Good news ... so long as he gets on the field. Palace have upgraded their D this summer and they were already pretty stingy.
2022 Summer Transfer Thread
- Thread starter VinatieriDefinesClutch
- Start date
Kounde ended up going to Barca ... not sure what that means for Azpillicueta ... or Sergino Dest for that matter.
It looks like Chelsea is cutting Matt Miazga loose. FC Cincinnati appears to be his destination, using TAM, not a DP spot. Since signing for Chelsea in the January 2016 window, he made 2 appearances for the Blues, both in the 2015-16 season. After that, it was a 2 year loan to Vitesse, a year at Nantes, 2 years at Reading, a year at Anderlecht and last year at Alaves.
And as if to remind people that Chelsea are still Chelsea even under new ownership, they splashed out 20 million pounds to purchase Carney Chukwuemeka from Aston Villa the other day. He's a promising 18 year old who has been very, very good for England in age group international play but hasn't been able to dent the senior squad at Villa ... despite getting some opportunities to impress last season. Makes perfect sense if you're Chelsea ... over-spend on a young player that will likely never see the pitch for your senior squad so you can shore up your Loan Army and then pay him a high enough wage that he'll never want to actually leave. For some reason Chelsea have long operated under the presumption that you somehow get rewarded for maintaining a massive roster and having 20-ish guys out on loan. I mean, you don't, but ... carry on Blues. Villa turned a tidy profit on that exchange especially for a player with only one year left on his deal, so ... thanks.
Miazga 100% could still be in the mix for the USMNT if he had given up his fat Chelsea wages and headed back to MLS about 4 years ago. The only thing separating him from Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long is years and years of actual playing time in systems that cared about their professional development. Maybe Miazga can get a second career wind in MLS like Carter Vickers did at Celtic after being similarly stunted at Spurs. I hope so. Seems like a decent kid.
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Steven Goff from the Washington Post tweeted that DC United was deep in talks late into the night about acquiring a European-based forward. He followed up with the name…Christian Benteke. The MLS window closed last night but his sources were optimistic that a deal had been made before the deadline.
VinatieriDefinesClutch
Active member
What an incredible deal for a player who has shown absolutely nothing so far and wouldn't resign and wanted an outlandish contract. Even if he does turn into a good player, it's still an amazing deal for Villa as he wasn't signing a new contract anyway. I'm curious what the contract he signed with Chelsea looks like.
Nobody will come straight out and say, so you know the details are at least somewhat verbal. But I saw reliable reports that they are paying him first team wages, with a hefty bonus package added on. And they committed to keep him in London for the full 22-23 season. I mean, fine. He's got some serious wiggle and could develop into another Mount or Fodden type without stretching credibility too far. But Chelsea is lousy with proven, mature, first team number 8s and 10s. So, yeah. Just another kid making a bad short term decision because he's got stars in his eyes. Villa made their bank, which is kind of the point with high profile academy guys. Good business all around.
Supposedly, Newcastle has inquired about 4 Chelsea players including Pulisic. If Tuchel is going to bury him on the bench, he’s better off going somewhere that he‘ll play. He played 25 minutes against Everton, replacing Mount and 6 minutes against Spurs, replacing Havertz.
StormChaserBH
Well-known member
Good for US if someone's going to put Pulisic on the field... but ugh, not Newcastle please.
Supposedly, Chelsea is only interested in a loan. And if it makes you feel any better, Man U, Atletico Madrid and Juventus have also inquired. At Juve, he’d be playing with USMNT teammate Weston McKennie, who started for them on Monday and played 76 minutes.
Newcastle under Eddie Howe would be fine ... especially if it's a loan so that he's not stuck there for when Newcastle inevitably decide that a perfectly competent manager just isn't good enough for them anymore. They've got some guys who can run, but aren't real good at converting space into chances. I think Pulisic would fit in well there. I'd prefer him not get bogged down in whatever fresh nightmarish dramas will unfold at Man United this season, personally. Any of the rest of that list would be fine, I think. Just somewhere that has a manager smart enough not to bury him behind Mason freaking Mount. Somewhere he can tuck in and just play.
StormChaserBH
Well-known member
He probably would, my dismay is more off-pitch; I'd rather not mix my rooting interests (for a high-profile American player) with those of that particular club's ownership.
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Meh. The vast majority of club owners are monsters of some sort or another ... soulless corporate monsters, oil money monsters, States that sponsor terrorism monsters, murderous Royal families with reps to sportswash monsters, hapless CCP sock puppets, thinly disguised drug cartel monsters in the Americas, illicit arms dealing monsters in the Balkans, the utter creeps and weirdos who run Italian clubs ... all different varieties of the same sort of thing. Gone are the innocent days when the eccentric regional brewery owner or steel baron could manage to fund an EPL club out of his petty cash drawer for decades.
StormChaserBH
Well-known member
Everyone draws their line somewhere.
Yeah ... I chose my Prem team like 4 owners ago. I support a club, not its owners.