LATEST! Crucial Caicedo, Lavia, AND Adams updates, Kepa exit gathering pace, Reece James captain tribute, Tyler Adams player profile, Levi Colwill interview, Ben Jacobs Podcast - Transfer Special!
The Chelsea FC Newsletter: Friday 11th August 2023!
OH my damn, what a day that was yesterday and across the last 24 hours. I can safely say that it was THE busiest day I have had covering the club since 2012. Before yesterday I’d have said the last January transfer deadline day was that day, but yesterday beat that out of the park! Usually I do updates on the live blog hourly roughly, but yesterday I went from 8am until deep into the evening doing updates pretty much every ten minutes, only breaking to throw some coco pops down my neck and visit the boys room!! It was an absolute MADNESS and nobody had a clue what was going on. My sources were stumped, all the top reporters were all reporting completely different stories and versions of events, and it all provided what was a hugely entertaining and massively frustrating and annoying day following Chelsea!! A day that I was pleased to see the end of in all honesty, and I’m so thankful that it’s Luke on the blog today and I can switch off from it for a short time. It’s completely consumed my entire life and like all of you, I’ve become completely invested in this Moises Caicedo story, a story that now looks like it’s going to end in the worst possible way (read my updated thoughts on that in yesterday’s live blog below, I’ve caught up over night and posted my thoughts at around 6am this morning). Charlie took over from the live blog from me around 9pm last night as I’d been on it all day and it had well and truly drained me out completely, to the point where I’m sick to death of it all now. A lot happened over night, so do check the blog, and do read my thoughts there.
The biggest story was the midfield, with Chelsea now very close to completely the signing of Tyler Adams from Leeds United, throwing in an offer for Romeo Lavia, and Liverpool’s last ditch attempt to hijack Moises Caicedo from Chelsea. There was a lot of games being played and briefings being put out by clubs, but it looks like now Liverpool are going to pip us to Caicedo, which is truly and utterly embarrassing on our part, and fans are livid. It’s not over yet at the time of writing this, but if Chelsea want him they have to stump up another £10m to match Liverpool’s offer. The fact it’;s even got to this point is embarrassing.
Ben Jacobs had his latest Podcast out for us yesterday, which I highly recommend you taking 40 minutes of your time to listen to here if you haven’t already. He covers it ALL but remember, this was recorded on Thursday afternoon so things have changed a lot since then. Still worth the listen.
That will not be anywhere near enough though to see where we are at with a number of transfer stories right now. To get those you have to head to yesterday’s super busy live blog here, where the updates were coming in every ten minutes all day, to get all the latest big news and updates. The latest on Caicedo, Adams, and Lavia in this one, and as I said, my thoughts on the Caicedo hijack.
The thing is, it’s only going to get so much busier now because none of these stories are concluded yet and we will have even more fresh stories coming out as Chelsea face a VERY busy end to the transfer window. Our guy Luke Rushbrook will be running a live blog today as usual, and anything I get I will feed in to him. Please be patient with him as always, and give him love in the comments for running a blog on a Friday because without him there wouldn’t be one! That will be on the home page live this morning usually from around 9am ish, and I will have to be in touch with him a lot today with the Caicedo story on-going, and loads more. So NO chance of an actual day off for me today, obviously.
Luke also had his latest player profile article out yesterday, and that was on Tyler Adams, who Fabrizio Romano has already given the ‘here we go’ on him joining Chelsea. Some nice little videos and words in this here.
I do have a sourced article from yesterday with the latest that we know on Kepa Arrizabalaga potentially nearing a Chelsea exit. In here I have some significant info on replacements and what the club are planning, so you must check that one out.
Yesterday Ben Jacobs put out a massive Levi Colwill interview for us that you can read in full here. Honestly, if you only read one big article today, then this must be it, it’s a great read. If you want to have a rare smile after the last 24 hours, this one will do that today.
And finally for this week, I have a tribute article for Reece James, who was named captain of his boyhood club this week in what was a super special moment for him and his family, and for us fans! Please do give that a read here if you can. Another source of a smile if you’re looking for something other than the Caicedo madness.
You know what? Yesterday was so mad with transfer news I genuinely until just now, forgot we have our first Premier League game of the season on Sunday against Liverpool. Damn… I have been buzzing for this game, but imagine if now they announce Caicedo before it? Bloody hell, what an embarrassment. You can see our predicted and preferred Xl’s for the game here if you missed those earlier in the week!
Right, I have a feeling I am going to have to jump on the Substack App chat on more than one occasion this weekend! So make sure you have that downloaded on your phone from your app store, and the notifications for my posts turned on, as that is where I will send through any of my updates from Saturday until I am back on this site on Sunday. I expect A LOT to go on this weekend, I’ll be very thankful of my ‘days off’ which are never actually days off, but we move!
Thanks to our community here for your interactions all week once again and I’m sorry I’ve not been able to deliver good news over the last 24 hours, but your support is massively appreciated. We have an amazing community here, and welcome to it to all those new subs we have had this week, I see you and appreciate you all!
Have a good weekend and as always, UTC!
Peace, Si.
Honestly...that's just too much money for Caicedo. No way we need to be having a £200m + pivot.
Yes we dragged it on and should've sorted it earlier, but that's still an excessive fee. Man Utd nearly got Caicedo for £5m not long ago...
If this is 'derailing your season' then I reckon get off the internet for a bit and do something fun. It just isn't that deep. Caicedo is good but he's not £110m good.
Thank you Si for all your updates - I totally get why you need a break from it all!
My optimism for the coming season has collapsed like a flat-pack wardrobe.
Thank you Winstanley and Stewart – Caceido - an object lesson in how NOT to negotiate a key transfer:
1) Go in far too low - £60 and £70 million bids had absolutely no chance of success.
2) Drag out talks at a snail-like pace over months, miles off the asking price.
3) Failure to read selling club’s position – you would have thought we had learned all there is to learn about Brighton. Obviously not. Brighton do not cave in if their price is not met. Incidentally, to all those rubbishing Brighton over the last few months – they are the real winners here. Get over their asking price and manage to offload their 3rd choice GK for a decent £25 million.
4) P*ss off direct rivals for key player Caceido by putting a bid in for their own target – Lavia.
With Caceido I could see a top 6 finish. Without him, mid-table.
Talk now of Veratti – great player in his heyday but 30 years old, another small midfielder, very high wages and injury prone.
Don’t need to wait until the end of the transfer window to give my verdict – about 2/10 – if I am in a generous mood. And it could get worse……with Winstanley and Stewart operating it probably will.
We absolutely have to get Lavia AND Mohammed Kudus now – no ifs and buts. But I have absolutely no confidence that this will happen.