Chelsea thread

Compensation for Sarri supposedly going to be £4.3m. Zola set for some sort of number 2 role, will reportedly be cutting short his World Cup punditry gig on South African telly to fly back to London early on Wednesday. Sarri's backroom staff set to include Giovanni Martusciello, Marco Ianni, Davide Losi, Massimo Nenci and Davide Ranzato. 

Club are keen to retain Paolo Bertelli (fitness) and Gianluca Spinelli (goalkeeping) from Conte's staff, the latter having developed a good rapport with Courtois. Presumably the rest of Conte's staff will be cleared out.

Sarri a big admirer of Golovin who we've been linked with previously, Juve are said to be head of the queue but have yet to agree terms with CSKA so there's a chance we could get him.

We have been linked for 27 million pound move for Golovin. What do you guys think of him?

Has a manager actually been appointed yet?

Hot days.

(no, we've still not sacked the old one)

(latest from Italy is Sarri flying in today/tomorrow but we've heard that once before)

(Conte being amusingly belligerent and planning on showing up at Cobham for the start of pre-season, I like the cut of his jib)

It's weird as I still think Conte is a good coach and would've continued to do well with proper backing. Sarri is a wildcard.

Yea certainly my view is that he should be given a proper go with proper backing to get the players he wants.

Hes won the League and FA Cup in 2 seasons without the squad he'd truly like. 

The only problem with giving Conte the reigns as far as transfers are concerned is that his preferred options tend to fall into the Serie A veteran category (at least to the extent that they've been reported on for the last couple of years). Whereas the club would prefer younger players such as Rugani, Jorginho, etc.

Sarri is definitely a risk, but Conte's relationship with the board broke down a long while ago. Arguably the most important appointment we make will be Emenalo's replacement, moreso even than Sarri in the medium-long term.

Now the world cup is effectively over my attention can switch to Chelsea.

Cant believe its roughly only 4 weeks until the season begins. (3 weeks if you count community shield)

First leg of the much-vaunted Jose Treble, which we have a chance to claim this season. 

(eugh, Europa League, really hope we sack it off and play youngsters in it - Ethan Ampadu should be starting every game).

Still awaiting the confirmation by the club, but Conte's sacking all-but confirmed by the usual Fifield/Law channels.

Sarri confirmed coach will be announced soon. Also Jorginho expected to join the blues.

Well here we go again

Yea its a bit of a double edged sword the Europa League. With there being 6 teams in the EPL who's minimum expectations would be top 4, 2 teams will miss out on Champions League.

So the Europa League is a second opportunity. 

But you don't want to sacrifice league form by playing strong lineups in the Europa league. 

Would love to see more of Ampadu this year. As well as Musonda, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, Brown

It's all go now.

Jorginho medical complete, offical announcement left also Zola as assitant coach.

Cant make out that photo. What/who am i looking at?

Sarri and his people outside of the Bridge after signing his contract. Sarri is 2nd from the left.

These pics are a tad less hazy.

Probably not just doing the stadium tour 

Taken on a potato

We have lift off.

So I don't see a lot, if any, football from other leagues, barely watch a non Chelsea EPL game either tbh.

So what kind of formations does Sarri play?

And how good is this Joginho?

Sarri plays 433

According to Squawka

Jorginho (3197) played more passes than any other player in Europe's top 5 Leagues last season.

He completed 2860 of those passes, an 89.5% success rate.

Jorginho's 2017/18 Serie A season by numbers:

33 games 3,197 passes 89.5% pass accuracy 62 tackles won 50 interceptions 49 chances created 4 assists 2 goals

He averaged a pass once every 50 seconds.

Here is a video of Jorginho when Napoli played Man City

Sarri interview on Chelsea TV

Pretty compelling numbers there. Id be very happy if he could get us a top 3 in his first season.

I did read one rumor somewhere linking Mertens to reunite with Sarri. 

Belgian angle might convince Hazard to stick around. At this point id just be asking Hazard who he'd like to play with and then try sign them.

Though he'd probably say De Bruyne, Salah, Lukaku which would get a bit awkward

I like the look of that Mertens, great player from what I've seen

Mertens owes Milik's dodgy ACL for his career renaissance. Though according to his dad he's staying at Napoli.

Looking like hello Golovin for €22m, farewell Pasalic (Atalanta) for €15m.

Courtois to Madrid for 35m??? What a steal... was his contract running down? 

Yea his contract was due to expire end of next season so it was either sell him now or let his contract run down and he goes on a free.

That is a steal though. But the worry is there is loads of talk that Tebo and Hazard will go together. 

Mason Mount to Derby for a season long loan to work under Lampard.

That could work out really well for him. He's very much in the Lampard mold so will be very interesting to see how this works out. 

Not quite Steve Holland, but he'll do.

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2018/7/18/welcome-home-gianfranco

I hear Chelsea is close to agreeing a deal with CSKA Moscow for Golovin, rumoured to be around 27 million pounds. 

Pretty exciting to have Zola back at the Bridge. 

Might go some way to appeasing some fans who were unhappy with Conte departing or even just the nature with which he departed.

Nice fresh start.

https://twitter.com/liam_twomey/status/10195704382...

Swap you guys Cech for Giroud?

No, thanks, but you can have Caballero if you'd like. He's really good (honestly...).

Would rather give you money to keep him.