The Chelsea Chronicle
Squad5 Jun 2034
Thomas Phillips damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Luciano Donadoni has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Chelsea can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Crisis meeting at Chelsea
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Wesley Fofana has been here 11 seasons
352 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market5 Jun 2034
Cole Palmer wants more than Chelsea are offering
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Sam Alabi says Chelsea went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Reece James signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Reece James and Chelsea agree another 2 years.
Market5 Jun 2034
Atlético Madrid come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Chelsea did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jun 2034
Charlie Holland has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chelsea they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
- Market Wrexham join the queue for Edward Turner
- Boardroom $36.3M a year onto the Chelsea books
- Boardroom Chelsea were not finished after all