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26 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

We're slowly and somewhat painfully creeping towards the end of the season, so I thought it worth opening up a poll (and discussion) about who you'd keep, sell or loan. 

I always find these quite difficult as you can make a case for each individually, but you need to consider the collective.

Injuries too are another factor. I'd certainly keep Fofana , James and Nkunku BUT if they are not going to be able to contribute more than they did this season, they may as well be put out to pasture. 

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4 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

I always find these quite difficult as you can make a case for each individually, but you need to consider the collective.

Injuries too are another factor. I'd certainly keep Fofana , James and Nkunku BUT if they are not going to be able to contribute more than they did this season, they may as well be put out to pasture. 

I know and I agree, but thought it would be a bit of fun and give us a place to debate who should and shouldn't be around next season.

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I have voted on the basis of what I think might be offered, especially for those who spent most of the season injured. There seems no point in selling if we aren't offered much. Also, the young ones probably aren't costing that much but would take up a squad place, and so could benefit from a loan. Generally, I have worked with the idea that we need two or three for each position. Given Poch likes to play 4-2-3-1: 

3GK Sanchez/Petrovic/Bettinelli
2LB Cucu/Chilwell
2RB  James/Gusto
3LCB Colwill/Badiashile/????
3RCB Disasi/Chalobah/Fofana
3 #6  Caicedo/Lavia/Big Les
3 #8 Enzo/Chukwuemeka/Casadei
2 LW Palmer/Madueke
2 #10  Gallagher/Nkunku
2 RW   Sterling/Mudryck
3 S   Jackson/?????/??????

28-man squad. Then I would go one in/one out.  

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Looking at the results so far it is interesting  to see that the thoughts across the board are pretty consistent.

Say's a lot for the "eye test" as opposed to statistics !

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I went with gut feelings - the option to sell some would depend on what fee is being offered, so have decided based on what I think we would probably get for the player. For example -

Sanchez - would keep as 2nd choice if we couldn't get over £15m back

Cucu would sell if we could get £35-40m plus

Wes Fofana - would sell if we could get 50m back

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The hard part as alluded to by others is choosing between a player as an individual or as part of a collective...Cucu/Sanchez for me as examples, and as  individuals, can go but as part of a colllective better to stay if no replacement.

Quite a large group of keepers on hand so why keep two "older" back ups?...one of Sanchez or Bettinelli...not both...blocking young potential talent,

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45 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

FYI I’m the single one who said sell Mudryk. I think he’s shit. Fight me. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It could be worse, you could be one of the two who voted to sell James. 

Cough. 

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15 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

It could be worse, you could be one of the two who voted to sell James. 

Cough. 

Actually crossed my mind being influenced by his injury history but chose to go for the optimistic hope that he will come back properly fit and stay that way...be interesting to review Reece in a years time,,,a stick or bust scenario.

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12 minutes ago, chara said:

Actually crossed my mind being influenced by his injury history but chose to go for the optimistic hope that he will come back properly fit and stay that way...be interesting to review Reece in a years time,,,a stick or bust scenario.

The incessant injuries and reinvestment opportunities selling him for pure profit is what tipped the scales for me. 

The thought of him playing a blinder in the first game of next season and then being out for another six months is too much to bare. 

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17 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

The incessant injuries and reinvestment opportunities selling him for pure profit is what tipped the scales for me. 

The thought of him playing a blinder in the first game of next season and then being out for another six months is too much to bare. 

A very close run decision for me...agree absolutely with your post... as ever......it's the hope that kills you.

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1 hour ago, chara said:

Quite a large group of keepers on hand so why keep two "older" back ups?...one of Sanchez or Bettinelli...not both...blocking young potential talent,

I thought Bettinelli plays some type of coaching/helper role and is registered in the squad in case of an emergency, but I may be wrong. Just looked at his profile on TOCWS and realised he is only 31, thought he was about 37! Also has 1 yellow card with all appearance stats 0 🤣

Reminds me how we used to have Paulo Ferreira and Hilario in the squad and renewing their contracts, even though they never played. Think certain guys are good to have around the squad and offer something off the pitch. We could probably do with some of that atm!

Edit- just googled Hilario and he is 48, how old was he when we signed him! Still a coach at Chelsea

Edited by Lump Of Celery
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5 hours ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

FYI I’m the single one who said sell Mudryk. I think he’s shit. Fight me. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I would sell him too but I voted loan because I don't think anyone is stupid enough to pay what we want for him. 

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Hard to gauge some of this because it also is quite dependant on just how much we're able to spend in the summer, who is available to bring in, and alike. 

Not going to vote as of yet but the only players I'd sell regardless would be Broja, Chalobah, Sarr, Ziyech, Lukaku, Kepa and Maatsen. 

There's a couple others I'd consider but again super dependent on the circumstances.

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If we were the owners, these are the decisions we would have made:

Sanchez - SELL
Bettinelli - SELL
Petrovic - KEEP
Kepa - SELL
Slonina - LOAN

James - KEEP
Gusto - KEEP
Cucurella - SELL
Chilwell - KEEP
Maatsen - LOAN

Disasi - KEEP
Badiashile - KEEP
Silva - RELEASE
Chalobah - SELL
Colwill - KEEP
Fofana - KEEP
Glichrist - LOAN
Sarr - SELL

Enzo - KEEP
Ugochukwu - LOAN
Chukwuemeka - KEEP
Gallagher - KEEP
Caicedo - KEEP
Casadei - LOAN
Lavia - KEEP
Santos - LOAN

Sterling - SELL
Mudryk - KEEP
Madueke - KEEP
Moreira - LOAN
Palmer - KEEP
Hutchinson - LOAN
Ziyech - SELL

Jackson - KEEP
Nkunku - KEEP
Washington - LOAN
Broja - SELL
DD Fofana - SELL
Lukaku - SELL

This would leave us with the following squad for next season, with the highlighted gaps to fill with new signings.

 

Petrovic / GK / GK

James / Gusto   -    Disasi / Fofana / CB   -   Colwill / Badiashile   -   Chilwell / LB

Caicedo / Lavia   -   Enzo / Chukwuemeka

Palmer / Madueke   -   Gallagher / Mudryk   -  LW / LW

Jackson / Nkunku / FW

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3 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

If we were the owners, these are the decisions we would have made:

Sanchez - SELL
Bettinelli - SELL
Petrovic - KEEP
Kepa - SELL
Slonina - LOAN

James - KEEP
Gusto - KEEP
Cucurella - SELL
Chilwell - KEEP
Maatsen - LOAN

Disasi - KEEP
Badiashile - KEEP
Silva - RELEASE
Chalobah - SELL
Colwill - KEEP
Fofana - KEEP
Glichrist - LOAN
Sarr - SELL

Enzo - KEEP
Ugochukwu - LOAN
Gallagher - KEEP
Caicedo - KEEP
Casadei - LOAN
Lavia - KEEP
Santos - LOAN

Sterling - SELL
Mudryk - KEEP
Madueke - KEEP
Moreira - LOAN
Palmer - KEEP
Hutchinson - LOAN
Ziyech - SELL

Jackson - KEEP
Nkunku - KEEP
Washington - LOAN
Broja - SELL
DD Fofana - SELL
Lukaku - SELL

This would leave us with the following squad for next season, with the highlighted gaps to fill with new signings.

 

Petrovic / GK / GK

James / Gusto   -    Disasi / Fofana / CB   -   Colwill / Badiashile   -   Chilwell / LB

Caicedo / Lavia   -   Enzo / CM

Palmer / Madueke   -   Gallagher / Mudryk   -  LW / LW

Jackson / Nkunku / FW

Few observations, and I cannot remember all of my own votes, but;

why sell Bettinelli, just to have to find another GK happy to be 3rd choice? Makes very little sense to sell him. GK3 is never going to be a "good" goalkeeper

8 defenders surely enough, but I guess a lot may depend on the fitness of James, Fofana and Chilwell 

Laid out like that,  if we sell / release all of those forwards, we may be left with no choice but to keep Sterling, rather than trying to buy 3 new forwards. 

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7 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Few observations, and I cannot remember all of my own votes, but;

why sell Bettinelli, just to have to find another GK happy to be 3rd choice? Makes very little sense to sell him. GK3 is never going to be a "good" goalkeeper

8 defenders surely enough, but I guess a lot may depend on the fitness of James, Fofana and Chilwell 

Laid out like that,  if we sell / release all of those forwards, we may be left with no choice but to keep Sterling, rather than trying to buy 3 new forwards. 

Indeed and I would hope that if we were owners, the next step in our conversation would be 'Those that we have listed as happy to see go, in terms of the squad depth and balance, who can't we afford to let go yet/who is not worth losing yet?'.

An example for me would be, Cucurella, I'd only sell him if we had a suitable replacement, but signing a LB would be low down on my list at this stage.

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10 hours ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

If we were the owners, these are the decisions we would have made:

Sanchez - SELL
Bettinelli - SELL
Petrovic - KEEP
Kepa - SELL
Slonina - LOAN

James - KEEP
Gusto - KEEP
Cucurella - SELL
Chilwell - KEEP
Maatsen - LOAN

Disasi - KEEP
Badiashile - KEEP
Silva - RELEASE
Chalobah - SELL
Colwill - KEEP
Fofana - KEEP
Glichrist - LOAN
Sarr - SELL

Enzo - KEEP
Ugochukwu - LOAN
Gallagher - KEEP
Caicedo - KEEP
Casadei - LOAN
Lavia - KEEP
Santos - LOAN

Sterling - SELL
Mudryk - KEEP
Madueke - KEEP
Moreira - LOAN
Palmer - KEEP
Hutchinson - LOAN
Ziyech - SELL

Jackson - KEEP
Nkunku - KEEP
Washington - LOAN
Broja - SELL
DD Fofana - SELL
Lukaku - SELL

This would leave us with the following squad for next season, with the highlighted gaps to fill with new signings.

 

Petrovic / GK / GK

James / Gusto   -    Disasi / Fofana / CB   -   Colwill / Badiashile   -   Chilwell / LB

Caicedo / Lavia   -   Enzo / CM

Palmer / Madueke   -   Gallagher / Mudryk   -  LW / LW

Jackson / Nkunku / FW

Only things I'd do differently would be;

  • Keep Sanchez as second choice and Bettinelli as third choice. Only makes sense to sell Sanchez if we're targeting a genuine #1 option.
  • Would keep Cucurella, as I don't think he's been bad when he has played and also can't see us making a return. 
  • Sell Maatsen. Not a strong defender and too undersized IMO to really play a functional role here, also easier to shift than Cucurella with greater profitability. 
  • Keep DD Fofana unless a strong offer comes in. I think he's a pretty interesting player with talent but just needs to keep playing regularly to develop. Maybe a domestic loan again, otherwise I'd like him in the squad as a winger/forward option. 
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I forgot that we still own Hakim Ziyech! 

Would anyone take him back in the summer?   I was very happy for him to go at the time, but given how inexperienced we are, I wonder if he would be an able deputy for Cole Palmer for a few years?  Their styles are similar and we aren’t going to get a big fee for him at 31.  

I’m not saying we should, in fact, on balance I probably wouldn’t, but just throwing it out there to see what people’s views are…

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