So the Chelsea social media sphere is this summer resembling a big giant cesspool, unfortunately. Everyone’s got their opinion on who we should sell and buy, and for how much, and the agendas are rampant. Probably the biggest agenda so far is that “we haven’t bought players yet!”. Which turns into Todd Boehly being a combination of incompetent, out of his league, purely buying the club for celebrity-status, etc. Of course we already have a pretty strong side, given our 3rd place status last year while competing on four fronts, and suffering through massive injuries and covid bouts, but that’s easily ignored.
We’re looking to have Raheem Sterling confirmed, probably got lucky in not getting Raphinha (IMO) and the water is murky for both MDL and Kounde. Likely signing Nathan Ake, for probably a bit more than he’s worth, but that’s the market right now. Folks want Rice, who won’t be sold, and if he is, will be for probably twice what he’s worth. There are players like FDJ maybe or maybe not in the market, depending on if Barca can sell some organs real fast to pay current players, and now there’s chatter about guys like Gnabry, who we should absolutely not want.
Here’s the reality. If we end up buying both Sterling and Ake, and moving out Lukaku (loan), Azpi, AC, Rudi and Ziyech, it still leaves us with quite a solid roster I think:
GK: Mendy, Arrizabalaga
CB: Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Colwill, Ake
WB: James, Chilwell, Emerson
CM: Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek, Barkley, Gallagher, Vale
AM: Pulisic, Mount, Werner, Hudson-Odoi, Sterling
CF: Havertz, Broja
That’s 24 players, and needing a third Gk still. It’s a bit young in some spots, and a bit old in a few places, but I think we are better. Good enough for Top 2? Not sure. But we definitely aren’t going to slip. And the odds are we are still going to make more moves, too.