03 Sep 2025 20:42:03
Buonanotte is a strange one. My only thought is that perhaps it's to give Kendry Paez a year at Strasbourg without an obvious block into the first team that someone like Fermin or Simons would have been?

1.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 08:23:39
EdW, if that’s the rationale behind the loan it sort of makes sense, he hasn’t been included in the Champions League squad.

2.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 09:45:06
I honestly do not understand the deal at all. He was always a supposedly highly rated lad, however he’s done nothing but fall short of expectations everywhere he has gone. Why we would take someone that couldn’t even make the leicester team I’ll never know.

For the record I’m someone that can usually find ‘logic’ in the most unlogical of places. But for this loan I’m genuinely dumbfounded.

3.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 10:18:43
This might be spot on EdW. But what is also bvery odd imho is fact that Buonanotte has been excluded from our Champion's League squad though had exopressed that chance to play in this compoetition was a major reason he was excited to come to Chelsea when Levi C - who is surely out for the season recovering from ACL injury and op - has been included. Seems mad but can anyone on hetre explain how this makes sense?

4.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 11:13:34
The CL exclusion seems strange to me.

I did speak to my mate who lives in Brighton and goes ti see them play when Chelsea are playing away from home about the lad. He said he started off very well for Brighton showing lots of skill and vision but had to many games when he went missing. Nevertheless he was surprised with the loan Leicester and more surprised with the loan to us. He sees it at as a win win for Brighton.

5.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 11:42:25
Interesting Tom. I had hoped that we would have added either Xavi Simons or even better Fermin Lopez to squad as a hopefully top quality attacking midfielder to support and / or rotate with Palmer as in both the Palace game - when Palmer already struggling with injury and way below best plus Enzo F probably exhausted looks fair bit below his too - and in the Fulham one we struggled to to provide much threat through the middle and almost all of the jot huge number of chances we created were predictably from the flanks. Again can on;y hope FB will rediscover some of his early Brighton promise - and I think he scored against us in home win I was at against them in 2023 as did Pedro!

6.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 13:38:38
I remember him playing well against us (then again, so did that young Argentinian left back they had, bright red hair, and he's disappeared without a trace seemingly) .

I'm with you, JBS – no idea why we'd take him on loan then exclude him from the CL squad. I think we do get to make changes if we get out of the group, but why Levi would be in there instead when he's definitely out for the group stages (and probably the season) is just baffling. Maybe Levi was a free hit because he's homegrown?

7.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 16:52:29
EdW Its quite funny you should bring him up but I think the player you are talking about is Valentine Barco. He has actually been signed by BlueCo and is now playing for Strasbourg . He’s looking good from what Iv read with a possible future transfer to Chelsea on the cards.

8.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 17:08:44
Thanks Hdkn – Barco is exactly the one I was thinking of! I had no idea he was at Strasbourg now.

9.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 17:09:45
Weird that Ishe Samuels-Smith also transferred to Strasbourg (I guess to be in competition with Barco? ) but ended up with that deal cancelled and on loan at Swansea – what happened with that one I wonder? Perhaps something like when we bought Tyler Dibling from Southampton at fifteen or sixteen and he just couldn't settle, so the deal was cancelled?

10.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 17:31:28
I thought that’s who you meant EdW. I have been following Strasbourg quite closely since BlueCo took over, they have a really impressive young squad. In fact they are the only club in Europe to have a younger overall squad age than ourselves and Liam Rosenier is doing a great job in charge.
I think you hit the nail on the head with Samuel’s-Smith . I read he didn’t settle well in France and wanted to return to the UK.

11.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 18:01:50
EdW, I think that was more to do with Chilly going there.

12.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 19:32:20
I'll be interested to know your continued thoughts on Strasbourg as the season progresses Hdkn, particularly players like Barco and Enciso (still the Brighton connection running strong) . Early days but the multi-club model seems to be working better for us than the loans to Vitesse ever did. Tom, I think the Ishe Samuels-Smith deal was done so early in the summer that I can't imagine it would have been revoked like that if he'd not had issues settling there – as Hdkn said, there seem to be articles about it, so I reckon Chilly going after was just something that worked out well for all involved.

13.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 21:09:11
EdW, we are as always all just guessing but sometimes the obvious is the truth.

It could just be that financially it was better for the club to have Chilly at Strasbourg.

14.) 04 Sep 2025
04 Sep 2025 21:15:03
JBS, we have passed theUEFA transfer balance test but I doubt if we would have done so if we had spent £50 million or so on Simons or Fermin: so neither were on the cards unless we had a permanent transfer for Jackson.

15.) 05 Sep 2025
05 Sep 2025 13:44:45
That might well be the case Jimbo and explain why if we did bid for Lopez it was at a level we could just still afford but that Barcelona would not accept.

16.) 05 Sep 2025
05 Sep 2025 17:57:17
I assume we could have loaned them with an obligation to buy.

Apparently we never put in a formal bid for Simons and I’m not sure about the other lad. Anyway, I’m happy to only bid what we can afford.

17.) 05 Sep 2025
05 Sep 2025 18:10:21
JBS, I think it was important that we met the requirements of the UEFA sanctions for our first Champions League campaign for a while. Unless I’ve missed something we still have two outstanding issues. The Premier League investigation regarding FPP that we settled with UEFA and of lesser importance: what is happening about Mudryk’s doping allegations? . Why are they taking so long?

18.) 05 Sep 2025
05 Sep 2025 22:11:56
The Mudryk B sample being positive and the player then putting forward his denial was always going to take time.

Is the FFP and premiership case the one we self reported?

19.) 06 Sep 2025
06 Sep 2025 08:53:04
Tom, yes. It’s the same issues that we were fined by EUFA for and that we self-reported so no “investigation “ required.

{Ed001's Note - there was an investigation required as you only spotted there was an issue, not the full extent of it.}

20.) 06 Sep 2025
06 Sep 2025 11:02:28
Ed001, fair enough but as I understand it the club have fully co-operated. Premier league obviously distracted by the Man City saga. About time a decision is published on this. Not that that will be the of it : we will probably be still discussing this time next year.

{Ed001's Note - yeah the club is cooperating but it is still a lot to get through, just like with City, it is the amount of charges that is the problem. Both should have been done by now, but we are talking about an incompetent governing body.}

21.) 06 Sep 2025
06 Sep 2025 20:47:24
RE: Mudryk I would say this is probably the ban in effect. They tend not to say anything to draw attention to the situation once a doping ban has started.