#32 - On the Most. Important. Transfer. Window. Yet.

0:00What's up everybody? Welcome back to another episode of We Burn Blue. Prasadde, one of your co-hosts. Charon, what's happening? I'm just glad that you're calling me a co-host. You give me the space and time to talk tactics. No, I am good, man. Thank you for asking. Six points plus where through we beat Luton. So there shouldn't be much to complain about. I'll find a way. But you must be pretty sad because the transfer window has slammed shut. And we know everybody wants to hear your takes on all of the shenanigans throughout the summer, but particularly right towards the end there. The elastic band. Yeah, I think that was unprecedented. To be honest, I think you saw my tweet where I was just like, I'm actually a little tired of this now. It just needs to end because there's been so much drama. But well, I mean, it's ended now, right? And I just wanted to do a quick throwback to the previous episode

1:03where we said you said you would drive Gusto to his new club. Charge, I said I would do the same for Neto. They're both still here. So what do you make of that? I think, look, when you look at the overall squad, Gusto's still, I mean, bro, you can argue for and against them. Look, I think when we look at the squad composition, it's fine that they're there with everything that's happened in midfield and the fact that Alonzo wants to use Gusto as a midfielder. Neto has actually stepped up in the first two games or three games, whatever it's been. He's actually been a little more productive. He's got an assist. He's got a goal. So I think, okay, let's see how they do it all, Jan. Obviously, I think it was a case if they weren't untouchable, right? They were not on that list of where definitely not selling. But at the same time, they were priced high enough that if you really wanted them, you were going to have, it was going to be really favorable to us.

2:04I think that's what I was going to ask you. Do you think it was a case of Chelsea pricing themselves out of a move? A little bit. Yes. I mean, I think given that, look, the links were there to City and to Alhilar, those were both clubs that have the money. There were no other clubs that were actually linked to either of the players. Gusto was linked to City. Pedro Neto was linked to Alhilar, I believe it was. So in that case, the money was there to be had if they were really serious. So I think on that front, it was kind of like when they did it with Jackson as well, two seasons ago where they said 70 million for him or something and nobody was in. It's a similar thing that's happened here. So I think it's on the balance of it. It's okay. Given the way the window ended with the whole ends of Fernandez, last minute thing and Kamara, and of course there's lots to talk about. So is there anything in particular that's start for you with this window? Well, I mean, like, you know, transfer sagas aren't really my thing. I find it all a waste of time.

3:12So I was going to ask you the same thing. From my end, I think keeping Gusto and Neto for now is the prudent thing to do, right? It gives the optionality of, oh, okay, if we want to start on the front foot, you've got a Neto there who you can trust a bit more than Estavalle or Kenda, in terms of having an attacking wing back and Gittens, of course, right? So I think it made sense to have that. One person, one player I'm a bit concerned about who's a transfer is Pelestra. What are we hearing on his fitness right now? Last I saw, he put out something on Instagram saying he's not so serious, he'll be back soon. And he's yellow flagged on FPL. He was one of my differential picks on my squad. And so far, he's been making zero difference, literally. So I'm hopeful that he's back because I think he's going to be effective when he's in. So I'm still holding on to him.

4:18But yeah, he's so far yellow flagged only. So that means he's like, I think before everybody gets gone ho, it's always good to recognize that again, keeping Gusto for this exact reason, where Pelestra, we were banking on him starting the season. He had a great preseason, but I wonder if maybe he pushed it too hard. And Gusto's come back into the squad. He's good old reliable. If you ask him to do simple things, right? And play him in areas where they actually extract his strengths. But I would just like to add that the signing of Pelestra overall is very smart. It's just about allowing him the time to adapt to the physical demands of his role, right? And of the Premier League. So I think we'll see him a lot more later on in the season. You know, one's Gusto's legs and the World Cup and all catch up with him.

5:19Another signing we made in defense was La Coa. Well, I mean, do you want to touch on La Coa? I've got him as my signing of the season, I think. So far, yes, I think so. Instant impact. You can see it. I mean, he's even gone and got himself an assist. But you can see that he's vocal. He's a leader. I think we talked about this, the intangibles. You can see that he's bringing them already. So I'm really happy with that. Another signing. And another one that I'm really, really happy about. And I think you will be too is big robs out. Yeah. And of course, Emmy Martinez, dude, shithouse, pro max, what do you make of that one? Because I really, I think it's a really good move. Yeah, I made my feelings clear to you offline, right? But I just don't understand why we waited

6:23all summer and we gave him the full-time game to show us why everyone was right from the start of the summer, of the transfer window, right? The Chelsea fans who are saying we need to be ambitious and actually try and win the title, right? Because all the teams, we would directly compete against, at least for Champions League qualification, they're all going through some sort of transition or the other. And they've got European football to deal with, except for Spurs, right? So one could argue, like, you have the time, you have a new manager, a new impetus, all of these things should work in your favor. You should be more ambitious. Go and sign a new keeper because Sanchez, you don't win a title with, I would argue you don't get Champions League qualification with him because we've seen it. We just had a season with him where we didn't, and I don't think he was that good. People say he was better than the season before and I'm like, yeah, but that doesn't say much.

7:24So I'm very happy with the new signing because it's a clear upgrade on the squad. I just wish that they had gone out and done it, like before the full-in game, like before, you know, all of this, it creates an additional turmoil, an additional kind of urgency, whether it doesn't need to be. And apparently, Martín has been on the market for a while. So I'm faulting the way they did it, but fine. Where are we are where we need to be, right, with a fresh goalkeeper? My only question now is what does that mean for Mike Pender's? But I was just going to touch on that. See, I think it's a case of better late than never, right? Because the fact is he came in on a Friday and he was playing on a Sunday. So Martín is a big gamekeeper. He's ready, right? I think it's, and to be athletic, rated this the best transfer of the window of all 155 player transfers. This was number one. And I see the rationale, right?

8:26You've got him at 7 million, 7.5 million, which is a steal in the market. One of the concerns we had with bringing in a Diego Costa or a manion, if you remember when we were rating the squad, was that that would really stall Penders, right? But what you've done is you've got a 34-year-old keeper who can probably give you one and a half good seasons to if you're lucky, right? In the same time, you have Penders as an understudy to him. And you don't have anybody else blocking the way. So the fact that they were able to get Sanchez out, right? One of the concerns we had was if they brought in a Diego Costa and there was Sanchez and Penders. Sanchez wouldn't be content playing third choice, right? But here, by getting him out, getting a really old keeper, Penders is going to get the Cup games. We've already seen that. And Martinez is going to be getting the Bleed games and should everything go to plan. In, by next season, you should see Penders

9:26maybe starting a bit more. And I think it works perfectly, actually. I am not sure I agree. Because we're talking about not stalling Penders development. So I would argue, right? If his alternative was to go out on loan somewhere where you know you've been guaranteed, he's going to be the first choice keeper for a team, right? He's going to play 30 plus games. That's proper development. Okay, I'm not saying he's not going to learn anything under Martinez, but it's under somebody, right? So if you're saying, okay, Martinez gets the Bleed games, that's like 80% of our games, 85% of our games. Even if we make it to both finals in the cups, that's under 15 games. That's not enough games for him to learn from. So I think a player needs 20 to 25 games

10:31in a season maybe just to maintain their level. And since he's a young guy, maybe there's some improvement there. But if we're talking about making him our first choice two seasons from now, wouldn't you want him to kind of be able to understand the demands of a 30 plus game season? Already. I get that point, right? But even so, the way I'm looking at it is he would have been in a similar situation where he would have still been cup choice keeper and pushing Sanchez for a start in the league, right? So he's behind Sanchez in that case. No, he's behind. I don't, why then why did we just go and get Martinez? The Pender's track to the number one, to being our number one, was much, much shorter when Sanchez is around. And I think Sanchez also had

11:34this thing in mind where there's a potential for Penders to just come in. Yeah. And we were all saying that look Sanchez might actually be better at accepting a number two role. If Penders actually demonstrate he straights he has form, right? He shows he has actually got the pedigree to do it. So I'm just saying bringing in Martinez, right? Blocks, blocks, Penders out of the league games completely. Whereas I think there was a track here. If Sanchez, honestly, if Sanchez has stuck around, we hadn't moved from Martinez. We might have seen Penders against Brighton. I'm just saying, like, considering how quickly things turned, right? Again, Sanchez, if we hadn't signed a Martinez, right, an upgrade on Sanchez, you might have seen. Yeah, we would have seen Penders for sure. I agree with that. And I'm actually okay with that. Like it's, yeah. Okay, fine, your goalkeeper position, you're saying we will take the hit, bring in Penders who's not got the, he's not necessarily the

12:37finished product, but we see him being out of like getting there at a very high level. So this is, this is where the question comes in with the Martinez thing. Like you said, it could have been worse. If we went for Mike Minion or a Diego Costa, then for sure, Penders would be saying, maybe I'm on my way out, right? But I still think you're eating into his development by not, you know, essentially you're saying you're a cup keeper. That's like, that's barely 15 games in the season. It's less. No, I mean, I take your point. I just think we're overall in a better space than we would have been had we continued with Sanchez. So from that perspective, I think it's a win-win. True. And the upside to this is there's some ambition here, right? Like it's a coherent thing to say, okay, we want to finish as close to the top of the league as possible, if not the top. Any other signings or sales you wanted to bring up? Yeah, so I mean,

13:41yeah, so goalkeeping's done. I think defensively, happy with Balechra, like you said, I think Kukwera out Chavaria in Netnet, you could say is fine. Tosin, the big one, we got rid of him for money, dude. We actually managed to get 10 million for someone we sold. We got under free. We basically bought Martinez with our money, essentially, right? Essentially, which is a huge trade-up. I totally agree. But what do you make of him and Moodrick actually going to spurs? Look, Tosin leaving on a sale, I'm totally fine with that. We have money in the bank. Like we said, it opens up the Martinez money for that. And then it's a sale, right? He's not going to come back. I mean, in Shallah, we don't fall so low that we bring Tosin back in. So Moodrick, I'm quite baffled that he would choose to go on loan there. But it's inconsequential because I don't,

14:43I'm not seeing a pathway for Moodrick back into this team. So if they can kind of sew up a deal, you know, next summer, right? I think we take the money. With an option to buy for 75 million, that, dude. Look, I mean, I'm not saying you're going to get 75, right? I'm saying maybe the option for the end is 75. No, I know. I know. But it's an option, right? So if spurs come back and say, you know, we don't want to pay 75, we want to do 50. I would take the money at the end of next season because I don't see there being a track for him to come back into this team. I just don't. So they're the first two as an after 17 years since Call of Duty Genie, the first players to move between Chelsea and Spurs. Yeah. Very interesting. I think the Moodrick one was more about sentiment for him. Deserbys a manager who really lifted his profile at Shaftar. So maybe it was that perspective that, you know, he thought, okay, he's got a chance to work with someone who can really nurture him. And maybe it works out for him. So we'll have to see. But can I say like, I totally understand that,

15:46right? And he's had a very like tumultuous two years. But if you're a Chelsea boy, right? You can't. You can't go to spurs. And basically, you were in Hong Kong with me. We watched the game. You saw the reception he got. He got a mad reception now. He got the best reception, aside from actually probably got a better reception than a Lanzo himself. The love that there is for him, I think at least in London, you can tell the Chelsea fans are not going to give him the same feel, you know, now that he's going to go to spurs, they, I think they really need to close that out and make it a permanent. And I think they'll be, it'll just be a little bit better, lesser of a pill to swallow. Let's put it that way. I don't see there being way back in. I mean, the connection with the fans is like 50% of the game for these players, man, right?

16:48Yeah. So after all he's what he's been through for him to then go on low and to spurs, it's just a bit baffling. He's making his own life more difficult. But let's, let's move on. I think, you know, these are kind of in consequential players, I think, in the grand scheme of things. I think what do you make of the big one? Yeah. Yeah, there, but no, the big one, you tell me, man, you would have been keeping track that whole day of what was going on. That was just, I think they left it so late city as a deliberate thing to say, well, you gave us a deadline, fuck your deadline. We're going to do it on our terms. And they came in at the last minute. And yeah, I mean, what we still managed to get 125, British transfer record. First club to make a profit on a player, they've purchased over a hundred million. So in that respect, I think, look, we got the money for a player who didn't want to be here. I think we both said on our,

17:50you know, on our squad part that, look, if he doesn't want to be there, then he's got to go. If we wanted to be there, we would have kept him, but it was clear that he didn't want to stay at Chelsea. And there was also like some stuff coming out now that he was not training properly in the last, you know, in the in the last four, five years of training at all. Yeah. Yeah. So, so basically, I think net net, it's a win for us. We held out. They came because they came in with a 104 million bid initially. We said no way. And then we wanted more. And I think we quoted closer to 140. But then 125, we got a five million on that five million deadline penalty, which is eh, but whatever they held out, what do you think? I have too many things to say on this, please. Firstly, Flores yours in our in our previous pod. I literally said, I won't be surprised if he goes for 125 million or something even slightly less than 120. So I'm not not sure,

18:52Dhammas. I'm just saying I'm smart. Okay. It does not surprise me that they just managed to squeeze out another five million. 120, objectively, is a lot of money, right? Let's just put it out there. I don't care who you are. You've won a World Cup. You've done, you know, club World Cup, all this thing that 120 is a lot of money, especially when they've already spent the 116 on Anderson. I think it was 50 ish for a Boadi as well. No, it was close to 100. Okay. 85 plus add-on. So you're the guy for the valuation, right? So you look at, well, how do they justify another 120? So for me, right, if they're happy with the extra five mill, it is simply because of what we discussed in the finance pod, right? I think that was one or two podcasts ago. We are not in a fantastic situation where it's quite the opposite financially. And we did say

20:00in that pod, be careful or you might have to start selling off your best players. And this was an example of that, right? They're getting great value, 125 million cash in the bank. And since then, there's been all this talk about, oh, well, they might actually bank it since Kamara was the one they wanted, but they couldn't get it, right? I think that was the plan all along. I think they've seen the whole that they've started to dig it themselves into financially. And this is the cost where we're paying. So I think that the board has to eat something for this. Like they have to take some responsibility here because we do look, he's off the books. He didn't want to be here. I totally agree. He should go, right? But we still lose in that trade off because we're losing a great player. And we haven't replaced him. So the key thing, right, the worst part is we're strengthening arrival.

21:04Like not enough is being made out of that, right? Or we got 125 million pounds. Great. But how many points is he going to earn them, right? That he should have been earning for us. So in the in the Prem, we have these six pointer games all the time, right? Six pointer games where you play city, if city beats you, right? That's three points you've lost out on that they've walked away with. So it's like a double whammy. This is the same thing that's happening here. So I also, you know, think the finances have some bearing on this. To mitigate the damage, they have it, they should have brought somebody in, right, to replace him. No, it does obviously no direct replacement, but it needed to be extra legs and some supplement and quality. They didn't do that either. So they lost out on the original trade off by strengthening arrival, right? But they didn't even mitigate the loss. So

22:05he had to go, yes, but I think this is kind of change certain expectations for sure. Yeah, did you make some good points? I think so financially, right? I think yes, 100% we needed that money. And if you look at the overall window, our net spend is actually close to negative and the way they're forecasting with all the add-ons and everything coming, coming true, we're looking at over 500 million coming from this window, which is insane business, right? So even if you didn't have that Enzo 125, you're still looking at about 380, 390, which is fantastic, right? But yeah, from look, from a perspective of strengthening arrival, I agree with you completely, but at the same time, like he didn't want to stay. It wasn't like we didn't try to give him an offer if things were to believe, right? He didn't want to stay. And he, this city with the only club, right? That will infer Madrid also pulled out. So let me ask you

23:09this, if the situation was reversed, would you pay 125 million friends, or absolutely not? So in that regard, I think just, you know, bank the cash, bank the win, and move. Where I agree with you completely, we should have got a replacement in. And I think that was a big fumble. Is like this whole Camara thing was just just ridiculous man. And of course, there's this whole thing, right? Like you've been in touch with the club for 10 days, according to the Monica Sporting Director. Why didn't you just pay up that 5 million or whatever that was apparently due to age more intermediaries? Like, okay, you came back and you decided to pay that at the last minute. If you had paid that earlier, we'd probably have him. That said, it's not like there wasn't intent because there were two bids for Scott projected, right? So, and then Bournemouth said, completely untouchable. So now you're obviously doing damage control, right? Oh, we have Kaiseido, we have Barco, we have Henderson, as to goes also out on loan. And then we have

24:16Reese James and we have Malogusta who can play in the midfield. Am I missing anybody? Don't put Malogusta in there, please. It's a very easy backup. But Henderson is there. And you mentioned Lavia, right? Lavia, Lavia, Miss Lavia. So, yeah. So for me, Barco is the pressure on him just increased 10 fold. He's also, you know, part of this transfer recap as an incoming player, right? Even though I think it was wrapped up in between January and the summer, whatever it was. Correct. Yeah, yeah. So he needs to really fill the boots here. That's the ultimate truth because everyone knows Reese James, Lavia, between the two of them their fitness cannot be counted on. Henderson should really not be gracing the pitch too much, right? If at all. So you're really looking at Barco and Kaiseido. So would you have sold Enzo without a replacement considering what we've just

25:22said? Given the way he was behaving, yes. I think we were forced to, he forced our hand. He forced our hand not showing up for training and all of that. So it would have just been disruptive to keep him around. Okay. Well, fair enough. Like we are now living that reality. Yeah. So I guess the kind of next discussion on this is where does that leave us now, right? In terms of the financials you're saying we're looking better, right? Yeah. Essentially looking at booking a profit for the club, CFC holdings, at least from just from the transfers, right? I don't think we've included any additional commercial revenue that they may be expecting further down the line and January sales, whatever it is. Just from now, it's looking like a 100 million give or take, right?

26:23In terms of the transfer approach, are you satisfied that it's totally changed well and truly and they're on the right track? So I don't think it's totally changed, but I think they made sufficient tweaks to it. So they're not going to abandon their model of buying young. I think we can see that in this honest or our nor transfer, right? They've banked it for next year and arranged him for him to go to Bristol, Palestine alone, right? So I think that's that's an example of them not giving up, but I definitely think bringing in Henderson, bringing in Wellbeck, bringing in Martinez, showed that they realize, okay, we need we need some experience, we need some maturity, we need some Premier League experience in the squad and they've gone and done that, they've gone across well. So I think from that perspective, there's enough. Honestly, overall, like I think it's been aside from this midfield thing, it was a good window. And I think honestly the best piece of business for me is the fact that we were able to get 50 million for somebody who has

27:30got one Premier League goal, Delab. That's insane. I don't know how they pulled that off, but for Delab, for Jackson and for you, they've raised somewhere around 100 million, which is insane. I think it's essentially it's paid off the roger's money, right? Yeah, yeah, easily, easily. So from that perspective, that's what I said, net spend wise, you look good, right? It's looking healthy. And overall, from a squad perspective, like, I don't know, how do you rate it? Do you think that you want to go in? I think, yeah, let's go through the squad build and then go to ratings. Because I have more questions on the approach itself, right? And I'm glad you brought up some of those names there, right? Because the Chavaria, also, the Chavaria for me is an example of them saying, like, we need depth of quality and we need experience, right? This guy,

28:36like, for me has come out of nowhere. I don't know who's been tracking him, right? But he's also not on a, he was in a Lonzo, he was in a Lonzo signing. So, so this is a thing for me, the backing of a Lonzo is the biggest difference, right? Which they have not backed a manager like this ever. Yeah. But you're saying, like, there's still room for improvement, like further improvement on the transfer approach. Are you saying they should just cut out the under 23 or under 21 spending and purchase all together? No, I don't think there's, I mean, I think I wouldn't, I don't think I said that there's room for improvement. I think that they have, I said, they have not abandoned their philosophy entirely, but they've amended it. So, if they continue in this direction where they balance youth with experience, right? By people who are primarily ready. Morgan Rogers also is one of those acquisitions, right? You spend a hundred and seventeen million

29:38but he's already hit the ground running and those front three are looking really good, right? So, you've got people who have slotted in this quad immediately. They're bringing experience and you're still balancing that with your youth acquisitions. It's a good space to be in as what I'm saying. Okay. So, let me ask a different question then. You seem, you seem to be saying that you're happy with the new approach, right? Because you shouldn't also go from one extreme to the other, right? They seem to have found a happy medium. So, how would you rate the overall window we've had then? I think I'd give it a solid eight. It would have been higher if they'd got a replacement for Enzo as well. If we had that midfield in place, it would have been a nine easy. I wouldn't give it a 10 on 10 because I still think you should have had sales for like getting bad your shield and disaster off the books through sales would have made it like a 10 on 10 window for me, I think.

30:42But I'm still happy with it and again, I also don't think that like, now hindsight, right? Why did we sell Santos so early? You talk about strengthening arrival, right? We sold Santos to United so early in the window and now like after the dust is settled, it would have been prudent to hold on to him. So those things are probably what take away the point. Now fair enough, and it's good though where we're thinking about these things critically, right? Because we're always going to continue to rate their transfer windows, but it also felt like this window was pretty much the most important. I have a feeling we've said that about every summer, but that's just because it's because we're not where we need to be. So this one felt like it was the most important. Yeah, yeah, it did for sure. Yeah, for sure. So anyway, we've answered the business side and the transfer side.

31:43Prashan's given the summer rating, the window rating in eight. I'd probably agree and I would say it would have been a 10 straight up if they had kept Enzo and worked it out with Enzo, but maybe my head's a bit in the clouds with that one. But let's see on paper where it's actually left us. So I'm just going to Prashan that I've been working on something instead of just chatting for a change, you know. We wanted to show our chops a little bit. So we've done some fancy footwork. It's really not that fancy and shout out to JLA Tactics Board. Very, very useful for understanding things. We've kind of drawn up now the full squad and positioned everyone approximately where we see them playing and maybe where their best role is. But this is to give you an idea of the depth. And I think we're certainly very strong also in terms of quality of depth.

32:50Like I'm looking at, you know, center back, especially right center back, being one of our strongest in terms of depth but also quality. But we were, let's let's go through this unit by unit, Prash. So I think goalkeepers is all done and dusted, right? Yeah, I think it's pretty straightforward. Between Selena and Charmin, no one of them will be the regular third choice back up and Pandas right behind Martinez. I think it looks solid. Martinez numbers now won by the way. I just find it funny that we have two guys competing for the third choice spot, which barely plays anyway. I also did here on one of the recent athletic podcasts from, I think it was David Ornstein. Someone, you know, on his transfer ones, someone was mentioning that Martinez does occasionally have injury issues. I'm hoping, I'm hoping.

33:53I don't want him to get injured. I'm just hoping they somehow managed to give Pandas Premier League game time. I think if they can give him like five to ten games in the Prem, it justifies him staying for me. Plus the cups. I think, I think we'll see that happen. Definitely the cups, but I think we'll see him in some of the Premier League games for sure. Okay, then consider my concerns as weighted. In defense, we're looking pretty stacked, but my God, like we've been updating this tactics board as the window has progressed, and this was the most congested area of the pitch. So are you happy with how it's panned out in terms of center back? Yeah, I think so. I think maybe the one that I would have maybe said could have gone out on loan would have been ancilledo given the way the rest of the window panned out, because Aachenpong,

34:54the fact that they've done their best to hold on to him and he's been coming on, you know, and he's been pretty solid when he's come on. I think his, his upside and his potential to play is much higher than Anselm, you know, at this stage. Maybe Anselm, you know, could have done with the loan, but other than that, I think we're looking pretty stacked like you said. Yeah, I do also feel like you're saying there's an extra defender in here. The way I see it, Aachenpong is not fully trusted yet. I think his ideal back three is something like this, you know, with cool and forfana. And in that regard, given cool will and forfana's injury history and fitness history, right? Maybe it's best we've kept one center back for each position, right? I'm not going to tell you that Anselmino is a direct backup to Laquire. What I'm saying is there's enough depth there so that there's three, you know, proper center backs waiting in the wings

35:59with Hato being able to cover multiple positions, right? So what you've also done, sorry, is you've kept Reese James as a midfield option, not right center back or right back option. Yeah, I can only put him in one place on the pitch. If I could create two Reese James, I actually, I probably could. But yeah, he's also right center back option here, which actually, honestly, I'm glad you mentioned that because you're saying you wish we had loaned our Anselmino. I'm wishing we had sold not sold loaned out very key distinction that I wish we could have loaned out Aachenpong because it's the same thing as Penders. I think the game time he will get here will be limited relative to what he could have gotten elsewhere. I think there was definitely a decent level club that would have guaranteed him 30 plus games this season in a league. That doesn't include him. He may have played in the cup tournaments as well for them. So we're sacrificing

37:02a lot of potential game time to keep these guys as essentially backups, right? I would love to be proven wrong and Penders and Aachenpong suddenly just, you know, in training and the game time that it given, they actually show that they're better and Alonzo is like, you know, what? I'm going to trust you guys from minute one on a regular basis. I would love to be proven wrong, but it doesn't look like that for now. I'm just saying, okay, if we had, if we loaned out Aachenpong, I think Anselmino, James and Hato are good enough cover for left center back, right center back, and central center back. So anyway, we are where we are now, but you know, somebody is going to have to take a hit. Well, a few of these are going to have to take a hit on the playing time. In terms of wingbacks, what do you think? I think that's that's a department that's solid. I don't know about this dinner like until he was actually confirmed. I didn't even know whether he existed to be honest.

38:04So I think he's going to be more of an under 21 player. So it's fine to have him here, but I don't really think he features. I think Hato Chavarriya is where your left wingback position is going to be, and Hato's look good as well. So I think that's how it's going to look. And right wingback also, when Polestra is back, I think we're sorted. I did want to say, right? If there's an issue with Coal will defensively this season, I think I've seen it when he's been defending the space, like the channels. Maybe he's lost something in the derrick-covery department. Maybe my expectations are too high considering, you know, last season he was out completely. Do you see, let's say, Acheampon getting some time there at less center back. If Coal will kind of poor-ish form there continues? I think it's a plausible theory. I just don't know how Acheampon plays on the left. And I think if

39:09he were in a situation where he needed to drop Coal will, he's probably going to play Hato there and then play Chavaria. Yeah, I just wonder how much he's trusting Chavaria at this early stage in his Premier League experience, right? So that's why I'm looking at somebody with a little bit more size and Acheampon has definitely played more in the Premier League than Chavaria, but it was just a thought process. So yeah, I also agree. Like, Polestra can basically play either side as a wing back as well. So I think there's plenty of depth here. Touch wood, everyone stays fit. But essentially what we're saying is right now, Polestra's out. Gusto playing right wing back is enough cover and you've got the likes of Neto and Kenda here. So these are more attacking options and that's why I've kind of dropped them a little bit closer to the right midfield area as opposed to right wing where Estavá was. But this for me is more like a case by case basis. You use it depending on the team you're facing.

40:17Right? Yeah, because let's not forget he's used Neto at right wing back. So that's what he has, but what I'm saying is that the opposition and the rest of the selection has to support it. Right? Yeah, yeah, true. Yeah. So also I think yeah, definitely covered in the wing back spots. Are you are you playing or seeing Gittens as a wingback option at all this season? I think the way Alonzo is playing, he's going to ask his wingers to drop a little bit and support defensively and maybe even just play out now wing backs like he's done with Neto. You pointed out already that there is a trade off in defensive work rate when that happens. And I think we saw that we did see that for show versus that Malaysian team. But then also like in the league, there was a time one of the games where Neto, you saw him dropping back. So it's like

41:22he's already identified that when he's playing wingers at wing back, they're not always dropping back in their defensive work. Great needs to be worked on and he stole them that. So hopefully, yeah, if he is playing wingers, like a Gittens playing at left wing back is very plausible. I could see that happen because just having Rodgers, Parmer and Pedro up front means that you don't need the way they're playing. We don't need wingers, right? They're stretching the play between the three of them. I mean, that's how it's looked so far. I think honestly, I haven't seen this in a while, but I'm seeing a manager like for us actually try and adapt game by game depending on the opponent and obviously depending on what's available. Like against Brighton, there was some serious depth issues in central midfield. So he's had to pop Gusto there alongside Lavia, right? And then Neto is the one having to track back. I just wanted to clarify something.

42:26I'm not questioning just the work rate, right? Because Neto works very hard. I'm going to give him full credit for that. I think he works his way back very, very well, very consistently. It's more about defensive capabilities. Kaisados are better defender than Enzo Fernandez, right? It's about defensive prowess and ability, right? That and also positioning sense, right? Neto hasn't had as much experience or training at this kind of like right wingback position. So even if he drops back, which means his work rate is good, it doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be at the right place at the right time. So that's the trade off I was trying to highlight in previous podcasts and on X. That's where we're losing actually. I'm not going to fault his work rate. The kind of interesting thing for me is then, yeah, would you, on certain games, ask get into do that on the other side?

43:29I'm just saying outright that's probably a no go, hence the purchase of Chavaria, right? To give you that more of a flying wingback option rather than, I mean, we have it on this side as well, but if he doesn't want to play Gusto because he wants to play an attacking winger, it's probably going to be on this right hand side rather than trusting gettons to do the work. One other interesting aspect, at least on this side, since we're here, is Kenda. He's basically competing directly with Neto because the two of them can kind of play in similar spots. They can do, you know, left mid, left wingback stuff, right wingback, right wing stuff, all of this. I think I've seen Neto also play more centrally under Alonzo later in games. And I think Kenda supposedly can do that. So what was really the point in keeping him? Do you think there's enough game time for him? I think it's more about, it's more about

44:35just the upside and his potential contribution to the team. And obviously what he, we saw him in pre-season, so obviously Alonzo has seen something he likes. And I mean, I was going to ask you a similar question, right? You just talked about gettons and how he essentially would not be a good choice if we were looking at this system where we needed him to play as a wingback, right? You're saying you wouldn't want to see that. So considering Roma were actually in for him, right? Where would Kenda were saying, why did we keep him? Is your question? There was no real interest, but with the player like gettons, there was interest from Roma. Do you think we should have maybe let him go then? No, because and this goes in line with what Alonzo has been saying. We need to have options to adapt in between games, but also during games, right? So he may not always get his starting line up correct, or he may have to just change based on the game circumstance. And having an out and out left

45:39winger who, you know, you give him the ball and you know he has the ability, and if you just give him the license to take his man on and go down the outside, you know, I don't see us having that. So you need to have one profile profile like that in the squad. People will say that Rodgers can do that, but that's not where he's best utilized. And there will be like honestly, if you're bringing gettons on or you're starting him, I have a feeling Rodgers might still play. And then you might see, okay, instead of Palmer, it's like Palmer can also play from the right or it could be Estavalle because I see him as like another winger who can take his man down the outside. So it really depends on how you're trying to break opponents down. So you need like somebody who's an amazing speedster ball carrier, right, with Flair. You need that option on both sides. So Estavalle is your guy on the right,

46:43gettons is a guy on your left. I'm not saying Ken, the netokon do that, but we don't see as much of it from them. So these guys are more like guaranteed to try that out. Flair. So again, the concern, the concern is about playing time with gettons. I think there's less to justify because he also had major injury problems last season. I think there is enough game time and opportunity for out and out left winger to come on like gettons in games in the league and also with some game time in the in the cup. There's a question, can he we try him out here as a left hand? He maybe has the first touch to do it, whether he has the intelligence and the physique to do it, the balance and all that, I don't know. But maybe they're also looking at that. One thing I've been slightly concerned about is the depth in this position because if let's say Rogers is injured, right, I think the best option

47:47is to then drop Jau Pedro to the left hand and then play one of well back Oromega in his Omega in his in his stead up top. Do you do you think that's kind of a key area of concern or you're happy with the depth in this sort of attacking midfield area? No, I think I'm happy with the depth generally. I think you've got Estava as well who can play in that role. So whether if if a Rogers is injured, you have Estava also maybe who can play on one of the sides, maybe Parmin Estava switch, Parmin goes where Roger was. Rogers was sorry and Estava comes in there. So I think I think that way we're okay. I'm actually interested to talk about the mid because I see you've included. So without having you footwats in there who's obviously an academy player that you're well we have seen I put him in there because you have to give him some props. He apparently was

48:49training with the first team this week. That's what I was just saying. He's been training with them. So looking at that right and obviously Reese James is in there as an option. How do you feel about the depth here because we were just talking about okay, we rate I gave the window one point less because we didn't get a replacement friends or so and in ideal world you don't have wats in there. You have the player we were most closely linked with that came you know that was almost done was come our eyes in place of wats and he's not there you've put wats in there how you feeling about the depth now. It's still shaky. The depth is fine. It's the quality that's the issue. The quality yeah. So if I was to kind of put it like this I would actually say like I don't see Reese James's strongest position as central midfield. These are I think for me these two Kaiseido and Lavia are our two strongest central midfielders. I think James is easily the best

49:55right center back we have at the club like I trust him wholeheartedly. Do I need to go further like for fun as for fun at Champon is better than for fun at night. Yeah I understand that. You get what I'm saying right. So Kaiseido and Lavia is actually who I would start all things being equal in central midfield. So that means you have let's say James is like a replacement for those two guys right. But then that's it because you have Baco who unproven in this kind of role and he's you know just joined the team etc etc so many caveats for him you know having a good season. Watson is even younger right but at least he's kind of trained with us in preseason you know speaks English all this kind of stuff I think Baco speaks English as well but these guys are young you know yeah and then there's Henderson who there's question about his legs and in the system we're playing

50:57defensively either we're doing a very very high man marking press so everybody has to kind of stick with their their attackers right. He I think he will get exposed in that or if we sit off right there's a lot of shuttle running from side to side for our central midfielders again I'm not not really sure if he's ideal for that in a double pivot I think you'd have to play him in the middle of like a two so instead of it being a two in midfield I'm saying Baco you need three midfielders to protect Henderson a bit more so I think the first three for a two midfield build I think this is really really good quality but then there's a severe drop off. Now I get you I get you which is why I think like on the bands of it that's our like we did enough to strengthen attack and defense and goalkeeping it's the midfield that we're really really

52:00depleted in and I mean that's the that's the area of concern right I think everybody who's who's seen the way the windows gone has the same conclusion. Yeah so like I say the question is you know can Baco step up he that's why the question is mainly on him we know what to expect from Henderson which in a way is good right I think this is late on in games if we're trying to you know defend a one goal lead Watson I think it's great right we didn't spend the money on anybody we didn't want we couldn't get Kamara so fine somebody like Watson this is his opportunity to at least step up a level I totally justify that logic right bringing him into train with the first team if we can start seeing giving him minutes here and there for whatever reason like let's say we're up three no in Shallah right you say okay you know what give Watson the last 15 that that for me is a better

53:01approach than signing somebody as legs which eventually just blocks him and there's also Nicole Juzuli right as well yeah so I think I think in that sense we've done it the right way but we have to make sure that he actually play like he actually gets time training with the first team like he's treated almost as you know the same way as the first team players even if he isn't getting match minutes he's at that age where just the level of intensity and like the thinking in first team training is huge jump right so like I said for me this midfield has changed certain expectations right but you you would argue for instance my expectations coming into this podcast and after the window close we're already quite low so just seven to 10 again I mean I was gonna

54:02I was gonna say like now that you're asking I think I have us finishing one position lower in ace okay and I probably have your redemption up Brentford above us or Brighton but yeah but your love your redemption off is on I I'm not making any comments we're all watching okay we're all watching him all right that's it fair fair so I I think overall the squad build there's depth and quality of depth all over the pitch right it's it's very obvious to say this is where we've had the biggest loss right so it brings me to my next question do you see us making any moves in January and do you have any predictions for us for January for transfers um okay so I think um given I think January is gonna be

55:07the the the need for midfielders going to be established over the next um three to four months and if it's clear that we need depth we go out and sign a midfielder otherwise I think they're gonna hold out and try to make a move for Scott um either try to get a pre agreement done or if they can get it done Jan which I think is very I hope hold on do you want to explain to us what you mean by hold out I I know you've mentioned this to me offline but for the list yeah I think they're basically look it was clear that they they they made a couple of bids born with one to the certain valuation for the player um they didn't want to pay that at this stage um so I think they're gonna test Bournemouth's result because they're gonna need born with the Ida gonna need the time to a new deal or they're gonna have to sell them because his contract expires in 2028 so it's either they get him on a new you know a new contract improve terms higher release clause um and

56:09then we're forced to pay that or um they have to sell them in in uh in the next summer window because otherwise they're excluding him on a free so my bet is that they're gonna try to force to move for Alex Scott if not in the summer then they're gonna get him to agree to you know like a deal for the summer similar to what we had done with like so just to be more specific basically you're saying at the end of this season that just started he'll have one year left on his deal assuming he does and correct sign a new one which I have heard as well that he's not agreeable as of now right to sign a new one with Bournemouth so you're saying either we you know put some money on the table for Bournemouth next summer or we're waiting to bring him in the following summer so in 2028 on a free I'm saying they will try to get an agreement in place

57:10between now and summer with him to say okay you will sign with us in the summer and tie it up with Bournemouth now or if Bournemouth risk leaving it for the window then their leverage is lower they have more leverage um the further we are from the next window if he doesn't sign a new contract yeah but basically what you're saying is we're not gonna wait to sign him on a free in 2028 no I don't think we do that I don't think that's gonna happen and I think um that's gonna be how it goes because obviously there are a bunch of free agents available and now you know it's come out that Bismuma was offered to us and of course Pogba is available Brazavitch is available they're they're decent they've been good players at their time but obviously if we have not gone and signed any of these people on free because they're free agents there's a clear intent to say let's see how this this midfield does there is obviously a belief that this four people with

58:12Watson and James you know being able to play there Watson being the younger academy player James being the the right back right so these six this unit can do the job and that's why I think they're gonna assess it from Jan and if there isn't need then maybe they go back I don't think Kamara is gonna happen we've already seen you know unconfirmed rumours that he may be already agreeing with Liverpool and I think they're gonna just let that one go because also the way it ended with Monaco they're not gonna not do business with Monaco but if they're gonna do business with Monaco it's gonna be business that's more favorable to us than it is to them so I think that's that's where that is for me okay I mean that's that's fair I like I said earlier I totally agree with this approach if we couldn't get it we wanted rely on rely on the youth like bring somebody up right who deserves a place and I think Reggie Watson showed us in in preseason that there's something to his game in

59:13this area of the pitch which is basically where we saw Enzo potentially being deployed more of a controller on the ball in this this deeper lying area of midfield so in terms of sorry in terms of a player in terms of a transfer that or a move that could happen with someone going out I think what you mentioned about Anselmino and Achim Pong specifically Achim Pong's playing time I think if they don't get sufficient playing time one of them could go out on loan see like is how I mean I totally agree with that I think they'll end up keeping Anselmino but loaning out Achim Pong because and I think I even mentioned this in the predictions part I think we're gonna realize that we can't give Achim Pong the game time he needs and we're stunting his growth and he will go out on loan in terms in terms of the you know the depth I'm actually saying even now I think we

1:00:15have a bit too much on the table I think Kenda should have gone out on loan Achim Pong should have gone out on loan and I like this three strikers actually I think there's a lot of versatility and they can offer different things in terms of different types of strikers but also Pedro can drop into a 10 as well so that's good but everywhere else I think I think particularly Achim Pong pandas and Kenda I think for me they should have gone out on loan that would have bumped up my rating of the window what is your rating of the window no I said I tend to agree with your eight just because like look we can't really be choosers right now so Henderson and Wellbeck are the true experienced players that we're bringing in Chavaria is a signal that they're just backing the managers straight up no questions asked but you still have something like Denner who's come in

1:01:15who we have no idea nobody has any idea who this kid is but you know what at least he at his legs behind Hato Chavaria and well yeah I guess Cole or Barco right at that left back left wing back spot in case we need the depth so yeah I have one question for you to critical anymore yeah I have one question for you would you make of this these reports about Estavale saying he doesn't know how much playing time he's going to get under a Lonzo and competing because he obviously sees himself in that farm rule would you make of that do you think that I think he should have been asking these questions a month ago he's absolutely spot on to ask these questions I also saw a news outlet report kind of Tiago Silver's advice to Estavale which is well you need to make the most of the time you have on the pitch don't make it a oh it's a Palmer issue oh it's an Alonzo

1:02:19issue no this is where you take the 20 30 minutes that you're going to get in a game and say hey like I'm showing you why I should be starting from minute one so play me from minute one that creates a real issue for a Lonzo but then it's up to a Lonzo right but I I'm just saying it's totally fair for him to ask that question because I'm also struggling to see this guy's your biggest talent like up and coming talent right he's still so young I'm struggling to see where he gets enough game time this season the way we're playing now but do you think this is do you think this is signaling some issues down the line for sure because he's also I mean he's also bringing it up to to media I would I would have hoped like okay maybe he's spoken to the manager spoken to the whoever lays it lays on in the board and he's spoken to his agent also to do the behind the scenes work to find out what is Alonzo's plan for him he should have that conversation directly with

1:03:22Alonzo the fact that he's going to the media for me is always a bit of an issue but it's a fair question also like we can't shy away from the well is he right or wrong to bring it up and I think he's right yeah cool okay so so overall how do we think so you're saying you're advising your expectations for this season down to an eighth place finish I still think we're getting that top four and challenging for third or second so where do you have us where did you have us in your predictions Paul I've already seen I had us in the top four I had us in the top four I think you said said I said I said Arsenal city Chelsea Liverpool fighting for the third and fourth so I think it's still going to be somewhere like that yeah okay well let's hope let's hope you're right as usual because you always have us pushing for the best but I think I think that that pretty much covers

1:04:26it I think the summary is we have good good enough depth just one big question mark around the central midfield yeah so before we wrap up I had some questions for you what was the most memorable thing from the transfer window for you I think most memorable would be the Morgan Rogers signing like getting that done when it was like Arsenal were heavily linked to him and being able to pull that off so I think I think that was like a really good moment overall I think this window for me just the fact that we were able to raise all this money from sales and like I said the three strikers getting them for close to getting them gone for closer 100 million when they have like one family goal all season between them is insane and I also think that like just Nicholas Jackson the potential if all the add-ons come you know come like good we're looking at to raise like 78

1:05:33million including the 13 million from buying Munich for you know for that loan that's insane I think that's really good business what about you yeah I mean there's no doubt they're very good businessmen these guys and it's only taken them four five years to learn football and like you said maybe we shouldn't give them that credit yet right maybe there's still some room for improvement I you know I don't like these transfers are good as man I think when Chelsea get involved it's to our own detriment it's we're always nice guy Chelsea already called a charity FC right like letting it letting Enzo go without a replacement as an example of that right but fair enough they have their principles and they have their valuations and they're sticking to it so for me the most memorable moment was seeing Henderson fall over the hoarding and then and then I think it was after it was like hey guys let's go and sign Henderson so you get the Fabrizio Romano or the David Onstein tweet and

1:06:38it's like Chelsea are making a move for Henderson I'm like well I just I just saw him break his arm with something climbing over hoarding and with this is the guy we want as a fifth choice or sixth choice in field I don't know yeah it was just funny you know yeah fair fair fair okay and and okay this one is a slightly tougher question all right since they took over and feel free to like you know go and find out when is it they took over pick one transfer from each summer transfer window because we don't have all day that kind of epitomizes that season or that that transfer window like somebody we're just going to remember as being emblematic of that period of time you know this is stuff but okay I off the top of my head what I can remember I'm gonna say sterling and culabali the first window then it kai seido and enzo I think we're in

1:07:46the second window right always enzo and I think so I think so yeah they were the same window and and then I'm gonna say umari keliman or was that the same window as kai seido I can't remember okay let me let me remove so so window one culabali and sterling window two kai seido and enzo window three tocen and window four Morgan Rogers and Anderson and well back I think if I I can't narrow down to one but that is sort of how I look at it what about I mean honestly I don't have any answers but your answers sound sound great um and I think there's actually one more window that I that's what I was gonna ask you I swear yeah there's the five window window under them yeah yeah yeah and and somebody can let us know when when keliman joined because at this point I can't

1:08:46be bothered to look up that we know that I was just a make-wait for ffp or psr or whatever they're calling it these days squad costs roll still sold him for five million two strizbo yeah so I mean now he'll come to full fruition right like jogansson is having an absolute stormer over there he's had some good game what do you make of strizbo go since we brought them up I mean they really ripped the squad apart like I mean barcoes out mariras out they mean and they mean some fantastic profit on some of those players too yeah so it's it's good money and that money will be spent on trading with Chelsea and they will essentially move a lot of their trading and their youngster purchases over to to strizbo because strizbo can show well we're generating this much revenue in player in player sales um so they're they're gonna continue what they're doing just more at strizbo whereas Chelsea they're writing the wrongs and they're writing the ship

1:09:48so that it gets back on track because with Chelsea we need to be this the spending can only be justified by being in Europe not just you know with player sales on its own so yeah I mean I do feel for strizbo because like it's basically it's basically what we've gone through at Chelsea where there's no attachment with the players right now the kai satos and the like I guess the paomas you know those guys who have been around I mean Reese James has always been around right but I can't really name too many others who are coming household names but they're getting there right strizbo now is gonna be I think you're gonna see more motone over but it's it's good business number one number two I think they are bringing in some good talent so who knows it's a good pipeline for us at Chelsea let's see um obviously um now turning our attention to what's next um

1:10:52Arsenal oh wait oh wait right yeah oh wait what do you think how are we doing I think we learn a lot we you know we play the game try to win and we learn from that you know uh we'll get beaten that like there's no there's no question you know sorry give me give me give me a world give me a scenario in which we win this game I don't have a scenario I think just given how the taxman looking I can see us scoring goals but then given how we've also been we had 25% possession versus Brighton and they were always threatening um I can also see us concede as many goals as we score so I can't call it I do know that Alonzo was asked about this in his presser saying we've not the record versus Arsenal has been you know they we've we've not beaten them in the last 12 games I think it is

1:11:54and his response was simply records are there to be broken so we're gonna do our best to break it so I love his optimism I mean I love his attitude and I'm hoping you know that we can we can show up and at least get a draw you know I don't want us to be beaten again so I'm I'm thinking at least a draw um yeah so I mean like you're basically backing us to score because there's no way we keep a clean sheet yeah I don't think so let's see okay I let's see um yeah and then we have obviously just another three games before the international break so we have leads in the um Karabakh up the third round at home um that's next that's midweek on the fence how do you feel about that on I'm not sure how I feel about doing predictions again I actually enjoyed it when we weren't doing them so all right all right all those so so so I mean if you're putting a gun to my head uh we'll go through by the skin of our teeth against leads again it will be like a one-goal difference

1:12:59because we can't defend okay okay all right so do you want to do you want to talk about the rest of the games for the break or not well yeah I mean you brought it up now you put me on the spot so okay a good sports so how let home on the weekend man I like I would guess slaughtered for saying anything other than a win I think yeah fair let's go for a win there I think win there as well and then the the next week after a way to Brentford okay at that I can justify us losing because they've also had a very good window and we just don't I don't think we still have we have the ability to match their intensity and physicality yet you can see Alonzo trying to bring those up to speed but away at Brentford is like the it's the height of the test you know or at least one of I'm gonna say draw okay so you have us going on beaten for the season that must be nice so we'll see how it goes okay I know on

1:14:06that note you want to close us out yeah for sure I mean if you like what you heard and you have views definitely let us know over on x at we burn blue pod and the episode rating on youtube and Spotify definitely leave a like for Sharon's tactic board um shout out to JL again and Sharon for making this happen um and share this with other Chelsea fans and we'll see you on the next one yeah and share your predictions because there's no way everyone's as optimistic as per Sean done