London is Blue Dispatch #022

Newcastle Defeat, Gabriel Moscardo and Hypermetropic Vision

Yesterday, I posted a poll asking if people would like a tactical breakdown of the Newcastle game or if the breakdown they’d had after watching the game would suffice. 1,052 people voted, 58% of them with a resounding no.

Days after that humiliating collapse, Twitter/X, the bastion of nuanced debate, deliberated fiercely about letting Thiago Silva walk in January, buying a new leftback/centerback/goalkeeper/striker/manager and how good Corinthian’s Gabriel Moscardo would be for us in 2029, on the basis of a 6 minute highlight reel.

Gabriel Moscardo, heavily linked with a move to Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona and PSG.

It never ceases to amaze how often and how far the average fan runs away from the truth. Far more astounding is how transactional the nature of being a fan, or even a fanalyst, has become. Less than 1/3rds of the season in, some want Nicolas Jackson gone. He is four goals and four years short of 26-year-old Drogba’s tally in his first Chelsea season, with 14 games left to better it. We are a month - eight games - away from the January transfer window, and people are already fantasizing about buying that expensive brand of caviar that will magically fix their burnt Christmas dinners. But after spoonfeeding us weekly transfers over two windows, who is to blame for this?

Player Puzzle

A few months ago, Chelsea’s official website posted an intriguing interview with its two co-sporting directors – Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, talking about their roles, responsibilities and transfer strategy for the club. This passage proved particularly illuminating:

‘We will plan two transfer windows in advance,’ explains Winstanley. ‘We can’t be reactionary. We’ve got to look at the whole squad, the players that are out on loan, and opportunities we can give to players in the Academy. That is the player puzzle we’ve got to pull together.’

Stewart continues: ‘We’ll go through that review and reflection process now as we continue with the plan. Then, as we get closer to January, we look at things again. Is there anything urgent we need? Is anything pressing? Or is there an interesting opportunity?’

The scale of this rebuild is easy to lose grasp of. Our two midfield starters are each worth a €100m+ ensuring marquee status and privileges. Romeo Lavia, bought for an eye-watering €62m, is yet to feature for a single minute. Then there’s Lesley Ugochukwu, bought for €27m, who has made a few appearances and Carney Chukwuemeka, bought for a whopping €24m just six months away from being a free agent. Andrey Santos, a player whose star arguably burned brighter than Moscardo’s at the same age, captaining the Brazil U19s to a U19 Copa America triumph while finishing top scorer, has played a grand total of 8 minutes while on an increasingly ridiculous loan at Nottingham Forest. Let’s not forget Kendry Paez, another astonishing talent who is still 16 and won’t join the summer after next. Ironically, our best midfielder this season, Conor Gallagher, is an Academy graduate who is entering the last 18 months of his deal.

That’s eight midfielders for three positions in a 4-3-3, or just two, if Poch decides to go with his 4-2-3-1, bought for a staggering €382.6m. There is an increasingly convoluted pathway in attack too, with Raheem Sterling, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Cole Palmer, Christopher Nkunku and Noni Madueke competing for two attacking slots. Angelo Gabriel and Diego Moreira are still on loan. There is talk of adding a striker to Jackson, Broja and two signings made by the board - Datro Fofana and Washington. If the latter two are going to make space for another striker in less than a year, what does that say about the Talent ID of our decision makers?

FM Logic

It begs considerable thought how the club are going to register profits on deals such as the €15m paid for Angelo or €35m for Madueke on the back of inconsistent minutes and displays. If your 4th choice CM costs €27m, how do you move him for profit if he isn’t up to scratch? This argument holds further sway in a week where Strasbourg fans continued to oppose BlueCo ownership of the club. Ultra Boys 90, their largest supporter’s group released a statement highlighting:

“Money without competence doesn’t lead to anything good, and the example of Chelsea, our so-called ‘big brother’, who have spent a lot of money but have had a vertical fall down the English hierarchy, is an important reference point: We don’t want to incompetence that reigns at Chelsea at RCSA. Neither directly, nor indirectly.”

Ultra Boys 90

It raises poignant, pertinent points about the direction of the club and its obsession with hoarding talent. It is also unclear how Mauricio Pochettino is taking the slow bloating of his squad with players he knows very little about, after making it explicitly clear at his previous clubs and during preseason that he prefers a small squad.

A possible retrospective punishment looms despite self-reporting financial inconsistencies under Roman Abramovic’s tenure, and a second successive season without Champions League a distinct possibility barring a welcome surge up the table. It is imperative that our transfer strategy does not ask more questions than it answers or veers dangerously towards the hypermetropic.

If the majority had said yes to the poll at the beginning of the article, my takeaways from the game would be this - this summer, one club bought what they needed, not just what they wanted. In the midst of a grave injury crisis, they trusted a Cobham graduate to defend on his weaker side and put faith in a 17-year old Academy star in a big game. They did not capitulate under frustration and fatigue; they followed the blueprint down to the last minute. That side wasn’t us, and none of the above are achieved by spending more money. A hectic December calendar begins now, and it is crucial we do not let doors close as we wait for a window to open.