Transfer window ends - follow as it unfolded, Squad not built for Pochettino, I rate a lot of our squad, but many can go, Luke on Noni Madueke, Loan army roundup, More...
The Chelsea FC Newsletter: Friday 2nd February 2024!
Morning all,
The transfer window closed late last night and any more business will need to wait until the summer. Chelsea will undoubtably be very busy in the lead up to that as they will need to be looking to sell players before the end of June to stay in line with FFP and Profit and Sustainability rules.
The window was super quiet, but it did get a bit dramatic on deadline day with the Armando Broja situation. You can follow along with how that all happened here. This covers ALL your latest news right up until the deadline (almost), so it’s where you should check in on first!
I’ll be taking time on Sunday to write more about what we did and din’t do this window and why that’s happened or not happened, so bare with on that.
Myself and Jai also jumped on the Podcast yesterday afternoon to chat about any late deals that were bubbling up, and also, review the shambolic performance against Liverpool on Wednesday night. You can listen to that here. We both give our views on Broja going without a replacement in this too.
The rest of the articles now, and we can start with my article on Mauricio Pochettino here. This isn’t a ‘sack him’ article, but it is questioning whether he is the right man to go forward with. Not because he’s a bad manager, but because this squad has been built by our sporting directors, and it’s a squad that quite simply, is just not built for Pochettino. Much more on that in here.
And attached to that article is a spinoff about our current squad. In this here, I have selected a chunk of the squad who I rate and see as not sellable at any price, but there are also quite a few who I would not be upset if they were sold. I’m giving many time, but equally if they were sold tomorrow I’d not worry at all. Many I just don’t really rate.
Two from Luke now. He thought he published this one here on Noni Madueke yesterday, but he hadn’t even saved it in drafts - it stayed on his PC instead 😂 So please do check out that belated article release!
And the next one is Luke’s bread and butter. I’m sure you will all agree, we all missed reading these updates last week. But fear not, it’s only made this weeks roundup even fuller and more interesting. Check out how all our loan players are doing in here.
Chelsea’s next game is on Sunday at home to Wolves in the Premier League. So I’ll have the live match day discussion thread going on the Substack App chat section during the game, and I’ll be on the site with my debrief review not long after the final whistle. I’ve not even done a preview for this game so apologies for that, but my optimism has gone again after it came back ever so slightly. Very tough game coming up this…..
Either way, have a great weekend all, and if there is any news at all that I need to put out from now until Sunday, I will jump on the Substack App to deliver it!
Peace, Si.
I agree the squad is not built for Poch, but what are some examples of coaches who would do well with this squad? It doesn't seem like there are a lot out there. Either you have coaches who are used to working with younger players, but they won't be able to handle the bigger spotlight at Chelsea OR you have the top tier coaches who will demand for a lot more experience in the squad.
Si, who would be your top 3 if you assume everyone is available and willing to join?