Chez

Brighton will be saying to themselves that if he's good enough to get into City's side, which is full of players of costing and worth £50m+, then he's also worth/costing £50m+. In addition, City sold a left back they didn't rate for £30m, so they ain't getting ours that they do rate for anywhere near the same money. How on earth are sides like us meant to compete with these CL behemoths?

I have a recollection of us getting a free a pint/drink at one away game. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.

New training ground, covid losses and only outgoing transfer fees last summer. If they stay in the Prem, there won't be an issue as everything will be budgeted for. Go down and everything changes.

I don't like seeing Walcott given stick on here. Him signing a pro contract for us and ensuring we got £10m from Arsenal made a huge difference to our finances, and I will always respect him for that. He may well be valuable behind the scenes too, however, unless Prem players are doing it on the pitch, I don't see how we can possibly be getting value for money from them, no matter what they do off it. £75k a week can only be recouped by on field displays, not words of encouragement in the dressing room. We pay our manager and his staff to do that...and Ralph's staff get paid a shed load less than £75k a week, that's for sure.

Think they have just completed the last phase of their new £100m state-of-the-art training complex. £60m spent last year on transfers with pretty much nothing back in. King Power's turnover and profits fell like a stone during COVID.

Enjoy things like this when it happens. Might be as good as our season gets.

Isn't the club currently negotiating with Eli on a new contract?

£270m in debt and that's with all the Prem prize money, CL money and huge transfer fees for players like Maguire. Football clubs are bottomless money pits.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement from you manager after your first appearance. As you say, he has only just got here and needs time to adapt. Why then flag up his lack of work rate to the press? I guess no one is going to ask why he hasn't started on Saturday now, but was there actually going to be any great pressure from press/fans for him to be thrust straight in? No biggie. I'm sure if you spoke with Ralph for an extended period he'd be much more positive, but a single line reply can sometimes come off a little negative, as this one does.

The comments sound like they are about a player he hasn't seen before.

maybe we sign a striker and then Aribo can provide some chances. If he plays up front, who is going to be supplying him?

makes sense, but he could get 46 games there. Here? Who knows. Clubs want players out on loan to be playing, a lot.

sure, but who is offering even buttons for any of those players?

21 goals in a 110 games. Maybe the management have analysed the stats and wonder if there is room for improvement. We finished 15th and scored just 43 goals last season. Some of our players are not as good as we'd like to think. Perhaps Che is overrated by us fans?

more likely to see Tina Turner performing at SMS

What an unbalanced squad. Four keepers and 7 GBs?

words like this are music to my ears. I look forward to seeing him. I don't like 352 myself, and feel is the CBs are decent, you play 2 not 3. Do you think he and Salisu be good enough for us to revert back to a four man defence?

Anyone else got an an assessment of B-K from what they have seen so far?

Excellent. Will Lavia replace Romeu or will we play a three?

Not watched any of the pre season. Does it look like any of the signings will be starters?

Loving that.

Leicester are £270m in debt and with King Power suffering during Covid, perhaps belts need to be tightened all round.

maybe we have got to the pojnt in the window where we are going for players that are part of a chain or that other Prem teams actually want to buy, so selling clubs will wait for a `too good to be true' bid.

You asked "what 16 and 17 years olds have Chelsea played in the first team in recent years?" I have named four... ...but you go ahead and try to reframe your argument if you like. One of those, Hudson-Odoi, has played 72 times for Chelsea. Does he support Sarisbury Saint's case? Dibling may well never make a first team appearance, but you don't know if that will happen or not, and until the future happens, you can't say they haven't signed him with the intention of playing first team football, sooner rater than later.

...and the fella Maatson, playing for Burnley tonight, is another 17 year old that played for the Chelsea first team.