Chelsea

[Doc_Piptorious]

it's been interesting to see teh drop off in those players that have left Brighton - aside from Trossard arguably the rest have been failures

Think we've got the best of the lot

It has been and in many ways it resembles what has happened with players that left us under Klopp.

Brighton, like us, focus on building teams rather than groups of great individuals.

If a player happens to become elite along the way then great, but the focus is always on creating as close to an elite team unit as possible.

In many ways it is the opposite to what happens at teams like Spurs where the focus seems to constantly be on one player.


Great teams at their peak can lose a great individual, replace that player with a less gifted one albeit one that understands the system, but still operate as a great team unit.


A Spurs type set up loses their big player and the team simply cannot function at the same level as it was built around the output of an individual rather than that of the many.

The Mancs when Ronaldo was there fell foul of that individual being more important than the team thing too.


Think Arteta is trying to build something similar to that great team unit model at Arsenal. Whether he is a good enough manager to do so and sustain it over a run of seasons remains to be seen.

[baitman]

it's been interesting to see teh drop off in those players that have left Brighton - aside from Trossard arguably the rest have been failures

Think we've got the best of the lot

Thats good management, getting the best return from players that are not quite elite.
A much better team than the sum of their parts.

[Fosterbloke]

Which is why I'm not bothered that we haven't made a marquee signing. Mac Allister is the closest but doesn't feel like it because of who he played for and his selling price.

Like I said before, if we'd have bought him from a team like Inter for £70m, we'd be over the moon.

[danperkins]

Shows that CL footy has **** all to do with it.

That depends is the player is used to playing in the champs league every season and expects it... also depends if a club is willing to pay absolutely stupid ****ing money to get the player like Chelsea are. Good player but the figures quoted are simply ludicrous. But that is Chelsea all over so it wouldn't surprise me. Can only say fair play to Brighton.

[Buzzo]

Chelsea seem to be collecting players rather than building a squad.

[Mark79]

Chelsea did a rebuild in Summer 2020. Another one in summer 2022 and then again in January for their second rebuild in one season. And now this window they’re apparently yet again buying every ****er going.

[ame]https://twitter.com/david_ornstein/status/1669798299920998400[/ame]

[Mark79]

More murky financial ****

[ame]https://twitter.com/JDNalton/status/1670525077295624197[/ame]

[Irishnev]

More murky financial ****

https://twitter.com/JDNalton/status/1670525077295624197

I put it in the General Football thread as it started with the Neves transfer. All the dirty clubs and their agents will cash in and the honest ones like us will be left behind in the dirty money game

[Cerbie]

I put it in the General Football thread as it started with the Neves transfer. All the dirty clubs and their agents will cash in and the honest ones like us will be left behind in the dirty money game

Sadly I think you maybe right.

The real test will be just how vested is the Saudi PIF in Clearlake Capital. If they have any involvement in the Chelsea investment that was not declared to the PL at the time of either the Chelsea or Newcastle takeovers, that creates a conflict of interest.

Even if their investment is substantial in the non-Chelsea portfolio, you can see how it could influence Todd's decision making.

[Tribute]

Saudi's are going to just sportswash from afar until the top 5 or 6 teams in the PL are all owned by them. If we become one of them, I'm done with footy. If we don't, us and other decent, well run teams will never be able to be competitive anymore, so the PL is done.

What a ****ing miserable state of affairs... just becomes a pissing content for wealthy Sheikhs.

[Charly]

Isnt there a 10% limit in shareholding in more than one club?

[Doc_Piptorious]

Saudi's are going to just sportswash from afar until the top 5 or 6 teams in the PL are all owned by them. If we become one of them, I'm done with footy. If we don't, us and other decent, well run teams will never be able to be competitive anymore, so the PL is done.

What a ****ing miserable state of affairs... just becomes a pissing content for wealthy Sheikhs.

Footy, Golf, Boxing...just becoming things to acquire for the gulf states.

Same with things like WWE wrestling, no doubt motorsports more and more in the future, and at some point greater pushes into film and tv ownership.

Things to be used to image wash, to promote tourism and to, imo of course, own such things fully, in as much as they can be owned, decades in advance of when the world becomes less reliant on the oil those states provide.


If they cannot own the balls of the West by controlling oil, then they hold their balls by owning the luxuries/sports/entertainment they crave.


Then we in the West can crow about our freedoms and how we are not like the various regimes as we stream a Saudi owned golf tournament on our device that was made in China.

[Fosterbloke]

I'm waiting for a Saudi led LIV football league..

[Irishnev]

I'm waiting for a Saudi led LIV football league..

They don’t need to - they are already “in”

[red g]

They don’t need to - they are already “in”

More like they will just try and buy the Premier Legaue or sponsor it.