If this deal isn't for £60m it's a bad deal. Here's why x.com/i/status/2064338749454…

Chelsea selling Cucurella for £50m would be one of those deals that sounds clever in a spreadsheet and looks worse the second you remember this is supposed to be a football club. Especially when the owners are potentially judging future investment based on “profit”. Because there’s a big difference between PSR profit and an actual transfer win. Take Cucurella. If Chelsea sell him for £50m (and these remain rumours), Twitter accounts will tell you it’s a book profit or an amortization profit. Sounds good, but is it? He cost between £55m and £62m and signed a six-year deal in 2022. Roughly, at worse, with 2 years left on his initial contract, his remaining book value would be around £18m. Sell him for £50m and Chelsea could register around £30m in accounting profit. So yes, from a PSR point of view, it “works”. But that is not the same as the transfer being a success, or proof that the wider model is working. And to be clear, this isn’t me defending BlueCo. I don’t care whether their spreadsheet gets a little gold star at the end of the financial year. I’m looking at it from a Chelsea point of view. If this long-term, youth-based investment “plan” is supposed to work, then regular first-team players cannot be leaving for less than Chelsea paid for them. That’s the line for me. Take the Enzo rumour. Chelsea paid £106.8m. If #RMCF or Manchester City want him and the club are saying £120m minimum, which is what reports are suggesting, that at least makes sense. I may not want him sold, but financially you can see the logic. That would be a book profit and an actual profit. If you sign, strengthen the team, play a leading role and leave for profit then at the very least you’re a net positive. Agree with it or not, that is what the model is supposed to look like. Cucurella at £50m though? He may not be untouchable, and he didn’t have the strongest end to the season, but he is still a regular first-team player. If Chelsea played a big game tomorrow, he is very much who we’re starting at left back. So if he leaves for £50m, that might help PSR, but #CFC would still be selling an important squad player for less than his bought value. That’s the difference. Accounting profit is not the same as a footballing win. If these players flop, fine, you try to escape with minimal damage, and, as they’re young, you’ll probably be able to get your money back on them. But if they become useful players, starters, and players big clubs want, then Chelsea should be making real profit on them, not just amortisation profit. Otherwise the “buy young, protect value, sell high” plan becomes: “Buy expensive, use them for a few years, then celebrate losing slightly less money than it looks like on paper.” That is not something Chelsea fans need to be clapping. And the bit that worries me is this: If #MCFC , #MUFC , Atlético Madrid and Barcelona are all showing interest, he has two years left on his deal, and £50m is still the ceiling, what does that say? Because if four major clubs can want one of your regular starters and you still can’t get back what you paid, then I worry about what that says for the future.

Genuinely for what it's worth, and where they are now, I know it's fun to say Liverpool missed out on Alonso, but I actually feel Iraola works best for Liverpool and Alonso works best for Chelsea. #LFC #CFC

Xabi Alonso and his team... #CFC #LFC

I think I’ve made peace with Enzo Fernández leaving #CFC. Look, I don't want him gone. I think he's an elite level player. On his day, he's a match winner and those are few and far between at Chelsea. However, when a player starts flirting with the idea of leaving, something changes. You can forgive it, but you don’t really forget it. If Real Madrid or Manchester City genuinely want him, then the price has to be ridiculous. These aren’t clubs shopping in the bargain bin. #RMCF and #MCFC are two of the richest clubs in world football. If they want him they can pay like it. This next Chelsea rebuild under Xabi Alonso cannot be built on half-commitment. It can’t be another cycle of talented players, mixed messages and “maybe this project works, maybe it doesn’t”. We need players who are all in. Enzo is a top player. I’d rather keep him than lose him. But he’s no longer in that untouchable category for me. Not after the season we’ve had. Not after the comments. Not when the whole club needs a reset. Sell only if the fee is huge. Replace properly. Move on. I have to say though, this report is in conflict with reports from Spain who list Enzo as 'untouchable' under Alonso, but if I had to put my money on it I'd say the below is more likely. #ChelseaFC #EnzoFernandez #Chelsea #TransferNews

A mental health reminder, if Manchester City don't score at least two goals in the next half of football please log off of social media for the foreseeable future. Thank you.

We HAVE to back him and give him time. This is a non negotiable. I know people will jump on him every poor result, but use your head. He's the best we're going to get. BACK HIM. #CFC

This is fascinating. First, if #CFC can get Xabi #Alonso, they should. However, can they? I have doubts because the current structure at Chelsea doesn’t naturally align with a manager like him long-term. Alonso isn’t just a tracksuit coach who turns up on matchday and picks a XI. He clearly sees football holistically, recruitment, tactical identity, player profiles, long-term direction. That was part of the friction at Real Madrid. He’s already experienced what happens when a club hierarchy wants the coach to simply “fit in” to a wider machine. Chelsea’s ownership model has been built around sporting directors, data-led recruitment and long-term squad building that exists above any one manager. That’s the contradiction. Chelsea are trying to build a modern, process-driven superstructure while simultaneously pursuing elite coaches with strong football identities. Historically, eventually one side wins that power struggle. The irony is Alonso actually fits Chelsea’s profile perfectly: • Young • Modern tactician • Develops younger players • Comfortable with analytics/data • Progressive football • Understands the EPL But this would also be the first real test of whether Chelsea’s ownership are prepared to loosen control for a coach with truly elite potential. Maresca, Potter, Rosenior and even Pochettino to an extent hadn’t proven themselves at the absolute top level by winning major trophies. Alonso already has. If Chelsea want a coach of that calibre, eventually they may need to accept that elite managers don’t just want responsibility, they want influence. If they don’t loosen their grip, Alonso has enough stock right now to simply wait rather than walk into another situation where he becomes expendable the second friction appears. Massive gamble for Alonso if it happens, because a failed stint at Madrid and Chelsea won't leave him as desired as after his time at Leverkusen. #Chelsea #ChelseaFC #XabiAlonso #PremierLeague #EPL #FootballTwitter #Transfers #Leverkusen #RealMadrid

Chelsea fans went nuclear on the former management and current Sporting Directors, but let’s be honest most of these players have quietly dodged it. No drive. No ambition. No intensity. A squad full of raw talent playing like they’ve just met in the tunnel before KO. #CFC

Not that you asked for it, but my opinion on Liam #Rosenior and the #Chelsea managerial situation. #CFC Let him have it until the end of the season, what more damage can he realistically do between now and then? If there's significant player unrest, that changes things, fine, appoint an interim, but my guess is you'll be getting the same results anyway. And if you appoint an interim like Terry, you always get caught in that awkward situation where they go on a run and suddenly you’re debating whether to give them the job full time. The dream is that those results continue and you get the perfect marriage. The reality is there’s a reason they’re interim. More often than not, once the bounce fades, the job becomes too big. Chelsea don’t need another short-term bounce. They need alignment. The two things people are overlooking right now: How many viable managerial solutions are there that actually appease fans? Three? Zidane, Alonso and maybe Xavi? Realistically, none of them are taking the Chelsea job as it is right now. The World Cup. You ALWAYS get managerial fallout from a World Cup. There are about six top nations where anything less than a semi-final could trigger a change… and only a handful of elite managers to go around. The next Chelsea manager probably isn’t available yet. Like it or not, BlueCo probably aren’t appointing anyone over 55 either. The rumour is that Nagelsmann wants to return to club football after the World Cup regardless of how Germany perform. That’s where I’d be making a serious play. Nagelsmann is Chelsea-adjacent, not Chelsea-perfect. He thrives coaching young players and improving individuals tactically. He’s progressive, credible, and just exciting enough to build a real project around. You can argue why would he want Chelsea, but the noises suggest he’d at least be open to it. My perfect solution is Simeone, but that’s not happening for about 23,492,345 reasons. What do you think?

As somebody who is involved in these types of deals (not this one specifically), I’d wager the overall sum is quite a bit over £1M. It may also include a % to Mark, and potentially even a wage. It may be, and I have to stress may be, for a limited time, with full rights returning to Mark at some point. That’s a common structure in this space. Although my guess is The Overlap would protect themselves with proper earn-outs with reversion, or a recoupment reversion model, if it’s been structured that way. That said, it could also be a full buyout if they’re looking to expand and build their own football community, like Neville suggests. Now, for people not involved in the field, the reaction will be: “Over a million for a YouTube channel?!” But it’s a lot more than that. This isn’t just about what it’s worth today, it’s about what it unlocks. If you’re building a football community, you need faces. You need people who are recognised on YouTube, with personality. In turn, Neville can leverage his position in the football world to build something much bigger. The reality is, the channel is secondary, it’s Mark who holds the real value. #MUFC #TheOverlap #UnitedStand #MarkGoldbridge

This is hands down the most spineless take currently in football. “Do you want Chelsea to lose so Arsenal MIGHT NOT win the league?” If that’s even a question for you, just admit you care more about Arsenal than your own club. Just stop supporting Chelsea and hate watch Arsenal every week. I say this as a guy who had two VERY annoying best friends and we watched before the money and they'd rub it in every day of the week and twice on Sunday’s. Wanting your own team to lose is pathetic. Full stop. There’s no nuance, no “but technically…” It’s a loser mentality. You don’t support Chelsea on conditions. You don’t support Chelsea “unless Arsenal benefit.” You support Chelsea. Or you don’t. We have something to gain from winning today. If this was a dead rubber game, I could sort of understand it, but we’re trying to be something again and you don’t get that in the Europa League. If you’re sat there thinking you’d celebrate a loss just to spite a rival, you’ve completely lost the plot. That’s not rivalry. That’s insecurity. If you support Chelsea and you’re rooting for Chelsea to lose, you’re not a Chelsea fan. You’re an Arsenal fan with commitment issues. #CFC

Out of the top 20 highest earners in the Premier League: Man City — 9 Arsenal — 5 Liverpool — 4 Man United — 2 Chelsea have no players on OVER £200k p/w. Others have several. Everton have one. Does that need to change to compete at the top level again? #CFC

EXCLUSIVE RUMOUR EXCLUSIVE... RUMOUR... EXCLUSIVE RUMOUR... What's an exclusive rumour? I made something up, but I might have been the first to make it up?

An insult to our intelligence.

Igor Tudor’s Spurs ❌ Arsenal ❌ Fulham ❌ Palace ❌ Forest ➖ Liverpool 1 point from 15 0 wins 0.20 PPG Only “win”? 3-2 vs Atlético Madrid after losing 5-2 in the first leg Genuinely one of the worst managerial runs the Premier League has ever seen alongside Frank de Boer

I'm an extremely positive Chelsea fan... We're genuinely close to losing just about everything because players are going to want to start to leave and our whole model is built on having their players long enough to develop them. The hire them, fire them model DOESN'T WORK. #CFC

Conceding five goals from under 1.0 xG should honestly be studied. Chelsea were dreadful, PSG barely even had to play. #CFC

We spent all that time turning Sánchez into a decent keeper just to bench him and start the exact same rehabilitation programme again with the next one. Incredible efficiency. #CFC

What a fantastic announcement. Really well done.