Chelsea 21/22 - Improving Efficiency

Regardless of what happens in the coming days and months, we're guaranteed to have CL football return next season. That is about the only certainty, everything else is an unknown! I will address as much as I can here.

Transfer Ban
As it stands, we are unable to sign anyone for the next two windows, or, for 365 days. However, if our appeal to UEFA is rejected before the transfer window opens, we can appeal to CAS which will result in us allowing to purchase players until the appeal is rejected. We will eventually have to face the transfer ban, either now or in 2020, so if we can appeal to CAS before the window opens, we need to spend big to compensate for the ban.

New manager?
Sarri has technically done an acceptable job, but is not well liked within the fan base, so whether he stays or not is around 50/50. It will all come down to Roman and his thoughts on Sarri, and if he stays, he has to improve this team.

Frank Lampard is an often touted replacement, but his abilities as a manager are still somewhat unknown.
Thomas Tuchel is another option, should PSG sack him but I'm not overly fond of him.
Perhaps someone else will be in the hot seat come July? Your guess is as good as mine.

Hazard and CHO
Hazard is gone, I don't think there is any doubts about that, unless the transfer ban is upheld and we force him to stay, I just can't see us doing that to a club legend.

CHO is injured until August/September at best but that won't stop Bayern, there is no word on a contract extension, so he could well leave too, but is less likely. Unless we have the ability to replace him and we get a massive offer from Bayern, I think we'll reject all offers.

A transfer banned team for 19/20
Reece James, Ola, Aina, Zouma, Bakayoko, Morata, Abraham, Batshuayi, and possibly even Mount will get a chance to join the first team, with Pulisic being the only confirmed player joining us. The rest of the team will be very much the same, minus Kova and Higgy. Without Hazard, it will be a dramatically weaker side, I expect 5th or 6th with this team. Not great.

An un-transfer banned team for 19/20
I suspect we'll be busy if we can purchase players. Youcef Atal, Bruno Fernandes, David Neres, among others have been linked to us recently. This is without mentioning Kova and Higgy, who could also join us permanently. I think we'll end the window with purchases in:
Fullback
Centre Mid x2
Left Wing
Forward
+/-
Centre Back
Winger

I will keep this thread updated throughout the off season.

Some relatively reliable sources in Spain say that Real will pay 130m Euros for Hazard and that the deal will be announced after the season ends.

Let's just hope we can spend that money.

If Frank is being touted as Sarri's replacement, they might as well just stick it out with Sarri since the growing pains of a new coach with a new style would just come back but with a legend at the club instead of, well, Sarri. I do hope they stick it out with him as I can see what the team can achieve when everything clicks. Changing a football culture at a club is not an easy feat.

Yeah, I've been following Chelsea while Kova was there and would like to say, hard luck with him but I'm glad Loftus won out in the end tbh.

Doc wrote:If Frank is being touted as Sarri's replacement, they might as well just stick it out with Sarri since the growing pains of a new coach with a new style would just come back but with a legend at the club instead of, well, Sarri. I do hope they stick it out with him as I can see what the team can achieve when everything clicks. Changing a football culture at a club is not an easy feat.

Yeah, I've been following Chelsea while Kova was there and would like to say, hard luck with him but I'm glad Loftus won out in the end tbh.

Sarri has been very rigid, I'm unsure if he can improve us without first changing himself.

I am happy RLC seems to have cemented his spot in the starting XI, it's been coming for about 4 years now. But I like Kova and wouldn't mind keeping him around, at least as a Jorginho back up. I'm not sure he'd want that, though.

As expected, Fifa have rejected our transfer ban appeal. We have now made public that we will appeal to CAS to have our ban overturned or to have it halted while the appeal process takes place. It is not guaranteed that this will happen but it was always our best hope of at least being able to sign players.

We've been pretty strongly linked to Coutinho as Hazard's replacement. I suspect it's Coutinho's agents trying to drum up hype but you never quite know when it comes to Chelsea

According to Nizaar Kinsella, CHO is increasingly likely to sign a contract extension and Chelsea are hopeful that given his young age, he'll be fit for the start of the season.

We will apparently make Kova's loan permanent should our ban be lifted. Good news as we need to focus elsewhere and I think this deal could be wrapped up easily. Especially with RLC's injury, we need players who know the system around.

Mount will be better off on loan unless we cannot sign anyone.

So this is how we are shaping up should the ban be lifted:
Out: Higuain
Hazard
Cahill

In:
Kovacic
Pulisic
Zouma
James/Aina
Coutinho/Zaha/Asensio
CF

Seems like we have a plan for the window, at least.

Simon Johnson is reporting that Chelsea do not intend to freeze the ban and instead serve it straight away.

Nas Kinsella is reporting that we CAN sign Kovacic and Higuain, however, that we will only try to sign Kova.

We're also extending Giroud's contract and bringing Tammy in as a second choice CF.

Further reports suggest we're going to sack Sarri and bring in Lampard as his replacement.

So my guess on our summer plans are something like this:

In:
Pulisic
Kovacic
Abraham
Zouma
James
+/-
Mount

Out:
Cahill
Higuain
Hazard
Zappacosta
+
Random loanees

Team:
GK: Kepa, Willy, Green (or a youth GK, it doesn't matter)
RB: Azpilicueta, James
CB: Rudiger, Luiz, Christensen, Zouma, Azpilicueta, Ampadu
LB: Emerson, Alonso, Azpilicueta,
DLP: Jorginho, Kovacic
CM: Kante, Barkley, Kovacic, RLC (Inj.), James, Ampadu +/- Mount
Wing: Willian, Pedro, Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi (inj.)
CF: Giroud, Abraham

Manager: Frank Lampard

Top 10 team unless someone plays out of their skin next season.

Di Marzio is now reporting we'll bring in Lamps to replace Sarri.

It would be devastating if we do not freeze the ban, especially with losing Hazard. If we have to serve the ban, than we have to keep Hazard and let him walk for free next summer.

Like i said RLC and CHO injury really hurt the situation even further, both injuries leave a lot of uncertainty at their position.

Two players i would love to see at Chelsea are Nicolas Pepe and Houssem Aouar.

As long as we minimize our expectations for next season and aim to play the youth (CHO, RLC, James, Tammy and Mount) the transfer ban isn't the end of the world.

I can't see either Pepe or Aouar joining, as much as I'd love Pepe.

The Torino president has confirmed they will active the buyout for Ola Aina. It is a shame for us but I think a good move for all involved.

It also allows Reece James to join us next season

Just watching the EFL playoff final, Tomori has a wonderful passing range, he could be a shout for Cahill's replacement give both Sarri (if he stays) or Lampard (if he joins) like to have passing CB's.

Hazard confirmed his departure after our win today.

Sarri seems to be all but gone and with him Higuain will surely be shown the door as well. They join Hazard and Cahill at the exit door. I can only see 1 more player (likely either Zappa or Alonso) leaving this window.

Super Frank is the favourite to replace him, but Blanc Nuno Espirito Santo and Steve Holland have all been mentioned. I wouldn't mind any of them, Blanc aside.

If it were indeed Frank to fill the spot in the dugout, our formation wouldn't chnage too much, with the only obvious change being Jorginho and Kante swapping positions.

NES would probably adapt a 3-4-3/3-5-2 like he has used at Wolves, but Steve Holland would likely be an unknown in terms of formation/tactics.

Will be interesting to see who we end up with.

According to reports everywhere, CHO is increasingly likely to sign a new deal
RLC is being lined up for a new deal too

Excellent news. There are like 3 players in the world that can replace Hazard, and even without a transfer ban they would be unobtainable, and there are like 5-10 young players in a world that have a chance to become as good as him and one of them is CHO. Would have been tragic to lose them both.

What a terrible day.

First CAS confirmed that we've appealed but not asked for our ban to be overturned which means we all know we're guilty, but we're only appealing to make it seem like we believe we are innocent.

Then Reece James suffers a horrific injury that could see him out for months.

Finally, Hazard's deal to Real is confirmed.

On a positive side, Baka's brother has confirmed that Baka will stay at Chelsea next season.

This is how I see things shaping up next season.
I have left Kova out as I am still not 100% he will be with us next season.

Ola Aina has officially moved on to Torino.

Apparently we're chatting to Lampard about the manager spot and uncertain of whether or not to buy Kovacic.

Lampard looks to be official soon and we're apparently guaranteeing him 2 seasons due to the transfer ban.

I like the idea tbh, as long as the fanbase gets on board.

I think the key to next season will be getting building a team around getting the most out of Kante and the defence while playing youth were possible. Also if we can turn one of CHO or Pulisic (or both) into world class players, that'd be fantastic, too.

Sarri has officially left.

Zola has decided to leave the club too.

I would like to wish them both the best and thank them for their time at the club

Big Pete is back, and Lampard is hopefully joining this week.

Apparently Lampard's mandatory goal for the season is to not get relegated

As long as he gets that, he'll get a second season