Team for the rest of the season, invest in youth without spending a penny: Sanchez; Antwi, Acheampong, Sarr, Cucurella; Caicedo, Santos; Estevao (try Derry until he's fit), Palmer, Garnacho; Joao Pedro. More Mheuka, more Walsh, some Murray-Campbell. Chuck Emenalo/Kavuma-McQueen on the bench.

Chelsea is fundamentally an extremely dislikeable football club, organisation, institution, or whatever it's meant to be under Clearlake. From top to bottom with very little in between, there's not much reason to hope or care.

Damac Chelsea >

I thought Chelsea weren't negotiating contracts mid-season?

The thing about Chelsea is that they are exactly where they should be. They aren't underperforming on the pitch, this is just what you get when you hire a relatively inexperienced manager with a squad like this. The coach will make mistakes and so will most players. That's what #CFC have become.

Thinking about how those who hated Nicolas Jackson for poor performances + attitude continue to defend Pedro Neto. Pushing a ball boy, playing terribly, showing bad behaviour, getting sent off. It's all there. It's all the same. One was outcast + blamed for everything. The other starts each week.

I'm now four editions into View from the Bridge. We're almost up to 300 FREE subscribers, which is so cool after just two weeks. Really enjoying putting these together. As ever, feel free to check it out and leave some feedback! aviewfromthebridge.substack.com/p/view-from-...

For anyone that doesn't use the other place, I've started a new Chelsea newsletter. Twice weekly and straight to your inbox, it's ad-less and totally free to sign up for. No clickbait or ITK BS, just a comprehensive #CFC roundup. 2nd edition here: aviewfromthebridge.substack.com/p/view-from-...

Hello BlueSky, it's been a while. I'm starting a new Chelsea newsletter and this place is much better for gauging fan responses than Twitter. My plan is to create a twice-weekly, totally ad-free and free to read #CFC roundup. What sort of thing would you be interested in?

Hey Bluesky fam 👋 New episode with @tomcoley49.bsky.social -Through to the final -Abysmal first half -Better second half -Player ratings -Jackson sees red -2 wins from 2 needed for UCL -And more pod.fo/e/2d3ed0

I hate where I am from. What a backwards, completely warped and outright stupid place.

Pretty confident that the best thing to come from this today for Chelsea is going to be the Tyrique George chant becoming normalised.

Robert Sanchez played long vs Ipswich so he will be dropped, right? www.football.london/chelsea-fc/n...

Chelsea were good enough and more than engaging for 20 minutes against Ipswich but there's no surprise that trust erodes as soon as a goal is conceded given the last four months. As for the tactics part...

The other place is worse than ever, so here's a piece on why Maresca was obviously wrong to fight back against Chelsea fans after drawing to Ipswich. www.football.london/chelsea-fc/n...

I see a lot of 'if Chelsea had a ST to score Neto's crosses he'd have more assists' but A) I'm not sure that's actually true, and B) If that is the case then it's a massive squad building problem. Felix and Neto were bad enough buys as inviduals, let alone in the context of the rest of the team.

Some timely Facebook memories today...

Chelsea can insist that Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart aren't under pressure but they are more in the firing line than ever externally after handling Trevoh Chalobah terribly. A big piece on the sporting mistakes and even worse humanist ones. #CFC www.football.london/chelsea-fc/t...

Tyler Dibling will start a game for England at the 2026 World Cup.

Don't let Chelsea PR fool you, this is an absolute disaster for the sporting directors. They chose to push Chalobah away in favour of two players they signed and have gone crawling back to him because it hasn't worked out.

Good on Chalobah, btw, because he absolutely deserves to be a Chelsea player. Those who have messed him around need to take a big long look in the mirror. It's embarrassing.

Chelsea in desperate need of a centre-back and turn to the guy who they actively exiled and got rid of last year. Funny, funny, club.

Further on from this: Chelsea have the fourth worst home record in the second half of games this season but the best for first halves. Since Villa, Southampton and Tottenham in a row they've now lost or drawn the second half for six league games straight and it's costing.

Happy to be told otherwise @kierdoyle.bsky.social but only play well four 45 minutes (similar to Palace) and draw doesn't feel like a game Chelsea deserved to win...? No matter how many missed chances, #CFC were really poor after the break *again* and needed a free kick goal to even be close.

At half time from away to Everton, Chelsea have been looking at 10 points. They have 4. That's not good enough. A worrying pattern and not enough done to try and change it.

Some very basic half time thoughts: -Nicholas Jackson is a very, very good footballer -Romeo Lavia has been missed -Robert Sanchez has no Chelsea fans that like him -We've seen this script before #CFC need the second goal and have deserved it

Chelsea do your worst (please don't)

Just looking at the potential Chelsea squad for the rest of the season. Taking out: Disasi, Nkunku, Dewsbury-Hall, Chilwell, Casadei, Mudryk, Veiga Adding: Tel, Chalobah, Guehi (plus Acheampong and George) Average age: 22.75.

Initial thoughts on Chelsea in for Tel and Nkunku possibly going is that I don't think much changes so it's fine. Nkunku isn't contributing anything meaningful in the league at ST and is clearly unhappy and pretty done here. Why not give five months of minutes to someone with a future at the club?

Chelsea going the most Chelsea route to a 3/4 Cobham backline with James-Chalobah/Guehi-Colwill-Cucurella is funny. Recall one after six months, rebuy another for over double the price. Good players are good.

Seems like I was probably a bit dramatic on the Veiga front. I still standby the fact it has been a bit of a waste of time for Chelsea, not entirely sure the minor profit is worth the effort, personally. Just don't think it's a situation to gloat much about even if it's not the end of the world.

Chelsea sign Renato Veiga for £12m, hardly play him in any meaningful games where he can show if he's any good or not, and then ask £20m to sell him? I'm just not sure what the point is.

Chelsea's summer 2024 looks all the more confusing. Veiga not trusted for any reasonable minutes and now on his way out. Dewsbury-Hall can't even make the bench. Felix plays against promoted teams and nobody else. Neto has one league goal and isn't any more defined as a right or left winger.

Kai Havertz, that's a dive.

Tyrique George, really good and proper fun. www.football.london/chelsea-fc/t...

Really nice from @cfccentral.bsky.social on Chelsea's first half problems against Morecambe and why it's nothing new. londonisblue.beehiiv.com/p/london-is-...

Josh Acheampong has overtaken Tosin and Axel Disasi in the Chelsea pecking order and it has never been so clear. It's the right call but was fully confirmed after he was, surely, rested against Morecambe. www.football.london/chelsea-fc/t...

Chelsea were significantly better in the second half and got rewarded. Cucurella on and finding nice spaces helped, Sancho is just a better fit for deep defences than Neto, even though it's no excuse in a game like that. It's a shame there wasn't more academy involvement but job done.

Tyrique George has the same number of assists this season as Pedro Neto for Chelsea. #CFC

Good to see that Chelsea missing lots of chances isn't just a Premier League thing.

Chelsea have spent a lot of money on centre-backs in the last few years and two Cobham graduates are now the first choice. Makes you think. Disasi and Tosin start an FA Cup match against the second worst team in the EFL whilst Acheampong is rested for Wednesday.

Caleb Wiley is by a comfortable distance the Strasbourg player Chelsea need to recall in order to create space for Carney Chukwuemeka. www.football.london/chelsea-fc/t...

Cole Palmer has liked an Instagram post reporting the news of Chelsea's interest in Kobbie Mainoo. #CFC

Clubs shouldn't just be able to get away with spending recklessly but a system promoting the sales of academy graduates as a way out of poor transfer activity and recruitment is still not right. Maybe the punishment of having to lose these players is the deterrent. It's still not healthy.

Aaron Anselmino hasn't been selected for the Argentina Under-20 squad ahead of the South America Youth Championship at the end of the month. He'll stay at Chelsea. Not likely to have any real impact on centre-back plans for the month. www.football.london/chelsea-fc/t...

Olise, Murray-Campbell, Dyer, Mheuka, George, and Rak-Sakyi all playing for the Chelsea Dev. Squad tonight in a big PL International Cup match. All have been involved with the first-team this season and could (+definitely should) be there vs Morecambe. Playing tonight is unlikely to change that.

Not that there's any part of me that thinks Chelsea will actually sign Kobbie Mainoo, but why not have a look at someone of a similar profile who's already at the club, first?

If Chelsea aren't going to recall Ugochukwu or Santos (and I can see the reasons for and against leaving them both where they are) then Rak-Sakyi deserves a chance, like right now. I'd go as far as saying he really should be third choice whilst Lavia is injured, and fourth choice when he's not.

Different ownerships, granted, but there is very little that is more 'Chelsea 2017 onwards' than selling an academy captain for £20m and re-signing them for triple the price four-and-a-half years later.