Roly in particular. Even blames Howe for it being a poor transfer window, when that's simply not his job. Yes, Howe isn't the finished article, but some of the personal claims about him are just nuts. Too much power, vetoed transfers, etc. So PIF are scared of Howe? OK. Personally, I think Howe is the ex that Roly's missus had round who changed Roly's Netflix ID. It's the only rational explanation for the literal hate Roly shows for a manager who took us from 20th position to CL football and a cup final.
I've been critical at times but I like to think I credit when it's due. I managed that with Steve Bruce also. I think football debates will always involve big differences in people's appraisals. The takeover isn't what everyone thought it would be and nothing significant can happen until the club is making double the current revenue, so I've decided to keep my expectations to a minimum and I suspect others are going to always end up disappointed. Everyone just needs to try to stay grounded for a decade.
My expectations have always been that it will take time and so patience will be needed. I've always said that and never changed that view. Every step in the right direction is.positive, no matter how much the dirty 6 and EPL try to slow us down.
I don't think we'll ever win anything in our lifetime tbh. I don't mind it's something I accepted many years ago. I give us a chance of maybe winning the conference if we ever land in it, but otherwise I can't get away from the fact that they'd have to beat all the big 6 to win a domestic pot... it's strong odds against every year. It's just better than it was and that'll do.
Seems to be a growing noise that we're attempting to sign Ferran Torres as our RW reinforcement. Apparently Barca may consider selling him for around £25m.
Seems a low amount, they bought him for about £50m (just looked it up as I thought it was a pretty high fee) and he's got 46 games for Spain already at the age of 24. I guess they need to make space in their front 3 for the likes of Yamal and Olmo alongside Victor, Fati, Raphina, Joao Felix, Ferran Torres, Lewandowski and Vitor Roque. There's a few who have been linked with moves away as a result, they're pretty overcrowded you'd imagine 2-3 of those will not be there at the end of August.
Reading an article on some of the players Chelsea are looking to move on and it really highlights how scattergun their approach is. Can you imagine the uproar here if we had a 24 y/o England international who had come through the youth ranks and were freezing them out for a relative pittance (Gallagher at £33m). Other players they are edging out the door: Chalobah, Chilwell, Lukaku, Sterling and possibly Disasi and Chukwuemeka. They've spent 1.5bn in the past couple of years on players and have a 42 man squad. I understand the sentiment of not wanting to buy any of their players but at reduced prices (which they probably will be) there's got to be some temptation there. Most of them would improve us and it's a club that must be actively looking for offers for players.
Looks like Wolfsburg have signed their Lecroix replacement, might see some movement on Guehi this week
And Crystal Palace have just agreed personal terms with Lacroix, according to Florian Plettenberg. Some Palace fans think Guehi was saying his goodbyes after the match yesterday too. Apparently he stayed on the pitch for longer than usual, clapping the fans when everyone else had gone.
