So, Chelsea FC won the transfer window after signing two full teams ahead of the next season, but how has it helped their course?
The club spent more than one billion pounds over two transfer windows and their midfield alone costs more than three hundred million pounds but they have successfully lost twice in five matches at the start of the season. Will they get better? Nobody knows, but do they look like a team that won the transfer window? Certainly not.
Right now, they are the butt of all the banter… Well, they and Manchester United, plus that goalkeeper we will talk about later. The goalkeeper leads the choir. Whatever happened to the millions spent on Enzo? Caicedo, Lavia and the rest? Will Mauricio Pochettino be the first coach to be sacked? Well, time will tell.
Manchester United and the Onana factor
The reason why loads of rival fans are happy Onana has conceded ten goals from five league matches cannot be far from the disrespect he showed to former Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire.
That was Onana’s first game for the club, a friendly, he conceded a goal that had three defenders ball-watching, yet he chose to shout at Maguire who was until 3 weeks earlier the captain of the club. Did he single out Maguire because he had been making mistakes the past season? Well, it is banter season and in his next game for the club, he conceded a long-range effort and the goals have not stopped going into his post.
Manchester United would have thought they had a good transfer window, heck! They signed a top goalkeeper, Onana, they got a defender, Regulion from Tottenham Hotspur, a DM, Amrabat, and a striker, Hojlund. These were all added to a team that finished in the top 4 last season, but their start has been here and there. The loss to Arsenal was not surprising. They should have lost to Nottingham Forrest a week earlier. They should have even lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers. It will be a long season for Manchester United, though, as they say, it is early days yet.
How did Brighton get Fati?
How does Brighton and Hove Albion do it? First, they lost their coach, Graham Potter to Chelsea, but nothing changed as it even got better with Roberto De Zerbi who did the business of taking the club to Europe.
For players, in the past three seasons, they have lost top players like Ben White to Arsenal, Yves Bissouma to Tottenham Hotspur, Marc Cucurella to Chelsea, Neal Maupay to Everton, Leandro Trossard to Arsenal, Alexis MacAllister to Liverpool, Robert Sanchez to Chelsea and Moises Caicedo to Chelsea.
All these players are gone, but they were able to get to Europe this last season, and have not started badly in the five-week-old season. How do they do it? Who are their scouts? How do they keep getting these players young, cheap and with a good resell value?
But the question is, how did Brighton and Hove Albion get Ansu Fati from Barcelona? Of all the clubs Fati could have signed for, Brighton? Did you see what they did to Manchester United on Saturday?
Tottenham may be on to something
Tottenham Hotspur has started pretty well under Ange Postecoglou and it seems to be a breath of fresh air for the fans.
Even with the absence of Harry Kane, they don’t seem to have lost a step as they are winning, playing well, and scoring goals.
But the thing about Tottenham Hotspur though, is that nobody trusts them to go all the way. At some point, they have their traditional meltdown, but the fans should enjoy the moment while it lasts. Remember, Tottenham Hotspur are the only team in history to finish third in a two-horse race. Remember the season that Leicester won the league?
Liverpool and her deluded fans
Liverpool fans are a work of art. In every transfer window, they decide for the club which players the club should sign, and when the club does not sign the players the fans want, they go up in arms against the coach and leadership. Every transfer window, they do this.
This past summer there was a list of more than 20 players the club should have signed and yet these were not signed. Then there was the fact that the club should have spent over a hundred million on Caicedo and more than sixty million on Lavia but did not. The owners, FSG had to go. They were clueless and wanted to destroy the club.
Liverpool fans know of the FSG policy on transfers. This policy won the club the Champions League, the Europe Super Cup, the World Club Cup, the EPL title, the FA Cup and the League Cup, all between 2019 and 2022. Last season was a bad one for Liverpool, but maybe, they want the club to sign players like Chelsea and Nottingham Forrest, just, maybe.
Dear Liverpool fans, trust your club. It is five match days gone and the club is third on the table, have played beautifully too, save for a poor first half against Wolves. Trust your club, trust your players, trust your coaches and trust your owners. The grass is not always greener on the other side.
Will it be a Martinez v Osimhen affair in the Capocannoniere?
In Italy, Napoli has already won the league for the first time in a very long time. Also AC Milan and Inter have won recent league titles.
I think that the next big thing for contention has to be the battle for the Capocannoniere Award between Victor Osimhem and Lautaro Martinez.
Last season Osimhen scored twenty six goals, but after Match Day 5, this season, Martinez has scored 5 goals, Olivier Giroud has 4 goals, the same as Dusan Vlaovic with 4, but last season’s winner, Victor Osimhen has 3.
Incidentally, the three players at the top of the scoring charts play for the top three clubs in the league. It is going to be an interesting race.
How long will the Saudi invasion last?
Europe seems to think that the Saudis have invaded their league with big money transfers of players.
The truth is that Europe cannot bear to think that any other league can take their best players. In the late 70s and 80s, the USA league attracted retiring top players in Europe. They still do now. In the late 80s and 90s, we saw the League in Japan attract the 1990 World Cup top scorer, Salvatore Schilacci, England’s top scorer, Gary Lineker, Brazil playmaker, Zico and many others.
A few years ago, we also saw the Chinese league grab the likes of Oscar from Chelsea, Odion Ighalo from Nigeria, and Marroune Fellaini from Belgium, amongst many others.
All these projects did not stand the test of time as they faded as quickly as they started.
A lot of people think that the Saudis are more serious because unlike what happened in the USA, they are not attracting retired players but players maybe still in their prime.
We know the Saudis want to host the World Cup pretty soon and are trying to attract attention to themselves, but will there still be a craze for the Saudi dollar in, say, five years?
Let us all breeef
There are two kinds of reactions from club fans during the FIFA international window.
There are the fans of clubs like Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and maybe, Arsenal, who have begun with a good run. They do not want the international break to distract the team, especially, when there could be injuries to key players, travel fatigue and all.
Then there are fans of clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle too, who have not had the best of starts. For them, it is about taking a breather to rest their team. None were happier than them for the league to take a break. For Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton, the wins continued. For Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton, we choose not to speak.
Beer Parlour Talk may return next week.
