Out came the exclusive from Fabrizio reporting that Chelsea are in for a 19-year-old academy player from Manchester City, and my faith disappeared once again.
It’s always risky writing these types of articles before the window has even closed just in case they do shock us all. But I have such little faith right now that they will get even one priority that this squad still needs, that I am confident enough to write it now.
Romano says Chelsea are looking to pay ‘an important fee’ to sign City’s Nico O’Reilly, who looks a VERY decent young player by the way and I have no doubt will make it on the big stage. But if only we had some of them in our own academy that we could use to bolster our midfield.
Nah, O’Reilly has 1 league appearance at 19-years-old, all we have is Sam Rak-Sakyi who has zero league appearances at 19, and Kiano Dyer with zero league appearances at 18. That 1 league appearance makes all the difference, clearly.
Then if we don’t have the answer in our own academy and we need to dip into City’s, if only we had a couple midfielders out on loan that we could turn to and recall? If only, eh…
When I saw the links with Douglas Luiz I literally said ‘that’s it, that is the kind of player you want to look to bring in’. At the right deal, loan to buy or low fee, this would have been VERY smart.
He’s only a year older than 25, your obsessive figure that you try to stick to, and he has bags of Premier League and European experience. Perfect and exactly what we need to add to this immature and raw team midway through a season to improve us right now.
We were SO close to getting it right in this position. But meh.
I’m not even saying O’Reilly is no good by the way, I am sure he is a superb talent and I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. But are they honestly SO bloody blind to what this squad desperately needs? Are they SO obsessed with buying kids and their ridiculous vision and youth project that they will not even slide away from it ever so slightly to get what will truly help us qualify for UCL football this season? Clearly not, I mean why would you want to add balance to your squad build and project? What a crazy idea balance is.
Yes, of course we can still make UCL football this season without these additions. The PL is mad this year and other clubs around us are being just as inconsistent and crap at times. So we have just as good a chance to make UCL as all of them do even as the squad is now. But why would you not want to INCREASE those chances by adding in some players who improve you for the HERE AND BLOODY NOW????! What a revelation that would be. Crazy, I know. Nah, let’s just keep buying raw players for the future instead. Let’s sign all the young talents and then just spin a profit on them when they inevitably do not make it at Chelsea.
Not speaking about O’Reilly specifically here by the way, I am sure he has decent chances of making it at Chelsea if we do sign him, and we know he is a player with A LOT of promise – in isolation I’m not upset if we signed him, of course I’m not, he’s a top player for the future. But in general, imagine what the academy midfielders will be thinking seeing Chelsea linked with and buying other clubs academy players? It’s just madness.
I just don’t understand it anymore. I’m tired.
