OVER! And to be honest, as entertaining and dramatic as it was, I am pleased.
We signed two players yesterday, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang from Barcelona, and midfielder Denis Zakaria on loan from Juventus. We expected another attacker, and for Hakim Ziyech or Christian Pulisic to be sold, but it wasn’t to be. We’ve actually done BITS this window when you really deep it. But I will reflect with my views the next day or so and do a full review of the window and what I think, as well as my league predictions for this season and what I think will happen, on Sunday when I am back on.
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang: “I’m really happy. It’s an honour to be part of this team and I can’t wait to start. I have some unfinished business with the Premier League so it’s good to be back and really exciting.
“I’m feeling very good, I’m very proud. [The Chelsea shirt] fits me well! (laughs).”
Todd Boehly: “Pierre-Emerick is an elite striker with a proven track record in the Premier League and his arrival strengthens our squad, giving us new attacking options. We are thrilled to have Pierre-Emerick on board with us in the new era at Chelsea and we’re really looking forward to working with him.”
Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano, co-controlling owners, added: “We are really pleased to welcome Pierre-Emerick back to London as one of the final and important pieces to be added at Chelsea this summer. He’s a world-class forward and a leader, and we can’t wait to see him in blue this season.”
Denis Zakaria: “I want to say hi to all the Chelsea fans. I’m very happy and proud to be a Blue and I cannot wait to see you soon at Stamford Bridge.
Todd Boehly: “Denis is a talented midfielder with lots of quality and skill. He will add depth and range to our squad this season, and we are looking forward to watching him play in Chelsea blue.”
Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano, co-controlling owners, added: “Denis brings top-level and international experience, and his mix of tenacity and great distribution will be assets to our team. We’re happy to have him with us and welcome him to London.”
Go and re-live it all from yesterday’s dramatic and busy deadline day from the live blog here, and find out what happened with any late pursuits! This was my busiest ever live blog! Well over 300 comments and god knows how many 100s of posts! I enjoyed it though to be fair.
Obviously there was no way I was getting five articles done yesterday, but I did manage to pen my match review for West Ham here, because yes, amongst all this madness, we DO have a game to play again tomorrow, a BIG game where we really need to show a response now.
I do have one more article today as well though here, and that is based around our late pursuits to try and sign a DM, and the kind of targets they were. Stuff in here as well about Declan Rice, and how Chelsea did spend time in the summer looking for a new one.
We also did a Podcast with Graeme Bailey yesterday you can find on the home page, but a lot of that was obviously transfer deadline day stuff!
Finally, just wanted to thank you all again for continuing to support me and our team here on this platform. I’m really enjoying it here and running this community, and I appreciate you all so much. Really love how we stay respectful when debating, even if we disagree. The commenting recently has felt like a fan forum and that’s brilliant. Please stick with us here, because we aren’t just transfer news! We have some MASSIVE plans coming up now and I am aiming to bring even more Chelsea insiders and writer in to the team this season. I want to get EVEN more reliable inside info and EVEN more of it. I’m looking to bring in team and injury news insiders, transfer insiders, and more. We are looking to take this up to the next level now, and I want you all here with me!
Have a great weekend, I’ll be back Sunday!
Peace, Si.
Thanks for great coverage yesterday. Hope PEA recovers quickly & can start playing asap. Glad we got a DM & although not first choice I hope he proves the right choice. Still disappointed that Gilmour has gone (& don’t understand why), but building a legacy we have trust the manager even if we don’t always understand his decisions/choices. Kinda surprised no journalists have ask Tuchel about Gilmour in a presser, any thoughts?
A big congratulations to you, macca, rob and charlie mate. You guys were absolutely stupendous during this window with the updates and the quality of the articles. I know your sources will never be in the public eye much but please do tell them that their work is super appreciated here in this community mate.
I give this window a 7.5/10 personally and my criticism is possibly the execution of some deals which got away or how perhaps we could have gone for Edson or someone even better and maybe a better right winger. Outgoings though, Ill give it a 9/10 because this was possibly one of the biggest squad clear outs i've seen at the Bridge in all these years mate. We probably will have a few unhappy players but yeh if they cant and don't want to be part of a team, its their loss because i think this squad is destined for great things down the line.
The new ownership have ticked all the right boxes so far especially in how much they value some of our younger players, very reminiscent of how Todd Boehly runs the ship back at the dodgers. They have spent a good deal of money on quality players for the first team and now after all the transfer window noise has died down, its time for Tuchel and his squad to put behind August, start fresh and hopefully catch up to the rest of the pack. I have a lot of faith that this season will not go in vain and at the end of may, despite all the troubles at the start of May, I think we'll be fine.
Take that well deserved break guys and I hope we have a good London derby (Hopefully a less controversial one) on Saturday.